This Week in the Forest! #87 (Patreon)

YO FOLKS~! Here's what we've been up to this week!

Starting with A word from Vixel!

8/1 weekly update:

Heya floofs! Last week I worked on Android build troubleshooting. The app would run great on some phones, but wouldn't even start on others. I researched ways to improve compatibility, changed a bunch of stuff under the hood, and now we're not getting any install issues on the phones we've thrown it at. Yay!

We also had an issue with our touchscreen D-pad controls not being responsive enough. I finally discovered the problem was two scripts racing each other to provide input & read the provided input. Fixed the bug by scheduling one of the scripts to always run after the other.

I've also been searching for a fix for the lag spikes most apparent in Central Forest. (The lag was especially severe on Android.) I found and rewrote some problem code which was doing too much work too often, scanning for new dialogues to update the interaction icons that appear when you walk nearby the critters. It hasn't completely solved the problem but it's smoothed out the lag a lot! This bugfix will be in our next set of Desktop builds as well.

Carrot and I have been testing the Android build on our own devices and now with a few friends. Got some tidying up to do and then we'll share an APK (Android installer file) with Patrons to get more feedback!

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I'm super stoked to see how this Android build has been working out! I'm borrowing my dad's old S8+ to help test, I believe it's a 5 year old phone, and it runs surprisingly well! I mean, we've done a lot of optimizations that aren't in these older builds, so it can be a bit of a hog in terms of performance. At least more than you'd think for a pixel game haha!

Vixel got touch controls working and feeling fine so we can officially say it DOES support Android and touch! It's not our like "final" touch design by any means, but it works very well for now!

One of the things we wanted to implement before releasing this build was Toggle-able-cheats! Check it out!

This wasn't necessary for the PC Builds, but if we were taking this on the phone, then a lot of this really helps with troubleshooting. Otherwise we'd need to hook up a bluetooth keyboard, or just go through the game normally. 

Eventually Vixel wants to expand this idea to debug commands too! But that'll be in the future.

Other than lots of trouble shooting, I've been working on the 2nd part to the Melody Excursion's date! First you meet her chicken friend, then you meet her deer friend :> as shown above! Its got a few frames to it as well, all drawn out, now it's color time! This scene, and Maverick's Chapter 2 of his girlfriend arch, will be in this month's build :>

I was also doing some paper work/clerical duties! Every several months I gotta update our book keeping on where people are at for the collab/visiting tier. As they get closer to the goal, I reach out to them and we start working on some assets! We'll have another 3 visiting critter from this most recent batch :>

OK! THAT'S IT!

10$+ peeps, keep an eye out, as I'll be releasing the new monthly poll soon! 

This one will be featuring the FELLAS