Over the past week, we brought all of the “Highwire” areas into the main game exterior, and placed them within their respective streaming sectors.
This included all of the fence tops, as well as the utility pole network that we finalized a couple of weeks ago.
Note: &...
2023-03-08 00:51:14 +0000 UTC View PostThis week has gone by in a haze. In successive passes, we've completed three reviews of every single component, collider, and object in the main exterior scene. We've consolidated what is right, ditched what is wrong, and gotten rid of thousands of redundancies.
After this latest review, we're pleased to say that 100% of building roofs on Peace Island...
2023-02-28 02:16:14 +0000 UTC View PostIt is unfortunately one of those weeks were we have to simply "ditto" most of the previous update...
Most of our time was spent going through and reviewing everything that was done to-date. Laura took care of refining the building colliders, and I continued my review of accessibility around the island.
This was something inevitable, and I am actually really enjoying the process, as it's getting back to the what made game development enjoyable, in the early d...
2023-02-14 04:55:29 +0000 UTC View Post...is analogous to the process I find myself in, right now.
After completing the Alpha version of the "Power Line Highway," I asked Laura to do a run-around, and discover where we were missing colliders. She handed me a 24-page document that was both surprising and shocking.
Surprising in that there were so few, and shocking in that some of them were utterly baffling.
2023-02-08 00:08:52 +0000 UTC
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Sorry we're two days late. Over the past couple of days, several non-game-related issues have bubbled up, and prevented me from finding time to write an update.
We were able to reconcile the arguments that cropped up between our audio engine, and the updated skybox. While things are not 100% (you'll notice the lack of decent fog,) we're slowly hooking everything back up.
2023-02-01 23:26:42 +0000 UTC
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...and SO MUCH is FINALLY fitting into place. Ever since we got the cat controller into its initial Beta state, we've had a consistent model upon which to finalize a lot of world details that previously were a constant issue.
FIRSTLY: We've adopted a uniform stair collider that we will soon be replacing all current ones. For the longest time you could count on having to aim-jump over a great many staircases on Peace Island, because the cat c...
2023-01-24 00:35:14 +0000 UTC View PostAs in times past, we share the good news, the bad news, and the "meh" in measure equal to their impact on the project. In all honesty, this is a week we'll have to put in the latter "meh" category:
1 - Everyone encountered a few problems with the upgrade to Unity LTS, and had to sit through a few library re-builds (which typically take between 4-8 hours.)
2 - There is currrently a brief shortage of certain medications in the U...
2023-01-19 01:30:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe holidays are finally over, and we're back into full-swing here.
My personal mission has been to figure out why we apparently lost a measure of visual quality, somewhere along the way - but perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself...
First, I wanted to let you know that we've re-opened our Twitch channel. This alm...
2023-01-10 23:33:49 +0000 UTC View PostTo those who celebrate today as Christmas, we hope it was a happy one! At Peace Island HQ, we took advantage of the day to order out for Indian food, and play video games. Laura usually plays “The Sims,” and I worked to maintain a successful arctic base in “Rimworld.”
I need to get a mod, because after a certain point, the one thing our colony lacks is moar cats…
2022-12-26 02:30:08 +0000 UTC
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Spoiler: In 24 hours, we're releasing a new update for PC that includes lots of new features, including the ability to drive golf carts!
See you then!
2022-12-17 01:43:37 +0000 UTC View PostPeace Island HQ has finally shaken off the flu that left both Laura & myself incapacitated for almost a week. Judging by the fact that there was no cold medication to be found at any store, we were not the only ones.
However, as we rid ourselves of that bug, new bugs appeared in the game, as we finalized the integration of the quest/dialogue system. Particularly: all chickens seems to have disappeared, and deer suddenly just started floating gent...
2022-12-08 01:32:17 +0000 UTC View PostIt's been a tough week, I must admit. Just as I thought I was getting over whatever virus I picked up last week, PI HQ got hit again - with Laura falling ill, and myself relapsing into another more severe variety of flu. There was a solid 30 hours where getting out of bed took serious effort.
What REALLY sucks, is that this second bout is the sort of flu where your IQ drops about 60 points, and you spend about three hours a day trying to remember wha...
2022-11-29 23:30:40 +0000 UTC View PostI must apologize in that we don't have much to show off this week. Both Laura & myself fell victim to the usual rash of seasonal influenza. We should be back to full recovery within 48 hours.
While we were ill, Richard continued work on the ambient audio, and Lance made progress on a new system we hinted at last week's update:
Yes- Cats will be able to drive Golf Carts - but it's not simple. You need to form a clowder of four ca...
...but before I get to the progress report, allow me a moment to be up-front with our Mac-using patrons and supporters: We have STILL yet to crack what is causing the persistent error that prevents the Unity engine from running the project on the Mac OS...
This single error has become the bane of my existence, over the past month. it's taking except...
2022-11-14 22:52:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe UI still has to be revised to match the rest, but Laura got the cats talking to each other again today within the main project. As I have oft stated in recent months, this interactivity was "The Final System" we needed working in order to start adding actual story content and quests.
This was initially added over a year ago, but was put on hold due to various factors ...
2022-10-31 23:23:35 +0000 UTC View PostYesterday, Laura & I were jubilant as we were finally able to get the Peace Island project to again actually open and run on the Mac - BUT...
When we begin a "New game," the engine throws two errors up, and refuses to go forward, past the main menu.
WHY WE BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING:
Our new save/load system requires that the Peace Island...
2022-10-27 00:34:38 +0000 UTC View PostOkay - when you are working in game development, you have to be realistic. If going by the book doesn't work, toss the book out of the window, and try various brute force approaches.
Two days ago, we were able to get the Peace Island project to actually open, and remain steady on the Mac.
Rather than trying to bring the project over in any traditional manner, we exported the entire project as its own stand-alone package. &nb...
2022-10-19 22:55:43 +0000 UTC View PostSo- let's get this out of the way first: I spent ten days trying to get the mac to accept the project through traditional means. However, the project always locked up in the initial stages of opening, saying that it was "Waiting for Cache Server."
There are work-arounds for this problem. I implemented all four of them - in tandem and separately. Each attempt required between 4-12 hours, ...
2022-10-12 23:36:26 +0000 UTC View PostFirst off: we're getting closer to the Mac Build. The conversion is always a tough nut to crack - particularly this time, since we have done so much refactoring. and re-writing of deprecated code.
It seems that each time we cracked through one wall of script assembly problems, there would be another waiting right behind it, requiring a different solution, and a new file transfer.
2022-10-05 23:24:23 +0000 UTC
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Okay- it's been an AMAZING week. Quite frankly, I could release what we have RIGHT NOW, and not only would it deliver all features we promised - it would surpass them.
First, let's go over the basics:
- The proper atmospherics have been brought back in. For some reason, the lighting settings, along with a few of the post-processing effects had been knocked out, resulting in a rather gray uniform world where there were no re...
There is this huge collider in the center of the island no one can identify, or remove.
It's invisible, not showing up in the scene hierarchy, or blocking anything else but the player and NPCs. It was the biggest obstacle on this side of development, until I had another head-on collision with a biker, on saturday.
"Another?"
...
OKAY- we've got four days till Friday, when we release the FFA for PC*.
I am confident that we're going to be able to deliver the best version of the game to-date. The controller works better than it ever has, with only the most extreme actions leading to a cat being stuck anywhere.
I personally spent the day making sure that all of the systems that make the world look good function as they more or less should. Somewhere along ...
It should (unfortunately) not come as a surprise that, due to the recent shake-up in personnel, we have had to delay the release of "The Final Alpha" for 1 week. This is because we spent a full week getting our server back up and running.
This means that you can expect the "Final Final Alpha" to be released in the first full week of September.
So, I've been wanting to address this for quite some time:
It should not come as a surprise to anyone that the economy worldwide is in a slump. Inflation is up everywhere, supply chain issues are driving prices up further, and the legendary wages being offered during the height of "The Great Resignation" have evaporated with the arrival of summer.
Consequently, we have been getting a lot of messages from patrons, letting us know that due to current c...
2022-08-22 23:19:20 +0000 UTC View PostIt's been HOT up here in Maine over the past week, and despite what you might think, we're not exactly blessed with constant ocean breezes here in Portland. On the back bay particularly, things tend to get still and stagnant - and the humidity certainly doesn't help.
This bears on the development of Peace Island, because for a couple of days, it was just too hot to...
2022-08-09 01:03:15 +0000 UTC View PostFirst off: I wanted to apologize to anyone who tried to watch last night’s livecast later on in the evening. The demo went off pretty well, with the usual few hitches (and the usual solid minutes of me rambling in a manner reminiscent of Grandpa Simpson.)
However, I had to delete the broadcast very soon after finishing, because there was a BIG spoiler displayed onscreen for a couple of seconds.
I tried to edit it out within YouTube ...
Simply put: We got the new power source hooked up last night, and are still catching up on getting everything together. If you want to know what I have personally been looking at, more than anything else, it’s this:
We will be returning to our usual Monday update schedule this coming week, where we will be showing off the latest developments. In the meantime, we’ll be showing off the latest content this coming Sunday, in a livecast
2022-07-30 02:21:03 +0000 UTC
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After almost three years of faithful service, the power supply on the main dev machine at Peace Island HQ bit the dust this last Saturday. Thankfully, it is a relatively cheap item to replace - however, there were no local merchants who had one in-stock, and the quickest we could get one delivered was this coming Thursday.
Personally, I am taking advantage of this time to take care of long-overdue housekeeping, do a lot of laundry, and catch up on a bit of...
2022-07-27 01:50:31 +0000 UTC View PostWe'll start with a very quick "Olivia Update." After two days of seclusion in one of our bedrooms, she has slowly started to emerge into the rest of the apartment.
She is incredibly flighty and rarely spends more than a minute in a single place before moving onward. He tail position tells us that she's cautiously interested in her new surroundings, and while their relations are not 100% friendly as of yet, the older cats tolerate her presence, when sh...
2022-07-19 22:21:13 +0000 UTC View PostA great deal of the past week was mostly spent on the long-awaited refactoring process. Unfortunately, unless you guys REALLY wanna look at screenshots of raw code or object collider gizmos, there's not much to show off.
It's a GREAT feeling, knowing that long-standing obstacles are finally crumbling, however.
I personally spent a few days putting together a few more of the thousands upon thousands of details that we needed for the game wo...
2022-07-12 23:07:13 +0000 UTC View Post