Hey everyone!
I hope you had a great week!
First, the Playtest!
-I plan to start the Playtest on Friday, and at the latest next Monday. The only thing I'm waiting for is for Steam to approve the Playtest build. I submitted it at the end of last week, and it usually takes 5 business days, so it should be approved shortly!
-As soon as the build is approved, I will make a post and start the Playtest!
-Joining will be super easy. On the game's Steam page, right under the "Coming Soon to Early Access" section, you'll see a button to request access to the Playtest. That's it! :)
The only thing I'd ask from players who join the Playtest is to please make a post on the Steam forums after playing, with your feedback and any bugs your encountered.
That's it! I will keep you updated soon :)
Also, here is the changelog for the work that was done on the game over the last week. These changes will be in the upcoming build:
-Added a message to non disappearing loot sources (like the cryopod containing the padding) to inform the player when their inventory is full
-Updated the message shown when there is no room in the player's inventory for an item they want to craft
-Improved the shelter upgrade code and database management to improve performance
-Improved sky light management to prevent overexposure in some edge cases
-Fixed some visual issues after using the emergency portal home button (from the Options menu)
-Added better ambient music to the Future Era
-Improved how AudioSources are managed
-Increased further the transparency of the bottom right info popups, which ended up making them look much better
-Improved many minor visual aspects of the Options menu
-Moved the Screen Scaling and HUD Position sliders to the General tab of the Options menu
-Made the bed restore HP when clicked instead of restoring it over time while the player is in the shelter area
-Increased the size and improved the visuals of the Sandlurkers you can see past the demo walls, as they are another branch of the species
-Added color to the Low, Med and High visual quality buttons to make it clear which one is currently selected
-Enabled camera dithering to prevent visual artifacts when swimming in very dark biomes
-Improved button descriptions and popup visuals in the key mapping menu
-Improved the visuals of the Quit Game popup
-Made sure the text snaps back to full resolution after making large changes with the Screen Scaling slider in the Options menu
-Corrected the code for the Autoswim key mapping button in the Options menu
-Prepared the Playtest build (defined the Playtest region, updated the game logo, added the Playtest walls, etc.)
Also, here are few other things I worked a lot on, but can't say too much about because I want to keep them spoiler free:
-Worked on two deeper, darker areas to improve their atmosphere and tension
-Improved the visuals of one of the largest sea creatures in the game