Incoming Comms -- Alive and Kicking (and Developing!)
The reports of our death are GREATLY exaggerated.
It's been more than a year since our last release, and I'm sure that's led to a lot of speculation about the status of the project, especially since the PREVIOUS year saw several releases corresponding with the ramp up to New Horizons.
In short -- life happens. Several of our team have taken on new professional endeavors within the industry. They are definitely still with us, and help out as their schedules permit...we save the really hard stuff for them! ;)
The other thing that happened was the series itself going on hiatus. Without a new season deadline, the urgency fell off, meaning we can take our time to ensure quality, AND all have better balance with our lives. (Bear in mind, this is a passion project -- we're all volunteers!)
But even at a slower pace, v18 development has continued. Among the big things that's making it take so long was making the move to UE5. That was a huge adjustment for us, and broke literally everything. The good news is that it's almost all completely back together (just one big thing left on the major issues list at this point).
We've also added a bunch of new stuff for v18. I won't spoil it by listing it all, but suffice to say, we're adding more to DO aboard the ship, more places to GO, and more to SEE. Our goal has always been to bring the Orville to life, and our hope for v18 is that the ship will feel fairly complete, as a living, breathing entity. There's a rhyme and reason to how things are laid out, and while we've taken educated guesses, we think what we have makes sense.
With any luck, the new features we added will make you want to revisit it again and again, not just immediately after an update.
So please continue to bear with us. If you want to know when beta hits, join us over at our Discord. Or follow our socials, and this feed, as we'll be making announcements in all the usual places.
It's been more than a year since our last release, and I'm sure that's led to a lot of speculation about the status of the project, especially since the PREVIOUS year saw several releases corresponding with the ramp up to New Horizons.
In short -- life happens. Several of our team have taken on new professional endeavors within the industry. They are definitely still with us, and help out as their schedules permit...we save the really hard stuff for them! ;)
The other thing that happened was the series itself going on hiatus. Without a new season deadline, the urgency fell off, meaning we can take our time to ensure quality, AND all have better balance with our lives. (Bear in mind, this is a passion project -- we're all volunteers!)
But even at a slower pace, v18 development has continued. Among the big things that's making it take so long was making the move to UE5. That was a huge adjustment for us, and broke literally everything. The good news is that it's almost all completely back together (just one big thing left on the major issues list at this point).
We've also added a bunch of new stuff for v18. I won't spoil it by listing it all, but suffice to say, we're adding more to DO aboard the ship, more places to GO, and more to SEE. Our goal has always been to bring the Orville to life, and our hope for v18 is that the ship will feel fairly complete, as a living, breathing entity. There's a rhyme and reason to how things are laid out, and while we've taken educated guesses, we think what we have makes sense.
With any luck, the new features we added will make you want to revisit it again and again, not just immediately after an update.
So please continue to bear with us. If you want to know when beta hits, join us over at our Discord. Or follow our socials, and this feed, as we'll be making announcements in all the usual places.