Project Castaway News

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• [p]Added back the old music clips we had during our alpha testing, which includes 7 clips in total.[/p]
• [p]Added togglable respawning for crabs, turtles, komodos, leopards and snakes (20 real-world minutes). The animals will respawn where you skin them.[/p]
• [p]Added 3 types of snakes scattered around 4 islands, with the red variation being venomous. The snake skin can be tanned for leather.[/p]
• [p]Added UI scaling option under graphic settings.[/p]

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• [p]Fixed music getting interrupted on the loading screen, which was more apparent when playing the airplane intro sequence.[/p]
• [p]Fixed ability to fly by looking down while swimming and attempting to move backwards.[/p]
• [p]Fixed bug report stuck on loading if report is sent before a successful login (login is automatic using your Steam account).[/p]
• [p]Fixed yucca leaf typo.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Celsius typo.[/p]
• [p]Fixed crafted plane chassis preview floating in the sky.[/p]
• [p]Fixed tanning station having wrong impact effect.[/p]
• [p]Fixed some animals, most noticeable on komodos, being hard to skin (you had to hover over a specific area).[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Added random delay between music clips.[/p]
• [p]Trimmed the music played when you reach the shore after crashing the airplane.[/p]
• [p]Removed splash screen disclaimer.[/p]
• [p]Fade and loading screen now feels smoother.[/p]
• [p]All of the UI has consistent scaling, fonts, font sizes, font color and background colors.[/p]
• [p]When swinging your tool or weapon, only if the object you hit got damaged, its health will degrade.[/p]
• [p]Disassembly table returns at least one (1) item, regardless of health and level.[/p]
• [p]Removed rocks on lagoon island entrance and lowered the terrain a little bit, allowing you to enter the lagoon with your raft.[/p]
• [p]Challenge name is displayed on save slot icon hover.[/p]
• [p]Crafted plane chassis appears on radar (unlocked on radio tower quest).[/p]
• [p]Adjusted animal skin description.[/p]
• [p]Stoves, refrigerators, AC units, computers, TVs and cars give heatsinks when broken down.[/p]
• [p]AC units and TVs give microprocessors when broken down.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for participating on the feedback form. Here's the summary of results based on 126 responses:[/p][p]
Q: Rank the following in order of importance
[/p][p]
Q: What aspects of the game do you find most frustrating or in need of improvement right now?
[/p][p][/p][p]Q: Is there something you’ve enjoyed in other survival games that you’d love to see in this one?
[/p][p][/p][p]Based on these results, we will prioritize our updates towards version 1.0 accordingly. Here's the most immediate features that you can expect within the next few patches, in no particular order:[/p]

1. [p]While there were some fixes intended for the dropbox this patch, we decided to stall it and completely overhaul it, especially for the raft. A new storage will be implemented that does not rely on physics and will be UI based. It will support both backpack items and large carriables, like treasures and logs.[/p]
2. [p]Improved procedural biome algorithm, which will scale for more islands and improve loading times.[/p]
3. [p]More animals.[/p]
4. [p]Full localization.[/p]
5. [p]More islands.[/p]
6. [p]Base-building on raft.[/p]
7. [p]Partial building preview canceling.[/p]
8. [p]Moving structures.[/p]
9. [p]Co-op beta testing.[/p]
10. [p]Vegetation respawning.[/p]
11. [p]Several new craftables.[/p]
12. [p]World map and compass.
    [/p]

[p]Warm regards,[/p][p]The project castaway team[/p]

[p]Hello everyone!

We’re gathering player feedback to help us improve the game for everyone.

Co-op and resource/animal respawning are already in development, and we’d love your input on what we should prioritize next.

Please take a moment to share your thoughts here: [/p][p]https://forms.gle/Z2v4KqKaCmctd2Qx9[/p][p]
Warm regards,[/p][p]The project castaway team[/p]

[h3]Patch notes[/h3][p]
New[/p]

• [p]Added challenge gamemode with two challenges: [/p]
  • [p]Escape artist: Escape the islands within 15 days.[/p]
  • [p]Treasure hunter: Find 5 treasures within 5 days.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Fixes [/p]

• [p]Fixed raft too sensitive when touched. Most noticeable on larger rafts, where the contact point with the raft was far away from the center.[/p]
• [p]Fixed extra space underneath the raft, colliding with the terrain when built or when navigating shallow waters.[/p]
• [p]Fixed raft climb interaction displaying empty prompt.[/p]
• [p]Fixed standing torches, raft bases, rudder, wooden doors, elevated wooden platforms, elevated metal platforms, metal walls, palm doors and palm frond windows having no appropriate impact effect when hit.[/p]
• [p]Fixed wooden door, bench, chairs, tables, stairs, elevated platforms, platforms (roofs), walls, door walls and window door walls having wrong health icon.[/p]
• [p]Fixed raft building node unavailable after node has not been physically visible due to terrain, even after pushing the raft further into the water to try to free the node. Additionally, the nodes are now available even if they clip through something (like a cliff or terrain), as long as the node is not occupied by another buildable. This also improves base building, for example, making stairs available even if they clip a little bit through the terrain when connected to the elevated platform.[/p]
• [p]Minimized the chances for the player to be stuck, especially when standing on the elevated platforms.[/p]
• [p]Fixed multiple material added sound effect played at the same time, causing loud audio, when there's a lot of material requirements.[/p]
• [p]Fixed turtles' and komodo dragon's necks starting to rotate after death. 👻[/p]
• [p]Fixed typos on the disassembly table.[/p]
• [p]Fixed standing torch too bright.[/p]
• [p]Fixed unintended shadow at the bottom of the standing torch.[/p]
• [p]Fixed crashed airplane having strange buoyancy physics.[/p]
• [p]Fixed vulnerability within the game's engine. https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-59489 [/p]

[p][/p][p]Quality of Life [/p]

• [p]Raft bases, and things built on top of the raft, do not receive force when hit with with a weapon or tool.[/p]
• [p]Increased rudder view angle when sitting down.[/p]
• [p]Non node-based structures have the same visual effect as the node-based structures: When standing on them, the preview turns red and the UI to add material gets hidden. Additionally, they trigger a message and sound effect when standing on it and attempting to add material.[/p]
• [p]If a save file is corrupted, it won't be shown on the save/load screen and a warning will be prompted.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Developer notes[/p][p]Hello all, hoping you enjoy this update's round of fixes. [/p][p][/p][p]Along co-op, we have been working on a UI system overhaul, to properly support diverse types of screens (steam deck or TVs), and to have finally have a fully localized text. The full localization has been on hold since it had to wait for the new UI system to be finished. This new system will also introduce themes, similar to Discord, and it's also relatively easy to edit, potentially opening doors for custom player-based themes.[/p][p][/p][p]Now that major fixes are being tackled, new content will slowly be included on the next few patches 🙏, starting with snakes and an animal respawn system.[/p][p][/p][p]Warm regards,[/p][p]The project castaway team[/p]

[h3]Patch notes[/h3][p]
New[/p]

• [p]Added a button to reset custom keybinds.[/p]
• [p]Added drop carriable, drop weapon, smash carriable, place, start fire, custom building, and wheel menu (read-only) to rebind UI.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Fixes [/p]

• [p]Fixed trying to dive by looking down while swimming above water hard sometimes.[/p]
• [p]Fixed rope returning cloth instead of yucca when disassembled.[/p]
• [p]Fixed building mode toggling on/off when attempting to add materials while holding a hammer.[/p]
• [p]Fixed smash carriable prompt displaying a keyboard sprite while using gamepad.[/p]
• [p]Fixed canceling rebind sometimes closing the context window.[/p]
• [p]Fixed input rebind hover frame having not completely centered. Additionally, made it a brighter red so it’s clearer.[/p]
• [p]Fixed no pointer when opening journal or backpack via wheel menu.[/p]
• [p]Fixed dropping a weapon on gamepad sometimes not possible.[/p]
• [p]Fixed "press any key to continue" screen not getting enabled by default sometimes.[/p]
• [p]Fixed stuck tooltip on the start screen sometimes.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Quality of Life [/p]

• [p]Holding crouch button will dive you underwater.[/p]
• [p]Lack of oxygen kills you slowly instead of instantly. Scales with the game time.[/p]
• [p]Separated rebind UI into movement, interaction and utility.[/p]
• [p]Updated bandages craft description and discovery text to be up to date to its current functionality.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Developer notes[/p][p]Progress on co-op is steady, and the current estimation suggests that a closed alpha can begin within two months.[/p][p][/p][p]Since 0.2.0, some of you may have noticed the raft is a little more unstable than usual. The main issue has been identified and a fix is being deployed on 0.2.3, along several QoL updates regarding it.[/p][p][/p][p]Warm regards,[/p][p]The project castaway team[/p]

[h3]Patch notes[/h3][p]
New[/p]

• [p]Added Steamworks SDK. On the end-user side, you can see your Steam avatar on the main menu. On a more technical side, it's helping us create more tangible player accounts on our backend for a correct multiplayer experience. This will also open doors for steam-specific features, like cloud saves and achievements.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Fixes [/p]

• [p]Fixed turning pickups slow with mouse.[/p]
• [p]Fixed items on raft saving wrong position if you had previously loaded a save file and adjusted your raft base (increase or decrease size). While it won't happen again, if you have saved wrongly positioned structures, then they will need to be demolished and rebuilt in order to have correct position and save data.[/p]
• [p]Fixed visible terrain texture pattern. Most noticeable on starter island.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Developer notes[/p][p]We're about to dive into the core phase of co-op development, which means we'll soon be in a much better position to provide a solid launch date for our 1.0 release.[/p][p][/p][p]We are also enabling a beta channel soon, which will be on a closed beta per-invite basis. Beta testing will not be tied to co-op only, and some features not in retail might also be available.[/p][p][/p][p]Unfortunately, our reviews have taken a bigger hit than usual in recent months. While we’ve addressed most of the issues that led to negative feedback, those reviews often remain visible. If you’ve left a review in the past and your concerns have been resolved, we’d greatly appreciate it if you could consider updating your feedback. Your support truly helps us grow and improve.[/p][p][/p][p]Lastly, from August 30 until September 13, we will be having a 55% discount![/p][p][/p][p]Warm regards,[/p][p]The project castaway team[/p]