Sapphire Safari News

Hello explorers! Welcome to another Sapphire Safari patch! With Christmas right around the corner, we crushed hard to ensure this build was in your hands sooner, rather than later. Let’s dive into what's new!

[h2]A new Focus[/h2]
As I explained in the previous Sapphire Documents issue, we have changed how players control their trusty camera and created a few new QOL tools to help snap the perfect photo.

First though, a disclaimer. You can no longer take several photos within a quick amount of time.

What does that mean? Well, as developers we have an ideal way we want our players to interface with Sapphire Safari, our goal is to have players focus on stealth, making them more into peeping toms. The world needs to react around the player's presence and make it difficult to take photos, unless they are hidden and out of sight. So the first push toward that ideal comes in the form of a Photo Frame Buffer. This is a set time that the camera needs to process the last photo taken. Currently in v019 players can take two photos quickly before the camera needs to charge. In later builds we might reduce it further, once the player has an option to upgrade the camera capabilities.

These two icons on the bottom of the screen show how many photos you can take, they independently recharge, and the UI will hide itself after.



Next, we have removed the delayed focus in favor of manually selecting a target to focus on, this can be done with the Q button. To make this a viable feature we also added grey boxes around the heads of NPC within the viable scoring distance, this way you can visualize just what Monster Girls the photo will count for.



Lastly, we have added two additional features using an analysis mechanic. A full map tracking system and a photo comparison mechanic. To use both, simply select the target using the focus pull button “Q” and hold down the Analyze button.



This will compare the current animation the NPC is doing and the Variant to the photos already submitted in the Monpedia for the General and Variant tabs. Mating will come later, but the icon has been added all the same.

Next, the NPC can be tracked for a limited time. A new icon is added to the Compass and the Map function.



[h2]Directed for higher Frames[/h2]
The last big feature added to the game is the spawn director, for more details on how this works be sure to read the Sapphire Documents Issue 013, but the basic gist is that instead of a map-wide spawning system with nearly 100 simultaneous NPCs roaming and using system resources for pathfinding and needs, we now spawn the NPC’s directly around the player as the needs are met. The player won’t be able to see the seams of the system which is nice but it should drastically improve system resource use and make the world feel way more alive.

[h2]Other Extras[/h2]
A few more things to note:

1. New nests were added for the Rabbit, Sheep, Deer, Bat, Wolf, and Fox species. The use cases for these are still being tweaked so expect some odd behaviours around them.
   
2. Malous spawn puzzle foundation added to the plains region. More on this later, but you might see and hear some interesting things around the plains at night.
   
3. NPC sensitivity tweaks for the upcoming stealth overhaul patch, the girls just react a lot faster to sounds you make. Just keep that in mind for this patch.
   
4. Running is now a toggle instead of a hold, this is for our controller users out there. No more claw hold.
   

[h3]Changelog v019:[/h3]

• Added new Spawn Director.
  
• Added Photo Frame Buffer to photo UX.
  
• Added new Photo-scoring animation.
  
• Added Analyze tool to Camera functions.
  
• Added Tracking tool to Camera functions.
  
• Added Target identification to Camera functions.
  
• Added Manual Focus Pull to Camera functions.
  
• Changed Monster sound radius size.
  
• Added Monster tracking for SFX spawn on the player.
  
• Added Monster Nests for Rabbit, Sheep, Deer, Bat, Wolf, and Fox species.
  
• Added Malous Spawn environment puzzle foundation.
  
• Added new sightline props to border Plains regions.
  
• Removed compass from submission UI.
  
• Swapped Sprinting state to toggle instead of hold.
  

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

Stay tuned for the next patch! The roadmap will also be updated as we will be adding another smaller patch for v020. Enjoy!

Hello explorers! Welcome to another issue of Sapphire Documents. Today we are going to go over what will be in the next patch which we are finalizing right now, along with content being developed for future patches.

Up first is the stuff for v019

[h2]Spawn Director[/h2]
This patch is all about creating what we are calling the Spawn Director. Previously Sapphire was set into a bunch of zones, if the player entered the zone the game would spawn mobs and they would constantly be zoning in and out of existence. This also chewed up a lot of system resources to populate the world, and if you ran fast enough you could “beat” the spawning and see monsters falling from the sky as the game attempted to catch up.

With the director it is all different now and based on a radius around the player.


We have two classifications for Mon spawns now, a close radius and a far radius. The closer spawns automatically populate Smart Objects on the map, so you’ll round a corner and a monster girl will be picking fruits, dancing, jumping around, talking to another girl, etc. The far spawns are for Mons walking around and spawn at a distance from the player, it's always in the direction the player is currently moving.

Once the player turns around and heads in another direction, the monster girls you cannot see are removed from the world, and new spawns are populated with the same logic above. What previously was close to 40 spawns, is now about 8 or 10. However, the world feels the same in terms of population.

This however does not stop the player from finding a girl they like and tracking her movements. As of now the girls after completing a Smart Object task will roam to bigger distances. So if you like a snake girl, and you follow that same girl she will roam the world, and the director will populate the space around you and her. Since the director is smart enough to know what girls you’ve taken an interest in.

[h2]Camera Tools and Focus[/h2]
Next on the list is the new focus, analysis, and tracking system for the Camera. The previous system had the player “waiting” for the autofocus to lock on, and after doing so would pull the focus to the player. A lot of you guys did not enjoy this interaction so we have swapped it to a new system instead.

First, let me detail our goal for camera interactions. The goal is to force players into “choosing” when to take photos, as opposed to quickly taking several photos all at once. The slow-pulling autofocus was our first attempt at this.

Our new system fixes several points of confusion.

Players never knew when a Monster girl would be included in a photo, the new system automatically adds a “grey box” around Monsters that meet the minimum distance requirements.


The player had to focus on one creature for a long time, but could never place that creature in other parts of the photo, leading to “center of the screen” type photos. This new system allows the player to quickly cycle through each Monster within range within the viewfinder and choose who is pulling focus.


Focusing so long on a Monster girl would lead to a good photo, but now that we do not need the long focus time players do not spend time trying to take a good photo. To fix this we now have an Analyze Monster system. To do this simply look at a Monster girl, start analyzing her, and when the bar fills up you’ll get some data from it.


The first set is feedback on whether the photo you’re about to take is something you have already submitted, if it is new you’ll get a “!” icon for the category, if it's replacing something you’ll see the current score of the submitted photo. This matches the three categories for the Monpedia “General, Mating, Variants”.


The other thing you get is the Monster girl is tracked in the world for a brief period, she will also be visible on the Map Screen as well.


Lastly, we come back to the issue at hand, slowing down photography to be more skillful, quality over quantity. To do this we have implemented something the older fanbase might know, photo processing. Basically, you take a photo, and it takes a couple of seconds before you can take another. We have also added a photo animation to show this working along with a CPU icon on the viewfinder UI to show a recharge happening. As you play the game the goal is to give more CPU upgrades allowing for more photos to be taken before a charge is needed.



[h2]Sleeping Burrows[/h2]
Our first iteration for sleeping positions in Sapphire was a bit… awkward. We have taken some time to update the Plains map to include “home or burrow” locations for each of the species. This means at that species allocated sleeping time they will be found there snoozing away together in the safety of a group.


Naturally, every species will get a location like this on the map, so finding where they sleep and snapping a few candid shots will be key to completing the Monpedia.

Okay, time for future patch stuff!

[h2]Narrative[/h2]
First off we have completed the first round of vocal recording work for the audio logs found around the map and within main quests. Here is a sample of the first audio log you can find in the game. Just click the image below or right here to hear the sample.



The cast did a fantastic job on getting everything done, so far we have about 40 minutes of audio to add into the game, which is about 20ish audio logs to find around the environment and via quests.

[h2]Lewd Content[/h2]
We have been working on putting a few spicey environmental traps around the map which both the player and Monster girls can fall prey to. The first is a plant that will look just like any other plant, but venture too close and you’ll become its prey.



The vine limbs they have along with a tongue will be used in a whole manner of ways, being grabbed like this will be the first failure state players will encounter in the game, leading to a loss of time. Several hours locked in the clutches of this horny plant.


We are also working on a plant that will erupt in a cloud of lust spores, sending everyone into a sex frenzy similar to how the lust bomb works. Being caught in this won't be as bad as the vines for the player, but they will feel a loss of control.

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

So that about wraps it up. We are finalizing the next patch at the moment, so please expect that very soon.

Hello explorers! Welcome to another phat build of Sapphire Safari! Version 018 took us WAY longer than we ever could anticipate, reasons I'll go into later in the post. The highlights? We have a metric assload of new general animations, thousands of interactable points for monster girls, new AI systems, new photo goals, and tracking systems. I kid you not, this patch was a huge labor of love, and now it is time to share it all with you!

[h2]Every Mon a Goal[/h2]
The biggest feedback our players have given us is directly related to the input and feedback systems related to goal tracking and overall completion. It was always our goal to make this immediately visible to players, and now we are very close to that goal.

The Guide Book is the new way to interact with all completion-related goals, in this patch we focused entirely on the Monpedia experience. This means we have a system for making discoveries of Monster Girls, tracking the photos you have taken of them, and learning more about their biographies and habits.



Finding discoveries is easy, simply use your camera and collect proof! Anything undiscovered is listed in the Monpedia as a silhouette so be sure to cat…SNAP them all!



Each species will also have its own full tracking goal to complete. 9 photos for the General Tab and all their Variations of fur/skin/scale colors are now goals the player can view and submit for.



The General category of the Monpedia was our first overhaul for the patch. Within it, players will need to submit the best-scored photo possible for each type of behavior for every species of Monster Girl. The behaviors added in this patch are the following:

• Eating: Photos of the target eating and drinking things found in the world.
  
• Sleeping: Photo of the target sleeping (currently WIP).
  
• Grooming: Photo of the target bathing, or grooming.
  
• Socializing: Photo of the target talking/laughing (currently WIP).
  
• Exercising: Photo of the target stretching, swimming, lifting, running.
  
• Relaxing: Photo of the target sunbathing, laying against an object, sitting in the sun.
  
• Playing: Photo of the target dancing, playing tag, and splashing water.
  
• Curiosity: Photo of the target in a curious state.
  
• Tool Use: Photo of the target using things either the player dropped or environmental (currently missing and WIP).
  

We also put together the Variation category as well, within this section players are tasked with taking the best-scored photo showing off the unique patterns and colors of each species! Depending on the species, some may have more varieties than others.



Depending on the photo taken, along with what species of Monster Girl is visible a single photo can now be used for several photo slots. It is up to the player to decide on where the photo is best used for maximum effect!



To achieve all this, it took a huge amount of work, first the AI system was completely overhauled, and the AI now is given a job to do and it does it. The previous system of an NPC having needs and hunger was just not sustainable. Couple this with a new spawning system in a future patch and the player will be discovering new and exciting things around every corner and behind every rock!

[h2]Optimizations and Appealing Aesthetics[/h2]
The largest improvement we have made to date for the look of Sapphire Safari is within this patch. Previously our game had a baked lighting model, with zero shadows. It seemed okay on the surface but our new build in v018 has a fully dynamic shadow and lighting system! In my honest opinion, the lighting adds a whole new level of detail to Sapphire, the sun and moon both illuminate the world and cast shadows over the map. Also, because the new system might be a little intense for lower-end systems, turning off shadows now actually turns it off, improving performance by a considerable amount.



The Map and UI have received another push, this time to make it more readable and to combine the aesthetics into one design direction. The map is one of the bigger fixes, it now sits within a scaled window, and the same stylings are applied to the system.



One of the biggest unavoidable Frame Rate drops for Sapphire was the use of the camera, entering the viewfinder or ADS (aiming down sight) used to have a blurring effect applied to the outside of the reticle. We have since dropped the system in favor of a nice blur texture, the improvement in framerate is significant. Along with the removal of the viewfinder camera casting on the hip of the player, this patch will see massive FPS improvements across all systems.



[h2]Save File Versioning[/h2]
Alas, we come to one of the downsides to focusing on new updates like this. It means that we have outdated all existing progress and photo submissions for Sapphire Safari. In order to make sure that as we patch going forward we will be introducing a mandatory save file wipe per patch. Basically, you will need to start a fresh save for each update we have, once we have all the mechanics in place we will make sure saves are perfect moving forward.

Having said that, the game will automatically archive all the photos you’ve taken on a previous build, so they won't be usable in the game, but you will still have those photos on your computers.

We have also taken steps to add in config file versioning as well, this means if our system is using a new config setup, and the local copy on a customer's PC does not match, it will reset the local version. This is to stop things like rebindings being wonky, or any system settings getting overhauled and causing issues. You will need to set up any unique configurations again, however, you will be warned in the game when it happens.

[h2]Widescreen and Ultra-Widescreen Support[/h2]
Some of our more hardcore audience have expressed the desire to have their excessive monitor real estate supported within Sapphire Safari, so we have added a bunch of fixes and settings tools to support massive monitor resolutions, including UI framing and FOV sliders.



[h3]Changelog v018:[/h3]

Monpedia Overhaul

• added guidebook
  
• added new monpedia format
  
• replaced photo quests with general photo category
  
• added variation photo category
  
• added final names and descriptions for monster species
  
• added species discovery experience
  
• replaced scoring stamps in monpedia
  
• added completion percentage tracking to the guidebook and monpedia
  

Camera Systems

• replaced viewfinder ui for higher performance system
  
• removed camera screen from hip camera model for higher performance
  
• added new gameplay tag system for better photo response
  
• added variation stamp to photo discovery
  
• added grey stamp for lower par scored new photo discovery
  
• added landscape focus call to auto focus system
  
• removed photo output scaling options due to the possibility of overloading vram
  
• limited photo output to fixed resolutions only (1280x720, 1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160)
  

AI and Behaviors

• replaced monster needs system with smart object priority system to reduce roaming ai
  
• added 2500 smart object animation points to the plains
  
• added simple nighttime behavior and sleeping schedule
  
• added simple socializing system behavior
  
• replaced npc and player identification behavior
  

Map and Levels

• fixed map break for bridges
  
• fixed map break for hotspring
  
• improved volcano placement
  
• fixed despawning zone on plains
  
• swapped duplicate beacon icon for power icon
  
• changed display text on particular notifications
  

Systems and Tech

• added dynamic time-based lighting and shadows
  
• added time of day information to save file for better resume functionality
  
• removed transparency from tab menus
  
• map menu added to hologram aesthetic
  
• map fow texture replaced
  
• tab menus placement fixed for better readability
  
• added system menu options for disabling shadows for performance increase
  
• fixed head bone alignment on player models for head swivel
  
• added map reset on resolution change
  
• fixed softlock on climbing animation interaction
  
• added save file compatibility system with photo archiving
  
• added config file compatibility system for settings
  
• removed the analytic capture system (thank you for the reports, minimum specs have been found due to the data supplied)
  
• added system setting wizard to systems options
  
• removed dynamic resolution settings due to issues with map discovery
  
• created optimizations for integrated graphics systems
  
• removed depreciated keybindings
  
• added working fov slider for widescreen and ultra-widescreen systems
  
• added hud width restrictions for widescreens and ultra-widescreen systems
  
• corrected missing embellishments for widescreens and ultra-widescreen systems
  

[h2]Future Focus[/h2]
With this massive step out of the way, what do future patches look like for Sapphire Safari? Well, the very next patch we will be doing will focus on the Camera Scoring system. This means we will now be able to check every single creature in a photo, score each creature individually, and create a new user flow for submitting photos with multiple species within.

Camera Scoring update > Spawner overhaul update > Sex and Intimacy update > Research Level rewards > Narrative update (perhaps)

We aim to make the next couple of patches much faster than what the Monpedia General patch took, but who knows what we will run into.

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

Thanks for your patience!

​Sapphire Safari has turned 2 years old! She has come leaps and bounds since we started building our game! To celebrate this fantastic happening, and the two years of labor we've poured into the game we have a 50% off sale running for the next four weeks. Get in while you can!
As for a look back, the earliest stuff we have is quite cringy but I figured I would contrast it with the progression of work so you can all see how we started and where we have ended up.
First, let's look at our mascot for the game, our lovely bunny girl!



Originally we wanted a Lola Bunny-type look, but realised it was... erm... not... great. And moved more toward a cuter type of mascot.

The characters in the game swapped around considerably as well, mostly due to our experimentations with the art pipeline and attempting to find a perfect balance so our small team could build all the important things we needed.

The next reference piece is our our game looked and felt overall over the past 18 iterations of releases.

​

​We quickly found our desired look, but the mechanics grew and changed a whole lot.

Sapphire Safari started as an on-rails shooter, moved to a semi-open world on-rails shooter, then became an open-world voxel-based exploration game, moved onto a small semi-open-world shooter, then finally a fully open-world shooter with a focus on calendar events and quests.

The current iteration has found a perfect spot for our team, both in what we can build, and what we want this game to ultimately become. We still have a lot to decide on, specifically around how the end game feels. For now, the motions the player goes through, the overall focus, and the goals the players will have have all been found. I want to thank our lovely community for giving us this chance to experiment and find Sapphire Safari in all our experiments. We hope you'll join us for the final push to a full game!

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

Much love!
Kinky

Salutations explorers! Welcome to our next patch for Sapphire Safari! Version 017, just a few days after our massive v016 release.

So unlike our other patches, this one will be short and sweet, so here we go.

[h2]AI Eyes and Sightlines[/h2]
In the last patch, we had to turn off the eyesight for the roaming monster girls on the island, which in turn disabled the stealth mechanics of the game. It added a lot of computation requirements to the game leading to stuttering and just making it unplayable. So this patch includes our new system (instead of using the standing Unreal Engine tech).


Each girl will see roughly 20 meters in front of them, if you hide behind objects they won’t be able to spot you. Making noise like running, stepping on noise makers like twigs and branches, or jumping into vegetation like bushes while near the AI will cause them to look around, if they spot you during this time they will react, and then flee.

[h2]No Beacon left behind[/h2]
We have unlocked and lightly developed the missing area of the plains, which previously held a radio beacon you couldn’t access. This is now available to explore and the beacon can now be activated.


This patch also includes several fixes to AI and UX. Overhauls some of the problems the save system was encountering holding onto map discovery and such. But here is the full changelog.

• new vision system for girls
  
• new area on previously locked-off radio beacon
  
• clipping removed on some rocks in the plains
  
• wind animation added back to some foliage in the plains
  
• river barriers now do not block throwable tools
  
• save system bugs related to the FOW and Map not loading in are fixed
  
• save system bugs related to beacon activations not loading in are fixed
  
• bounty computer UI navigation tweaked
  
• notifications for entering and leaving radio beacon zones added
  
• photo capture flow bug related to the submission system deactivating on scoring has been fixed
  

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

I hope this patch finds you well! We would love for your continued feedback.