Poached : Hunt The Hunter News

A standard routine update featuring various fixes, improvements and quality of life adjustments. I'll be back again in a few weeks with another content based update (focusing largely on Chapter 2 this time), in the meantime the current update change notes are as follows:

• Fixed some navmesh issues near gazelle herd that caused animals and in some cases enemies to walk through a few of the rocks or huts.
  
• Improved shotgun appearance as well as fixed a one sided normal causing a see through face by the loader grip.
  
• Fixed an issue with water at a certain waterfall cycling between specular color maps while standing in-between 2 separate waterfall zones used for asynchronous level zone streaming.
  
• Fixed bug with gazelles that would sometimes cause their movement and animations speeds to not be synced.
  
• Fixed some cactuses in Delta Zone that were missing their impact damage, and some with missing colliders.
  
• Increased amount of enemies in Mission 3 to balance out O.P. new rifle.
  
• Rebaked all navmeshes for each level, adding special optimizations based on which areas enemies will be in that part of the game.
  
• Improved shotgun aiming A.D.S. appearance, while also removing the traditional scope type A.D.S. for the shotgun weapon as it does not fit the model in the same way an actual scope weapon does. This also means that the shotgun, unlike other weapons - will retain the reticle while holding down the aim button.
  
• Some more removal of trees growing in places that makes no sense.
  
• Fixed some missing colliders on tires in various zones.
  
• Patched up a hole in a fence that lead to a dead area.
  
• Removed some trees that were intersecting giant rocks, some of them almost entirely engulfed by the rocks.
  
• Removed some more invisible trees growing entirely obscured, rendered yet never seen.
  
• Smaller animals such as wild dogs and warthogs will now remove their colliders when killed in the wild.
  
• Fixed issue with some areas being locked out for the game demo, but also being locked in the main game - such as PC, Ostrich Racing, Garage, Shebeen, Caves.
  
• Fixed a few LOD culling distances on some items that were far too extreme, causing for example a rock to noticeably pop into view in the distance as you are walking.
  
• Improved rhino stampede animation when rotating and taking corners/turning.
  
• Some small memory optimizations.
  
• Fixed issue with testing cheat code "day length in minutes" erroneously showing in vehicle garage regardless of code status.
  
• Increased the price of sniper rifle ammo purchased from the camp shop as a game balance.
  
• Fixed issue causing meat to stop cooking entirely on all sides once only one side becomes burnt, based on a timeout that now leaves meat left on the fire to burn entirely.
  
• Completing a bonus interlude such as the camping interlude mission now awards a decent amount of XP/score.
  
• Improved lighting in caravan to not obscure in-game computer screen.
  
• Optimized shooting range memory footprint and file size.
  
• Metal targets in the shooting range now make a realistic target sound when shot.
  
• Fixed visual water plane intersection glitch by fishing pond.
  
• Improved RPG weapon material appearance.
  
• Some visual improvements to the Mission 6 warehouse interior back walls which previously were mostly rendering as plain black patches.
  
• Fixed navmesh issues in Mission 7 that would cause enemies to walk into rocks near the warehouse.
  
• Added some more Easter eggs, but I obviously won't be elaborating further on that.
  
• Fixed a (recent) bug that could cause some enraged rhino to stampede in a frozen state and thus run on the spot in an endless loop.
  
• Fixed incorrect screen space ambient occlusion in shebeen that was causing characters to have a perceived glow outline.
  
• Improved groundskeeper NPC character clothing and hair material.
  
• The groundskeeper no longer wears sunglasses inside, but will when appropriate.
  
• Groundskeeper is now appropriately labelled in the U.I. so you know exactly who I am referring to.
  
• Improved the visual quality of the 'Fumigation' shebeen random event.
  

While it may seem like just another background NPC, the groundskeeper actually notices everything that happens on the reserve—and even has its own fully developed A.I. system that hasn’t been activated yet. More missions involving this character will be added once the voice acting is complete and we reach that stage of development. This character plays a much larger role in Chapter 2 and beyond, and expanding their story is a key part of the release roadmap—including new missions and narrative content, even for players who have already finished the main game.

And just a quick reminder—the game is still in development until August 26, 2026, so if you have any suggestions or feedback, there's still plenty of time to share them!

Thanks again to everyone who's provided feedback so far. I've nearly hit 2,000 copies sold—a modest milestone, but a meaningful one for a solo developer like myself, and for the talented voice actors helping bring this world to life. Your support means the world to us, and I’m genuinely thrilled that so many of you are enjoying the game as much as I’ve enjoyed making it.

And of course, a huge thank you to everyone who’s purchased the game. I hope you’ve been enjoying the updates, and I’ll keep them coming.

Speak soon.

- Rob/Twelv (Ingozi Games)

[h3]Early Access Update V0.8.8.3[/h3]
Simple update fixing various user reported bugs & more.

I am currently busy with a much larger technical update that adds proper spinal and leg animations to wildlife as well as general improved animal behavior, but it's taking a lot longer than expected so I wanted to knock out a few quick necessary polishes so everybody knows I'm still alive and working hard!

A lot of progress has been made in the game in areas over the last few months that I wanted to explore, so much to the delight (or the chagrin, depending) of achievement hunters and gaming enthusiasts alike, I have added a huge heap of new achievements that include new challenges and ways to play the game never thought before, while also helping the player discover more hidden gems and secrets held within.

- On the subject of achievements, we now have a total of 68 - the plan is by final game launch to have 101 total achievements of which 100 will be regular achievements and the final achievement is awarded as a platinum trophy for achieving the other 100.

There are a few other small changes as usual, although the main focus of this update is the achievements and increasing gameplay time and quality of life through that.

The new achievements are as follows:

1. A Distant Cry - Take down an enemy tagged with binoculars.
   
2. Sangoma - Finish the game without first aid kits using only traditional healing.
   
3. Crowd Control - Destroy more than 5 drones in Mission 8.
   
4. Bootcamp - Complete the obstacle course.
   
5. Careful With Those Onions - Complete the bonus camping interlude mission.
   
6. Camping Enthusiast - Camp for 7 consecutive days in-game.
   
7. Untitled Game Achievement - Rescue a man from a horrible goose.
   
8. Herbology - Plant some herbs in your base.
   
9. Abundance - Harvest 20 medicinal plants.
   
10. Iron Liver - Drink more than 2 liters of hard liquor in a single sitting.
    
11. Quick Sticks - Take down more than 5 enemies within under 10 seconds.
    
12. Head Hunter - Land 10 consecutive headshots in a row.
    
13. Up Close - Finish a mission using only melee weapons.
    
14. Rampage - Take down 5 enemies while under the influence of the "Lions Heart" powerup.
    
15. Nightwatch - Take down an entire poacher squad at night without using a lantern or flashlight.
    
16. Crouching Zebra, Hidden Rhino - Take down an entire poacher squad while crouched.
    
17. Economize - Take down more than 6 enemies in a single magazine without reloading your weapon.
    
18. Trooper - Complete a mission without healing.
    
19. Untouchable - Complete any mission without taking a single hit.
    
20. Branch Manager - Collect more than 5 wooden statues in a single playthrough.
    

The change notes for the update are as follows:

• 20 new achievements.
  
• Improved colliders of weapons dropped from enemies to prevent them from getting stuck inside rocks and other hilarious situations.
  
• When it starts raining, the wind will now gradually increase instead of instantly appearing (which previously made the trees transition to windy animated states in a terrible way).
  
• Changed sunrays to be a part of the default graphics settings. (Now that they have been made much more subtle in the previous update)
  
• Improved culling and optimization system for animals in the main reserve vs poachers outside the reserve based on player location for increased performance while travelling.
  
• Further ragdoll improvements and optimizations.
  

A few notes that were patched a few weeks ago after the V0.8.8.2 update but were not included in any change notes, so I'll add them here for historical purposes:

V0.8.8.2.1

• Updated demo to latest version.
  
• Fixed weird goat ragdoll issue that only occurred during the tutorial.
  
• Fixed wrong scope texture on hip-fire main weapon view (main rifle default loadout carbine weapon).
  
• Redesigned skin and eyes shader system for obstacle course commanding general entirely from scratch to handle direct sunlight better without getting washed out.
  
• Reconfigured lighting for obstacle course to light the NPC better.
  
• Fixed a few missing asset references in the asynchronous streaming load zones.
  
• Fixed a an issue where leaving the tutorial from the obstacle course would take you into a game instead of exiting back to the main menu.
  

Apologies for not adding anything too exciting to this update, but I just needed to get these out of the way so that I could focus on more interesting stuff for V0.8.8.4

Lastly, I have done a substantial update of the demo. (For those who do not own the game)
I have updated the demo to the latest version, and added some new content, and I have also removed some content.
The content was not removed from the demo in any way to give less to players of the demo, but was done to increase the value of the product for users who do buy the game. It can be less rewarding if you buy the game but you've already explored the whole map. So I have now closed off certain features and locations during the demo. Players will no longer be able to enter the shebeen or go ostrich racing during the demo, and other limitations - but as a consolation I have added some new content to the demo that wasn't there before. So now after finishing Mission 1, Demo users will be able to play the camping interlude bonus mission (added in V0.8.8.2) from the radio tower in the main camp after completing the first mission. So if you don't own the game, but you do own the demo - you can play again for some new content, as well as experience all the latest improvements. And as always, the demo is fully shareware and contains no DRM so you can even copy it out of steam and share with friends on a USB I don't mind!

Thanks again for playing, and I will be back again once the new animal spine animation system for V0.8.8.4 is ready!

- Rob/Twelv [Ingozi Games]

This is an simple yet exciting update covering a few key aspects.

• In previous builds, the player would use the radio tower to advance missions when playing on Easy and use their bed when playing on Medium. Now - all difficulty modes use the bed for advancing missions and the radio tower now serves as a way to dispense bonus missions. Bonus missions from the tower will be played in sequence but are only available after finishing a main mission. Only one bonus mission can be activated per main mission complete. (Currently only one as stated below, but more on the way as we speak!)
  
  
• Bonus mission "interludes" are similar to main missions in terms of combat, but have their own story and are checkpoint based within the mission without the ability to quicksave or save at any time like during a main mission.
  
  
• Bonus mission "interludes" can't be saved during, but can be exited if the player wishes to rather play them again at a later stage. Once they have been completed then they cannot be replayed from the tower until starting a new game.
  
  
• This build contains 1 new bonus mission that can be played at any time between missions through the radio tower in-between the first 4 missions of the game. This is the first of a series of bonus missions featuring General Gideon (Not to be confused with General Van Jaarsveld) and discovering the character in depth, as well as joining him on various antics.
  
  
• The new mission takes full advantage of our new character system with expressive dialogue and interaction, with the characters facial expressions changing to react to the players actions.
  
  
• Enemies can now only be looted once their death animation is complete, this prevents it from being far too easy to loot enemies before they've even hit the ground, considering the games generous interaction distance.
  
  
• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause shell casing ejections to be rendered through other objects.
  
  
• Some minor audio balancing and weapon audio improvements on certain weapons.
  
  
• Improved a few models and textures, and a few indoor lighting scenarios.
  
  
• Fixed a bug that affecting the save game button in the main menu, but not the quick save or checkpoints.
  
  
• Some minor ragdoll improvements.
  
  
• Small performance optimizations.
  
  
• A few small bug fixes.
  
  

Thanks as always to all, and a huge welcome to all the new players that have joined lately!

Happy Hunting.

- Ingozi Games

[h2]Main Features:[/h2]

• Overhauled A.I.
  
• New physics-based enemy death animations.
  
• Active ragdolls.
  
• New enemy behaviors.
  
• Improved gameplay.
  
• Further graphical & audio improvements.
  
• Fixes & Optimizations.
  

The full change notes are below:


[h2]Enemies[/h2]

• New complex enemy death animations.
  
• New advanced enemy ragdolls that combine animation with active physics for more realistic death animations possible.
  
• Some enemies will now run and slide into cover.
  
• Some enemies will now choose to stay in cover, with new cover finding improvements and can now fire from cover, instead of only using cover to hide
  
• Enemies will now sometimes attempt to deploy strafing as a technique while firing and moving from one spot to another.
  
• Enemies will now also sometimes attempt to move backwards while shooting, moving towards potential cover.
  
• Enemies are delegated, so some will be denoted as tactical and others will be in "panic" mode where they engage without thought, based on game scenario.
  
• A.I. now has variable crouch heights powered by inverse kinematics.
  
• A.I. can now decide to stay crouched while shooting if they feel you too threatened by you blowing their cover, or the cover is low enough to fire from without standing, instead of only being able to stand up to shoot as in previous builds.
  
• Improved various other small enemy animations.
  
• Enemies can crouch lower now, and even run lower if needed.
  
• Fixed enemy aiming interpolation issues.
  
• Crouched enemies no longer shoot up in the air when killed.
  
• Further enemy crouch animation improvements.
  
• Each sniper shot now exponentially increases enemy awareness instead of a true/false comparison.
  
• Further general cover finding improvements.
  
• Improved enemy idle animation.
  
• Enemies are generally now more lively, even the non-tactical types.
  

[h2]Graphics:[/h2]

• Made vehicle lights for driving at night brighter.
  
• Amount of blood made slightly more realistic.
  
• Improved blood shaders and fixed new issues with occasional blue blood caused by linear color space.
  
• Large permanent blood stain decal pools now fade in instead of appearing instantly.
  
• "Sharp" is now the default anti-aliasing setting. Feel free to change back to "Soft" or "Overkill" if things are jagged on your screen, but for most purposed sharp should work perfectly. (I also wouldn't recommend using overkill unless you really need it as it uses a double antialiasing pass which might be unnecessary.)
  
• Improved vehicle "on fire" particles.
  
• Removed some ridiculously out of proportion grass meshes.
  
• Improved some more materials to go with the new V0.8.8+ Linear Color-Space
  
• Removed some more unrealistic tree placements on slopes.
  

[h2]Gameplay:[/h2]

• All characters now have double the sprint stamina than before, and the hiking boots powerup will still increase this even more.
  
• Audio mix and level improvements.
  
• Improved physics calculations.
  
• Game balancing.
  
• Chapter 2 is now a lot more chilled.
  
• Poachers attempting to rescue will now do so with more gusto.
  
• Increased leader (Mission 4) defeat/hands up radius for more realism.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed a rare bug that would sometimes cause random objects such as rocks and trees to bleed when shot.
  
• Fixed some visual issues with buffalo dust clouds.
  
• Fixed an issue that could leave you stuck in the garage.
  
• Fixed issue with downward physics applied to ragdolls from the player sometimes causing ragdolls to shoot into the air.
  

[h2]Optimizations:[/h2]

• Optimized blood delivery system
  
• Third person avatars now only stream into memory when they are needed, and only relevant to the character the player has chosen.
  
• Decreased the amount of simulation processing taken by birds flying in the sky when they are not visible by the player.
  
• Improved animation culling for groups of flies that sometimes appear near fallen enemies.
  
• Please Note : There has been a lot of complicated systems introduced in this update, so there might be some slight performance optimization regressions on lower devices, but if that's the case let me know and I'll be looking into it.
  

This update serves as a foundational update for 2025, with roughly 100 crucial changes paving the way for many new features and mechanics going forward by making sure the game is presented in the best possible way utilizing best graphics practices.

The primary focus of this update is to enhance the game's graphics to be more modern by utilizing the latest technology. This includes transitioning the game from a gamma space project to a linear space project with High Dynamic Range (HDR) rendering and finely tuned Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) tone-mapping and light authoring. These changes aim to produce a more realistic and vibrant interpretation of screen space color and ambient lighting.

Additionally, special attention has been given to significantly improve the game's graphics while simultaneously allowing room for continuous enhancements throughout the year.

The update also features a rework of weapon audio to enhance the "remastered" feel of the game, alongside numerous other quality of life improvements and fixes.

Lastly, both SteamDeck and PC/controller players will benefit from the updated info-popups, which no longer pause gameplay, allowing players to remain fully engaged in the action.

[h2]Main Features:[/h2]

• Overhauled graphics & textures.
  
• Remastered weapon audio system from the ground up as well as player footsteps and other ambient audio SFX.
  
• Advanced terrain shading.
  
• Gameplay improvements.
  
• Quality of life improvements.
  
• A.I. Improvements.
  
• Enhanced immersion & quality.
  
• More logical/streamlined graphics menu.
  
• A Reworked introduction scene.
  
• Numerous bug fixed and optimizations.
  

The full change notes are below:

[h2]Graphics:[/h2]

• Improved color space from gamma to linear.
  
• Improved textures.
  
• Improved weapon materials.
  
• Improved post processing.
  
• Improved color balance.
  
• Vastly improved terrain shaders.
  
• More realistic terrain texturing, featuring more texture variety than before.
  
• Improved grass rendering softness.
  
• Realistic near-depth of field for weapon zoom/ads.
  
• FPS Weapons now also receive post processing.
  
• Reworked all interior lighting.
  
• Improved physical appearance of dust clouds caused by stampeding buffalo.
  
• Improved NPC eye shaders.
  
• Improved quality of moon seen at night.
  
• Entirely new rock materials and shader setup for increased realism.
  
• Improved animal appearance and material.
  
• Improved sunset/sunrise quality and interpolation.
  
• Made blood darker and more realistic.
  
• Improved quality of weapon muzzle flash.
  
• Improved quality of distant horizon mountain backdrops.
  
• New improved realistic convex scope glass for main weapon.
  
• Improved some of the metal building construction/shanty's.
  
• Shadows are now more defined and of a higher quality.
  
• Improved quality of reflections.
  
• Improved skin shader for first person weapon arms.
  
• Improved glass shaders for vehicles and other items such as lanterns etc.
  
• Improved appearance of grass dryness.
  
• Improved tree and foliage appearance.
  
• Improved sunshaft rendering.
  
• Loading screens are back to the minimal black and white text from Poached V0.01 to offer a stark contrast between the new HD graphics.
  
• Improved scope overlay realism.
  
• Improved waterfall water-mesh material rendering quality.
  
• General material improvements, as well as removing lighting errors where surfaces appear too bright to produce a color apart from white.
  
• Improved Obstacle Course commander (General Van Jaarsveld) skin shader with new ambient lighting model that looks good from all lighting angles with basic subsurface scattering for skin simulation..
  
• Improved distant horizon transition-fog appearance.
  

[h2]Audio:[/h2]

• New weapons foley FX.
  
• New gunshot audio, and more uniquely distinct sounds between rifles.
  
• New Sound FX and nature ambience.
  
• Improved player footstep audio.
  
• Rifle weapons use an array of fire sounds different sounds for the "tail" of the shot versus the shot itself, thus to create a realistic sense of reverberation from the shots.
  
• New intro scene monologue.
  
• New voiceover for introduction scene.
  
• New underground ambience for caves.
  

[h2]Gameplay:[/h2]

• Info popups no longer pause the game.
  
• Game balancing.
  
• Weapon wheel now shows mouse cursor when using PC/Mouse and is also more accurate.
  
• Improved some zone bounds for more seamless world streaming.
  
• Saving your game is now not possible during direct combat although available if enemies are nearby prior to battle. This is to prevent players from accidentally spoiling their save slots by quicksaving while 8 guys are about to blow your face off. The plan is to add infinite saves in a future update, but this will work for now.
  
• Introduction scene now also allows dialogue skipping via holding space for 3 seconds. Featuring the new VCR-Style FFWD effect.
  
• Daytime is now longer.
  
• Item pickup highlighting is now much more noticeable than before, assisting in spotting useful pickups in the heat of battle or when exploring camp.
  
• The radio switch is now interruptible if the player selects a weapon before the game selects the radio on level start.
  

[h2]A.I.[/h2]

• Made enemies slightly more decisive.
  
• Improved enemy crouching/take cover animation.
  
• Decreased the amount of times enemies will "blind engage" an area they think you are in when you've escaped from that area without them noticing.
  
• Improved enemy hearing, specifically in terms of being able to hear each other pass on alerts.
  
• Improved enemy general behavior, as well as new routines to help attempt to prevent enemies from attacking too close in large groups and will try harder to spread themselves out.
  
• Fixed unrealistic delay between enemies exiting a crouching a crouch state and opening fire, as they will now aim their weapons as they stand up and immediately open fire as they stand up.
  
• Enemy hearing can now react differently to louder volume weapons such as the sniper rifle.
  

[h2]Wildlife[/h2]

• Buffalo might decide to charge you. This will result in instant death so please don't get too close to the buffalo, they are officially known as the most vengeful animal in all of Africa so they might also attack you if you decide to kill another or fire your weapon near the heard. (Which you should not do)
  
• Fixed an issue with Buffalo/Warthogs sometimes getting stuck on trees while running away from gunshots as well as sometimes disappearing in front of the player.
  
• Some animals can now lie down to sleep.
  
• Game now auto-saves when you enter a buffalo zone. [See first point]
  

[h2]Improvements & Additions:[/h2]

• Added a small amount of extra detail to some of the asynchronous world streaming zones.
  
• Main menu now fades in naturally instead of zooming down.
  
• Improved goat ragdoll falling animation by adding forced horizontal velocity as often the ragdoll ended up with it's bum in the air and then baked.
  
• Blood puddle stains are now more moderately sized for increased realism.
  
• Death screens and end-level stat/score screens are now plain static black and white (instead of a film "cutting" background" to reduce flashing lights and potentially headache inducing flickering over long play periods.
  
• Various close-distance "texture detail" tiling normal map improvements.
  
• Improved Braai/Barbeque texture quality vastly.
  
• Improved Braai/Barbeque burning charcoal geometry.
  
• Improved character selection character materials.
  
• Added some small additional details to some exploration zones, as well as adding some gravel paths/dirt roads.
  
• Improved shebeen/bar interior.
  
• Improved warehouse interior.
  
• Improved caravan interior.
  
• Improved scratch detail on metal surfaces.
  
• Refined some of the hand gesture animations for NPC's.
  
• Improved character selection screen hair shaders for character #4.
  
• New high definition normal maps for buffalo and warthogs.
  
• Improvements to asynchronous world streaming algorithm.
  
• Improved and simplified anti-aliasing options.
  
• Throwback introduction scene with improved visuals.
  
• Removed redundant options from graphics menu and made layout slightly more logical.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Bug Fixes.
  
• Fixed issue with certain enemy entities being loaded in a few second after loading a save game that was saved during a battle.
  
• Fixed issue with cursor appearing in loading screens if the sleep action causes a new scene to load.
  
• Fixed bug that made it possible to scare away animals by pressing the fire while your weapon was reloaded, now ensuring animals only react to actual gunshots.
  
• Fixed issue causing radio station to sometimes lose it's timestamp progress when exiting the shebeen.
  
• Fixed weapon wheel binding display not loading correctly and other small U.I. bugs.
  
• Fixed bug causing some UI elements to crop weirdly after re-enabling the game hud from a game loaded in "hud disabled" state via the options menu.
  

[h2]Optimizations:[/h2]

• Performance optimizations.
  
• Removed all remaining left over third party post processing solutions in favor of a fully built in approach.
  
• Cleaned up enemy tracer spawning system to prevent error visuals and use less memory during intense gunfights.
  
• Optimized trees to use a single shared material and texture for all 17 tree types.
  
• Enemy animation optimizations.
  
• Integrated the warehouse portion of the map into the game's asynchronous world streaming system.
  
• Improved wildlife animation culling.
  
• More FPS weapon textures are now only streamed into memory from disk if the player has the weapon, as before but now covering all weapons.
  

And as always, in addition to the comprehensive list above - many other small tweaks, secrets and polishes have been made, too numerous to mention.

Note: Due to major internal configuration changes at this time all post processing effects [except for motion blur & screen-space reflections] will be enabled on default for new & current installations, but please feel free to disable them in the advanced graphics option settings. (Sun shafts are also disabled by default due to their experimental nature.)