For those who haven’t seen our last update: We’re now doing weekly dev blogs. These will cover what each team member has been up to in the past week of development. So without further ado, let’s get into it!
Last Thursday was a red-letter day, due to the release of our latest pre-alpha build. (Alpha backers, if you haven’t done so already, go check it out!) While this build greatly improved on the stability of the game, there’s still a crateful of bugs to be found and fixed.
A big shoutout to our community, who have been playing the new build and reporting bugs for us. Casey has had both hands full, but has managed to fix a HUGE amount of issues over the past week.
If you’ve been tuning into Nick’s development streams, you’ll know he’s also tested and fixed a lot of small issues. He’s also started a new minor quest and begun work on Della’s farm! Good job, but is Caribbean really that difficult to spell?
The Animal Farming system has never been in a state we’re proud of, so last build we made the decision to remove the animal vendor NPC. Getting this system up and running is now our next major goal! We’ll be re-releasing this feature once it’s had some updates and bugs fixed.
Part of this update is changing how we handle gates and enclosures. Casey has removed gates and implemented a signpost buildable. In future, you’ll be able to place readable signs around your farm, just like Gilbert with his endless notes!
Initially, Animal Farming will be releasing with just a few animals: The Chicken, Cow, and Molo. Wait, just what on earth is a Molo?!
Molos are a farm animal native to Softshoal Island. They’re… like a pig? Opinions on the dev team are split as to just what they are, but all of us agree they’re cute as heck. Our Molos can already walk and run, but this week, Ethan’s been working on happy/sad animations for them! And did you know, they have the floppiest ears of any animal on Softshoal? That’s a fact!
Ethan has also done up some happy/sad visual effects, which we’ll be using to clearly communicate just how your animals are feeling. Animals will sparkle, shiver (or stink) depending on their condition… we’ll delve a little more into this in the next dev blog!
Well, kinda…
Mitch has caught blender fever, and he’ll be contributing 3D art to the project to further populate the world with clutter and stuff!
Take a look, you'll be seeing some more cool props like this in the future:
Til’ next time!
We ended up spending a bit more time on bugs than we anticipated this week, but are really happy with the fixes and small improvements making their way into the game. A big thank you to everyone reporting bugs, crashes and giving opinions about gameplay-- all of it is being read, and it’s been a massive help.
For those who want to join the bug hunt, we encourage you to fill out our Google Form to report any issues you find.
Come join the community on Discord and talk to us developers while we work on Farm Folks!
