Unfortunately, not every week is a remarkable parade of progress. Due to heavy processor demand and pipeline interruptions resulting from "The Great Resignation," we're STILL waiting for the new dev machine to arrive. It should be here within a few days, but we've never had to wait so long for such a delivery before.
Also - I don't believe I have to...
2021-12-17 22:56:46 +0000 UTC View PostYou see: it had come to our attention that while we have spent a considerable amount of time behind the scenes, figuring out how we could make the game accessible to differently-abled people, we had (much to our embarrassment) actually not included any such individuals within the story of Peace Island.
We mentioned this oversight on our Discord channel, along with our intent to rectify this situation, and someone responded:
2021-12-04 00:19:18 +0000 UTC
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For a change, I’ll start with the good news.
For all of those patrons who have repeatedly assured us that they know game development tends to hit snags, and are perfectly willing to wait a bit longer for us to “get it right:” We appreciate your understanding, because we will unfortunately need that time - not a lot of it - just some. You needn’t read any further - here’s a picture of Laura with an Island cat!
2021-11-26 23:35:24 +0000 UTC
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Within the Unity editor, everything is more or less fine. The most important detail here is that we have access to four cats, when we are in the exterior scene.
After all - one of the features we wanted to show off in this alpha was the "Clowder" functionality, where you can ask other cats to follow you. A LOT of very good work went into its creatio...
2021-11-23 02:14:35 +0000 UTC View PostSo - I awoke this morning, ready to start writing the manual for the Alpha that we were due to release, today. It wasn't going to be 100% what we hoped it would be - a few systems were just not ready in time, but after all of the delays, we felt it would be good to just release everything that we DID have complete - and that list was a LONG one, even with the aforementioned omissions.
I take my seat behind my computer, boot up InDesign, and take a look at the old ...
2021-11-19 22:32:55 +0000 UTC View PostI know a great, generous percentage of ya'll are thinking "Hey- fine. Better delayed than rushed!"
Trust me: for that, we are eternally thankful.
However, if I didn't type out a full explanation, we wouldn't have much of an update, would we?
In the final days leading up to a public launch, yo...
2021-11-11 23:41:36 +0000 UTC View PostOur schedule:
- On the morning of Wednesday (November 10,) we will lock the project down. This is the point at which work on this release will officially end, and we can commence final checks & bug hunts.
- On Friday (November 12,) we will release the Peace Island Final Alpha for PC. As always, everyone who has donated $2.00 or more over the duration of this campaign will receive a notification email containing lin...
2021-11-04 00:22:24 +0000 UTC View PostWe need one more week, before we can "Lock Down" the project, and produce the "Final Alpha."
Trust me - we did our LEVEL BEST to get this out by the end of October. Personally, I started the week with a list of 20 minor corrections I had to address, and only two items remain. I believe these final issues can be addressed with an update to the back-e...
2021-10-30 00:11:19 +0000 UTC View PostI apologize, but some weeks are just not as exciting as others, around here. As we approach the release of the "final alpha," we're all focusing on ensuring that what systems & features we presently have work as best as they can. Hence, there is unfortunately little in the way of new screenshots or features this week.
Personally, I've been trying to shoo...
2021-10-21 22:40:41 +0000 UTC View PostWe're only a few weeks out from release of the "Final Alpha", and while I am hopeful, there is always the chance of a last-minute delay that might gum up the works.
Tomorrow, we are planning on integrating the "follow" function with the UI - which is undergoing a slight overhaul.
The previous version was the default, and was just not compatible with the overall sty...
2021-10-11 23:16:08 +0000 UTC View PostSo- anyone who has been with this project for a while is more or less familiar with the nine cats that appear in Peace Island. This cast has been more or less set, since the earliest days of the project. However, it has been pointed out a few times recently that there's a garling exclusion, here:
Specifically: we have four cats that feature various tabby patterns, b...
2021-09-30 23:04:28 +0000 UTC View PostThis week has been catch-up for me (more about all of that, below.) Fortunately, the other folks working on the project have been making great strides. Arjuna has started work on refining the lighting in the first, introductory level - and I am REALLY impressed with the initial results. While it remains a work-in-progress, the added realism is striking - note the glow on the wall from the laptop's screen - little details like that are essential!
2021-09-23 00:12:23 +0000 UTC
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So, we were not actually PLANNING to feature Ronan the kitten in the upcoming "Final Alpha," and he was not included in our plans for "Minimum Viable Product." All the same, we felt it would be beneficial to begin the rigging/skinning of our kitten model, so we could see how well existing animations would carry over from adult to kitten.
You see, we have a 2021-09-14 01:10:04 +0000 UTC View Post
...but a good one!
Firstly: Here in Maine, we are entering the season in which Peace Island takes place - when the tourists have mostly left, but the most beautiful days are yet to come.
In case you are curious- the landmass in the middle distance is an outcropping by the name of "Catnip Island." At low tide, it's slightly less than a single a...
2021-09-03 01:56:10 +0000 UTC View PostCurrently: Laura is working on tweaking the dialogue system UI. Personally, I was never a fan of having dialogue text playing out at the base of the screen - I think the guys behind "Disco Elysium" had it right, when they positioned the dialogue UI on the side of the screen (I believe we can leave the preference of 'which side' up to the player.) The camera will adjust to keep the player in the center, during interaction.
2021-08-22 23:57:44 +0000 UTC
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...was a disaster. I am posting about this, because we owe it to our patrons to be as open about our mistakes, as our victories.
I promoted the stream here on Patreon as an update yesterday, and felt that you deserved an explanation as to why that post disappeared - here's what happened:
I had apparently not spent enough time reviewing the playable build that I had prepared in advance of the livecas...
2021-08-18 02:00:21 +0000 UTC View PostThe past week has seen a lot of good news proceed across my desk.
First, we finally have the new controller mostly integrated - and it just MARVELLOUS to see the cats hugging the ground.
Prior to this, if a cat was walking up an incline, it would look as if it were standing on a small plane perpendicular to sea level as they ascended, making the cat’s ...
...since YOU took a chance on an obscure project from a place that is better known for its lobsters and blueberries, than video games.
I must confess: My fingers are left hovering motionless over my keyboard for minutes at a time, when they are tasked with describing how much you have changed our lives, and the lives of so many others since then. ...
2021-07-28 00:50:21 +0000 UTC View PostLast week saw us finally meeting a good number of goals:
1: The new player controller has finally been brought into the main scene. There still remain a few functions to be added, and the camera currently follows the cats a bit TOO closely - note the tilt on the camera:
2: The final building is being addressed for the "Downtown" secto...
2021-07-13 18:43:21 +0000 UTC View PostWe are pleased to announce that we've released an interactive demo of the Peace Island soundtrack for both PC & Mac!*
So, those who have played the past few alphas probably have noticed that we sorta veered back into "balloon cat" territory. This was especially frustrating, as we had spent so much time creating proper fur shaders...
Note the more-or-less even surface of the cat - no matter how good the environment looks, it doesn't matter if the cat itself doesn't look "furry." Con...
2021-06-23 22:48:31 +0000 UTC View PostAs I have had to report a few times in the past: Progress is steady, but sometimes, we cannot avoid the occasional roadblock.
We encountered an issue with the Unity engine that was preventing us from properly integrating the new player controller/NPC system that caused a couple of days of delay on certain fronts.
Thankfully, progress continues on others. 2021-06-15 00:10:37 +0000 UTC View Post
But before all of that, Laura & I confess: We had to take a day off, after getting our second Moderna shot. Even answering email was a bit taxing...
BUT, we got back to work, ASAP...
As we enter the home stretch towards what we in the business call "Minimum Viable Product," we're focused on three areas, primarily:
We have a mac build - but as history has taught us, the first one is ALWAYS a doozy...
We are getting reports of substandard performance, and just don't feel comfortable releasing it, just yet.
This has been standard with all of our Mac ports, to date - After all, Macs have little time for the sloppy code and memory leaks that PCs just ignore. In the end, this temporary delay will lead to a better build for both the PC and Mac, going forward.
<...
2021-05-21 23:30:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Just a few more adjustments...
2021-05-15 01:37:37 +0000 UTC View PostI'm going to start off this update with something a bit personal that inspired just one of the side missions you will encounter in Peace Island:
If you were not aware, I'm a big fan of sea glass. So much so that I accumulated quite a bit, over the years. For example, this was the result after a year's collection in 2014:
2021-05-11 23:03:41 +0000 UTC
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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.
2021-04-27 22:35:25 +0000 UTC
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We're close to completing the update to Unity engine 2011, and the more I mess about with the new builds, the more I am convinced that we're going to want to release a new alpha, once we get a few more features completed.
I confess: the last two alphas were hard to release, because of the persistent gravity issue that made jumping well-nigh impossible. It's downright embarrassing to release a videogame about cats with the caveat "best to avoid...
2021-04-13 22:16:51 +0000 UTC View PostI 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 a...
2021-04-07 21:12:14 +0000 UTC View Post
I believe that I’ve personally spent about 50 hours with my face buried in spreadsheets, cataloguing and sorting everyone’s requests for name placement within the game. The good news is that it looks like 90% of patrons will get their first choice!
The bad news is that it will take me another week to fully cross-reference everything, and start...