Reel Talk — Update 2026-03-04

🎣 What's New

• Collision box for birds to be scared, god they are so scared

• Hotbar slot deselect toggle on re-press

• Billboard sign text above shop merchant NPC

• Rod rotation on fish bite and nibble for tug feedback

• Local/proximity chat with distance-based filtering on host

• Terrain3d replacing all terrain

• More ponds

• Ponds

• Ponds on new map

• Whole LOT of Ponds

• Island now centered inside of a massive Pond

• Models

• New character

• New animations

• Mixamo animation retargeting for cat skeleton, rest of cat left alone.

• Demo island, it's in a gigantic Pond.

✨ Quality of Life

• Cast_indicator.gd, iykyk :(

• Remove static ripple quad so animated shader ripple is used instead

• Scale item display based on creature/item size

• Display marker, updating hud button tooltips

• Adjusting bird flocks

• Replace QuadMesh ripple with torus-based idle ripple system

• Trashcan collision

• Removed song 31 because it's bad, simple as.

• Remove redundant catch UI elements: top banner, bottom CATCH text, dismiss billboard

• Center bait + sell depot panel on screen

• Change sit emote to crouch mode instead of Y-position offset

• Show Join Game button on main menu

• Hide broken menus in backpack

• Removed background from tackle box

• Hid title at top

• Signs, like the movie but w/ even less aliens.

• Remove inventory favourite system

• Demo exit trigger to restart level instead of loading a different scene

• Modelled mountain and added character

• Load gameplay_mountain_map on new game instead of tutorial map

• Mountains

• Reuse credits_panel.tscn content in settings menu Credits tab

• Split Show Lobby Code into two side-by-side buttons

• Water and demo exit

• Harden multiplayer RPC security: mandatory validation and rate limiting

• Tune fishing loop to better deliver on cozy promise

• Rewrite patch notes generator for community-focused Steam updates

🐛 Squashed Bugs

• Fix 10 gameplay and UI bugs across chat, fishing, customization, and menus

• Fix bobber floating above water surface

• Fix bobber retrieval stalling below rod tip during waiting state

• Fix chat buttons unclickable and keybinds firing while typing

• Fix character movement while typing in chat due to cross-viewport focus isolation

• Fix camera rotation permanently disabled after closing menus via close button

• Fix bird collision detection: wrong mask and undersized detection area

• Fix fish not reappearing when re-selected from hotbar

• Fix held item offset by parenting to FishDisplayMarker on skeleton

• Fix hotbar slot duplication and right-click removal

• Fix splash ring rotation to lay flat on water surface

• Fix chat button interactions: collapse, resize, and unfold

• Fixing trashcan collision

• Fix fish resistance bar behavior in reeling minigame

• Fix fishing terrain detection: cast indicator now correctly detects terrain above water

• Fix idle ripple torus to spawn at water surface level instead of bobber y-level

• Fix catch display to match HeldItem orientation and scaling

• Fix: allow jumping while fishing rod is equipped

• Fix sell all: duplicate fish array to prevent skipping, remove top notification

• Fix fish journal tiles not displaying caught state

• Fix credits menu layout: center content and hide action buttons

• Fix character customizer: face cosmetics, rotation slider, and lambda errors

• Fix join code validation to accept WORD-WORD-XXXX lobby codes

• Fix lobby code decoding by encoding all data bytes as hex

• Fix lobby code input truncation and validation mismatch

• Fix multiplayer RPC errors by tracking peer replication readiness

• Fix Escape key opening pause menu when another menu is already open

• Fix Escape key closing tackle box but also opening pause menu

• Fix fishing rod inventory icon and show icon in detail panel

• Fix right-click camera rotation not working after unpausing

• Fix HudButtons broken node paths, eye texture load errors, and missing Engine audio bus

• Fix chat button clicks, tab toggle desync, and default size

• Fix duplicate PlayerSpawner causing both scenes to spawn players

• Fixing visual bugs in gameplay scene

• Fix Steam build certification: lobby type, peer mapping, lobby codes, Rich Presence

• Fix fish_sold signal mismatch and physics callback crash

• Fix three runtime errors from demo: missing video settings keys, RPC without peer, wrong AnimationTree path

• Fix connection failure leaving lobby state dirty

• Fix dark text colors across all UI themes to use light orange with outline

• Fix bobber issues: wrong origin, no line, bad animation, slow cast

• Fix chat header buttons hiding when mouse moves over them

• Fix player spawning on ocean floor due to negative X offset

• Fixing spawn point

• Fix typed Array assignment error for LobbyInfo.tags

• Remove TimeOfDaySync to fix RPC errors when joining LAN server

• Fix RPC "node not found" errors when LAN client connects

• Fix multiplayer spawning with scene-ready handshake

Thanks for playing and for being part of this community, it means the world to us. If you run into anything weird or have ideas, drop by our Discord or leave a comment below. ːsteamthumbsupː — HeartCoded & the Lost Rabbit Digital team Build ec928f4 · Full changelog on GitHub