Sapphire Safari News

Hello explorers!

Welcome to our first documents post in 2023! We all made it! Woo! At the start of the year, we wanted to focus primarily on some of the core feedback we have been receiving in our later updates to the game. That is photography's ease of use and monster artificial intelligence.

Let us begin!

[h2]Camera output and Focus control[/h2]
By far our biggest update to the camera system in Sapphire Safari so far, we originally started our journey with a screenshot tool, then we made that system internal, and now we have integrated the cinematic unreal engine camera into the system for far better quality photos. It also means we can actually have proper camera mechanics rather than our previously faked system. The big one is focus… just look at these old and new versions of roughly the same photo!

Here is the old camera and focus system:



Here is the new camera and focus system:



The new focus though is really good, you simply point your crosshair at a creature, and the game will then automatically focus perfectly. Goodbye holding alt and scrolling the mouse wheel, you will not be missed.



Just don’t look at the broken arms, that is a rig problem. We will fix it.

[h2]AI and Roaming[/h2]
The major focus for January was moving the current AI over to the state tree. We have been talking about this for a while but getting it done this month was very important. First, it meant redoing a lot of the tagging system so the game can see things clearly when photos are taken, then we built what we are calling a Smart Object.

Smart Objects are our way to limit the AI focus so we do not spiral outta control with unique interactive elements. So if we wanted girls to shower in a waterfall, we do not need to add 30 instances of girls showering in a waterfall to all the AI types in the game. Instead, the waterfall itself is a Smart Object, that fills a need that the AI of our monster girls has. In this case: the need to bathe. A monster girl with a low number on the bathe need would seek out smart objects that increase the number, once they visually spot it, they walk over, interact, and the Smart Object takes over. Controlling how long, what they do, what animations are played etc.

That leaves the roaming AI. Now it basically acts as a need system and an elaborate filtering mechanism. So Monkii monsters are the only ones who can climb trees, which is in itself a filter that comes from the Roaming AI, the other big task for this AI is the fleeing mechanic. We needed something really robust that can tie into familiarity, depending on your level the AI needs to react differently, and now with State Tree Roaming AI we can achieve that. Limiting visibility, changing reaction speeds, and removing whole states as the player grows his levels.

We hope to have something fleshed out for the January release, but only time will tell.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/

And that is it for now! We hope you enjoyed a little sneak preview of our upcoming build!

Cheers,
Kinky

Merry Christmas explorers! We have a very festive update for you all, just in time for the holidays, our gift to everyone for a fantastic year of development.

Where to start though? We have a lot to go through, so how about the content that took us the longest to build?

[h2]Judging and Score[/h2]
The first version of our photo scoring system took a long time to get right, we had a lot to build to ensure players were making lovely photos and rewarding players playing well. We do this by measuring visibility, how much of the girl is seen, and focus or clarity. Next, we look at the framing of the subject in the photo, are they following the 2/3 rule or center framing? Finally, we add in bonuses for the nudity visible and additional points for photos submitted to the monpedia.



After a score is given for a photo a letter number is assigned to the photo, this will help players determine how well received a photo is.

[h2]Processing Photos[/h2]
With the new 5.1 Unreal Engine upgrade, we managed to get a starting version of our ideal photo process system in place. Previously it was saving to the HDD a massive photo that would actually pause the game to process all the effects on the photo, if you have a slower hard drive in your PC this can sometimes take a second or two PER PHOTO. Unacceptable, it also pushed a full notification on the desktop about a screenshot being taken, also unacceptable. Our new system builds the photos in the engine much much faster and eliminates the need for post-processing burden on the CPU. The next step is building far more lens effects into the system so we do not need to rely on the cinematic system (as it's quite heavy).



Not only that we now have a much more pretty animation for snapping photos! A new UI for the camera is coming soon as well, so this whole focus should feel and play really nicely within the next few updates.

[h2]Nippy Wallows Island and new Monsters[/h2]
The big new content update for v010 is the snow biome island called Nippy Wallows! This is the first version of the map, so things feel a little simple right now, but we have massive plans for the space!



“An almost impossible snowscape formed around a slow-moving glacier, the depth of which has yet to be confirmed. The landmass is the host to several undocumented species of monsters seemingly unaffected by their extreme isolation.”

We also have two new Monster Girls to photograph!



From left to right:

Snubuns: A natural evolution of the Bunny Monster found on another island. Snubuns have evolved extra thick padding around its body to insulate them from the cold and natural tufts of fur stop snow from reaching their torso while it moves around.
Rubee: It is not unusual to see these creatures gathered together attempting to shelter one another from the cold and likely predators. Its personality is quite skittish with all attempts at interaction ending in failure. Occasionally you’ll see a variation with a bright red nose.

These two girls are exclusive to Nippy Wallow!

[h2]Research Level[/h2]
The last massive addition to the game which is just a little buggy right now is our Research Level mechanic. Within this new system, playing the game, getting photos judged, applying new content to the monpedia, everything increases your Research Level. Growing to new levels unlocks new content!



For the sake of showcase, in order to unlock the new island Nippy Wallow and the two new girls Rubee and Snubuns you need to level up your Research Level to level 2.

Changelog v010

• Added new island Nippy Wallow
  
• Added Rubee monster girl on Nippy Wallow
  
• Added Snubuns monster girl on Nippy Wallow
  
• Added v1 Photo scoring system
  
• Added v1 Retirement Level system
  
• Added additional props to Moana Tropic
  
• Updated Depart screen on boat menu
  
• Heavily optimized photo-saving system
  

We didn’t manage to finish our AI system overhaul this patch, and the state we had it in at the end of the development time (if we wanted to launch before Christmas that is) broke the whole game. So the next build should be a nice update as well.



We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, our team is going to take a nice break and come back super fresh for 2023! We hope you join us!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/

Cheers,
Kinky

One more Sapphire Document for the books. Let’s talk about the Christmas update coming this month!

[h2]Unreal 5.1 update[/h2]
Yes, we have been building around issues that Unreal Engine 5.0 had, these have mostly been corrected for us in the new version 5.1. Let me explain.

First, we have new tools for Navmesh placement and AI pathfinding.



The Navmesh update finally can build around our environment assets leading to much more natural ai pathfinding - aka no more monster girls running against a tree like a dumdum. The ai can now see how they can navigate, what they can fit under, and what they cannot. It’s a really solid update.

Next AI building tools have been updated, aka State Tree. I mentioned this a few times already in our older dev blogs, but the new tool is really really nice!

Here is what the old fleeing ai graph looked like



And here is what the state tree version looks like, which also mixes in other ai states they can act on.



The quick version of this tool is that our AI will be vastly more responsive along with us being able to add far more requirements and complicated setups to get exactly what we want from the system. Cool stuff!

The other tool that we want to make use of in this 5.1 update is the new keybinding system they have, this will come in a later update as we are guessing it will possibly break a lot of things in the game, so we would need to dedicate a longer dev time to it.

Lastly, we are still looking to swap from a screenshot system to an internal capture system with an image output to speed up the photo-saving process, but we will need to test this more before I am confident we can release it to the public.

[h2]Moana Tropic Assets[/h2]
The asset list for Moana Tropic continues to grow, first, we have our “abandoned campsite” for our main narrative being built, this also includes assets for side quests and loot boxes to find in the environment.



Next, we have a POI asset for our massive ancient tree mentioned in the Moana Tropic description. This will likely be our first “Monster Den” asset for the game. More info on that soon!



[h2]New Map sneak peek![/h2]
We are building a new “Winter-Themed” map so we can start enabling our Research Level system for player unlocks. The first step is doing a small overhaul to the Depart Tab in the boat menu. No longer does it make me motion sick with the camera movements!



The islands are also clickable now on the HUD presented. Not sure how we will handle the discovery of new islands. We will test and see what works.

So the map itself is a snow biome area, we are going to make just a small area playable from the beginning due to the player needing access to the “Winter Clothing” tool we have yet to build. Anyways here is a sneak look!



Obviously, this is a WIP look at the map, so it will likely change in the future a considerable amount if the path loops are not fun.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/

Cheers for now! Stay tuned for the release sometime before Christmas!

Thanks,
Kinky

Hello explorers! Welcome to patch day, version 009 is ready to go and it is our first step into organizing our main gameplay loop. Let’s begin!

[h2]Submit your Photos![/h2]
The Monpedia and the Research Level are the first implementations of our progression and gameplay mechanics for Sapphire Safari. The use is simple, take photos during your expedition and once you’re ready to return you’ll be prompted to submit pictures for the creature catalog known as the Monpedia. Your top 10 photos will also be scored and added to the Research Level.



Monpedia now tracks photos, we currently have a very basic selection of pictures to gather for each species. Try to get them all! Each photo will fill up the familiarity score of a species as well, currently, this does nothing but it will in the future!



You can replace old pictures with better ones if you happen to get a nicer shot.



The top 10 pictures taken will be scored for the Research Level, currently scoring is not functional, be sure to read our Sapphire Documents Issue 005 for more information on how that works. Research Level is how players will unlock new islands and new “critical” tech for exploration purposes.

These two loops are here to reinforce a lot of gameplay elements, however, they all have other components needed to really make them shine! Part of this is the monster girl AI, the quest system, scoring systems, etc.

[h2]Moana Tropic Wading Pools[/h2]
Our team has been busy expanding the Island with a new Tide Pools area. The first pass of this region should add a lot of interesting backdrops for your photography!



[h2]Intimacy UI/UX upgrade[/h2]
The constant changes to this mode should not surprise anyone, the new elements however drastically bring us closer to the initial pitch and vision. Loading into the doll system for the first time will now randomly auto-populate the field, along with randomizing the pose of all participants. They will automatically begin humping each other if you have all the required actors.



On top of the auto-population, you can edit the actors to a bigger degree. Hitting Tab now expands the menu (automatically hidden by default) and each followed NPC along with the player will have options made available. Including choosing and removing them from scenes. Human participants in a future patch will also from this menu have clothing options, so you can remove everything but the boots if you wanted.

Eventually, we will expand the positions offered and build the gangbang mode to work with random monsters walking by. Exciting stuff!

NOTE: There currently is an issue with Male X Futa and Futa X Futa position swapping which can cause camera bugs and model breaks. Please be aware of this as you explore the new tools.

[h2]Changelog v009[/h2]

• Added Gallery filter system.
  
• Added Expedition statistic systems for tracking steps, photos, etc.
  
• Added Retirement system for post-expedition scoring.
  
• Overhauled Monpedia system for photo submission and tracking.
  
• Added Familiarity foundation system.
  
• Added Research point foundation system.
  
• Added Moana Tropic Wading Pools map area.
  
• Added Landscape texture painting system.
  
• Overhauled Moana Tropic textures.
  
• Overhauled Moana Tropic assets.
  
• Fixed deep river issues.
  
• Fixed Moana Tropic boundaries.
  
• Overhauled Monster Spawn system.
  
• Overhauled Moana Tropic spawners.
  
• Overhauled Doll System UI.
  
• Overhauled Doll System UX.
  
• Added Doll System auto-population.
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
Hopefully, you can all now see the direction we are moving into! In the next patch, we hope to get back to more consumable content, themed for a particular holiday coming up. Ho ho ho!

Alright, explorers! Another issue of the Sapphire Documents is here, and boy do we have some things to discuss…

[h2]AI, Behaviours, and Spawning[/h2]
Currently, the monsters in Sapphire Safari are a little braindead, and I mean they have the most simple AI guidance system. I would go as far as to say they are there simply to make our girls walk around, but I digress.

However, in order for you all to understand how our AI works I need to break down two distinct styles of AI decision-making that most videogames employ.

Behavior Tree: This method of AI allows the computer to make a decision and follow through with it, think of it like throwing a frisbee. Once the frisbee has been thrown you won’t be able to change its direction or its destination. After it lands you can throw it again to another spot, and so on and so forth. The knowledge that the AI has at its disposal is limited to what is at each destination of the frisbee, so it has limited potential for the reactions it can make.

This is currently how Sapphire Safari works, if you’ve even jumped in front of a Monster Girl only for them to ignore you, that is because they have a task of moving to a destination, anything new showing up won't affect their responses.



State Tree: All decisions all the time! This is a breaded AI system and the knowledge of potential decisions the AI can work with is much much greater. The AI will make a decision and then be presented with several more options they can swap around to at any point. As long as a decision is within its knowledge pool the AI can jump to it at any point.

The biggest difference here is setting up this AI will span over several months of work. As of v009, we have started this process, but the full rollout might not drop until v011 or sometime around then.



The next task within this basic overhaul is to more development tools we have needed to build. When we make new maps in Sapphire the spawn zones of each monster girl also have to be set up. The current system we employ is a radial spawn zone, for obvious reasons it means that we cannot just apply it to a map with a unique layout. So a new tool for our designers has been built, which allows for custom spawn zones.



More power to our map designers is always going to be a good thing!

[h2]Photo Scoring[/h2]
As mentioned in our last Sapphire Documents we have a brand new team member who has joined our development staff for the game. His primary role is around programmer support and focusing on unique tasks that require a fresh perspective. The first challenge he has is building a robust scoring mechanic for photographs.

So first, know this. Unreal Engine has a huge amount of tools we can use to understand everything in a scene, what the player can see, and what things are being blocked out. It might come as a shock to see the sausage being made here but hopefully, you can follow along.

A major issue we had to contend with stems from the game knowing what is inside a photograph. It is all well and good to know in the moment during gameplay what is happening, it is a different story for a screenshot. So first we have to know exactly what parts of a Monster are visible, where they are on the screen in relation to anything else, what else is on the screen etc. To do this we placed hidden and directional beacons within the models of the Monsters and make them face only in the direction things are visible.

For instance, if we wanted to take a photo of a girl, and have her sideboob visible but not her nipples or genitals, aka the tasteful pinup, the game needs to know what parts of the body are visible. Next, the game needs to know where on the screen, how close to the camera, if the subject is in focus, and what props make up the background. Once it knows everything in the photo it needs to compute a score, so two photos dealing with the same subject matter can be ranked based on the rules we impose. Tricky.



This is an example of the system in play, here Bunbuns does random movements and we can take photos that are instantly scored. Based on her location on the screen, how large she is relative to the zoom, and the naughty bits visible.

For the composition of environment data, we are looking at positive and negative space, scene depth, composition symmetry, and percentage of subject matter. This is determined by generating - at the time of writing - three additional images being generated for each photo taken.

The first creates a greyscale and pixelated version of only the environment minus any subject.



This photo is then scaled all the way down to a 7x7 pixel image and from that we can see how much the environment should factor into a photo score.

Secondly, a mask is made of the subject and any props blocking parts of it from the photo.



This is so we can see without a doubt what is and is not visible.

And the last photo will likely have something to do with the color composition of the scene, we are still attempting to find the easiest solution for this. Now you all might be wondering, how will these computations affect performance, well you’re in luck. As one of the next phases we will be building towards is an in game photo saving tool, as opposed to writing massive screenshots to disk. It will require out-of-the-box tool development, but it will 100% remove any delays caused by writing files. It will also let us do burst, action, and shutter speed photography options.

That is a problem for future me though.

[h2]Retirement Flow[/h2]
Most of you should have some knowledge of this if you’re reading our Sapphire Documents posts, the retirement screens and the UX around it I would consider to be the most important screens in the game. Not only does this create the major gameplay loop but we also can loop in side quests and the eventual bounty system as well. Here is what we have working right now.

Monpedia: as of now we have a system for submitting photos to the Monpedia, which is our version of the Pokedex used to catalog the Monster Girls in Sapphire Safari. To do this you simply need to take a photo that matches the description needed. For example, you need to submit several different photos of Bunbuns, one of her sleeping, drinking, eating, socializing, etc. To help with this system we have the filter system and the scoring system to know what each photo is about. So when you click on the entry for Bunbuns sleeping photos, it will filter all the photos you took down to just what photos are applicable for the entry.



Expedition Points: the other key progression system tied into the retirement flow is expedition points. These total up the top 10 photos you took during your last expedition and apply the total score to the Expedition Total. Hitting milestones in this will unlock mainline gear - things you need to progress the main story - and new locations and islands.



Eventually, we will have a system here to add more photos to your personal gallery and also share them with the world via social media and Steamworks. Not right now though.

[h2]Moana Tropic Upgrades[/h2]
A new region of Moana Tropic is done and will be made available in the next patch! For now, let me just say this new spot is going to have a big difference for the island vibe. We have also built a much more diverse texture layering system allowing for far more unique-looking environments.



Finally, we are also getting an update to our Tall Jungle Tree asset to make more variations and to get it to fit aesthetically with the rest of the Jungle environment.



And that is it. This post took me days to write so I hope it is all clear on what is being worked on. To be clear as well, there is a lot more I could talk about but this post would be massive, stuff like updates to the user flow for the doll system, and how things will automatically happen, etc.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/

Anyways hope you enjoyed the read!

Cheers,
Kinky