Hi, added Photomode into the game!

Got inspired by some beautiful screenshots you made from this game, so decided to make it for you easier and implemented a Photomode similiar to AAA titles. Now you can use camera settings and various Poses to take pictures, you can share on your social media or game Steam Page.



This Photomode version allows you:
- take screenshot to your harddrive
- rotate, zoom camera on character, use camera offset
- use advanced camera settings like Depth of Field, Field of View, Contrast, Tint, Noise etc.
- grid/cross can be switched on/off
- choose from various character poses - that will help you to bring story to your pictures or create meme




Please note:
- Photomode settings will not reset when opening/closing Photomode. Will reset on game Respawn and Load, as they are not connected to Savegame yet.
- The character will freeze when in Photomode. Most of vital functions will be paused (so you will not drown underwater). After leaving Photomode, the animation like crafting will restart instead of continue.
- Animals will stop to move, but still perform the last animation in loop. This is not a bug, just there are too many animals and I have to set this new feature one by one.
- Spawn zones should not spawn new loot

- Environment and Items are NOT paused. So Sun/Day cycle will continue including Ocean Tide. Items can be damaged or cooked/burned. I might address this in future, as environment behavior is really complex here with dependencies on game world. its not just lighting day/night behavior.

Screenshots resolution is set to 3840 x 2160 in case you want to zoom or crop them.

Known Issues:
Using Spacebar to take screenshot, when in Advanced mode, Pose scroll down List, will not work properly. This is a Windows/UE issue, when space bar is used for Forms for list selection. I will try to solve this or bind the action to another key.
Some poses have wrinkled wrist. This will be fixed on Animation Update.

In future I plan to connect the Photomode screenshots with Steam functionality including Steam Achievements.

I will be really happy for your feedback and hope to see a lot of nice screenshots on social media and Steam page. It will help a lot with the visibility of the game.

Please feel free to use hastag #areaz_game on Instagram, #areaz on FB or #areaz on twitter it will help a lot.

Thank you for understanding and support.

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, done some important change to loot interaction, so please read the following text carefully.

I have played the game for long hours on various developer/publisher events lately and noticed, it is still difficult to spot and highlight desired loot, especially in jungle long grass. So made following changes:

1) all loot and interactibles now have icon above themselves. This will be shown, when item is in player vicinity, usually 2.5 meters.

2) to highlight the item to interact with, point the arrow in middle of your screen on that icon instead of the item. This is important change.

We had issues before, because root of the item needed to be focused, which was not always in the item body center. So now just point to icon above the item.

3) Some items or better said interactibles, do have bigger icon placed more above, so it does not interfere with attached loot. This goes especially for fireplace, also for traps, basebuilding, harvest, stone with water, raincatcher, leather dryer, and dead animals, that need to be skinned in place. This icon also provides additional information how to interact with the item. Please have a look on pictures bellow.

4) Some larger items - objects, do not highlight anymore. Most of them are mentioned in previous point. Simple because they did not looked good when being highlighted. So again focus on new icon to interact with them. Smaller items keeps highlight to spot them more easily.

Please note this is not the final optimization, and I will make more changes for better loot handling. Especially widening the trigger area, icons placement. F.e. driftwood interaction zone was expanded from 1.5 to 2.5 meters.

I would gladly hear some feedback about this on our discord. Which way do you like better.

Done also some fixes:
- fish in pond should be blocked now to swim on land (thank you for report on discord)
- animals will not loop hit sounds when multi[ple hits are triggered at once
- in crafting menu - recipes in crafting>crafting category were not shown
- Also renamed this category to crafting>general which is more appropriate

Next update should include a brand new Photomode - which will enable you to take high resolution srceenshots, in various situations and will include camera settings and positions/rotations.
I am already testing it on development branch.

Thank you for understanding and support.

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, I have acquired bunch of new animals and will start to implement them into the game. First one is a Asian black bear, which is replacing the early access brown bear placeholder.

Additionally to it, I am now using Gfur plugin - that make the animal fur look much more realistic.

And not only it is the new look, but I got a lot of new animations waiting to be implemented. So look forward for better turns, various idle, hit, attack animations. And finally the foot placement.

Following will be: New realistic crocodile, hammerhead shark, rabbit, wolf, deer, wild boar, wild goat. Really looking forward to this!



Anyway I owe you an explanation for longer update.

I had a lot of work, which was related to administrative work such as preparing documentations for potential investors and publishers.

Additionally to it - I have attended several online events with the game showcase - Gamescrunch in Slovakia October 2021. Also I will be attending and showcasing the game on Game Developers Session in Prague (Czech republic) next week, following by Game Days in Kosice (Slovakia).

To it I was preparing for new Steam event, that will be announced this Monday Nov 15th.

Secondly - Epic announced and released early access for new Unreal Engine 5



I spend more then a month just to test the build and new features on various engine versions from 4.25 I am currently in, to 4.26, several subversions of 4.27 and finally UE5.

Full version of UE5 is expected to be released in mid 2022.

Therefore i had to postpone the development of 2 new maps - as it is not clear, if I should make them on current version and then transfer to UE5, or start their development already on UE5.

Thank you for understanding and support.

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, thanks to your report I found a bottleneck, that was preventing older video cards to achieve full performance on the game. So made an update to remove this issue.

Above you can see a screen from jungle area as reference image on RTX 3060 with RTX enabled running approx 40-50FPS.

I have also tested it on my really old computer I have used several years ago with following specifications:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz 2.66 GHz
RAM 16,0 GB
GTX 1050Ti

As you can the same area runs now 50 FPS on Medium Settings and the GPU usage is 99% - so fully used.



But you can even improve the look by setting:
Textures to Epic or High
Foliage to High
Grass Density to High
Grass View Distance to High



And you will still get 40FPS



There are still area - especially meadow with lower FPS and you might still experience drops.

Please note the game is still in Early Access and I am just adding content to it. The full optimization will be done during Beta development stage.

Thank you for your support! Please do not forget to review the game - it helps a lot!

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, done some changes to small foliage covering ground, especially in Jungle and Meadow Area(Z).

Basically lowered significantly grass and plants density, while adding a more variety.
Now it does not look like moved lawn but more "junglish".




I do not want to make it more dense, as still you should be able to find loot on ground.

Additionally to it I have changed highlighted loot outline now the filling color is mostly transparent.

I have also expanded Bamboo forest to the left on Meadow to improve FPS, as there were FPS drops on that large open area.

I have identified some performance issues on lower and medium spec computers. It looks it is caused by newly added birds and fishes. I am investigating it and will optimize it soon. It might need to lower the amount of active animals and only restrict them to area nearby player.

Please have some patience.

And I would really appreciate to get feedback from players here or on our discord, instead of making toxic reviews.

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, done several improvements to game:
Boomerang will give damage to all small animals if hit
Arrows and thrown spears should now give proper damage to animals
Animals, especially birds will be scared by shots impacts nearby them

Also I have changed the crafting.
Crafting recipe consists from item in left hand + right hand + item player is standing nearby.
Now nearby item such as fireplace can be ignored.
That means you can now eat even if fireplace is highlighted.
Also you can not more put cooked meat into fireplace - see no more reason for it.

I have changed it for most of eating and animal cutting recipes. And will continue to identify others, which can be set up this way.

Hopefully I have solved bug when character could no more pickup item or craft. It was caused by "F" interaction key spamming when picking up several items. So I have put a short cooldown there.

Last change - we have removed water flask from character belt, as it is not used in game.

Thank you for your support! Please do not forget to review the game - it helps a lot!

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, just released another content update - the Birds.
It includes reworked birds mechanics - birds can now walk, fly or even some of them swim.
Also they inherit animal behavior and player sensing.

Birds can be killed and will provide following bird meat volumes:
Eagle 100%
Owl 80%
Duck 70%
Seagull 60%
Crow 40%
Pigeon 30%
Sparrow 15%

On first map there are spawn zones for seagulls and ducks.
Other birds will be available on upcoming Inland and Mountains maps.

When taking off - they might glitch thru terrain or objects - but solving this would costs a lot of performance, so I decided not to do so, as it happens only occasionally.

Another change is for player mechanics and interaction - when holding a lit torch or flare - picked item will go directly to inventory, preventing torch to extinguish.

Thank you for your support! Please do not forget to review the game - it helps a lot!

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, this update brings variety of sea life, turtles and snakes into game.

So in shallow water you can find:
- mackerel
- cuttlefish
- stingrays
In medium water:
- salmon
- octopus
In reefs:
- eel
In open sea:
- goliath fish
- sharks
- mantas
The edge of the map is protected by great white shark.



Fresh water:
- redeye
- perch (will be available on second map)
- pike (will be available on second map)


Also reptiles have been added:
- cobra
- sea turtles
- tortoise
- giant tortoise



Smaller fish can be taken to hand. Bigger ones - eel, sharks, mantas, goliaths and giant tortoise must be cut for meat in place.

I have unified fish to animals. To be little bit technical - UE does not support full 3D navigation. So I had fish separated from general animals. Anyway I needed to make land animals able to swim as well. Especially the crocodiles and water snakes.
So I have used the same technique for fish now. It has some pros and cons. Especially the larger fish movement might seem little bit "robotic". This will be improved by adding turning animations inf future development.

Dead animal corpses will be addressed - their physics movement.

Additionally to it I have optimized some collision channels and will continue to do so in future.

Thank to your support I could afford to obtain a lot of new animals - so I will make similar update for birds as well (seagulls, eagles, ravens, ducks, sparrows, owls). I hope they will be able not only to fly, but to swim (ducks, seagulls) and walk as well. Additionally to it, they will lay eggs (as will do sea turtles).

Thank you for your support! Please do not forget to review the game - it helps a lot!

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator

Hi, just small update:
- fixed not rendered head in clothing preview reported by players that occurred on lower video quality settings
- character in clothing preview can be now rotated by mouse dragging
- moved backpack to more distant spawn location as improvised backpacks are craftable
- leaf skirt can be crafted from leafs and liana (does not require sewing anymore)

Have fun

Juraj
Game Creator

Hi, small but important update added:

Improvised Backpacks
As promised Improvised backpacks can be now crafted. First, You have to build backpack frame.
Then you can finish the backpack using:
- palm leafs (+5 slots)
- leather (+10 slots)



Water Collector
To it, water catcher was added. Can be build from short bamboo pieces and liana.
Collects water when raining or on morning from dew. Water is fresh and drinkable without any health issues.
IMPORTANT - I have lowered the initial hydration to 50%. So keep this in mind and be hydrated!!!



Airplanes are back!

Flying boat PBY Catalina and Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" made it back to the game!

Dog Companion



For development I am now working to add some new animals. Worked on dog companion! It refers to orders such as follow, stay and go. Also might track wild animals in future, which will help you when hunting.
Dog should be available on second map "Inland".

Thank you for your support! Please do not forget to review the game - it helps a lot!

Please report all issues on our discord:
https://discord.io/areaz

I will be also pleased to answer any questions.

Juraj Bachar
Game Creator