Furs, Aloysius Ellison, The Next Release, and Premiums

So, those who have played the past few alphas probably have noticed that we sorta veered back into "balloon cat" territory.  This was especially frustrating, as we had spent so much time creating proper fur shaders...

Note the more-or-less even surface of the cat - no matter how good the environment looks, it doesn't matter if the cat itself doesn't look "furry."  Contrast that with this promo shot from a few years back:

Note how you can clearly see the fuzzy texture of the foreground cats, and the grain of the black cat's fur, even though he is three times as far from the camera.

Thankfully, the solution was simple: the fur system we were using was simply deprecated.    Once we updated that, we were able to restore the cats' coats to their former, more realistic appearance (well- aside from those spikes around the ears...)

Laura's been working on re-creating a common database, and refining the furs we were previously using.  The way that fur length is managed has been changed, so we still have a bit more sculpting and trimming to do...

People who have followed the project for a while should be familiar with a man in Peace Island's history by the name of Aloysius Ellison.

He's one of the many illustrious figures that you will discover during your time on Peace Island - a farmer and abolitionist who could not stand the Island of his birth becoming part of a nation that condoned slavery.  So, he declared that Peace Island, not having been consulted on the infamous "Missouri Compromise", could not be considered a signatory to the deal - and thus was NOT part of the new US state of Maine - but rather, its own sovereign nation.

In recent weeks, I have been fortunate enough to work with an extremely skilled 3d artist, who was able to re-create Ellison in 3d.

Seeing this come together was quite amazing.  It was like watching a forensic historian re-building a clay model of a roman emperor's head from bone detritus.

While we've still got to refine the materials and the base, it was SO NEAT seeing his memorial take its place on the anchorage near Ellison farms...

The next (and final) alpha will be released in August - and boy, am I excited.  Ya see, this will be the first release of Peace Island that moves beyond being a walking simulator with nice scenery.  In addition to the revamped fur, this release will feature (among many other things:)

- An integrated quest/dialogue system - You will have your first conversations with the other animals of Peace Island, and fulfil your first quests.
- The new NPC system - One system to rule them all, rather than the five we have now.
- The new character controller - At long last, the cats will move FAR more naturally, realistically, and accurately.
- New actions - Cats might not like to swim, but if they have to, they very well might!  Integration of climbing is not completely out of the picture, as well!
- New animations - The days of "Gumby Geese" are coming to a close!
- Faster performance, on both platforms - This might be the point at which performance on the Mac REALLY starts to catch up with what we've been able to achieve on the PC.

The coming months are going to be the most robust in the game's development, to date - stay tuned for updates!

WE'RE STILL CATCHING UP ON PREMIUMS

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SEE YA'LL AGAIN IN A WEEK- Thanks again for your confidence, patience, and support - IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US!