Experience Life As Prey: Grasshopper Lifecycle Released!
Life As Prey
As DoN's first major update focusing on prey life, the Grasshopper Lifecycle includes Mating & Reproduction, Multiple Generations and plenty of exciting Prey-Predator action!
Feedback Sought!
Check out this update and provide your feedback either in the comments below or on the forums! You can also use the in-game feedback form to quickly send feedback at any time by simply pressing the tilde (~) key.
Upcoming updates such as Ladybug lifecycle are expected to follow a very similar format, so your feedback is very important in shaping the course of upcoming content.
If you run into any issues or technical problems while playing this update please do make it known and it will be looked into promptly,
Thanks for playing "Life As Prey"!
The rewards of survival are worth it! Two Grasshoppers mating after surviving a storied adventure of Six Instars!
With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
(Developer of Drunk On Nectar)
"Life As Prey" - Grasshopper Lifecycles Announced!
Living as a swarm!
Grasshopper Lifecycles Announced:
Experience the Grasshopper's complete lifecycle in Drunk On Nectar's next update!
As the first "Prey Lifecycle" in the game, you will be donning the role of a tiny first instar Grasshopper freshly emerged from its egg!
Life begins rather placidly, but prepare to be hounded by predators (who're also tiny like you!) looking to grow and sustain their own lifecycles, albeit by feeding on you!
Exploring Life Dynamics: Prey v/s Predator Lifecycles!
Get ready to explore the dynamics between your Grasshopper swarm and a growing family of Jumping Spiders who're also growing and moulting along with you, as you and your humble swarm look to survive the onslaught while growing bigger onto adulthood.
Defend yourself with mighty kicks from your spiked hindlegs! As you grow bigger and eventually, as an adult, soar into the skies...where the freedom of flight and mating opportunities is indeed your ultimate prize!
Watch out, my little predator friend!
Nested size dynamics - So many possibilities! :)
Looking Ahead
The Grasshopper Lifecycles update marks the beginning of the effort to wrap up lifecycles for the entire roster so that the game can move on to new content and explore things like new biomes, etc.
For those wondering why things were quiet of late, I was preoccupied with work outside game dev that needed ongoing attention and am now transitioning back with the Grasshopper update :)
Let's trumpet this exciting Grasshopper Lifecycles announcement with some more teaser pics!
Exploring for food
Landscape POV
Safe under a leaf (hopefully!)
A walk in the glades
With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
(Developer of Drunk On Nectar)
PS: Thanks to the game's earnest players and ardent fans for all your feedback mail and messages. Your patronage is very deeply appreciated! :)
Act 3 - Mating & Reproduction Released!
Play Act 3 Now!
Experience the joy of Mating as Butterflies!
Featuring unique Butterfly "Mating Rituals", Female "Egg Laying", Male "Challenge Levels" and more, be sure to play as both genders when you try out this Act 3 update!
Multiple Generations
Multiple generations can now be experienced, ad infinitum!
Watch population levels explode across generations as you and your butterfly companions lay large clutches of eggs, each generation :)
Release Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX-rCVV9oMc
The Ovipositor: Lay Eggs with millimeter precision. Total Control!
Flirt, Race and Conquer the skies!
Start your game as a female butterfly, Mate, Lay eggs, but then continue into the next generation as a male butterfly! Or you may do the opposite...
Either way, be sure to play both genders because male and female have drastically different gameplay. Male butterflies feature 5 mating challenge levels for you to master.
Can you complete the "Butterfly King" challenge? :)
Combining Fun, Education & Relaxation!
Whether you're in it for the blazing high-speed mating races or to learn about "Spermatophore transfer" or to simply relax, this update has it all!
It is also well worth covering if you have a youtube channel as arguably nothing like will have been seen by your audience before :)
Mating Monarch Butterflies
Caterpillars now spawn on the underside of leaves... Enjoy the view! :)
Anatomy Mode is expected to add both gameplay and educational value!
Butterfly Ecstasy
For Happiness
Ultimately, this is a pure joy and happiness update. Donning the role of butterflies and experiencing their mating is a very happy and uplifting experience. Your mind needs beautiful and positive images of nature just as surely as your body needs nutritious food! I hope that this update will provide players young and old alike, with something soothing for your eyes :)
This particular update carries a certain depth and value beyond its visual and gameplay components, so players are highly encouraged to stay among the butterflies, for as long as you like!
Multiplayer would be an ideal addition to this update too, so hopefully that can be prioritized for development at a later point in time.
Sending Feedback
Apart from the comments below and the forums, you can also use the in-game feedback dashboard or even write to the official support mail.
Should technical annoyances like bugs, camera, controls, etc get in the way of your enjoyment, please do let me know! I certainly do not want your experience of this update to be diluted by any of those factors.
Stay tuned!
The game's next milestone will be revealed after your experiences and feedback for this update have been studied, enjoyed and processed!
There's a lot of territory to be covered in 2019 though, I'll say that much! :D
With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
(Developer of Drunk On Nectar) Steam Dev Profile
Happy New Year 2019 from Drunk On Nectar!
Drunk On Nectar wishes all of you a wonderful 2019!
With happiness, joy, beauty, prosperity and radiant vigor, may your love for Nature (and nature games!) provide you with immense fun, good health and the nectar of joyous life.
Onward we march! :D
Monarch Mating Release
Early January is the expected release date for Act 3 - Mating & Reproduction.
Dev for Mating & Egg laying is already complete (with an exciting "Free-form Ovipositor" precise egg laying mechanic added for your amusement :)).
Free Form Oviposition - Place your eggs with millimeter accurate control!
What is being worked on now is Multi generational gameplay (bridge point into Act 4) so that "circle of life" long envisioned by the game is finally complete with the Monarch Butterfly becoming the first species to achieve this milestone.
Mating Video Preview
Here's the recent Dev preview again for those who missed it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfA0iPKljdM
2019 - The Year of New Content!
Content updates will be the #1 focus of 2019 for Drunk On Nectar.
Shifting gears, the game will now focus on adding more species, new maps, landscapes, biomes along with a major focus on plant life too.
The Monarch Butterfly's Migration has been rescheduled into "Act 4 - A Tale Of Generations"; Act 4 is an experimental topic but has long been envisioned as the game's foundation for player progression with skills, traits, skins, and evolutionary pathways offering enormous replay value to players and their favorite species.
Thank You
Big thanks to everyone who has supported and believed in Drunk On Nectar!
I'm pleased to announce that the player base is rapidly growing and as the game adds more content in 2019 (including the proposed multiplayer update) I'm confident that a rapid expansion of the game's player base is now truly imminent!
Thanks again for all your wonderful feedback, your kind wishes for the game and your indefatigable energy in supporting the game's unique foray into the natural world in a medium that has largely ignored it.... until now, that is! :)
A massive number of content updates are headed your way in 2019, I'm enormously excited for them and hope that you too will be excited to play them, hopefully very soon! :)
With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
(Developer of Drunk On Nectar)
~☀~ ~☀~ ~☀~
Preview Video! Mating & Reproduction of Monarch Butterfly 🦋
They're almost here! The Monarch Butterfly's "Mating & Reproduction" will be releasing with the game's next Steam update. Watch the official preview below!
Preview Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfA0iPKljdM
This update is releasing soon, most likely in December 2018!
Featuring a new and groundbreaking Anatomy mode along with Flirting & Physicality systems, Racing mini-games and more, this update will greatly enhance Drunk On Nectar's unique depiction of nature and life.
Experience "Anatomy Mode"
Internal Anatomy of male and female Monarch Butterflies!
Taking realism to an unparalleled degree, Drunk On Nectar will now feature the internal anatomy of its unique creatures. Body organs and biological phenomena will be depicted in great detail for players to savor, adding both educational and gameplay value.
The first creature to employ this is of course the Monarch Butterfly! An "Anatomy Room" for learning and exploring each creature's innards is planned for a future update as well.
In this final sprint towards "Mating Victory", I'm working hard to get this Monarch update out as soon as possible. Appreciate your patience, not long now :)
With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
Developer of Drunk On Nectar
Butterfly ecstasy fills the air! Dance in the skies with your beautiful mate, procreate, migrate with the seasons, lay eggs and complete the circle of life in Act 3!
Development hereby commences for Butterfly Mating & Reproduction! :)
Easily winning the recent poll with 115 out of 122 votes, the Monarchs will now lay the foundation for the game's Mating & Reproduction systems, much in the same way that they laid the foundation for its growth and lifecycle systems.
The Scope
Let's talk about the scope of this update. The fivefold pillars of this update include:
Finding a partner:
Having matured into a butterfly, you will explore looking for a suitable partner in the midst of rivals who have the same idea as you. Male and female gameplay will provide unique and different experiences greatly adding to the replay value of the game.
Courtship & Rituals:
You will use Visual gestures, Sound, Rhythm and other cues along with your partner as the two of you bond, impress, flirt and dance.
The outcome of the mating attempt will be determined by an elaborate gameplay system that will eventually vary from species to species.
This is part I'm most excited about personally and will likely constitute a bulk of the gameplay. Dev update video on this, soon!
Mating:
If courtship was successful, we proceed onto mating! The male butterfly carries the female soaring through the air as they move from spot to spot, looking for a safe spot to copulate. Eventually you land, interlock with your partner, the male's abdominal claspers pairing with the female female's abdomen as the pair unite.
Migration:
Depending on the generation and season, the timing of this step will vary. You may be migrating as a non-mated adult to your Winter roost, or you may be migrating back to your Spring grounds, having just mated after diapuse. Generations born in warm seasons may not migrate at all.
Important Note! Migration is considered a stretch goal for this update and so the final format for this is still being worked out. It may be simplified or deferred depending on how complex the previous parts turn out to be.
My ideal vision for migration is to use this opportunity to finally expand the game's Biomes beyond the "Temperate Forest" mould with new maps that are large in size and focus on exploration. No promises yet though... we'll see!
Egg Laying - The Circle Complete!
Having mated and fertilized your eggs, as a female you will set off looking for... Milkweed Plants! Successfully laying your eggs on the leaves you will have ensured the next generation has the same opportunity as you did, to start the cycle all over again.
As noted above in migrations, multi-generational gameplay is desired, though the exact format cannot be committed to just yet, there's plenty of planning and experimentation with the Monarchs to be done first :)
Stretch Goals (Wishlist, TBD, etc):
Some interesting but unconfirmed aspects of this update include:
Trait Selection (Act 4):
Evolution and trait acquisition over multiple generations was the original intent of adding an XP system to the game last year. The idea was that your character stats would be enhanced over multiple generations and you would also unlock unique traits that you could choose from each new generation to vastly enrich your replay value.
However the game's goals have somewhat changed since then and this part may be skipped entirely for simplicity.
The reason it is mentioned here is Selection of mates, which would be a bit more meaningful if players are able to choose a mate based on the characteristics they will eventually acquire in a future generation.
The simpler option is to just have players mate with any suitable partner and not overwhelm them with the complexity of traits at all. This makes development easier as well. Thoughts on this are welcome!
Multiplayer:
I would really love to add Multiplayer for this update by converting last year's multiplayer prototype into a production-ready system. Mating with actual butterfly players is obviously an alluring proposition so it will be investigated. A large-scale, persistent world would be truly ideal, but this is just me dreaming out aloud :)
This is definitely the last item in terms of priority and will be dropped if the other pieces of this vast Monarch Act 3 puzzle prove to be more complex than expected. I did want to list it here though, both to elicit your feedback and thoughts and to provide the early vision and fuel for eventually realizing this dream.
Feedback welcome!
Thus has been narrated in full, DoN's massive Monarch manifesto!
It's going to be a busy month soaring high in the skies with our beautiful monarchs, so please relay your feedback, thoughts and suggestions right now! :)
This promises to the game's most fun and ambitious update, I hope everyone will greatly enjoy what is to come! :)
Soft orange wings entwine,
Bound together at the waist
Oh red ecstasy divine,
No butterfly's life is chaste
Encircling their bodies, Encircling their wings,
Encircled by Life, They dance, flutter and sing
Through Blue skies, Snowy Peaks and Spring's Green plains,
What was once a Winged Beauty, is now an Egg again :)
With ❤,
🦋Venugopalan Sreedharan 🦋
~ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ☀ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ~
(Developer of Drunk On Nectar - The Nature Simulator)
With new animations, visual bugfixes to the entire game and more intuitive controls, this is the best time to complete your Act 2 playthrough if you haven't yet completed all 9 life stages!
Numerous improvements to gameplay, camera and controls also come with this patch, making it the definitive edition of the Jumping Spider lifecycle in particular and Drunk On Nectar in general.
Enough with words! As this is a visual update, may bright and colorful imagery fill your screens below!
Some written text is also necessary to do justice to the vast number of improvements this patch brings :)
Visual Improvements
Better Locomotion:
Smooth Locomotion Animation: Creatures now turn and walk smoothly even across abrupt transitions! Previously this was visually abrupt.
Climbing system added for Jumping Spider! Flip under/over a leaf to see the climbing animations in action.
New Jumping Spider animations: Sneaking, Sprinting, Flip Over, Toppled over
Cleaner Confrontations:
Animations for grappling and consumption reworked and fixed (all creatures, all life stage permutations). It's all far more convincing now!
Ants now properly root to the floor surface after being thrown off by a rival
Wings folding: Fallen prey with wings such as a Dragonflies now properly fold their wings relative to the ground. Looks far more convincing now!
Misc:
Animation speed variety: Animals of the same species now animate at slightly different / staggered play rates for variety :)
New OST: The Song Of Lifecycles Act II
An original music piece entitled The Song Of Lifecycles Act 2 has been added to the game :)
This is the longest music track in the game and perhaps the most lively one too. Drunk On Nectar now features a total of 12 unique music tracks written exclusively for the game. More music shall trumpet forth in the days to come!
Visit Extras -> Music of DoN to give it a listen!
Various Other Improvements
Silk Tent
Silk Tent camera/controls greatly improved to prevent wild movement while brushing against the sides. You can now also flip over from in or outside the tent.
Silk Tent construction visuals improved: The base is now clearly visible regarldess of external lighting; previously it was difficult to see during bright sunshine
Controls:
Mouse Y is no longer inverted by default for walking creatures. As many players are unaware of the ability to change this in Settings the default now caters to the behavior that most players expect.
Gamepad:
All gamepad issues fixed. Act 2 is fully playable with a gamepad now.
With default inversion fixed camera controls on gamepad should be far more intuitive now
Gamepad camera reset feature added: Press LT + RT. This will reset camera direction or camera zoom depending on whether zoom is active.
Camera
Camera does not penetrate through floor for Jumping Spider anymore.
Camera distance for climbing your mother in Act 1 improved
Gameplay
Long jumping for Instars greatly improved - far more reliable now
Visual, color and audio cues also added to tell you whether your jump is going to succeed
Grasshoppers no longer make you fall down after crushing you with their legs (unless you're in mid-air). Players no longer need to climb all the way back up as a result.
Narration no longer freezes player controls; you're now free to roam around while reading the narration :) For sensitive quests (final instar/spoiler) the game is still paused.
Anatomy Combat:
Rebalanced all attack and critical hit stats. Combat now focuses on fun and quick encounters. It should be a lot more engaging now!
Counterattack made easy: Players can now very easily counterattaack by just blocking around the same time you get attacked. Much easier now.
Counterattack (Reversal) input hint improved to encourage players to use it
Anatomy Combat Z target min distance reduced for AI. This makes it slightly harder for tiny instars to just squat under their larger opponent landing strikes from below :)
Benchmarking
Benchmark warning added reminding players to close other heavy applications.
Benchmarks can now be retaken from Extras -> Benchmark
Chem Trails
Ladybug chem trails brightness partially restored. As a side-effect of Act 2 (which made chem trails faint) the Ladybug was having a hard time in the "Curious Triad" Creature Quest.
Chem trails reworked (origin and destination height adjusted) to make them easier to see
Misc
Act 2 victory screen message revised (Act 3 ETA made flexible)
Quest Tiger Beetle now disbanded after night to ensure player doesn't end up in an unplanned handicap match with 2 Tiger Beetles the next morning
"Zooming Out" quest now locks player input to prevent players from roaming without completing the quest
"Zooming out" quest ensures HUD cannot be hidden to ensure players see the input cues
Bugfixes
Major Locomotion Bugfixes:
Stuttering movements, hovering above the floor, getting stuck in places have all been fixed! This should significantly improve your experience of the game.
Movement transitions from Leaf to Stalk and Stalk to Leaf transitions fixed; they no longer cause the Jumping Spider to bump into the surface endlessly
Leafhopper flight fixed! This creature now properly flies around as an adult and lands on a leaf to feed. It's a lot of fun watching them grow from tiny helpless creatures to winged aviators that can go where they please ;)
"Exhausted" animation no longer gets stuck
Stamina cost for walking is now applied correctly after a player darts (previously this would stay constant after darting)
Sneaking inside silk tent does not reset speed
Prey no longer reverts to stale floor (previous location) after being dropped
Predation:
Prey no longer dangle in mid-air after being dropped
Predator no longer dangles in mid-air if the prey escaped via long jump just-in-time
Tiger Beetle walk anim no longer plays while you're holding the prey and standing still
Tiger Beetle now flees as expected from smaller Jumping Spider if the latter (player) has successfully beaten it
Gameplay:
Nocturnal Wasp: Parasitization sequence made more reliable; Wasp now finds its way back to its nest properly even if it bumps into something along the way
Nocturnal Wasp: Sleep till morning cue now goes away after a wasp or other predator subdues you
Grasshopper prey outline no longer gets stuck after it kicks you and escapes
Misc:
A possible crash for some players upon approaching a new swarm has been fixed
Save Games can now be migrated between computers (as originally envisioned). Previously it would crash while searching for an associated screenshot.
Please Provide Patch Feedback!
QA for this patch has been particularly challenging due its broad nature and scope. Please let me know in case you run into any issues! If you see any glaring visual issues or bugs at this point it is quite likely that it is an accidental bug that needs immediate attention.
So please report any oddities! :)
~ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ☀ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ~
Drunk On Nectar's Next Big Update!
With the solid foundation of recent patches now in place, it is finally time to usher in that exciting phase of setting a new milestone for the game!
There are many options to choose from, with the Monarch Butterfly reproduction being the most obvious and likely choice at this point. There are some ambitious plans brewing for this update, but more on that later :)
A recent Google poll (hosted on the game's Google Search page) has produced overwhelming and unanimous results in favor of "Butterfly Reproduction", so that one is going to be hard to ignore :)
In any case please do make your suggestions known in the meantime!
So it's time for a new adventure in the woods again! :)
With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
~ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ☀ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ~
(Developer of Drunk On Nectar - The Nature Simulator)
Full Gameplay Walkthrough of Lifecycles Act 2 (Series of 5 videos!)
Whether you missed the action or are having difficulty in completing all 9 instars, please watch these quick walkthrough / speedrun videos showing one possible approach to completing Act 2.
These videos provide rare insight into how I (as the game's developer) approach the game and also reveal hidden techniques like "Grapple-Plummet" (jump off from a height while grappling for rapid subdual) which even advanced players may not have been aware of.
Do take a look! :)
Part 1 (Lifecycles Act 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6dMIo1NIqM
Part 2 (Ballooning, Swarms, Dragonfly encounter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-zwrzg0tdY
Part 3 (Caught by Parasitic Wasps, Epic Tiger Beetle fight & more!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dGb-3eAaHI
Part 4 (The "Pollinator Hunt" Quest)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnWHuYyWvaE
Part 5 (Dragonfly Conquest, Developer Antics :))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiqoQZ5Gs38
Shorter, Easier, Leaner
With recent patches Act 2 is now a much shorter, leaner experience than before.
2-3 hours should be sufficient for most players to complete Act 2 now and all overly long predator encounters have been greatly simplified to avoid fatigue in players.
Next plans
Patch 3 will release soonish and will focus on fixing visual glitches and on improving gamplay experience as well.
Beyond that there's a myriad exciting possibilities :)
You're welcome to vote in advance for any particular feature or overall direction you're excited about!
With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
~ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ☀ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ~
Act 2 made Easier with "Patch 2"
Please try Act 2 again if you were having any difficulty completing it at all :) This patch rebalances the game and adds critical bugfixes for camera, controls, gameplay and many more.
If you haven't played this update yet, please look at the image below to view an example of the stunning procedurally generated vistas Act 2 can offer for you. Each playthrough generates a new procedural map!
Roots Above, Branches Below, Nature.
Co-Ballooning: Balloon with your siblings!
Ballooning is a phenomenon that gained widespread mainstream attention in recent years after millions of spiders were found flying above Australia :)
Before we take a closer look at the patch itself, I want to highlight an AI change that makes co-ballooning encounters far more likely! This is still entirely subject to chance, but chances are good that most players will find at least a few siblings ballooning with them ;)
☀ Making Act 2 Easier To Complete ☀
Balancing:
Predator cooldown increased giving you a better chance of reaching your silk nest for safety.
Player grappling strength increased
Stamina drain rate for players decreased
Anatomy Combat hit absorption reduced for players
Quest predators now give up after 3 attempts now to avoid tiring out players. This does not affect simulation-driven (regular) predators.
Quest predators now give up tracking much sooner instead of persistently hovering about the player.
Quest Tiger Beetles no longer return back after the player has formally completed the relevant quest. This was causing unplanned encounters of potentially high difficulty.
Cinematic predators in "Pollinator Hunt" quest are now forced to leave the scene after their cine sequence is over; this eliminates random, unplanned encounters with players
Ballooning quest now allows you to walk all the way and still win.
Intro Ballooning sequence now allows you to manually stop (via spacebar) after 60 seconds (if the game was not able to find a suitable landing place for you on its own)
"Ladder Climbing" - New Camera Controls for Plant Stalks!
You can now climb plants just like you'd climb a ladder in any other game! Just press Up to climb up the stalk and Down to climb down. Look freely around with the camera while you do this!
Camera transition from Stalk to Leaf is finally seamless! No more camera headaches on plant stalks hopefully :)
Plant Stalk hitbox massively improved!
^ 1 mm accuray: Now even a 3rd instar can believably place its feet (claws/tarsi) on the stalk surface. Truly a micro-world experience at last!
^ Movement/collision annoyances on plant stalks are all completely fixed!
New Features:
Co-Ballooning (see above)
Zoom reset (MMB) now uses smooth transition for cinematic effect
Bugfixes:
Floating in mid-air after escaping from a Dragonfly now fixed! This was a pretty old bug in the game that had been tricky to track. Now finally fixed! :)
Snatching fallen prey no longer teleports you back to the prey's last location
Sleeping input next to a prey no longer causes you to snatch the prey before sleeping.\
Some AI siblings no longer stay back permanently in the mother's nest
"Pollinator Hunt" Quest - Final Dragonfly now leaves properly exits the map after its part is over instead of persistently lingering (this was a bug).
Camera angle fixed for when a parasitic wasp lays an egg on you
"Tackled tricky prey" text typo fixed for Pollinator Hunt quest XP gain
Other improvements: Anatomy Combat (Tiger Beetle confrontations) <*> AI intelligence significantly improved
<*> AI navigatges and follows the player correctly now across stalks/leaves/etc
<*> AI launching "heavy strike" correctly orients to face the player now before doing so
<*> Combat poses (orientation towards combatant) improved for both players and AI. This significantly changes the way you need to fight compared to previous setup.
<*> Player ZTargeting no longer behaves unpredictably if the AI moves rapidly between flora or if it moves under a leaf
<*> Player close-range attack orientation corrected. Previously you'd be oriented the wrong way and end up missing a strike that you should have gained.
Misc <*> Chem trails reworked so they aren't super-bright for adults but are still clearly visible for lower instars
<*> Brief stutter while leaving the egg sac now fixed. There is still a brief occassional stutter due to Autosave though (to be improved later)
<*> Moss Pushing effect improved for smaller instars walking on moss; more improvements here are planned!
UI <*> Immersive mode (H key) is now more reliable; Hud elements no longer randomly turn on in some cases.
<*> Silk Tent Construction UI improved
<*> UI simplification: Pollen grain interaction cues are only shown the 1st time now. Similar changes to reduce UI clutter will follow.
Patch 3 is on the way! (Visual Improvements)
While this patch focused on gameplay, the next patch will focus on visual improvements. I'm keenly aware of certain inadequacies in Act 2's visual representation. Many liberties were taken to get the release out last month but now that the gameplay is hopefully stable (Please do shout if it is not! :)), visual flaws will be gradually addressed, both for Act 2 as well as for the entire game.
Animations will be an important focus point along with things like preventing clipping of characters across each other, etc.
Act 2 Youtube Walkthrough
A multi-part video walkthrough of Act 2's 4-6 hour long journey will be uploaded soon!
If you have a youtube channel please consider recording an Act 2 video of your own as well! For the amusement of others and for spreading the word about Act 2! :)
That's it for this patch, more goodies are on the way as always.
With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
~ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ☀ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ~
Watch the Lifecycles Act 2 Release Video & OST!
Celebrating Act 2's Release
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AO38wsPk8k
Celebrating the release of "Lifecycles Act 2" here is the official release video along with a brand new OST aptly entitled "The Song Of Lifecycles Act 2"!
Condensing 4-6 hours of unique gameplay into 6 minutes as a musical arrangement, be sure to watch the entire trailer above! :)
Release Notes
Act 2's release resulted in a 300% increase in peak players for DoN while also boosting its average play duration on Steam and bringing a 16% increase in reviews post release. All this has brought in a new generation of players for the game with more continuing to arrive! :)
Q4 2018 Roadmap
For this final quarter of 2018, the game's roadmap is still being worked out. With Act 2's release finally achieved the roadmap is actually quite flexible at this point and will be revealed in the coming weeks!
Bugfixing & Polishing
For the next 2-3 weeks the game will go through a bugfix, cleanup and polishing phase. Some compromises were intentionally made (mainly to visuals) in a bid to get Act 2 out last month and these shortcomings will first be addressed before moving on to new content.
If there's any class of bugs or issues you're particularly interested in seeing fixed do report it now, because this bugfixing sprint is an ideal time to get such issues fixed.
~
Lots of interesting directions for the game to go in from here. Stay tuned for more on that! :)
