Beta updates

Hi!!!! :D

So, we've made significant changes and identified errors in our game development process.

Initially, we faced major issues with the scale of in-game objects, causing them to appear disproportionately large. This, in turn, led to a hamster gravity problem. To address this, we're reconstructing the entire map in a different Unity scene, but this time, we're adjusting the scale of objects to be much smaller than the original ones. Despite the inconvenience, we believe this drastic approach will bring substantial benefits.

However, scaling down the level has proven to be quite challenging, especially when it comes to implementing shaders. Fortunately, we haven't started working on textures yet, so that aspect won't be affected by the scaling adjustments. Unfortunately, our attempt to scale everything within Unity caused not only shader-related issues but also broke various other elements, including character animations. The hamster's rigging, designed for the original large-scale model, posed significant problems.

In retrospect, it's evident that the scale was a fundamental issue from the start, and our attempt to rectify it had unintended consequences, even affecting the survival system.

This image shows the difference in size between the new and old assets.

Moving forward with the update, despite facing challenges, we conducted another playtest using the flawed game version. Surprisingly, this playtest provided valuable insights that we could leverage. We introduced new features and finalized the objects for the map, eliminating placeholders.

In this image are the opinions of the playtesters of said playtesting; in general, the opinion on the game was good.

We added new objects that are interactive, allowing players to drag, throw, and use them as ramps for navigation. We've also replaced the placeholder items like food, poop, and water with permanent assets. Additionally, we've added time records to the game, visible on the achievements screen.

In the image, it is easy to see some of the new assets added to the game.

From the playtesting, we've learned that issues such as gravity, object movement, and sticking to walls were indeed related to the scale problem. While we were aware of these errors (as player feedback consistently highlighted them), we remain optimistic that our efforts to address the scale issue will yield positive results.

For now, this is a small update, but we hope to have a much better one in the future.

Thanks for reading! :D