Progress Update 6/25/2022

This week we've made great progress on 0.5.9, with the merging of new-game settings and difficulty options. We've also included some new graphics and performance settings to give players more control over their framerate in the game. This combined with the addition of cilia, a reworked spawn system, in-game art gallery, improved MP calculation, and engulfment revamp is going to make for an impressive release on the 16th of July!

Programming

• New DevBuild for our patrons:
  • Added new game setup screen with various basic and advanced things that can be configured
  • Added an option to select the entity limit in the menu so that players with weaker computers can reduce the amount of entities the game tries to spawn
  • Added an option to turn off the background microbe particles, they now also appear by default in the microbe editor
  • Fixed some cloud spawn density values
  • Fixed a regression with the editor not calculating MP for placing organelles correctly
  • Improved debug panel labels and fixed a bug in them
  • Added safety checks against obsolete species spawning
  • Updated translations
• Progress continues on the prototype, and here you can see the editor begin to come together in all it's messy glory.

Graphics

• Nothing Substantial

Gameplay

• New game and difficulty settings are now implemented per latest devbuild! Shake things up with an alternate starting biome, or try playing on a new difficulty setting if things are too easy or hard.

Sound

• Nothing Substantial

Theory

• Nothing Substantial

Outreach

• Nothing Substantial

Other

• Our programmer Nunz recently consulted a Genomics researcher, Dr. Geneva. You can view the questions asked, and the resulting answers here!