WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

Here at last is the long-awaited (at least by a few players) devblog about the rocks and geology of Lost River! My initial goal was to create a geologic environment that was notably different than the granite landscape of Slough Creek (which I love, but I needed a change, and I figured players did too). The mountain west has an ample history of volcanism, which creates a great variety of rock types. Finding the right type of rock, and the right types of rock formations, took a few tries, and a bit of help from someone knowledgable about geology (my son), but I think the rhyolite rock formations are looking good now.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The upcoming Lost River DLC map will feature these new rocks, and much much more -- a greatly expanded map, the full sequence of quests (including the Saga once that is released), and plenty of cool little things. We expect to release it before the end of this year.

________________________________________

The WolfQuest saga will continue! Stay tuned for more news in upcoming devblogs about it and other new features!

Once the game is completed on PC/Mac, we will turn our attention to other platforms.

We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready.

Opening Doors in Lost River

Work continues on the upcoming Lost River expanded map DLC. The gameplay is largely the same as in other maps and quests, of course, but there are a few special features, like going inside of buildings. That's been a popular request from players since Lost River Classic released in 2015, and we're finally realizing it in this expanded version. This raises a few complications, the biggest one related to the navgrid and NPC pathfinding. We designed the navgrid for vast outdoor environments, and they simply are not suited for the confines of interior spaces. So I pulled Tommi away from his ongoing work on animal AI for the Saga (see the note below for more on that) so he could design and create a navgrid subsystem for small areas. This week's video shows how this new subsystem works at the Lost Cup Coffee shop in downtown Lost River:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The new Lost River map has about a dozen buildings with interiors to explore -- but be advised that these are not safe refuges from rival wolves, so you'll need to stay on guard even when hanging out indoors. We have a good amount of work left on this DLC but we do expect to release it later this year.

Regarding the Saga: As we began working on the Saga early this year, we realized that our AI system was good but we wanted it to be better. The AI was one of the very first systems we designed and built for WQAE, five years ago now, and Tommi had ideas for doing much more with an improved system. So that became the first phase of Saga development (and it's not very exciting to show off in devblogs) but we got the improved AI system operational earlier this summer so now we can focus on new AI behaviors in the Saga for growing pups and NPC wolves. If you don't know about the WolfQuest Saga, watch this video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx-X2fL-3oE
________________________________________

The WolfQuest saga will continue! Stay tuned for more news in upcoming devblogs about it and other new features!

Once the game is completed on PC/Mac, we will turn our attention to other platforms.

We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready.

The latest MacBooks, just released, feature the next generation M2 chip, which is quite powerful. Unfortunately, there are a couple bugs that occur only on Apple Silicon computers (preventing the foot-grounding aspects of the IK (Inverse Kinematics) from functioning properly, and turning the screen black when 3D clouds are enabled). The game disables those functions on Apple Silicon, but it was not detecting this new M2 chip correctly. Now, in this hotfix (which is only for Macs), it does. There are no other changes from 1.0.8o.

WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is 25% off as part of the Steam Survival Fest sale! That brings the price down to US$14.99. So, if you've got WolfQuest on your wish list, this is a rare opportunity to save a few bucks. Or, if you already own the game, you might take advantage of the sale to buy it for a friend who'd enjoy it. Sale ends on August 8th.

The WolfQuest server is currently offline -- apparently a failing power supply.... We hope it'll be back online very soon, but don't have an ETA yet. This means that you cannot log into your WQ account in the game until the server is back online. Very sorry about that!

Server is back online!