Fech the Ferret cover
Fech the Ferret screenshot
Genre: Music, Platform, Racing, Adventure, Indie

Fech the Ferret

To fly is to see! To the sky a new update! - Fech The Ferret Dev Stream 23

Hello there!
We're having a development stream!

It's all about the new upcoming update!

We start at 15:30 UTC, November 30th


twitch.tv/wishdream



Just like last time, you're also able to watch the stream right here on this post and on Fech's Steam page!

Pressing matters? You mean pressing puzzles? - Fech The Ferret Dev Stream 22

Hello there!
We're having a development stream!

We've got some announcements about the team to make as well as props to model, as usual.
See you on stream!

We start at 14:00 UTC, October 23rd


twitch.tv/wishdream



This time around you should also be able to watch the stream right here on this post and on Fech's Steam page. Please tell me if you manage to! We're trying to make these streams more accessible.

Team updates and contraption modeling - Fech The Ferret Dev Stream 22

Hello there!
We're having a development stream!

We've got some announcements about the team to make as well as props to model, as usual.
See you on stream!

We start at 14:00 UTC, October 23rd


twitch.tv/wishdream



This time around you should also be able to watch the stream right here on this post and on Fech's Steam page. Please tell me if you manage to! We're trying to make these streams more accessible.

One year Anniversary - Plans for Fech The Ferret 1.0.0a

Good day!
Today marks the first anniversary of Fech The Ferret releasing on Steam.



Given the special occasion, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the next major update, version 1.0alpha.
It's coming in November and we decided to make it substantial by bringing some elements that would change and polish the experience.

For instance, we chose to remake a few old systems.

New Dialogue System


We decided to redo the dialogue system from scratch to better fit our project: we can now show character portraits as well as trigger animations, allowing our characters to be more expressive.
And of course, we're also bringing new NPCs and dialogues.


WIP in a test scene


Our custom editor

New Fech Physics


We've also remade Fech's own physics system: we accurately mimicked the existing behaviours, but coded them again in a more coherent and robust way. The current system - originally coded around 2018 and slowly built on top of until recently - didn't properly support slopes, so things such as Fech adapting to the ground or climbing up walls were handled in a very situational kind of way.
As consequence of this rework, we're now able to track down and remove year-old bugs.


Best Steam allows me to upload is this tiny gif

New content


And as promised in the past, we're completing Marmocle with new characters and activites.
In addition to that, we're also working on a brand new intro stage that plays right before the Ferrest, while Fech is asleep.
You'll get to see more in the future!

When?


Certainly in November 2023! When 1.0alpha releases.
We're going to bring a lot of new stuff, we're keeping some as a surprise still.


Cheers!



Oh and check out the Discord Community for more behind the scenes.

Fech turns one! The underground shall glisten - Fech The Ferret Dev Stream 21

Hello there!
We're streaming today, September 21st, on Fech's 1 year release anniversary!
We're giving a new coat of paint to the sewers. See you on stream!

We start at 14:00 UTC on
twitch.tv/wishdream





Update


Stream ended! Here's a link to the VOD

Sleepy Wishes and Comical Twitches - Fech The Ferret Dev Stream 20

Hello there!
We're having a development stream today! Modeling for the game as usual. See you there!

We start at 14:00 UTC on
twitch.tv/wishdream

5th Community Anniversary Special! - New Zone Preview & Someone Becomes REAL?

Hello there!
We're having a development stream today! A special one!
We had some major complications late last month that prevented us from streaming, so we decided to make up for it with a special stream right on the day of the 5th anniversary of Fech The Ferret's Discord server.

You'll get to see a new stream setup as well a surprise.

Come join us today August 1st at 16:00 UTC on twitch.tv/wishdream

June Stream VOD!

Hello!

A couple of days ago we had another one of our monthly development stream over on Wishdream's Twitch channel. This time they modeled a new little shop for the city of Marmocle and later showed progress on the game by playing the most recent build as I would talk non stop for 2 hours. Check out the recording down below!


As usual, you can find all previous streams on this same youtube channel.

If you prefer to be notified in a timely manner and watch the streams live, do consider joining the Discord server! Pings are reserved to game updates and streams.

playfe.ch/discord

May Stream VOD!

Hello!

Last sunday we had another monthly development stream on Wishdream's Twitch channel! This time it was about modeling new lamps for the recently released city of Marmocle.


As usual, you can find all previous streams on this same youtube channel.

If you wish to be notified in a timely manner and attend development streams live, do consider joining the Discord server. Pings are reserved to game updates and streams.

playfe.ch/discord

0.9.0a Devlog - Marmocle, Park and quest system

Welcome to another major update of Fech The Ferret!
4 months after last update, we've primarily worked around the end of the current build: a park is now located after the river zone and the brand new city Marmocle is now accessible, which will eventually serve as the main hub for the game.
During this time we've also laid the groundwork for a quest system and notifications on the UI to warn the player about any change of state, like saving and having picked up objects.
Lastly we've continued with improving existing systems under the hood as we try to streamline the development workflows, leading to reduced likeability of mistakes on our side and making it easier to add new content: an example of that would be the improved water behaviour throughout the game.

As it is with each major update in this Early Access, resetting the save file is not required, but it may be convenient.

HIGHLIGHTS:


2023-02-02 New swimming behaviour
2023-04-09 Implemented new quest system
2023-04-20 Brand new look for the park
2023-04-30 Marmocle's main centre is accessible! (but with no activities)
2023-05-01 Added notification system for quests and saves
2023-05-02 Major UX improvements to the power plant
2023-05-21 New songs added for Marmocle and the Sewers/Park

CHANGES:


-Water is now made of box triggers instead of planar ones, making the game more flexible
-Further collectibles optimizations: they make use of spawners now. Small performance improvements expected on low spec hardware
-Technical improvements to the occlusion system. Small performance improvements expected
-Removed an arrow in excess from rhythm aras that looked off
-Small improvements to ara maps
-Ara obstacles appear a little later to better sync up with music
-Improvements to the elevator battery quest
-Snappier animation transitions
-Rolling in air no longer consumes stamina
-Improvements to the feel of the flower spring
-Increased thread priority during loading screens
-Added grass to a few empty spots of the game
-Improved Timer UI
-New character species added to Marmocle
-Adjusted out of bound trees in the quarry
-Slightly reduced river push force, added support multiple forces at once
-First zone card after opening the game stalls a little longer
-Diving works underwater too, rolling is easier
-Rolling underwater doesn't deplete the stamina anymore
-Tiny improvements to simple poles
-Removed potential unsupported resolutions in excess, added a failsafe

FIXES:


-Fixed all water detection bugs. The game now supports having dry spaces below a body of water
-Fixed a infinite water jump bug
-Fixed inventory loading bug (cone hat would disappear)
-Fixed excessive shininess in the river zone
-Calling the quarry elevator multiple times no longer resets its speed
-Fixed inconsistent behaviour on whether a player could roll or not on a rhythm ara treadmill
-Removed an old invisible wall in the ferrest
-Small fixes to how Fech's animations are triggered
-Fixed fall animation being triggered instead the jump one when jumping (most evident in rhythm aras and on springs)
-Reset button completely deletes the save file now
-Improved stability of the water push system
-Small fixes to the power plant
-Fixed a few holes in the quarry
-Fixes to how simple poles behave
-Rain is now correctly confined to the river zone only
-Fixed a water bug in the sewers
-Fixed oversight with triggering music change at the end of the river zone
-Fixed a death plane in the river zone
-Fixed weird bug where the mouse cursor would mysteriously appear every time a new scene got loaded
-Fixed bugs related to fech being wet in the wrong zones
-More fixes to the custom occlusion system

KNOWN ISSUES:


-Marmocle is incomplete
-Some longtime issues related to slopes
-Infrequent camera collision issues
-Make sure to manually save in the river zone. The river itself is a valid save point
-New challenges are missing of their own dedicated music and sfx
-Fech's notes aren't navigable with a controller
-There's unfinished "business mode" code in the build
-Post processing seems to get turned off when dealing with some online interactions
-Cloud saves don't work on Linux yet
-Fech himself oddly doesn't support shadow cascades. Set shadows settings to low
-Given the lack of activities, debug characters have been left in Marmocle