The Return Of The Fawn, Blue Skies, and When A Snail Is Not A Snail.

The family of deer that patrol the highlands of Peace Island is now complete, with the addition of a fawn - although you can see there's a bit of a scaling issue!  But then again - wouldn't we all like to have a deer the size of a cat?

With this addition, all of the NPCs required for "The Final Alpha" are good to go!  This is the first of the benefits of the refactoring process we've been mentioning, in weeks past.

Of course, in the full game, there will be a number of other NPC species.  Right now, we're just making sure the essentials are working:

-Deer
-Geese
-Crow
-Seagull

We're also taking care of a few issues with the skies.  One example:  for a few months, we've had a persistent issue with an overly-intense yellow haze at the skylines which were more suited to Newark, New Jersey than an island miles off the coast of Maine.  Getting that tuned down made things look lighter...

There are more long-overdue tweaks to the skybox, but quite frankly, they are quite esoteric.  I am constantly amazed at the granularity of detail required for everything to be "just right."

Laura & I have been working to fill the remaining gaps in the Mission Tree of the first act of the game.  It's crazy and frustrating to discover that there are details that were written in notebooks four years ago that have yet to be added to the project WIKI.

This process has reminded me of something I've wanted to mention:

In any adventure game, you have two types of voices that can direct the player: one is passive, one is active.  For our purposes, it's best to put this issue in the context of "The Elder Scrolls."

As you walk around Tamriel, you can read literally hundreds of books, scrolls, and letters - these are the passive voices.  Similarly, you will speak with scores and scores of NPCs - these are the active voices.

We have posted here often about the effort we've put into the passive voices of the humans that used to occupy Peace Island - about how each of their intertwined histories - some reaching back centuries - play a part in the story of the game.

In light of this past week's work, Laura and I wanted to assure you that the story of Peace Island is not limited to being a passive one - simply based upon the odd scattered note, withered document, or newspaper left open on a desktop.

Each of the NPC species you will meet on Peace Island will have their own agendas and histories - all of which began long before humans ever appeared, and changed little after mankind's relatively recent appearance.

To present another example:  consider the shelled gastropod we commonly know as "Snails."

According to our best estimates, the first animals that fit that description evolved a little bit over half a billion years ago.  About halfway through that time, the creatures we know as dinosaurs emerged.  184 million years later, snails experienced their own "Don't Look Up" moment, and really couldn't be bothered...

To these individuals, the rise of the first hominids a scant 60 million years later was as unremarkable as would be their disappearance in the present day.  

I mention all of this to say: expect the history of the NPC species to either equal or eclipse that of humanity within the game. 

After all:  Earth's story has never been limited to that which has been witnessed by humankind - our chapter in this tale thus far has been shockingly brief.

See ya'll next friday - thanks as always for your support, confidence, and patience- it means the WORLD to us!