[March 31st 2024]

It's been a while since I last updated the game and I thought I would keep you updated on what's going on. The game is still being worked on but moving engine was a much bigger endeavor than I originally thought, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. A large percentage of the game has been improved during the porting process.

1. WHAT CHANGED?

The new engine uses memory more efficiently so expect reductions in RAM usage, higher FPS, etc. But that's not very interesting so here is a curated list of changes that have already been finished.

- Monsters look much better in general (No more color artifacts, weird pixelization, etc).
- In the overworld, the rarest monster (Ex: recolors) will be used as the visible member of the group.
- Breeding now produces an egg instead of a baby. The egg requires experience to hatch.
- Machines such as breeding are no longer objects. Instead, they are CDs you collect that add their functionality to your computer.
- Recolors can now be black and white. Two colors that were previously impossible in most species.
- All UI have been improved.
- For logistic reasons you now have to "confirm" your formation before each battle. It does save your previous settings though.
- Removed STAB. Every move a monster learns performs at 100% of its power.
- Every moves (now named skills) have been reworked and every monster has a different moveset.
- Monsters now have 4 tiers of evolutions instead of 3 and most evolution lines changed.
- Various bug fixes.

2. WHAT'S NEW?

While I was working on changing engine, I couldn't help myself from adding new features. Here are a few that are ready to go.

- Controller support.
- You can now add more PC Boxes, making the amount of monsters you can catch functionally infinite.
- In the overworld, the "power level" of a group appears above their head.
- Added a screenshot button to save your monsters with a transparent background.
- Added various tooltips that explain what does what.
- Added arrows to summary and bestiary for quicker navigation.
- Monsters can now be semi transparent and have animated parts such as fire tails.
- The eyes of monsters will not be affected by lighting such that their eyes glow in the dark.
- Monsters can now wear hats.
- Added an insect element for balancing reasons. This does mean there are less normal type moves and monsters though.

3. WHAT'S TO COME?

The main reason I haven't posted an update yet is I don't want to upload a version of the game that is smaller than the previous one. To speed things along, I think It's worth it to port all the old maps and slowly patch in the new world room by room in later updates. This means the next update won't have any new zones but I think It's worth it to have regular updates again. I'm also trying to convert all the old savefiles as best I can but a lot of things have changed and It's not always obvious what to do (Ex: The experience curve to level up changed, All monsters now learn different skills, etc.). Here is a curated list of things I am currently working on.

- Multiple passives for each species.
- Monsters won't despawn when you change room anymore. They won't respawn until you wake up either.
- Improved tutorial.
- Improved battles (Where strategy actually matters).
- A map that slowly fills in as you explore the world.
- Simple placeholder animations in battle (Ex: camera moving around, particle effects, healthbars going down, etc).

4. LONG TERM GOALS

I made a roadmap of all the major features I want to add in the long run. I have no idea when they are coming out or if they are coming out in this order.