Hello everyone,
Build 57 should be uploaded sometime in the next few hours. It has had some very much needed changes made to it. I came back from my little break about two weeks ago and we decided that it is about time that we addressed some parts of the game that make it look and feel rather shabby.
New aquarium Selection Screen:
The way that players used to choose an aquarium was bland, boring, uninspiring and extremely grey. That has now completely changed. We provided a better visualisation of each aquariums dimension's and volume and removed that tedious scroll list at the bottom of the screen. This should help new players to feel less baffled when choosing an aquarium for the first time. This mode will be added to and improved further over time. For instance some players have suggested that we add the possibility for players to add a premade plumbing setup and a few other utilities to their aquariums at this stage and we think that is a good idea among many others.
New Main Menu:
The main menu is perhaps the least exciting part of any game but it used to look totally rubbish. Flat grey colour and a tiny menu. New players were not very impressed as it is a very ugly way to start playing a newly purchased game.
Colour Editor:
The backdrop system has been re-worked to allow for better customisation. Specifically we have added a colour editor so players now have a choice between 3,600,000 colours to apply to the various attributes of their chosen backdrops. Yes we are working on more backdrops which will be added to the game. Feel free to check out the backdrop list on the forums and make suggestions.
The new colour editor is going to get a lot of use throughout the game. Over time we will make it possible for players to adjust the colours of various decorations, substrates and eventually plants and fish when we add some of the genetics features to the game.
We spent the whole week working on these changes. Last week was spent working on bug fixes, cleaning up simulation code, trying to balance how the water chemistry works. The algae code has been re-written so it grows in a manner that is not as frustrating as before but im sure we have not worked out all the nuances with it.
We are also continuously working on the next iteration of the fish ai and painting the models of the new fish we showed you many weeks ago. All of that and more is going to be put into the game as soon as we are happy with them. Quite often we have to change the priority of certain things because a player finds an important bug that needs fixing or players let us know what is more important to them to see the in the game sooner. This was the case with the example aquariums and the game is much easier for new players to get to grips with when they have examples to look at and understand. It was well worth prioritising that over painting new fish in that instance.
Now that I am back and feeling refreshed I think we can make a lot of very meaningful progress in the coming weeks. I have not been as active in the forums these last weeks because I and my colleague mostly just had our heads down working on getting this update ready. I'll be able to answer forum posts over the weekend and more next week.
We wish you all a very good weekend and hope you find some nice bargains in the summer sale.
The Fishery Team