April 9
The design update is chugging along at a feverish pace now. We've added a great deal of new design, shaders and content. Alongside the design update, we've been working on quite a few community requests, fixes and additions. Many of you have requested an alternate means to help the team out, something you could do outside of buying another copy. A couple of weeks ago we had one of our weekly meetings and decided that a Steam supporter pack (more info on this coming shortly) along with a Patreon page would do the trick. We had been contacted by Patreon and they thought their platform would be perfect for our small team.
Patreon Page
We have gathered some ideas from the community and created a basic mockup. We have three tiers setup: gold, diamond and platinum. These are throwback to our first project as a2z(Interactive); our Minecraft a2z website and server. This Patreon page has been set up mostly for our biggest fans and. of course. any additional support is most welcome.
Every penny made will go directly to the development of the project. We plan on setting up some nice goals too, ideally being able to take on more help if the additional financial support allows us to. If you're interested in the Patreon page and have some ideas for rewards and tiers please feel free to share them over on our Discord. We will likely be launching the page in the coming week or so. Thanks much for your continued support!
Patreon page mockup
Swamp Biome Ambient Lighting Update
The swamplands have really taken on a life of their own. They have an amazing vibe to them. The new ambient lighting paired with some really nicely done fog brings the entire area to life. You will notice a good deal of change in the coming design update, swamps and marshland only being a small part of the entire overhaul. It should also be noted that this is by no means our last update when it comes to world design, we far more in store when it comes to Black Island.
Below are a few shots of the swamp biome and an example of some of the new ambient lighting in action. You'll also notice new and thicker vegetation. Trees no longer always stand straight up and lean with random pitch, there are a lot of small details like this that have gone into 1.8 and we're excited to get some more polish on this and get builds onto our experimental branches.
Ambient lighting sunrise
Ambient lighting midday
Swampland just after sunrise
In the muck
Improvements to UI
We've begun to clean up our UI in general, improving backgrounds like the inventory booklet and we'll continue to do so moving through the next few alpha builds. Below are some before and after shots. Andre has cleaned up the font and backgrounds for all of the main menu tabs. This makes setting up solo/host servers along with joining servers much easier on the eyes. Thank you for the feedback on menu UI. We'll continue to take your suggestions and improve as we go.
Old UI is a bit washed out
New UI crisp and easier to read
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