Nature And Life - Drunk On Nectar News

Dear players,

The much awaited Praying Mantis Lifecycle is game's next update and it is almost there!

Players will experience the complete lifecycle of the Praying Mantis across multiple generations with new gameplay mechanics and strategies completely unique to the Mantis.

Preview image - A first Instar Praying Mantis espies a massive world awaiting exploration!


An update was released for DoN today that the sets the stage for the Mantis release by bringing vast improvements to the overall game.

Below is a gist of what today's update includes:


Unlike the Lifecycle mode which puts emphasis on species depiction, the Creature Quests mode offers a more traditional gameplay experience and currently features two unique challenge maps for the Jumping Spider and Ladybug respectively.

In response to player feedback that the Creature Quests were too difficult or prolonged, this update adds a new Checkpoint system.

Players who fail to complete a challenge map (by falling in water, etc!) can immediately resume at the latest checkpoint and try again! The leaderboard timer counts the duration of all your attempts together of course.

Checkpoint system in action for the "A Curious Triad" Ladybug Creature Quest!

Creature Quests, in my personal experience as the developer of this game, offers some of the most unique and enjoyable experiences the game has to offer. If you have previously tried this mode but were put off by the difficulty level or perhaps found it tedious to repeat an entire challenge map for just a single fall, do try Creature Quests again as this update enables players to freely explore the challenge maps for any desired duration.

Falls are now not punished with a restart, but with a safe return to the latest checkpoint from where you can experiment freely again! :)

Notable mention for the Ladybug challenge map which contains several checkpoints hidden away in unique locations (can you find them all!?), along with a "Giant Mantis" prop honoring the imminent Praying Mantis release :))


Until now trees in the game did not cast any shadows at all due to size constraints (each tree is absolutely massive relative to a tiny insect!).

With this update however, high-end PCs will enjoy full tree shadowing to take DoN's nature scenes to a new level of visual richness!

Just make sure the Shadow quality slider in "Video Settings" is set to the maximum as that is what selectively enables and disables tree shadowing in the current version.

Trees are expected to become more and more important as gameplay elements for DoN, so eventually trees with active gameplay will indeed have shadowing enabled for lower end PCs as well.

Below is a visual comparison:

Without Tree Shadows



With Tree Shadows




Currently body visuals and gameplay prototyping for the Mantis is still underway, but with DoN's powerful lifecycle frameworks ready at hand, the overall flow is already nearing completion.

Approximately 2 weeks, i.e. late September or early October, is the expected timeframe based on the current trajectory :)

Thanks to everyone for your great patience in waiting for the Mantis update since the original announcement.

I greatly look forward to playing as the Praying Mantis along with all of you, hopefully very soon :)

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

This update includes the following changes:


Custom keyboard inputs now save correctly, this was broken in a previous update.

Players will now be able to remap controls again without issues!





Fauna selection screen for Monarch Butterfly now combines the Lifecycles and Survival entries (which were formerly separate for the Monarch) into a single species entry for better consistency.

Players can still choose to play as the adult Monarch straight away by simply choosing "Survival" instead of "Lifecycles" in the species menu :)


The next content update is close to release, stay tuned :)

Thank you for your support, interest and love for this game. It is deeply appreciated! :)

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

Bringing improved lighting and graphics across the board and deep polishing of the entire Jumping Spider lifecycle, this is a major update to the game that also carries vital bugfixes and a fully working Generation 2 gameplay for the Jumping Spider lifecycle!


DoN's basic lighting has been reworked to provide a more realistic appearance. The new lighting depicts floral and anatomical detail in the world much better and reacts better to varying lighting scenarios across time of day and environment.

World items like the Jumping Spider's Silken egg sac have undergone major graphical changes too. Brightness, flickering and shadowing issues in the egg sac have been fixed and it no longer "glows in the dark" at night now.

Overall visual experience should be significantly improved within the egg sac, allowing players to better focus on gameplay within.



Finally, the Jumping Spider itself has been visually improved! Earlier instars now better show translucency through their bodies while the adult female Jumping Spider's skin lighting also been improved.






Emphasizing the best parts of the Jumping Spider lifecycle and removing aspects that players frequently had issues with, this latest version of the Jumping Spider lifecycle is a far crisper and smoother experience across its nine instars.

With Generation 2 now fully working (see below!) the focus is on enabling players to quickly and happily complete Gen 1's quests so they are sure to experience Gen 2's unique and emergent gameplay as well.

Complex lifecycle quests like the "Pollinator Hunt" have therefore been greatly simplified, while frequent predator intervention (prominent among player feedback) has been greatly reduced.

Silk tent construction is faster by nearly twice now to help players proceed more swiftly as well!

Major improvements to camera and visual effects have been made as well, all with the goal of providing a super fast paced and fluent experience that can do justice to the Jumping Spider's incredible range of movement and abilities.

Experienced players of the game are highly encouraged to give this lifecycle another playthrough! :)




Inspired by the Grasshopper's evasion cues but now combined with the Jumping Spider's skills, this update brings a formal "Predator Evasion System".

Quickly Dart or Long Jump within an evasion time window to successfully prevent all further attacks from that predator for a while!

Players having issues with predators will hopefully find it much easier now as you can finally use the Jumping Spider's incredible physical agility to evade predators with a very satisfying dart or leap :)





Generation 2 for the Jumping Spider has been thoroughly tested and improved for maximum fun!

Performance optimization has been extensively conducted for Gen 2 and should now yield a significantly smoother experience for players! :)

Currently providing some of the best emergent gameplay in the entire game, Gen 2 is a very unique experience that all Jumping Spider afficionados should be sure to complete all the way.

With no quests or formal direction provided to the player, you are free to Balloon through the land, forging your own growth story and making your own adventures!



Generation 3 is now reachable at last, though gameplay balancing and performance optimization for Gen 3 hasn't been conducted yet, so Gen 3 is left to the brave and mightly for now :))





The game's upcoming priorities are being worked out and the next set of updates should be out pretty soon!

Hope you are enjoying this series of 2021 updates for Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar!

With Love,
- Venu
(Developer of DoN)

The next round of improvements to DoN is here!

Along with major bugfixes and improvements this update also features redesigned gameplay.

Notably...


In response to feedback from players over the years, Long Jumping for the Jumping Spider has been great simplified with a new "aim and leap" design that is more intuitive and reduces the number of input buttons you need to remember!

Now just use the mouse to point to where you'd like to jump... and that's it :)

Visual improvements have also been added here! Now the jump reticule accurately orients itself to the surface you're jumping onto (like the underside of a flower or steep side of a stalk) providing valuable visual information before you make that pivotal jump!

Another visual improvement is easier aiming for jumps that end in midair - the jump reticle now anchors itself onto the midair point you're leaping onto (rather than the surface you'll fall onto) making it easier to adjust and perform corrections during complex jumps.

So, Happy Jumping, everyone! :)




Includes:

• Better transitions during movement, darts and jumps
  
• Moving fast across dense clumps of flora now yields a better camera experience.
  

* Monarch Mating flying issues prior to female race fixed
* Planteray Ecology - No longer crashes during "Submerge land masses" tutorial

Apologies to new players in the recent week whose experience of the game may have been dampened or cut short but the above issues. There's a lot more to experience now that these issues have been fixed so please give the game a try again now :)


The ongoing focus continues to be on general improvements and bugfixes, gradually building momentum towards larger updates.

Appreciate your patience and support during this transition period as the game's development gradually pushes forward into full throttle again :)

Thank you everyone :)

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

Bringing improvements to the entire game across both gameplay and visuals, here is a quick overview of this release.



~ Monarch Butterfly ~

• Caterpillar locomotion improvements
  
• Mating minigames for male and female butterfly improved
  
• Mating interactions (snatch) made easier
  
• Mating UI improvements - cleaner and simpler
  

~ Ladybug ~

• Ladybug Lifecycle major rebalancing - it's much easier to complete now!
  
• Ladybug egg hatching SFX added
  

~ Jumping Spider ~

• New feature: Super Rushdowns! A new hunting technique for all predators - Sprint all the way upto your prey and trample them over for a "Super Rushdown".
  
• Rusdhowns fixed! A timing issue that was affecting this game mechanic has been fixed.
  
• Loading save files fixed - There was an issue that made save files of long playthroughs freeze upon load. Now fixed :)
  
• Silk Tent entry/exit state transitions fixed for certain edge cases.
  
• Tiger Beetle's ability to snatch smaller Jumping Spider instars fixed. A bug was previously preventing the beelte's strikes from landing!
  

~ Misc ~

• Feedback tool fixed. The form submission was broken earlier, but should now be working again.
  

...and various other improvements to visuals and gameplay that haven't been listed here.

For those wondering about the large download size, this update includes a game engine upgrade, visual assets for the "Red Forest Squirrel" prototype (this is not released yet) as well as a large number of improvements to the game made over the past year, but not released until now.


The current goal is to resume periodic updates for the game to the point where larger updates can be taken up.

One of the larger goals is to bring the game closer to exit from Early Access by polishing the existing product further and resolving any outstanding visual or gameplay issues.

Appreciate the support of all the game's players through the past year leading up to this point of a new DoN release again :)

Though the past year has been challenging on multiple fronts, I will continue to keep building this game to the best of my abilities. I am very grateful to all of you for your goodwill, best wishes and wonderful encouragement.

Thank you so much!

- Venu
(Developer of DoN)