The much awaited Praying Mantis Lifecycle is game's next update and it is almost there!
Players will experience the complete lifecycle of the Praying Mantis across multiple generations with new gameplay mechanics and strategies completely unique to the Mantis.
Preview image - A first Instar Praying Mantis espies a massive world awaiting exploration!
Today's update
An update was released for DoN today that the sets the stage for the Mantis release by bringing vast improvements to the overall game.
Below is a gist of what today's update includes:
Checkpoints added to all Creature Quests for easy completion!
Unlike the Lifecycle mode which puts emphasis on species depiction, the Creature Quests mode offers a more traditional gameplay experience and currently features two unique challenge maps for the Jumping Spider and Ladybug respectively.
In response to player feedback that the Creature Quests were too difficult or prolonged, this update adds a new Checkpoint system.
Players who fail to complete a challenge map (by falling in water, etc!) can immediately resume at the latest checkpoint and try again! The leaderboard timer counts the duration of all your attempts together of course.
Checkpoint system in action for the "A Curious Triad" Ladybug Creature Quest!
Creature Quests, in my personal experience as the developer of this game, offers some of the most unique and enjoyable experiences the game has to offer. If you have previously tried this mode but were put off by the difficulty level or perhaps found it tedious to repeat an entire challenge map for just a single fall, do try Creature Quests again as this update enables players to freely explore the challenge maps for any desired duration.
Falls are now not punished with a restart, but with a safe return to the latest checkpoint from where you can experiment freely again! :)
Notable mention for the Ladybug challenge map which contains several checkpoints hidden away in unique locations (can you find them all!?), along with a "Giant Mantis" prop honoring the imminent Praying Mantis release :))
Tree shadows for high-end PCs!
Until now trees in the game did not cast any shadows at all due to size constraints (each tree is absolutely massive relative to a tiny insect!).
With this update however, high-end PCs will enjoy full tree shadowing to take DoN's nature scenes to a new level of visual richness!
Just make sure the Shadow quality slider in "Video Settings" is set to the maximum as that is what selectively enables and disables tree shadowing in the current version.
Trees are expected to become more and more important as gameplay elements for DoN, so eventually trees with active gameplay will indeed have shadowing enabled for lower end PCs as well.
Below is a visual comparison:
Without Tree Shadows
With Tree Shadows
Praying Mantis Lifecycle Release ETA
Currently body visuals and gameplay prototyping for the Mantis is still underway, but with DoN's powerful lifecycle frameworks ready at hand, the overall flow is already nearing completion.
Approximately 2 weeks, i.e. late September or early October, is the expected timeframe based on the current trajectory :)
Thanks to everyone for your great patience in waiting for the Mantis update since the original announcement.
I greatly look forward to playing as the Praying Mantis along with all of you, hopefully very soon :)
With Love, Venugopalan Sreedharan (Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar)
Custom input remapping fixed, Species menu improved for Monarch
This update includes the following changes:
Input rempapping fixed
Custom keyboard inputs now save correctly, this was broken in a previous update.
Players will now be able to remap controls again without issues!
Monarch species menu improvements
Fauna selection screen for Monarch Butterfly now combines the Lifecycles and Survival entries (which were formerly separate for the Monarch) into a single species entry for better consistency.
Players can still choose to play as the adult Monarch straight away by simply choosing "Survival" instead of "Lifecycles" in the species menu :)
DoN's next update
The next content update is close to release, stay tuned :)
Thank you for your support, interest and love for this game. It is deeply appreciated! :)
With Love, - Venugopalan Sreedharan (Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar)
Beautiful Nature - New Lighting, Gen 2 for Jumping Spider Lifecycle Released!
Bringing improved lighting and graphics across the board and deep polishing of the entire Jumping Spider lifecycle, this is a major update to the game that also carries vital bugfixes and a fully working Generation 2 gameplay for the Jumping Spider lifecycle!
Beautiful Nature
DoN's basic lighting has been reworked to provide a more realistic appearance. The new lighting depicts floral and anatomical detail in the world much better and reacts better to varying lighting scenarios across time of day and environment.
World items like the Jumping Spider's Silken egg sac have undergone major graphical changes too. Brightness, flickering and shadowing issues in the egg sac have been fixed and it no longer "glows in the dark" at night now.
Overall visual experience should be significantly improved within the egg sac, allowing players to better focus on gameplay within.
Finally, the Jumping Spider itself has been visually improved! Earlier instars now better show translucency through their bodies while the adult female Jumping Spider's skin lighting also been improved.
The Best of Jumping Spider Lifecycle!
Emphasizing the best parts of the Jumping Spider lifecycle and removing aspects that players frequently had issues with, this latest version of the Jumping Spider lifecycle is a far crisper and smoother experience across its nine instars.
With Generation 2 now fully working (see below!) the focus is on enabling players to quickly and happily complete Gen 1's quests so they are sure to experience Gen 2's unique and emergent gameplay as well.
Complex lifecycle quests like the "Pollinator Hunt" have therefore been greatly simplified, while frequent predator intervention (prominent among player feedback) has been greatly reduced.
Silk tent construction is faster by nearly twice now to help players proceed more swiftly as well!
Major improvements to camera and visual effects have been made as well, all with the goal of providing a super fast paced and fluent experience that can do justice to the Jumping Spider's incredible range of movement and abilities.
Experienced players of the game are highly encouraged to give this lifecycle another playthrough! :)
Predator Evasion System
Inspired by the Grasshopper's evasion cues but now combined with the Jumping Spider's skills, this update brings a formal "Predator Evasion System".
Quickly Dart or Long Jump within an evasion time window to successfully prevent all further attacks from that predator for a while!
Players having issues with predators will hopefully find it much easier now as you can finally use the Jumping Spider's incredible physical agility to evade predators with a very satisfying dart or leap :)
Generation 2 fully playable for Jumping Spider. Can you reach Generation 3?
Generation 2 for the Jumping Spider has been thoroughly tested and improved for maximum fun!
Performance optimization has been extensively conducted for Gen 2 and should now yield a significantly smoother experience for players! :)
Currently providing some of the best emergent gameplay in the entire game, Gen 2 is a very unique experience that all Jumping Spider afficionados should be sure to complete all the way.
With no quests or formal direction provided to the player, you are free to Balloon through the land, forging your own growth story and making your own adventures!
Generation 3 is now reachable at last, though gameplay balancing and performance optimization for Gen 3 hasn't been conducted yet, so Gen 3 is left to the brave and mightly for now :))
Looking ahead
The game's upcoming priorities are being worked out and the next set of updates should be out pretty soon!
Hope you are enjoying this series of 2021 updates for Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar!
With Love, - Venu (Developer of DoN)
Jumping Spider's Long Jumps redesigned, More bugfixes & improvements
The next round of improvements to DoN is here!
Along with major bugfixes and improvements this update also features redesigned gameplay.
Notably...
Long Jumps Redesigned
In response to feedback from players over the years, Long Jumping for the Jumping Spider has been great simplified with a new "aim and leap" design that is more intuitive and reduces the number of input buttons you need to remember!
Now just use the mouse to point to where you'd like to jump... and that's it :)
Visual improvements have also been added here! Now the jump reticule accurately orients itself to the surface you're jumping onto (like the underside of a flower or steep side of a stalk) providing valuable visual information before you make that pivotal jump!
Another visual improvement is easier aiming for jumps that end in midair - the jump reticle now anchors itself onto the midair point you're leaping onto (rather than the surface you'll fall onto) making it easier to adjust and perform corrections during complex jumps.
So, Happy Jumping, everyone! :)
Camera Improvements
Includes:
Better transitions during movement, darts and jumps
Moving fast across dense clumps of flora now yields a better camera experience.
Critical bugfixes
* Monarch Mating flying issues prior to female race fixed * Planteray Ecology - No longer crashes during "Submerge land masses" tutorial
Apologies to new players in the recent week whose experience of the game may have been dampened or cut short but the above issues. There's a lot more to experience now that these issues have been fixed so please give the game a try again now :)
Looking ahead
The ongoing focus continues to be on general improvements and bugfixes, gradually building momentum towards larger updates.
Appreciate your patience and support during this transition period as the game's development gradually pushes forward into full throttle again :)
Thank you everyone :)
- Venugopalan Sreedharan (Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar)
Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar's 2021 Major Improvements Release
Bringing improvements to the entire game across both gameplay and visuals, here is a quick overview of this release.
Overview
~ Monarch Butterfly ~
Caterpillar locomotion improvements
Mating minigames for male and female butterfly improved
Mating interactions (snatch) made easier
Mating UI improvements - cleaner and simpler
~ Ladybug ~
Ladybug Lifecycle major rebalancing - it's much easier to complete now!
Ladybug egg hatching SFX added
~ Jumping Spider ~
New feature: Super Rushdowns! A new hunting technique for all predators - Sprint all the way upto your prey and trample them over for a "Super Rushdown".
Rusdhowns fixed! A timing issue that was affecting this game mechanic has been fixed.
Loading save files fixed - There was an issue that made save files of long playthroughs freeze upon load. Now fixed :)
Silk Tent entry/exit state transitions fixed for certain edge cases.
Tiger Beetle's ability to snatch smaller Jumping Spider instars fixed. A bug was previously preventing the beelte's strikes from landing!
~ Misc ~
Feedback tool fixed. The form submission was broken earlier, but should now be working again.
...and various other improvements to visuals and gameplay that haven't been listed here.
For those wondering about the large download size, this update includes a game engine upgrade, visual assets for the "Red Forest Squirrel" prototype (this is not released yet) as well as a large number of improvements to the game made over the past year, but not released until now.
Looking ahead
The current goal is to resume periodic updates for the game to the point where larger updates can be taken up.
One of the larger goals is to bring the game closer to exit from Early Access by polishing the existing product further and resolving any outstanding visual or gameplay issues.
Appreciate the support of all the game's players through the past year leading up to this point of a new DoN release again :)
Though the past year has been challenging on multiple fronts, I will continue to keep building this game to the best of my abilities. I am very grateful to all of you for your goodwill, best wishes and wonderful encouragement.
Thank you so much!
- Venu (Developer of DoN)
Adventures Of The Red Forest Squirrel (Storyboard!)
Watch the Storyboard!
Watch DoN's Red Forest Squirrel bound across a carpet of colors in the preview video below!
https://youtu.be/gk3p9FlGcvo
This video also features a Storyboard and special dev message for fans of the game.
Venu's Nature Stories
The Adventures Of The Red Forest Squirrel is the first prototype for Venu's Nature Stories - a new Adventure / Story mode for Drunk On Nectar and a complete reimagining of the game with brand new visual arts, environments and more.
Watch the video above in its entirety in case you haven't already, to learn more :)
Special Message from Developer For Those Who Love This Game!
The video above also features a special message from me for those who love this game and would like to know more about its current development status.
In this part of the video I discuss the reasons why the game hasn't seen many updates so far in 2020 and ways in which you can help the game (even without monetary contributions to the fundraiser!).
The video also features additional concept art that hasn't been posted elsewhere :)
Thank You
To quote from the video above, there is nothing I would love more than to add a lot of new content and updates to this game, however this has been a very challenging year.
As always I will do my utmost to garner momentum for the next update, but will also greatly benefit from your good will and best wishes for the game :)
Thank you for your interest and participation!
With Love, - Venu (Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar)
Venu's Nature Diary - Episode 2 | The Monsoon Millipede!
Watch Episode 2 - Fundraising & Fun In Nature!
As part of the ongoing fundraising campaign for Drunk On Nectar, Episode 2 of the Venu's Nature Diary series has been released.
As a reminder, you can download for free by simply visiting drunkonnectar.com/Shop and ordering these videos for the default price of $0, or you can provide any contribution of your choosing, whenever you feel like.
4k resolution downloads are being uploaded as well and should be available soon :)
Participate for free!
You can participate for free in this fundraiser, just as a show of support. Your mere participation is a very powerful vote for the game and will fulfill the larger goal of this fundraiser so don't hesitate to download the videos even without any monetary contribution :)
Ultimately the goal of this fundraising campaign is to raise awareness about the game and to generate momentum, be it fiscal or motivational, both of which are very useful! :)
Thank You :)
That's it for now, but expect to hear soon about the game's next nature adventures!
Fundraising Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar - Venu's Nature Diaries
Fundraising for Drunk On Nectar, Fun in Nature!
Hello! This is Venu, the developer behind DoN :)
I've been building this game by myself for the past 6 years now and most certainly intend to keep going so long as this world needs a Nature Game - which it most certainly does, now more than ever :)
Venu's Nature Diaries
Inspired by a recent forum post where a wonderful person asked if they could provide monetary contributions to support the game's growth, I've decided to share some of my nature documentaries with the fans of the game as a means of raising awareness and raising funds for the game.
Visit the DoN Shop where you can purchase these nature diaries (for a price named by you) as a means for providing monetary contributions towards the game.
But you can also watch these videos on Youtube for free, learn more below!
Episode 1 - Beauty Slug And Its Orchid Home
Without any further ado, here is the first episode!
Watch offline without buffering (without using any finicky 3rd party download sites!)
Use the videos for Relaxation, Mental Rejuvenation, etc - Try it for yourself!
Motivate the creation of more interesting nature videos! :)
Episode 1's price is set at $0 - pay what you want! You can grab the video from DoN Shop for free if you like, or you can choose to provide any amount of contribution you feel like as well :)
Next Update Announced - Adventures Of The Red Forest Squirrel
As revealed in the latter half of my nature diary, the game's next update is a bold mammalian depiction of The Adventures Of the Red Forest Squirrel - a story/adventure take on Drunk On Nectar set in a completely new environment with new plants/species/etc.
Follow the adventures of a female red forest squirrel as part of "Venu's Nature Stories" - a new Adventure/Story mode for Drunk On Nectar with a complete reimagining of its gameplay, art and environments
A red radiant shrub from the "Adventures Of The Red Forest Squirrel"
This update has been under development for a while now and will hopefully be out soon with just a bit more momentum generated for the game!
Again I request interested folks to support the game through any manner you like; you can now provide monetary contributions via the DoN Shop as well if you like by purchasing amusing nature documentaries about our favorite animals :)
Celebrating 100th Review of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar!
I'm also pleased to announce that the game now has reached 100 reviews on Steam with an overall 91% positive review score! :)
Clearly the game is doing better than ever before, so I thank everyone who has greatly believed in me and the game all these years. Your trust and support in the game is what has resulted in the realization of this great milestone, so once again I thank you all from the bottom of my heart :)
Humanity Needs Nature
As I emphatically proclaimed at the conclusion of Episode 1's diary (from the middle of a rainforest amidst a great downpour of rain! :)), humanity needs nature now more than ever before.
Getting more of Nature in front of People's eyes (games, videos, images, anything really) can massively alter the world stage forever in my humble opinion and I firmly believe that this game - "Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar" can step up to play such a role if enough people support it.
That's it for Episode 1 of Venu's Nature Diaries!
The next few episodes are being produced right now and will be released soon as well :))
Thanks as always for your faith in me and the game! Thank you :)
With Love, - Venu (Developer of Drunk On Nectar)
Major Performance (FPS) & Monarch Butterfly Bugfixes
A major bugfix has been released which fully resolves the sudden FPS drops reported by multiple players since the last update.
Also fixed is the Monarch Butterfly's pupation and emergence animation sequences; these were inadvertently broken during the Ladybug's Metamorphosis development.
Thank You
Big thanks to the players who persistently sent feedback mail and forum posts on this subject. Through your combined efforts in highlighting this issue, the root cause was finally diagnosed and understood earlier today.
Apologies to the players whose experience of the game was greatly hampered during recent weeks on account of this bug. You should now be able to resume from any saved games you may have from previous playtrhoughs, all should now be well :)
Appreciate everyone's patience on this!
Thank You :)
With ❤, Venugopalan Sreedharan (Developer of Drunk On Nectar)
Planetary Ecology Update Released!
Drunk On Nectar's milestone Planetary Ecology update has been released!
In an exciting new direction for the game, players can now Create Planets and Design Biome Landscapes all while learning about Planetary Ecology and Life, thus vastly enhancing its existing offering of animal life and nature simulation.
What's New
Here's a brief gist of what this update contains :)
1. Create Planets, set basic planetary parameters like Rotation speed, Axial Tilt, etc.
2. Create landmasses, oceans and choose from various Biomes for your planet.
3. Tropical Rainforest, Grasslands, Deserts, Temperate Mixed Forests, Coniferous Forests, Polar and Oceanic are the biomes you can literally paint onto your landmassess!
4. Sculpting of landmass with simple earthing / unearthing.
5. Saving & Loading of your Planets.
6. Sharing Planets is possible via exchanging planet files which begin with the name "DoN Planet"; these are present in your Saves folder.
What's Next
There's an incredible range of possibilities from here.
Ultimately, convergence of "Planetary Ecology" into game's unique "Life Of Animals", the full-scale animal life experience, is the lofty goal. This can certainly be attained with your lovely feedback, enthusiasm and support for the game. Thank you :)
Please voice your opinion on this update in whatever manner pleases you the most! :)
Thank You
As always, thank you for patiently waiting for this update.
It is always my sincere goal to provide more content to you in a timely fashion. As best as I can, I will continue to do so :)
Hope you enjoy the Planetary Ecology update :)
With ❤, Venugopalan Sreedharan (Developer Of Drunk On Nectar)
