The Greatest Penguin Heist of All Time
Future of Penguin Heist
It's been a while since we've updated the game, and there's a good reason for that. Penguin Heist started out small, but eventually grew in size, complexity, and popularity. This means that we've been using some basic, old, and outdated systems that have gotten worse over time.
We've decided to update Penguin Heist to the latest version of Unity and use a more modern networking system, since the old one was already becoming obsolete when the game was released in Early Access. Along with this we're optimizing all the models to remove any light artifacts and leaking. Ligthing and rendering is redone with the new features introduced in Unity 6, so the game will run so much faster than before. These are just some of the things we're doing to get the game ready for the future.
All of this has taken some extra time, but we felt that it was necessary in order for the game to have a future. There have also been several bugs in Unity where we've had to go back and forth with their support team to find a solution. If we would have sticked with the old stuff, we'd just add to the mess and the game would degrade in performance and quality over time. We want the the game to be worthy of a full release without all of the issues that have plagued the game for too long.
The positive thing is that Penguin Heist will finally be better in every aspect than before, and we have the possibility to expand the game in the future. There will be an update out soon with all of this, along with the updated soundtrack and new audio effects. Then we've just got to fix the UI and the final levels and the game is ready for release.
See you soon, Penguin Heisters!
Detective Penguin Release
Wondered where we've been? We'll the answer is Detective Penguin! A spin-off based in the world of the Penguin Saga, which has gained some popularity on social media. We decided to make this game to give something to the fans who have been watching all the Penguin Saga videos.
Detective Penguin is a story-based, singleplayer, spin-off of Penguin Heist. The game is set in Penguin Village that you already know very well, but this time with a lot of improvements and new areas to facilitate the new story. Your task is to use your wits and flippers to go from rookie to professional in a series of Penguin Village mysteries.
Great news for Penguin Heist too! The new Penguin Village and all improvements that have been made to the core systems will be implemented in Penguin Heist, and you will soon see an update containing all these goodies. We will make a post later to talk about all of this and what this will mean for the future of the Penguin Universe.
We hope you will enjoy this detour into the mysteries of Penguin Village!
Connection Issues Fixed
You may have noticed some connection issues after the sale started, and this was to be due to a spike in concurrent players. It's the first time it has failed just because of that, so we were caught a bit off guard. We've just modified the settings and done a reset of the hosting system and server, so it should work again.
We hope you can enjoy Penguin Heist to the fullest now!
See you soon! Noot noot!
Steam Award Nomination
It's this time of the year where you nominate games for the annual Steam Awards. While we're most likely not going to win, you can still nominate your favorite penguin game that's been worked on day and night for the past few years. We will soon exit Early Access, and we hope you've enjoyed this trip along with us. Don't worry, though, we have a lot of other games up our sleeves!
The Soundtrack Update will be out soon with a full soundtrack as well as many improvements to the physics simulation and networking, so make sure not to miss that!
We'll see you soon, fellow nooters!
Autumn Sale
We're currently finishing up the final parts of the soundtrack and have got a bunch of enhancements lined up for the next update. Until then, there's the Autumn Sale, which is a good time to get the game on sale for yourself or someone else.
See you later, nootinators :)
Small Performance Patch
We've been pushing out some patches to fix some issues related to multiplayer synching and some graphical issues. Everything should be working now, so we're focusing again on finishing up the soundtrack.
If you're running the game on a Mac with Apple Silicon (the M-series processors), the game will run slower and the time of day will be wrong. We've almost solved this, so keep an eye out and we'll have it fixed soon.
Fixes
- Fixed outline smoothing - the lines are less jagged and the general intensity is more balanced
- Fixed switches not working for clients in multiplayer
- Fixed interactables not working after being downed
- Fixed lightmaps in The Nile
- Fixed white floating blocks in The Nile
- Fixed blacked out buttons in UI
- Improved multiplayer synchronization reliability
Performance Update
As we're entering the final stages of Early Access, we've made a lot of performance enhancements and changes to several shaders and just general rendering overhauls. We felt it was necessary as several of you have been experiencing lag on some levels and the whole experience wasn't really consistent.
We're in the middle of the Soundtrack Update, and we already have over 1 hour of music for the game, but we're aiming for even more than that. That's why we're choosing to release this performance update already now, so you can play around with less lag and higher FPS - as well as better outlines.
New Features and Major Changes
- Overhauled the rendering system and shaders to increase performance
- Optimized level geometry (FPS more than doubled in several levels)
- New outlines that are faster and look better
- New music player that switches between calm, area, combat, and boss music smoothly depending on the context
- Removed terrain foliage in favor of prefab foliage, which is what Goldflipper Base and onward has been using
Fixes
- Fixed (most) missing materials found in several levels
- Fixed tree leaves textures that weren't compatible with the outlines effect
- Fixed terrain textures on all levels to ensure smooth transitions
- Fixed uneven/impassable terrain in important areas of levels
- Fixed floating trees and bushes
We'll be back soon with the Soundtrack Update, so stay tuned! Don't worry if we've been on the silent side here, we're just busy working on the final features, chasing bugs, and just trying to polish everything up. Hope you're all still enjoying the game, and that you'll join us for the final sprint towards full release :)
Noot noot!
Small Patch + Penguin Village
We've just uploaded a small patch that should address the performance and connection issues you have been experiencing after the Big Heist Update. A preview of the new Penguin Village is also part of the update, and it will be filled up with more content and mini games for the soundtrack/sound effect update.
Don't worry if we're slow to respond, we're taking some time off to rest and do some planning before getting back to work on the final updates.
See you soon with a new update!
Noot noot!
Big Heist Update
We're finally dropping the 4 out of 6 final heists for the game before the full release. The last two will come out when we go out of Early Access. Until then, there will be a few more updates, including: Penguin Village makeover, soundtrack/sound effects, more/better vehicles, and some UI rework. These will take less time than this one did, so stay tuned for a summer full of Penguin Heist!
Additions
- 4 new heists!
- Logging Camp: Infiltrate the main base of the Iron Flipper located upstream of a logging community
- Jade Mountain: Discover the secrets of the fish worshipping temple town located on islands in the air
- Wildest West: Transport a valueable train of aquanite from the mountains, through the western wastelands, into a swamp port by the sea
- Fish City: Infiltrate the this modern city
- 25 new items/Blueprints!
- A ton of new clothes and cosmetics :)
Fixes
- Updated terrain shaders to run much faster, resulting in significant performance boosts on all levels
- Fixed settings for realtime lighting for higher graphics settings and enabling realtime shadows
- Fixed a bug where some objects could not be interacted with
- Fixed some misbehaving items like the Radio
- Partly fixed occlusion culling issues (when your camera is very close to the ground or a wall, objects seem to dissapear)
- Fixed a lot of other tiny bugs
We hope that everyone is still having a great time with the game, and that the updates are bringing something new and exiting to the table. Join us soon for the next updates too!
Noot noot!
Spring News
I wanted to make a small post detailing what's going with the game and where we are heading. It been a bit quiet from our side lately because we've been putting together four of the six remaining heists for the game. These heists are a bit different and more challenging than the previous maps, which has taken some extra time. We've also had to upgrade AI behavior so that they can use more powerful weapons correctly.
The idea is to release four heists with AI improvements, a lot of new items and cosmetics, and an upgraded Penguin Village in the new update. After that we will take a small break and get some fresh ideas. That will leave us with two heists, perks, improved UI, controller support, sound effects and music for the full release. Sounds pretty doable, right?
Okay, maybe you're wondering what will happen to mod support and some other features we've mentioned over time. Well, that's something we will look into after the update to see how much of it is possible to implement. Even if we really enjoy working on the game, we have to say stop at some point and release a full product. We can always make updates after release, but then it will be more of a bonus rather than a missing piece because the game is still a work-in-progress.
On another note, we'd like to hear more from you about what you like and dislike about the game. We read almost everything you write, from the reviews and forum posts on Steam to the Discord suggestions, and we appreciate that we have the possibility to improve the game based on that.
Not sure what more to add. If you have any question just ask them in the comments or on Discord. See you at the next update!
Keep nooting :)