Good Mac Progress, TV Coverage, and New Stuff! (Patreon)

Okay - when you are working in game development, you have to be realistic.  If going by the book doesn't work, toss the book out of the window, and try various brute force approaches.

Two days ago, we were able to get the Peace Island project to actually open, and remain steady on the Mac.

Rather than trying to bring the project over in any traditional manner, we exported the entire project as its own stand-alone package.  It weighed in at a handsome 89 gigabytes, and took a full day to create.  This package was then imported into a fresh, blank Mac Unity project (a process that required another full 24 hours to complete.)

While it would not immediately play and export for reasons that I will address further down, the project opened and closed in the proper manner, and the Unity editor never had to advise that it was best to open it in "Safe Mode."

But we made a mistake:  we did not load the required native Unity packages such as the burst compiler, before bringing in the main package.  When we tried to bring them in AFTER that main package, Unity would have to re-build the entire library - a process that requires 8-12 hours each time.

After I write this update, we will begin the process of re-exporting the improved project as a self-contained package.  We created a brand new project on the Mac that contains all of the required packages, so when the Big One is brought in tomorrow morning, Unity will only have to build the library once.  That process should be completed by tomorrow evening.

Everything initially indicates that this should result in a stable Mac version of the project, hopefully by this time tomorrow.  A few tests and adjustments will have to be made, but at that point, we will be VERY close to a Mac release.

As always, we appreciate everyone's patience!

BTW: They actually aired that news segment about Peace Island!

You can check it out here.  I have been told that it region-locked in some countries - I dunno if I can record it and re-post it on Youtube...

Work on other aspects of the game has continued, aside from our Mac efforts.

We have moved the graphic settings from the launcher, to the interior of the game.  This is convenient, because it no longer means that you have to exit & re-start the game to try different graphics settings.

You can also see that we've changed the Menu UI.  As much as I liked the concept of the "old postcard look," it was cluttered, and just served to visually confuse things.  I mean, when I look back on the idea - brown text on a brown background was just not a good choice.

We're finally getting serious about bringing in more sound effects & foley.   From flapping wings on retreating flocks of birds, to more footstep sounds, to more "meows," the island is soon to become a lot less silent.

Once we have these Alphas released, Laura and I will be collaborating a bit more intensely on the quest and dialogue engine.  In the meantime, she has been putting together more Alpha interior versions, including the "Maison De La Paix" - Peace Island's hotel.

This is among the five largest "interiors" we planned for the game - hotels always have that special "liminal" feel to them.  Anyone who remembers the Hotel San Diego back in the 1980s can recall that bizarre feeling of wandering down a series of branching hallways which sometimes doubled back on themselves.  Urban legend had it that they were designed that way to fool the numerous spirits that haunted the place.

A lot of details remain to be added, but it's good to have the first drafts of these places ready to hook up and test.

I have to go and do final testing on the project, and then begin the long process of exporting the "Master Package."

Thanks so much for your continued support, patience, and confidence - Here's hoping we meet again in 3-4 days, with new builds for both platforms!