FINALLY Back... (Patreon)
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One of the things you learn when you move up to Maine: We're not like the rest of the Eastern Seaboard of the USA. I mean - yes, we DO have a "Best Buy" electronics store - but anything beyond the basic stuff, you need to order from out-of-state - especially if you need specialty equiment that is just a year ot two out-of-date (such as power supplies that can deal with our graphics cards.)
Thankfully, after the four days it took for a new motherboard to arrive, a local computer boffin came by to assist with the installation, because - well - my experience is mostly in front of a computer, rather than sticking my fingers into the inside of such a machine.
We were FINALLY able to get the main dev machine back up & running at around 6 PM last night, and I've been working on getting everything ship-shape for the final closed beta. Prior to the computer problems, we had addressed 80% of outstanding issues and bugs reported since the last beta, with the exception of two:
1. In the initial "tutorial" mission: There's a glitch where the player can fall off of a electrical cable, and the task does not re-set.
2. Some processors did not display the grasses or trees properly in the previous build. This resulted in a world that looked more like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, than a lush autumn woodland...
Number 2 was especially embarassing, as it deleted most of the visuals that make Peace Island such a unique place. It's also VERY time consuming to fix, as the error occurs on only SOME graphics cards, and you cannot see the error in-editor. You can ONLY see it when the game has been built - a process that requires a half-hour, each time.
Thankfully, we've boiled it down to two possible causes - and while I am uncertain as to the exact time that we'll have both fixed, know that these are currently our TOP priority, as of writing.
I have to say that while the past two weeks have been immensely frustrating, they have also been very productive. Aside from my from my angst over technical issues, the most annoying thing was having to switch my brain over to iOS keyboard shortcuts, while I hammered away on our 12-year-old Mac Mini...
We admit we're again behind on getting print premiums out - we're waiting on a new shipment of backing boards, and mailers - figure they'll start going out again in about five days.
Thanks as always SO MUCH for your patience and support!