Good thing it's always autumn on Peace Island...

...because we're getting into the deep part of the Maine winter here in Portland.  There comes a time in mid-January where the snows have laid on the ground for weeks, and in places fossilized into a substance as slippery as grease and unyielding as tempered steel.

We take comfort, however, in the fact that we can at least see a bit of light on the horizon after 5:00 PM.

As usual, there's a lot going on, here.  More and more structures and props are getting high-quality re-texturing. It's nice seeing the island taking on a more realistic look...  

We also built a new network of sidewalks, which will look a heck of a lot better than the cubes we're currently using!

One of the things you will be able to do within the game is ask other cats to follow you.  Check out a video of the AI in action!  

Today, I even got around to finally adjusting the new cat fur shaders - a bit more work remains to be done, but we're getting close!

We also got the first rough draft of the procedurally-generated music we hope to feature in the game.  I did a quick draft in which a virtual ball rolled around a virtual box, triggering various elements - give it a listen, here.  (Someone pointed out that this sampling is rather "dark," so I wanted to make sure and tell you: more "upbeat" ambiance is coming soon!)

Now, someone recently suggested that we might want to share the stories behind some of the cats that inspired the characters in Peace Island...

So - meet "Gary!"

Gary earned his place as a character in the game, because simply put: there would have been no Peace Island, had it not been for him.

Ya see...

Back in March of 2016, I was pretty down in the dumps.  I was coming to realize that a solo development project that I had put a lot of time and effort into was stalled in the mud, and wasn't likely to go anywhere, anytime soon.

As I sat there looking at my magnificent albatross, Gary came into the room and parked himself in a box at my feet.  

It occurred to me, on the spot:  Instead of sitting there feeling sorry for myself, I should make a simple cat game and port it to the old, cracked iPad we had.  I reasoned:  

If Gary ignores it, I'll take the hint, uninstall Unity, and move on with life.

It took all of ten minutes to put together that small app- I put a few 3d mice driven by an AI into a virtual box, pointed the camera downwards, and hit "play."

As it turned out, Gary sat and played with it for the next half-hour.

It wasn't much, but that gave me the confidence to stick with Unity development, and eventually start work on Peace Island.

THANKS, GARY!

Off to a writer's meeting- see ya'll next week!