Terrains, Tides, and Timelines

While last week was mostly about spreadsheets & bookkeeping here at PI HQ (more about that later,) we did make progress on a number of FAR more interesting fronts!

When not cross-referencing spreadsheets, I started taking a bit of time to do another pass on the terrains- specifically the off-road paths.  Before, most were simply painted on or flat.  Now, they are all scored into the terrain.

Adding more dimensionality to these side paths was of those tiny details that really pesters me:  Fixing the issue is hardly noticeable and isn't essential for the Demo, but I seriously couldn't sleep at night, knowing that it persisted.

We also started adding more detail to some of the exterior locations.  Some of these are tricky, because we wanted lighting specific to certain locations.  This means that these tiny, specific areas have to be situated in a way that they are perpetually in shadow - even at high noon.

You go from exterior shadow.

To a sunbeam...

...and after passing through location-specific shadow, you arrive at the spot lighted areas.

This allows us to give each location a specific "atmosphere," and lends them a hint of quiet intimacy & coziness - something we'll be improving in further iterations, of course.

Our coder has the tide system working like clockwork (literally!)  This was something we've wanted to implement for quite some time.  As a fan of open-world adventure games, I have always wondered why games that feature coastlines like Morrowind never bothered to include this simple force of nature - it opens up so many possibilities for timed quests and hidden locations!

We plan on re-starting work on the first level of the game, tomorrow.  Progress on that front got stalled for a few weeks, due to a temporary shortfall in manpower.  Laura was going to begin work on the next iteration today, but after getting her COVID vaccine yesterday, she's not feeling 100%.  We'll have more details on that progress, in the next update!

So, you might be wondering: when do we get to see all this new stuff?

As I have hinted at in recent updates:  I REALLY want to release a new alpha, now that we have so many issues fixed.  Currently, there are two obstacles to this:

1:  We need to bring the mac version up to parity with the PC.  This is a process that always presents challenges, but in this case, I believe this will result in the most substantial improvement in Mac performance, to-date.  Thanks to improvements in Unity, we're seeing a striking improvement in loading times - I would be shocked if we didn't see a similar improvement on the Mac side.

2:  I personally want to finish the latest iteration of the biomes before releasing again.  All of the slight adjustments to the terrain have thrown at least 10% of the world's foliage out of whack, and I want to finish bringing in the new beach rocks - not to mention a few felled trees (as Laura & I recently came across, on our Island walks.)

I would be surprised if we could not fully address both of these issues by Mid-May.

ONE LAST NOTE...

To those who have submitted their choices for name inclusion in the game:  We are slowly but surely working through all 475 choices thus submitted, and can do about 30 confirmations a day.  If you have not received a confirmation as of yet, please stand by - we're going to get to every last one of you!

Oh: and I'm hosting a livestream for my birthday on May 5 - consider tuning in!  Thanks again for your support, patience, and confidence - see you again in two weeks!