Hello everyone ! I am once again coming out of my tree hollow for a surprise playtest!
The "PVE survival festival" is starting today on steam, and while I initially thought the demo would be out, that's uh.... not going to be the case (T_T)
As I go, I see there's still a TON of work to do, a lot of things to fix, and the demo definitely needs more time to cook.
Instead, I I'll try to do more frequent playtests, starting with this one, while I fix and work on things along the way.
I thank you all for your patience with me!
I still hope to release the permanent demo this year, but no promise :')
Playtest is now Live!
And it will last for a week. You can join from the steam page!
You'll find below the main changes compared to the previous one in May.
The game is still very much an empty sandbox, but I hope you'll have some fun, solo or with friends!
Looooots of bug fixes
- Lots of bugs (but not all) from the previous playtest have been fixed (or I simply can't reproduce anymore, so I think they're gone?) though I probably introduced some more, I'll let you tell me!
Multiplayer Improvements
- Joining/quitting a game has been improved, should be a lot less issues when trying to rejoin a friend. In case you lose connection, a message should give some indication of what have happened. (Still need to share a code though. I'll work on letting people join steam friends directly later)
- Most reported sync issues have hopefully been fixed.
- Added a message when players join/leave and a player list in the pause menu to keep track of who's in game
- Added voice and text chat to the game!
- Added a "ping" to the action wheel to give your location to friends easily, and highlighting player in bird view
Controller/Keyboard support
- The game now has controller support! Not 100% sure about the default mappings tho, I'll let you tell me if it feels right!
- You can remap most controls in the pause menu while in game!
Linux and Steam deck support
UAZO is available on Steam deck and Linux! A few things tho:
- I still need to fix RAM usage, so you can only play in worlds created in DEBUG mode (normal worlds will crash the game on my steam deck)
- I didn't do any of the paperwork for steam to actually verify the playability on deck. So the game will show up, but steam will say they don't know if it is playable. Ignore that lol
Building mode
- Reworked base building. Previously, you had you build the parts and then "use" them in a building mode that felt awkward.
- Now, building is a whole separate mode.
- Building most structures will automatically take the items needed from your inventory
- Breaking a structure will automatically give you back the resources
- Some objects (storage, glowing shrooms, teleport stones) still need to be crafted before being built
- The things you can build vary depending on the Tool you're holding. To build birdhouse parts for example, you need a hammer
- You can now rotate between snap points for better building freedom
- You can disable snap points entirely
Bird customization
Changed a few things. The amount of preset species didn't change but I added a few more options:
- The head and body are now separate parts for more options
- You can have a "glow color" that will make the eyes glow when using bird view, and some feathers details too when some effects are applied to the player (like flying speed)
- You can toggle some stuff like hopping or walking, or if your bird should retract their neck when flying (for them long neck birds)
- Added a slider for wingspan and wing feather length
Surprises
I know there are a few more things I added but I've done a pretty bad job of keeping track of them, or just forgot while writing this, so I'll let you find out!
I hope you all have a good time on the game and a good day today! Go wild birds!