It has been a hectic month, and while I haven't managed to get a full cadence of releases out the door, the wait will be worth it! Highlights in this alpha release are the introduction of bow combat and "Adventure" mode! This is the beginning of the "real" game vision, and I'm looking to steadily build on the foundations of the game to add more and more content over time.

Please do join our Discord server, if you have feedback and thoughts, or just to chew the fat about games and game development.

Details of the release are as follows:

Bug fixes

• Fixed AI bug that caused enemies to see through building walls.

New features / enhancements

• New "Adventure" mode, based on a huge 2km x 2km map divided into unique biomes.
• New "bow" weapon, for ranged combat. This will be a quest reward but is included in the player inventory for this alpha.
• New NPCs and Quests, including a starting quest to guide the player to the beginning of the story.
• I've built out some village and town prefabs, that will be spawned in the game world and connected by roads and paths.
• Settlement feature, to notify the player when they discover and enter a settlement.
• Minimap/radar tweaks and changes.
• Beginnings of a save and load system, supporting player and quest progress.
• UI layout tweaks and changes.
• Lots of visual enhancements with post-processing to enhance the overall look and feel.
• New volume blend component that fades between volumes at specific hours of the day.
  

Internal

• Updated to Unity 2021.2.16f.
• Updated Gaia Pro 2021 to 3.2.2.
• Updated GeNa Pro to 3.3.17.
• Updated Enviro to 2.4.
• Added full automation to door code, so door opener and action is drag and drop.
• Replaced both characters with Invector Shooter Template.
• New Gaia biome templates and image masks for easy re-creation of game world terrain and biomes.

Known Issues

• Flickering effect in the Sky when not moving. Seems to be a shader issue between Gaia and Enviro, but still investigating.
• Bow is currently OP, single hitting most enemies. This will be tuned in later releases.