Hi fellow feline followers,

we just wanted to inform you, that now is the last time that you can get the game for the Early Access price! During next week the game will undergo a price change to adjust to the final release price.

Besides this, you can also win free keys for the game via our Thunderclap campaign. If you lend us your voice on Thunderclap, you get the chance for a free Konrad the Kitten key.
You can support us on thunderclap here:
https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/67612-konrad-the-kitten-launch

Hi fellow feline followers,

we just wanted to inform you, that now is the last time that you can get the game for the Early Access price! During next week the game will undergo a price change to adjust to the final release price.

Besides this, you can also win free keys for the game via our Thunderclap campaign. If you lend us your voice on Thunderclap, you get the chance for a free Konrad the Kitten key.
You can support us on thunderclap here:
https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/67612-konrad-the-kitten-launch

We are getting closer to our final release, so we want to share some information regarding this important milestone:

The release candidate build is ready for public testing! If you want to have the new build right now, you can opt in to the test branch by opening the game properties and the beta tab. Release 1.0 is mostly focused on bugfixing and optimisations but also adds achievements as last major feature to the game.

When leaving Early Access, the price will change and become slightly higher. So if you haven't bought the game yet, this is your last chance to get it for the cheaper price.
The intention for the cheaper price point during EA was to thank all the people that invest in the game when it was still in an early state. The game has evolved drastically in the last 1 1/2 years of Early Access. It is now at a level of quality that we are happy to call this a full release game.


We want to thank every one that gave feedback, no matter if it was positive or negative feedback. Even the latter one helped us to make the game better.

We will announce the final Release Date next week, so stay tuned.

We are getting closer to our final release, so we want to share some information regarding this important milestone:

The release candidate build is ready for public testing! If you want to have the new build right now, you can opt in to the test branch by opening the game properties and the beta tab. Release 1.0 is mostly focused on bugfixing and optimisations but also adds achievements as last major feature to the game.

When leaving Early Access, the price will change and become slightly higher. So if you haven't bought the game yet, this is your last chance to get it for the cheaper price.
The intention for the cheaper price point during EA was to thank all the people that invest in the game when it was still in an early state. The game has evolved drastically in the last 1 1/2 years of Early Access. It is now at a level of quality that we are happy to call this a full release game.


We want to thank every one that gave feedback, no matter if it was positive or negative feedback. Even the latter one helped us to make the game better.

We will announce the final Release Date next week, so stay tuned.

Today marks an important day in our development. After 2 years of development, Konrad the Kitten is now code complete. This means, all planned features implemented and all known bugs resolved. Next weeks will be final release tests to assure that we did not miss any bugs.



For everyone interested, here are the Release notes that will be published with version 1.0:

Meta
* new trailer video
* new website
* global product launch

Features
* Achievements (Yeah! Go for gold!)
* Added a Reset Button (and keyboard shortcut "Shift+R") that resets energy when palying in Demo Mode.
* Enhanced Windows Mixed Reality Support

Enhancements
* replaced Antialiasing with Supersampling. This should look comparable good but avoid negative side effects
* added a hint (arrows flashing downwards) for new players, how to use the toilet paper object
* rewrote hand/cat collision detection in hand-mode (should not re-grab the kitten after just having it placed on the ground any more)
* rewrote the collision detection for the accessoires in the dress room (should not double trigger to wear/remove them any more)
* adjusted trigger distance for the "look at my necklace" tutorial step
* adjusted sensitivity of calibration process. if kitten is moved during calibration, the process then resets and waits until it has 2.5 seconds data without any movement of the controller.
* Optimized Parcours minigame (the ring minigame) to choose best matching ring elements according to the used tracking system (inside-out, front-faced, room-scale)

Bugfixes
* fixed white lines sometimes flashing up inside the kitten
* fixed a bug that controller vibration continued although the cuddle action was interrupted
* fixed a rare bug that made the wrong controller rumble, when two controllers were connected
* fixed a bug that the kitten started with a cuddle animation when launching the game with holding the controller upside down
* fixed a bug that made the game faulty when turning off the controller while playing the game
* minor fixes in the localisations for the new languages
* fixed a bug that the hint arrows hovering over the cushion did sometimes not disappear proper
* fixed that sometimes the wrong controller vibrated, when playing with 2 controllers and switching them on and off during play
* fixed bought accessories sometimes not vanishing after hitting the shelves in the Dress Room
* fixed fishes jumping into wrong directions when playing in a rotated world
* fixed "START" text being displaced when playing in a rotated world
* fxied collectibles (hearts, coins) floating into the player when playing in a rotated world
* fixed a texture error in kitchen
* fixed Snorkel at the beach being stuck in the ground
* fixed sand-color mismatches at the beach
* fixed some minor issues during tutorial
* fixed a very rare issue that made the player become stuck in the tutorial (needed to restart game or turn of tutorial as workaround)
* fixed the unlock medal being visible and hiding the UI on some necklace accessories

Today marks an important day in our development. After 2 years of development, Konrad the Kitten is now code complete. This means, all planned features implemented and all known bugs resolved. Next weeks will be final release tests to assure that we did not miss any bugs.



For everyone interested, here are the Release notes that will be published with version 1.0:

Meta
* new trailer video
* new website
* global product launch

Features
* Achievements (Yeah! Go for gold!)
* Added a Reset Button (and keyboard shortcut "Shift+R") that resets energy when palying in Demo Mode.
* Enhanced Windows Mixed Reality Support

Enhancements
* replaced Antialiasing with Supersampling. This should look comparable good but avoid negative side effects
* added a hint (arrows flashing downwards) for new players, how to use the toilet paper object
* rewrote hand/cat collision detection in hand-mode (should not re-grab the kitten after just having it placed on the ground any more)
* rewrote the collision detection for the accessoires in the dress room (should not double trigger to wear/remove them any more)
* adjusted trigger distance for the "look at my necklace" tutorial step
* adjusted sensitivity of calibration process. if kitten is moved during calibration, the process then resets and waits until it has 2.5 seconds data without any movement of the controller.
* Optimized Parcours minigame (the ring minigame) to choose best matching ring elements according to the used tracking system (inside-out, front-faced, room-scale)

Bugfixes
* fixed white lines sometimes flashing up inside the kitten
* fixed a bug that controller vibration continued although the cuddle action was interrupted
* fixed a rare bug that made the wrong controller rumble, when two controllers were connected
* fixed a bug that the kitten started with a cuddle animation when launching the game with holding the controller upside down
* fixed a bug that made the game faulty when turning off the controller while playing the game
* minor fixes in the localisations for the new languages
* fixed a bug that the hint arrows hovering over the cushion did sometimes not disappear proper
* fixed that sometimes the wrong controller vibrated, when playing with 2 controllers and switching them on and off during play
* fixed bought accessories sometimes not vanishing after hitting the shelves in the Dress Room
* fixed fishes jumping into wrong directions when playing in a rotated world
* fixed "START" text being displaced when playing in a rotated world
* fxied collectibles (hearts, coins) floating into the player when playing in a rotated world
* fixed a texture error in kitchen
* fixed Snorkel at the beach being stuck in the ground
* fixed sand-color mismatches at the beach
* fixed some minor issues during tutorial
* fixed a very rare issue that made the player become stuck in the tutorial (needed to restart game or turn of tutorial as workaround)
* fixed the unlock medal being visible and hiding the UI on some necklace accessories

VRFocus wrote a nice little article on our cute game entering beta status:
https://www.vrfocus.com/2018/01/konrad-the-kitten-to-leave-early-access-next-month/

In between we are working hard on the final release. Everything looks like we will launch the game on February the 16th. This week, we prepare the final launch trailer. Stay tuned for more information.

VRFocus wrote a nice little article on our cute game entering beta status:
https://www.vrfocus.com/2018/01/konrad-the-kitten-to-leave-early-access-next-month/

In between we are working hard on the final release. Everything looks like we will launch the game on February the 16th. This week, we prepare the final launch trailer. Stay tuned for more information.

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

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