Right at the end of the year, time for a short recap about some of the work we did in the last two months. We’ve been diving so deep into the island and its content that we didn’t share a lot recently, but still there are some exciting things to talk about. Again, without spoiling too much!

We’ve aligned species movements for equal chances

As part of an ongoing effort to improve movement for both species and player, we’ve took steps to align species run and walk speeds better, so that we have a better shot at balancing chances they have against each other, critters and the player. Because if there is no balance, the simulation will always turn out the same.

An example can be found in the Krocker, who was extremely slow before we edited their movement speed. Now it looks like this, a lot faster and more aggressive!

New outfits!

We’re working on a lot of content in the shape of collectibles, secrets, outfits and tools. Here’s a work-in-progress look at one of the new outfits, the Hunter Set!

Hiding spots

Last time we talked about hiding spots – an important addition to the spectrum of actions by critters and species. We’ve worked more to visualize the actual spots with hiding grass and we’ve worked on scared hiding animations for critters.

Work on the Vaults

Although this is an area we don’t want to spoil much of, the Vaults have been getting a lot of love lately. Check out these two shots, hopefully not too telling but indicative of what they might be:

More village work

As always, we’ve continued to work on villages, to give each a ‘cornerstone’ idea and make them memorable. This one is one we’re very happy with, worked on by our new intern Daan!

Indie of the Year Awards

Last year we won ‘Most Anticipated Indie of the Year’ on indie website IndieDB – and this year, thanks to you, we were in the top 10 AGAIN! We ended up on 7th place this time. Thanks so much!

Happy new year!

We did plenty more and can’t wait to share everything with you soon. Next year is going to be very special, with of course the release of Pine on the planning – we hope you’re as excited as we are! For now, happy new year and talk to you soon.