OddFauna: Secret of the Terrabeast
Sunny August Update ☀️🌻
We hope everyone has had a wonderful summer so far, and that you’re staying cool (in the northern hemisphere at least).
Our family has had the chance to spend a lot of time in the wilderness of Canada this summer. It has been an excellent change of scenery to inspire our work.
OddFauna has officially been upgraded from Unreal Engine 4 to UE5. I've been waiting for the right time to make the change, and now is as good as any. Upgrading to UE5 will allow me to continue to take advantage of Epic's awesome new features and is important to my long-term plans for OddFauna.
In the next update to OddFauna Alpha, I’m excited to introduce a new gameplay element: the Pollen System. As you traverse the world, you’ll be able to collect pollen. You’ll find pollen clustered in all kinds of interesting formations across the Terrabeast. We’ve been comparing pollen collection to collecting coins in Mario or rupees in Zelda. However, instead of it being a currency to buy items, pollen is a currency to grow the plants around you faster!
I’ve also been working on a really exciting development: Controller Support! Translating mouse and keyboard controls over to a control can be really tricky. It’s not a simple one-to-one conversion. The goal is to do the first pass of making the game feel great on gamepads and to get OddFauna ready to play on Steam Deck!
Along the same lines, the camera is being improved with several new features; auto rotation, auto-framing, camera shake and more.
Looking forward to sharing more in the near future! In the meantime, connect with us on the OddFauna Discord, Instagram, and TikTok.
Thanks so much, Cliff
Alpha update v0.3 is live! ⚡
We’re back again with another very important update to announce the launch of OddFauna: Secret of the TerraBeast Alpha v0.3! It’s here!
There’s new friends, gameplay mechanics, items, and quality of life improvements to discover with this new update. See below for a list of all the new additions and improvements made in Alpha v0.3.
We’re thrilled that you all are here to celebrate another milestone in the development of OddFauna. Of course, our Alpha Beast supporters have already been with us on the Alpha journey, and we’re grateful for their support. Additionally with this update, we’re pleased to welcome Beta backers to the game as well! Backers whos pledge includes Beta Access will now have access to Alpha 0.3. This is fantastic news as more folks will be able to experience the game. Plus, more people playing the game means more opportunities to find bugs and more opportunities to provide feedback on the gameplay experience.
Keep an eye on your inbox as we will be sending out a Mailchimp email to inviting you to complete a new survey. It will go out next week. Your participation in this survey is important as it allows us to shape this game in exactly the direction that you want to see. The first surveys were extremely helpful and I am so thankful that we recieved so many responses. Now that Peter is back on the team helping out with the community, I am hoping to do more frequent surveys. We love your feedback!
For all other backers who are excited for your chance to play; I am still working on the plan to get you all playing. If I am able to get enough Alpha Steam keys for everyone, a realistic timeframe is this fall.
At this time I have no new update on the "Ride" sculpture. To remind backers whos pledge included a sculpt where we are at in the process; we have a factory sample and it looks great! Thats the good news, the bad news is we are still waiting on it going into full production. I am still patiently waiting to hear an update from the studio (Level 52) that is making it for us.
Alpha v0.3 Updates
- Trico has been added to the game!
- OddFauna now simulate a daily routine, they have goals, needs, etc. (This is just the start and I have many plans for how their AI will behave)
- They now gather resources and create stockpiles
- They will clean up around their homes (kill blight)
- They need to eat everyday
- Farming Updates, we've got hoes, soil, seeds, crops!
- Watering updates
- Building quality of life improvements, better snapping of tiles, tooltips show resource cost.
- Crop updates
- Shopkeeper, the goal is to have the shop open for business to buy and sell items.
- Refactor of inventory system
- Created Containers - stockpiles + treasure boxes
- New world growth mechanic based on plants.
- Quality of life improvements to the inventory system
- Much more.
Now go download 0.3!
Cheers,
Cliff
Alpha Update 0.3 is almost here! 🤩✨
It’s me, your friendly neighborhood Community Manager, Peter, with the latest development updates from Cliff. Lots of big, fun news so let’s dive right in!
Alpha Update 0.3 is coming in the next few weeks! Like the previous updates, this one packs in a lot of new content. There’s AI enhancements, new resources to discover, quality of life improvements, and new OddFauna to meet!
With this update, you’ll meet Trico! Trico is a very helpful, scaly new friend that’s excited to aid you in your quest to cultivate the Terrabeast.
You’ll also find that Pika’s shop is open for business! Pika is a feathery entrepreneur ready to buy and sell. Pika is the only source of seeds currently. With a visit to Pika, the farming can commence!
You’ll now make a curious discovery with all the OddFauna because their Artificial Intelligence now simulates a daily routine. OddFauna aren’t just waiting around in one spot for you to say hello. They have goals, needs, and go about their daily tasks upon the TerraBeast. Your fellow OddFauna will gather resources, create stockpiles, and even clean up the perilous blight when it gets too close to their homes. Cliff has lots more in the works for how each OddFauna will behave… or misbehave! This is just the start of the OddFauna AI updates.
A number of quality of life improvements have been made to the inventory system so you can better organize your goodies. Along those same lines, you’ll now be able to create containers to house all the treasures that you gather.
For those who are ready to farm, you’ll be able to craft a new hoe to till the earth and plant seeds. And speaking of seeds, there’s five new seed types to sow. Watering and current crops have also been updated. Lastly, there’s been several tweaks to the world growth calculation which should add to the fun of creating your own personal TerraBeast paradise!
Lastly, big news for Beta backers: those who pledged for Beta Access will now get access to the Alpha with the launch of 0.3! Once this update is out, Alpha keys will begin to go out to Beta backers. You’ll hear from us soon!
We’re excited for Alpha and Beta beasts to play Update 0.3 and look forward to sharing it with you very soon!
Take care and I’ll see you on the Discord!
Peter
A Long May Update & A Very Long Gameplay Video ▶️💫
It’s been a month since our last update, and the game is really coming together! I've put together a VERY LONG (27 mins) gameplay video. Honestly it’s too long, but I thought I would try this format. I’m not talking over the footage. It’s just me playing the game until I grow the Terrabeast for the first time. I’m very excited about how the game is playing, and I’m glad that I've taken the time to rework systems that were feeling flat.
Continue reading below for lots more info, but here are the TLDR updates:
1. Reworked the building mechanic entirely. It’s so much better, and I’m loving it.
2. Redid the world’s expansion. It’s much clearer how and why the world grows.
3. Changed the blight
4. Improved plant gowing (but I’m not including this in the first version of Alpha)
5. Added new tools (axe, pickaxe, hammer)
6. Changed the opening of the game
7. Improved the sound effects and visual effects
8. OddFauna joining party
9. Designed the Terrabeast edge of the world
10. Fixed tons of bugs!
I've done an overhaul on the building mechanic, and it’s such an improvement. For some context, building has always been a part of what I want the player to be able to do in OddFauna. The goal is to have a fun and challenging building system that allows you to build whatever you can imagine. The first versions were cubes and then hexagonal prisms. While it was simple to build with these, they were not giving me the visual design language I was aiming for. The system felt limited in terms of progression. Now, you have a pallet of shapes with which to build. Each have different costs, and you can unlock tiers of building materials. objects, and more. Ultimately, I want to tie this progression into befriending OddFauna that love to craft (like Mo birds).
The changes to how the world expands are another massive change. Previously, the world would grow at the start of spring. The world grows one ring of biomes at a time. One biome would expand into a 3x3 biome into a 4x4 biome and so on. It was taking too long to experience the expansion of the world. The impact of the player’s actions felt very delayed. Now, the player feels the results of their actions every night and can see the progress of the Terrabeast growth. If you know what you’re doing, you can grow your Terrabeast 1 time in less than a week (about 20 mins). However, each subsequent growth level will take longer and longer to achieve.
Blight is now the first challenge you will face in terms of growing your Terrabeast. There will be other times of challenges, like under-developed or overgrown biomes, wildfires, etc., but blight is the most straightforward and visually impactful challenge.
Abilities and Tools: We’ve moved away from Astor having all the abilities, and we’ve transferred those abilities to other OddFauna. However, Astor still needs a basic version of those abilities, and that is where tools come in. Let's use breaking boulders and gathering rocks as an example: At the start, Astor can craft a pickaxe, break boulders, and gather the rocks - simple and straightforward. Later in the game, Astor can befriend OddFauna that will expand the gameplay in different ways. These befriended OddFauna will allow you to break bigger, harder boulders, break lots of rocks quickly, and even auto-collect the rocks into their own inventory which will expand your own inventory.
Thanks for reading and following our adventure! If you like the longer format of this update (video & writing), please let me know.
Back to work!
Cheers,
Cliff
Alpha Level Up & Level 52 Updates 🌠
Progress with the Alpha version of the game has really been coming along. I’ve reworked how the blight appears and operates in the Terrabeast world which should pose an interesting challenge for players. I’m currently updating the building system. There’s a new palette of building block types to utilize. You’ll be able to create a wider variety of creations with this new game system.
Regarding the Level 52 Astor & Mighty Beast sculpture, manufacturing conditions remain difficult and costly. It’s put the squeeze on us, and we’ve been forced to get creative. Our partners at Level 52 have been going above and beyond, and they’re helping us to narrow in on a solution. I’ll send out an update on this sculpture once we’re locked in.
Thank you again for your patience with all of this. Our Kickstarter and Discord communities have really illustrated what awesome fans we have. We’re grateful for you all. We want to be able to provide the best possible OddFauna products.
With appreciation,
Cliff
The Final Steps Before Alpha 🔑
Today, I’m writing to you to say OddFauna Alpha progress continues, and it’s going well, but sadly Alpha access won’t be available by the end of this month. Unfortunately, I’m dealing with some things that are out of my control.
Happily, I’ve worked out how to best deploy the Alpha on Steam so that should not be an issue when it’s time to launch. You should know: it’s going to take some time to be able to deliver Steam keys to everyone. I appreciate your patience when I dole out those keys. Along with the keys, I plan to also include a helpful “how-to-guide” on Steam keys for those who may be unfamiliar. If you’ve never used Steam and are awaiting OddFauna Alpha, please download Steam now and start getting acquainted!
After internal play-testing, there are still a few items that I want to be able to include with the first Alpha build before I deliver it to you all. This includes an updated opening, reworking the blight (the primary antagonist in the game), and including the world growing mechanic. While Alpha is an admitted early version of the game, I still want your first hands-on with OddFauna to be a great experience. That’s really important to me.
While I’m not able to give an exact date for when Alpha will launch, we are talking weeks, and not months. To be honest, it has been stressful. I don’t want to let people down. However, to maintain my mental health, it’s been helpful to focus on getting the work done and not focusing on the deadline.
I’m going to step aside from email, social, and discord while I focus on the Alpha development and launch, but I will continue to have help in that department with our terrific Discord mods.
Thank you so much for understanding. I would love to get this Alpha to you as soon as possible, but I want to make sure that even this early version of the game is right. We’re an incredibly small team (myself, Emma, and our part-time freelancer), and we’re grateful for your patience and for your loyal support. Thank you!
Head over to our Discord to see gifs of some new OddFauna as a little something to tide you over in the meantime!
Gratefully yours,
Cliff