Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
After nearly one and a half year of Early Access, we finally leave alpha status and enter beta status.

Update 0.6.0, the most extensive update we've made, adds a lot of content, enhancements and bugfixes. The full patch notes are attached at the end of this news.

This time, our little update trailer not only shows the visible new features but also looks back to what happened in the past 2 years of development. Enjoy a view behind the scenes, how the game evolved from the very first prototype to what it is now:

https://youtu.be/udYyNtHRo5g

You can also see some changes on the store page of Konrad the Kitten. The new logo is live, screenshots are updated and the store text is now ready for a final release in February.

The short version of our release notes:
1. Tutorial added. This guides new players and shows how to play the game.
2. New languages: The game is now fully localized in German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese languages
3. Loading screen: There is now simpel loading environment to make the loading times cuter.
4. Highscores: The game now tracks and shows highscores for all minigames.
5. Graphical enhancements of environments, especially at the beach, the intro area and the warp zone (entrance). But also all other environments got some graphical updated things.
6. Overhauled Action Objects: washing tub, toilet paper, cat toilet, balloon ride, forest scratching tree were all redesigned/enhanced
7. The teleport icons were redesigned from scratch
8. Lots of usability enhancements like an enhanced help board, better floor calibration and optimized hand mode.
9. Lots of performance optimization. Game should now run on high QL on most VR typical PC's.
11. Fixed a lot of issues in big kitten and small kitten mode.
12. Fortune wheel now yields coins or hearts when you not win a minigame.
13. Lots of enhancements and adjustments for all the minigames.
14. Lot of other small enhancements
15. Lots of bugfixes

So what can you expect in 2018?

The final release (version 1.0.0) is scheduled for mid February. This will add achievements, some last bugfixes and some platform and hardware specific enhancements.

In march, our NFC card game "FusionPlay Heroes" will be launched in store.

We have loads of ideas what to do after march, including new content for Konrad the Kitten and even totally new games. But for now, we cannot tell you more details. Just stay tuned, enjoy the christmas update and be ready for the final release in Q1.


Finally, the full release notes of Update 0.6.0:

0.6.0 - The Beta - 22.12.2017

Tutorial
* Added a tutorial introducing all game elements to new players (Just one sentence here but so much work...)


Loading Screen:
* When starting the game, you land in a very simplified loading environment, the full game is loaded asynchronous in the background.


Localisation:
* The game is now fully localised for the following languages:
** English
** German
** French
** Spanish
** Russian
** Chinese
** Japanese


Highscores:
* The game now tracks the highest score for each minigame. It's shown during the minigames and announced when you break the highscore.


Graphical Enhancements:

* Intro:
* The intro part of the game (setting up the cat and calibrating floor) has now a different look. Background and floor have been replaced with a more technical, holodeck-like ambience. Also the signs showing hints now match this new style. And finally we got rid of the horrible cloud/snow floor.

* The beach was overhauled:
** new palm tree textures
** new water
** more decoration (a hammock, cocktails, coconuts, etc.)
** replaced old umbrellas and beach chairs with better looking ones

* Forest enhancements:
** The trees in the forest were replaced with new models that look better and have more diversity.
** Stones with muddy textures in the forest were replaced with new models and textures.
** Forest vegetation is now more dense

*WarpZone enhancements:
** The house in the warp zone (also seen in the background of the beach) was replaced with a new, much better looking model and decorated with some stuff (hedges, flowers, etc.).

overhauled action objects:
** the muddy texture of the wash tub was replaced with a better one
** the 3d model of the toilet paper roll was replaced with a new one
** the cat litter in the cat toilet was changed to look better
** the basket of the balloon was redesigned
** the tree in the forest was redesigned

*enhanced animations:
** The drinking animation was enhanced
** there is now a real poop animation
** the "punch" animation in minigames now properly shows the kitten being held in the hands of the player (and not standing on the ground)

* Some furnitures in kitchen and bathroom now have new (better looking) textures
* all collectibles (xp-hearts, coins, unlock medal) got new particle effects to look better
* The teleport-icons that trigger teleporting to the different areas have been redesigned.
* The cushion now has a new material for the cushion itself and the text on it.


UI Optimisations:
* All usages of old radial UI elements (based on canvas) were replaced with the new 3D versions. This includes the skip buttons in the intro and the necklaces for the kitten.
* In hand mode you don't need to press any button any more (to grab the kitten)
* The cushion is now always visible (no matter which area you are in.)
* When the paw of the kitten get's hurt in a minigame, it's now highlighted flashing red to signal that
* optimized Help-Board in the shed:
** The help board now explains more detailled on 5 pages, how the game works.
** There is now a reference page that lists all needs
** There are now controls to pause autoplay and manually switch pages of the help board
* Ghost Hand for Hand Mode:
** In Hand mode player often try to interact with their hand with the environment. As all interactions are supposed to happen via the cat, we made the hand in Hand-Mode become a "Ghost Hand". This should clarify that the hand itself cannot touch anything.

* Calibration Optimisations:
** Calibration is now aborted, when the controller is moved upwards during the calibration.
** During calibration, arrows now point downwards to indicate that the controller/plushy shall be placed on the floor.
** progress of the calibration is now indicated during calibration.


Gameplay Finetuning:
* Sounds refactoring
** optimize some sounds regarding volume and tone

* Minigame Fortune Wheel:
* There is no loosing anymore! When you don't win a minigame you get some coins or experience instead.
* The fortune wheel is now instanciated when appearing. This saves performance.

* Big kitten and small kitten:
** Lots of optimizations for playing in Plushy mode with large or small kitten.

* The cat now has 20% more energy per day
* The fortune wheel can now spawn up to 5 times a day.
* a new command line parameter "-reviewmode" has been added. This resets energy everytime the game is started. This mode is intended to be used by people doing reviews of the game but it can be used by anyone ;)
* The kitten no longer performs any orientation based action, when it is in the intro-area, the shed or the dress room.
* Fixed a bug that made the attributes of the kitten go crazy, when the system time was manipulated.

* Adjusted Minigames:
** Name and highscore of the minigame are now shown above the score board
** Bowls and Teapot in the "Tea Party" minigame have now less friction (can be knocked down more easy)
** Koi-fish now yield only 75 points
** standard fishes are now easier to catch but yield less points (especially the large ones)
** mice can no longer be psuhed around after they were splatted
** crabs no longer have that bad looking sand-paticles when crawling
** Parcours minigame now only spawns element group that are solvable in a way, that the controller is always visible by the system. This is important for front-facing systems (PS VR & Oculus) as before this patch some parts of the obstacle course were not possible to solve. (The plush toy hid the controller so the cameras couldn't see it.)


Performance Optimisations:
* There is now a "tunnel" in the dress room that hides shop items that are not inside the counter itself. By not always rendering all availbale 50 items, we save a lot of performance.
* Storage Consumption optimizations
** Large textures will be optimized to consume less space. The build is getting quite big.
* Asynchronous Loading, Saving and Initializing:
** Hiccups and short freezes when entering an area for the first time or when switching worn accessories will be removed/optimized
* Details of the forest depend on quality settings. Higher quality settings have more dense vegetation.
* Terrain GameObjects were completely replaced with mesh objects and separate foliage.
* Extensive background meshes were baked together: Instead of 1000 single flowers, grass elements, trees, etc. there are now only one group of each, containing a single (complex) mesh and a texture atlas. That drastically reduces the draw calls, especially in the forest.

Bugfixes:
* Sometimes, background animation (like the mouse in the sink or the parrot in the bathroom)
could get broken.
* When starting a minigame while sitting at an interactive object (like the food bowl), this object was not resetted. (So the food bowl stayed empty.)
* Sometimes triggering the teleporter switches did not work proper.
* The size-button was visible in Hand-Mode when switching between modes while playing.
* When clearing the table of the tea party minigame directly at the end of the game, the "Table Cleared" sign became broken and did not work proper when playing the same minigame again.
* fixed several other minor bugs
Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
After nearly one and a half year of Early Access, we finally leave alpha status and enter beta status.

Update 0.6.0, the most extensive update we've made, adds a lot of content, enhancements and bugfixes. The full patch notes are attached at the end of this news.

This time, our little update trailer not only shows the visible new features but also looks back to what happened in the past 2 years of development. Enjoy a view behind the scenes, how the game evolved from the very first prototype to what it is now:

https://youtu.be/udYyNtHRo5g

You can also see some changes on the store page of Konrad the Kitten. The new logo is live, screenshots are updated and the store text is now ready for a final release in February.

The short version of our release notes:
1. Tutorial added. This guides new players and shows how to play the game.
2. New languages: The game is now fully localized in German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese languages
3. Loading screen: There is now simpel loading environment to make the loading times cuter.
4. Highscores: The game now tracks and shows highscores for all minigames.
5. Graphical enhancements of environments, especially at the beach, the intro area and the warp zone (entrance). But also all other environments got some graphical updated things.
6. Overhauled Action Objects: washing tub, toilet paper, cat toilet, balloon ride, forest scratching tree were all redesigned/enhanced
7. The teleport icons were redesigned from scratch
8. Lots of usability enhancements like an enhanced help board, better floor calibration and optimized hand mode.
9. Lots of performance optimization. Game should now run on high QL on most VR typical PC's.
11. Fixed a lot of issues in big kitten and small kitten mode.
12. Fortune wheel now yields coins or hearts when you not win a minigame.
13. Lots of enhancements and adjustments for all the minigames.
14. Lot of other small enhancements
15. Lots of bugfixes

So what can you expect in 2018?

The final release (version 1.0.0) is scheduled for mid February. This will add achievements, some last bugfixes and some platform and hardware specific enhancements.

In march, our NFC card game "FusionPlay Heroes" will be launched in store.

We have loads of ideas what to do after march, including new content for Konrad the Kitten and even totally new games. But for now, we cannot tell you more details. Just stay tuned, enjoy the christmas update and be ready for the final release in Q1.


Finally, the full release notes of Update 0.6.0:

0.6.0 - The Beta - 22.12.2017

Tutorial
* Added a tutorial introducing all game elements to new players (Just one sentence here but so much work...)


Loading Screen:
* When starting the game, you land in a very simplified loading environment, the full game is loaded asynchronous in the background.


Localisation:
* The game is now fully localised for the following languages:
** English
** German
** French
** Spanish
** Russian
** Chinese
** Japanese


Highscores:
* The game now tracks the highest score for each minigame. It's shown during the minigames and announced when you break the highscore.


Graphical Enhancements:

* Intro:
* The intro part of the game (setting up the cat and calibrating floor) has now a different look. Background and floor have been replaced with a more technical, holodeck-like ambience. Also the signs showing hints now match this new style. And finally we got rid of the horrible cloud/snow floor.

* The beach was overhauled:
** new palm tree textures
** new water
** more decoration (a hammock, cocktails, coconuts, etc.)
** replaced old umbrellas and beach chairs with better looking ones

* Forest enhancements:
** The trees in the forest were replaced with new models that look better and have more diversity.
** Stones with muddy textures in the forest were replaced with new models and textures.
** Forest vegetation is now more dense

*WarpZone enhancements:
** The house in the warp zone (also seen in the background of the beach) was replaced with a new, much better looking model and decorated with some stuff (hedges, flowers, etc.).

overhauled action objects:
** the muddy texture of the wash tub was replaced with a better one
** the 3d model of the toilet paper roll was replaced with a new one
** the cat litter in the cat toilet was changed to look better
** the basket of the balloon was redesigned
** the tree in the forest was redesigned

*enhanced animations:
** The drinking animation was enhanced
** there is now a real poop animation
** the "punch" animation in minigames now properly shows the kitten being held in the hands of the player (and not standing on the ground)

* Some furnitures in kitchen and bathroom now have new (better looking) textures
* all collectibles (xp-hearts, coins, unlock medal) got new particle effects to look better
* The teleport-icons that trigger teleporting to the different areas have been redesigned.
* The cushion now has a new material for the cushion itself and the text on it.


UI Optimisations:
* All usages of old radial UI elements (based on canvas) were replaced with the new 3D versions. This includes the skip buttons in the intro and the necklaces for the kitten.
* In hand mode you don't need to press any button any more (to grab the kitten)
* The cushion is now always visible (no matter which area you are in.)
* When the paw of the kitten get's hurt in a minigame, it's now highlighted flashing red to signal that
* optimized Help-Board in the shed:
** The help board now explains more detailled on 5 pages, how the game works.
** There is now a reference page that lists all needs
** There are now controls to pause autoplay and manually switch pages of the help board
* Ghost Hand for Hand Mode:
** In Hand mode player often try to interact with their hand with the environment. As all interactions are supposed to happen via the cat, we made the hand in Hand-Mode become a "Ghost Hand". This should clarify that the hand itself cannot touch anything.

* Calibration Optimisations:
** Calibration is now aborted, when the controller is moved upwards during the calibration.
** During calibration, arrows now point downwards to indicate that the controller/plushy shall be placed on the floor.
** progress of the calibration is now indicated during calibration.


Gameplay Finetuning:
* Sounds refactoring
** optimize some sounds regarding volume and tone

* Minigame Fortune Wheel:
* There is no loosing anymore! When you don't win a minigame you get some coins or experience instead.
* The fortune wheel is now instanciated when appearing. This saves performance.

* Big kitten and small kitten:
** Lots of optimizations for playing in Plushy mode with large or small kitten.

* The cat now has 20% more energy per day
* The fortune wheel can now spawn up to 5 times a day.
* a new command line parameter "-reviewmode" has been added. This resets energy everytime the game is started. This mode is intended to be used by people doing reviews of the game but it can be used by anyone ;)
* The kitten no longer performs any orientation based action, when it is in the intro-area, the shed or the dress room.
* Fixed a bug that made the attributes of the kitten go crazy, when the system time was manipulated.

* Adjusted Minigames:
** Name and highscore of the minigame are now shown above the score board
** Bowls and Teapot in the "Tea Party" minigame have now less friction (can be knocked down more easy)
** Koi-fish now yield only 75 points
** standard fishes are now easier to catch but yield less points (especially the large ones)
** mice can no longer be psuhed around after they were splatted
** crabs no longer have that bad looking sand-paticles when crawling
** Parcours minigame now only spawns element group that are solvable in a way, that the controller is always visible by the system. This is important for front-facing systems (PS VR & Oculus) as before this patch some parts of the obstacle course were not possible to solve. (The plush toy hid the controller so the cameras couldn't see it.)


Performance Optimisations:
* There is now a "tunnel" in the dress room that hides shop items that are not inside the counter itself. By not always rendering all availbale 50 items, we save a lot of performance.
* Storage Consumption optimizations
** Large textures will be optimized to consume less space. The build is getting quite big.
* Asynchronous Loading, Saving and Initializing:
** Hiccups and short freezes when entering an area for the first time or when switching worn accessories will be removed/optimized
* Details of the forest depend on quality settings. Higher quality settings have more dense vegetation.
* Terrain GameObjects were completely replaced with mesh objects and separate foliage.
* Extensive background meshes were baked together: Instead of 1000 single flowers, grass elements, trees, etc. there are now only one group of each, containing a single (complex) mesh and a texture atlas. That drastically reduces the draw calls, especially in the forest.

Bugfixes:
* Sometimes, background animation (like the mouse in the sink or the parrot in the bathroom)
could get broken.
* When starting a minigame while sitting at an interactive object (like the food bowl), this object was not resetted. (So the food bowl stayed empty.)
* Sometimes triggering the teleporter switches did not work proper.
* The size-button was visible in Hand-Mode when switching between modes while playing.
* When clearing the table of the tea party minigame directly at the end of the game, the "Table Cleared" sign became broken and did not work proper when playing the same minigame again.
* fixed several other minor bugs
Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
We proudly announce, that finally Konrad the Kitten enters Beta status on 22nd of December. The related content update "V 0.6 - The Beta" will be rolled out next week for everyone.

If you can't wait to see what's new, you can join the public test branch and download the update right now! To opt-in for the test branch, right click the game, choose "properties" and switch to the "betas" tab. There select the "test" branch from the dropdown box. Please be aware that the beta is still in testing stage and there might be some issues left.

For everyone not joining the test branch, the patch will be rolled out end of next week. The final release of the game is planned for the mid of February and will also contain Steam Achievements and some platform specific optimisations (for Vive, Oculus & Windows mixed Reality).

PLEASE BE AWARE: The price of the final version will be higher than the Early Access version. The intention of the lower price point during Early Access was to involve players into the development and thank them for their thrust and feedback by having a lower price. So as long as it is in Early Access, you can get it for the cheaper price.


So whats new with 0.6?
For the full release notes, have a look at this link:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/510740/discussions/0/333656722963006132/

A short overview of changes:
1. Tutorial added. This guides new players and shows how to play the game.
2. New languages: The game is now fully localized in German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese languages
3. Loading screen: There is now simpel loading environment to make the loading times cuter.
4. Highscores: The game now tracks and shows highscores for all minigames.
5. Graphical enhancements of environments, especially at the beach, the intro area and the warp zone (entrance). But also all other environments got some graphical updated things.
6. Overhauled Action Objects: washing tub, toilet paper, cat toilet, balloon ride, forest scratching tree were all redesigned/enhanced
7. The teleport icons were redesigned from scratch
8. Lots of usability enhancements like an enhanced help board, better floor calibration and optimized hand mode.
9. Lots of performance optimization. Game should now run on high QL on most VR typical PC's.
11. Fixed a lot of issues in big kitten and small kitten mode.
12. Fortune wheel now yields coins or hearts when you not win a minigame.
13. Lots of enhancements and adjustments for all the minigames.
14. Lot of other small enhancements
15. Lots of bugfixes





Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
We proudly announce, that finally Konrad the Kitten enters Beta status on 22nd of December. The related content update "V 0.6 - The Beta" will be rolled out next week for everyone.

If you can't wait to see what's new, you can join the public test branch and download the update right now! To opt-in for the test branch, right click the game, choose "properties" and switch to the "betas" tab. There select the "test" branch from the dropdown box. Please be aware that the beta is still in testing stage and there might be some issues left.

For everyone not joining the test branch, the patch will be rolled out end of next week. The final release of the game is planned for the mid of February and will also contain Steam Achievements and some platform specific optimisations (for Vive, Oculus & Windows mixed Reality).

PLEASE BE AWARE: The price of the final version will be higher than the Early Access version. The intention of the lower price point during Early Access was to involve players into the development and thank them for their thrust and feedback by having a lower price. So as long as it is in Early Access, you can get it for the cheaper price.


So whats new with 0.6?
For the full release notes, have a look at this link:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/510740/discussions/0/333656722963006132/

A short overview of changes:
1. Tutorial added. This guides new players and shows how to play the game.
2. New languages: The game is now fully localized in German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese languages
3. Loading screen: There is now simpel loading environment to make the loading times cuter.
4. Highscores: The game now tracks and shows highscores for all minigames.
5. Graphical enhancements of environments, especially at the beach, the intro area and the warp zone (entrance). But also all other environments got some graphical updated things.
6. Overhauled Action Objects: washing tub, toilet paper, cat toilet, balloon ride, forest scratching tree were all redesigned/enhanced
7. The teleport icons were redesigned from scratch
8. Lots of usability enhancements like an enhanced help board, better floor calibration and optimized hand mode.
9. Lots of performance optimization. Game should now run on high QL on most VR typical PC's.
11. Fixed a lot of issues in big kitten and small kitten mode.
12. Fortune wheel now yields coins or hearts when you not win a minigame.
13. Lots of enhancements and adjustments for all the minigames.
14. Lot of other small enhancements
15. Lots of bugfixes





Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
Our primary test kitty is saying hello to Windows Mixed Reality and brings the first virtual kitten to Microsofts new Virtual Reality platform via Steam VR.


We're still fighting with an issue that occasionally leads to flickering screen parts and seems to happen for all Unity games when played with Steam VR Mixed Reality but we are very certain that a patch will be provided soon.

Besides this, enjoy Konrad the Kitten with your Windows Mixed Reality device and feel free to write your feedback in the discussions section. As you know, the game is still early access and will be tuned, fixed, optimized and enhanced until its finally released.

One more thing:
We are progressing well on our way to version 0.6 "the beta". This will be a huge patch that contains lots of enhancements. We already showed some more details on our facebook page but you don't need to wait long until you may try it out on your own.

We estimate the biggest patch the game has seen so far for being ready in early December.
Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
Our primary test kitty is saying hello to Windows Mixed Reality and brings the first virtual kitten to Microsofts new Virtual Reality platform via Steam VR.


We're still fighting with an issue that occasionally leads to flickering screen parts and seems to happen for all Unity games when played with Steam VR Mixed Reality but we are very certain that a patch will be provided soon.

Besides this, enjoy Konrad the Kitten with your Windows Mixed Reality device and feel free to write your feedback in the discussions section. As you know, the game is still early access and will be tuned, fixed, optimized and enhanced until its finally released.

One more thing:
We are progressing well on our way to version 0.6 "the beta". This will be a huge patch that contains lots of enhancements. We already showed some more details on our facebook page but you don't need to wait long until you may try it out on your own.

We estimate the biggest patch the game has seen so far for being ready in early December.
Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
We have some good and some bad news for the fans of Konrad the Kitten.
The bad news: Things take much more time as originally expected!
The good news: Things will be more awesome than originally expected!

We currently target to release the game on the 22nd of December. Please be aware that the price will be slightly raised when the game leaves early access. We wanted to reward people that invested in our idea in the early access stage, that is why the price in Early Access was lowered. The final price has not been decided yet but will very likely be 12.99 or 14.99.

Before launching the final release, we still want to have the beta version (0.6) as final Early Access version. Currently we plan to release this update in early December. Version 0.6 is definitely the biggest update the game has seen in its development. That is why it takes that long.

We want to share some insights into the current development. (Screenshots taken directly from the dev built, please excuse German language of the content.)

This is how the loading screen will look. It’s actually not a static screen but a loading area where you can freely move inside. The height of the balloon symbolizes the loading progress.


This is the new look & feel of the intro area. As the intro prepares all technical things around the game (like calibrating the floor), we wanted it to look techy or like a holodeck.


This is how the tutorial will look. The kitten guides you through the first steps in our cute world and shows you how the game is played.


And this is the new entrance area (including the new teleporter triggers), that has been redesigned. From here you can visit the different areas of the game.
Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
We have some good and some bad news for the fans of Konrad the Kitten.
The bad news: Things take much more time as originally expected!
The good news: Things will be more awesome than originally expected!

We currently target to release the game on the 22nd of December. Please be aware that the price will be slightly raised when the game leaves early access. We wanted to reward people that invested in our idea in the early access stage, that is why the price in Early Access was lowered. The final price has not been decided yet but will very likely be 12.99 or 14.99.

Before launching the final release, we still want to have the beta version (0.6) as final Early Access version. Currently we plan to release this update in early December. Version 0.6 is definitely the biggest update the game has seen in its development. That is why it takes that long.

We want to share some insights into the current development. (Screenshots taken directly from the dev built, please excuse German language of the content.)

This is how the loading screen will look. It’s actually not a static screen but a loading area where you can freely move inside. The height of the balloon symbolizes the loading progress.


This is the new look & feel of the intro area. As the intro prepares all technical things around the game (like calibrating the floor), we wanted it to look techy or like a holodeck.


This is how the tutorial will look. The kitten guides you through the first steps in our cute world and shows you how the game is played.


And this is the new entrance area (including the new teleporter triggers), that has been redesigned. From here you can visit the different areas of the game.
Sep 28, 2017
Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
Konrad's Kittens - FusionPlay - Konrad
We decided to push the current status of our progression towards the beta (0.6) live. It's mostly a collection of "a little bit of everything".

Major Features

Light
Finally, the game became a proper (real) lighting. This helps creating specific moods in specific areas. You'll most likely notice this in the forest. But it's not only darkness and light, it's also shadows, color tones of light, etc.

See one example of how the forest has changed with this update:


Objects enhancement - Pass 1
We enhanced the first batch of interactive objects we were not happy with so far. This includes: New models and textures for the food bowl, the sand castle, the water bowl and the scratching tree. Additionally, all food items are now consumed, meaning: Kitten drinks the water from the water bowl, eats the food from the food bowl and also eats the toppings of the pizza.

Floor material enhancements
The floors in kitchen and bathroom were remade. The other floors were enhanced. For example the carpet in the living room is now really fluffy on High Quality Settings.

See these two examples of new item models and floor materials:



New Intro
We create a new intro that (not literally) takes the hand of the player and guides him through the setup process. The new intro depends on the playing mode (plushy or hand mode), automatically detects when the player sits on the cushion, tells the player how to fix the plushy and shows only the warnings that are necessary. Also, the "hand-mode" is now the new default mode when starting the game for the first time. We hope to get new players more easily involved into the game. A full tutorial will follow in 0.6.

Additionally, the game returns back to the intro, once you change the play mode in the settings.



New buttons - 1st pass
The first set of buttons were remade. We changed all buttons in the shed (the other triggers & switches will follow). These buttons now have high res textures and a on & off state.


Other UI enhancements
* We remade (the third time, so annoying ;) ) the progress bar of the action plate. (The circular thing that shows the progression when the kitten is doing an action.) It's now a real-time created 3D object that should not flicker or vanish any more. Additionally, the color of the progress indicates if the current action is good (green), neutral (yellow) or bad (red) for the kitten.
* The Exit button was removed from all areas except the settings menu. To quit the game, go to the Shed and place the kitten on the exit button.
* Floor Calibration is now done progressively, so immediately the floor is positioned appropriate and then only finetunes during calibration process.
* The "hold me like this" icon is now a real 3D Icon.

Animation Optimizations - Pass 1
* We rewrote the whole internal animation triggering system. This was painful but necessary.
* There is now a dedicated “carried” animation, when the kitten is held by the player. So the kitten now really looks like being carried. When it's getting close to the floor, it changes back to the "standing idle" animation.
* The "Meow" now only happens when the kitten is standing on the floor without doing something else.
* The exit animation of the kitten was also slightly enhanced.

Other Usability Enhancements
* The calibrate button has been redesigned and is now a floating text in a column. This shall symbolize that the game does not know where the real floor is (which was implied by having a button on the floor).
* Object colliders have all been remade. Kitten should now have less issues with object actions not starting.
* Starting the game in demo mode will now teleport you directly to the settings after the intro. This shows the "how to play" board to all players in demo mode.

Performance Optimizations
We've done a lot of performance optimizations including texture atlasing, mesh baking, mesh complexity reduction, static batching, using mesh terrains, etc.
All of them were done to boost performance without reducing graphic fidelity. Although a big part of the gained performance was eaten up by adding the lighting, the game now still runs much better.
"High" is now the new default quality settings and should run fluid on most machines under most circumstances.

Bugfixes
* Fixed a bug that pulled the cat back to the balloon when grabbing the cat during the balloon ride.
* Fixed a bug that changing the fur color or shirts of the kitten did not work proper.
* Fixed a bug that corrupted the rotation calibration of the kitten, when removing the plushy too early from the balloon.
* Fixed a bug that instantiated the same objects multiple times in the dress room.

* Lots of other minor bugfixes and enhancements



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