I'm approaching a sort of peak in my work cycle where I expect to have a pause between projects. During this time I'd like to return to Project Explore and treat it like I used to, as something I enjoyed making, a hobby project.

This time however I plan to focus on bringing all the new tech back with me while I rebuild the original Project Explore. I started today off by grabbing a few higher resolution textures and replacing the ugly pixel art ones I created.

Following the new textures I fixed danger zones not working correctly. This means turn-based combat is back until we (Kaller and I) get around to replacing it with the original combat (swing and run).

I also grabbed the original code used to create the fake 3D effect from the original game.

I'd like to implement it back in and involve the mod system in how it's used. Alongside all of this I hope to make use of some of the various improvements that have been made to Game Maker Studio 2.

Hey everyone, Seabass here! Following Rock God Tycoon I created another game called Don't Sink. Today is an awesome day because today... it is finally available on Steam!

If you are interested the game is available here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/710610/Dont_Sink/

If you liked Project Explore or any other work of mine it would mean the world to me if you could continue to support my efforts!

I've heard the community on this matter and I feel that the majority really wants the real-time combat to return. If this is the case I'm more than happy to rewrite the combat. The reason I've yet to do so is that the angry tend to be more vocal than the satisfied so I'm hoping to hear from more people here.

Additionall it would be of much help to me if I could hear how everyone feels regarding the visuals of the world. I could improve on it by changing the textures used for the ground for example.

Another aspect of the game I'm still interested in improving is creating more complicated systems for users to delve into such as pipes for items and automatic crafting systems. Maybe add weather to create a more alive and dynamic world.

Let me hear your thoughts on the matter!

Kickstarter Page

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seabassdev/dont-sink

I am excited to finally start talking about my new game. Don't Sink! If you are interested swing by the Kickstarter page and give it a read.

It has been a long journey and one that I'm hapy I endured. This game has taken me nearly three years to complete and has been through four completely different iterations. I want to thank everyone who has stuck through the process of this games development.

I know not everyone is happy with the final state of the game but unfortunately you can't make everyone happy. This game is what I intended it to be so in the end I'm satisfied with what we've created as a community.

This release won't be the last update and as long as players remain engaged I will continue improving this game for a long time.


| Bug Fixes |

-Wooden crate couldn't be crafted
-A few biomes were causing crashes

Thanks for the support!
Project Explore Official Discord[discord.gg]
Project Explore Official Twitter
Developer's Twitter

This update brings a lot of Vanilla content to the game. That is all for now!


| New Features |

-Hotbar interaction with the mouse

| Vanilla Gameplay |

-Changed rock sprites to be more unique and easier to tell apart
-Updated "Wolf Cap" item sprite

-Added new items and objects
+Tin
+Tin (Rock)
+Bronze
+Bronze Sword
+Bronze Leggings
+Bronze Chestplate
+Bronze Helmet
+Ore Cooker

-New biomes
+Deer Fields
+Tin and Iron
+House 2

-New enemies
+Buck
+Doe

| Modding |

-Spawn kits included in blacklisted mods won't be loaded anymore

| Bug Fixes |

-Doors could not be passed through when open
-Metal door would show black where there should be an opening when in the open state

Thanks for the support!
Project Explore Official Discord[discord.gg]
Project Explore Official Twitter
Developer's Twitter

WIth the addition of waypoints you can save locations, set your destination for the compass, and keep up to 50 waypoints per world. This feature works for both singleplayer and multiplayer.

http://i.imgur.com/uYDrSkn.png

This was a minor feature that should've been implemented ages ago but there were never enough items for me to see the need to add it. Now with workshop mods I've seen that there are plenty of items and that many people would benefit from this feature.

http://imgur.com/654O7MH.gif

I've began the process of implementing PvP and so far I have the basics already working. With these update out of the way I'll likely spend this week focusing on finishing the PvP system to give all you awesome people what you've been asking for.


| New Features |

-Added a waypoint system to allow players to save up to 50 locations. When selected a compass will appear on the upper right corner of the screen and point towards the set location
(This feature works for both singleplayer and multiplayer)
-Crafting page arrows allow you to navigate between multiple pages of items

| Networking |

-Inventory is synced after crafting an item
-Storage objects will check if players are close enough to interact with it and if not will close itself
-Changed the way clients join the game room once they connect, takes 1 less frame
-Networking buffers are now global scope meaning multiplayer performance is slightly better (minimal)

| Performance |

-Raised sleep margin timer from 5ms to 10ms to further avoid FPS stutter

| Bug Fixes |

-Ingame music would begin playing and restart the menu music if the client failed to join a server, instead it will pause the menu music and resume once the connection fails
-"/biome_files_update" was causing a crash due to it attempting to write to the executable directory
-Entering combat while a storage object is open works properly now
-Clicking menu buttons would clear the entire keyboard/mouse state, instead it clears only the mouse state now
-Unsubscribing from a workshop item properly unsubscribes now
-Having more than 128 items could cause problems in the crafting screen including descriptions not being shown

| Misc |

-Numerous improvements to the Steam Workshop implementation since the original 1.0.8 release
-The Controls/Mod menus now displays 6 buttons at a time instead of 4
-Refactored a lot of the game code to make development easier

Thanks for the support!
Project Explore Official Discord[discord.gg]
Project Explore Official Twitter
Developer's Twitter

Updates are every Monday!

I've spent some time recently with family that is visiting so I have been away from my work unfortunately. However short vacation has given me time to plan out some changes for Project Explore and decide on how I want to approach updates.

Public updates will be pushed every week on Monday. An experimental build will be made available at some point prior to the Monday update on the Experimental branch for mod developers who would like to keep their mods compatible with the latest release.

PvP (player vs player) is a planned feature but one that I haven't heavily persued yet. I would like to know how much people actually want it implemented. Let me know in the comments or discord chat.

Thanks for the support!
Project Explore Official Discord[discord.gg]
Project Explore Official Twitter
Developer's Twitter

With workshop support here you can now upload and download mods with ease. Subscribe to any mod, wait for the download, and then launch the game. The new blacklisting allows you to quickly disable and enable mods on the fly so you never have to unsubscribe from mods just to join servers with different mods.

I've posted the Vanilla game as an item on the workshop and Gazelle has posted her very own Delicious Produce mod! Her mod adds a ton of delicious produce to the game as well as some higher tier food items. I recommend checking it out. Adding it to your game won't cause issues with your current game world and only new chunks will be affected by the new biomes.

I'm currently working to resolve some file directory issues with the Linux build of the game. Workshop doesn't seem to like Ubuntu and/or there is something wrong with the way I've written it. I am however testing in a 32-bit virtual machine and that is likely part of the problem.

If any Linux users would like to help me further improve the compatibility of Workshop with Linux please let me know on the forums.

Mods do still work fine with Linux but you have to manually install them which takes a few extra seconds since you have to drag them into a folder yourself.


| New Features |

-Steam Workshop

| Bug Fixes |

-The Linux build should launch correctly now

*EDIT*
Mods were having some issues with directories but this has been fixed! Please update your game! This patch will fix files for anyone who's files got messed up while there were issues.

Thanks for the support!
Project Explore Official Discord[discord.gg]
Project Explore Official Twitter
Developer's Twitter