Apr 19, 2020

AREAZ - areazgame

Hi, in this update I made changes to inventory screen according to player feedback.

Inventory

- Size of inventory item icons is reduced to 75%.
- To hold item in hand(s) you have to drag it directly on hand icon
- Crafting area is expanded. The crafting information slot shows more information - inputs, outputs, energy, food and water
- Crafting are will also show additional possible crafting actions on any item held in hand or character is standing nearby to help players find relevant items combination. I hope this will better help to understand 2 hands crafting and not mislead players.
- Backpack Inventory expanded from 12 to 20 slots. Do not get too excited - this will depend on backpack type in future.
Please note - that once Inventory is stabilized, I will do graphical design for it to the end of development. I am still testing functionality.

Interaction

- I have expanded the collision area for general items - so pickup interaction should be working better now. Then I will slowly work on each item interaction area optimization.
- Pick up Hint now shows icons with Item Quality Heat and Wetness.

Map changes

Also I have continue to work on map changes.
- The island in lagoon has now better accessible ridge with new materials
- Rock were added to it as well
- Anthills were replaced to new ones.

Please I have to do some administrative paper work so I might obtain some additional game funds for next 2 week, so there might be only minor changes in that period.

Thank you and have fun.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Apr 12, 2020

Update 0.31 Sea Bottom

AREAZ - areazgame

Hi all, this is the first update from promised map rework. The first map was already developed in summer 2018. Since then Unreal Engine made a huge step towards materials resources availability. therefore I have decided to update the first map - starting with sea bottom shallows in this update.

The new sea bottom area - has increased light, lot of light effects, bubbles etc. Also I have removed the previous dark blue tint for better visibility. added corals and long seaweed. To it new effects as bubbles, ambient sea life - small fish and moray were added. (Moray will be made available to catch in future development within Fish Update.)

I will continue to update following areaz of map on smaller weekly/biweekly updates as I have done during previous Animations Update. This include beach, parts of jungle, meadow, bamboo forest, pond and stream, volcano and finally swamp area. After that - swamp area will be fully open for player to conquer to reach the rescue point.

Additionally following changes were made to the game:
- You can hold breath underwater for longer time. Anyway be careful - going fully out of air will still result to immediate drown and not just health damage.
- Cutting the bamboo or small palm leafs is now 1 hit only regardless on knife/axe type or quality.
Players did not understood, that depending on quality of cutting tool - bamboo might required several hits and considered it buggy.
- You can SaveGame anytime now - in case you need to save and load due to issue with character action

Do not forget to update your game on Steam - due to new Steam Udpate policy.

Best regards

Juraj Bachar

Apr 5, 2020

Major Update 0.30 "Eden"

AREAZ - areazgame

Please note that Steam has changed the update policy for games. Make shure your game is updated to 0.30.000 (See in changelog tab in menu). If not - try to schedule game update manually on Steam.

New update brings new much more easier game difficulty setting intended for casual players. We made this decision based on player feedback.

When I have decided to start new survival title two years ago, we have set the target group on hardcore players looking for something even more challenging. But after Early Access release on Steam on late October last year a lot of casual players had bought the game and got too frustrated dying after several minutes of gameplay.

So we have decided to make the game much easier and introducing a new game difficulty named “Eden”. On this setting loot volume is increased 10 times. Also stamina is switched off expect for jumping.

As the core gameplay is based on energy usage in calories – the most changes are intended to it. On Eden settings the idle energy consumption is set to one third of normal. The movement speed and being wet does not affect the energy consumption. To it zero energy does not mean dying of exhaustion anymore.

The chance to rain is reduced to 10 percent and there will be no rain on first day. There are no storms that could extinguish fire of unwary player. The amount of Komodo Dragons was reduced from three to one. But it can be still pesky – and might seek and eat meat, fish, or eggs stored in player’s camp.

But the energy amounts needed for crafting – such as tools, weapons, shelter - has not changed.

Players will have still previous difficulty settings available as “Hard” and “Hell”. In this case stamina is on, as well as impact of character movement and condition on energy consumption. And low energy will mean slow death due to exhaustion. To it loot volumes are reduced and chances of rain or storm are increased.

The update brings also other new features.

Banana trees have now full life cycle and growth randomly in jungle area. When fully mature – they will grow bananas for player to eat. So players now have to search the area more actively and notice fully grown banana trees with fruits and not rely on previous gameplay.

Next feature is the character being dirty. The more the character moves – the more dirty it will get. To clean it – it has to swim in water. The advantage of being dirty is that animals will notice player only on close distance. This will help to hunt then f.e. rabbits or as protection against predators as bear, komodos or crocodiles. Being dirty has no negative impact yet. This will be changed when illnesses will be introduced. Being covered in mud might also help you to prevent malaria from mosquitoes in swamp area in future.

Following updates will focus on map changes and whole map will became accessible. Conquering the swamp area, player will move towards rescue. Some plants have been already replaced such as coconut palms, ferns, banana trees. The beach is dirtier with fallen leaves and dried grass, rock slopes are more detailed. As Epic Games has made for Unreal Engine developers lot of photoscanned materials available – we plan to use them and reskin the map.

On side of game mechanics we plan to add clothing, firearms, horse raiding and new characters. Also boat rowing might be introduced. A new second map with new “areaz” should be available to the end of the year.

Take care and thank you for your increasing support.

Juraj (DuroBulo) Bachar
Game Creator

Mar 22, 2020

Update 0.29.011 Crouching

AREAZ - areazgame

Hi, just released the "Crouching Animations Controller Update".

Now all crafting and interaction can be done while crouching. Also you can change stances from crouch to stand within animations actions.

New crouch actions:
- eating, eating left hand, drinking from bottle
- pickup (left hand will be added), drop, put item to external storage as fireplace, traps, fishing tool
- basebuilding
- bow aim and shooting

Other actions are also accessible from crouch - but have their own stance:
- animal skinning, start fire, sharping item (used generally for crafting), drinking from water source
- spear or boomerang throwing (catching)
- melee (spear, axe) - those will be improved in future development as they are still in prototype version

To it the crafting had a major change.
In game prototype - we had no crafting animations available, so I have used timer to measure the crafting time.
Now Animations Events control the crafting, dropping and picking of items. So I can put more and more dedicated crafting animations into the game for each action.

Please note the "crafting timer" does not show the time properly now. Its not a technical issue - I just need to fill the right time in database, but it is not really a priority.

Also please note this update is about animations controller - and not how animations look. Some animations - for example crouch eating - are just blended from other 3 separate animations. This will be improved when I get dedicated animations. The current controller allows them to be changes very easily - just plug and play.

This allow me also to easily add and connect new animation states such as horse or boat raiding including (shooting and crafting).

As this was a huge rework on most actions handling, this game version might be less stable.
How to handle some issues that might occur:
Characters legs are moving in place:
- Try to sit (press "X" by default) to sit down and again "X" top stand up - this will reset movement restriction
Character top body looks "stiffy" when moving
- Try to do some action - drop or pick up item

If nothing helps - try to Save - Load, or Save - Respawn - Load

This should be the last partial update within 0.29 Animations, even they might be some fixes.

Next upcoming Updates will be dedicated to gameplay modes. Also first map should be reskinned and fully accessible in upcoming weeks.

I would really like to thank you for your support in these hard times. They are not easy for you as well for me, anyway I am fully dedicated on this game development.

Any support or just spreading the word about the game on social media is very helpful - especially now where many great titles are going "free".

Best regards and watch for yourself.

Juraj (DuroBulo) Bachar
Game Creator

Mar 7, 2020

Update 0.29.010

AREAZ - areazgame

Hi, still recovering from flue - anyway used this time to done some partial work, I have put aside before.

So in this smaller update:
- some plants {bushes and ferns) are now pushed away by player character
- "Stone Calendar" is working with Saves
- Hotbar is working with Saves

Not sure - how many of you have noticed - but there is a "calendar Boulder" in the middle of the Beach. Each passed midnight a new "day scratch" is added to it to count the survived days.

So how many days have you managed to survive?

Upload screenshots of "calendar boulder" in Steam game community HUB.

Have fun and thank you for your support!

Juraj (Durobulo) Bachar
Game Creator

Mar 1, 2020

Map changes

AREAZ - areazgame

Hi,

first i want to apologize, but me and my family got really bad flue for the most of February. There I have to postpone the "Crouching Animation" Update.

The good news is - at the end of the year gave Unreal Engine opportunity to use photo realistic textures and materials to UE4 developers.

So I have decided to reskin and replace the most of the map in upcoming month.

Those of you, who has been playing the game since the launch, might have noticed, that we have already changed some foliage - palms, ferns, bushes. Also changed the look of sand beach slopes to barnacle covered ones. And there are leafs and other stuff lying on the edge of sandy beach. That is not all.

Also I want to change the feeling of the jungle and cover it more with dirt, dead leafs, roots etc. Additionally new trees covered with lianas will be added.

The on map changes will start from beach and go over the jungle to meadow. And finally swamp will be finalized including "pick up" zone which will lead player to new map.

New beach slopes with barnacle covered rocks:

New Jungle area:

New Trees:

Thank you for your support

Duro Bulo
Game Creator