Well, first of all, I’m sorry. Almost 8 months without significant news it’s way to much. A lot of things have happened, all at the same time. But that doesn’t mean I can use it as an excuse to avoid posting updates! Let’s try to fix that.
I’m writing this for several reasons. One of them to demonstrate that I’m not dead or something similar. And second, to address some concern over the last events related with Islanded.
Unity 5
Islanded is now using Unity 5. And it was a tough decision.
I started developing Islanded with Unity 3.8 (a long time ago). Going form 3.8 to 4 was nearly impossible, and the game was totally redone from scratch. With the appearance of Unity 5, and Islanded being in active development using Unity 4.6, another upgrade was just around the corner.
This time the upgrade seemed more stable, thanks to Unity being more mature and maintaining the same core as the old versions. Therefore being able to upgrade form Unity 4 to Unity 5 in seconds wouldn’t be a problem.
Not really.
The API upgrade was handled by Unity itself, but it delivered some errors. Nothing too serious. Until I pressed play. Everything was broken. Frame-rate drops, flickering shadows, some of the terrain shaders missing, no sound, and so on.
Keep using Unity 4 wasn’t an option. The developer community was already all over Unity 5, and Unity 4 was going to stop the support on bugs and updates.
Long story short, I literally rewrote about 60% of the game’s configuration and code. It took a lot of time, but the bright side is that the game is now a lot more stable, there is a new UI, and is now a lot easier for future development. This is one of the reasons of the eight-month silence.
Desura
In case the news haven’t got to you, Desura is in the process of going bankrupt. Personally I never received anything from the sales of Islanded that occurred in Desura. To be honest, purchases of Islanded directly on Desura were very few compared to those on Humble Bundle or PayPal.
No one at Desura or Bad Juju Games Inc. (actual owner) seems to be working to fix the platform at the moment.
As of right now (10 of November of 2015), Islanded will no longer be available for purchase on Desura. No newer updates will be delivered to Desura, including the following Beta version.
If you purchased Islanded on Desura, send an email to contact at islandedgame.com to obtain a purchase page on Humble Bundle, in case Desura suddenly disappears.
If Desura was reborn in some way, this could change. For now, Islanded is out.
Website
A new Islanded website will be available soon to replace the old one. Nothing new that affects the game itself, just a totally new website, that will include also the long awaited “Upgrade package” to upgrade from Backer to Supporter (more info on the website).
Beta
No, this is not a changelog of the Beta version. As I’m writing this down, the Beta is not yet playable. There are still some missing core mechanics from the upgrade to Unity 5, but I feel optimistic. I can’t set a release date, because I don’t know it myself.
If you want to follow the active development, just follow @EngyneCreations on twitter.
That’s all I got for now. Thanks for your support and sorry again for the huge silence-season.