Hi Seeker !

The 0.19.5 is coming soon.

It's been a long time since we've said anything about updates, and we hope to avoid this kind of period of silence in the future. The reasons for this silence are many and partly personal, but we wanted to share with you our latest advances. We're going to approach this update from 3 angles: 

Design, technical, and visual. (Sound design will be a focus soon.).

Part 1, design changes:

A lot of changes and tests have been carried out recently. We're starting to get to the point where we'd like to develop, and we'd like to enhance the perception of this experience. So, for this next update, we want to focus on the essential exploration/combat experience.

This update will include:

• A starting spell set drawn at random
• 12 new spell variants (to be discovered)
• An overhaul of the stats' enhancement system (interface / operation). We realized that the old system was too difficult to grasp mentally.
• Confirmation of the new monster appearance system (when the player is in the shadow / when the player makes an event / when night falls).
• Fewer different artifacts to encourage interesting combinations

Part 2: Technical changes:

We're well aware of the project's performance problems, which weren't a surprise, and we started implementing tools a few months ago. But we didn't expect the latest update to have so many problems. That's why we've focused our attention on bringing the project up to date on the technical front.

Every game project is constantly experiencing something called "technical debt". This debt accumulates over time, and working on a large project without being full-time on it doesn't help to reduce it. So, after 1 year, we decided to review a certain number of systems, structures and problems that we had left aside. This work isn't finished yet, but we're already seeing the results.

We also decided to upgrade to Unity LTS 2022 to take advantage of the latest engine updates. This change has cost us a lot of time and energy.

Part 3: Visuals:

Art direction is something that takes time to build. Both aesthetically and technically, we're looking to build a direction that we like and that will be able to support our future ideas and ambitions. We're still gradually changing elements, and a number of effects are not at their final level.

• 4 distinct zones have been added
• Several global lighting mood settings have been connected to the time of day. Sun temperature, for example, now adapts to the time of day.
• A new, simplified upgrade interface has been added. It's easier to handle than the previous one, but we're not giving up on the idea of a 3D interface.
• Other new features and adjustments will be coming soon (water surfaces, for example), but we invite you to follow our networks like instagram to see them in advance!

We're very happy with the direction things are taking, and we'd like to thank everyone who follows us, shares, tests or gives us feedback! 

We can't wait to show you all our ideas and hope you enjoy this update! 

See you soon, the Seekers Of Sand team.