Sapphire Safari (Early Access)
Re:Focused v011
Welcome explorers! With another month behind us, we are finally getting Sapphire Safari closer to our imagined game, how exciting! This month we had a focus on fixing a lot of the feedback that was building up over the last couple of releases. A great way to clean up before 2023 really starts.
Camera camera camera!
A big piece of feedback was around our control scheme for camera functions, like zoom, focus, etc. The issue was that having a manual focus required, well, buttons. The previous system allowed us to move a line along a pathway so naturally, a scroll wheel made the most sense. What resulted was a very confusing and time-consuming way to get nice photos. To fix this we took the opportunity to swap over to the cine camera system within Unreal Engine 5.1, which looks a lot nicer but comes with an implementation cost.
Along with the cine camera, we also added autofocus. All you need to do is watch the monster girl through the viewfinder and the focus will automatically be pulled, it leads to some amazing shots. Though right now it's a little wonky with how it works along with the presentation of it all.
We also swapped over the main POV camera to cine as well, so it might feel a little different to move around the world. It is something we will be tweaking in the future.
AI overhauled once again
We have finally finished our move over to State Tree based AI for Sapphire. Currently, the AI has a primary focus of fleeing from the player once spotted based on sight, however, scattered around the game world are special Smart Objects the AI can occupy based on their needs. So if a character is thirsty, they will seek out Smart Objects that can add more thirst to their needs. This system will extend to sexual actions (like say a plant Smart Object for cunnilingus). Still in its infancy but the start of a great system for sure.
There have been quite a few other features added to this build, stuff like physics being reenabled, spawning tweaks, and such. Overall this should not change your enjoyment of the game.
Changelog v011
- Camera swap from game cam to cine cam
- Added camera autofocus
- Moved camera and character tagging from Named Tags to Hierarchal GameplayTags
- Moved to state tree based AI
- Adjusted AI Spawns
- Implemented new AI interaction system (Smart Objects): Shower, Hot spring Lounging, Closed Sitting, Drink ground water ( 2 versions)
- Adjusted character physics to combat physics sleep/freezing
- Fixed physics being disabled on characters
- Simplified spawn region blocker search. This should reduce the initial map load time
- Simplified AI material randomization. Should reduce spawn hitching
In the next build we will be back to 100% dev speed so expect some exciting things!
Cheers,
Kinky
Comments
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how long until the game is on steam, I'm willing to wait
Still a wait, we are making sure it is polished and ready for general reviews before launching.
wait so if i buy it here do i get it free on steam when it comes out?
No? If you want it on steam you'll need to purchase it on steam. Itch is just like any other store, you wouldn't expect an itch key because you purchased on steam would you?
will it be the same as the Steam version and will be updated regularly when it realeses on steam?
or is the product i purchased only access to play early and when the game releases i will have to buy it again?
im not sure if im explaining this right im kinda slow
Why would you think you'd need to purchase every patch? You purchase, it gets updated when the game patch is ready. No store gets it first or whatever you might be implying.
i suppose im just worried that when it comes out on steam you would stop updating here on itch since a lot of the games i played did that
You mean outside of the other games that we release on multiple stores at the same time proving that assumption wrong?
Sapphire Safari already has contracts for 5 official stores including itch and 2 platforms for subscription for a total of 7 possible stores we will update on every patch once the game reaches alpha state.
Throw in our other games with the same treatment. Please don't spread rumors that we are anything but customer friendly, buy wherever you like and you'll get the exact same game at the exact same time as everyone else.
There are a couple of choice developers who do per patch sales on this platform. Hence why users are worried about it.
hey im new to pc how do i install your game
its not letting me download
Check your library on itch. Make sure you are logged into the right account etc.
will this game be free in the future or is is always going to be paid?
What kind of question is this? No. The game won't be free at any point. At best we will have a demo.
Good update, love it !!
glad you like it!
How varied are the needs planned to be? Will particular mons have particular desires? Is it just food/water/sex/clean, or will there be some variations in there?
Like you mention the plant object. Will it be like "cunnilingus meter low, find plant or entice nice photographer"? lol
- All mons will have desires like boredom, hunger, etc just that the smart objects will have unique actions.
- The plant was just a possible example of an interaction, like say boredom being low enough they seek out entertainment via getting milked by a plant.
Fair enough! I'm mostly just amused by the concept of mons seeking out favorite things, but I imagine that'd be very complex to implement.
It's still quite impressive what's being done with the AI tree in general. ^_^b
Thank you for the kind words!
:)
:P