A new month is here and that means it’s time to look back on this month’s progress!
New Textures
The first thing I did this month was actually something that has been on my bucket list as a game developer. I added 40 new horse face markings from player requests! This was super exciting because it means a ton of people want to contribute to the game. It also means horses have more individuality and personality. On that same note, I added 39 new phenotypes for chestnut dun and bay dun. I also edited a ton of textures to fix an issue where horses were showing a seams where the textures meet. The dun textures didn’t work too well to hide the seam, so I need to try to find a better solution for them. All of this texture work wasn’t strictly needed at this stage but was a nice mental break for me. Devs just want to have fun.
Better Reins
Reins have finally got a proper do-over so that the rider actually holds them. The reins behave differently depending on whether a rider is holding them, if they are western or English style, and more. They aren’t perfect; they still clip through the horse sometimes. The result is still a step up from the old version. The curve looks smoother and they complete that connection to the rider, leg to hand.
First wild animal
Roe deer have been added to the game! They wander randomly around the map and can be spotted grazing or watching for danger. If you approach, they will run off. This simple system has formed the foundation that will be used for all NPC animals. This means each new animal after this should be relatively simple to add. The cow is already in the making
Better horse eyes
There has been a long-standing issue where the blue eyes were really faint and hard to see. This is because I had tried to make the system scalable to different eye colors related to horse coats. As it turns out, even with thousands of phenotypes, blue eyes are still pretty rare. What should be a clunky solution ended up being alright to implement and I was even able to add amber and green eyes! We did have the slight issue where foals were crashing the game because I forgot to add the eye settings to them. We’re good now. 😛
First person
I’ve gotten so many questions about this feature, so I’m really excited to announce First Person View! It’s really handy for taking screenshots of horses and scenes. I think it looks pretty smooth in practice too, haven’t gotten seasick yet.
Other things
There is now a channel on the discord for players who want to trade horses! No money changes hands, but players cooperating and sharing with each other. Stallions can now be gelded to reduce sharpness slightly. Otherwise, the game has begun an optimisation process in preparation for a big update
Next Month:
The final game world is in progress! The world has been due for an update for a long time, but the groundwork for this has been a huge amount of work. It’s going to be a big job, but it will hopefully be worth it. The game should run smoother, and it also might allow for more elements of the game to exist in the open world. The cow NPC is waiting patiently for its turn in the spotlight on an all-new stage. After that, I can get back to adding more game content like quests. Thank you all for being here!