Sapphire Safari News

Welcome explorers! Lots to talk about today, needless to say, we have been very very busy. Our focus has been entirely on the new Predator system, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that this feature will be one of your favorites.

[h2]Time to Hunt![/h2]
Predators will now spawn thirsty for a sweet treat, entering hunt mode which a pink mist around their eyes can indicate (don’t worry this does not show up in photos). They will stalk their prey and wait for an opportune time to strike, leaping into the air and taking what they need.


If the player disturbs a Predator during a hunt they will now become the focus of their sexual aggression. You can attempt to run, you can throw rocks at the Predators, you can even try to hide from them and break line of sight. But eventually, you’ll slip up and become a twinky for these aggressive Monster Girls. We are still building this feature right now so that the thread of Predators extends to those, not in hunting mode, our goal is to make every single Predator the player runs into a threat.


If you are grabbed you will now lose all temporary photos being carried and the time of day will change as the player passes out from being used as a sex toy, all creatures on the island will also reset as well.

Both Oscar and Jamie have had visual upgrades to their character models, both now have tans from being outside, with Jamie having tan lines from her bathing suit. Both characters now have “ruined” alts for their base clothing which happens to their clothing after being caught by aggressive Fauna and Flora. You can revert your clothing using the wardrobe in the campsite.


[h2]Better Behaviours[/h2]
Prey now has a vastly improved reaction to seeing the player, previously they would kinda run back and forth, kinda being unsure of where to go. It has led to some very interesting scenarios where the total number of alerted creatures would include just about all spawns. Now, when girls spot you only the creature who finds the player will react, the other creatures will just flee, and when they flee they leave the area as quickly as possible.

The result is that being spotted, means that the possibility of taking photos drastically goes down. There have also been a lot of tweaks implemented for the speed of creatures discovering the player and it is all starting to feel correctly tuned. We are still working on how the noise makers alert the surrounding areas, as it tends to put all creatures into the same animation pose and feedback loop, which is not intended.

[h2]Mating Monpedia[/h2]
Our team has been hard at work building the new animation and tagging for the Mating Tab in the Monpedia. Each species now has access to 9 more photo categories related just to the new sex acts in the game.


[h2]Pretty Sexy Flowers[/h2]
We have also created a new AI around the Aggressive Flora on the island. The Perv Plant as we are calling it internally will reach out and grab anyone passing by, including players! Depending on the genitals of the grabee the animations will change. I have even had a Perv Plant grab a leaping Predator out of the air saving my behind from being grabbed!


There are a bunch of other smaller changes we have made to the game which I will go over in greater detail once the patch drops. I also wanted to let everyone know that if you’re looking to support our development and want to access our internal development builds (filled with an assortment of bugs and incomplete features) you can do so by becoming a VIP in our supporter programs on Patreon or SubscribeStar. This is only for the most diehard supporters and no one is missing out on content by not applying for this. We just wanted to give more back to our community, and to those who really want to help this game succeed!

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

We will be dropping this soon, just we need to make sure all the bugs are squashed and all the content is working as intended!

If you have not joined our community Discord now is the time to do it! We recently had an open development meeting for Sapphire Safari to discuss our new roadmap for building towards an Early Access launch on Steam. I am going to go over the numerous changes to our plans with you all here.

Let’s get this out of the way. We had a rough couple of months with some of our staff changing which pushed our schedule back a whole bunch. Originally we were hoping that by November of this year, we would have our Early Access launch. Given the amount of work left in the current roadmap that is no longer feasible, so it means our scope has to change. The goal was to launch with the entire Plains region fully completed, meaning narrative, side quests, unlocks, etc. If we were to do that now the release date would look like Q3 2025. So what does the new scope look like?

[h2]Tourist Mode[/h2]
Tourist mode is our answer to that question! Tourist mode is an open sandbox experience designed around letting the player engage with systems without needing to gate or unlock features. We will focus on completing this experience for the launch of the Early Access content and the “Story Mode” will be the focus post-launching.

After v022 is completed the team will move into creating all the work and polish needed to make that game mode feel incredible. This includes overhauling the introduction to the game and implementing a very small section of the tutorial we have pre-recorded.

Once we have this complete we will also be able to release a demo of the game with some limited features and species list.

[h2]Diegetic Mechanic Changes[/h2]
First on the block for a slight tweak is our original plans for Familiarity. Previously as you level up a species they progress through 4 tiers, slowly becoming more accustomed to the player, while also unlocking a gallery viewer of player interactions. It would have been 5 new animations per species which would have been 45 animations in total that would be a once-view type reward.

The diegetic version of Familiarity works a little differently. The player now has 3 tiers to progress through

• Fearful - Girls flee once the player is spotted.
  
• Curious - Girls pose for photos but flee if approached.
  
• Friendly - Girls pose for photos but can be interacted with if approached.
  

Leveling a species to Friendly will allow for Player X Monster interactions, interacting will pull up a new feature we are currently calling Monsutra. Within this new UI panel, the player can select from any sexual animations they have discovered in the game. To discover a new sex pose, you simply take a photo of it for the first time, much like how species discovery works.

[h2]A Better Sandbox Experience[/h2]
Core functionality aside like tutorialisation and such, the goal is to take some of the elements we wanted to build in later patches and push them into the new Tourist Mode dev cycle. I’ll quickly list off a few of the stuff we will be building ahead of schedule:

• Nests - Each species has its nest location. Activating Radio Beacons will uncover these areas as a point of interest for the player. Exploring inside during the species' sleeping hours will be a small stealth puzzle to navigate. Exploring until the end, the player can witness a very unique sex act performed by the species which will unlock inside the Monsutra.
  
• New Tools and Toys - Found inside the player campsite is a tool chest, filled with new gadgets and toys to use on the wildlife. This includes Sex Toys to throw around, Toys like beach balls, or teddy bears, Bait to lure particular species around, and Fake bushes to help with stealth and sneaking.
  
• Map Functionality - Teleporting to camp polishes for fast travel and the like.
  
• Motion Capture Animation Overhaul - We suit up and add a couple hundred new global animations to the game.
  
• Perfect Photo Functionality - Tied in with the new mocap animations, scoring photos gets a huge boost for taking the photo at the right time!
  
• Polish - New loading screens, Detailed save file information, Animation tag overhaul to stop duping.
  

And loads more! We really hope that our decision to focus on the quality of the first launched product instead of rushing to build the content for Early Access won’t rub too many the wrong way. Our goals for the narrative won’t ever change, we feel the pressure from you all to get this game on Steam sooner rather than later, so we needed to compromise to make that happen.

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

Finally as a spoiler for something fun that grew from our Discord meeting, here is a new slime creature we will be adding to the game as a way to “elevate” some of the animations without spawning in something too random. Why lean on a magical rock, when you can lean on a squishy little guy who likes milk?

Welcome explorers! Yeah I know, dev times for this “micro patch” were f’n brutal. We sincerely apologize to those expecting a quicker turnaround. We had a lot happen during this patch, stuff like lead staff leaving and new staff coming in, moving houses, funerals, etc. Sometimes real life just kicks you in the gonads. However, the dev part of the patch also threw us into a loop, the proposed timeframe for updating the doll system to its final form was 2-3 weeks. In the end, that whole process, including the debugging and tweaking took 3 months.

[h2]Time Well Spent[/h2]
So why did it take so long? The older doll system was pretty unique, for one sex pose - let's take doggy in this example - required a start/intro, a slow, medium, and fast core loop, a finisher, and post-finisher animations for each pose, for each participant. The game using its tracking and needs data for each NPC would then choose which animations to play based on their stamina, their lust, etc. It was stupidly complicated and created a lot of tech debt and jank. Mons would not be synced correctly, or they would not animate long enough for player discovery.

Instead, we ripped all that away (including the NPC needs), and built the sex system off the back of the Smart Object system. Now when a monster spawns, she is given 3 tasks, she seeks one out and does it. If someone enters a sex Smart Object, another mon is pushed to seek out and join, and voila, the sex magically works, jank-free. The removal of the old system required a lot of cleaning, and the new system needed a lot of tweaking. Some interesting examples we had to contend with during development include:

• Too many girls wanted to get some fuckywucky and it made the world very underpopulated.
  
• Too many girls are obsessed with coming over and over.
  
• The bees are too horny and ruining threesomes by overcrowding.
  
• Girls sliding around the world jerking off.
  
• Girls gain the power of flight after they cum.
  

17 unique sex animations are being added to the game which include Female x Female, Futa x Female/Futa, and Futa x Tiny (bee). It is worth pointing out that while we do support the removal of all Futa content from the game your play experience will be vastly different from the intended design. For the best results please use Medium or High Futa spawn rates.


It is also far from being completed as well, we made the unfortunate discovery that because our generic animation rig is too different from what the monster girls look like, every animation is off by like 10 centimeters, so penetrations are not what we intend for them to be. The solution for this is to redo all the animations with a monster girl-sized animation rig instead, so that will be pushed into the next patch.

[h2]New Features for v022b[/h2]
After all the doll system overhaul, there is a lot more added to the game that is worth discussing. The first big addition is the new fluid cum system. Now when the ladies goo they actually goo! Naturally, we have a few different ways this can impact the performance of your computer as it is a fluid simulation that mathematically sticks to models - very difficult to build that - it will shoot from the right place, cover whatever it lands on, combine, and stick to models. If you turn off the fluids to save GPU power you will instead get a sprite spray which, won’t stick to much, but it still looks nice. Especially the Bee girl, she can get absolutely covered in batter.


We also fixed the floating hand jerk-off issue as well using an IK system which directs the tip of dongs into the right holes/hands. However, because model sizes are slightly different the actual execution will vary. We plan to normalize all the models going forward so these slight deviations won't be an issue.



Grass now dynamically flattens around sex acts in the game, we might need to come back to this as it can look a little wonky at times when you zoom in from a distance but the flattening is very useful for taking clearer shots when you’re on the same level as your subjects.


Sex now has sound! Plaps, slaps, penetrations, and ejaculations are now dynamically added to the audio soundscapes, you will be able to find sex happening around you just by keeping your ears open. We have also added a temp vocal track to the sex as well, which is mostly used to give us an idea of what exactly needs to be recorded via actresses as it is also a dynamic system.

Plus a bunch more smaller fixes!

• Jamie has a brand new locomotion which makes her far more feminine.
  
• Monster Girls will not be aware of the player's presence while they are asleep, they will wake up if you make noise or startle another girl.
  
• Upgraded the engine to Unreal v5.4.2.
  
• Corrected a boatload of shapekey errors for Monster Girl faces.
  
• Updated lighting models to improve nighttime visibility.
  
• Map light sources and props have been overhauled.
  

And that about sums up everything in this “micro patch”. Our next focus should include a lot more interesting gameplay mechanics as we will be turning our attention to the Predator AI system and how that flows into the current gameplay. Here is a short list of our next patch goals.

• Mating tab for Monpedia for all species.
  
• Predator AI system.
  
• Predator spawning system.
  
• Predator capture and animation system.
  
• Failure state for capture.
  
• Torn clothing system and dripping fluids.
  
• Temp action on wardrobe to replace torn clothing.
  
• Implement tentacle plant capture and penetration animations along with bee and activation AI.
  

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

I hope you all enjoy the patch! Be sure to send in feedback if ya got it!

Greetings explorers! One more developer blog to help tide you over until the next patch! As mentioned in our previous blog Sapphire Documents Issue 016 we have been hard at work focused on the new doll system overhaul, along with a slew of other important features for visibility and interaction!

[h2]How to Doll[/h2]
This is becoming a meme at this point, considering how much we reworked this system over the development time the game has had. However, our new Doll iteration is all about delivering really good-looking sex animations, minus the jank, minus the hardships.

Currently, the doll system uses another tool called NPC Needs, which determines the speed, intensity, and length that an NPC stays inside a sex animation. This, naturally, is an overly complicated system that is both impressive and unnecessary. To focus on what is important - the presentation of sex - we have instead opted for a hand-crafted animation system.



What does all this mean? In the next patch, you’ll be able to wander around the island, and you’ll come across monsters taking each other to pound town, mons will be able to watch the group do their thing. This means that the lust bomb won’t be needed and monsters won’t simply join in as they pass by, it will feel way more natural and the player will have a lot of “discovered” moments. The animations are roughly 1 - 2 minutes long and they have multiple phases along the way to ejaculation.

[h2]Landscaping[/h2]
To make way for more natural-looking sex, we have had to alter how the game world reacts to characters walking around. Now if you move through grass, it will bend and leave a trail. If mons engage in sex animations the grass around them will flatten allowing for more clean photography to happen. After a while, the grass will reset but it should add a lot more function to capturing clean sexual photographs.



[h2]Money Shots and Face Paints[/h2]
Lastly, the big new feature being added to the next patch is our cum and fluids system. I am not sure who among you will understand when I say, fluid simulation is not for the faint of heart. Unreal Engine has fluid sims built into its engine for all developers to use, however, cum is not an intended use case for it. In fact, fluids sticking to character meshes is not what the system is for.



The basic issue is the fluid can react to bones and meshes of a character, momentum however makes the fluid not work as we need it. It is a difficult issue to fix as our use case requires fluids to stick, slide around, drip down and out of holes, pool on the ground. We are working on it, so it might require a couple of iterations to get perfect.

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

Anyway, that is it, for now, we are still working hard on getting it all together. More information to come very soon!

Hello explorers welcome to a micro patch for Sapphire Safari! As mentioned in our last Documents Issue 016 we are breaking down the MASSIVE v022 sex patch into five smaller patches that can be enjoyed faster. Today we have the first patch, focused entirely on patching in the final three island natives.


[h2]Air, Water, and Mist[/h2]
Three new beauties can now be found on Sapphire Island, each one has unique locomotion, features, and mechanics compared to the others, hence why it took us so long to bring them to the Island.


[h3]Caiadaly - Crocodile[/h3]
This new small classification predator can be found around the waterways of Sapphire Island. Adding her was quite difficult due to her main locomotion being swimming, we needed to build that from scratch to make it all work. It is a little janky still but we will refine it as we go along.


[h3]Sweedee - Bumble Bee[/h3]
A tiny classification of prey can be found anywhere there are plants or flowers. We had to create a brand new flight locomotion for her, how she flees, how she moves, and how she interacts with existing smart objects. We will likely add more unique animations for her as we go, and we are still considering what to do with her wings when they are not in use.


[h3]Malous - Ghostly Wolf[/h3]
The first special spawn of Sapphire Safari! This unique presence on the Island can only be found by completing an environment puzzle that will take you all over the plains biome! After unlocking her, she will still be quite difficult to spot so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for her!

[h2]Island Changes[/h2]
To better house our new island natives Sapphire Island has dramatically changed. The primary focus was to create waterways that feel more alive. The tiny rivers are now grand and deep streams, the tiny swamp is now a giant biome of its own, and the island now houses unique puzzle elements you will need to discover for yourselves!


[h2]Main Menu and Intro[/h2]
Finally, we have removed our old Main Menu level in favor of something more dynamic, instead of the (now underused) Boat intro we have a focus on the Plains campsite. The time of day reflects the last save, and the weather is randomized every load in. This sweeping change also pushed us to fix the temporary introduction cinematic as well. It is still a placeholder but it is nicer than it was before.


[h3]Changelog v022a[/h3]

• Added Caiadaly, Sweedee, Malous species
  
• Added new Monpedia UX entries
  
• Added Malous environment puzzle elements
  
• Modified Plains biome to increase water areas
  
• Added water noise during rain
  
• Added 100+ smart objects in the Plains biome
  
• Modified Map icon discoverability
  
• Removed Beacon spawn options
  
• Removed Beacon activation compass icons
  
• Added compass proximity feature to reduce clutter
  
• Fixed map unveil rain bug
  
• Fixed submission focus bugs
  
• Added new main menu level
  
• Added new introduction cutscene level
  

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

That's it for now! We hope you enjoy the new patch! Be sure to check out the Sapphire Documents Issue 016 for more information on what we are building next!