Adding Photo Mode!

We are so close to the release of the game, it's exciting! Schedules have been re-assessed and we're ready to hit our goals!


Almost an ad-hoc idea, Rob implemented the basis of the photo mode in a week and it is looking and feeling great!



You can now take photos of your Skylets to record in your Field Guide. This is an evolution of the original idea we had to simply provide you with a picture in the Field Guide once you have discovered enough info on a Skylet - instead, it will be your job to take your own photos and get a rating depending on how good of a picture you take, neat huh? 😁

There is still a bit of work to do on this, such as updating the UI and fine-tuning some features, but all in all, it's good to go!


On the topic of UI, we have set Jack to work creating all of the bits and bobs needed to update the general UI in the game, as until now we've just been using coloured blocks and shapes for the most part!


There is always a lot more UI than you anticipate, here are all the elements needed for the Field Guide! Some of these will probably be seen in the main menu or other areas of the game, but the shop, menus and other UI we've probably missed at this point are still waiting to be addressed by Jack.

[h2]Cooking and Island Updates[/h2]
Laura, as always, has been creating a multitude of 3D assets, fully built and textured, ready to use in the engine! A lot of cooking and food items are prepped and ready for Rob to import to the build for testing.



Work has also begun on the next player zone, the mountain top! A whole new style of rugged rocks and lost ruins where cold climate and ancient Skylets will reside.


Importantly, the underside of the floating islands is being addressed too as we are getting near to making the updated Game Trailer and we want the game to look as polished as possible for this.


A really busy month for the artists! Jack has revisited the characters' textures and animations.
The texture has stayed mostly the same in terms for design, but with the addition of Substance Painter to Jack's toolset, he has gone over the original design and given it a bt more life, let us know what you think!


Every character animation was out-of-date with the changes to the game we made since the animations were originally made last October. This means Jack has had to go back to the start and re-rig and re-animate every single animation needed.



A lot of work indeed! But Jack has made amazing progress and we have loads of animations imported and ready to be thoroughly tested, thank you, Jack!


For those of you who missed our live streams on Twitch, at the end of August, Jack finished up the next Skylet, the Hootlet!



An Owl-like Skylet, the Hootlet stands almost as tall as people and really enjoys the night sky! Keep an eye out for them in the un-lit parts of your island.


As always, thank you all for your support!
Share Skystead Ranch with your friends and make sure it's added to your Wishlists! Beta is getting closer along with more demos to try out. Keep an eye out for more news on this in the future.

With love, the ToastieLabs team