Friday Dev Update: Into the Undergrowth

12:42 PM Unknown 4 Comments

Hey folks!

We’ve been making our way toward the coming update, and now I get to share with you a bit of what we’ve been working on. John has been hard at work adding several NPCs and a new type of enemy for the new island, as well as several other small improvements and under-the-hood work. Will has been creating new sound effects and lore books. I have been in the bushes, adding new kinds of foliage for the new island. Since we’ve made some good progress, we’re finally able to reveal…

Jungle Islands!

These islands will be dense and dangerous, with new friends and foes alike. We’re all excited about the new content to be found on these new islands, but I can’t reveal much more yet!

What I can reveal is a powerful new tool I began using this week, and one we will likely be using going forward. It’s called SpeedTree .

SpeedTree is a tool for building trees, bushes, and other foliage. Since Unity 5 was released, SpeedTree has made available a version of its software that works directly with the Unity editor, allowing quick, high quality asset generation. It includes a customizable Level of Detail system that works a lot better than what we have now, so you’ll have better looking, better performing trees. Here’s one of my test trees going through its LoD transformation:





I plan to make SpeedTree versions of all the trees currently in the game to maximize the performance and visual upgrades that SpeedTree provides. My love for SpeedTree has taken root!

Over the next few weeks we'll be revealing more details about the jungle island, so stay tuned!



