Preparing for YouTube Trailer Part 1 (Patreon)

I wanted to have a sort of last big piece to add to the trailer so there is more content to showcase. I decided on having chickens put into the game. This led to a huge mod API addition:

Till recently, Viva's modding API supported only bipedal characters (2 legged humanoids for people). I couldn't add horses or other animals because their skeletons were wildly different. A code addition was necessary to allow for these different skeleton creatures. And now it's complete! It is now possible to import an fbx of other animals and mod them into the game with animations and scripts!

I'm in the process of adding some rudimentary behavior to the chickens so you can chase them around for eggs and for fun. The cool thing about the implementation is that they retain the same physics properties like humanoids. This means that they will wobble and feel like soft body ragdolls that are also animated. This has prompted the backlog addition of yet another tutorial video that will feature how to mod in animal skeleton models. So far I have in the works the following videos:

• #4 Scripting
• #5 Animal models
• Regular YouTube Viva v0.9 trailer
  

They will be added to the pile of other v0.9 tutorials/videos. The release order is not listed.

My goal is to release 1 of the videos I listed this month.

Also I have a small change to the way we will be doing Supporter tier beta releases (since Quest 2 release was postponed):

We will be doing bimonthly private Supporter release builds. After the 2 months, that new Viva version will overwrite the public version. So the public version (v0.9) will be constantly updated with bimonthly big updates. That should allow me to have a venue to release big 'beta' features and have testers. That means that non-Supporter tier people can still enjoy the free version but will continue to be locked out of new features unless they wait 2 months.

Plan subject to change. If you have any questions or comments or even suggestions, write them below!

On a completely unrelated (but kinda related) note, I wanted to talk about the state of the game in general. I feel like the game industry (and even the whole world) was stunted when COVID came out. As in, the development pace, work ethic, work location, and even execution for all games suffered a set back. More games take longer to make now and more games on release feel like duds. I can definitely say Viva felt some of this after v0.9 came out, and it was difficult to carry it through the shitty times between late 2020 to mid 2021. But rest assured, I am still working about an hour or two a day on it to get it out of the door. I feel like 2021 is the real promised return to normalcy. But only time will tell. If the mod scene takes off once it's fully equipped, it will be a huge sigh and relief for me.

Stay tuned.