New PC Alpha By 2/28

One of the things I have gotten used to in game development is having to come to you, the contributors, a few days before a new Alpha release with relatively empty hands...

Ya see, it's pretty much essential that in the weeks leading up to a final build, you "lock down" just about every major feature, so that everyone can focus their energies on making sure that what we HAVE been able to include works, and hunting down bugs.

For the most part, it's really mundane: like making sure that the toilet-to-cat radio is proper, and figuring out where the other flocks of chickens went off to.

Now- one LONG-OVERDUE feature that we were able to figure out this time around was adding the player's position to the "pause" menu map!  Peace Island, in human terms, would be an afternoon's stroll - about 33% larger than Mackworth Island, here in Portland.

However, from a cat's point of view, it's 7-10 times larger than that.  Consequently, even though I have been working on the layout of Peace Island's terrain for three years, I still get lost from time to time!  Now, whenever you find yourself wandering through the emptier parts of the island, and are having a tough time finding your bearings, you can just hit "tab", and your position will be marked.

(The arrows in the above image are just to show the sprite's position - they will be more visible in the forthcoming alpha!)

I have resumed premium shipments, and in the odd hours I have away from my 30 or so other duties, I have started trying to create a more comprehensive database of who still has yet to send in their requests for in-game mention.  (We have only received responses from about 40% of those eligible for the latter.)

Sorry for the short update - we'll have MUCH more news, come Sunday!