Faraway Islands
Hotfix v1.0.0.2
Game Release
Hello everyone,
I am really glad I can finally tell you that the game is fully released. I have play through it several times and fixed all game-breaking bugs I encountered and hopefully caught all of them but you never know.
Anyway, if you experience such bug, I intend to fix or tweak it, but I'm not implementing any new features or major game changes.
I know FI is not the best game and there is a lot that can be improved, but I'm immensely glad I managed to get it to the state it is in now.
I have started the development years ago at high school. Since then I already realized it was too big of a scope for my first "bigger" project. But thanks to that I learned a lot about programming, graphics and game development as a whole which I intend to utilize more in my future projects. (hopefully something smaller :-D)
At the end of this post would like to thank to all who purchased, supported and more importantly to those who played (and will play) my game.
Have a lovely day.
- Peter
Pre-release Update
Hello everyone,
It has been over a year since last update and I think the game is finally ready for another.
I've fixed all bugs that I run into and everything, all quests included, should be fine. But I know there is always something to fix.
These are main additions in this update:
- All quests are now unlocked.
- Crafting recipe list added to inventory
- Ingame map, unlocked after first quest
- Sounds - ambient, gameplay, UI
- Gamepad support
- Steam Achievements
- Steam Cloud
And obviously a lot of bugfixes
This update is titled as "pre-release" because this is the last bigger update I intend to release. I know the game could be so much better but I've been on this one project so long it is very hard to get something done and at this point I'm just glad it can be played from start to end without any major game or save breaking problems.
The plan for now is to fix bugs you might run into and do some tweaks, but no major changes and hit a full release in a few months.
I'm really glad for what I was able to create knowing I obviously took too much for my first game.
That's all for this announcement and thank you for playing my game.
Have a lovely day.
- Peter
Progress Info
I know game should have been released yesterday, but it is not done, and I don't know what to say other than that I am incompetent.
I released current state of the game on public branch for those who already own the game and they can try it.
I didn't fully released it because as I tried go trough the story and there is always something new that is broken or broke because I fixed something else.
I don't want to give up as I think I can fix all of this bugs, but I cannot tell how long it could take.
And lastly I think I'm gonna turn the early access back on, because the game is almost finished (except the audio and bugs) and I promised to release it twice already.
Again, I'm sorry. I hope some of you still want to play my game at this point.
Thank you for understanding.
Have a nice day,
- Peter
Release Delay
Hello everyone,
I am sorry to say I have to delay the release again. I underestimated number of things that needs to be done and can go wrong; including debugging.
Several major problems came up as I am trying to implement the story elements into the game.
New release date is set on March 28th, 2019.
I am really ashamed and I can see now I have a poor judgement of my abilities. (I know I realised that really "early") Also I still have some spare days off work that I intend to use in this time and finish this damn game already.
There is also quite possible I will open beta branch for game before release for those who'd like to help me with bugfix.
Thank you for reading, waiting and hopefully your understanding.
Have a nice day,
- Peter
Release Date
Hello everyone,
Yesterday was the day (10th of February) I said the game would be either finished or I will abandon it. Unfortunately game is not complete yet, but I think I am capable of finishing it soon.
I was able to complete most of gameplay mechanics and the game is playable but I still have to do most of audio, texts for tutorial/quests and rest of AI.
So the date March 7, 2019 is new and definitive Release date for Faraway Islands.
I hope this release date is better than end of development.
As always thank you for reading this update.
Have a nice day,
- Peter
Development Update
Hello everyone,
You might already notice the lack of news on my twitter and that's because for three months now I have new full-time job and therefore a time spent on development is just couple hours a week at best. And it is not possible for me to continue this way with the initial scope of the game.
When I looked at the plan of things still needed to be done it was obvious that I can't finish the game with everything I want in it. Well I might be able to but who knows how long it would take. So I've decided to cut all unnecessary features like world editor, user created content or multiple game modes and finish features I have already started.
I've also disabled purchase option for the game as the version live on steam is not updated and does not represent the game very well now. I will make it available again before or when the game is fully released.
I have started making Faraway Islands as hobby when I was at school and it is in development for over three years. That is a lot of time for one indie game of this size and at this point I think I should either finish it soon or abandon it. Because of that I'm giving myself a public deadline.
On February 10, 2019 FI will be on steam store for exactly two years and on this day, It will be either available and fully playable game or I will stop it's development. It is hard for me to make this decision but if i won't do it now I could get trapped in its making indefinitely.
For those thinking I took money and run away I can just say that the number of sold copies did not pass 100 and it is far from it, so this scenario is not very logical, and I've never actually withdraw any money from it.
At last I want to thank everyone who bought the game and to those who support me either here or on my twitter. I really appreciate it and I will do my best to meet the deadline with finished game.
Thank you for reading this update and hopefully for your understanding.
Have a nice day,
- Peter
Progress Update
Hello everyone
Since the last game update I've added a lot of new content, including buildings, items, quest system, AI improvements and several bug fixes. But for the past month I'm working on scenario system which will allow me to create a whole story within the in-game editor and hopefully will allow user scenarios in the future. It is not as easy as I thought so that's another delay which was not planned.
Release Delay
In the early access description I've said that the game will be released in 2017 but because of several large delays, job or family related, it won't be possible. I have to admit I did a really poor job with my development plan, and I can't deny there was a little bit of my laziness and depression time involved in the process.
Future Updates
As I'm adding new content I'm also changing some parts of a code for building, hud, inventory and most importantly loading system for scenarios. Because of that It is hard to constantly think about being able to export a game update without new errors so I most likely won't release any game update on steam until beta or some stable functional version.
Requirements Changes
I know the game does not have the best optimisation and I want to increase the performance over time but I realised it won't be as optimised as I thought when I created first system requirements. Game is not super easy on CPU and I'm not sure about Windows XP either so I'm gonna rewrite it soon.
I really hope this news are ok with you and that there are still people who are looking for playing final product. I'm glad for your support.
Until the next update, I wish everyone a great time and a lot of nice gaming experience.
- Peter
Update 0.0.1.5 - Character Creator
Hello everyone,
In this update I finally managed to implement character customisation. There were several complications, like character animations, which I had to resolve, but it's complete now. Character creator will show up when you hit "NEXT" in new game menu.
I also figured out how yyc compiler works and was able to improve game performance with it. This will be very useful when I start working on new AI system later. (yyc compiler is an "tool" for gamemaker studio engine)
That’s all for this update, complete list of new features, tweaks and bugfixes below:
Added
- Character customisation
- Character's name and gender symbol above character menu
- Game over text translation to Czech
Removed
- Hand shadow in water
- Dying animations
Changes and fixes
- Hammer icon was changed from old stone look to iron look
- You can see second hand when torch is equipped
- Game is now exported with YYC Compiler
- Bow and sligshot animations weren't drawing the last image
- Game over text scaling
Update 0.0.1.4 - 4K support
Hello everyone
First, I must apologise for the lack of news for the game. Like I said in discussion I had some personal problems to resolve and I found a new job, so my development time was reduced.
Most of the time I was working on Editor and adjusted saving mechanism. Editor is still not finished but looks promising and I hope I will be able to create a story scenario.
Saving code had to be changed a little (for compatibility with editor and future updating) so all older saves will not work anymore.
Lot of interface graphics were tweaked or completely changed, like background, buttons, icons, etc... Most obvious changes were made for character page, which was rearranged to be more consistent. HUD was also tweaked: all bars are now reversed (full = good / empty = bad) and I added small icons next to them indicating what is bar showing and its state with colours (green/orange/red).
New resolutions for widescreen and 4K were added to settings. I don’t have a 4K or ultrawide monitor but there shouldn’t be any performance problems with it.
I already teased character creator on twitter, it is mostly finished but there are some problems with hand animations, so I’ve decided to not include it in this update, but it should be in a next one.
That’s all for this update, complete list of new features, tweaks and bugfixes below:
Added
- Icons to HUD, representing health/hunger/thirst/fatigue
- Sound for moving setting sliders
- Switching buttons added to setting sliders
- 4K support (3840x2160)
- Widescreen support (2560x1080, 3440x1440)
Removed
- 1024x600 resolution
Changes and fixes
- HUD bars are now bigger and reversed (full = good / empty = bad)
- HUD background renewed
- Improved visibility of daylight bar
- Renewed whole character page
- New hand icon in inventory
- Lot of tweaks and improvements of UI buttons, backgrounds, etc.
- Grid for planting tree had wrong size
- Inputbox selections has now green colour
- Control helper not showing "no grid mode" key when building
- Inputbox text is no longer visible above info-window layer
- Wrong light surface resizing after resolution change
- Effect timer was counting even if game was paused
- Chest making opening sound if even if not complete