Nature And Life - Drunk On Nectar News

The Praying Mantis Lifecycle has now been released on the grandest stage this game has ever seen:

A Living Tree World -  procedurally generated with every leaf, every flower and every shoot depicted as complete 3D surfaces! A Tree World so detailed so real that players can walk, climb, rest or hunt upon any part of it!





Thousands upon thousands of leaves, stalks and flowers surround you, each of them with teeming with so much insect life, that the player can conceivably never run out of prey!





Indeed, dear friends! This Tree World is so huge, compared to you as the player that no Mantis can conceivably ever explore all of it!

Also because the Tree is procedurally generated anew each game, each "Mantis Tree World" is slightly different from your previous experience :)





Here's a quick visual overview of your Mantis' Six instars, from Egg to Winged Adult!




Camera, performance and animations are 3 areas that need improvements, upcoming updates will address as many of these as are possible now.

"Living Tree World" is the key concept behind this update with the Praying Mantis Lifecycle occurring within that context. Ultimately several compromises had to be made to the original vision due to limited resources, but upcoming updates will keep adding to this vision across the game.



Players who are having any particular issues with this update - particularly Camera, Movement or Performance are requested to check back for subsequent updates, which will hopefully happen soon. ~


First of all heartfelt gratitude to all the supporters of this game and for your support through all these years.

For those wondering about why there were no updates for so long, it has not been possible to sustain the game's development due to low sales in the past several years. Hopefully this will change in the days to come and it will then be possible to make more frequent updates :)

Thanks to everyone for your interest in this game!



I hope you enjoy playing the Praying Mantis Lifecycles update!

With Love,
- Venugopalan Sreedharan
(Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar)

Dear Friends,

You can now purchase Drunk On Nectar's soundtrack on Steam!

This is also a fundraiser for the game's ongoing development, as every single purchase will help immensely towards providing financial support for sustaining the game's future development.

My heartfelt gratitude and love also goes with every single purchase :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2496420/Nature_And_Life__Drunk_On_Nectar_Soundtrack/



A collection of 18 original music tracks written exclusively for the game!

From "Mating Rituals" of the Monarch Butterfly to a "Coming of Age" anthem for the Jumping Spider, this is a unique collection of nature themed music that you are unlikely to find elsewhere!



1. To Fundraise & Support DoN - every single contribution counts and is deeply appreciated by me.

2. Download as mp3 files, listen anywhere you like without any constraints!

3. Listen to DoN's high-energy, intensely spiritual soundtracks that possess very real power to heal and empower Body, Mind and Soul!




I recommend using noise-cancelling headphones or a totally sound-proof environment (even a car!) if you must use external speakers.

Listening to music is a deeply profound experience and to get the most out of your experience, it is well worth choosing the environment, medium and occasion with care!

There are an infinite glistening realms of beauty, majesty and wonder contained within every good piece of music and I hope that this game provides you with some wonderful memories in return for your participation in this game's fundraiser!


Since June I have been busy with other projects to meet financial needs and so unfortunately things have been quiet of late.

I hope that the blessings of the game's wonderful fans will shine upon this fundraising effort so that the ongoing development of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar can resume at full pace again.

No matter what happens the development of this game will continue.
I sincerely believe that a good nature game can have a lasting positive effect on all of humanity in many wonderful ways!

With your best wishes, good will and love, we will reach the end of this epic journey together some day soon!

With Love,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
(Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar)

This is a minor update with the following bugfixes:

[h2]Game Music[/h2]
Game music was playing just one track repeatedly ("Sweet Nectar Drinker" - the Blue Mud Dauber's theme song) instead of cycling through all the OST in the game.

To new players - the game has a large collection of OST tracks which you may have missed due to this bug if you got it in the past week.

Do play the game again with this patch to be able to enjoy the full range of music tracks that it has to offer :)

[h2]Male Monarch Butterfly Mating[/h2]
All mating chem trails have been boosted to ensure that high-speed mating rituals (like the Male Monarch Butterfly's mating challenges) provide sufficient visual cues for players to be able to find their mates.

Please get back if you are still having any issues with this :)

Thanks to everyone for reading!

[h2]Upcoming Major Updates - Praying Mantis & Leafhopper Lifecycles[/h2]
The game is now in the middle of a major update release cycle, with development for both the Praying Mantis and Leafhopper Lifecycles occurring simultaneously along with new visual content for plants and environment :)

Stay tuned for more!

[h3]With Love[/h3]
[h3]Venugopalan Sreedharan[/h3]
Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar

Happy Weekend, Dear Friends!

DoN's Version v0.5.2 is out!

Featuring more improvements across the board, this build focuses on polishing existing gameplay systems and visual content. Here's a quick round up!


[h3]Depth Of Field Disabled across the board[/h3]
For improving consistency of visuals as well as performance, DoF has been entirely removed from the game as an interim measure. This was a stylistic choice as well as to provide consistency across small/large instars and the game's camera zooming feature.







[h3]Leafhopper post-life coloration improved[/h3]




This is a multi-update effort aimed at improving the visual quality of the Grasshopper's Leg Kicks - a defensive feature that many of us Grasshopper players have come to truly love, but has been greatly let down in the past by incomplete visual depiction.



This update begins the task of polishing this feature by fixing the following:

• Predators are no longer buried half-way through a leaf after being kicked - their body lines up neatly along the flora surface
  
• Player camera no longer abruptly changes view or forces you upside down - it is always stable and consistent
  
• Consistent behavior across different surfaces (leaf v/s landscape, upright v/s upside down pose, etc)
  

More to come as always!


[h3]Game Music Maximum Volume significanlty increased![/h3]
Given much positive feedback from players in the recent year on the game's OST, the decision was made to uncap the maximum possible volume of all in-game music (Settings -> Audio -> Music) enabling those players who really like the music, to have an absolute blast!

The plan to release all the game's OST as a download for players to easily listen outside the game is still active and will occur soon. Along with remastering of old sound tracks, new music will also be added - DoN's fount of music is still gushing forth!

Note: The default music volume for the game has also been increased, in the belief that the game's music is vital to its enjoyment.

As always, your feedback is welcome :)


Work has already begun on the game's next major update - The Praying Mantis Lifecycle.



These weekly improvement & bugfix updates will continue to roll in every Friday, but major updates are also being worked on simultaneously.

You can look forward to early screenshots of the Mantis Egg Sac (Oothecea) soon! :)

Thank you so much for reading and have a blast this weekend! :) :)

[h3]With Love,[/h3]
[h3]Venugopalan Sreedharan[/h3]
Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar

DoN is being improved around the clock and this weekend release delivers all the goodies that went in over the past 2 weeks!





[h2]Input Keys highlighting[/h2]

All player input hints have now been improved - raw text has been replaced with appropriate buttons and icons which are appropriately highlighted. This should make it much easier for new players to learn the game's controls!

Additionally, a new high-contrast theme is used for all player hints to make things easier to read.







[h2]DoN's Minimal HUD[/h2]
This is a multi-update effort which aims at delivering maximum immersion to players by minimizing the need for the HUD to the greatest extent possible.

Here's what this this update has changed:
• HUD is hidden when player arrives within strike range of prey (if player has passed all relevant tutorials)
• HUD is hidden while player interacts with prey.
• HUD is automatically shown again during critical events such as grappling contests, etc

An actual in-game screenshot - The HUD is automatically hidden during key moments for maximum immersion!



Subsequent updates will bring further improvements under this umbrella, so look forward to a more immersive overall experience of the game! :)

[h2]Improvements & Bugfixes[/h2]
[h3] Lifecycles[/h3]
Jumping Spider

• Sprinting speed significantly increased for Jumping Spider - It is now so much more fun!
  
• Sprinting cost reduced for all Fauna. You are encouraged to sprint and run around more! :)
  
• Sprint tutorial (in egg sac) now transitions out smoothly to the next quest
  
• Narration Avatar for Mother Jumping Spider restored in Egg Sac (see below!)
  

[h3] Nature Sandbox[/h3]

• Possessing Nocturnal Wasp during Day no longer causes freezing
  

Narration avatar restored for providing a more engaging experience for players!

[h2]Next Update[/h2]
That's it for this update, but you can look forward to a new release every weekend for DoN from now on!

The game is now being improved around the clock allowing this shift to a weekly release cycle.

The next update will be out on 26th May 2023 and is sure to bring more improvements across the board to DoN's unique Nature World!

Thanks a lot for reading :)

[h3]With Love,[/h3]
[h2]Venugopalan Sreedharan[/h2]
Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar