Gemlands
Gemlands is going offline
As some of you may know, Gemlands was a passion project of mine and I was very happy to share it with the world, but there has always been extremely high CPU usage ever since it was released.
After a very long time, tinkering, and trying different changes, I am unable to solve this issue. I have also royally screwed up my unreal engine project trying to fix it, and it's extremely buggy as-is and won't launch anymore
So I have made the decision to take Gemlands off of the store page. Maybe one day I wlil return and try yet again to fix it, but I feel that right now, Its time to move on to working on my next game project (which is already well underway).
For those who own Gemlands, you should still be able to launch and play it, but no new purchases will be permitted atarting Monday the 24th, April 2023
Thanks everyone who supported the game!
And please note that playing the current live build DOES use an unusually high amount of CPU (some users report 100% usage) so extended playtime could potentially harm your computer (although the game itself is extremely short), it's still something to keep in mind
Small Bugfixes
- Bridges can now always be re-extended (by shooting arrow targets) when you load a saved file
- Elevators stay activated if you load a saved file where you already activated them
Minor Bugfixes:
- Fixed issues when swapping between sword and bow while holding a nocked arrow
- Fixed crosshairs disappearing after anything changed the UI elements such as NPCs, reading signs, etc
- Fixed issues where certain NPC dialogue boxes did not clear off of screen after leaving them
Day 2 Patch!
The major things you might notice are:
1. A fixed 45FPS (that is more stable as well), as opposed to the original smoothed system which had potential for dramatic spikes, and most importantly, used a lot of resources to render frames that weren't needed, especially in an old school game like this.
2. crystals no longer rotate in-place (having 600 actors all firing off continuous movement instructions at all times was a little burdensome on the system, who knew!)
3. A slightly more aggressive draw distance culling, which is the system where objects disappear from screen the further away you get.
For example: small objects like plates and spoons disappear first, followed by medium ones like barrels when you get a little farther away than that, and at very long ranges large ones such as trees.
Day 1 Patch!
PATCH NOTES
- Fixed an issue where black dots would flash rapidly on geometry and textures
- Generally sharpened and made the graphics more clear and slightly less distorted overall
- Added helpful explanations to the first portal you come across inside the Inn, as well as near the geyser in the desert.
- Added an Options submenu within the main menu during gameplay (can be brought up by pressing start button (playstation type controllers)/ options button (xbox type controllers), or TAB on keyboards.
This options menu lets you change:
1. Resolution - Can use 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 720, or 1024 x 768*
2. Fullscreen or Windowed
3. Field of View - Can use Near (85), Medium (100), or Far (115)
4. Adjust Sound Effects volume as well as Music/Ambience volume
* Please note that using 1024 x 768 is currently working poorly with the menus/UI and is recommended to mainly be used for only gameplay!
Thank you guys SO much for supporting my very first game. It was a labor of love, every single thing besides some sound effects was created by myself, proudly assembled in Unreal Engine 4.
I look forward to hearing feedback, and have a good one everybody!
-nightwyrd