Devlog #13: Demo Updates

While we've mostly been focused on the later stages of the game as we ready it for the full release, we've still been putting in plenty of overall polish, bug fixing and core system improvements that have made their way into our demo build.

We really appreciate all of your incredible feedback and detailed bug reports -- we've read every comment and have been hard at work incorporating the feedback and fixing the issues. We're thrilled to release today's update to the demo that encapsulates all of the progress since our last update for Gamescom last fall!

Interacting with the World

Agency to explore and interact with the world has been one of our key pillars from day one, so a lot of our recent work has revolved around honing those aspects of the experience.

First and foremost, the traversal system has been rebuilt from the ground up. All traversal mechanics are now run automatically with no button presses needed other than jumping from a height that you can't climb back up from. The animations and motions of the traversals are faster and smoother to feel more fluid and address motion sickness concerns. The camera is also never taken over during any traversal mechanic so that you won't get disoriented or lose the feeling of control. And for those of you that like to toggle jogging, this is now supported alongside the ability to hold the button/key as before.

We've also made significant improvements to interactions such as picking up and putting down objects. These actions are now dramatically smoother and faster without feeling so jarring (and just like with traversal mechanics, the camera is never taken over). You can also now use physics to place objects on flat surfaces or even on top of other objects to arrange things in your shelter just the way you like them.

Weather Systems

We view weather as just another character in the game, so it's been long overdue for some TLC. The most obvious of changes is that we've added clouds to the sky! It's a subtle change at times and quite dramatic at others, but it really gives us some fantastic freedom to make the weather systems that much more dynamic and vistas that much more breathtaking.

To go along with the updated skies, the weather system and the color grading that goes along with it now supports full dynamic blending. The time could already dynamically update the visuals as it passed, but now the weather can change in an instant or over an extended period of time and everything will update seamlessly.

In addition, the quality of the feet deformations in the snow has been improved to be more dynamic and realistic. We've also addressed some nagging issues like Kai's head dropping below the surface of the snow in some areas or the fact that dropping items into the snow would cause them to disappear into another realm, never to be seen again.

Auto Save

One of the most vital features missing from our prior demos was the ability to save. We haven't added cloud saves (yet), but we do have an initial implementation of a full auto save system in place now. This turns out to be much more complex to nail down with such a dynamic world of choices and actions to keep track of, so we still consider the saving functionality in a "beta" state for the moment.

Performance

We still have a big list of performance improvements we'll be wrapping up before the full release. However, one