Hello fishers! :)
I was going to post this announcement in combination with a bigger update, but I'm still working on it. That update has a big focus on bugfixing, painting and better atmosphere through improved visuals, new effects and critters. If you are interested in seeing the update early, you can opt into the public test branch on Steam by using the code "benchstacking" (Right-click Demo > Properties > Game Versions & Betas > type the code into the "Private Versions" field. The patch notes are in Discord under #dev-updates or #demo-public-test. I know not everybody uses Discord, but currrently it would take me too much time to compile these public test patch notes properly and keep them up to date on Steam as well. I'm aiming to have patch notes in general soon shown in-game as well. For safety you should back up your save files (in C:\\Users\\Username\\AppData\\Local\\RiftFishing\\Saved\\SaveGames), but the update isn't doing anything savegame-breaking.
Q3 2026 delay
And yes.. I'll need to delay the release date from Q2 2026 to Q3 2026, I'm very sorry for that. There is simply still too much to do for an Early Access release I'm comfortable with. The upside is that all of your feedback and testing has been an incredible help and the game has benefitted a lot from it. If I didn't have your feedback, I'd miss so many bugs and issues! Thank you so much for all of your help, and simply being a part of the development of this small fishing game! If I had to put a finger on why exactly the delay is needed, a big part of it is related to safety & security, fixing bugs, improving systems. Or in some cases scrapping it, like the dye system.
That said, the Demo will stay up for now. I'll continue to add and improve on the Demo, until after the Steam Next Fest in June is finished, and then evaluate again (that's in ~5 weeks).
News on the instruments
While development on the instruments in Unreal hasn't started yet, my friend and composer Utho has been hard at work recording and processing samples for the guitar, our first instrument for the game! To quote him:"I did x4 round robins on each note, across 49 notes ranging from c3 to c7, so that's 196 notes!". I do want to mention that "Decay" of the notes will be handled in Unreal. Here is a video showing off the sound samples in an example song: View game pageThe design philosophy for the instruments, and the music system, is similar to the fishing minigames, which vary in complexity: On one hand, be able to just get an instrument and "hit play", even in groups (think Sea of Thieves). And on the other hand, be able to compose your own music inside of the game, and even create a rhythm game to play it back with some skill. Because I have to keep in mind network lag, these two modes will autoplay (like a on/off switch), and the rhythm game will create a "fail" sound that gets layered on top if you miss a note. Then there will also be a freeplay mode, where you can use the instrument however you like, but it will have to deal with network latency. All of this music will be saved in music sheet items. The goal is to have empty music sheets that you can use for your own composing, and already filled music sheets that you can simply buy from a shop, composed by @Utho. You would be able to duplicate music sheets and also share these via the upcoming mail system. The music system will first be implemented in a basic form and then be expanded over time. If you have questions about the samples, the technicals, feel free to tag @Utho (on Discord) for questions. We're still working on this, so there might not be an answer to every question yet.
I'll attach some before / after examples of the improved visuals of the upcoming update. Especially the new fog will improve the atmosphere a lot for the upcoming weather and other environmental effects like a foggy morning.
Much love <3
Saia