WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

Making the wolf pups come to life in the upcoming Slough Creek episode has been our focus for much of the past eight months, from the beautiful 3D models and animations created by our partner GIM to the sophisticated AI behaviors that our lead developer Tommi has been designing and building. We’re still very deep in development, with much more to do before Slough Creek is ready for release, but the pups are shaping up well enough that it’s time for a sneak peak — assuming anyone out there is interested. ;)

So today’s devblog video looks at a few aspects of the pups, mainly around eating. The pups, of course, are very keen on food and will approach either parent who has food to share, whining and food-begging, until the parent regurgitates some tasty chunks. We’re using a combination of animations, blendshapes (small mesh animations on the pup’s face and ears), and Look IK to create believable behaviors. While there’s lots of refinement still to do, it’s coming along, and well on our way to meeting Tommi’s goal to make the pups as adorable as possible. See for yourself in today's video:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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While we are very focused on developing WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition, we also are deeply grieved and angry about the killing of George Floyd and the larger issues of systemic racism and oppression in the United States. Dave and Susan live in Minneapolis/St Paul where the protests are affecting everyone, as they should. We hope that the sorrow, rage, and ugliness of these last weeks ignites deep and lasting change in our neighborhood and ripples out to the world.


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We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are updating the game frequently with more features, multiplayer, and ultimately the Slough Creek episode with pups. The mobile version will come after the game is completed on PC/Mac platforms. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall (DLC).

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]

* Large granite boulders in Amethyst now appear at all quality levels/modes (previously only appeared in Enhanced Sky & Vegetation mode). Boulders have proper colliders now so you can't stick your head inside sometimes, and they are walkable! They also appear at longer distances, instead of popping into view at mid-distance.
* Improvements to wolf movement on steep rock faces.
* Improved organization of Game Help panels.
* Moderate reduction in mule deer and moose frequency.
* Optimized performance when snow accumulates on animals.
* Additional text in first mission dialog.
* Refinement to wolf head-turning.

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* NPC animals sometimes decide to climb trees, unsuccessfully.
* Camera snaps back a bit after the wolf jumps off a rock or ledge.
* In Wolf Customization, the main theme continues to play instead of the customization music.
* One dead log on ground sometimes looks very wet, when it shouldn't.
* Sky sometimes shows through dream images.
* In Lost River, bridge does not block raindrops.
* Doe mule deer carcass is (still) masquerading as moose in scent view.
* Courtship panel sometimes appears when dispersal wolf is engaged in a fight, showing wrong wolf info.
* Selection-dragging text in save game input field causes errors.
* If your wolf is on a boulder when you save the game, your wolf may be stuck inside the rock when loading that save.
* Various terrain tweaks and smoothing.

Patch 1.0.3j Beta is now available in our beta branch. (Instructions below; beta is Windows only.)

[h2]UPDATE: Beta 6: [/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* Occasionally the player-wolf can get stuck when going down a boulder face.
* Terrain in winter season is black when on Very Low Terrain Quality.
* Doe mule deer carcass is (still) masquerading as moose in scent view.


[h2]UPDATE: Beta 5: [/h2]
Beta5 is now available:

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* NPC animals are inclined to stick their head into the ground.
* NPC animals (including the mate) sometimes jitter when running.
* Selection-dragging text in save game input field causes errors.
* At start of new game, camera stutters some in first few seconds.

[h2]Beta 4:[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
* Large granite boulders in Amethyst now appear at all quality levels/modes (previously only appeared in Enhanced Sky & Vegetation mode). Boulders have proper colliders now so you can't stick your head inside sometimes, and they are walkable! They also appear at longer distances, instead of popping into view at mid-distance.
* Improvements to wolf movement on steep rock faces.
* Improved organization of Game Help panels.
* Optimized performance when snow accumulates on animals.
* Additional text in first mission dialog.
* Refinement to wolf head-turning.

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* NPC animals sometimes decide to climb trees, unsuccessfully.
* Camera snaps back a bit after the wolf jumps off a rock or ledge.
* In Wolf Customization, the main theme continues to play instead of the customization music.
* One dead log on ground sometimes looks very wet, when it shouldn't.
* Sky sometimes shows through dream images.
* In Lost River, bridge does not block raindrops.
* Various terrain tweaks and smoothing.

To get the beta build:

1) In the Steam app, go to your Library, then right-click on the WolfQuest: AE name in the left column and choose Properties.
2) Then go to the Betas tab and select the WQ current Beta option in the pulldown. No password is necessary. Steam should then start downloading it. Later you can switch back to the public version in that Betas tab, by selecting NONE in that pulldown.

The large granite boulders that are scattered across Yellowstone, and our game maps, are distinctive elements of the landscape. But due to technical constraints, in WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition, they’ve only been visible on higher quality levels, when Enhanced Sky & Vegetation mode is enabled. But that’s changing in the next patch! We’ve created a new method of spawning these boulders so everyone can appreciate them — and even better, they’re now walkable! Get the details in today’s devblog video:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

These new boulders will be in the next patch, coming in the next few days to public beta, and in official release soon after that. (The bison update is still several weeks away.)

______________
We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are updating the game frequently with more features, multiplayer, and ultimately the Slough Creek episode with pups. The mobile version will come after the game is completed on PC/Mac platforms. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall (DLC).

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
* Controls remapping: You can now remap mouse buttons to keyboard inputs and vice versa.
* In Graphics Quality, new option for Grass and Bush Variety: Low will be a bit faster.
* Some physics optimizations, which should improve performance if limited by CPU power (sometimes occurs when many animals are active in the game world, though most players are usually limited by GPU power) and possibly reduce some lag spikes.
* In the Quest panel, player's current quest is automatically displayed (instead of first quest in the list).
* Reduced odds of wolf carcass spawning.
* Slightly reduced odds of coyotes and mule deer spawning.
* Refinements in NPC animal turning movement.

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* During winter season, after sleeping and dreaming at end of December, terrain is bare ground instead of covered with snow.
* Some areas of snow during Winter Season have obvious tiling patterns or are too dark or contrasty.
* Wolf can get stuck hovering in the air along rock face.
* Wolf sometimes climbs weirdly up a rock and then leaps off.
* Elk Hunt notification can appears when biting other prey and interrupt the action.
* Doe mule deer carcass is masquerading as moose in scent view.
* A dead log has orange rim glow.
* Scent View Tutorial Tip blocks input and scent controls while displayed.
* Typo on one dispersal wolf: Cinnebar instead of Cinnabar
* Animals occasionally will teleport when touching other animals.
* Visual glitches with dreams.
* Water splash audio sometimes stops when you zoom out and then back in again.
* In Lost River, fire tower and porch roofs do a poor job of blocking raindrops.
* Cow elk sometimes freezes when player bites calf.