Hello fellow dog lovers!
New Doggo
We now have added both the system to pick new doggo types and a new Doberman doggo! Before entering the game you can now select the kind of doggo you want to be. The Doberman can do everything the original can. Right now this doesn't have a big stat difference other then a few minor collider changes per dog. We will be adding dog types in the future to have a bigger differentiation for different breeds but for now we are focusing on those similar to our big friend.
Sample of the Doberman and the selection screen:
With the system now in place it will be easier for us to add in more breeds and we hope to get more feedback from everyone before and after release to help us make those decisions!
The Bear
In addition, we added a new spawnable enemy in the game, the Bear. Because he is part of the spawner system the Bear will be randomly spawned in on locations you enter but where he is and goes is different each time. The Bear is relatively docile and usually won't bother you unless you get too close. If you do you'll have to run away or try to out dodge him in a fight. Your doggo will always be sent to the vet or pound depending on how you got unconscious.
Sample of the Bear:
Resolution Support
As per requested in the beta we now will have multi-resolution support and the ability to change resolution in game. We support the aspect ratios 21:9, 16:10, 4:3 and many others including the standard 16:9. We also have added support for an additional Ultra setting to augment the High setting which will provide a small visual boost to the game and give greater options on the game look.
Sample of the current state of graphics setting panel:
Performance Improvements
We also have done additional performance improvements since the beta! The main thing is that we started to tackle physics optimization by controlling its operations at distance with a new system. Basically it does incremental adjustments and turnoffs of physics elements like rigidbodies, colliders and other parts when far away. In addition to some minor scripting improvements, the gains seen were significant in the towns and central city.
We also cleaned up certain models in the game to help with performance. Certain buildings have been improved in polycount and large scale parts of the scene (like the distant forests) have also been tuned. Lastly, some new texturing work was done to reduce VRAM usage. We still are planning on doing even more in the future!
Future Additions
The beta showed us that we needed a big shake up in the game to get to the level of polish we were aiming for. To that end we wanted to revamp the narrative by adding some more cinematic features and weaving a better story at the start and throughout the world. We will talk about this more in the next dev log but just know this new storyline and the elements associated with it will not railroad you to do anything in any particular order. It will be a seamless addition that will fit right in with current exploration and open world mechanics.
Because of the inclusion of this new story the cost to add additional languages will be going up. As a result we have decided to pull back Spanish support for the release so we can support a full suite of languages properly after the features have been added and ironed out. Once the narrative gets fine tuned by all of you we will go full force adding as many languages as we can.
Last but not least, we will also enhance the in-game tutorial. Part of this will be modifying features to make them easier to understand. But the largest part is the changes to the tutorial which will include things like pace control, a clearer presentation, and the ability to decide when to terminate the tutorial entirely at any time. Many more details will be available in our next dev log.
Thanks for reading! If you have any interest in signing up to our closed beta you can still access the sheet on our discord. If you liked what you saw, please consider wishlisting on Steam as it helps out a lot! Thanks again and see you all in the next one!
