Atajrubah
Atajrubah 0.1.6 Update - Back to Basics
I've finally got some free time on my hands after having been pre-occupied with work for a client for the past couple weeks.
I've just updated Atajrubah with the latest build that I have on my machine for Win32 and Win64. Its become clear that there is no real point in having an opt-in beta as managing two separate builds would be far too time consuming for the scale of development that I'm currently able to perform.
To this end I have stripped out all the functionality and many of the assets from the main build of the game. I transferred the movement mechanics from the opt-in version of the game and put together some fresh health,hunger,thirst and stamina mechanics. The way that damage is handled has also changed and you are able to get burned by fire and drown with some nice camera shake and a color vignette overlay.
I have also implemented a system for highlighting and collecting objects in the immediate vicinity of the player. The hope is to make it easier to collect resources and items lying around.
Another thing that has been updated is the lighting system, the game now makes use of Epic's Dynamic GI system (LPV; Light Propagation Volumes )for lighting. I have also setup a new day/night cycle with different times of day with smoother color transitions (this needs improvement too). The current build is running on an experimental version of the upcoming UE 4.8.
I shall be sending out an email to all of those with a key tomorrow with fresh testing instructions. I will also be sending out a fresh batch of keys, there are currently 50-60 requests waiting in my inbox.
Best Regards and Much Love
MrNexy
Steam Key Request Update
First of all I just want to say how incredibly humbling the response from the steam community has been. I have received a crazy amount of requests and met some mighty fine folks :)
As an update on current requests, I must apologize for the slow response times, I have been a bit sick lately and have been finishing up some motion graphics work on top of that.
I'll be working through the mountain of emails on Thursday, I should have made it through the long list of requests by the end of the day(6 PM UAE Time).
Thank you again for the support !
Best Regards and Much Love
MrNexy
We're Exiting Early Access
Wait...What ?!
Unfortunately its true.
Before I continue with this announcement, myself and the team would like to extend our sincerest thanks to everyone. To all those who purchased access, all those who voiced their support on the discussion boards and even to those who had less than kind things to say.
Thank You!
Reasons
In the few months since launch we have encountered a number of technical and personal issues, that will affect the development of the game in a negative way. After much deliberation all team members involved have decided to step away from development. Its not unusual for team members to come and go in any project of course and thankfully there is no drama involved.
As the only programmer on the team the pressure of development can be a bit much. Especially when being under the microscope that is Early Access. For both health and financial reasons I need to take a step back from development.
Continued Development and Refunds
Development of the game will not discontinue completely. However it will not be my primary focus and will receive updates when and where funds or time become available.
I shall continue development on steam in private(with keys distributed to interested parties for free) and work toward a release after much redesign and much,much more development. I don't have a time-frame for that and it may be a long way off, which to me would not be something that I'd want to put paying customers through. This of course does not meet the commitments that are expected of early access. Myself and the other team members don't want to burn the wondeful folks that have purchased access to the game, I would also be loath to make money off of the assets created by my former team members in their abscence. I have several Early Access titles in my library and would be upset if that were to happen to me.
Arrangements have been made and I would encourage you fine folks to self issue a refund request,its pretty straight forward and if you're not aware of the process you can find instructions below.
There are other games in Early Access in a much better position that could surely do with your support and where your hard earned money would be put to good use.
Refund Instructions
In the Steam client, click Steam->Settings->View Account Details (or, in a web browser, go to https://store.steampowered.com/account/ ) Then find the product and click “request a refund.”
Conclusion
If you would like to continue to be part of the development process for Atajrubah and continue to help test the game. Please do drop me an email with a steam key request at alanwilliamrobinson@nexymedia.com, you can also stay up to date with developments by liking the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Atajrubah . Steam keys are issued free of charge with the pro-viso that they are not sold on any platform.
Again I'd like to thank you all for your time and support. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this.
Best Regards and Much Love
MrNexy
Atajrubah 0.1.6 Opt-In Preview Build
As has been mentioned in the announcement below, we've been facing some technical issues Engine-Side that have been delaying the release of 0.1.6.
[0.1.6 Development Update #2]
http://steamcommunity.com/games/282960/announcements/detail/163588560630678040
While this issue makes us hesitant to update the main branch to 0.1.6 , we'd like to allow folks access to the preview version of 0.1.6. With the understanding that the build will be playable in windowed and fullscreen-windowed mode as opposed to proper fullscreen. This is a temporary solution as we wait for the fine folks of Epic to do their magic. The update from Epic's side could take a while though , hence the Preview Build.
In addition to the 'Opt-In Preview Build', an 'Experimental Build' will be made available in the near future. This build will be for testing out new engine functionality using the most up to date builds from UE4's github repository.
This is where we'll be testing things such as multiplayer functionality etc.
This next week will be spent preparing the preview build for upload, once that's in place we'll share instructions for opting in to the preview build.
Please do let us know your thoughts on this.
Best Regards and Much Love
MrNexy
0.1.6 Development Update #2
Hey there folks !
As production marches on for 0.1.6 I'd like to update you on our progress. We're making great progress and most of the changes mentioned in the previous announcement have already been made and more.
I'd like to take the time to acknowledge that this update is taking a bit longer than myself and the other team members would like. A lot of this delay comes down to Engine side issues we've been dealing with. Unreal Engine 4 is awesome and I love it to bits and pieces, developing with an engine that is itself still in development has its pitfalls though.
Being more specific about the issue's we're having, it comes down to missing functionality in UE4's UI solution called UMG (Unreal Motion Graphics). The missing functionality in question affects the drag-drop inventory in full-screen, when dragging an inventory item the dragging icon will not be drawn .The operation will be completed successfully though.It may only be a visual bug but I don't feel comfortable releasing the update until that is fixed. From what I've been told by the fine folks at epic, a solution is in the works. I do apologize for the inconvenience and hope that you'll hang in there with us.
Best Regards and Much Love
MrNexy
0.1.6 Development Update & Season's Greetings
I trust that everone is having a restful festive season :)
I wanted to give you a quick development update and an idea of some of the improvements coming in the 0.1.6 update next month.
UI Improvements
The biggest change thats coming in 0.1.6 is related to the User Interface.
As proud as I was of my Drag-Drop inventory system, there were many flaws in the implementation. At larger scales it'd become more complicated to manage and iterate upon and each change or addition may have brought more bugs.
The drag-drop interface has been reworked and now makes full use of UMG (Unreal Motion Graphics, Epic's custom UI solution). Its now far more flexible and complexity has been reduced by 3/4. The new system allows for multiple windows that can be re-arranged in the game viewport.
Action Menus
Action menus are a new addition to the UI, when hovering over an inventory item you can right click. This will bring up a menu with a list of common actions for that particular item.
Wildlife
0.1.6 will see the introduction of wild life to the game. Gazelle,Goats and Crabs inhabit the world and can be hunted down providing the player with more food options and crafting elements.
Resource Gathering & Looting improvements
Thanks to the UI improvements the player will be able to gather resources such as animal skin,meat or loots items from the corpses of animals or Ghuls. The player will also be able to loot their own corpses so that they can get back some of their lost inventory items.
Other changes include crafting & salvage improvements,improved ballistics,new animations, new world items,new crafting recipes and more.
Full details will be listed in the release notes and will of course be accompanied by a state of development video.
In the mean time, myself and the other team member's would like to extend our warmest season's greetings to you all and wish you a very happy and prosperous new year.
Best Regards and Much Love
MrNexy and the Atajrubah Team.
Atajrubah v0.1.5b Patch Notes
I've been working on a follow-up update to 0.1.5a.
0.1.5b isn't a full point update but contains several improvements,bug fixes and some new features.
The next full point release will be 0.1.6 and will contain the following.
- Bug fixes addressing previously mentioned known issues
- Animals (Gazelle,Goats and Crabs for the time being)
- Resource Collection : Hunting,Skinning,
- New Crafting Recipes.
- New Environment Art Assets (from our wonderful environment artist).
- Fully Updated Character Mesh & Textures.
Leading up to 0.1.6 there may be further incremental updates such as this one. Addressing issues and adding new features or content.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. Please do let us know if you run into any issues that haven't been mentioned here or in previous posts.
If you do find something that we don't know about yet or experience a crash , please don't hesitate to make a post on the steam discussion board in the 'Bug Report and Support' sub-forum.
Best Regards
MrNexy
Atajrubah v 0.1.5a patch notes
The v0.1.5a fix has been uploaded and is live.
In addition to the fixes I mentioned in the previous announcement here :
http://steamcommunity.com/games/282960/announcements/detail/163583420511990414
I wanted to list some of the issues that we are aware of as of the current build.
[Know Issues]
- When switching resolutions from 720p to 1080p , the mouse will seem constrained by invisible bounds. This can be remedied by clicking anywhere on the screen. I'm not sure what is causing this but I will see what I can do to resolve the issue.
- In buildings in the village the player may get stuck in the curtains. These curtains will be replaced with apex cloth simulations in the next update.
- There are some collision issues with the doorways of two of the buildings in the village. These are clearance issues related to the player's collision component height and will be addressed.
- While fixing the naked respawn bug and resolution related UI issues, the inventory auto load feature seems to have broken. For the time being it has been disabled and will be revised and re-enabled in the next update. As a temporary measure when entering the game after your last play session you will be spawned in your previous location but with the default load out.
- When running in third person mode or if you are only wearing pants and nothing else, you may bear witness to player model geometry intersecting through clothing items.
- Performance at 1080p needs improvement , I have an idea of what is causing this and will be addressing it.
- graphical options buttons reset when you exit and re-enter the settings screen. This will be addressed in the next update.
- The graphic for enabling and disabling the torch is missing from the controls screen. You can enable or disable the torch by pressing the [F] key while it is equipped in either hand.
- If you remove the torch from your hand while it is enabled , the flame will continue to burn in the player's hand. The cause for this is known and will be addressed.
- When re-arranging items in your inventory you may notice that the icon you are dragging appears under some of the other items. This has to do with the draw order and a solution is in the works.
- When eating or drinking your movement is fixed in place, this will not be the case once I have additive animation setup.
[Other Changes]
- Before I began work on the fix I was in the middle of setting up some new character textures that I'd received from the character artist. You'll find that the player character texture has changed.
- I've added a few more collectible items around the spawn points. Some wood logs,animal skin and leather. As mentioned in the state of development update there aren't many things you can craft. For the time being you can break logs down into planks, then into poles using the salvage slot. The next update will see more collectible items added to the world,more crafting recipes and an early version of our 'Crafting and Salvage Preview'. This feature will allow you to place items into the salvage or crafting slots and see a preview of what the outcome will be.
There'll be a proper list of new features,content and bug fixes in the next update closer to the time.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post and I hope that this goes a way toward fixing some of the major issues present in the initial release.
Please do let us know if any of the issues listed as fixed persist post update.
Best Regards
MrNexy
Our Intentions
There are some points that myself and the team would like to address.
[Update regularity & Development Intentions]
Over the course of development we'll be striving to deliver an updated build every 2-4 weeks depending on the speed of development. Some features may be implemented faster than others, we may also get chunks of content integrated sooner than anticipated. If that is the case an update will be published sooner.
[Why do we feel that Atajrubah is not a tech demo ?]
There is really not a whole lot that you can do in Atajrubah right now beyond exploring the environment and limited interaction.
The systems in place (when functioning as intended) are not simply there for demonstration purposes however. A great deal of effort has gone into ensuring that these systems,both visible and non-visible form a flexible framework.A framework that can be rapidly iterated upon and populated with new content and features on a regular basis.
[Are you trying to profit off of Early Access ?]'
The short answer is no.
In the spirit of transparency I'd like to share with you how the income from Early Access will be distributed.
There are six team members including myself. Once Valve have taken their dues(exactly what the cut is I cannot disclose) an additional 5% goes to the wonderful folks at epic, for allowing us to use their engine at such a reasonable price. Following that the remainder of the funds are split 60/40, with each team member receiving 10% and the remaining 40% going into a development fund. This development fund helps us cover the cost of things like software subscriptions and hosting for the blog and community forums.
Taking these factors into account the Early Access model is far from what one may consider profitable. The sheer volume of units that we would have to sell to make a profit is just not something that we will see during Early Access.
With that said the money that does come through from sales goes a long way towards helping support us.
[Will development slow if sales do ?]
The answer to this is no. The team and I have a responsability to the people who have purchased the game, slowing development or withholding updates because of that would be counter productive. The more updates we make the better the game will get, this is our motivation and if sales pick up it should be due to that.
[Why don't you do a Kickstarter]
Kickstarter wasn't an option for us because its not available in my region. Sure we could have run a campaign via one of our team members,Two of whom are based in the US, however I didn't feel that it would be right putting them in that position as I'm the project lead and my name is on all the paper work.
We did attempt an IndieGoGo campaign with fixed funding as an option. This didn't come through for us at the time but we were fortunate to get Greenlit as a result.
Greenlight and Early Access are not perfect systems and both have been abused recently and in the past.
[Isn't there a better model you can follow ? Making the game free until it's worth $15 ?]
We understand the concern and while that may have been an option prior to launch, 28 people have chosen to support us with their hard earned money and this is commitment that we take very seriously.
I hope that goes some way to answering some of the questions and concerns you may have. However as the saying goes 'Talk is cheap' , myself and the team hope that we can prove ourselves to you in our actions.
Best Regards
MrNexy
Upcoming Atajrubah v 0.1.5a fix
Good evening folks.
There will be an update coming in the next day or so that addresses some of the major game breaking bugs.
[Inventory and Crafting]
This has been fixed. You can toggle the full crafting interface by pressing [C] without having to go into inventory mode to see the result.
Pressing [Tab] while in crafting mode will switch back to the regular drag-drop functionality for equipping items on your character.
Pressing [C] while in inventory mode will switch you to crafting mode.
In addition to the above , the player can now dismiss the crafting or inventory interface by pressing [Escape].
[Naked Respawn]
This bug has been addressed. The player will always respawn wearing clothes.
[Default Load-Out]
A bug has been fixed that was causing , upon respawn boots to be spawned into the world instead of the appropriate body slot.
[Fullscreen]
Full screen is supported for 1280x720 and 1920x1080. More resolutions will be added going forward.
[Missing Mouse Cursor in Main Menu]
The Main Menu now automatically takes focus allowing the mouse cursor to be seen.
[UI Layout]
Extensive work has been done on the UI layout so that functionality doesn't break at higher resolutions.
For the time being there is support for 720p and 1080p, making the layout compatible with other resolutions will now be much more manageable.
If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to ask.
Best Regards
MrNexy