Hey again everyone!
So! Into the Wild is nearly ready to go! Version 0.5.0 marks the final major update prior to the public release of Into the Wild! What this means in practical terms is that this is the final major content update to the game before release day. This update contains the final new features for the game, and past this point no new features will be added in until after release. The only thing left now is ever present need for final play testing and bug fixing, and I'll be focusing my time on fixing those existing bugs and refining already added content before version 1.0.0 hits the store in a couple of weeks! And it will only be a few weeks to go now, as I'm VERY excited to announce that Into the Wild be available to the general public as the clock strikes midnight and we go into the 6th of August (or at least, as the clock strikes midnight here in central Europe, as the game will be releasing at the same time in all time zones)!
This final beta version is probably the most critical time in Into the Wild's development, as I'm going to be scrambling to make any necessary last minute improvements and fix any bugs that pop up before release day. As such this update is where I REALLY need the help from you guys! I'm sending around a new form so you can let me know what you think of where the game is at and let me know of any changes you think will be beneficial before release day, which you can find here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf0KD3AKomhejNlT5FSrZcHtIhk02_qYuvf0X2zANABUxXDgA/viewform?usp=sf_link. The same bug reporter is still there at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSckOZyxHOXJh6bXgQGyXLPijt0ODI2HtqZfGqpJCGosXaj57w/viewform?usp=sf_link. If you guys can keep the feedback and bug reports coming in this final stretch of the beta testing phase it would be such a help to me!
But before we go too much into release day stuff, a quick overview of what's in this update feels appropriate. Version 0.5.0 mostly brings the last of the music into the game, with 4 new full tracks and a couple of shorter stingers thrown in there too. The music system has also been revamped a little, so you'll probably hear more music than before over your game experience, and (hopefully) it'll be playing at more fitting times! I've also made some minor changes to the fall damage system to not randomly kill the player quite as much as it used to. As per usual there are also some bug fixes thrown in, most significantly that I think I finally managed to squash the extremely annoying bug that caused the "consume" button to stop working. Alas, I didn't get the time to add as much music as I would've liked, but the project files for those tracks aren't going anywhere any time soon and there's gonna be plenty of updates post-release for me to slowly add that stuff in!
So that brings me nicely to the other thing I wanted to discuss; when Into the Wild's 1.0.0 version releases, what comes afterwards? Well, I'll admit that's a bit of an unknown. What I can say for definite is that support and bug fixes to Into the Wild will be continued indefinitely and will not be stopped until a build that is as bug free and stable as is possible is released. The other thing I can say for sure is that cut content will be introduced to the game over time, most notably the cut dialogue and music, as most of the creation work is done and this content is just pending implementation and bug testing. The slightly more unknown stuff is the future of completely new content for Into the Wild, as this really depends on how release day pans out and is pending assessment by myself as to if I think that future content for the game will be worth the time it takes to create. I would love to continue to work on content for Into the Wild, as developing this game has been an amazing experience that I'm simply not ready to finish with just yet, but of course there's other stuff that I want to be able to put my time and effort into, as well as the fact that I'm at a stage of my life where I need to be thinking about generating money, which limits the amount of time and effort that I can put into free content.
Considering all these factors, my plan for post-release is fairly simple. Because of constraints from using the steam link as the submission medium for my masters project and not being able to change my work post submission, there will be NO updates or new content between the 22nd of August and an unknown date most likely somewhere in the region of the 9th-23rd of September. Maybe I will still be able to do bug fixes during this time, but I don't know as I am still negotiating with my uni about this. Of course this doesn't mean I won't be working in this time, in fact progress will probably be even quicker since I won't have to worry about any of that boring stuff like actually writing my thesis, but I won't be able to release that content until after I have had my submission graded. This means you can expect a pretty major content update that contains all the cut content as well as quality of life improvements and bug fixes to release during that time frame I set out, or potentially shortly afterwards. The plan for after this is that if Into the Wild has had interest shown in it to start working on new content and features for the game, but this is dependent on seeing if the general public actually has interest in playing the game, if people don't wanna play then it's simply not worth the time creating new content as opposed to working on something new. If this interest is present (and I certainly hope it will be), then the plan for this new content is a pretty massive overhaul to the weather and cold systems which will contain actual directional wind that can be blocked by objects, the ability for players to start fires to keep warm, and a bunch of other exciting stuff! That update will take a while, so I would guesstimate that releasing sometime in the region of November-December, maybe even sometime in the new year. Past that... well, I have my ideas on where I wanna take this, but let's wait for release day and see how things go!
God damn, I really can't help but write essays for these updates can I?! I'm so excited for the public release of this game, and I hope you all are too! We're nearly there now, keep the feedback and the bug reports rolling in, and I'll keep the updates coming :D
Seph