Progress on all fronts! (Patreon)

I'll start off with Mac alpha news:

We went ahead and priority-shipped our workhorse Mac to our chief backend developers in New York.  

Due to the recent increase of interest in the Peace Island project, Laura and I simply don't have the waking hours to handle such deep-tech issues- it was best to send the job over to the guys who are developing the PC backend, because they would have a far better grasp on reconciling these issues than we would, and save innumerable hours of poking & prodding.

However  there's always a bright edge to the clouds hanging over the Mac release:  the rather... unique demands of the Mac platform are forcing us to streamline, economize, and optimize, every chance we get.  This, as always, results in a faster-performing build for EVERYONE- even those on the PC side...

We still consider the issues preventing the release of the .08 Alpha on the Mac side to be our TOP priority, and are working hard as ever to find a solution.

DO YOU FIND THE ABOVE IMAGE CONFUSING?

Well, it was sorta MEANT to be.  Ya see, in order to create our new, generative soundtracks, we had to create an abridged "Musical Atlas" of the island that wound up close to 25 pages in length.  The above image is a superimposed shot of all of the preliminary "maps" that determine how the musical elements will reside, and move. (I don't mind showing this early version here, as it's already under HEAVY revision...)

A MORE VARIED ISLAND IS COMING!

Some of our alpha testers might have noticed something that has been a thorn in my brain for a number of months:

While the island currently boasts no less than seven distinct biomes, there is sometimes a marked lack of variety to the foliage in some places - areas on the eastern and western extremes of the Island sometimes can be a bit too "samey," for my tastes.

So, my #1 personal development goal over the next 11 days is to overhaul the biomes from top to bottom.  You should, ideally, be able to identify where you are by the color of the flowers and plants around you.  I'll probably spend a lot of time studying botany, to ensure the plants are where they SHOULD be.

ON THE PLAYER CONTROLLER FRONT:

We've added eating/drinking, and horizontal scratching - Video here! 

We have also started more intense development of the "climbing" mechanism, and will be adding "Hunting vision" in days to come!

INTEGRATION OF THE RPG FRAMEWORK CONTINUES APACE.

We've got our rough menu screen working, and will start stringing scenes together, in coming days.  We are anticipating that we can start integrating dialogue and the first quests, in the new year.

A good piece of news is that the AIs for the NPCs we have built are integrating into this new framework with minimal problems.

SEE YA'LL ON CHRISTMAS EVE - UNLESS WE HAVE A MAC BUILD BEFORE THEN!

Thanks again for your patience, support, and confidence- it means the WORLD to us!