The spooky times are at hand, and once again we are taking part in the ongoing festivities with a sale and haunting imagery. So let the new adventurers be respected with the discount, and the ancestral spirits with our special Kekri costumes and customs...



Kekri is an ancient Finnish harvest festival celebrated in the fall when the annual agricultural activities were all accomplished and the harvest collected. Kekri meant the end of the crop year, which was a big turning point. It was the time when the souls and spirits of the dead wandered around and visited the living. The ancestors were respected and welcomed. Sauna was heated up for them, and meal prepared too. The living celebrated accordingly, and so do we.



Kekri time included tradition of Kekripukki (Kekri goat) figure. People would dress up as horned creatures, wearing furs or coats upside down, and went around in their disguises and were offered food and drink.
So, what does a decent developer of tradition rich game do to follow the tradition?
Yes. He dresses up as Kekripukki.


Well, hello there, any foods or drinks to offer? Some purchases will do as well.



Again this year the we have launched a special Kekri-themed game title screen for duration of the festivity period. Themed title screen becomes live shortly after this annoucement, so allow the game to update and enter your UnReal World for more haunting imagery.



We wish you happy Kekri time - or happy Halloween if that suits you better.
All in all, now just celebrate and participate in the festivities at this special time of the year.

ːurw_sageːːurw_fireːːurw_treeː

Surprise, surprise!

The autumn has come, there's hint of winter in the air. The nights have gotten darker and longer, and there's been rainy days too. Perfect weather for coding, one might say. And you know what, that's what's been happening in the silence of the coding chambers lately.

So here we are, flexing our coding and release muscles with a new, seemingly unexpected release packed with a dozen of new features and a fistful of fixes.

This version 3.72 comes out as a beta release you need to Opt into, and for starters it's only for Windows. More features are pending to be added, and OS X and Linux versions will follow in time.
Not to worry, the story continues.

You'll find the full changelog and instructions how to Opt into the beta later in this post, but let's highlight some new features first.

Random character names


Upon character creation you can now randomize culturally relevant names for them at will. Here a Kuikka-tribe female is being created with a random name of her culture.


Harvest and pick agriculture option


The good old harvest option only cut down the crops, but now there's an option cut and pick the crops to character's inventory at one go.


Watercraft marker icons on zoomed-out wilderness map


When leaving punt or raft on the zoomed-in map the corresponding marker icon is now shown on the zoomed-out wilderness map.


Version 3.72 (beta) for Windows changelog

- added: random character name option

Upon creating characters and choosing their name you can now randomize a culturally relevant names for them. Pressing tab or asterisk (*) will bring up random names which you can then confirm with enter, or modify at will.

- changed: name/sex/culture character creation selections order -> culture/sex/name

As the random character name option needs to know the culture and sex to pick up a relevant names these selections now come before choosing the name.

- changed: "quick and easy" character creation mode now randomly chooses also the culture and sex

Previously there was no randomization in that regard, but Kaumolais male was always chosen. Otherwise this character creation mode mode remains the same assigning rest of the options automatically and starting nearby a village.

- added: "Harvest and pick" agriculture option

The good old harvest option only cut down the crops, but this newly added option also automatically picks up the harvested plants to character's inventory. For clarification the existing "Harvest" option is now renamed as "Harvest down" in the Agriculture menu.

- added: domestic animals in the villages will withdraw from player character's way

Moving towards a domestic animal will now make it to withdraw from your way. This is to prevent the character from getting jammed eg. in small buildings with village dogs.

- modding: increased maximum number of character portraits in each category up to 250.

- added: watercraft marker icons on zoomed-out wilderness map

When leaving punt or raft on the zoomed-in map the corresponding marker icon is now shown on the zoomed-out wilderness map.

- enhanced: message about the markers at wilderness location

Instead of given information about each marker with their own message now a summary of all the markers is given in one sentence. For example: "There is a shelter, set traps and a punt at this location."

- added: confirmation to start a fire on some occasions

You will be asked a confirmation to start a fire in the following conditions:
1. There are valuable items to be burned down where you are about to build a fire.
2. You are building a fire indoors at other than fireplace location.
These confirmations will prevent the unfortunate cases of accidentally setting your house or valuable belongings on fire.

- adjusted: party members fire making safety checks

From now on your companions won't ever start a fire at a location with items on the ground. Previously they might accidentally set a pile of items on fire.

- enhanced: rendering of the portraits

Character portraits are now rendered directly to the screen using the available resolution. This makes the portraits appear more crisp and clear. This enhancement affects to various game screen where portraits are being used; quest info display, list of ancestors, character profile, chat screen, etc.

- SDL update: updated to newest SDL 2.24.0

Updated SDL release includes a good deal of bugfixes which may have hampered some systems.

- fixed: sacrificing food in a container mistakenly removed the container too

- fixed: auto-cut yarn weights calculated wrong

This bug manifested itself eg. in smoking and drying cookery recipes. After retrieving the auto-cut yarn you found it heavier than expected.

- fixed: extracting fibre from retted but not dried nettles was possible

- fixed: carried weight statistics not updating immediately after cancelled crafting

- fixed: character's height in metric units displayed wrong

This was a conversion issue within character profile screen.

- fixed/adjusted: squirrels won't climb to safety in saplings

Previously they were mistakenly considered being high up in a tree even if it was a mere sapling.

• First, quit the game if you were playing it.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam Library, and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click BETAS and you'll see a dialog where to enter beta access code.
  
  
• The access code for this release is version372beta
  Type in the access code and press Check Code button.
  
• Selection to Opt into 3.72 beta appears. Click it, the update starts, and you've got it!
  

Should you encounter showstopping problems with this beta just go back to BETAS selection and choose None from Select the beta you would like to opt-into drop-down menu. This returns your game back to the current stable version.

That's all, dear adventurers. Cheers and enjoy the surprise! ːurw_sageː

You see a canoe here.
The paddle wielded as a primary weapon.
You push the canoe into water and jump aboard.

And there, in the real world, 120 kilometer long Kokemäenjoki ("Kokemäki River") awaits...



So, a little while ago Sami (UnReal World creator) went for a 130 kilometer river canoeing trip, and here comes a little photo greetings from that magical journey.

We travelled with an indian canoe through the whole Kokemäki River in southwestern Finland, all the way to the Gulf of Bothnia, and on top of that some 10 kilometers out to the Reposaari island at Bothnian Sea.

---

It took six amazing days of adventuring, and there are a lot more sceneries to show and stories to tell. For those who are keen to see more I will go through the whole journey in day-by-day series of posts at my buymeacoffee page.
Take a peek, all the content is available for everyone.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SamiMaaranen/posts

But should you then feel like buying a coffee for a weary paddler one of the upsides is that every supporter gets e-mail notifications when future posts are up.

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Let's keep adventuring. ːurw_foxː

Steam Survival Fest is on and we welcome you to join to this sale of the fittest.
Just follow your survival instinct into the far north where UnReal World awaits.
We're all about survival.

GWR Gamer's Edition has labeled UnReal World "The first open-world survival videogame",
and the devs are famous studying and trying traditional skills and techniques in real life to come up with credible game mechanics and atmosphere.

The game itself has survived for 30 years, and continues to thrive as a unique low-fantasy roguelike set in the far north during the late Iron-Age. The world of the game is highly realistic, rich with historical atmosphere and emphasized on survival in the harsh ancient wilderness.


Sami (UnReal World creator) roaming the real world, developing the unreal.

Steam Summer Sale is on!

So lay back, wipe the sweat off your forehead, and feel free to enter into the far north for discounted price. It's easier there in the summer - you'll see.

It's been enjoyable adventuring in the real world too, so let's share a some selected content about how life has been around the development chambers of both Sami (creator) and Erkka (co-designer).

Firstly, here's a new primitive music piece by the said fellows. The recording took place in the spring around Erkka's chambers:
https://youtu.be/jdSW9Z46DhE

And secondly, few images from around Sami's neighborhood:





Cheers and happy summertime!

Greetings everyone!

As you may know I'm spending sort of a year off from coding and concentrating more on the real world stuff. But the absence from the development chambers doesn't mean a radio silence. I'm happy to post a little news and photo feeds occasionally to stay in touch with You adventurers out there, and that's what people have wished for too. So here we go ...

I recently had a minor accident with my right hand and now need to keep a cast for a month, but that's not stopping the roaming in the woods. Hehe, you know this from the game too - the many activities might be slower, but doable.
So here's a photo greetings from one beautiful May day in the grove forest. These woods are half an hour walk away from UnReal World development chambers. This is a very special place since there are lot's of conifer forests to see here in Finland - as you may have noticed in the game too - but this kind of grove like leaf tree habitats are more rare.










And by the way, if peeks into these 2022 real world endeavours is your cup of coffee I'm building up a habit of more regular posts at my buymeacoffee page:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SamiMaaranen
It's kind of like an alternate media channel to see and support not the game development, but the game developer's lifestyle. Or whatever.

Take care everyone,

-Sami (UnReal World creator, gap year adventurer)

Going Rogue: A Festival of Persistence has started here on Steam and oh yes, that's a sort of celebration that suits us so very well!

From the player's point of view it often requires persistence to roam the harsh wilderness pursuing your way to survive in the far North. From developer's point of view it also has required quite a bit of persistence to keep developing the game for the past 30 years.

UnReal World has its' roots very deep in the roguelike genre. Sami (UnReal Word creator) was an avid player of the pioneer roguelikes such as Hack/Nethack, Moria and Omega back in the day. And it was those games that inspired him to get on the roguelike path and start creating UnReal World.

Taking a look at the screenshots from 1992 and 2022, it appears we've stayed somewhat true to our roots ...

1992 - UnReal World 1.00b


2022 - UnReal World 3.71

...but well, on the inside it's been a journey of 140,000 lines of code so far.
Should you wish to experience all that Going Rogue sale is one chance to enter into the far North with a discounted price.

Cheers! Long live the roguelikes!
ːurw_sageː

On Thursday 24 February, president Putin launched a devastating attack on a sovereign country of Ukraine and ever since the Russian forces are continuing to pound Ukrainian cities, including residential areas, with missile strikes and artillery fire. There is no excuse for this war. The civilians, including children, are suffering to the extent where Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II has emerged.

We support Ukraine and have made contributions to relief efforts.
We support Russians that stand against the senseless actions of the Russian government.
We have players from all over the world, from Ukraine and Russia too.
The majority of common people are not to blame for the madness and destruction, but the common people are to suffer from Putin's war. It needs to stop. We ask you to raise awareness, and work for the peace.
Do not stand aside, do not tolerate this, and help if you can.

In nearly every country you can find organizations such as Red Cross and Unicef who accept donations for Ukraine. For news, if you haven't been following, for example The Guardian has summary article of Russia’s war in Ukraine with pictures, maps, and videos:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/07/russia-war-ukraine-complete-guide-maps-video-and-pictures

You are online, you can find more news sources too. If in your country the world events are being filtered by the propaganda, censorship, restriction of information or freedom of speech try to reach beyond that. It takes some effort, but we support your efforts.

And once more; raise awareness of what is happening, work for the peace, do not stand aside and help those in need.

This year, in 2022, we are celebrating the 30th Jubileum of UnReal World.
The game was first released in the summer of 1992, so the 30-year milestone will be reached this summer.
Now what will this special year of celebration bring upon us, and the game?

When it comes to coding and development, I will be taking it real easy. It is likely that we'll see some updates to the game, but mostly I'll be devoting my time for variety of other things. So I'll kind of celebrate the 30 years of development by taking a year off from the usual coding flurry. This also allows me to better contemplate on the future of the game as there some challenging overhauls in our sight. One is moving to higher resolution and modern aspect ratio. The year is early, and these thoughts are scattered, so more news on this front will follow later on. But yes, it is truly so that I will take a year off from the usual, practical, hands-on development. Planning, brainstorming and a little something easy paced remains, though.

Nevertheless, during this year of celebration we will be bringing you some recreational content from the North, out and away from the development chambers. What it will be exactly remains to be seen, but I'm sure this year off will bring along many occasions, incidents, experiments or artistic projects to share or publish. There are some ideas bubbling under already.

On this thursday, 27th of January, it will be my 47th birthday. I started working on UnReal World at the age of 15 and two years later, at the age of 17, the first version was released to the public. Now the 30th Jubileum, or 47th birthday, may feel like an occasion to offer me a drink or something, and for that purpose I quickly created "buy me a coffee" page.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SamiMaaranen
It's a simple support channel I've been asked to allow even earlier. Now it's up and will remain so at least for this year. I'll reserve the right to decide the drink to buy with your support :) , but big cheers anyway!

So these are the news to start this year with. Feel free to comment or ask if something comes to your mind.

Yours,
Sami (UnReal World creator)


The developer is currently out the office ...


He's skiing in the woods following two elks...


He will be back occasionally and eventually.

The midwinter and holiday season is at hand, and Steam Winter sale is also about to start soon.

It is time to send you our warmest Season's Greetings with a few moody photos from this very day.
Thank you for 2021 to those who already roam the UnReal World, and welcome into the Far North, all you new adventurers.



We have just passed the Winter Solstice on northern hemisphere, and the amount of daylight now slowly starts increasing. Otherwise the winter in Eastern Finland continues in decent -20 degrees celsius temperatures with delightful amount of snow. Sami (UnReal World creator) heads towards the real world in horizon.


Merry Christmas, Tree. This mighty spruce grows beside the village road, not very far from the development chambers.


Now let's survive the midwinter, and see you again in 2022!