Skyfear | Commits

https://playskyfear.com

Last updated August 21st 2025 | How to use branches (Back up your save before switching branches)

Build 279 (Main) released August 21st, 2025

Updated store page Content AI Disclosure, plus added to store page description: No AI code or assets are used in this product.
Updated store page Content rating, removed notions of violence and gore that were no longer reflect the product
Updated store product tags
Removed nametag debug printing for now
Postgame timer increased from 20 seconds to 35 seconds, to accommodate some inconsistent behavior with the timing of delivering the post game screen
Fixed some issues with film tool leaving some UI on screen

Build 278 (Experimental) released August 19th, 2025

Cleaned up spectator input and UI: T to toggle freecam
Added tilt and camera shake controls to film tool
Changed Nametag position update logic; in most cases behavior should be improved, but I am aware of a few new (revived?) bugs
Added 1 brand new music track to battle music playlist: Arbiter
Added 3 older music tracks back to battle music playlist: Flux, Move, Biology (Lobby theme)
Battle music fades out sooner on battle end, doesn’t mix as much with Victory and postgame music now
Music mix volume set to 80% by default; additional audio mix fixes coming soon…
Fixed an issue where default music volume was not the same as what it’s set to if you click ‘Reset to Default’ in options menu
Added music playing during battle – this was turned off for some reason, I am not sure why. sorry!
Added additional text regarding unlocking magic, perks, and abilities, to the help menus
Added unlocked magic, perks, and abilities to stats screen along with a percentage, same as spores
Adjusted unlocks data rarity and value on several scales, ‘philosopher’ in particular was way too easy to get
Fixed an issue with spores claimed stat being wrong sometimes

Build 277 (Experimental) released August 14th, 2025

Set up 1 specific spore to appear near the cave by spawn in the Lairworld, upon first launch. This will be given, but not claimed yet, there for you to claim it. This is to provide brand new players with a working example of claiming spores, within the first minute of play.
Changed the list of unlocks a player starts with on new game, reduced down to just a couple of items per category. This might result in returning players getting new spores (but they will be existing content).
Fixed an issue where a spore’s claim pop-up would dissapear for good if you tried to claim it without enough Material
Removed an old debug print when pressing F
Added/updated Spores help page to reflect the latest developments
When you level up on the post game menu, any spores you earn are presented in the same space as your magic, perk, and ability unlocks, with icons that match their appearance when they spawn in the Lairworld
Added spectate back to the in-game menu, officially

Build 276 (Experimental) released August 13th, 2025

Spores will now display an icon on your HUD indicating their location, spike color, and light color, so from far away, you can still
Letting go of zoom while sprinting now returns your FOV to the sprint FOV, running around during combat now feels much better
Created UX assets for spores
Added toggle between player vs freecam in spectate
You can now follow a specific player in spectate, and cycle through players
Added player highlights toggle to spectator
Fixed issues with spectator/film cam leaving UI elements hanging around
Added ‘film cam’ to debug menu, forces spectator cam to spawn
Removed some old sounds from background ambience
Removed debug save data printing on Experimental builds
Added a Welcome screen – A brief introduction to the Lairworld and spores that will display for the player on their first launch.

Build 275 (Experimental) corrected

Build 275 (Experimental) compiled August 6th, 2025… but a mysterious Steam merge error delays upload…

Added trees to spore vegetation spawns
Battle intro music moved to play on Countdown, instead of first time you spawn in. Feels a bit cleaner this way, less overstimulating
Removed multiplayer menu forcing a particular soundtrack to play; will now just continue playing whatever was playing
Added more tips regarding spores to the loading screens
Lairworld spawns have all been moved towards the center cave area. Spawning in random areas of the Lairworld seems to fatigue new players because of the likelihoood that their spores land very, very far away. Further improvements to this relationship between Spores are Lairworld size are being designed.
Spore vegetation now has more wind animation and color
Spore vegetation spawn radius and population adjusted
New profiles will now start with 2000 Material and a bit of starting XP, making their first battle or two a lot more lucrative and more likely to start seeing spores early.
Renamed/reworded the Post Game menu options
Fixed/adjusted Leaderboard text positioning and made the entries slightly slimmer, vertically
Added Leaderboards to the Post Game menu options
Fixed an issue where team color options loaded incorrectly if save data was using a color from before colors were standardized into a dictionary
Adjusted default friendly and enemy team color options to be the most visually distinct of the available options
Added new color ‘Emerald’ to team color options
Spores will now be colored a bright silver if the spore contains a cosmetic, and remain brown if contains a title or emblem. This should allow players to make more informed decisions when traveling to new spores.
Added hover and rotation animation to spore egg mesh
Added animated flashing effect to spore egg mesh
Increased spawn invincibility time by a couple more seconds
Adjusted default camera shake and tilt to 50%
Adjusted default camera settings to Center in air, Right on ground
Adjusted bot difficulty to 20 by default, lot of data suggested 50 was too high after all
Adjusted rarity distribution for Material pickups, made ‘common’ more common
Material pickups will now float towards you when you get near, making pickups both less clumsy and more satisfying
Updated FAQ doc
Cleaned up/removed several debug prints
Cleaned up Roadmap doc format
Cleaned up Commit Log doc format
Nametags will now stay on player actors longer without randomly dissapearing
Nametags will now appear for all friendlies on screen at the same time, not just one, switched to multi-trace
Doubled the frequency of ‘recently rendered’ check for nametags.
Doubled the frequency of trace sweeps for player actors to create nametags.
LAN build will now not include generated server suggestions.
Added team switching events to the match feed.
Added when abilities are used to the match feed. This was controversial before, might be again.
Removed a leftover debug print on saving.
Changed speed where firing bolts is prevented to 3005, up from 3000, to attempt to handle rare cases where speed vector is fluctuating.

Build 274 (Main) released July 21st, 2025

Build 274 (Experimental) released July 21st, 2025

Removed password restriction on Experimental branch; Experimental is public again
Removed some testing stuff

Build 273 (Experimental) released July 16th, 2025

Dug up & tested some old game modes…
Prototyped & tested “mist” system…
Removed some old un-used code that was attached to geyser blast
Adjusted ‘return to flight’ delay on geyser blast
Fixed issues with player lighting not destroying on death
Removed 4 old components on player class that were not being used (components add to load time)

Build 272 (Experimental) released July 9th, 2025

Added/testing some lighting that follows the player around to help keep the model lit in a various lighting conditions
New texture used for Grid environment, something corrupted the previously used asset, not sure what happened
Fixed a mistake where upon disconnecting, the confirmation menu would warn host about disconnecting other players, when in Single Player
Ability charge % added to the HUD under the same setting as Show MP/HP
Fixed stat readout appearing twice in the Lairworld
Fix an issue related to joining servers
Made the scoreboard slightly wider in-game, to allow more room for names and ready/text
Added sounds and finished effects for Health and Magic pickups, in testing
Fixed an issue where bots would sometimes not use the current sessions respawn timer value
Bot generation is now run on warmup in multiplayer, on game start in single player
Fixed an issue where match feed would not display when bots spawn/respawn
Added/finished replication logic for bots using abilities & selecting targets

Build 271 (Experimental) released July 7th, 2025

Title logo on the title screen got a new animated shader
Projectile and impact fx finished for new magic type
Input feed UI elements finished & implimented
FOV interpolation slightly increased in speed overall, it just feels slightly better
Various fixes to the game’s debug menu
Prototyped some new magic explosion vfx
Death Rune now emits actual environmet light in addition to its glowing material
Added a few more tips regarding Magpoint in loading screen text
Magpoint radius increased from 2500 to 3000
Magpoint movement timer changed from 30 seconds to 60 seconds
Magpoint movement speed will now ramp slightly slower or faster depending on how far away it has to move
Magpoint will now choose from available spots within 13000 units, instead of all possible spots, so at most it can only move half or less across the map
Varius fixes and additions to suggested/generated servers and their settings/data
Added Castle to suggested/generated servers map pools
Improved emitter effect of smoke puffs when dragon has stopped using magic
Slightly lowered volume of Start Battle and Level Up sounds
Removed several debug log prints that were no longer needed
Cloaking now correctly hides player ‘shadow’ when activated
Added new option: Input Feed on/off, on HUD - shows you a feed of what inputs are being pressed
Experimental branch builds will now not save/write any new data, read only
Experimental branch builds will now load the main, default save file
Experimental branch builds will now not upload any career stats
Moved Castle back to its original place in the Arena list
Fixed a typo in the How to Play menu
Fixed chat messages taking up more than 2 lines being cut off in the chat window
Added details about Spores light beam color to its How to Play page
Added Pterosaurs page to How to Play
Fixed various Cloak issues: a boolean called “is cloaked?” was being used for several things, and its value was never actually being set by the cloak event. oopsie.
Finished prototyping Health & Magic pickups & new magic type; planning implimentation now
Splashing effects on Storm & Castle volume slightly lowered and assigned to the environment class, which they weren’t before for some reason
Waterfall sounds volume slightly lowered and assigned to the environment class, which they weren’t before for some reason
Melee now correctly deactivates cloak ability
Fixed one of the scales shaders having normal maps settings that was used in testing
Fixed Title screen sometimes randomly being very bright, this bug was very rare and random so I cannot prove that its fixed but I think it is
Firing is disabled when above 3000 units/s speed
Fixed geyser accelleration + firing bolts producing an absurd force
Added a forced hard limit on movement, when driven by input, to 7000 units, although this should never happen
Shortened the artificial delay when being kicked back to Lairworld (reasons for this are complicated)
Fixed rolling and meleeing making it possible to flip upside down
Fixed(?) infinite loading bug (still testing)
Adjusted/improved position/scale of spine cosmetics
Adjusted/improved position of horn cosmetics
Fixed emblem color not applying to leaderboard listings
Updating some logging settings on the back end
Cleaned up online service junk; old stat files, outdated scripts, etc.
Set Experimental branch to private due to a severe save data issue; changes to this branch’s handling being planned

Build 270 (Main branch) released June 26th, 2025

Moved Castle to the front of the arena list
Updated Leaderboard description
Fixed an issue where Leaderboard menu could not be closed
Removed some filming stuff

Build 269 (LAN branch) released June 25th, 2025

Build 269 (Main branch) released June 25th, 2025

Removed some prototype/debug stuff
Tweaked warmup music

Build 268 (Experimental) released June 23rd, 2025

New scales: Shimmery Pheonix
New scales: Philosopher
New scales: Spyral
New scales: Deep Freeze
New scales: Covenant
New scales: Glow Worm
New scales: Horntail
New scales: Lightning Bird
New spines: Angel
New spines: Malice
New spines: Kyzer
New spines: Xerg
Slightly lowered volume of geyser blasts
Lairworld music playlist and mix adjusted
Postgame music mixing adjusted
Match Intro music now has 11 variations + modulations, mixing adjusted
Removed some less desirable sounds from various in-game music cues
Added/Adjusted sandbanks floor underneath Castle
Fixed another out of bounds spore location
Steam store page updated
Leaderboard officially added to its place on Main Menu
Melee rotation now uses mesh instead of spring arm, same thing that fixed an issue with roll before
Melee cooldown reduced slightly, and reduced even more when using Velocity perk
Melee cooldown replaced with a previous version, influencable by perks now
Fixed an issue where Velocity 2 made you slower, not faster
Improvements to spore light beams shader and added slight variations
Increased max accelleration on character movement component
Finished Castle images
(For later) Prototyped pickups and “Turbo mode”…
(For later) Improved airspeed visual effects & prototyped the return of that effect
(For later) Prototyped skeleton ‘float’ and various wind ripple shader effects
Reduced Frost bolt magic cost from 76 to 43
Increased Acid bolt radius from 190 to 210
Reduced Acid bolt gravity from 0.55 to 0.45
Increased Acid spray radius from 230 to 240
Increased Acid spray speed from 7200 to 7400
Reduced Acid spray gravity from 0.75 to 0.5

Build 267 (Experimental) released June 19th, 2025

Adjusted/changed spore entry sound a little bit
Made spawn camera effects slightly more dramatic
When shroud effect has completed, made it deactivate the paricles and destroy itself momentarily later, letting the particles fade out slightly
Improved material gem pickup sounds & effects
Adjusted value/rarity of some scales
Adjusted value/rarity of material gems
Added title and emblem to collected stats

Build 266 (Experimental) released June 13th, 2025

Magic and Health pickup actors put onto Grid for testing
Shrunk world-only hitsphere for attack bolts, + more aggressive size by life curve, to prevent them from hitting the ground too early
Material rocks spawn moved slightly up more because we keep crashing into the ground trying to get them
Location callouts fixed/finished on Castle
New map: Castle, added to map list for testing
Fixed: dodgel roll animation sometimes not going all the way
Added ‘shimmery’ effect to master scales shader
Skill score algorithm adjusted

Build 265 (Experimental) released May 30th, 2025

Prototype server generation added to browser… testing
Fixed a bug where damage dealt during your most recent life wouldn’t get added to postgame stats
Removed a sound used on spawn that wasn’t supposed to be there
Fixed/improved placement of tail cosmetic mesh
Improved usage of ‘Intelligence’ on bots through-out battle time
Reduced/finished rock selection on Castle
Finished leaderboard algorithm and generation routine logic
Finished leaderboard API request logic
Finished leaderboard screen & widget elements

Build 264 compiled May 19, 2025

Finished & placed Material group spawns
Improved debris particles on bolt impacts
Added projectile asset to Shroud activation to improve clarity
Increased player “shadow” size
Commit log format updated
Launcher script tested, audited, cleaned up
Launcher script refactored
Lessened the post processing dark vingette
Fixed some out-of-bounds exploits on Hollow
Fixed some out-of-bounds exploits on Chasm
Avatar camera movement smoothed
Avatar camera light increased slightly
Camera moved slighty over more, horizontally, and slightly higher up, and slightly farther back
Reticle made smaller overall
Fixed hitmarker position, which was out of place because of the reticle adjustments
Game chat moved to the top right
Adjusted Predator’s FOV change to 30, just solid 30
Renamed “Skins” to “Scales”, as I believe the usage of it in this game differs from what players expect from that term
Fixed yet another spore positioned inaccessibly
Finished new image sharpening filter; sharpening is applied over a radial gradient, with center screen being increased sharpening and the vingette of the screen being negative sharpening. this filter is optional.
Calculation of focus FOV and sprint FOV changed from a multiplier (1.3, 0.6) to an addition and subtract of 30 units
Camera FOV range adjust from 70-140 to 80-140
Camera default FOV set to 90 instead of 85
Tigthened the FOV max clamp on smooth camera function
Improvements to Shroud particle effects, much faster and more lively movement, and darker
Crown shader made less flashy (but still bright) over photosensitivity concern
Updated description of magic on HUD in the help menu
Geysers will now stop spewing if player is in the menu, keeps the menu experience focused
Wrote and began testing external launcher script
Improved visibility of Magpoint zone effect, made less chaotic
Remove in-game feedback menu; nobody was using it. It’s still useful, but I’ll bring it back later in a better way.
Improved doc generator script
Added CSS to website docs
Written and assembled preliminary launcher script for assessment on different machines
New option “Reduce Photosensitive Elements” will hide the lightning on Storm, bright damage flashing effect; with more effects to be assessed and included going forward
Conducted a camera position study…
Added some new effects on takeoff move
Photosensitivity option created in config class, and option added to menu
Added/finished adding crabs and clams to new map
Finished/improved clam actor
Created new actor that can spawn a group assortment of Material rocks, for used in Lairworld
Finished pyrite, magpoint and crown placement for new map
Finished spawns and navigational elements for ai on new map
Finished boundary elements for new map
Increased movement speed and trigger range of the shroud
Very slightly increased radius of all attacks to accommodate for some near miss issues
Distortion emitter added to magic impact effects, looks cool
Added more variation to the orientation of decals created by bolt impacts
Reduced amount of pterosaurs that can spawn from spores, intended to lower the total
‘Image Sharpening’ option renamed to ‘Sharp Lens Filter’
Film grain removed
‘Film grain’ option removed, as it apparently wasn’t even turned enabled in game, and I decided I don’t like it lol

Build 263 released April 27, 2025

FAQ updated
Slight adjustments made to global post processing - prepping for a filter update
Adjusted hard FOV limits
Slight increase to FOV ‘burst’ when sprinting
Hitting pterosaurs now gives you a hitmarker
Increased pterosaur’s attack range
Adjusted diving speed curve
Top speed when flying increased
Dragon diving pose slightly tweaked
Dragon will now tuck in its wings when firing, to avoid wings blocking your view
Hitboxes for player updated to better apply to current model, plus made slightly larger
Nametag pickup radius increased
Nametags made slightly larger
Updated Steam tags
Fixed an issue where selecting None on customizations didn’t remove lower jaw horns
Adjusted reticle position to be more accurate at more distances
Ability descriptions lengthened to explain them better
Blood Sight time increased slightly
Cloak time increased slightly
Few small audio fixes
Added dithering to moss shader
Fixed(?) spore vegetation spawning on mushrooms
Adjust more spores positions

Build 262 released April 18, 2025

Re-implimented Material “gemstone” pickups. Gems will be randomly spawned in the Lairworld (Lairworld only, not arenas) to be picked up for bonus Material
Widgets using Interact action should properly use Action Key name
Spore egg claim and ready up now properly attached to an “Interact” action
Adjusted attention settings for meteor landing sounds, sound design should vary by distance now + less harsh overall
Finished and implimented Set Action Key binding and Get Action Key Name functions
Reduced the cost of fusion bolts by half
Added more variation to spore veg spawn, and adjusted the values of the meshes chosen based on spore value
Added MeteorFrag instance spawn alongside Spore veg spawn
Adjusted background tint on various menus
Added PLAYSKYFEAR.COM, a website doc viewer menu
Added a progress % value next to spores stats, and reworded to align better with the widget elements that occur during delivery
Improved position and phrasing on post match return to warm-up timer. Many players were not seeing or understanding this mechanic.
Removed the logic of fading out the ESC MENU prompt in Lairword HUD; in attempt to make the Lairworld’s relation to the Main Menu more clear. The reason this logic existed is because a while ago, you could only open the Main Menu if you were on the ground and standing still. This was annoying to players so I removed it, but the ESC MENU prompt was made to fade away if you were moving. So now that’s been removed.
Move Discord button to the left with all the other buttons on Main Menu
Made pterosaurs slightly less noisy (again)
Slight improvement to game build tag widget
Created and published roadmap doc
Fixed spore vegatation and meteor rock fragments spawning in the air
Added shoulder cam to Basics widget
Added notes about vegetation generation in spores help page
Vegetation generated from claimed spores is now broader, brighter, more colorful, and properties determined by the spore’s value
Camera shake from roaring now uses camera shake intensity setting
Slightly increased bleed xp earnings from certain actions
Adjusted/improved meteor spawn sounds stero attentuation
Adjusted roar stereo attenuation
Your killer’s emblem added to death screen, next to their name
Slightly neatened up the layout of the death screen
Changed the way Network Status is showed in the server browser, to accommodate Main/LAN branches and to look nicer
Added K/D and overall accuracy stat elements to the backend
Added more bot “chat” content and adjusted it’s usage. Bots made slightly less chatty.
Added a “Manual Respawn” key. Press K to uh … send yourself to the afterlife and get respawned. Intended for situations where you’ve gotten stuck.
Fixed an oversight in the way that the “Time spent in battle” stat was being presented. It should now be presented as it was meant: Amount of time spent alive, during a valid battle session
How to Play menu can now be accessed from the Pause/Lobby menu
Increased amount of Material earned from killing pterosaurs in the Lairworld
Added melee damage to pterosaurs
Number of spores provided as already opened (upon new game) is now counted and subtracted from spores stats, to be more accurate and less confusing
Some informational text added to spore delivery widget
Adjusted the number of spores awarded for leveling up – spores per level has always been exponentially increased, but now it does so slower, and clamped between 1 and 3 per level-up. Basically: spores delivery will be slightly slower and more evenly spread out.
Removed V for spray as an alternative keybinding; all keybindings set up for 1 keyboard and 1 gamepad input
Increased delay for showing the options on the Post Game menu, and forced input to null until that appears. This prevents user from accidentally skipping the Post Game menu entirely by accident because they were trying to jump or fly.
Fixed an issue where pressing F on a spore multiple times before the reward screen appears would repeatedly subtract the Material cost
Slightly decreased volume of spore ambience sound
Tested menu arrangements including various new buttons, saved for later
Team Names set to Sun and Moon by default…
Made Team Names on scoreboard look a bit clearer, text-wise
Added Team Name to HUD, near the score and timer. Text will collapse if game mode does not use teams.
Various Discord server improvements
Further testing on sensitivity settings range…
Added extra visibility elements to server “Join” button
Renamed “Ok” to “Next” on Profile Create menu – bit clearer what’s happening now
Removed service rendev. time console printing
Increased the range of geyser blast sound cue, so you can hear it when you get launched
Improved positioning and color/visbility of Basic Controls widget
Clarified and simplified the Basic Controls widget text
Increased visibility of single (isolated) buttons, and added parenthesis around keybindings if applicable
Reworded Bots and Server buttons on Custom Game Setup menu to clearly mean “Settings”
Increased bots’ default intelligence setting from 45 to 50
Fixed an issue with Eden’s map image; new image used
Added UI elements to the server browser directing players towards Discord/Create A Server if browser has <5 results
Added spectator-like movement to customization camera, so user can not just orbit but move up/down/left/right, for a better look at their avatar
Created functions for translating Unreal’s action mapping struct
Expanded text chat window farther horizontally (we’ll see if this stays)
Fixed some of Wintertide’s spawn locations being way too far out
Expanded the range of sensitivity settings expanded
Removed more console string prints
Improved wording of Magpoint objective
Added more game tips & loading screen content
Increased the lighting values on Chasm, so you can see player skins better
Added a point light near customization camera so avatar is always lit
Decreased sway/increased speed on customization camera control
Sped up zoom lerp function for customization camera
Surrounded player names with <> brackets in more places, was inconsistent before
Added more combat tips
Added Geysers page to Help
Updated damage information in tail strike Help page
Fixed out of date Grid thumbnail image
Fixed more Spore positions, some of them were inside walls
Fixed Unnatural pro not ignoring collision damage, works now
Increased value of potential Material given by killing pterosaurs
Adjusted player count function used in server browser to be more lenient
Set region filter to ALL by default, for now
Increased size and visibility of the roar effect
Added option for speed on HUD
Added speed to HUD
Added option for raw Health/Magic values on HUD
Added Health/Magic raw values to HUD
Prototyped freeplay mode
Added more bot chat content
Improved respawn sec(s) counter text

Build 261 released March 14, 2025

GP added to online stat string construction
Regolith ambient sound slightly mixed better
Wintertide waterfalls sound lowered slightly
Crown network relevancy range increased & added more Force Net Update events
Several spores underground have had their positions fixed
Walking in air bug fixed
Magpoint’s description improved
Pterosaurs will now be silent and freeze when menus are open
Fixed scale of images in Spores How To screen
Increased single player earnings multiplier from 79% to 90%
Increased custom ruleset earnings multiplier from 29% to 59%

Build 260 released March 10, 2025

Server password-to-access dialogue fixed (event was just unhooked for some reason)
Several console print statements removed; more to go
Eden’s mysterious sky-leaves rendering glitch fixed
Fixed/renamed a few buttons with out of date terms
Storm’s lightning brightness reduced slightly
Storm’s rain particles reduced slightly
Volume and frequency of pterosaur screams reduced
Slightly decreased overal global post processing contrast
Melee animation getting stuck fixed
Melee range increased from 600cm to 900cm
Melee damage fixed; uses full 500 damage now instead of a radial falloff
Forced check if rolling when Take flight or Land is called, only continue if not rolling
Removed forced velocity addition in the Z direction when meleeing
Increased FOV option range from 80-100 to 70-140
Added option to bots setup: Chatty on/off, enables or disables bots chatting

Build 259 released March 5, 2025 … Game launched on Steam March 6, 2025!

Finished adding all skins, eyes, to unlocks data & placing spores
Fixed out of date map/mode lists for generate new battle
Fixed out of date wording on some spore elements
Removed print strings from several areas, need to do more
Fixed an issue where branches were creating and loading the wrong save data
Wiped online data
Moved data code back to 1, full ecosystem reset
Built function to estimate server ping based on available information, when the AdvancedSessionsPlugin doesn’t have a valid ping
Rebuilt and reimplimented death animation
Rebuilt and reimplimented running animation
Rebuilt and reimplimented walking animation

February 2025… (Prior to launch date, the tasks are separated by month.)

Branch load save data function
Reworded some controls UI elements
Tweaked ban screen messaging
Tested re-export/re-import character model assets
Adjusted global post processing contrast (increased)
Tested and fixed some walking movement issues
Tested and fixed some server travel issues
Fixed a spore delivery issue
Added Instance TTS to debug view (time to service in ms)
Removed testing elements from maps
Fixed claw mesh issues
Fixed some vertex-weight issues on character model
Added 7 new eyes
Added 15 new skins

January 2025…

Added animation and sound for melee
Finished Vote to kick feature
Improved sound effects on spawn and match intro
Added Code of Conduct to Help menu and Server browser screen
Reset Battle resets all PlayerState values, including now community/conduct features
Finished LAN branch build path and build affects on UX
Updated Release Cycle
Updated Content Guidelines
Updated Code of Conduct
Server browser network will now say LAN if LAN branch, Network status if Main/Expr
Added server and player count to server browser.
Added ping to server browser results.
Finished Report Player feature.
Finished Commend Player feature.
Finished Mute in Chat feature.
Brought back geysers in the Lairworld.
Finished Guardian Points impact on XP and Material delivery.
Resized Grid (map) geometry.
Culled/organized all notes to push back anything that isn’t absolutely critical for launch.
Cleaned up/disabled physics assets on character – UE4.21’s physics asset features at the time were very underdeveloped. might make everybody’s life easier if it just stays untouched until a better solution is found.
Cleaned up some runtime warnings being thrown from SeaLevel and Weather casts occurring too early sometimes
Rolling on ground now launches you into the air and puts you into a roll, transitioning you to flight automatically after. A quick get-away move.
Added ‘light up rocks’ to Eden, Hollow, & Chasm
Renamed ‘Dust’ to ‘Material’. This is final.
Verified there is no level cap - for now
Increase lifetime of ability frag collection emitter, looks better this way
Total level and guardian points (gp) displayed on Career screen
Created and implimented guardian point actions, actions that add/subtract conduct points.
Added ‘guardian points’ - a value that measures your conduct in mutliplayer.
Added ‘total level’ - a value that is a sum of your Spirit, Force, and Bleed, for simplicity in certain features or conversations
Added more encouragement texts
Created ‘LAN party’ branch
Kill confirmed widget repositioned
Particle ‘stick’ fx adjusted to stay longer
Fixed/finished debug “test menu” to make sure it nullifies any XP or rewards from the current battle
Reduced camera sway and increased body sway – responsiveness and snappiness feels improved, without impacting the smoothness of flight
Reworded a few in-game menu buttons
Improved save icon indicator visibility and text, and added to more places in the game loop where it should’ve been
Improved ‘lore’ text for maps
Added more server information to the in-game scoreboard screen
Adjusted default audio mix, music volume lowered
Improved/added to map and game mode texts
Added more loading screen text
Updated build branch type enum: Main, Expr, LAN
Updated/build number text functionality/format
Fixed some issues with XP delivery
Improved mixing on several sound fx
Adjusted default health and magic regeneration rates
Perk system re-work designed, but needs further assessment
Made ability frags slightly more visually distinct
Removed “MVP” section from scoreboard as it is not working properly and the cause cannot be found – plan to re-impliment or do something better with this later.
New map under construction…
Adjusted wording/names of some menu buttons

December 2024…

New/final application icon
Made ‘ENTER’ also used as text chat focus button, in addition to previously ‘T’
Collected new ideas/notes from various games
Adjusted ban screen to provide more useful/accurate information
Made sure publishing and main menu assets make the game’s scale and genre more clear
Added various flags to chat content
Added automatic reporting when chat flags are triggered
Improved text chat censoring and handling of strings
Fixed/re-implimented chat censoring options
Wrote a player Code of Conduct
Fixed an issue with spray attack collisions
Added more bot chat content
Conducted research regarding player/community toxicity
“Leave battle” button moved to bottom of the list in all variations of the in-game menu
Removed landing conditions requirement - you can now just tap space to land in all conditions. Previous implimentation to was to prevent exploitations that we never really ending up seeing, plus it was something that always had to be explained to players, and just felt off, and the latter implimentation is more enjoyable and responsive. So yeah.
New game mode: Instakill
In-game menu now has a listing of players in the current server, along with community related options: Mute, Vote to kick, Report, Commend
Fixed/re-implimented bug reporting in-game
Fixed/re-implimented text chat on/off option
Created assets for Practice Mode
Added new tab in Options menu for Debug features, only visible in Experimental builds
Debug feature: cheat menu (all XP and earnings will be nullified from the battle the moment this opens, even if you turn it back off)
Debug feature: show console logs on/off (this feature is ‘done’ but all console logging events have not been switched from Legacy Unreal to this custom feature yet)
Removed dirt mask post processing effect

November 2024…

Tweaked/fixed horns positions on player model’s head
Finished fixing issues related to ending battles automatically when lives run out
Fix an issue with the game clock in spectator view when paused
Created a set of ‘common’ servers for generated single player matches (still experimental)
Secured approval from Valve to launch under Early Access
Fixed a bug with spine cosmetic previews
Store page updates
Redefined main menu button names/descriptions
Testing Unreal export of skeletal meshes
Updated all help/guide screens

October 2024…

Performed a stress test on service component simulating 10,000 active players
Fixed issues with server browser player count
Fixed/finished implimentation of [experimental feature] single player sessions generated in the server browser
Improved server browser buttons / layout / animations
Fixed meteor brightness
Fixed issue where live limits being reached were not necessarily being considered to end the game early; now the game will automatically end if only one player remains with time left, so they don’t need to sit there
Added/finished bot chat [experimental feature]
Updated/fixed store page
Fixed/improved match kill feed text
Fixed in-game music. Now plays throughout battle with some delay between tracks
Made spore light taller for viewing at larger distances
Fixed an issue where sometimes a player name would be blank in the kill feed
Save data DNA now includes branch name
Improved teeth shader
Fixed waterfall loudness
Increased magpoint net relevancy square
Fixed level-up in Experimental branch not working
Improved roar and bolt fire animations
Changed amount of orbs that spawn from death now influenced by ability charge; the more your ability is charged the more orbs come out
Orbs now slightly slower, less travel
All axis based inputs now have a fixed max range that they are clamped to (for extreme cases)
Fixed issue where Magpoint would be stuck on ‘contested’ even when nobody is there, in single player
Spore eggs are translucent now: and have some visual asset inside to represent the contents inside. This gives the player more to inform their decision making, while not totally spoiling the surprise.

September 2024…

Reduced time to spawn spores when returning to Lairworld
Improved a few sound effects
Fixed some spawn points on Chasm that were messed up
Removed wind/airflow effect on ‘sprint’. This was the cause of some strange visual artifacts specifically on Eden, which made the game look very broken. Improvements to this effect were already planned for later, so I just removed the effect for now with the plan of re-doing it altogether later. As a result, the artifacts on Eden are fixed.
Improved ambient audio on all environments.
Brought back dirt masks in post processing. Might remove, might make it an option.
Fixed MORE issues with Cloak, when holding the Crown
Music is played during matches now generally
Made sure music plays on intro
Updated new save data creation per branch – now separate saves with different startup behavior
Create Exeprimental branch upload script/pipeline
On gamebuild tag, use universal build no. variable and build profile enum
On create save data, use build profile enum
Create/edit build profile enum variable
Create/edit universal build no. variable
Create warpath string format
Went over unlocks database and adjusted prices/details
Added ‘recycle’ of data to bots to help with handling changing of gameplay over time
Archived Epic’s physics asset documentation
Created upload scripts for exp branch
Added brand assets .zip to website
Created commit log asset
Created release cycle asset
Finished doc build scripts
Improved visibility/shadow effect on pterosaurs, bots, and players
Improved pterosaur shader, made it whitish gray
Fixed various bugs related to using Cloak ability
Re arranged Main Menu; Moved Loadout and Customization to main, moved Stats to Career screen
Cleaned up discord server and public URLs
Fixed various bugs on the customization menu
Created warpath data structure
Finished/fixed ability to select “None’ for tails, horns, and spines. Unlocked by default
Improved bots reaction to player attacks
Improved bots decisions regarding their interest over time
Renamed domination to “Magpoint” – to both distinguish itself more but also to be more accurate to the updated objective
Fixed/finished domination zone sphere blocking magic attacks
Removed ‘ticker’ in server browser. Will revisit this idea at a later date…
Cleaned up sys admin documentation in case I need help down the line
FAQ updates
Archived old discord channels
Created new spines
Created new skins
Created new eyes
Made sure clan tags are used in log statements
Cleaned up backend log messages formats and delivery
Fixed issues with ‘skin warble’
Fixed issues with death/respawning in the Lairworld
Fixed the math used in the Unnatural perk. That was bad. I was multiplying incoming damage by 0.2, not 0.8, in regards to its 20% reduction promise.
Revived feedback/request API resource & client menu
Store page touch-ups

August 2024…

Added more options to single player post-game: Edit battle and go again, have game randomly generate a new battle, or replay same setup
Fixed player name entries no resetting when defaults button is clicked
Added clan tag option
Verified bots can win games by themselves
Cleaned up / finalized title screen
Added server domain bypass option for testing
Added pyrite information to help menu
Reconfigured testing server
Changed domination - one zone only, magic cannot travel through barrier
Improved domination zone art assets
Make domination zone larger
Fixed crown position on player model
Patched newly found security vulns based on news from providers
Cleaned up all websites file storage, files, delivery, to reduce bandwidth load
Created content guidelines
Fixed crown holding text
Added tooltip for player region select
Set region in server browser to use player’s profile region by default
Made sure ‘hitflash’ effect fully restored on any new shaders
Updated spores page in the help menu
Started removing old debug printings
Added “letter to the player” on first game startup
Updated shroud description
Improved shroud art assets
Made shroud chase the first player it ‘sees’, making it more useful
Improved dust icon
Changed list button selected/unselected colors, made a bit more consistent with what players are used to
Improved bot difficulty setting impact over every mechanic
Adjusted position XP delivery element on HUD
Add “[BOT]” tag to bot names to make sure that’s understood
Improved visibility of domination HUD elements
Lowered bots difficulty minimum in the settings
Geysers temporarily removed. Decided these will be restored at a later date after more deliberation and testing…