GRAND UPDATE

Hey Zookeepers!

It's been a while since our last update, and now we’re excited to announce a massive update that fixes all known major bugs and brings significant design changes to the game. We've worked to reduce repetitiveness, make the game more accessible, and implement extensive quality-of-life improvements. Here’s the list of fixes:

Design

• The global core loop has been changed. Now, your primary objective is solely to extract the parasite from an infected animal. All other mechanics are auxiliary and serve to help achieve this main goal.

• The tutorial has been globally reworked and expanded. You will complete a parasite extraction mission, which will serve as the first gameplay task for identifying a mutant before transformation. IMPORTANT: If you have existing save files, it is strongly recommended to start a new game with the tutorial to understand the new gameplay mechanics and prevent potential bugs. We have attempted to accommodate old save files, but issues may still arise. A replay option for the tutorial has been added for each new game.

• The mandatory gameplay loop requiring full analysis collection to determine the correct medicine has been completely removed. Now, you can diagnose animals by analyzing only external symptoms such as scars, mucus, and zoochosis. This mechanic was present before but is now more transparent, making the UV flashlight a more essential tool.

• The vet station has been completely redesigned and simplified. You no longer need to search for the correct medicine in a list by description—just apply the necessary filters.

• Parasite vaccines have been completely removed. Now, both mutants and animals are treated with a single type of medicine, and your task is only to identify the disease and the mutant.

• A major new feature: If you make a mistake with the mutant’s medicine or kill the mutant, all infected animals will die along with it. You will have multiple ways to prevent animal deaths.

• Posters have been reworked. Collecting them now unlocks additional information in the vet station about animal behavior under different diseases.

• Disease balance has been adjusted to ensure a more even distribution of diverse animal behaviors for all players.

• The task system in the PDA has been reworked. Now, only the latest active task will be displayed in the PDA to avoid confusion, and each task will include a clear description of what needs to be done.

• The monster will now appear immediately in the next enclosure after the tutorial.

• The balance and generation of consumable items have been adjusted.

Controls

• The control system has been completely rewritten to eliminate focus loss on certain screens.

• Support for DualShock 4 and DualSense controllers has been added.

• Full UI navigation via keyboard has been implemented.

UI/UX

• New control hints for both PC and gamepads have been added.

• Animal avatars in terminals have been redesigned.

• The vet station has been completely overhauled.

• The parasite storage system has been improved.

• UX improvements to the PDA task system and its hint system.

• The profile menu’s visuals have been adjusted.

• Fixed boss health bar animations for damage and recovery states.

• Added notifications for gamepad connection and disconnection.

• The story choice notification has been made more noticeable.

Animations

• Many IK animation issues for animals and bosses have been fixed (still needs polishing).

• Hands now lower when holding gadgets near walls.

Optimization

• The game has undergone a major transition to Unreal Engine 5.5, which fixed numerous rendering issues. We hope this will resolve many optimization-related problems. On an RTX 3060, we are seeing 90 FPS without DLSS and 140 FPS with DLSS