Ups & Downs...

I know it's incumbent upon us Patreon creators to greet our patrons with great news of stunning progress each update, but as I have oft said before:  We pride ourselves on our transparency...

FIRST, THE BAD NEWS...

At Peace Island HQ, we suffered a fatal cascading RAM error that tied our main dev machine up for three days.  We were able to get it back online last night, with no loss of data, however.  We also took the opportunity to slightly upgrade the RAM, which has resulted is far fewer lags within the Unity engine.

Then - this very afternoon - our printer decided to die on us.  I can replace it, although I lament every external expense.  This will cause an unfortunate 48-hour delay in sending out premiums.

NOW, THE GOOD NEWS...

1 - Our animator Megan is finishing up the Beaver animations.  I'm gonna see if I can pester her for a "demo reel" of all NPCs, for the next update.

2 - Richard, our Composer/AI expert has finished up the first draft of all NPC music, and has it working in-engine.  Work on the universal NPC controller continues apace, although we might need a few more animations...

3 - Optimizing architecture might start getting a bit easier & faster, thanks to the tools Unity has included in their latest version.  Getting all these buildings re-worked has been the main obstacle to higher framerates in the Peace Island Landing area.

4 - "Foliage color/Biome correction" is underway.  Anyone who has followed the project is quite familiar with the "look" of peace Island.  The game is set in the early months of autumn - a few weeks out from "peak colors" in Maine.

However, there have been times at which the colors within the game world we built became quite lurid, verging almost on the cartoonish...

Now- don't get me wrong- bright colors are quite prevalent in Maine autumns- especially as the last flowering plants appear.  However, take a closer look at the grasses on the left of this image:

Yes- In early spring, you could expect to see such brilliant green shoots appearing, but not so much, later in the season.  Also- from a color/shading standpoint, the grasses and the ground might as well be in different games.  

Now, you might say "Well, that's a sacrifice you make, where aesthetics trumps realism."  Well- if only it were that simple.  Take a look at the following image - note how patchy that grass looks - especially in the foreground?

This is the kinda thing that results, when you have a marked difference between the palette used for the terrain textures, and the ground foliage.

Over the past few days, I've worked on bringing the terrain & foliage more "into synch" with one another, to better approximate the less saturated colors one would see in the latter summer months.

Understand that since the beginning, we've wanted to tilt towards Andrew Wyeth's palette, rather than Mario Galaxy's.  It gives the world a more intimate, quiet feel - especially in the later hours of the day.

It also results in FAR less "patchy" looking grasses - even when they are sprouting out of fallen leaves...

HOWEVER - One of the unfortunate TEMPORARY side effects of this adjustment is a TEMPORARY loss of brilliance in the more "floral" areas.  Reds & pinks don't tend to "Pop" as much, against a natural green - but I'll be addressing that, this coming week when I do the (knock on wood) "Final" adjustments to the biomes.  Expect to see more white, yellow, and blue accents.

BTW, I wanted to emphasize "Temporary" above, because I understand that in this initial phase of color adjustment, some might look at the screenshots above and think that Peace Island is turning into an olive-green, drab world.  LET ME ASSURE YOU: Such will NEVER be the case.  

OH- AND ONE LAST THING:

I KNOW I said:  No new Alphas for five months," but...

Considering that we've fixed that persistent issue with cat jumps, brought in new music, and improved the "cat switch" mechanism, I'm considering releasing a 0.936 version - but ONLY after I've fixed the colliders on the rocky beaches!

SEE YA'LL IN A WEEK!