Hello and welcome to the first update of Fech The Ferret's Early Access! It's been exactly a month since the initial release of the game. We took this time to carefully begin touching up and improving nearly all aspects of the game, most notably known ara bugs and a early polish pass on the river zone. This was also a great time to begin working on the next major update schedule for December, but for now I'll just get to the contents of the new build and save that for another occasion. So get ready for a long read as I get to list every change, addition and fix made in the past 30 days.
HIGHLIGHTS:
2022-10-02 Shortened ara tuuti by a minute (from 86 to 54 bars) 2022-10-03 Remade all terrains and rocks of the river zone + new fancy raindrop shader effect 2022-10-17 Various rounds of optimization. Added a layer-based occlusion system for smaller objects: potential performance improvements on low spec hardware 2022-10-20 Noticeable changes and improvements to the the river zone's level design
CHANGES:
-Reduced Fech's overall shadowing -Optimized the chestnut trees in the ferrest -Removed few unused assets -Jumping off a pole now always puts Fech in quadruped position -Changed grass color in the river zone -Added collider to mill -Added ability to entirely disable outer trees for performance optimization -Foliage slider now also affects LOD bias -Added ability to disable grass (only for testing and extreme performance optimization measures) -Chestnuts shadows are slightly brighter -Reverted particles on pollen trees because... vfx actually had no positive impact on performance? huh, didn't expect that one -Pollen triggers are a little more visible now -Few new props and small changes in the ferrest -Optimized collectibles -Added LOD to river poplars -Optimized Aucritas intro by disabling camera rendering -Optimized Kyuknos by correctly disabling the world geometry -Some leaf optimization by making use of the "zone part" occlusion system -Standardized Fech's collision system for higher accuracy -Adjustments to Fech's animation speed on ara chop chop. No more extremely fast run -Added input UI for some interactables. Still a WIP -Standardized the jumping speed on the poles. This makes challenges in the quarry (especially the power plant) much more accessible -Minor improvements to the power plant (mostly visual feedback with the spring and timer) -You know what, more pollen trees at the start of the ferrest now so to better distinguish it from the rest of the ferrest -Fech's notes now change based on the zone he's in. Only ferrest notes currently exist -River canes are much lower poly than before and stylistically more in tune with the game -Bridges in the river zone! -There's grass in the river zone now -Improved occlusion in the river zone -Occlusion culling is slightly more accurate -Increased thumbstick deadzone
FIXES:
-Fixed bug where attempting to exit an ara immediately after entering it could lead to falling out of the world -Fixed major bug that soflocked the game and prevented from playing ara good filter -Added colliders that prevent clipping through faded entrances/exits -Fixed a bug tied to respawning out of an ara -Fixed Fech's complete lack of shadowing (I don't know why this keeps on breaking and unbreaking) -Fixed shader bug in the displacement of tree foliage (empty spots would appear) -Small fixes to ara entrances -Fixed major bug that would cut off ara chop chop's music midway through and make its exit inaccessible. I had simply cut the music track short by mistake -Restored LOD for the chestnut trees -Fixed major shader bug that would make shadows not work for seemingly no reason (the past several builds alternated between having this bug or not) -Fixed leaf positions -Partial fixes to modern crane -Fixed some water triggers in the river zone -Small fixes to power plant poles -Fixed collision bugs of the river canes -Fixed a bug that would make Fech immediately run from a still position -Removed unwanted ability to pal pull during the intro cutscene -Patched out the unwanted ability to open the pause menu during cutscenes -Fixed camera angle bug when pal pulling while starting a rhythm ara section -Fixed rat protesters dialogue variable when the power plant gets fixed (they cheer instead of demanding to fix what's already fixed) -The "fixedness" state of the power plant no longer resets every time you enter it
KNOWN ISSUES:
-Various issues with climbing and sliding down walls of inclination close to 90° -Infrequent camera collision issues, mostly tied to underpasses -Every time there's a scene change, the mouse cursor mysteriously appears -Some jank in rhythm aras -Be careful with saving in the river zone. The river itself is a (unwantedly) valid autosave point
And just like last time, here's the roadmap as it currently stands. See you in the next update!
0.7.2a Devlog - Early Access Release!
Welcome to the first Devlog here on Steam! Make yourselves comfortable, this will be the new norm in here. So let's get to the meat of it right away.
Fech The Ferret is out in Early Access! This version - out since September 21st - marks the release on Steam and the introduction of many elements to the game such as: online play, all 4 total rhytm aras shown thus far, 1 new enclosed level, polish to the world structure and a new intro cutscene.
Overall one of the main goals with this version was to better define zone thresholds using visual and audio cues as well as beginning to delimit "hub" sections of the open world. You'll certainly see more work on this in the coming months, like in that tiny piece of land in between the quarry and the river Eridhen.
HIGHLIGHTS:
2022-09-13 The world map is more compact thanks to structural changes to the ferrest and quarry. Removed empty stretches of land in the quarry 2022-09-15 Revamped zone landmarks 2022-09-15 The river now pushes Fech back 2022-09-17 New hub before the river zone 2022-09-18 Two brand new songs for the river zone 2022-09-20 Added a new intro cutscene for Fech waking up
CHANGES:
-Many big and small updates to props -Hitting an obstacle in a rhythm ara now cuts off the audio for a short amount of time -There's a lot more trees in the world -Added rain effects on rock sides in the river zone -Added on-rail camera for specific enclosed set pieces -New *much better* dirt texture. The whole game looks quite nicer now -Quicker and more accurate visual transitions between zones (especially quarry and river) -Reshaped the overall visual mood of the river zone. More teal-coloured, easier to understand the level -Removed old placeholder-y river song. It was nice but incredibly tiring to listen to in a loop -When it's rainy Fech can only cling onto walls and slide, not climb them -Fech gets wet under the rain -Rhythm aras' treadmills no longer require running -No more head movement while Fech is sleeping -Small improvements to the first rhythm ara -Added third ara level and placed it in the quarry hub with poles -Removed old text from the second ara level -Lowered the volume of the dash version of cava rattina's song -Added saving notice in the main menu -Updated credits
FIXES:
-Fixed oversight that removed the camera lookahead movement when rolling on the ground -Fixed major piston spring softlock -Fixed bug that would make the stamina restore automatically -Fixed way back exit in ara good filter -Improved look of the toon shader (no more darkened landmarks) -The edge running bug *might* be gone. Reason: unknown -Fixed bug that would make Fech's jump animation not trigger consistently -Saving inside of an enclosed level (rhythm ara, the grotta level) no longer returns an invalid game position -Fixed the most glaring issues in the power plant (softlock and spring) -Fixed small bug in ara good filter -Added collisions to the octopuses -Fixed sewer NPCs dialogue -Fixed issues with reflection probes -Online room names are now case insensitive -Fixed bug that would make fech stuck in the rhythm ara -Fixed major bug that would load only 1 zone when starting the game -Fixed third rhythm ara's exit missing -Restored Fech's grass trail -Fech can no longer drown while in the main menu -Early optimization measures for the river zone
KNOWN ISSUES:
-Various issues with climbing and sliding down walls of inclination close to 90° -Infrequent camera collision issues, mostly tied to underpasses -Every time there's a scene change, the mouse cursor appears -The third rhythm ara (ara tuuti) is too long and unpolished -Various small issues in the river, among which lack of grass -Not all dialogue variables are set -The advanced cranes were temporarily made incomplete -Fech's notes don't change based on the zone
And lastly before closing up this devlog I'd like to say I've managed to update the roadmap. Expect touch-ups every now and then as we keep on working!
Fech The Ferret is OUT in Early Access!!!
The Ferret is unleashed!! At long last, Fech The Ferret is finally out.
Right now you get to play the first 3 zones of the game alongside several enclosed. You can also have some casual fun with friends with the online!
Devlog coming out later.
Have fun and play Fech!
Early Access in 5 days!
After several months we're happy to say Fech The Ferret is now about to launch on Steam as well!
We're bringing new levels, a brand new zone and the ability to play online with friends. Stay tuned for a new trailer on release day, we can't wait to show the new stuff we've been working on!
On a sidenote, recent weeks saw us at showcase Fech at SAGE 2022, there we managed to have some tests of the new online features.
Save & Sound + Feedback DEMO Update! (0.6.2alpha)
Hi there! Fech The Ferret is part of Save & Sound 2022! Started on July 14th and running until July 18th, it's a Steam Festival celebrating music in games.
In the sales page (click on the image above) you'll also find a stream showing behind the scenes and live performances of some of the games present. Tune in on July 17th at 20:00 CET to see Fech in there!
And lastly, I took this opportunity to release a demo update!
Version 0.6.2alpha is mostly about addressing feedback from the Steam Next Fest, such as: -Fixing keyboard bugs -Fixing visual glitches tied to rolling while pal pulling -Fixing climbing bug that would let you climb more if you spammed the jump button -Fixing a bug that wouldn't let Fech exit a rhythm ara -It's now possible to turn off the autocamera in the controls menu
On top of this, we've realized that adding an early version of Fech's notes might be convenient.
Hi there! Fech The Ferret is part of the ongoing Steam Next Fest with an extended demo!
If you happened to play a Fech demo before - or even on the very first day of the Festival - here's the new stuff you're getting: - The entire first zone + Kyuknos intro - Better performance - One more rhythmic level - Nicer graphics - Nicer vfx - Nicer sfx - And much more stuff I'd file under the category of "polish"
And if you play on Linux you also get: -controller rumble
Lastly in the theme of updates, today's fixes are about: - Discord integration issues (no more crashes or popups) - Endless water edge jump
As for bug reporting and feedback, feel free to post in the "demo feedback" section of the Steam forum or in the "ferret-chat" of the Discord community over at playfe.ch/discord.
Have fun!! Raoul.
New events coming this summer! (Steam Next Fest)
Hi there! Next week we'll be joining Steam Next Fest with a new DEMO for the game!
We're expanding on the current one by giving access to the full intro of the game, perhaps with a few surprises here and there too! On top of that, we're also bringing many bugfixes as well as plenty of quality of life improvements.
As we keep working towards the Early Access, on July we're also joining SAVE & SOUND, an online music event that will be hosted here on Steam. You'll be able to see how dynamic music works for this game, as well as the process behind making some of the audio of the game.
There's more to come in August too, but I'll save that for another time!
Essential info: Steam Next Fest: June 13th - 20th SAVE & SOUND: July 14th - 18th
To keep updated with development, make sure to check out our twitter as well as our lively discord server!
Ciao! Raoul.
Milan Games Week DEMO now available!
Helo helo and welcome to our first community post!
We've just updated the demo to the one recently shown at Milan Games Week 2021. It features lots of improvements such as ciambella rolling (the new super fast roll mechanic), revamped controls and graphical improvements.
There are a few bugs here and there still, but rest assured that we're aware and already working on fixing them.
Have fun playing and make sure to tell us what you think!!
