WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

We are in the last stretch of work for the next patch of WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition, which will be v1.0.7l. This will have several significant improvements:

Tommi has refactored and overhauled the NPC navigation, pathfinding, and obstacle avoidance systems, making those smarter and more robust. No longer will mates get stuck on a boulder while trying to cross a creek, or circle endlessly around a meat chunk. Elk are also much more adept at navigating around trees and boulders as they flee for their lives.  It makes moving through the game world feel even more immersive!

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I have been working on improvements to the natural environment, adding more (and better) tree stumps in the woods and more ground clutter in the form of dead logs. Istvan Szala, one of our freelance 3D artists (who has been making some new stuff for the upcoming Lost River DLC), created models for snowberry and huckleberry bushes, and Indian paintbrush flower. Put together, these make the forest floor much denser, and more realistic (though still a far cry from the truly dense forests along the south slopes of Slough Creek).  The splashes of new seasonal colors are also very nice.

Along with helping me with those improvements to the environment, Andrei has been fixing bugs and adding polish is many different ways. (Many of these were suggested by players via Feedback and Bug Reports, so thanks for those! It is satisfying that the bug reports are trending to minor tweaks as we slowly but surely polish the game.)

And Mikko has been making steady progress on Slough Creek multiplayer, which is really shaping up and should be ready for public beta pretty soon.  I get to spend time actually playing WolfQuest (not as common as you might think) with our dedicated and amazing core beta testers who are crucial to refining and balancing the systems before releasing it to a wider group.

All of the above (except for Slough Creek multiplayer) will be in patch 1.0.7l, coming very soon to public beta and then full release.

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WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) Once the game is completed on PC/Mac, we will turn our attention to other platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!

Grab your purse, WolfQuest is 25% off! 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 buy it for a friend -- especially with Slough Creek Multiplayer coming pretty soon!

Live the life of a wild wolf (with or without accessories)!

It's time for another chance to win a free copy of WolfQuest! Lucky winners will receive a free copy of WolfQuest 2.7 (and PC/Mac users will also get WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition Early Access for PC and Mac)! Winners can choose to get any version of the game (Mac/Windows, Android, iOS, Kindle).

If you prefer, you can choose the new Yellowstone Wolf Coat DLC (only for WolfQuest: AE for PC/Mac) or the WolfQuest Soundtrack and Music Extras.

[h2]How to Enter[/h2]
Email your username (any username is fine, we just have to know what to call the winners) and your answer to the question: "What are three interesting facts about wolves?" to the email address [email protected]

[h2]Deadline[/h2]
All entries must be received before midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on Tuesday, October 19, 2021.

[h2]Random Drawing[/h2]
Winners are selected randomly from complete entries. Please enter only once in each monthly contest. Each complete entry will be assigned a number. We will then use a random-number generator to generate three numbers. The entries bearing those numbers will each win a free copy of the game.

Slough Creek multiplayer is shaping up! In Amethyst multiplayer, it’s all about hunting and claiming a territory, but we know that the heart of the game is pups and many players are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to raise a litter of pups with a pack of friends.

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However, the Slough Creek quests pose some new challenges that we did not face with Amethyst multiplayer. For example, in singleplayer, Slough Creek generally takes 6-8 hours to complete, but we understand that multiplayer needs to offer a shorter experience, so we have created an Accelerated time mode, where pups grow more quickly. We’re currently aiming for a full SC game session to take about two and a half hours, though we may tweak that.

We also decided to cap the number of players at four or five, reduced from the maximum of eight in Amethyst and Lost River. We know this won’t be a popular decision but we feel it’s for the best, to avoid crowding and navigation issues around the homesite and more importantly, to avoid having to crank up the game challenges to a crazily unrealistic degree just to maintain game balance. We’ve also got a plan for genetics and parentage, but will talk about that in a future devblog.

Today’s devblog video takes a look at those, along with some sneak previews of gameplay and — of course — some amusing bugs.
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WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) Once the game is completed on PC/Mac, we will turn our attention to other platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!

Earlier this month, Susan (Pepper) and I (Dave/loboLoco) returned to Yellowstone on our third research trip for WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition (though truth be told, we didn’t need that excuse to make the trip again). We hiked into some areas of the Northern Range that we are considering for future game maps, and we also visited Slough Creek’s First Meadow again — it’s one of our favorite places in the world. I was curious to see how the real place compared to the game map that we created since our last visit two years ago. So today’s video looks at a few aspects of real nature and how the game shapes up in comparison — and a few ways that I’ve been working since coming home to nudge the game a bit closer to reality.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) Once the game is completed on PC/Mac, we will turn our attention to other platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!