Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
Hello, everyone.

I know given we haven’t posted here in a few years and the comments/questions about it, this post isn’t a surprise, but we’ve had some increased outreach from users about crashes over the last couple weeks so we wanted to make this official post.

We have looked into the reported crashing to see if it could be a simple/not-expensive fix, but we have seen no commonalities in OS, hardware, etc. to figure out what is going on and give us a lead.

Unfortunately, although our studio is still alive, we have not had the resources to continue to support Tyto Ecology so long, as it was originally released over 6 years ago in 2016. The game financially barely broke even on the developer cost that went into development, not providing us financial resources for ongoing support and maintenance (which we did for the next year+ anyway).

We love that people love this sort of gameplay: thoughtful, science-driven, and we’ve found financial support to be able to continue with this type of work from grants and investors. The focus with this support has shifted to be on educational applications more explicitly, so we’ve developed an online title (Tyto Online) complete with teacher tools and supplemental resources that has growing adoption within school districts.


What should I do, as a Tyto Ecology player?

First, we still see regular playing in the data Steam provides us, which is why we’ve not wanted to totally pull the product. So here’s what we are thinking:

If you are new to Tyto Ecology and get it, please be sure to test it quickly to see if it crashes on your machine. If so, you have 2 weeks to request a refund from Steam. And please keep in mind that as you get computer/system updates, it’s likely to break at some point for you.

If you’re a player beyond the refund period and you start having crashing, we can get you free access to our online title, Tyto Online. Please note that it is made for middle school level science education, and is more of a simplified MMORPG model, so you may not enjoy the quests, but it does have three sandboxes: one similar to Tyto Ecology, one that’s for weather & climate, and one that’s around genetics and dragon-breeding. None are really as complete of games on their own, since they’re set as features within this game, but could be a good compromise on a title that is still actively being developed.

If you want that access, please email us at hello (at) tytoonline.com with if you’re interested in the whole game or just the sandboxes. You’d have the whole game either way, but we could give you faster Sandbox access if that’s all you want to play vs. natural unlocking through quest progression. Please include your Steam profile link so we can verify you own Tyto Ecology, and give us some time to reply as we’re not sure how swamped we’re going to be with these requests.


What are your studio’s plans?

This has come up as I’ve talked with some people reporting issues, so I also wanted to share here. Our goal is to continue to develop Tyto Online out into a full platform with many areas of content, and more Sandboxes. We’d love to be able to make the Sandboxes separate apps or playable more independently from the MMO-style game for those only interested in their gameplay: a suite of Tyto Ecology, Tyto Weather, Tyto Genetics, etc. ... but it would totally need better names.

But of course, all of that takes financial resources. Right now, we’ve had grants from the NSF, Dept. of Education, MIT Solve, and others supporting our vision of a science video game with properly deep science learning focused on K-12 education. But we hope to expand far beyond that as we grow and have capacity to try new areas.

This is the demo I give to administrators at schools and districts if people are curious about how we’re approaching the educational market with this game: view demo walkthrough.

----

Thank you all for being one of the kindest communities on Steam. Everyone who reached out due to crashing has been understanding and considerate – even with that, I’ve been dreading making this post, but of course it’s not fair to avoid making it and bringing this transparency out.
Oct 11, 2018
Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
Good Afternoon!

We have a new hotfix for you with the following changes that sort out quite a bit of infinite loading issues when loading into larger biodomes!


Fixes:
  • A bug where animal territories would surpass max population limits has been fixed.
  • Animal territories will no longer split when the max population is reached when there isn't a suitable area nearby the territory for the new territory to be located. In other words, it checks for space and if there isn't, they just won't keep spreading. It should also help with minimizing a bit of the explosions of small creatures that of course leads to starvation immediately.
  • A message has been added to the player events to let players know that the animal population cannot split due to no suitable placement being able to be found nearby it.



In entirely different news, our company has been pretty busy as we were competing and just won a $500k investment that involves a move to Buffalo, NY from the 43North Competition (http://www.43north.org/ )!

Good news is that patches won't be delayed by hurricanes again. ;)

We've a bit behind on forums, but Ryan will be getting caught up on anything/everything we've missed over the next few days now that we're back home.
Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
We saw some discussion on the forum about this so wanted to go ahead and send out an Announcement to everyone!


Tyto Ecology Complete and Being Supported

We do consider Tyto Ecology a complete product and are not currently working on any expansions, but we may in the future.

We are currently focusing on supporting Tyto Ecology players and releasing bug fixes and updates as needed.

While we do appreciate that there are a nearly infinite amount of suggestions on how much more in-depth and realistic an ecosystem simulator like ours could become over time, Tyto Ecology has met our goals and initial design plans -- and more -- already.

We'll do a better job of remembering to come check in on the Forums, but since they are less active lately if you need quick support for a problem, please consider heading to our Support Site where you can submit a ticket.


What are we working on now?

As some people noted on the forums, we are working on our new product, Tyto Online, which is a MMORPG focused on middle school science.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/544290/Tyto_Online/

It's not super active on Steam, as we've actually been largely talking with educators who are excited to use it to improve their classroom science experiences. We have Ecology (quests + creating ecosystems as a sandbox) and Heredity (quests + breeding dragon-like creatures as a sandbox) in the game and are working on finishing up all of middle school life science by August for the coming school year.

This is a first step towards our long-term goal of being able to have one game with Tyto Online where students can learn across many subjects for years, in-depth and empowered.

For those who want to dig into what all that means, this is the introduction folder we share with educators that has an introduction deck and some PDFs explaining how the quests and sandboxes match up with science standards: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s2qq48bvsulkbpx/AAAjbAYw-uVKE6LR-EM7g349a?dl=0


Tyto... Evolution?!

As part of Tyto Online, we are building Sandboxes into the game, like having a version of Tyto Ecology exist with the Ecology Module.

The one we've been in pre-production on to start soon is an Evolution Sandbox. We've realized this could make an incredible stand-alone game, perhaps something like... Tyto Evolution?! We'd love to keep putting our fun science games for a wide group and recognize a lot of adults aren't going to want to play Tyto Online, so we're really interested in continuing to release stand-alones as they make sense.

Basic concept: manipulating the environment (plant qualities, temperature, precipitation, earthquakes, etc.) and some aspects of the animals (toss some in a new area) to impact the success of traits that will randomly mutate -- starting with super simple creatures and then can morph into millions of possibilities over time.



Some of the traits include mode of consumption (herbivore, carnivore, etc.), size, exoskeleton vs. vertebrate, limbs (type/number), digits, neck, tail, teeth, color, brood size, camouflage and special features like vomit defenses.



We are also considering doing a Kickstarter to see what the support is like for potentially a lot more in-depth features up front on Tyto Evolution.

Here's a 2-page overview of what we have in mind right now for its design: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1keBkdDc8xdVoNDNXwjHhJ1lAhVv6C9wd5JMbS3Rpm9A/edit?usp=sharing

The game designer who is heading that effort up, Josh, has posted on the forums with some questions he'd love feedback on from the community as he develops out the idea! Please head here if you'd like to participate in that discussion: http://steamcommunity.com/app/453750/discussions/0/1696040635904693316/
Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
We saw some discussion on the forum about this so wanted to go ahead and send out an Announcement to everyone!


Tyto Ecology Complete and Being Supported

We do consider Tyto Ecology a complete product and are not currently working on any expansions, but we may in the future.

We are currently focusing on supporting Tyto Ecology players and releasing bug fixes and updates as needed.

While we do appreciate that there are a nearly infinite amount of suggestions on how much more in-depth and realistic an ecosystem simulator like ours could become over time, Tyto Ecology has met our goals and initial design plans -- and more -- already.

We'll do a better job of remembering to come check in on the Forums, but since they are less active lately if you need quick support for a problem, please consider heading to our Support Site where you can submit a ticket.


What are we working on now?

As some people noted on the forums, we are working on our new product, Tyto Online, which is a MMORPG focused on middle school science.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/544290/Tyto_Online/

It's not super active on Steam, as we've actually been largely talking with educators who are excited to use it to improve their classroom science experiences. We have Ecology (quests + creating ecosystems as a sandbox) and Heredity (quests + breeding dragon-like creatures as a sandbox) in the game and are working on finishing up all of middle school life science by August for the coming school year.

This is a first step towards our long-term goal of being able to have one game with Tyto Online where students can learn across many subjects for years, in-depth and empowered.

For those who want to dig into what all that means, this is the introduction folder we share with educators that has an introduction deck and some PDFs explaining how the quests and sandboxes match up with science standards: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s2qq48bvsulkbpx/AAAjbAYw-uVKE6LR-EM7g349a?dl=0


Tyto... Evolution?!

As part of Tyto Online, we are building Sandboxes into the game, like having a version of Tyto Ecology exist with the Ecology Module.

The one we've been in pre-production on to start soon is an Evolution Sandbox. We've realized this could make an incredible stand-alone game, perhaps something like... Tyto Evolution?! We'd love to keep putting our fun science games for a wide group and recognize a lot of adults aren't going to want to play Tyto Online, so we're really interested in continuing to release stand-alones as they make sense.

Basic concept: manipulating the environment (plant qualities, temperature, precipitation, earthquakes, etc.) and some aspects of the animals (toss some in a new area) to impact the success of traits that will randomly mutate -- starting with super simple creatures and then can morph into millions of possibilities over time.



Some of the traits include mode of consumption (herbivore, carnivore, etc.), size, exoskeleton vs. vertebrate, limbs (type/number), digits, neck, tail, teeth, color, brood size, camouflage and special features like vomit defenses.



We are also considering doing a Kickstarter to see what the support is like for potentially a lot more in-depth features up front on Tyto Evolution.

Here's a 2-page overview of what we have in mind right now for its design: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1keBkdDc8xdVoNDNXwjHhJ1lAhVv6C9wd5JMbS3Rpm9A/edit?usp=sharing

The game designer who is heading that effort up, Josh, has posted on the forums with some questions he'd love feedback on from the community as he develops out the idea! Please head here if you'd like to participate in that discussion: http://steamcommunity.com/app/453750/discussions/0/1696040635904693316/
Feb 28, 2018
Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
Hello, everyone!

We've had a trickle in of requests or bugs so we wanted to do an update, but not quite worth calling a new version, I don't think!

1.17.2 Notes

  • Gallimimus and Tarbosaurus were corrected to be clappers, not slappers. Sorry about that!
  • Nemegtosaurus neck animation orientation was fixed to be much more horizontal.
  • Dipteris' producing fruit has been fixed.
  • UI should now scale correctly for all resolutions.
  • Adult marsh deer now use the correct texture.
  • Trout meshes has been removed from the Cretaceous Biodomes
  • Additional cost balancing on the Amazon has been done.
  • Lighting within the Cretaceous Biodome at night has been improved, so that users can actually see their dinosaurs at night.
  • The profile picture selection for new user creation no longer requires a double click to select.
  • Fixes were applied to correct conditions where time skip would become disabled. (Thanks to Dinocanid for not only notifying us, but then also coming up with reproduction steps!)
Feb 28, 2018
Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
Hello, everyone!

We've had a trickle in of requests or bugs so we wanted to do an update, but not quite worth calling a new version, I don't think!

1.17.2 Notes

  • Gallimimus and Tarbosaurus were corrected to be clappers, not slappers. Sorry about that!
  • Nemegtosaurus neck animation orientation was fixed to be much more horizontal.
  • Dipteris' producing fruit has been fixed.
  • UI should now scale correctly for all resolutions.
  • Adult marsh deer now use the correct texture.
  • Trout meshes has been removed from the Cretaceous Biodomes
  • Additional cost balancing on the Amazon has been done.
  • Lighting within the Cretaceous Biodome at night has been improved, so that users can actually see their dinosaurs at night.
  • The profile picture selection for new user creation no longer requires a double click to select.
  • Fixes were applied to correct conditions where time skip would become disabled. (Thanks to Dinocanid for not only notifying us, but then also coming up with reproduction steps!)
Dec 28, 2017
Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
Thank you to everyone who has submitted bug/crash reports, and even tried the new patch to make sure it fixed their issues. Always great to have confirmation when it's something we haven't had happen in-house. :)

New things love to sneak in with other updates!

So, here's the hotfix patch notes for today:
  • Fixed quite multiple instability issues and crashes.
  • Fixed a possible crash that could occur in highly populated biodomes on load.
  • Fixed the issue of saves lost to the void when a crash occurs during account saving process -- on the next game load, they should return to your account now.

We still have one remaining known issue: a crash that can potentially wipe out your account's coins. We are trying to figure out how this occurs, so please bear with us, and let us know if this has happened to you as well!
Dec 28, 2017
Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
Thank you to everyone who has submitted bug/crash reports, and even tried the new patch to make sure it fixed their issues. Always great to have confirmation when it's something we haven't had happen in-house. :)

New things love to sneak in with other updates!

So, here's the hotfix patch notes for today:
  • Fixed quite multiple instability issues and crashes.
  • Fixed a possible crash that could occur in highly populated biodomes on load.
  • Fixed the issue of saves lost to the void when a crash occurs during account saving process -- on the next game load, they should return to your account now.

We still have one remaining known issue: a crash that can potentially wipe out your account's coins. We are trying to figure out how this occurs, so please bear with us, and let us know if this has happened to you as well!
Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
A new patch is now live! Major features include a crash fix, adding baby versions of select dinosaurs, and tweaks to help with balance.

Read the full patch notes:
  • We’ve fixed a major crash that had to do with audio. Thank you to everyone who submits crash reports on a crash — this allows us to narrow it down. This one fix is about 80% of all crash reports.
  • Juveniles now count as part of the territory population cap for splitting territories, in order to prevent the ecosystem from getting to over-eaten status so quickly with quickly reproducing animals having so many juveniles in their territory. With this, we’ve also updated the user interface to include juveniles in the population graph and updated the max group sizes to be a bit larger so splitting isn’t happening too often.



  • When territories split, they will now be a bit further from each other than they currently are, again in an effort to help spread herbivores out more.
  • Large herbivores will now prioritize trees while small herbivores prioritize small plants.
  • Herbivores will now avoid (have less preference for) low health/leaf plants to prevent them from being destroyed. They’ll still eat them if they need to, or sometimes, but they will be less likely to be eaten off on chance if there are other options nearby.
  • Predators are now hungry when first placed, so it's not so anti-climatic that they don't hunt quickly! (Thanks to a user for suggesting this!) This will also help with eating over-populating herbivores faster!
  • When you click on a territory, it now highlights all the animals that belong to that territory, making it easier to find them.
  • Updated the Rainforest ground texture.



  • Baby dinosaurs!! Velociraptor, therizinosaurus, saurolophus, protoceratops, and tarbosaurus now have unique babies.





Tyto Ecology - Immersed Games
A new patch is now live! Major features include a crash fix, adding baby versions of select dinosaurs, and tweaks to help with balance.

Read the full patch notes:
  • We’ve fixed a major crash that had to do with audio. Thank you to everyone who submits crash reports on a crash — this allows us to narrow it down. This one fix is about 80% of all crash reports.
  • Juveniles now count as part of the territory population cap for splitting territories, in order to prevent the ecosystem from getting to over-eaten status so quickly with quickly reproducing animals having so many juveniles in their territory. With this, we’ve also updated the user interface to include juveniles in the population graph and updated the max group sizes to be a bit larger so splitting isn’t happening too often.



  • When territories split, they will now be a bit further from each other than they currently are, again in an effort to help spread herbivores out more.
  • Large herbivores will now prioritize trees while small herbivores prioritize small plants.
  • Herbivores will now avoid (have less preference for) low health/leaf plants to prevent them from being destroyed. They’ll still eat them if they need to, or sometimes, but they will be less likely to be eaten off on chance if there are other options nearby.
  • Predators are now hungry when first placed, so it's not so anti-climatic that they don't hunt quickly! (Thanks to a user for suggesting this!) This will also help with eating over-populating herbivores faster!
  • When you click on a territory, it now highlights all the animals that belong to that territory, making it easier to find them.
  • Updated the Rainforest ground texture.



  • Baby dinosaurs!! Velociraptor, therizinosaurus, saurolophus, protoceratops, and tarbosaurus now have unique babies.





...

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