Development Update (May - June 2022)

Hey everyone,

With May and June now behind us its time for another update on the current development of the project.

Unreal Engine 5

Since the last update, the move over from Unreal engine 4 to Unreal engine 5 has been completed, the project is now being fully developed in Unreal Engine 5 which will provide a number of benefits to help production.

Working on the Project

These last few months have been busy with a number of work related events occurring, Work on the project mainly occurs on weekends, when we have more time to work on the project, This is likely to continue into the future as we both have full time employment meaning development is scheduled around this.

Whilst this does mean development time is limited due to these outside factors, we are still working on the project when we get the chance and want to create a great experience for you to play when the game releases.

Descoping/Updates after release

Due to the current development time being allocated we have made the decision to descope what will be available on launch, Whilst this means the game will launch with less content, we plan to release free updates after release that will introduce these extra additions that were not available on launch.

On release there will still be the main gameplay mechanics that make up the core gameplay and 1 or 2 levels/maps for you to explore (Forest and Desert) - After release, content will include addition maps and mechanics/animals etc that go specifically with the maps being released. Whilst we would like to have everything in the game on release, reducing the amount on release will allow the game to release quicker.

We still want anything we release to be enjoyable with plenty of gameplay and after release updates will only increase the amount of gameplay and hopefully the enjoyment as well.

AI

Jacob is still working the on the AI for the various animals you can encounter. Currently Jacob is attempting to develop a smell system allowing AI to track each other and find food based not just on sight or sound but also on smell. This is proving to be difficult as there are not many resources to help with this.

Other Development

Development outside of AI has also progressed, The main player character now has almost all of the actions you will be able to perform on release working (Polish is still required for some actions), The next stage for the main player character is to develop the characters data fully (such as final health amount, damage done to each animal etc) and continue to develop how the main character will interact with the enviroment and the animals and plants that you will find in each.

Thank you all again for the support shown for the project and we look forward to the next update where we hope to have much more to share with you.