Steam EA Launch Date
There have been some hints that we would be able to launch sometime in early December this year. However, we have been advised to hold back the release to avoid the massive Steam winter sale. This will help us polish the game to a fine edge and allow some extra features to be added before we launch. Our ultimate goal is to bring the best possible version of Sapphire Safari to Steam, and pushing it out too early will only hurt us in the long run.
We will also have time to whip up a fantastic Demo to give you all a taste of the game before we push out. Something I am very excited about, as more people being able to experience just how unique our game is will be a massive boon! Not to mention a Gameplay trailer too. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ So onward to March 7th!
[ 2024-11-05 13:19:41 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello Photographers! We have been working overtime to get the game ready and perfect for the upcoming Steam release, and after much deliberation, we have landed on our exact window for the launch here on the platform.
March 7th 2025
There have been some hints that we would be able to launch sometime in early December this year. However, we have been advised to hold back the release to avoid the massive Steam winter sale. This will help us polish the game to a fine edge and allow some extra features to be added before we launch. Our ultimate goal is to bring the best possible version of Sapphire Safari to Steam, and pushing it out too early will only hurt us in the long run.
We will also have time to whip up a fantastic Demo to give you all a taste of the game before we push out. Something I am very excited about, as more people being able to experience just how unique our game is will be a massive boon! Not to mention a Gameplay trailer too. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ So onward to March 7th!
Pink Moon Haunt
Photographers, I hope youre ready for a spooooooky Sapphire Safari patch! v022d is our LONG awaited update, offering new mechanics around familiarity, exploration, polish, sounds, and fixes! Buckle up!
First, let's chat about the new seasonal content we have added to Sapphire Safari! The Pink Moon Haunt is the first global event in the game. Events are a new mechanic based on the time system. Normally, events are localized to a particular region, but global events occur all over the Island. The Pink Moon happens every full moon (every 14 in-game days).
When a full moon appears in the sky, the landscape fills with toxic aphrodisiac spores, driving all the native species wild with lust. Predators, Prey, Humans, it does not matter, the only thing that does is ejaculating. The Pink Moon global event is a fantastic opportunity to photograph the natives under this new effect called spored since otherwise, it is a rare occurrence. Just be careful as the natives are very very eager to taste you.
To make the Halloween event feel good we have included a special button on top of the Campsite which will speed up time and force the Pink Moon event to spawn, regardless of the lunar state. So enjoy being swept away! This button will only be here for this patch. You can also summon the Pink Moon by using the beds at Camp to skip forward in time.
Oh yes, it is finally here. The long-awaited system and mechanics for player progression and sex. These two new systems work hand in hand to give players an engaging system to reward their photography skills. Here is how it all works. [olist] As you photograph the island natives and submit them to Monpedia, the species' Familiarity score increases. The amount depends on the quality of the photo.
Grow the Familiarity score enough that the species levels up from Feral to Curious, Curious to Friendly. With each tier, the species will react differently to the Photographer if they are spotted.
Instead of fleeing, they will now pose for photographs, and if youve managed to become Friendly they will even allow for several interactions. Headpats and any discovered Sex Acts on the island.
[/olist]
The discovery tool Monsutra is a collection of sex acts the Photographer has managed to photograph on their adventure. Unlocking a sex act in the Monsutra allows that act to be recreated with Friendly species, you can even choose what role you wish to take during the animations, top, bottom, or somewhere in the middle. It depends on what tools your character has (hehe penis) and what the creature youve approached has.
Combining the two new systems we have a unique and special way to interact with the wildlife on Sapphire Island. The crazy part about this is just how much more content we can add to the game, we are launching this with a modest amount of animations, but we already have plans to expand the number of animations as more builds are added. This system is very robust and is a perfect complement to our small team's art pipeline. Thank you all very much for helping us get to this point, we experimented with a lot of styles and systems over the past 3 years, and this one is just right for us.
In the previous builds, we had some very interesting crash reports that we were unable to reproduce with our test hardware. To help with future crashes that come up we have built a brand new EXE file that produces crash reports if the game does crash. So now we can quickly and efficiently see the cause of major problems going forward. I ask that if you do experience a crash, no matter how small. Please report it to us so we can work on fixing all issues. You can find the crash logs on your PC here: "C:\Users\{userName}\AppData\Local\SapphireSafari\Saved\Logs" and I would urge you to email them to dave@kinkyfridays.com or join our Discord community and submit them there. Given how rushed the last part of this patch was so we could hit the Halloween deadline we expect there are a couple of things we need to polish up in a hotfix following this launch. So if you find anything please let us know!
Changelog v022d
[ 2024-10-31 19:50:45 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v022d release post for early adopters over on Itch, JAST, and GOG.
Photographers, I hope youre ready for a spooooooky Sapphire Safari patch! v022d is our LONG awaited update, offering new mechanics around familiarity, exploration, polish, sounds, and fixes! Buckle up!
Spooky Time
First, let's chat about the new seasonal content we have added to Sapphire Safari! The Pink Moon Haunt is the first global event in the game. Events are a new mechanic based on the time system. Normally, events are localized to a particular region, but global events occur all over the Island. The Pink Moon happens every full moon (every 14 in-game days).
When a full moon appears in the sky, the landscape fills with toxic aphrodisiac spores, driving all the native species wild with lust. Predators, Prey, Humans, it does not matter, the only thing that does is ejaculating. The Pink Moon global event is a fantastic opportunity to photograph the natives under this new effect called spored since otherwise, it is a rare occurrence. Just be careful as the natives are very very eager to taste you.
To make the Halloween event feel good we have included a special button on top of the Campsite which will speed up time and force the Pink Moon event to spawn, regardless of the lunar state. So enjoy being swept away! This button will only be here for this patch. You can also summon the Pink Moon by using the beds at Camp to skip forward in time.
Familiarity and Monsutra
Oh yes, it is finally here. The long-awaited system and mechanics for player progression and sex. These two new systems work hand in hand to give players an engaging system to reward their photography skills. Here is how it all works. [olist]
The discovery tool Monsutra is a collection of sex acts the Photographer has managed to photograph on their adventure. Unlocking a sex act in the Monsutra allows that act to be recreated with Friendly species, you can even choose what role you wish to take during the animations, top, bottom, or somewhere in the middle. It depends on what tools your character has (hehe penis) and what the creature youve approached has.
Combining the two new systems we have a unique and special way to interact with the wildlife on Sapphire Island. The crazy part about this is just how much more content we can add to the game, we are launching this with a modest amount of animations, but we already have plans to expand the number of animations as more builds are added. This system is very robust and is a perfect complement to our small team's art pipeline. Thank you all very much for helping us get to this point, we experimented with a lot of styles and systems over the past 3 years, and this one is just right for us.
Tools for Feedback and Reporting
In the previous builds, we had some very interesting crash reports that we were unable to reproduce with our test hardware. To help with future crashes that come up we have built a brand new EXE file that produces crash reports if the game does crash. So now we can quickly and efficiently see the cause of major problems going forward. I ask that if you do experience a crash, no matter how small. Please report it to us so we can work on fixing all issues. You can find the crash logs on your PC here: "C:\Users\{userName}\AppData\Local\SapphireSafari\Saved\Logs" and I would urge you to email them to dave@kinkyfridays.com or join our Discord community and submit them there. Given how rushed the last part of this patch was so we could hit the Halloween deadline we expect there are a couple of things we need to polish up in a hotfix following this launch. So if you find anything please let us know!
Changelog v022d
- Pink Haunt global event added
- Added temp Pink Moon Event spawn button above camp
- Familiarity system now tracks Monpedia photo scores per species
- Familiarity tier system added, changes to species AI per tier
- Familiarity interaction menu added for Monsutra panel and Headpats
- Monsutra functionality added, tracking Sex SO discovery
- Monsutra interaction panel added
- Added autofellatio masturbation animations
- Added grass flattening to masturbation animations
- Added tiny classification Female and Male animations for Hunting and Spored purposes
- Added Photographer jumping locomotions and systems
- Added Cliff jumping system, running against cliffs is safe, and jumping from cliffs allows falling
- Photographer Audio added for key prompts, sex, and idles
- Species Sex Audio added for Bunnets, Rudier, Lecho, Hoereno, Sweedee Caiadaly, Kokai, Furloin, Malous
- Spore plant added spawning rates and radius of spores need tweaking
- Spored species state added
- Hunting and Spored states now appear on photographs
- Monpedia Mating Tab categories changed, Sex Sleep removed for Hunting Acts
- Removed watch Radial Menu
- Removed gallery filters
- Removed favorite filters
- Removed delete from gallery
- Modified photo storage icon
- Added Guidebook UI icon and shortcut
- Added Map UI icon and shortcut
- Added Blue UI bounding box to Temp Photo Storage Icon
- Swapped Photo Submission to Hold, be safe before you attempt to submit
- Added Camera Options menu with tap X to view temp and saved photo galleries
- Added notification popup for submission attempt outside of beacon range
- Trap Plant SFX added
- Auto Save splash added
- Adult Content splash added
- Auto Save icon added
- Added additional tutorial prompts for new and upcoming features
- Added background blur to tutorial prompts
- Fixed camp tools tutorial prompt
- Penis size increased
- Added Campsite safe zone
- Map fixes for SO spawns
- Map fixes for SO optimizations
- Map fixes for food optimization
- Added new SO points for food
- Map fixes for bridge and walking paths
- New game fixes for Lunar Position
- Save fixes for time of day
- Modified Malous data entry
- Crash Log creation added to base EXE functionality
- Added EXE icon
- Fixed ADS softlock during capture bug
- Fixed player freeze softlock after using the option menu during gameplay
- Fixed camera handling issue post-capture
- Fixed camp under map post sex spawn
- Fixed options menu default reset button
- Removed hide player body option
- Corrected option texts for clarity
Sapphire Documents Issue 019
Yes, yes. I know. Youve all wanted it, so we have added it. Jamie and Oscar can now jump within the game world. We had to make a few mechanics for the locomotion to work correctly and there are likely some bugs related to it but for the most part, the tech is functional and it opens up some great traversal options.
Previously you could only fall off some cliffs. Stuff that we deemed to be too high we just make the player navigate around. With the new jumping locomotion, we have created a system where you can just leap from any cliff you like. If you fall too far you will damage yourself resulting in the loss of any photos you are holding within the camera itself. So if you want to complete the Rune Challenge, you will need to take the long and safe route.
Even bigger news than the ability to throw yourself from mountains is that Sapphire Safari finally has a working Familiarity system! Yes! That means you will be able to take photos, submit them, grow closer to your favorite species, and become intimate! The process for this is broken down into two photography systems.
Monsutra: If you photograph sex acts happening around the island you will now record the act within the database called Monsutra - short for Monster Karmasutra. As of writing this Document we have 18 acts you can find on the island, but we are going to be increasing this by a lot in the next couple of patches. Things like autofellatio, blowjobs (lots of these), more tiny animations, and a lot more lesbian-only animations too.
Monpedia: Photographing species and submitting photographs to the Monpeda now fills up the Familiarity bar for each species individually. The Familiarity bar takes into account the quality level of the photos itself, meaning eventually if you replace bad photos with good photos you will unlock the two additional Familiarity levels. In total, there are three levels to achieve with each species and they will start to act differently around the player depending on how familiar they are with you. You can have a mixture of species in a zone all acting independently in your presence and so far it works quite well.
Another big feature is the inclusion of the new Spore Plants on the Island, these are rare spawning plants that burst with a toxic spore in a large radius around the plant. Getting too close means youll be right in the center of it. Being spored turns any creature inside it (minus the player) into a feral, horny predator. They will instantly turn on the closest creature and mate with them. Players included.
We have also been hard at work implementing a new level of polish to the game, each of the 9 monster species and Jamie/Oscar all have unique vocal work in the game. The player characters will say things as they enter stealth, or when they make new observations. They will moan and complain about being captured. When they are hurt, when they try to activate objects, when photos are good or bad. That is it for now! We have a bunch of other fixes and mechanics in play that we are still working on. But the build is coming along very nicely. Remember we do offer a sneak peek into the upcoming builds by giving access to our Internal Builds for VIP members on Patreon and SubscribeStar, but these are unpolished and contain a huge amount of bugs. But before anyone gets annoyed at this, just know that the polished and public builds all release at the same time, this is only for those looking to see more about the development process and support Kinky Fridays to build this awesome game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ See you soon with more updates!
[ 2024-10-22 11:08:59 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello photographers! Welcome to another issue of the Sapphire Documents, today we have a whole lot to talk about so let's just JUMP (hehe) into it.
The Jump
Yes, yes. I know. Youve all wanted it, so we have added it. Jamie and Oscar can now jump within the game world. We had to make a few mechanics for the locomotion to work correctly and there are likely some bugs related to it but for the most part, the tech is functional and it opens up some great traversal options.
Previously you could only fall off some cliffs. Stuff that we deemed to be too high we just make the player navigate around. With the new jumping locomotion, we have created a system where you can just leap from any cliff you like. If you fall too far you will damage yourself resulting in the loss of any photos you are holding within the camera itself. So if you want to complete the Rune Challenge, you will need to take the long and safe route.
Familiarity and Monsutra
Even bigger news than the ability to throw yourself from mountains is that Sapphire Safari finally has a working Familiarity system! Yes! That means you will be able to take photos, submit them, grow closer to your favorite species, and become intimate! The process for this is broken down into two photography systems.
Monsutra: If you photograph sex acts happening around the island you will now record the act within the database called Monsutra - short for Monster Karmasutra. As of writing this Document we have 18 acts you can find on the island, but we are going to be increasing this by a lot in the next couple of patches. Things like autofellatio, blowjobs (lots of these), more tiny animations, and a lot more lesbian-only animations too.
Monpedia: Photographing species and submitting photographs to the Monpeda now fills up the Familiarity bar for each species individually. The Familiarity bar takes into account the quality level of the photos itself, meaning eventually if you replace bad photos with good photos you will unlock the two additional Familiarity levels. In total, there are three levels to achieve with each species and they will start to act differently around the player depending on how familiar they are with you. You can have a mixture of species in a zone all acting independently in your presence and so far it works quite well.
- Feral: This is how the species currently operate in the public build. They see the player, the run from the player.
- Curious: After some time the player becomes something they want to know more about, if spotted the species will act in a unique manner, posing for photographs, teasing the player, but still not allowing them to get close.
- Friendly: Now that the photographer has spent time documenting this species they will allow you to walk close to them and interact with them. There are two options for interacting, the first is petting the creature (still a WIP) and the second is to open the Monsutra and start doing some Hanky Panky with the species in question.
Spore Plants
Another big feature is the inclusion of the new Spore Plants on the Island, these are rare spawning plants that burst with a toxic spore in a large radius around the plant. Getting too close means youll be right in the center of it. Being spored turns any creature inside it (minus the player) into a feral, horny predator. They will instantly turn on the closest creature and mate with them. Players included.
The Soundscape and Vocals
We have also been hard at work implementing a new level of polish to the game, each of the 9 monster species and Jamie/Oscar all have unique vocal work in the game. The player characters will say things as they enter stealth, or when they make new observations. They will moan and complain about being captured. When they are hurt, when they try to activate objects, when photos are good or bad. That is it for now! We have a bunch of other fixes and mechanics in play that we are still working on. But the build is coming along very nicely. Remember we do offer a sneak peek into the upcoming builds by giving access to our Internal Builds for VIP members on Patreon and SubscribeStar, but these are unpolished and contain a huge amount of bugs. But before anyone gets annoyed at this, just know that the polished and public builds all release at the same time, this is only for those looking to see more about the development process and support Kinky Fridays to build this awesome game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ See you soon with more updates!
Predator Pounding + 3rd Birthday!
Time sure flies huh? Today Sapphire Safari turns 3 years old! What an absolutely crazy ride it has been so far. The team is still hard at work building the dream game, and this year alone has been a massive step forward for the game! As a birthday gift to you all, Sapphire Safari will be 50% off for the next 2 weeks! This will be your last chance to grab the game at this price since we wont be dropping so low ever again! Also, today marks the day that v022c has been released, which is most definitely the patch everyone has been wanting for so very very long. First, lets quickly go over what's new in v022c!
Sapphire Island just got a whole lot more dangerous. This entire patch had one major focus, make predators as threatening as we could. This is a very big step for the game, as now Prey and Predator classification actually has meaning. Prey will fluff around the island, being cute, hanging out, and interacting with each other. Youll see them making sweet plaps, and being cute while being lewd. Predators are much more elusive, they will sometimes spawn thirsty and being to hunt down Prey that tickles their fancy, stalking them through bushes, until they find the perfect time to pounce. Capturing their target in a bundle of lust, using them however they want, and discarding them when they are done. Documenting this event will be very tricky as if the player is spotted at any point during, they will now become the target of their hunt. And yes, youll get stuffed and grinded upon without mercy. If captured players will be used over and over until the next day, waking up sore and covered in cum. Sensitive photography equipment will break and any photos held in temporary storage will be lost. Predators are also extremely dangerous outside of hunting mode. If the player is spotted by a Predator, they will instantly desire the exciting new creature, chasing until you manage to elude them or get caught.
We have also activated the new Prev Plant on the island as well, these stationary flowers will reach out and grab anyone close enough. Predator, Prey, Photographer. The flower does not care. Much like the Predator capture, this will result in a failure state. So do be careful.
To help add the correct feeling to the game, the AI around predators and reactions has been drastically updated. Prey will flee if they spot you, or if you trigger any noises. Predators will try to find the source of sounds or alerts. Prey will be cautious of Predators walking around outside of hunt mode. And reaction speeds in general have been sped up unless they are pleasuring themselves.
We goofed in the last patch, leaving in old Tutorial Popups that were no longer relevant to the systems inside the game. In this patch, we over-corrected this and built all new tutorials explaining new systems, and how scoring works, and improved the look and feel of the tutorials in general!
Changelog v022c
We are also in the middle of overhauling the introduction sequence to the game (where you select your character) and making a CGI Trailer to show off the game in a better light. We realize up until this point we have had zero gameplay trailer or anything of the sort, and that is coming, we just need to steamroll these last mechanics before we focus on that.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Happy birthday to Sapphire Safari once more, and we hope you all enjoy the new patch!
[ 2024-09-26 21:51:14 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v022c release post for early adopters over on Itch and GOG.
Time sure flies huh? Today Sapphire Safari turns 3 years old! What an absolutely crazy ride it has been so far. The team is still hard at work building the dream game, and this year alone has been a massive step forward for the game! As a birthday gift to you all, Sapphire Safari will be 50% off for the next 2 weeks! This will be your last chance to grab the game at this price since we wont be dropping so low ever again! Also, today marks the day that v022c has been released, which is most definitely the patch everyone has been wanting for so very very long. First, lets quickly go over what's new in v022c!
Hunting, Predators, and Sexual Flowers
Sapphire Island just got a whole lot more dangerous. This entire patch had one major focus, make predators as threatening as we could. This is a very big step for the game, as now Prey and Predator classification actually has meaning. Prey will fluff around the island, being cute, hanging out, and interacting with each other. Youll see them making sweet plaps, and being cute while being lewd. Predators are much more elusive, they will sometimes spawn thirsty and being to hunt down Prey that tickles their fancy, stalking them through bushes, until they find the perfect time to pounce. Capturing their target in a bundle of lust, using them however they want, and discarding them when they are done. Documenting this event will be very tricky as if the player is spotted at any point during, they will now become the target of their hunt. And yes, youll get stuffed and grinded upon without mercy. If captured players will be used over and over until the next day, waking up sore and covered in cum. Sensitive photography equipment will break and any photos held in temporary storage will be lost. Predators are also extremely dangerous outside of hunting mode. If the player is spotted by a Predator, they will instantly desire the exciting new creature, chasing until you manage to elude them or get caught.
We have also activated the new Prev Plant on the island as well, these stationary flowers will reach out and grab anyone close enough. Predator, Prey, Photographer. The flower does not care. Much like the Predator capture, this will result in a failure state. So do be careful.
AI Overhaul
To help add the correct feeling to the game, the AI around predators and reactions has been drastically updated. Prey will flee if they spot you, or if you trigger any noises. Predators will try to find the source of sounds or alerts. Prey will be cautious of Predators walking around outside of hunt mode. And reaction speeds in general have been sped up unless they are pleasuring themselves.
Tutorials and Help
We goofed in the last patch, leaving in old Tutorial Popups that were no longer relevant to the systems inside the game. In this patch, we over-corrected this and built all new tutorials explaining new systems, and how scoring works, and improved the look and feel of the tutorials in general!
Changelog v022c
- Added Tentacle Plant Spawn/Activation AI
- Added 4x Tentacle Plant Sex Animations
- Added Tentacle Plant IK Focus
- Added Tentacle Plant Warning SFX
- Added Tentacle Plant Failure State for Player Capture
- Added Monster Sex Sleep State and Ragdoll
- Added Predator Spawn/Activation AI
- Added Predator Hunt AI and Behavior
- Added Pink Smoke Eye Flair for Hunting Predators
- Added Prey Caution AI for Predators
- Added Predator Hunt Locomotion and Capture Animation
- Added 4x Predator Sex Animations
- Added 9x Monpedia Mating Tab Photo Categories and Animation Tags
- Added nearly 100x general animations for general activities.
- Updated all existing Sex Animations
- Updated all IK hold points and interactions
- Changed Furloin Nest Location
- Fixed Walking Slopes on Radio Beacons
- Added Player capture state skip
- Added Player torn clothing models - use wardrobe in Camp to repair clothing
- Added Oscar vocals
- Added Bunnets vocals - currently used by all Species
- Changed Jamie model - new tanlines and hair color
- Changed Oscar model - new skin texture
- Updated Jamie breast physics
- Updated Jamie butt physics - her ass claps so nicely now
- Updated testicle physics
- Added New flee and alert AI
- Added New noisemaker AI
- Adjusted reaction speed and systems for awareness
- Prey Awareness mode added
- Mating Tab additional tagging added
- Added Sex Skeleton optimizations
- Adjusted New Moon and Transition Moon brightness at night
- Added Player Capture camera
- World Respawn on Player Capture transition
- Several Map upgrades
- Fixed Player NG spawn-facing
- Fixed Malous spawn rate
- Main Menu overhauled to include Tourist Mode and Story Mode buttons
We are also in the middle of overhauling the introduction sequence to the game (where you select your character) and making a CGI Trailer to show off the game in a better light. We realize up until this point we have had zero gameplay trailer or anything of the sort, and that is coming, we just need to steamroll these last mechanics before we focus on that.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Happy birthday to Sapphire Safari once more, and we hope you all enjoy the new patch!
Launch Roadmap
[ 2024-09-15 17:16:24 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello explorers! Just a heads up, we have updated our Roadmap for Sapphire Safari, it can be seen on the main page or directly below.
This is not the end of the full content roadmap, as following Phase Three are two additional biome regions planned, a Snow Biome and a Tundra/Volcano Biome. Each region is intended to be just as big as the Plains area. This includes new Species, Events, Nests, Side Quests, etc.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/
We hope you all intend to stay with us on our journey as we near the Early Access launch on Steam, we are trying to add as much functionality as humanly possible to the game before launch.
As always, direct your questions below.
Sapphire Documents Issue 018
Predators will now spawn thirsty for a sweet treat, entering hunt mode which a pink mist around their eyes can indicate (dont worry this does not show up in photos). They will stalk their prey and wait for an opportune time to strike, leaping into the air and taking what they need.
If the player disturbs a Predator during a hunt they will now become the focus of their sexual aggression. You can attempt to run, you can throw rocks at the Predators, you can even try to hide from them and break line of sight. But eventually, youll slip up and become a twinky for these aggressive Monster Girls. We are still building this feature right now so that the thread of Predators extends to those, not in hunting mode, our goal is to make every single Predator the player runs into a threat.
If you are grabbed you will now lose all temporary photos being carried and the time of day will change as the player passes out from being used as a sex toy, all creatures on the island will also reset as well. Both Oscar and Jamie have had visual upgrades to their character models, both now have tans from being outside, with Jamie having tan lines from her bathing suit. Both characters now have ruined alts for their base clothing which happens to their clothing after being caught by aggressive Fauna and Flora. You can revert your clothing using the wardrobe in the campsite.
Prey now has a vastly improved reaction to seeing the player, previously they would kinda run back and forth, kinda being unsure of where to go. It has led to some very interesting scenarios where the total number of alerted creatures would include just about all spawns. Now, when girls spot you only the creature who finds the player will react, the other creatures will just flee, and when they flee they leave the area as quickly as possible. The result is that being spotted, means that the possibility of taking photos drastically goes down. There have also been a lot of tweaks implemented for the speed of creatures discovering the player and it is all starting to feel correctly tuned. We are still working on how the noise makers alert the surrounding areas, as it tends to put all creatures into the same animation pose and feedback loop, which is not intended.
Our team has been hard at work building the new animation and tagging for the Mating Tab in the Monpedia. Each species now has access to 9 more photo categories related just to the new sex acts in the game.
We have also created a new AI around the Aggressive Flora on the island. The Perv Plant as we are calling it internally will reach out and grab anyone passing by, including players! Depending on the genitals of the grabee the animations will change. I have even had a Perv Plant grab a leaping Predator out of the air saving my behind from being grabbed!
There are a bunch of other smaller changes we have made to the game which I will go over in greater detail once the patch drops. I also wanted to let everyone know that if youre looking to support our development and want to access our internal development builds (filled with an assortment of bugs and incomplete features) you can do so by becoming a VIP in our supporter programs on Patreon or SubscribeStar. This is only for the most diehard supporters and no one is missing out on content by not applying for this. We just wanted to give more back to our community, and to those who really want to help this game succeed! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ We will be dropping this soon, just we need to make sure all the bugs are squashed and all the content is working as intended!
[ 2024-09-13 13:48:17 CET ] [ Original post ]
Welcome explorers! Lots to talk about today, needless to say, we have been very very busy. Our focus has been entirely on the new Predator system, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that this feature will be one of your favorites.
Time to Hunt!
Predators will now spawn thirsty for a sweet treat, entering hunt mode which a pink mist around their eyes can indicate (dont worry this does not show up in photos). They will stalk their prey and wait for an opportune time to strike, leaping into the air and taking what they need.
If the player disturbs a Predator during a hunt they will now become the focus of their sexual aggression. You can attempt to run, you can throw rocks at the Predators, you can even try to hide from them and break line of sight. But eventually, youll slip up and become a twinky for these aggressive Monster Girls. We are still building this feature right now so that the thread of Predators extends to those, not in hunting mode, our goal is to make every single Predator the player runs into a threat.
If you are grabbed you will now lose all temporary photos being carried and the time of day will change as the player passes out from being used as a sex toy, all creatures on the island will also reset as well. Both Oscar and Jamie have had visual upgrades to their character models, both now have tans from being outside, with Jamie having tan lines from her bathing suit. Both characters now have ruined alts for their base clothing which happens to their clothing after being caught by aggressive Fauna and Flora. You can revert your clothing using the wardrobe in the campsite.
Better Behaviours
Prey now has a vastly improved reaction to seeing the player, previously they would kinda run back and forth, kinda being unsure of where to go. It has led to some very interesting scenarios where the total number of alerted creatures would include just about all spawns. Now, when girls spot you only the creature who finds the player will react, the other creatures will just flee, and when they flee they leave the area as quickly as possible. The result is that being spotted, means that the possibility of taking photos drastically goes down. There have also been a lot of tweaks implemented for the speed of creatures discovering the player and it is all starting to feel correctly tuned. We are still working on how the noise makers alert the surrounding areas, as it tends to put all creatures into the same animation pose and feedback loop, which is not intended.
Mating Monpedia
Our team has been hard at work building the new animation and tagging for the Mating Tab in the Monpedia. Each species now has access to 9 more photo categories related just to the new sex acts in the game.
Pretty Sexy Flowers
We have also created a new AI around the Aggressive Flora on the island. The Perv Plant as we are calling it internally will reach out and grab anyone passing by, including players! Depending on the genitals of the grabee the animations will change. I have even had a Perv Plant grab a leaping Predator out of the air saving my behind from being grabbed!
There are a bunch of other smaller changes we have made to the game which I will go over in greater detail once the patch drops. I also wanted to let everyone know that if youre looking to support our development and want to access our internal development builds (filled with an assortment of bugs and incomplete features) you can do so by becoming a VIP in our supporter programs on Patreon or SubscribeStar. This is only for the most diehard supporters and no one is missing out on content by not applying for this. We just wanted to give more back to our community, and to those who really want to help this game succeed! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ We will be dropping this soon, just we need to make sure all the bugs are squashed and all the content is working as intended!
Early Access Plans
Tourist mode is our answer to that question! Tourist mode is an open sandbox experience designed around letting the player engage with systems without needing to gate or unlock features. We will focus on completing this experience for the launch of the Early Access content and the Story Mode will be the focus post-launching. After v022 is completed the team will move into creating all the work and polish needed to make that game mode feel incredible. This includes overhauling the introduction to the game and implementing a very small section of the tutorial we have pre-recorded. Once we have this complete we will also be able to release a demo of the game with some limited features and species list.
First on the block for a slight tweak is our original plans for Familiarity. Previously as you level up a species they progress through 4 tiers, slowly becoming more accustomed to the player, while also unlocking a gallery viewer of player interactions. It would have been 5 new animations per species which would have been 45 animations in total that would be a once-view type reward. The diegetic version of Familiarity works a little differently. The player now has 3 tiers to progress through
Core functionality aside like tutorialisation and such, the goal is to take some of the elements we wanted to build in later patches and push them into the new Tourist Mode dev cycle. Ill quickly list off a few of the stuff we will be building ahead of schedule:
[ 2024-08-23 17:16:16 CET ] [ Original post ]
If you have not joined our community Discord now is the time to do it! We recently had an open development meeting for Sapphire Safari to discuss our new roadmap for building towards an Early Access launch on Steam. I am going to go over the numerous changes to our plans with you all here. Lets get this out of the way. We had a rough couple of months with some of our staff changing which pushed our schedule back a whole bunch. Originally we were hoping that by November of this year, we would have our Early Access launch. Given the amount of work left in the current roadmap that is no longer feasible, so it means our scope has to change. The goal was to launch with the entire Plains region fully completed, meaning narrative, side quests, unlocks, etc. If we were to do that now the release date would look like Q3 2025. So what does the new scope look like?
Tourist Mode
Tourist mode is our answer to that question! Tourist mode is an open sandbox experience designed around letting the player engage with systems without needing to gate or unlock features. We will focus on completing this experience for the launch of the Early Access content and the Story Mode will be the focus post-launching. After v022 is completed the team will move into creating all the work and polish needed to make that game mode feel incredible. This includes overhauling the introduction to the game and implementing a very small section of the tutorial we have pre-recorded. Once we have this complete we will also be able to release a demo of the game with some limited features and species list.
Diegetic Mechanic Changes
First on the block for a slight tweak is our original plans for Familiarity. Previously as you level up a species they progress through 4 tiers, slowly becoming more accustomed to the player, while also unlocking a gallery viewer of player interactions. It would have been 5 new animations per species which would have been 45 animations in total that would be a once-view type reward. The diegetic version of Familiarity works a little differently. The player now has 3 tiers to progress through
- Fearful - Girls flee once the player is spotted.
- Curious - Girls pose for photos but flee if approached.
- Friendly - Girls pose for photos but can be interacted with if approached.
A Better Sandbox Experience
Core functionality aside like tutorialisation and such, the goal is to take some of the elements we wanted to build in later patches and push them into the new Tourist Mode dev cycle. Ill quickly list off a few of the stuff we will be building ahead of schedule:
- Nests - Each species has its nest location. Activating Radio Beacons will uncover these areas as a point of interest for the player. Exploring inside during the species' sleeping hours will be a small stealth puzzle to navigate. Exploring until the end, the player can witness a very unique sex act performed by the species which will unlock inside the Monsutra.
- New Tools and Toys - Found inside the player campsite is a tool chest, filled with new gadgets and toys to use on the wildlife. This includes Sex Toys to throw around, Toys like beach balls, or teddy bears, Bait to lure particular species around, and Fake bushes to help with stealth and sneaking.
- Map Functionality - Teleporting to camp polishes for fast travel and the like.
- Motion Capture Animation Overhaul - We suit up and add a couple hundred new global animations to the game.
- Perfect Photo Functionality - Tied in with the new mocap animations, scoring photos gets a huge boost for taking the photo at the right time!
- Polish - New loading screens, Detailed save file information, Animation tag overhaul to stop duping.
Outdoor Plaps
Welcome explorers! Yeah I know, dev times for this micro patch were fn brutal. We sincerely apologize to those expecting a quicker turnaround. We had a lot happen during this patch, stuff like lead staff leaving and new staff coming in, moving houses, funerals, etc. Sometimes real life just kicks you in the gonads. However, the dev part of the patch also threw us into a loop, the proposed timeframe for updating the doll system to its final form was 2-3 weeks. In the end, that whole process, including the debugging and tweaking took 3 months.
So why did it take so long? The older doll system was pretty unique, for one sex pose - let's take doggy in this example - required a start/intro, a slow, medium, and fast core loop, a finisher, and post-finisher animations for each pose, for each participant. The game using its tracking and needs data for each NPC would then choose which animations to play based on their stamina, their lust, etc. It was stupidly complicated and created a lot of tech debt and jank. Mons would not be synced correctly, or they would not animate long enough for player discovery. Instead, we ripped all that away (including the NPC needs), and built the sex system off the back of the Smart Object system. Now when a monster spawns, she is given 3 tasks, she seeks one out and does it. If someone enters a sex Smart Object, another mon is pushed to seek out and join, and voila, the sex magically works, jank-free. The removal of the old system required a lot of cleaning, and the new system needed a lot of tweaking. Some interesting examples we had to contend with during development include:
It is also far from being completed as well, we made the unfortunate discovery that because our generic animation rig is too different from what the monster girls look like, every animation is off by like 10 centimeters, so penetrations are not what we intend for them to be. The solution for this is to redo all the animations with a monster girl-sized animation rig instead, so that will be pushed into the next patch.
After all the doll system overhaul, there is a lot more added to the game that is worth discussing. The first big addition is the new fluid cum system. Now when the ladies goo they actually goo! Naturally, we have a few different ways this can impact the performance of your computer as it is a fluid simulation that mathematically sticks to models - very difficult to build that - it will shoot from the right place, cover whatever it lands on, combine, and stick to models. If you turn off the fluids to save GPU power you will instead get a sprite spray which, wont stick to much, but it still looks nice. Especially the Bee girl, she can get absolutely covered in batter.
We also fixed the floating hand jerk-off issue as well using an IK system which directs the tip of dongs into the right holes/hands. However, because model sizes are slightly different the actual execution will vary. We plan to normalize all the models going forward so these slight deviations won't be an issue.
Grass now dynamically flattens around sex acts in the game, we might need to come back to this as it can look a little wonky at times when you zoom in from a distance but the flattening is very useful for taking clearer shots when youre on the same level as your subjects.
Sex now has sound! Plaps, slaps, penetrations, and ejaculations are now dynamically added to the audio soundscapes, you will be able to find sex happening around you just by keeping your ears open. We have also added a temp vocal track to the sex as well, which is mostly used to give us an idea of what exactly needs to be recorded via actresses as it is also a dynamic system. Plus a bunch more smaller fixes!
And that about sums up everything in this micro patch. Our next focus should include a lot more interesting gameplay mechanics as we will be turning our attention to the Predator AI system and how that flows into the current gameplay. Here is a short list of our next patch goals.
[ 2024-08-02 19:02:58 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v022b release post for early adopters over on Itch and GOG.
Welcome explorers! Yeah I know, dev times for this micro patch were fn brutal. We sincerely apologize to those expecting a quicker turnaround. We had a lot happen during this patch, stuff like lead staff leaving and new staff coming in, moving houses, funerals, etc. Sometimes real life just kicks you in the gonads. However, the dev part of the patch also threw us into a loop, the proposed timeframe for updating the doll system to its final form was 2-3 weeks. In the end, that whole process, including the debugging and tweaking took 3 months.
Time Well Spent
So why did it take so long? The older doll system was pretty unique, for one sex pose - let's take doggy in this example - required a start/intro, a slow, medium, and fast core loop, a finisher, and post-finisher animations for each pose, for each participant. The game using its tracking and needs data for each NPC would then choose which animations to play based on their stamina, their lust, etc. It was stupidly complicated and created a lot of tech debt and jank. Mons would not be synced correctly, or they would not animate long enough for player discovery. Instead, we ripped all that away (including the NPC needs), and built the sex system off the back of the Smart Object system. Now when a monster spawns, she is given 3 tasks, she seeks one out and does it. If someone enters a sex Smart Object, another mon is pushed to seek out and join, and voila, the sex magically works, jank-free. The removal of the old system required a lot of cleaning, and the new system needed a lot of tweaking. Some interesting examples we had to contend with during development include:
- Too many girls wanted to get some fuckywucky and it made the world very underpopulated.
- Too many girls are obsessed with coming over and over.
- The bees are too horny and ruining threesomes by overcrowding.
- Girls sliding around the world jerking off.
- Girls gain the power of flight after they cum.
It is also far from being completed as well, we made the unfortunate discovery that because our generic animation rig is too different from what the monster girls look like, every animation is off by like 10 centimeters, so penetrations are not what we intend for them to be. The solution for this is to redo all the animations with a monster girl-sized animation rig instead, so that will be pushed into the next patch.
New Features for v022b
After all the doll system overhaul, there is a lot more added to the game that is worth discussing. The first big addition is the new fluid cum system. Now when the ladies goo they actually goo! Naturally, we have a few different ways this can impact the performance of your computer as it is a fluid simulation that mathematically sticks to models - very difficult to build that - it will shoot from the right place, cover whatever it lands on, combine, and stick to models. If you turn off the fluids to save GPU power you will instead get a sprite spray which, wont stick to much, but it still looks nice. Especially the Bee girl, she can get absolutely covered in batter.
We also fixed the floating hand jerk-off issue as well using an IK system which directs the tip of dongs into the right holes/hands. However, because model sizes are slightly different the actual execution will vary. We plan to normalize all the models going forward so these slight deviations won't be an issue.
Grass now dynamically flattens around sex acts in the game, we might need to come back to this as it can look a little wonky at times when you zoom in from a distance but the flattening is very useful for taking clearer shots when youre on the same level as your subjects.
Sex now has sound! Plaps, slaps, penetrations, and ejaculations are now dynamically added to the audio soundscapes, you will be able to find sex happening around you just by keeping your ears open. We have also added a temp vocal track to the sex as well, which is mostly used to give us an idea of what exactly needs to be recorded via actresses as it is also a dynamic system. Plus a bunch more smaller fixes!
- Jamie has a brand new locomotion which makes her far more feminine.
- Monster Girls will not be aware of the player's presence while they are asleep, they will wake up if you make noise or startle another girl.
- Upgraded the engine to Unreal v5.4.2.
- Corrected a boatload of shapekey errors for Monster Girl faces.
- Updated lighting models to improve nighttime visibility.
- Map light sources and props have been overhauled.
And that about sums up everything in this micro patch. Our next focus should include a lot more interesting gameplay mechanics as we will be turning our attention to the Predator AI system and how that flows into the current gameplay. Here is a short list of our next patch goals.
- Mating tab for Monpedia for all species.
- Predator AI system.
- Predator spawning system.
- Predator capture and animation system.
- Failure state for capture.
- Torn clothing system and dripping fluids.
- Temp action on wardrobe to replace torn clothing.
- Implement tentacle plant capture and penetration animations along with bee and activation AI.
Sapphire Documents Issue 017
This is becoming a meme at this point, considering how much we reworked this system over the development time the game has had. However, our new Doll iteration is all about delivering really good-looking sex animations, minus the jank, minus the hardships. Currently, the doll system uses another tool called NPC Needs, which determines the speed, intensity, and length that an NPC stays inside a sex animation. This, naturally, is an overly complicated system that is both impressive and unnecessary. To focus on what is important - the presentation of sex - we have instead opted for a hand-crafted animation system.
What does all this mean? In the next patch, youll be able to wander around the island, and youll come across monsters taking each other to pound town, mons will be able to watch the group do their thing. This means that the lust bomb wont be needed and monsters wont simply join in as they pass by, it will feel way more natural and the player will have a lot of discovered moments. The animations are roughly 1 - 2 minutes long and they have multiple phases along the way to ejaculation.
To make way for more natural-looking sex, we have had to alter how the game world reacts to characters walking around. Now if you move through grass, it will bend and leave a trail. If mons engage in sex animations the grass around them will flatten allowing for more clean photography to happen. After a while, the grass will reset but it should add a lot more function to capturing clean sexual photographs.
Lastly, the big new feature being added to the next patch is our cum and fluids system. I am not sure who among you will understand when I say, fluid simulation is not for the faint of heart. Unreal Engine has fluid sims built into its engine for all developers to use, however, cum is not an intended use case for it. In fact, fluids sticking to character meshes is not what the system is for.
The basic issue is the fluid can react to bones and meshes of a character, momentum however makes the fluid not work as we need it. It is a difficult issue to fix as our use case requires fluids to stick, slide around, drip down and out of holes, pool on the ground. We are working on it, so it might require a couple of iterations to get perfect. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Anyway, that is it, for now, we are still working hard on getting it all together. More information to come very soon!
[ 2024-05-27 09:13:31 CET ] [ Original post ]
Greetings explorers! One more developer blog to help tide you over until the next patch! As mentioned in our previous blog Sapphire Documents Issue 016 we have been hard at work focused on the new doll system overhaul, along with a slew of other important features for visibility and interaction!
How to Doll
This is becoming a meme at this point, considering how much we reworked this system over the development time the game has had. However, our new Doll iteration is all about delivering really good-looking sex animations, minus the jank, minus the hardships. Currently, the doll system uses another tool called NPC Needs, which determines the speed, intensity, and length that an NPC stays inside a sex animation. This, naturally, is an overly complicated system that is both impressive and unnecessary. To focus on what is important - the presentation of sex - we have instead opted for a hand-crafted animation system.
What does all this mean? In the next patch, youll be able to wander around the island, and youll come across monsters taking each other to pound town, mons will be able to watch the group do their thing. This means that the lust bomb wont be needed and monsters wont simply join in as they pass by, it will feel way more natural and the player will have a lot of discovered moments. The animations are roughly 1 - 2 minutes long and they have multiple phases along the way to ejaculation.
Landscaping
To make way for more natural-looking sex, we have had to alter how the game world reacts to characters walking around. Now if you move through grass, it will bend and leave a trail. If mons engage in sex animations the grass around them will flatten allowing for more clean photography to happen. After a while, the grass will reset but it should add a lot more function to capturing clean sexual photographs.
Money Shots and Face Paints
Lastly, the big new feature being added to the next patch is our cum and fluids system. I am not sure who among you will understand when I say, fluid simulation is not for the faint of heart. Unreal Engine has fluid sims built into its engine for all developers to use, however, cum is not an intended use case for it. In fact, fluids sticking to character meshes is not what the system is for.
The basic issue is the fluid can react to bones and meshes of a character, momentum however makes the fluid not work as we need it. It is a difficult issue to fix as our use case requires fluids to stick, slide around, drip down and out of holes, pool on the ground. We are working on it, so it might require a couple of iterations to get perfect. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Anyway, that is it, for now, we are still working hard on getting it all together. More information to come very soon!
Three of a Kind
Hello explorers welcome to a micro patch for Sapphire Safari! As mentioned in our last Documents Issue 016 we are breaking down the MASSIVE v022 sex patch into five smaller patches that can be enjoyed faster. Today we have the first patch, focused entirely on patching in the final three island natives.
Three new beauties can now be found on Sapphire Island, each one has unique locomotion, features, and mechanics compared to the others, hence why it took us so long to bring them to the Island.
This new small classification predator can be found around the waterways of Sapphire Island. Adding her was quite difficult due to her main locomotion being swimming, we needed to build that from scratch to make it all work. It is a little janky still but we will refine it as we go along.
A tiny classification of prey can be found anywhere there are plants or flowers. We had to create a brand new flight locomotion for her, how she flees, how she moves, and how she interacts with existing smart objects. We will likely add more unique animations for her as we go, and we are still considering what to do with her wings when they are not in use.
The first special spawn of Sapphire Safari! This unique presence on the Island can only be found by completing an environment puzzle that will take you all over the plains biome! After unlocking her, she will still be quite difficult to spot so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for her!
To better house our new island natives Sapphire Island has dramatically changed. The primary focus was to create waterways that feel more alive. The tiny rivers are now grand and deep streams, the tiny swamp is now a giant biome of its own, and the island now houses unique puzzle elements you will need to discover for yourselves!
Finally, we have removed our old Main Menu level in favor of something more dynamic, instead of the (now underused) Boat intro we have a focus on the Plains campsite. The time of day reflects the last save, and the weather is randomized every load in. This sweeping change also pushed us to fix the temporary introduction cinematic as well. It is still a placeholder but it is nicer than it was before.
[ 2024-05-02 11:50:22 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v022a release post for early adopters over on Itch and GOG.
Hello explorers welcome to a micro patch for Sapphire Safari! As mentioned in our last Documents Issue 016 we are breaking down the MASSIVE v022 sex patch into five smaller patches that can be enjoyed faster. Today we have the first patch, focused entirely on patching in the final three island natives.
Air, Water, and Mist
Three new beauties can now be found on Sapphire Island, each one has unique locomotion, features, and mechanics compared to the others, hence why it took us so long to bring them to the Island.
Caiadaly - Crocodile
This new small classification predator can be found around the waterways of Sapphire Island. Adding her was quite difficult due to her main locomotion being swimming, we needed to build that from scratch to make it all work. It is a little janky still but we will refine it as we go along.
Sweedee - Bumble Bee
A tiny classification of prey can be found anywhere there are plants or flowers. We had to create a brand new flight locomotion for her, how she flees, how she moves, and how she interacts with existing smart objects. We will likely add more unique animations for her as we go, and we are still considering what to do with her wings when they are not in use.
Malous - Ghostly Wolf
The first special spawn of Sapphire Safari! This unique presence on the Island can only be found by completing an environment puzzle that will take you all over the plains biome! After unlocking her, she will still be quite difficult to spot so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for her!
Island Changes
To better house our new island natives Sapphire Island has dramatically changed. The primary focus was to create waterways that feel more alive. The tiny rivers are now grand and deep streams, the tiny swamp is now a giant biome of its own, and the island now houses unique puzzle elements you will need to discover for yourselves!
Main Menu and Intro
Finally, we have removed our old Main Menu level in favor of something more dynamic, instead of the (now underused) Boat intro we have a focus on the Plains campsite. The time of day reflects the last save, and the weather is randomized every load in. This sweeping change also pushed us to fix the temporary introduction cinematic as well. It is still a placeholder but it is nicer than it was before.
Changelog v022a
- Added Caiadaly, Sweedee, Malous species
- Added new Monpedia UX entries
- Added Malous environment puzzle elements
- Modified Plains biome to increase water areas
- Added water noise during rain
- Added 100+ smart objects in the Plains biome
- Modified Map icon discoverability
- Removed Beacon spawn options
- Removed Beacon activation compass icons
- Added compass proximity feature to reduce clutter
- Fixed map unveil rain bug
- Fixed submission focus bugs
- Added new main menu level
- Added new introduction cutscene level
Sapphire Documents Issue 016
This patch is focused on patching the model issues we have had up until now, basically aligning the model legs, renaming bones, and fixing face shapes for every model. They have been broken for quite some time now and getting this done first means we can push out new animations without backtracking. On top of the fixes, we will be adding the final three species that will be found in the Plains region. The Crocodile Predator called Caicadaly - Our first small classification predator in the game. She can be found around the rivers and bodies of water on the island, hunting those silly enough to loiter around the water.
The Bee Prey called Sweedee - Sapphire Safaris first tiny classification species. She will have a job pollinating the island flora and enjoys being used as a sex toy. You can find her buzzing mostly everywhere but her Hive can be found closer to the mountains.
The Undead Wolf Special called Malous - The first special spawn species you can find on Sapphire Island she will have to be unlocked before she can be spawned, the hows and whys are up to the player to discover. Even if you manage to get her spawning, finding her will be quite difficult.
Now that our models have a better foundation the next task is overhauling the current sex system called Doll. This means replacing all the prototype sex animations and adding in a larger pool of animations along with speed variations, cuming scenes, and post-sex animations. This also will come with an IK fix, so all those misplaced hands, dongs, and sex collisions will be fixed with this. Adding to this we will be putting in our first variation on a cum fluid system, we want facials and bukkake to be a possibility in this game, so expect to see some bunnies covered in cum very soon.
Finally, for this patch, we will be adding our vine flora trap creature. This is a stationary plant that will grab unwilling creatures (including the player) and use their vines and plant tongues on them. This will include a spawning tool that can interact with Sweedee as she pollinates them.
The big boi patch, the predator system. What can I say about this that you wouldnt already know? Our three predator classification species - Kokai (snake), Furloin (fox), and Caiadaly (crocodile) will get a brand new AI system that enables them to hunt, stalk, and sexually use any species they deem tasty enough. This also doubles for the player, if they are spotted by an active predator they will become the target, being attacked, filled, and dragged off to their nest. We will also be adding things like torn clothing and dripping fluids after the player makes their escape, this all coming off the game's first failure state aka being caught is bad.
Lastly for this patch, we will be adding the Mating Tab of the Monpedia accessible, so you can start scoring photos for sex acts.
The other aggressive plant will be added in this patch, the Spore Plant which will start a new system. The spores shot out will turn normal prey into sexually aggressive creatures, who will pounce the closest species they can find (player included) and do what they like. If the player is spored they will be woozy and drunken-like, and moving will be harder to control.
With the spore effects in place, we can then add in the Pink Moon event. On every full moon in the game, the island natives will go sex crazy, and be fucking each other for the entire night. The player if caught during this time wont be able to escape until the next morning. So if you want to capture the event as a photographer be sure to not be seen.
The final micro patch for the intimacy update, this time we are focused on turning on the familiarity system and adding in a bunch of rewards here. Meaning the more familiar a species is with you the closer you can get where you can eventually walk up and interact with them, engaging in some sexywexy. We will also have 3 unlockable reward scenes with each species, which will include very unique animations making the best use of their anatomy.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ So that wraps up our plans. I know you all have been waiting a very long time for this, and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for how youre enabling us to spend time polishing and making the best game we can. Thank you!
[ 2024-04-05 14:16:06 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello explorers! Hope you all are enjoying the latest patch for Sapphire Safari. I know we have had a lot of really positive comments about the scoring and weather tech added to the game! But today we are talking about a bit of yeold in n out. The hokie pokie. The wham-bam-thank you-mam. The you get the joke now so Ill stop. We talkin, sex. Over on our community Discord, we held a meeting to discuss our plans for the very anticipated v022 Intamacy Update for the game, we also addressed a lot of questions you all had so be sure to join our Discord for the next time we do it. In the meeting we broke down our plans for the patch and how we will release it. The short version is that v022 will be broken up into five milestones, each one a micro-patch that we can release quickly as it is completed. Let me go into better detail on what you can all expect.
v022a
This patch is focused on patching the model issues we have had up until now, basically aligning the model legs, renaming bones, and fixing face shapes for every model. They have been broken for quite some time now and getting this done first means we can push out new animations without backtracking. On top of the fixes, we will be adding the final three species that will be found in the Plains region. The Crocodile Predator called Caicadaly - Our first small classification predator in the game. She can be found around the rivers and bodies of water on the island, hunting those silly enough to loiter around the water.
The Bee Prey called Sweedee - Sapphire Safaris first tiny classification species. She will have a job pollinating the island flora and enjoys being used as a sex toy. You can find her buzzing mostly everywhere but her Hive can be found closer to the mountains.
The Undead Wolf Special called Malous - The first special spawn species you can find on Sapphire Island she will have to be unlocked before she can be spawned, the hows and whys are up to the player to discover. Even if you manage to get her spawning, finding her will be quite difficult.
v022b
Now that our models have a better foundation the next task is overhauling the current sex system called Doll. This means replacing all the prototype sex animations and adding in a larger pool of animations along with speed variations, cuming scenes, and post-sex animations. This also will come with an IK fix, so all those misplaced hands, dongs, and sex collisions will be fixed with this. Adding to this we will be putting in our first variation on a cum fluid system, we want facials and bukkake to be a possibility in this game, so expect to see some bunnies covered in cum very soon.
Finally, for this patch, we will be adding our vine flora trap creature. This is a stationary plant that will grab unwilling creatures (including the player) and use their vines and plant tongues on them. This will include a spawning tool that can interact with Sweedee as she pollinates them.
v022c
The big boi patch, the predator system. What can I say about this that you wouldnt already know? Our three predator classification species - Kokai (snake), Furloin (fox), and Caiadaly (crocodile) will get a brand new AI system that enables them to hunt, stalk, and sexually use any species they deem tasty enough. This also doubles for the player, if they are spotted by an active predator they will become the target, being attacked, filled, and dragged off to their nest. We will also be adding things like torn clothing and dripping fluids after the player makes their escape, this all coming off the game's first failure state aka being caught is bad.
Lastly for this patch, we will be adding the Mating Tab of the Monpedia accessible, so you can start scoring photos for sex acts.
v022d
The other aggressive plant will be added in this patch, the Spore Plant which will start a new system. The spores shot out will turn normal prey into sexually aggressive creatures, who will pounce the closest species they can find (player included) and do what they like. If the player is spored they will be woozy and drunken-like, and moving will be harder to control.
With the spore effects in place, we can then add in the Pink Moon event. On every full moon in the game, the island natives will go sex crazy, and be fucking each other for the entire night. The player if caught during this time wont be able to escape until the next morning. So if you want to capture the event as a photographer be sure to not be seen.
v022e
The final micro patch for the intimacy update, this time we are focused on turning on the familiarity system and adding in a bunch of rewards here. Meaning the more familiar a species is with you the closer you can get where you can eventually walk up and interact with them, engaging in some sexywexy. We will also have 3 unlockable reward scenes with each species, which will include very unique animations making the best use of their anatomy.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ So that wraps up our plans. I know you all have been waiting a very long time for this, and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for how youre enabling us to spend time polishing and making the best game we can. Thank you!
Dripping Wet
Hello explorers! It has been a while since you saw a patch from us - just over 2 months. But we have an excellent reason for it! The long-awaited overhaul to the scoring functionality is finally in Sapphire Safari, and oh boy is it good!
I wont get into the nitty-gritty too much here as those details you can read about in our last dev diary. But scoring previously was based on the distance to the target and how obstructed they are in the photo. What resulted was players being able to quickly close the distance to an NPC and snap a shot right up in their face and get the highest possible ranking - flat out did not work. The new system is based on the Rule of Thirds and visual elements of NPCs. So if a creature is correctly spaced within the photo, and has all its important features exposed to the camera youll get a higher score. With this new system, lower-scored photos will generally be the main results, only through patience and positioning will you get higher-quality photos.
The result is that scoring photos is very very consistent now. And if you learn the ways of the Third you will get reliable scoring metrics for the photos you take. You might even get better at photography in real life. Future patches will include another system running alongside this called Perfect Photo, or PP (hehe peepee), which is an animation-based score multiplier. The exact moment the creature puts her lips to the cool waters and drinks, or the moment when their yoga pose is held at its peak. Taking a photo during this period will multiply the results, and this is the only way to elevate a photo score to above an A ranking.
With the scoring system in place, the submissions panel received an overhaul as well, separating each monster girl into its own score and allowing players to submit photos for any species that appears in any photo. That score is reflective of their position during the shot.
Future patches will include an output to score the photo as a whole rather than the individual NPCs within, as we will be including additional photo activities that require full photos with par scores.
This next feature is something we are quite proud of, the dynamic weather and lighting system we have just added to replace the old one improves the quality of our visuals. The basics of the system are that the Sun and Moon produce lighting for the whole island, and dynamic volumetric clouds can sit in front and behind the Sun/Moon blocking that light. The Sun and Moon move how you expect them to, rotating around the world, creating dawn, dusk, midday, and midnight lighting dynamically.
With the volumetric cloud coverage, we also have storms and rain effects. Puddles will dynamically cover the landscape and any creatures (players included) who are caught in the downpour will be slick with water and will drip water off their bodies.
The Moon also follows a lunar cycle as well. Starting from a New Moon (no moon visible) to a Full Moon (a full circle), this changes how bright the nighttime is during the game. With no reflections available during a New Moon the nighttime is vastly darker than other nights. This is why we have also included a new nighttime shooter mode for the camera.
This system automatically turns on and off and increases the brightness of photos taken while adding a bit of noise to the photo. We will be adding other shooter modes to help reduce the noise later, but it should be great for now.
The final massive change we have made to Sapphire Safari in this patch is the new music and vibes of the entire game. Gone are the days of a silent exploration of the map, now your days and nights will be filled with a relaxed exploration vibe, your stealth actions will be punctuated with a daring sting of music, and entering the menus or submitting photos will have you bobbing your head to the soothing musics. A few other tracks are waiting in the wings to be added to the game, but needless to say this will help give you all an idea of what to expect in the future from us.
Some smaller QOL features were added, things as a new Guidebook UI, map upgrades, and a model update for Jamie to enable physics for her hair, clothing, and buttocks.
[ 2024-04-03 07:34:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v021 release post for early adopters over on Itch and GOG.
Hello explorers! It has been a while since you saw a patch from us - just over 2 months. But we have an excellent reason for it! The long-awaited overhaul to the scoring functionality is finally in Sapphire Safari, and oh boy is it good!
Judging Photography
I wont get into the nitty-gritty too much here as those details you can read about in our last dev diary. But scoring previously was based on the distance to the target and how obstructed they are in the photo. What resulted was players being able to quickly close the distance to an NPC and snap a shot right up in their face and get the highest possible ranking - flat out did not work. The new system is based on the Rule of Thirds and visual elements of NPCs. So if a creature is correctly spaced within the photo, and has all its important features exposed to the camera youll get a higher score. With this new system, lower-scored photos will generally be the main results, only through patience and positioning will you get higher-quality photos.
The result is that scoring photos is very very consistent now. And if you learn the ways of the Third you will get reliable scoring metrics for the photos you take. You might even get better at photography in real life. Future patches will include another system running alongside this called Perfect Photo, or PP (hehe peepee), which is an animation-based score multiplier. The exact moment the creature puts her lips to the cool waters and drinks, or the moment when their yoga pose is held at its peak. Taking a photo during this period will multiply the results, and this is the only way to elevate a photo score to above an A ranking.
Submissions
With the scoring system in place, the submissions panel received an overhaul as well, separating each monster girl into its own score and allowing players to submit photos for any species that appears in any photo. That score is reflective of their position during the shot.
Future patches will include an output to score the photo as a whole rather than the individual NPCs within, as we will be including additional photo activities that require full photos with par scores.
Lighting and Weather
This next feature is something we are quite proud of, the dynamic weather and lighting system we have just added to replace the old one improves the quality of our visuals. The basics of the system are that the Sun and Moon produce lighting for the whole island, and dynamic volumetric clouds can sit in front and behind the Sun/Moon blocking that light. The Sun and Moon move how you expect them to, rotating around the world, creating dawn, dusk, midday, and midnight lighting dynamically.
With the volumetric cloud coverage, we also have storms and rain effects. Puddles will dynamically cover the landscape and any creatures (players included) who are caught in the downpour will be slick with water and will drip water off their bodies.
The Moon also follows a lunar cycle as well. Starting from a New Moon (no moon visible) to a Full Moon (a full circle), this changes how bright the nighttime is during the game. With no reflections available during a New Moon the nighttime is vastly darker than other nights. This is why we have also included a new nighttime shooter mode for the camera.
This system automatically turns on and off and increases the brightness of photos taken while adding a bit of noise to the photo. We will be adding other shooter modes to help reduce the noise later, but it should be great for now.
Music and Vibes
The final massive change we have made to Sapphire Safari in this patch is the new music and vibes of the entire game. Gone are the days of a silent exploration of the map, now your days and nights will be filled with a relaxed exploration vibe, your stealth actions will be punctuated with a daring sting of music, and entering the menus or submitting photos will have you bobbing your head to the soothing musics. A few other tracks are waiting in the wings to be added to the game, but needless to say this will help give you all an idea of what to expect in the future from us.
Other Updates
Some smaller QOL features were added, things as a new Guidebook UI, map upgrades, and a model update for Jamie to enable physics for her hair, clothing, and buttocks.
Changelog v021
- Jamie physics (hair, cowlick, buttocks, clothing sim)
- map changes (new caves, overhaul plains landscape, sightlines, cliff face overhaul, water replacement, nighttime lighting, and movement fixes)
- lighting overhaul
- weather system (volumetric clouds, rain, thunderstorms, dynamic puddle system, wet skin and fur textures, wet environment textures)
- lunar cycle added (moon changes from new moon to full moon offering unique nighttime lighting)
- sundial UI element added
- weekday tracking was added and a full day in-game is now 15 minutes
- day and weather systems saved for resuming
- nighttime shooter mode for the camera added
- music added (adventure day/night tracks, stealth track, menu and submission track, main menu/theme track, special area track, dynamic volume system, track swapping)
- guidebook system upgrades (exploration menu added for regional task tracking, still needs work)
- system settings back button fixes
- anti-aliasing options added to the options menu (TSR, TAA, FXAA, Off)
Sapphire Documents Issue 015
A nice quality update coming in v021 is the music system and musical tracks made just for this game. We will be launching the early access game with 6ish tracks that will bring a lot of charm and vibes to Sapphire Island. These include:
The elephant in the room is our scoring system. We needed to very much overhaul what goes into a photo score, and be able to score photos differently depending on the application. For example, a close-up of an open vagina wont score well for a monpedia entry, but it will score very high for a bounty asking for a bunny girl vagina close-up. To do this we have created a color masking system, this means that the model's parts we want to track are colored, and a mask is used to filter out what the camera can and cannot see as a photo is taken. This leads to accurate identification of just what is inside a photo, meaning we can start to score photos better.
The basic rules are as follows:
[ 2024-03-12 13:34:33 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone! It has been a few weeks since we dropped any information about our development for the game. The short version is that we are currently working on overhauling the scoring tech in the game, we have met some issues with specifically how Unreal Engine handles focusing and reporting that back to a usable state so we are building our workarounds. That does not mean we have been sitting idle though, lets break down some of the brand-new features expected to drop when the scoring gets sorted out. Weather, Lunar Cycles, Lighting, and Time Passing One great new feature of our game is a new lighting system. As of the next patch, the following will happen in-game:
- Weather effects have been added to Sapphire: Rain, Storms, Cloud coverage, and Fog. Other biomes will also have unique effects, but we wont be tweaking those models until we get to that content.
- Volumetric clouds now affect the light within the world: Sun and Moon in the sky can be blocked by clouds, and the density and quantity of cloud coverage depend on the weather. It will be darker depending on how covered the sky is.
- Lunar Cycles progress per day: The Moon can progress from a New Moon to a Full Moon within Sapphire. We are still deciding on how long it will take to do so, as a major event will happen island-wide on a Full Moon.
- Day Tracking: Sapphire now has a 7-day cycle Monday - Sunday. Currently, this does not mean much, but updates to the bounty system along with the hotly anticipated intimacy update which adds in a variety of predator-related fail states, skipping days, or running out of time for objectives will be something that can happen. Island events can now also be tied to a specific day and time. To help with this a new UI system has been created, our goal is to include a lot of details in the system, so feedback on readability would be very much appreciated.
Music
A nice quality update coming in v021 is the music system and musical tracks made just for this game. We will be launching the early access game with 6ish tracks that will bring a lot of charm and vibes to Sapphire Island. These include:
- Intro: a track for the Intro and Loading Screens of Sapphire Safari, likely to be added to trailers and promo media.
- Day and Night exploration tracks: Music that plays during normal exploration of the island during the Day and Night.
- Menu: a track for when the player activates the menu or submits photos.
- Stealth: a track that plays when the player enters Stealth or begins exploring a Nest.
- ???: a special tack that happens and so be sure to keep your ears open for it.
Scoring
The elephant in the room is our scoring system. We needed to very much overhaul what goes into a photo score, and be able to score photos differently depending on the application. For example, a close-up of an open vagina wont score well for a monpedia entry, but it will score very high for a bounty asking for a bunny girl vagina close-up. To do this we have created a color masking system, this means that the model's parts we want to track are colored, and a mask is used to filter out what the camera can and cannot see as a photo is taken. This leads to accurate identification of just what is inside a photo, meaning we can start to score photos better.
The basic rules are as follows:
- the more pixels are visible for a region, the more visible that region is.
- if we cannot see particular regions we can score things differently: Close-ups of faces can be scored differently than a full body shot, and a photo that considers landscapes applies scores for good use of the Rule of Thirds.
- for gameplay purposes, scores will be capped to a B+ unless the player takes a photo of the Perfect Point or PP of that particular animation. Hitting a PP on a drinking animation allows the photo to be scored much higher. Gameplay systems will be added to help the player identify the PP points.
- exclusions on animations now affect scoring: you cannot get a picture of a fox tail when they are drinking and have it be considered a drinking animation. Now a character will be excluded completely unless they have some of the scored areas visible in the frame.
Peepin' n' Sneakin'
Hello explorers! Welcome to another patch day for Sapphire Safari. Version 020 is about stealth, and getting proper feedback for sneaking around the island. Lets get into it.
As hinted in the last two dev blogs we have been working on getting the UX and UI for stealth feedback working and feeling solid. The way monsters react to you needed to be completely reworked to make the system we will be launching today which is why it took us a little longer than expected to get everything together. Here is the breakdown of how it all functions: [olist] Monsters will now react to the player as they enter their awareness radius.
The closer you get to a monster the faster they will be made aware of you.
Crouching, sprinting, being spotted, and entering hiding areas will all affect the speed at which they will be made aware.
Walking over a noise maker (stepping on a branch, etc) will immediately alert all surrounding monsters.
Once the monsters awareness meter is full, it enters a searching state, and will attempt to visually locate the threat it feels exists.
If the player enters the eyesight of the monster after they start searching the alert meter will begin to fill very quickly.
Once the alert meter is full the monster will react with a loud shock, this will alert monsters within earshot to your presence.
[/olist]
This UI of the awareness/alerted states will not show up within photos you take, so no need to worry about their presentation affecting your photo scores. Here are some other tips you should know about.
We overhauled the submission UI for photos, allowing for a cleaner breakdown of the photo submission process. Simply choose which monster girl you want to submit for and it will show off what photo categories are currently applicable. We will be adding a whole lot more categories in the future, so this should help keep it all user-friendly and clean.
There has recently been a Unreal Engine 5 update making DX12 performance a lot nicer, on modern machines we are looking at roughly 20 frames increase by using DX12 as a renderer. So as of v020 Sapphire Safari is using DX12 as the default rendering solution. Meaning if you have an older system you will need to launch the game with one of the included .bat files which is included in the main directory for the game installation. Please use either DX11 or Vulkan.
[ 2024-01-27 16:36:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v020 release post for early adopters over on Itch and GOG.
Hello explorers! Welcome to another patch day for Sapphire Safari. Version 020 is about stealth, and getting proper feedback for sneaking around the island. Lets get into it.
Stealth and UX
As hinted in the last two dev blogs we have been working on getting the UX and UI for stealth feedback working and feeling solid. The way monsters react to you needed to be completely reworked to make the system we will be launching today which is why it took us a little longer than expected to get everything together. Here is the breakdown of how it all functions: [olist]
This UI of the awareness/alerted states will not show up within photos you take, so no need to worry about their presentation affecting your photo scores. Here are some other tips you should know about.
- Entering bushes will hide you from any monster girl becoming aware of you.
- Monsters will revert to a normal state if you remain hidden for long enough.
- While there are only vocal recordings for the Rabbit creature, alerting any species will alert surrounding monster girls.
- Currently thrown tools do not create sounds monsters react to, this will change in future patches.
Photo Submission
We overhauled the submission UI for photos, allowing for a cleaner breakdown of the photo submission process. Simply choose which monster girl you want to submit for and it will show off what photo categories are currently applicable. We will be adding a whole lot more categories in the future, so this should help keep it all user-friendly and clean.
DirectX 12 Default
There has recently been a Unreal Engine 5 update making DX12 performance a lot nicer, on modern machines we are looking at roughly 20 frames increase by using DX12 as a renderer. So as of v020 Sapphire Safari is using DX12 as the default rendering solution. Meaning if you have an older system you will need to launch the game with one of the included .bat files which is included in the main directory for the game installation. Please use either DX11 or Vulkan.
Changelog v020
- Added new Stealth system
- Added awareness UI indicators
- Changed species behavior to match the Stealth system
- Set DirectX 12 as the default RHI
- Added improved Photo Submission UI
- Improved Camera Shutter delay time for photo tagging consistency
- Overhauled island water systems
- Improved shadow-based performance
- Fixed Hoereno wool patterns loading issues
- Fixed Hoereno wool colors
- Fixed Hoereno penis texture loading issues
- Added Nest/Burrows environment to Plains
- Added environmental narrative props to Plains
- Added new Guidebook UI elements
- Various UI cleanup
Sapphire Documents Issue 014
A big sticking point for me personally (hi, me, being the director), was the reactivity to the player's presence in the world and the feedback for that reactivity. Anyone whos played a stealth game would know, that user feedback on enemies awareness is crucial to making movement-based decisions. And that is no different in Sapphire as well. Getting seen means losing out on that perfect shot, or being pounced. First, how the monster girls see.
It might seem a little confusing, but red lines represent their eyeballs, what they see. Blue lines are their peripheral vision, which would alert them to something new in their space to investigate. Green shows the blockage of peripheral vision, which if investigated is also blocking standard vision. This is important to know as being seen changes how the monster girls react. Coming into a radius of any girl will begin filling in a bar that will change their awareness state. We call this their Sixth Sense or innate ability to feel something unusual within their surroundings. The charging increases faster if the following happens:
Once the awareness has been fully charged, the monster girl will enter a curiosity mode, in which she will search for the player, respond to new sound stimuli, and attempt to confirm their suspicions. Being spotting in this mode will very quickly fill the new bar, and once the curiosity mode fills up the monster girl will react to the shocking revelation she was not alone. Any visual confirmation before the state change wont affect them other than speed up the state change. Naturally, this is all subject to further testing, but the vibe inside the game has completely changed. Which brings us to our next point. What creativity this has created in the team.
Now that there is a functional stealth system with a decent amount of player feedback we can move on to building systems to reflect the new mechanics. Enter, nests. Previously each species of monster girl in Sapphire Safari had a designated sleeping space, meaning once you found it, you just visited those locations, and SNAP you got your picture. Now, you need to not only find their nest, but you need to sneak in, stealth around, find their sleeping space, and take photos. We are also adding in way more side activities, things like collectible items, species-specific orgy animations, and a case that would mark the nest as cleared for game statistics.
The key issue is that if youre spotted, youd be thrown out and would need to wait a full day for the nest to be active again. Each species would get something unique about their spaces.
These are being built out right now, but I dont expect them to be functional for a bit of time.
Now for extra future content, let's talk about the new photo submission UX changes, which are coming in v021. Setting aside the process for scoring which is being overhauled, the process for submitting photos has changed. Each monster girl within a photo that has a registered icon above their head (a grey box) signifying they are within range can now be independently scored. During the submission process, you just pick which girl you wanna submit for, clicking will then show which categories are currently available. By default, the girl who is pulling the focus (the yellow box), will be open.
Which leaves one big thing on the table. The OVERALL photo score. In the example above, the Sheep has a D, the snake has a C- and the photo itself has a C- score. So, in the future, you could have a closeup of a fox butt that, for the fox would be a great photo. For a photo itself would be a C+. Does that make sense? This is pushing us into the next step, which is to make photo submission categories for regions. Much like how Monpedia is for girls with wobbly bits, the region category is for, well, the regions. For the current dev focus that means the plains area. But the full game will have at least 5 total regions to pick from. Within this new category will be the top regional photos that hold no scientific value, along with event sites, side areas, map-specific photos, etc.
So, the official script for the Plains region has now been completed! Woo! The total is just under 5,500 words, all of which will be fully voiced by two main characters, and two supporting NPCs. If you include the already recorded dialogue for the hidden Expedition Logs (5,000 words) we have roughly 10,500 words, all of it is fully voiced. I would also say that depending on the main character you choose youll get a decent amount of variation in the dialogue as well, but some will be repeated. So the total recordings for the plains area is going to be about 13,000 words in total. Not a bad number! Currently, the vocal work is being done, and once the raws have been submitted I will be sharing some of the combined work for the game. Exciting stuff!
Lastly, I wanted to touch on the work being done for the upcoming intimacy patch for Sapphire Safari. This is the long-awaited update that will overhaul how sex works in the game, so let me go over our plans for it as it stands. Keep in mind it might change as we develop it all, mostly around the game feel and vibe. But here are the general ideas. Predator hunting: The basic idea is that during all times of gameplay, a few of the species will have predators active and roaming the region. These are different from the director AI spawns in that they act more like players than normal monsters. They will hunt down targets for sexual conquest, with a deviation for the players themselves. The goal is first to stalk, then pounce on the target, forcing them into very aggressive 1 on 1 sexual encounter. Here are a few examples of the animations.
Physical Plants: We showed these off before, but they work like traps. Get too close they release tentacles and go to work.
Spore Plants: These are new, much like the physical versions, you get too close, and they spew spores in a cloud. Being caught in them as a player changes how they walk, if monster girls get caught in them they will enter a horny/feral mode and begin to seek out pleasure and sex.
The other content, namely the Player X Player stuff, and the familiarity scenes will come at a later date. This is more gameplay specific focused, as opposed to reward-focused. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Okay! That is it for now, thank you all for reading, we will continue to work on things and get it all dialed in. We hope you all are excited for things to come!
[ 2024-01-15 15:04:21 CET ] [ Original post ]
Wassup explorers! Welcome to another behind-the-scenes on Sapphire Safari! Today we are going to go over all the changes we are making to the Stealth and Photo submission changes expected to come out in Builds v020 and v021 while giving a few more hints at the highly anticipated v022 and v023 builds that deal with sex and narrative. Lessgoooo!
Stealth and Gamefeel
A big sticking point for me personally (hi, me, being the director), was the reactivity to the player's presence in the world and the feedback for that reactivity. Anyone whos played a stealth game would know, that user feedback on enemies awareness is crucial to making movement-based decisions. And that is no different in Sapphire as well. Getting seen means losing out on that perfect shot, or being pounced. First, how the monster girls see.
It might seem a little confusing, but red lines represent their eyeballs, what they see. Blue lines are their peripheral vision, which would alert them to something new in their space to investigate. Green shows the blockage of peripheral vision, which if investigated is also blocking standard vision. This is important to know as being seen changes how the monster girls react. Coming into a radius of any girl will begin filling in a bar that will change their awareness state. We call this their Sixth Sense or innate ability to feel something unusual within their surroundings. The charging increases faster if the following happens:
- The player moves closer to the monster girl.
- The player enters visual areas projected from the monster girl.
- The player makes noise (running, noise maker, etc).
- The player enters a hidden area (bushes) and does not move.
- The player exits the awareness radius.
- The player uses a tool to assist with their stealth.
Once the awareness has been fully charged, the monster girl will enter a curiosity mode, in which she will search for the player, respond to new sound stimuli, and attempt to confirm their suspicions. Being spotting in this mode will very quickly fill the new bar, and once the curiosity mode fills up the monster girl will react to the shocking revelation she was not alone. Any visual confirmation before the state change wont affect them other than speed up the state change. Naturally, this is all subject to further testing, but the vibe inside the game has completely changed. Which brings us to our next point. What creativity this has created in the team.
Nests
Now that there is a functional stealth system with a decent amount of player feedback we can move on to building systems to reflect the new mechanics. Enter, nests. Previously each species of monster girl in Sapphire Safari had a designated sleeping space, meaning once you found it, you just visited those locations, and SNAP you got your picture. Now, you need to not only find their nest, but you need to sneak in, stealth around, find their sleeping space, and take photos. We are also adding in way more side activities, things like collectible items, species-specific orgy animations, and a case that would mark the nest as cleared for game statistics.
The key issue is that if youre spotted, youd be thrown out and would need to wait a full day for the nest to be active again. Each species would get something unique about their spaces.
These are being built out right now, but I dont expect them to be functional for a bit of time.
Photo Submission
Now for extra future content, let's talk about the new photo submission UX changes, which are coming in v021. Setting aside the process for scoring which is being overhauled, the process for submitting photos has changed. Each monster girl within a photo that has a registered icon above their head (a grey box) signifying they are within range can now be independently scored. During the submission process, you just pick which girl you wanna submit for, clicking will then show which categories are currently available. By default, the girl who is pulling the focus (the yellow box), will be open.
Which leaves one big thing on the table. The OVERALL photo score. In the example above, the Sheep has a D, the snake has a C- and the photo itself has a C- score. So, in the future, you could have a closeup of a fox butt that, for the fox would be a great photo. For a photo itself would be a C+. Does that make sense? This is pushing us into the next step, which is to make photo submission categories for regions. Much like how Monpedia is for girls with wobbly bits, the region category is for, well, the regions. For the current dev focus that means the plains area. But the full game will have at least 5 total regions to pick from. Within this new category will be the top regional photos that hold no scientific value, along with event sites, side areas, map-specific photos, etc.
Narrative
So, the official script for the Plains region has now been completed! Woo! The total is just under 5,500 words, all of which will be fully voiced by two main characters, and two supporting NPCs. If you include the already recorded dialogue for the hidden Expedition Logs (5,000 words) we have roughly 10,500 words, all of it is fully voiced. I would also say that depending on the main character you choose youll get a decent amount of variation in the dialogue as well, but some will be repeated. So the total recordings for the plains area is going to be about 13,000 words in total. Not a bad number! Currently, the vocal work is being done, and once the raws have been submitted I will be sharing some of the combined work for the game. Exciting stuff!
Aggressive Hand Holding
Lastly, I wanted to touch on the work being done for the upcoming intimacy patch for Sapphire Safari. This is the long-awaited update that will overhaul how sex works in the game, so let me go over our plans for it as it stands. Keep in mind it might change as we develop it all, mostly around the game feel and vibe. But here are the general ideas. Predator hunting: The basic idea is that during all times of gameplay, a few of the species will have predators active and roaming the region. These are different from the director AI spawns in that they act more like players than normal monsters. They will hunt down targets for sexual conquest, with a deviation for the players themselves. The goal is first to stalk, then pounce on the target, forcing them into very aggressive 1 on 1 sexual encounter. Here are a few examples of the animations.
Physical Plants: We showed these off before, but they work like traps. Get too close they release tentacles and go to work.
Spore Plants: These are new, much like the physical versions, you get too close, and they spew spores in a cloud. Being caught in them as a player changes how they walk, if monster girls get caught in them they will enter a horny/feral mode and begin to seek out pleasure and sex.
The other content, namely the Player X Player stuff, and the familiarity scenes will come at a later date. This is more gameplay specific focused, as opposed to reward-focused. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Okay! That is it for now, thank you all for reading, we will continue to work on things and get it all dialed in. We hope you all are excited for things to come!
Focused Spawns
Hello explorers! Welcome to another Sapphire Safari patch! With Christmas right around the corner, we crushed hard to ensure this build was in your hands sooner, rather than later. Lets dive into what's new!
As I explained in the previous Sapphire Documents issue, we have changed how players control their trusty camera and created a few new QOL tools to help snap the perfect photo. First though, a disclaimer. You can no longer take several photos within a quick amount of time. What does that mean? Well, as developers we have an ideal way we want our players to interface with Sapphire Safari, our goal is to have players focus on stealth, making them more into peeping toms. The world needs to react around the player's presence and make it difficult to take photos, unless they are hidden and out of sight. So the first push toward that ideal comes in the form of a Photo Frame Buffer. This is a set time that the camera needs to process the last photo taken. Currently in v019 players can take two photos quickly before the camera needs to charge. In later builds we might reduce it further, once the player has an option to upgrade the camera capabilities. These two icons on the bottom of the screen show how many photos you can take, they independently recharge, and the UI will hide itself after.
Next, we have removed the delayed focus in favor of manually selecting a target to focus on, this can be done with the Q button. To make this a viable feature we also added grey boxes around the heads of NPC within the viable scoring distance, this way you can visualize just what Monster Girls the photo will count for.
Lastly, we have added two additional features using an analysis mechanic. A full map tracking system and a photo comparison mechanic. To use both, simply select the target using the focus pull button Q and hold down the Analyze button.
This will compare the current animation the NPC is doing and the Variant to the photos already submitted in the Monpedia for the General and Variant tabs. Mating will come later, but the icon has been added all the same. Next, the NPC can be tracked for a limited time. A new icon is added to the Compass and the Map function.
The last big feature added to the game is the spawn director, for more details on how this works be sure to read the Sapphire Documents Issue 013, but the basic gist is that instead of a map-wide spawning system with nearly 100 simultaneous NPCs roaming and using system resources for pathfinding and needs, we now spawn the NPCs directly around the player as the needs are met. The player wont be able to see the seams of the system which is nice but it should drastically improve system resource use and make the world feel way more alive.
A few more things to note: [olist] New nests were added for the Rabbit, Sheep, Deer, Bat, Wolf, and Fox species. The use cases for these are still being tweaked so expect some odd behaviours around them.
Malous spawn puzzle foundation added to the plains region. More on this later, but you might see and hear some interesting things around the plains at night.
NPC sensitivity tweaks for the upcoming stealth overhaul patch, the girls just react a lot faster to sounds you make. Just keep that in mind for this patch.
Running is now a toggle instead of a hold, this is for our controller users out there. No more claw hold.
[/olist]
[ 2023-12-22 17:34:10 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v019 release post for early adopters over on Itch and GOG.
Hello explorers! Welcome to another Sapphire Safari patch! With Christmas right around the corner, we crushed hard to ensure this build was in your hands sooner, rather than later. Lets dive into what's new!
A new Focus
As I explained in the previous Sapphire Documents issue, we have changed how players control their trusty camera and created a few new QOL tools to help snap the perfect photo. First though, a disclaimer. You can no longer take several photos within a quick amount of time. What does that mean? Well, as developers we have an ideal way we want our players to interface with Sapphire Safari, our goal is to have players focus on stealth, making them more into peeping toms. The world needs to react around the player's presence and make it difficult to take photos, unless they are hidden and out of sight. So the first push toward that ideal comes in the form of a Photo Frame Buffer. This is a set time that the camera needs to process the last photo taken. Currently in v019 players can take two photos quickly before the camera needs to charge. In later builds we might reduce it further, once the player has an option to upgrade the camera capabilities. These two icons on the bottom of the screen show how many photos you can take, they independently recharge, and the UI will hide itself after.
Next, we have removed the delayed focus in favor of manually selecting a target to focus on, this can be done with the Q button. To make this a viable feature we also added grey boxes around the heads of NPC within the viable scoring distance, this way you can visualize just what Monster Girls the photo will count for.
Lastly, we have added two additional features using an analysis mechanic. A full map tracking system and a photo comparison mechanic. To use both, simply select the target using the focus pull button Q and hold down the Analyze button.
This will compare the current animation the NPC is doing and the Variant to the photos already submitted in the Monpedia for the General and Variant tabs. Mating will come later, but the icon has been added all the same. Next, the NPC can be tracked for a limited time. A new icon is added to the Compass and the Map function.
Directed for higher Frames
The last big feature added to the game is the spawn director, for more details on how this works be sure to read the Sapphire Documents Issue 013, but the basic gist is that instead of a map-wide spawning system with nearly 100 simultaneous NPCs roaming and using system resources for pathfinding and needs, we now spawn the NPCs directly around the player as the needs are met. The player wont be able to see the seams of the system which is nice but it should drastically improve system resource use and make the world feel way more alive.
Other Extras
A few more things to note: [olist]
Changelog v019:
- Added new Spawn Director.
- Added Photo Frame Buffer to photo UX.
- Added new Photo-scoring animation.
- Added Analyze tool to Camera functions.
- Added Tracking tool to Camera functions.
- Added Target identification to Camera functions.
- Added Manual Focus Pull to Camera functions.
- Changed Monster sound radius size.
- Added Monster tracking for SFX spawn on the player.
- Added Monster Nests for Rabbit, Sheep, Deer, Bat, Wolf, and Fox species.
- Added Malous Spawn environment puzzle foundation.
- Added new sightline props to border Plains regions.
- Removed compass from submission UI.
- Swapped Sprinting state to toggle instead of hold.
Sapphire Documents Issue 013
This patch is all about creating what we are calling the Spawn Director. Previously Sapphire was set into a bunch of zones, if the player entered the zone the game would spawn mobs and they would constantly be zoning in and out of existence. This also chewed up a lot of system resources to populate the world, and if you ran fast enough you could beat the spawning and see monsters falling from the sky as the game attempted to catch up. With the director it is all different now and based on a radius around the player.
We have two classifications for Mon spawns now, a close radius and a far radius. The closer spawns automatically populate Smart Objects on the map, so youll round a corner and a monster girl will be picking fruits, dancing, jumping around, talking to another girl, etc. The far spawns are for Mons walking around and spawn at a distance from the player, it's always in the direction the player is currently moving. Once the player turns around and heads in another direction, the monster girls you cannot see are removed from the world, and new spawns are populated with the same logic above. What previously was close to 40 spawns, is now about 8 or 10. However, the world feels the same in terms of population. This however does not stop the player from finding a girl they like and tracking her movements. As of now the girls after completing a Smart Object task will roam to bigger distances. So if you like a snake girl, and you follow that same girl she will roam the world, and the director will populate the space around you and her. Since the director is smart enough to know what girls youve taken an interest in.
Next on the list is the new focus, analysis, and tracking system for the Camera. The previous system had the player waiting for the autofocus to lock on, and after doing so would pull the focus to the player. A lot of you guys did not enjoy this interaction so we have swapped it to a new system instead. First, let me detail our goal for camera interactions. The goal is to force players into choosing when to take photos, as opposed to quickly taking several photos all at once. The slow-pulling autofocus was our first attempt at this. Our new system fixes several points of confusion. Players never knew when a Monster girl would be included in a photo, the new system automatically adds a grey box around Monsters that meet the minimum distance requirements.
The player had to focus on one creature for a long time, but could never place that creature in other parts of the photo, leading to center of the screen type photos. This new system allows the player to quickly cycle through each Monster within range within the viewfinder and choose who is pulling focus.
Focusing so long on a Monster girl would lead to a good photo, but now that we do not need the long focus time players do not spend time trying to take a good photo. To fix this we now have an Analyze Monster system. To do this simply look at a Monster girl, start analyzing her, and when the bar fills up youll get some data from it.
The first set is feedback on whether the photo youre about to take is something you have already submitted, if it is new youll get a ! icon for the category, if it's replacing something youll see the current score of the submitted photo. This matches the three categories for the Monpedia General, Mating, Variants.
The other thing you get is the Monster girl is tracked in the world for a brief period, she will also be visible on the Map Screen as well.
Lastly, we come back to the issue at hand, slowing down photography to be more skillful, quality over quantity. To do this we have implemented something the older fanbase might know, photo processing. Basically, you take a photo, and it takes a couple of seconds before you can take another. We have also added a photo animation to show this working along with a CPU icon on the viewfinder UI to show a recharge happening. As you play the game the goal is to give more CPU upgrades allowing for more photos to be taken before a charge is needed.
Our first iteration for sleeping positions in Sapphire was a bit awkward. We have taken some time to update the Plains map to include home or burrow locations for each of the species. This means at that species allocated sleeping time they will be found there snoozing away together in the safety of a group.
Naturally, every species will get a location like this on the map, so finding where they sleep and snapping a few candid shots will be key to completing the Monpedia. Okay, time for future patch stuff!
First off we have completed the first round of vocal recording work for the audio logs found around the map and within main quests. Here is a sample of the first audio log you can find in the game. Just click the image below or right here to hear the sample.
The cast did a fantastic job on getting everything done, so far we have about 40 minutes of audio to add into the game, which is about 20ish audio logs to find around the environment and via quests.
We have been working on putting a few spicey environmental traps around the map which both the player and Monster girls can fall prey to. The first is a plant that will look just like any other plant, but venture too close and youll become its prey.
The vine limbs they have along with a tongue will be used in a whole manner of ways, being grabbed like this will be the first failure state players will encounter in the game, leading to a loss of time. Several hours locked in the clutches of this horny plant.
We are also working on a plant that will erupt in a cloud of lust spores, sending everyone into a sex frenzy similar to how the lust bomb works. Being caught in this won't be as bad as the vines for the player, but they will feel a loss of control. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ So that about wraps it up. We are finalizing the next patch at the moment, so please expect that very soon.
[ 2023-12-13 15:11:03 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello explorers! Welcome to another issue of Sapphire Documents. Today we are going to go over what will be in the next patch which we are finalizing right now, along with content being developed for future patches. Up first is the stuff for v019
Spawn Director
This patch is all about creating what we are calling the Spawn Director. Previously Sapphire was set into a bunch of zones, if the player entered the zone the game would spawn mobs and they would constantly be zoning in and out of existence. This also chewed up a lot of system resources to populate the world, and if you ran fast enough you could beat the spawning and see monsters falling from the sky as the game attempted to catch up. With the director it is all different now and based on a radius around the player.
We have two classifications for Mon spawns now, a close radius and a far radius. The closer spawns automatically populate Smart Objects on the map, so youll round a corner and a monster girl will be picking fruits, dancing, jumping around, talking to another girl, etc. The far spawns are for Mons walking around and spawn at a distance from the player, it's always in the direction the player is currently moving. Once the player turns around and heads in another direction, the monster girls you cannot see are removed from the world, and new spawns are populated with the same logic above. What previously was close to 40 spawns, is now about 8 or 10. However, the world feels the same in terms of population. This however does not stop the player from finding a girl they like and tracking her movements. As of now the girls after completing a Smart Object task will roam to bigger distances. So if you like a snake girl, and you follow that same girl she will roam the world, and the director will populate the space around you and her. Since the director is smart enough to know what girls youve taken an interest in.
Camera Tools and Focus
Next on the list is the new focus, analysis, and tracking system for the Camera. The previous system had the player waiting for the autofocus to lock on, and after doing so would pull the focus to the player. A lot of you guys did not enjoy this interaction so we have swapped it to a new system instead. First, let me detail our goal for camera interactions. The goal is to force players into choosing when to take photos, as opposed to quickly taking several photos all at once. The slow-pulling autofocus was our first attempt at this. Our new system fixes several points of confusion. Players never knew when a Monster girl would be included in a photo, the new system automatically adds a grey box around Monsters that meet the minimum distance requirements.
The player had to focus on one creature for a long time, but could never place that creature in other parts of the photo, leading to center of the screen type photos. This new system allows the player to quickly cycle through each Monster within range within the viewfinder and choose who is pulling focus.
Focusing so long on a Monster girl would lead to a good photo, but now that we do not need the long focus time players do not spend time trying to take a good photo. To fix this we now have an Analyze Monster system. To do this simply look at a Monster girl, start analyzing her, and when the bar fills up youll get some data from it.
The first set is feedback on whether the photo youre about to take is something you have already submitted, if it is new youll get a ! icon for the category, if it's replacing something youll see the current score of the submitted photo. This matches the three categories for the Monpedia General, Mating, Variants.
The other thing you get is the Monster girl is tracked in the world for a brief period, she will also be visible on the Map Screen as well.
Lastly, we come back to the issue at hand, slowing down photography to be more skillful, quality over quantity. To do this we have implemented something the older fanbase might know, photo processing. Basically, you take a photo, and it takes a couple of seconds before you can take another. We have also added a photo animation to show this working along with a CPU icon on the viewfinder UI to show a recharge happening. As you play the game the goal is to give more CPU upgrades allowing for more photos to be taken before a charge is needed.
Sleeping Burrows
Our first iteration for sleeping positions in Sapphire was a bit awkward. We have taken some time to update the Plains map to include home or burrow locations for each of the species. This means at that species allocated sleeping time they will be found there snoozing away together in the safety of a group.
Naturally, every species will get a location like this on the map, so finding where they sleep and snapping a few candid shots will be key to completing the Monpedia. Okay, time for future patch stuff!
Narrative
First off we have completed the first round of vocal recording work for the audio logs found around the map and within main quests. Here is a sample of the first audio log you can find in the game. Just click the image below or right here to hear the sample.
The cast did a fantastic job on getting everything done, so far we have about 40 minutes of audio to add into the game, which is about 20ish audio logs to find around the environment and via quests.
Lewd Content
We have been working on putting a few spicey environmental traps around the map which both the player and Monster girls can fall prey to. The first is a plant that will look just like any other plant, but venture too close and youll become its prey.
The vine limbs they have along with a tongue will be used in a whole manner of ways, being grabbed like this will be the first failure state players will encounter in the game, leading to a loss of time. Several hours locked in the clutches of this horny plant.
We are also working on a plant that will erupt in a cloud of lust spores, sending everyone into a sex frenzy similar to how the lust bomb works. Being caught in this won't be as bad as the vines for the player, but they will feel a loss of control. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ So that about wraps it up. We are finalizing the next patch at the moment, so please expect that very soon.
Monster Guide
Hello explorers! Welcome to another phat build of Sapphire Safari! Version 018 took us WAY longer than we ever could anticipate, reasons I'll go into later in the post. The highlights? We have a metric assload of new general animations, thousands of interactable points for monster girls, new AI systems, new photo goals, and tracking systems. I kid you not, this patch was a huge labor of love, and now it is time to share it all with you!
The biggest feedback our players have given us is directly related to the input and feedback systems related to goal tracking and overall completion. It was always our goal to make this immediately visible to players, and now we are very close to that goal. The Guide Book is the new way to interact with all completion-related goals, in this patch we focused entirely on the Monpedia experience. This means we have a system for making discoveries of Monster Girls, tracking the photos you have taken of them, and learning more about their biographies and habits.
Finding discoveries is easy, simply use your camera and collect proof! Anything undiscovered is listed in the Monpedia as a silhouette so be sure to catSNAP them all!
Each species will also have its own full tracking goal to complete. 9 photos for the General Tab and all their Variations of fur/skin/scale colors are now goals the player can view and submit for.
The General category of the Monpedia was our first overhaul for the patch. Within it, players will need to submit the best-scored photo possible for each type of behavior for every species of Monster Girl. The behaviors added in this patch are the following:
We also put together the Variation category as well, within this section players are tasked with taking the best-scored photo showing off the unique patterns and colors of each species! Depending on the species, some may have more varieties than others.
Depending on the photo taken, along with what species of Monster Girl is visible a single photo can now be used for several photo slots. It is up to the player to decide on where the photo is best used for maximum effect!
To achieve all this, it took a huge amount of work, first the AI system was completely overhauled, and the AI now is given a job to do and it does it. The previous system of an NPC having needs and hunger was just not sustainable. Couple this with a new spawning system in a future patch and the player will be discovering new and exciting things around every corner and behind every rock!
The largest improvement we have made to date for the look of Sapphire Safari is within this patch. Previously our game had a baked lighting model, with zero shadows. It seemed okay on the surface but our new build in v018 has a fully dynamic shadow and lighting system! In my honest opinion, the lighting adds a whole new level of detail to Sapphire, the sun and moon both illuminate the world and cast shadows over the map. Also, because the new system might be a little intense for lower-end systems, turning off shadows now actually turns it off, improving performance by a considerable amount.
The Map and UI have received another push, this time to make it more readable and to combine the aesthetics into one design direction. The map is one of the bigger fixes, it now sits within a scaled window, and the same stylings are applied to the system.
One of the biggest unavoidable Frame Rate drops for Sapphire was the use of the camera, entering the viewfinder or ADS (aiming down sight) used to have a blurring effect applied to the outside of the reticle. We have since dropped the system in favor of a nice blur texture, the improvement in framerate is significant. Along with the removal of the viewfinder camera casting on the hip of the player, this patch will see massive FPS improvements across all systems.
Alas, we come to one of the downsides to focusing on new updates like this. It means that we have outdated all existing progress and photo submissions for Sapphire Safari. In order to make sure that as we patch going forward we will be introducing a mandatory save file wipe per patch. Basically, you will need to start a fresh save for each update we have, once we have all the mechanics in place we will make sure saves are perfect moving forward. Having said that, the game will automatically archive all the photos youve taken on a previous build, so they won't be usable in the game, but you will still have those photos on your computers. We have also taken steps to add in config file versioning as well, this means if our system is using a new config setup, and the local copy on a customer's PC does not match, it will reset the local version. This is to stop things like rebindings being wonky, or any system settings getting overhauled and causing issues. You will need to set up any unique configurations again, however, you will be warned in the game when it happens.
Some of our more hardcore audience have expressed the desire to have their excessive monitor real estate supported within Sapphire Safari, so we have added a bunch of fixes and settings tools to support massive monitor resolutions, including UI framing and FOV sliders.
Monpedia Overhaul
With this massive step out of the way, what do future patches look like for Sapphire Safari? Well, the very next patch we will be doing will focus on the Camera Scoring system. This means we will now be able to check every single creature in a photo, score each creature individually, and create a new user flow for submitting photos with multiple species within. Camera Scoring update > Spawner overhaul update > Sex and Intimacy update > Research Level rewards > Narrative update (perhaps) We aim to make the next couple of patches much faster than what the Monpedia General patch took, but who knows what we will run into. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Thanks for your patience!
[ 2023-11-23 16:10:33 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v018 release post for early adopters over on Itch and GOG.
Hello explorers! Welcome to another phat build of Sapphire Safari! Version 018 took us WAY longer than we ever could anticipate, reasons I'll go into later in the post. The highlights? We have a metric assload of new general animations, thousands of interactable points for monster girls, new AI systems, new photo goals, and tracking systems. I kid you not, this patch was a huge labor of love, and now it is time to share it all with you!
Every Mon a Goal
The biggest feedback our players have given us is directly related to the input and feedback systems related to goal tracking and overall completion. It was always our goal to make this immediately visible to players, and now we are very close to that goal. The Guide Book is the new way to interact with all completion-related goals, in this patch we focused entirely on the Monpedia experience. This means we have a system for making discoveries of Monster Girls, tracking the photos you have taken of them, and learning more about their biographies and habits.
Finding discoveries is easy, simply use your camera and collect proof! Anything undiscovered is listed in the Monpedia as a silhouette so be sure to catSNAP them all!
Each species will also have its own full tracking goal to complete. 9 photos for the General Tab and all their Variations of fur/skin/scale colors are now goals the player can view and submit for.
The General category of the Monpedia was our first overhaul for the patch. Within it, players will need to submit the best-scored photo possible for each type of behavior for every species of Monster Girl. The behaviors added in this patch are the following:
- Eating: Photos of the target eating and drinking things found in the world.
- Sleeping: Photo of the target sleeping (currently WIP).
- Grooming: Photo of the target bathing, or grooming.
- Socializing: Photo of the target talking/laughing (currently WIP).
- Exercising: Photo of the target stretching, swimming, lifting, running.
- Relaxing: Photo of the target sunbathing, laying against an object, sitting in the sun.
- Playing: Photo of the target dancing, playing tag, and splashing water.
- Curiosity: Photo of the target in a curious state.
- Tool Use: Photo of the target using things either the player dropped or environmental (currently missing and WIP).
We also put together the Variation category as well, within this section players are tasked with taking the best-scored photo showing off the unique patterns and colors of each species! Depending on the species, some may have more varieties than others.
Depending on the photo taken, along with what species of Monster Girl is visible a single photo can now be used for several photo slots. It is up to the player to decide on where the photo is best used for maximum effect!
To achieve all this, it took a huge amount of work, first the AI system was completely overhauled, and the AI now is given a job to do and it does it. The previous system of an NPC having needs and hunger was just not sustainable. Couple this with a new spawning system in a future patch and the player will be discovering new and exciting things around every corner and behind every rock!
Optimizations and Appealing Aesthetics
The largest improvement we have made to date for the look of Sapphire Safari is within this patch. Previously our game had a baked lighting model, with zero shadows. It seemed okay on the surface but our new build in v018 has a fully dynamic shadow and lighting system! In my honest opinion, the lighting adds a whole new level of detail to Sapphire, the sun and moon both illuminate the world and cast shadows over the map. Also, because the new system might be a little intense for lower-end systems, turning off shadows now actually turns it off, improving performance by a considerable amount.
The Map and UI have received another push, this time to make it more readable and to combine the aesthetics into one design direction. The map is one of the bigger fixes, it now sits within a scaled window, and the same stylings are applied to the system.
One of the biggest unavoidable Frame Rate drops for Sapphire was the use of the camera, entering the viewfinder or ADS (aiming down sight) used to have a blurring effect applied to the outside of the reticle. We have since dropped the system in favor of a nice blur texture, the improvement in framerate is significant. Along with the removal of the viewfinder camera casting on the hip of the player, this patch will see massive FPS improvements across all systems.
Save File Versioning
Alas, we come to one of the downsides to focusing on new updates like this. It means that we have outdated all existing progress and photo submissions for Sapphire Safari. In order to make sure that as we patch going forward we will be introducing a mandatory save file wipe per patch. Basically, you will need to start a fresh save for each update we have, once we have all the mechanics in place we will make sure saves are perfect moving forward. Having said that, the game will automatically archive all the photos youve taken on a previous build, so they won't be usable in the game, but you will still have those photos on your computers. We have also taken steps to add in config file versioning as well, this means if our system is using a new config setup, and the local copy on a customer's PC does not match, it will reset the local version. This is to stop things like rebindings being wonky, or any system settings getting overhauled and causing issues. You will need to set up any unique configurations again, however, you will be warned in the game when it happens.
Widescreen and Ultra-Widescreen Support
Some of our more hardcore audience have expressed the desire to have their excessive monitor real estate supported within Sapphire Safari, so we have added a bunch of fixes and settings tools to support massive monitor resolutions, including UI framing and FOV sliders.
Changelog v018:
Monpedia Overhaul
- added guidebook
- added new monpedia format
- replaced photo quests with general photo category
- added variation photo category
- added final names and descriptions for monster species
- added species discovery experience
- replaced scoring stamps in monpedia
- added completion percentage tracking to the guidebook and monpedia
- replaced viewfinder ui for higher performance system
- removed camera screen from hip camera model for higher performance
- added new gameplay tag system for better photo response
- added variation stamp to photo discovery
- added grey stamp for lower par scored new photo discovery
- added landscape focus call to auto focus system
- removed photo output scaling options due to the possibility of overloading vram
- limited photo output to fixed resolutions only (1280x720, 1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160)
- replaced monster needs system with smart object priority system to reduce roaming ai
- added 2500 smart object animation points to the plains
- added simple nighttime behavior and sleeping schedule
- added simple socializing system behavior
- replaced npc and player identification behavior
- fixed map break for bridges
- fixed map break for hotspring
- improved volcano placement
- fixed despawning zone on plains
- swapped duplicate beacon icon for power icon
- changed display text on particular notifications
- added dynamic time-based lighting and shadows
- added time of day information to save file for better resume functionality
- removed transparency from tab menus
- map menu added to hologram aesthetic
- map fow texture replaced
- tab menus placement fixed for better readability
- added system menu options for disabling shadows for performance increase
- fixed head bone alignment on player models for head swivel
- added map reset on resolution change
- fixed softlock on climbing animation interaction
- added save file compatibility system with photo archiving
- added config file compatibility system for settings
- removed the analytic capture system (thank you for the reports, minimum specs have been found due to the data supplied)
- added system setting wizard to systems options
- removed dynamic resolution settings due to issues with map discovery
- created optimizations for integrated graphics systems
- removed depreciated keybindings
- added working fov slider for widescreen and ultra-widescreen systems
- added hud width restrictions for widescreens and ultra-widescreen systems
- corrected missing embellishments for widescreens and ultra-widescreen systems
Future Focus
With this massive step out of the way, what do future patches look like for Sapphire Safari? Well, the very next patch we will be doing will focus on the Camera Scoring system. This means we will now be able to check every single creature in a photo, score each creature individually, and create a new user flow for submitting photos with multiple species within. Camera Scoring update > Spawner overhaul update > Sex and Intimacy update > Research Level rewards > Narrative update (perhaps) We aim to make the next couple of patches much faster than what the Monpedia General patch took, but who knows what we will run into. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Thanks for your patience!
Happy Birthday Sapphire Safari!
[ 2023-09-26 14:50:03 CET ] [ Original post ]
Sapphire Safari has turned 2 years old! She has come leaps and bounds since we started building our game! To celebrate this fantastic happening, and the two years of labor we've poured into the game we have a 50% off sale running for the next four weeks. Get in while you can!
As for a look back, the earliest stuff we have is quite cringy but I figured I would contrast it with the progression of work so you can all see how we started and where we have ended up.
First, let's look at our mascot for the game, our lovely bunny girl!
Originally we wanted a Lola Bunny-type look, but realised it was... erm... not... great. And moved more toward a cuter type of mascot.
The characters in the game swapped around considerably as well, mostly due to our experimentations with the art pipeline and attempting to find a perfect balance so our small team could build all the important things we needed.
The next reference piece is our our game looked and felt overall over the past 18 iterations of releases.
We quickly found our desired look, but the mechanics grew and changed a whole lot.
Sapphire Safari started as an on-rails shooter, moved to a semi-open world on-rails shooter, then became an open-world voxel-based exploration game, moved onto a small semi-open-world shooter, then finally a fully open-world shooter with a focus on calendar events and quests.
The current iteration has found a perfect spot for our team, both in what we can build, and what we want this game to ultimately become. We still have a lot to decide on, specifically around how the end game feels. For now, the motions the player goes through, the overall focus, and the goals the players will have have all been found. I want to thank our lovely community for giving us this chance to experiment and find Sapphire Safari in all our experiments. We hope you'll join us for the final push to a full game!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/
Much love!
Kinky
Bedroom Eyes
Salutations explorers! Welcome to our next patch for Sapphire Safari! Version 017, just a few days after our massive v016 release. So unlike our other patches, this one will be short and sweet, so here we go.
In the last patch, we had to turn off the eyesight for the roaming monster girls on the island, which in turn disabled the stealth mechanics of the game. It added a lot of computation requirements to the game leading to stuttering and just making it unplayable. So this patch includes our new system (instead of using the standing Unreal Engine tech).
Each girl will see roughly 20 meters in front of them, if you hide behind objects they wont be able to spot you. Making noise like running, stepping on noise makers like twigs and branches, or jumping into vegetation like bushes while near the AI will cause them to look around, if they spot you during this time they will react, and then flee.
We have unlocked and lightly developed the missing area of the plains, which previously held a radio beacon you couldnt access. This is now available to explore and the beacon can now be activated.
This patch also includes several fixes to AI and UX. Overhauls some of the problems the save system was encountering holding onto map discovery and such. But here is the full changelog.
[ 2023-09-21 12:17:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v017 release post for early adopters over on Itch.
Salutations explorers! Welcome to our next patch for Sapphire Safari! Version 017, just a few days after our massive v016 release. So unlike our other patches, this one will be short and sweet, so here we go.
AI Eyes and Sightlines
In the last patch, we had to turn off the eyesight for the roaming monster girls on the island, which in turn disabled the stealth mechanics of the game. It added a lot of computation requirements to the game leading to stuttering and just making it unplayable. So this patch includes our new system (instead of using the standing Unreal Engine tech).
Each girl will see roughly 20 meters in front of them, if you hide behind objects they wont be able to spot you. Making noise like running, stepping on noise makers like twigs and branches, or jumping into vegetation like bushes while near the AI will cause them to look around, if they spot you during this time they will react, and then flee.
No Beacon left behind
We have unlocked and lightly developed the missing area of the plains, which previously held a radio beacon you couldnt access. This is now available to explore and the beacon can now be activated.
This patch also includes several fixes to AI and UX. Overhauls some of the problems the save system was encountering holding onto map discovery and such. But here is the full changelog.
- new vision system for girls
- new area on previously locked-off radio beacon
- clipping removed on some rocks in the plains
- wind animation added back to some foliage in the plains
- river barriers now do not block throwable tools
- save system bugs related to the FOW and Map not loading in are fixed
- save system bugs related to beacon activations not loading in are fixed
- bounty computer UI navigation tweaked
- notifications for entering and leaving radio beacon zones added
- photo capture flow bug related to the submission system deactivating on scoring has been fixed
Mystery Island
Hello explorers! As the development team breathes a sigh of relief at the final build of v016 has been completed the task now turns to me to write this - what will likely be a massive - release post. So three and a half months of development time, what exactly did we accomplish? The game you all knew as Sapphire Safari has drastically changed. Gone are the small islands, the core loop map building, and the tiny user flow. In its place is a fully-fledged open-world photography game!
Floating in a currently unannounced area of remote ocean is Sapphire Island, home to a whopping 6 surface-level biomes that the player can (in the entire completed version of the game that is) explore at their leisure. Our focus from now, until our Early Access launch on Steam is the first areathe Plains. Rolling green hills, broken up with a spattering of rocky cairns, home to 9 total species of Monster Girl. The Plains are roughly 1km x .5km in size, offering a decent variety of landscapes and backdrops for photo opportunities.
Some notable areas within the plains are: The flower fields - primarily this will be a spawn location for Monster Girl known as the Bee (released in a future patch). Flowers dominate this area, offering a very colorful backdrop for photos and the like.
The marshlands - another primary area for a water-based predator known as the Crocodile (released in a future patch). The marsh offers a unique place for plains creatures of all sizes to play in the water and bathe.
The wading pools - tucked away in a corner of the Plains biome is the wading pools, a cool and relaxing place to offer a chance of relaxation for the locals.
With a lot more to discover, the basics for the Plains are all in. Future patches will see content growing out of what weve already built, and those looking closely at the environment will be able to spot some exciting developments for the game.
As mentioned above the first biome will be home to a total of 9 species of Monster Girl, v016 however will only feature 6 with three more coming in future updates.
Fox (medium classification) A generally sly predator found within the plains biome, they are most active during the night where they use the night as a cover to find their targets. Snake (medium classification) A predator known for devouring their Prey found within the plains biome. They are most active during the day when the sun's rays warm their blood making them more active. Deer (medium classification) A species found plentiful in the plains biome of Sapphire Island, normally roaming around other deer, they are easy to startle but tend to be less weary of repeated human contact. Sheep (medium classification) A unique species, which can be found sporting a large variety of fur designs and colors. They have a herd mentality, sticking close to other sheep to protect themselves from predators. Bat (small classification) Found primarily at night feasting on fruits. The bat can be found all over the island, while winged, they cannot sustain flight. Rabbit (small classification) A creature of boundless energy, curiosity, and lust. The rabbit can be seen in many varieties across the island.
This is our biggest change from the previous system, now you will need to submit your photos for judging as you fill-up the photo inventory. Just hit X at any time youre within range of a Radio Beacon and the submission process will begin.
Each photo that qualifies for the Species Encyclopedia, Bounties, Main/Side Quests, or Events will be shown with the option to submit that photo once for whatever category it fits into. In some cases youll need to decide which result better suits your needs. This system will be expanded upon in the next coming patches with the Encyclopedia (formally known as Monpedia) upgrades.
For this patch, the AI is quite limited and wont offer many opportunities for cataloging their behaviors. So for this patch, we have turned off Monpedia and focused our energy on turning on V1 of the bounty system.
Found within one of the tents in the Campsite is the bounty computer which will offer the player a chance to find and take randomly generated photo quests. These can be submitted via the photo submission tool and the rewards claimed back at the same terminal.
A massively requested feature, we have taken the time to enable our tutorial system in Sapphire Safari. Hitting particular zones or doing things in the game will sometimes pop up tutorials. These can always be reread in the Escape Pause Menu.
Radio towers are our new gameplay system. The goal here is to extend a network to allow you to upload photos further and further away from your base Campsite. In future versions unmasking new areas of the map will also unveil activities and unexplored sites of interest youll be able to visit.
Currently, the only way to activate the sex system in Sapphire Safari is to throw the lust bomb into monster girls on the island. To do this, hit Q to equip the lust bomb (it looks like a pink ball) and use Mouse 1 to enter aiming mode.
Releasing the button will throw the bomb and instantly activate the sex mode on affected monster girls. Here the new system will be shown, It will take pairings of Futa x Female, Futa x Futa, and Female x Female along with allowing other monster girls to observe the sex happening in front of them. Participants can join and leave as they like, and observers once they are stimulated enough will throw themselves into the orgy happening before them.
The animation loops we are using currently are only a second or two long, and we have more Futa-enabled animations than Female ones, so please keep that in mind. For the best results, you will need to enable a good amount of Futa spawns in your game.
Sapphire Safari now has a fully functional day and night cycle on the island. The entire process takes 1 real-life hour to go from Dawn to Dusk, however, within the Campsite you will have a tool to help skip to your desired time of day.
Right now, the time has no effect on monster spawns or the events around the island. That will change in future patches.
There is now a brand new introduction and character selection cutscene, this intro shows the player being dropped off on the island and shows off the new hologram communication device that will feature in Sapphire Safar along with just a smidge of context for the reasons youre here right now.
Naturally, more narrative is coming, in fact, the entire script for the first biome is 95% done!
There are so many changes and additions to v016 that it would be pointless to list them all, but for those who dont wanna read the small novel above here is the TLDR. Additions:
A massive patch like v016 won't be without its own issues, Here is a list of currently known bugs that will likely affect some players.
Man, what a massive patch this ended up being. Going forward we wont be doing something so intense anymore. The strain it put on us, and the wait time all our supporters had to endure was not something we wanted to take on. Since we are getting closer to our eventual Steam Early Access launch the next few patches will throw away the concept of one a month Instead we will be launching patches the moment new content is ready. So a lot of them will be small upgrades to things, and some might be the inclusion of one new system. The results will bring more time to get feedback on the new stuff faster, and you all will get the content on a higher frequency. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Anyway, I hope you all enjoy v016. A lot of sleepless nights went into this one. Please be sure to send us your feedback! We are eager to know what everyone thinks! Cheers, Kinky
[ 2023-09-14 00:53:22 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is a copy of our v016 release post for early adopters over on Itch.
Hello explorers! As the development team breathes a sigh of relief at the final build of v016 has been completed the task now turns to me to write this - what will likely be a massive - release post. So three and a half months of development time, what exactly did we accomplish? The game you all knew as Sapphire Safari has drastically changed. Gone are the small islands, the core loop map building, and the tiny user flow. In its place is a fully-fledged open-world photography game!
The Island
Floating in a currently unannounced area of remote ocean is Sapphire Island, home to a whopping 6 surface-level biomes that the player can (in the entire completed version of the game that is) explore at their leisure. Our focus from now, until our Early Access launch on Steam is the first areathe Plains. Rolling green hills, broken up with a spattering of rocky cairns, home to 9 total species of Monster Girl. The Plains are roughly 1km x .5km in size, offering a decent variety of landscapes and backdrops for photo opportunities.
Some notable areas within the plains are: The flower fields - primarily this will be a spawn location for Monster Girl known as the Bee (released in a future patch). Flowers dominate this area, offering a very colorful backdrop for photos and the like.
The marshlands - another primary area for a water-based predator known as the Crocodile (released in a future patch). The marsh offers a unique place for plains creatures of all sizes to play in the water and bathe.
The wading pools - tucked away in a corner of the Plains biome is the wading pools, a cool and relaxing place to offer a chance of relaxation for the locals.
With a lot more to discover, the basics for the Plains are all in. Future patches will see content growing out of what weve already built, and those looking closely at the environment will be able to spot some exciting developments for the game.
The Locals
As mentioned above the first biome will be home to a total of 9 species of Monster Girl, v016 however will only feature 6 with three more coming in future updates.
Fox (medium classification) A generally sly predator found within the plains biome, they are most active during the night where they use the night as a cover to find their targets. Snake (medium classification) A predator known for devouring their Prey found within the plains biome. They are most active during the day when the sun's rays warm their blood making them more active. Deer (medium classification) A species found plentiful in the plains biome of Sapphire Island, normally roaming around other deer, they are easy to startle but tend to be less weary of repeated human contact. Sheep (medium classification) A unique species, which can be found sporting a large variety of fur designs and colors. They have a herd mentality, sticking close to other sheep to protect themselves from predators. Bat (small classification) Found primarily at night feasting on fruits. The bat can be found all over the island, while winged, they cannot sustain flight. Rabbit (small classification) A creature of boundless energy, curiosity, and lust. The rabbit can be seen in many varieties across the island.
The Systems
Photo Submission
This is our biggest change from the previous system, now you will need to submit your photos for judging as you fill-up the photo inventory. Just hit X at any time youre within range of a Radio Beacon and the submission process will begin.
Each photo that qualifies for the Species Encyclopedia, Bounties, Main/Side Quests, or Events will be shown with the option to submit that photo once for whatever category it fits into. In some cases youll need to decide which result better suits your needs. This system will be expanded upon in the next coming patches with the Encyclopedia (formally known as Monpedia) upgrades.
Bounties
For this patch, the AI is quite limited and wont offer many opportunities for cataloging their behaviors. So for this patch, we have turned off Monpedia and focused our energy on turning on V1 of the bounty system.
Found within one of the tents in the Campsite is the bounty computer which will offer the player a chance to find and take randomly generated photo quests. These can be submitted via the photo submission tool and the rewards claimed back at the same terminal.
Tutorials
A massively requested feature, we have taken the time to enable our tutorial system in Sapphire Safari. Hitting particular zones or doing things in the game will sometimes pop up tutorials. These can always be reread in the Escape Pause Menu.
Radio Beacons
Radio towers are our new gameplay system. The goal here is to extend a network to allow you to upload photos further and further away from your base Campsite. In future versions unmasking new areas of the map will also unveil activities and unexplored sites of interest youll be able to visit.
Sex and Observers
Currently, the only way to activate the sex system in Sapphire Safari is to throw the lust bomb into monster girls on the island. To do this, hit Q to equip the lust bomb (it looks like a pink ball) and use Mouse 1 to enter aiming mode.
Releasing the button will throw the bomb and instantly activate the sex mode on affected monster girls. Here the new system will be shown, It will take pairings of Futa x Female, Futa x Futa, and Female x Female along with allowing other monster girls to observe the sex happening in front of them. Participants can join and leave as they like, and observers once they are stimulated enough will throw themselves into the orgy happening before them.
The animation loops we are using currently are only a second or two long, and we have more Futa-enabled animations than Female ones, so please keep that in mind. For the best results, you will need to enable a good amount of Futa spawns in your game.
Day/Night Cycle
Sapphire Safari now has a fully functional day and night cycle on the island. The entire process takes 1 real-life hour to go from Dawn to Dusk, however, within the Campsite you will have a tool to help skip to your desired time of day.
Right now, the time has no effect on monster spawns or the events around the island. That will change in future patches.
Early Narrative Tools
There is now a brand new introduction and character selection cutscene, this intro shows the player being dropped off on the island and shows off the new hologram communication device that will feature in Sapphire Safar along with just a smidge of context for the reasons youre here right now.
Naturally, more narrative is coming, in fact, the entire script for the first biome is 95% done!
The Fixes
There are so many changes and additions to v016 that it would be pointless to list them all, but for those who dont wanna read the small novel above here is the TLDR. Additions:
- New island map: Content locked to plains biome.
- Fox monster girl added
- Sheep monster girl added
- Snake monster girl added
- Tutorial system added
- Holowatch system added
- Bounty system added
- 80+ general actions added to the plains biome.
- Day/Night cycle added
- Fog of War added
- Map system added
- GPS system added
- Radio beacon towers added
- Climbing system added
- Futa physics and growth system added
- Stealth system added
- Sound and noise systems added
- 15+ monster girl reactions added
- Hip-bound camera physics system added
- Fast travel system added
- Save system and respawn system enabled
- Rebindings menu bugs fixed
- Throwing animations and camera control fixed
- Player model blurry fov fixed
- Camera ads stutter and shift fixed
- Photo scoring adjusted
- Photo submission v2 added
- Doll system v5 added
- Re-added player hat to 3rd person camera
- Social buttons reconfigured
- ADS screen adjusted
- Research level and familiarity popups added
- Camera autofocus adjusted to fix constant blurriness
- Focus finder attached to monster girl head correctly
Known Issues
A massive patch like v016 won't be without its own issues, Here is a list of currently known bugs that will likely affect some players.
- Player characters have bone alignment issues.
- Monster girls will not react to the player, due to their sight tech being turned off for stability.
- Monster girls will sometimes unload themselves from the world, they will basically pop out of existence.
- The camera focus during sex scenes is hard to control.
Conclusion
Man, what a massive patch this ended up being. Going forward we wont be doing something so intense anymore. The strain it put on us, and the wait time all our supporters had to endure was not something we wanted to take on. Since we are getting closer to our eventual Steam Early Access launch the next few patches will throw away the concept of one a month Instead we will be launching patches the moment new content is ready. So a lot of them will be small upgrades to things, and some might be the inclusion of one new system. The results will bring more time to get feedback on the new stuff faster, and you all will get the content on a higher frequency. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Anyway, I hope you all enjoy v016. A lot of sleepless nights went into this one. Please be sure to send us your feedback! We are eager to know what everyone thinks! Cheers, Kinky
Sapphire Documents Issue 012
Yeah, this is a take from early Far Cry games, the system is great for our needs, so we have unashamedly taken cues from it. As you explore Sapphire Island your ability to upload photos are limited by the radio beacon coverage youve activated. Turning on a tower means climbing a natural formation of Rock and Tree, mixed with a quickly erected man-made support structure. The tools youll need to scale these towers will come from the shop after some progress has been made on your research level. For version 016 youll just be able to climb and activate them as we have yet to build the shop system out.
Also unveiling the map, showing off all the unexplored POIs in the new region. Progress!
The narrative for Sapphire Safari is broken down into two areas. Main Quests and Loot Crates. Quests are easy, you follow a breadcrumb system looking for clues on the whereabouts of the original science team that has gone missing. The quests are the present, the story is relayed with a mixture of in-person conversations and hologram phone calls.
The second narrative option is the Loot Crates, these give the player a couple of things, currency, some give costumes for the players, but all will give the player an audio log, that once all collected tell the story of how each member of the science team ended up lost in the first place. We are working with a very highly regarded author to create the full narrative experience in Sapphire Safari and our goal is to have everything voiced. Here is a sample of one of the audio logs.
The new system for monster spawning is finally inside Sapphire Safari, monster girls are spread out across the plains with Prey being far more regular than Predators. The girls are far more attentive to their surroundings, but also their AI has been softened to allow more of a chance to react to them. The new Stealth system also reinforces this, running around, and generally making noise will get them to stop what they are doing and search for the sound. If they visually spot you, they do a reaction and then move away from you. In the full version, you can follow them if you like as they shouldnt disappear from view unless you leave the area they are in. Crouching will not alert any girls around you unless you step on a branch or something of the like.
Our white whale it turns out is this blasted sex system. We had a lot of issues getting our (on paper) amazing system off the ground without issues. It either worked and was not that appealing, or it was appealing and didnt fit into the system we wanted. The new one is a little more focused on what we want to achieve while also being much easier to build amazing sex animations for.
Basically, it flows like this: Monster gets horny enough to start masturbating > creatures around get curious and begin to watch/masturbate themselves > one of the observers joins in and plaps away > others also join in (up to five participants) > as they orgasm they leave.
Previously we would have attempted to make transition animations and try to make the task of adding another monster to the mix look natural, now we just puff some smoke and choose one of the animations that match the sizes of participants and the number of participants. Version 016 will only go as high as threesomes though, we will have like 20ish animations for the system that are simple loops. These will be expanded on later.
Naturally, there were a lot of old bugs and such we have fixed since moving over to v016 and half the team has a bit more time to focus on fixing these things. Stuff like, blurry characters in the locomotion, the camera being blurry when youre not focusing on monster girls, girls disappearing, etc. We also had a bit of time to work on UI presentation and giving the player better throwing animations, along with a camera hip holster and such.
We are still working very hard on all of this, it is a massive sweeping patch, that changes just about everything about Sapphire Safari. It is worth pointing out now, that version 016 will have some things missing until we get to focus on those systems again. The major one is the Monpedia, in its place, will be a system we are calling bounties. Monpedia will be back, we just need more time to correctly implement the system along with a testing environment to make sure there are no unexpected behaviors. As a final treat, I have included the next official collection of screenshots we will be using after v016 drops. I hope you all enjoy the sneak peek of what we have going on!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/
[ 2023-08-22 11:35:07 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello explorers! Man, what a month, our projections had put us releasing v016 much earlier in August than we initially believed. The TLDR is that we are still working on implementing the overhaul of the sex system we are introducing. The reason is a lot of code debt, meaning we have revised the system too many times, it needed to be cleaned out of the game before it caused issues in the future. We are close. Really close. I would not want you all to wait any longer without any updates from us regarding the progress. Those of you on our Discord might have already seen more on this system, but it is something we are quite proud of. We had a huge task ahead of us, making an open-world game that captures the feeling of exploration without relying on combat systems to fill the gaps. We have a couple of methods we are building for Sapphire Safari.
Activating Radio Towers
Yeah, this is a take from early Far Cry games, the system is great for our needs, so we have unashamedly taken cues from it. As you explore Sapphire Island your ability to upload photos are limited by the radio beacon coverage youve activated. Turning on a tower means climbing a natural formation of Rock and Tree, mixed with a quickly erected man-made support structure. The tools youll need to scale these towers will come from the shop after some progress has been made on your research level. For version 016 youll just be able to climb and activate them as we have yet to build the shop system out.
Also unveiling the map, showing off all the unexplored POIs in the new region. Progress!
Narrative Tools and Loot
The narrative for Sapphire Safari is broken down into two areas. Main Quests and Loot Crates. Quests are easy, you follow a breadcrumb system looking for clues on the whereabouts of the original science team that has gone missing. The quests are the present, the story is relayed with a mixture of in-person conversations and hologram phone calls.
The second narrative option is the Loot Crates, these give the player a couple of things, currency, some give costumes for the players, but all will give the player an audio log, that once all collected tell the story of how each member of the science team ended up lost in the first place. We are working with a very highly regarded author to create the full narrative experience in Sapphire Safari and our goal is to have everything voiced. Here is a sample of one of the audio logs.
- Sarah (matter of fact): So, this particular site I have been investigating paints a more interesting picture of the natives. As I guessed before, they have a language. From my personal observations, I believe I have discovered their word for 'dick'. They repeat it over and over near this rock.
- Sarah (curious): I wonder what significance this site has in their culture? And since they have culture, how does the culture differentiate from species to species? Do the other species on the island have sites of religious significance too? Do they all speak the same language, or are there distinct dialects among different groups?
- Sarah (sheepish): ...Yeah, sorry. I tend to ramble a bit. I just have so many questions.
- (A sound of Sarah fumbling with the recorder. There is a noticeable thud in the audio as she catches it before it hits the ground.)
- Sarah (shocked): Shit, nearly dropped the recorder!
- (Several cries from the bunbuns as they run away)
- Sarah (annoyed): God damn it, I spooked them! Why do I have to be so damn clumsy?!
- Sarah (defeated): Oh well... Guess I can come back later.
Spawning Systems and Stealth
The new system for monster spawning is finally inside Sapphire Safari, monster girls are spread out across the plains with Prey being far more regular than Predators. The girls are far more attentive to their surroundings, but also their AI has been softened to allow more of a chance to react to them. The new Stealth system also reinforces this, running around, and generally making noise will get them to stop what they are doing and search for the sound. If they visually spot you, they do a reaction and then move away from you. In the full version, you can follow them if you like as they shouldnt disappear from view unless you leave the area they are in. Crouching will not alert any girls around you unless you step on a branch or something of the like.
Sex System Overhaul
Our white whale it turns out is this blasted sex system. We had a lot of issues getting our (on paper) amazing system off the ground without issues. It either worked and was not that appealing, or it was appealing and didnt fit into the system we wanted. The new one is a little more focused on what we want to achieve while also being much easier to build amazing sex animations for.
Basically, it flows like this: Monster gets horny enough to start masturbating > creatures around get curious and begin to watch/masturbate themselves > one of the observers joins in and plaps away > others also join in (up to five participants) > as they orgasm they leave.
Previously we would have attempted to make transition animations and try to make the task of adding another monster to the mix look natural, now we just puff some smoke and choose one of the animations that match the sizes of participants and the number of participants. Version 016 will only go as high as threesomes though, we will have like 20ish animations for the system that are simple loops. These will be expanded on later.
Bugs and Fixes
Naturally, there were a lot of old bugs and such we have fixed since moving over to v016 and half the team has a bit more time to focus on fixing these things. Stuff like, blurry characters in the locomotion, the camera being blurry when youre not focusing on monster girls, girls disappearing, etc. We also had a bit of time to work on UI presentation and giving the player better throwing animations, along with a camera hip holster and such.
Conclusion
We are still working very hard on all of this, it is a massive sweeping patch, that changes just about everything about Sapphire Safari. It is worth pointing out now, that version 016 will have some things missing until we get to focus on those systems again. The major one is the Monpedia, in its place, will be a system we are calling bounties. Monpedia will be back, we just need more time to correctly implement the system along with a testing environment to make sure there are no unexpected behaviors. As a final treat, I have included the next official collection of screenshots we will be using after v016 drops. I hope you all enjoy the sneak peek of what we have going on!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/
Sapphire Documents Issue 011
Yes, youve guessed it, the team has created flaccid penis assets for our models. We have been putting off this long-requested feature for a while, as it was never essential. With the open-world rework, we decided why not and threw in the tech needed to arouse and unarouse?
The mobs will determine when they grow, normally when they enter sex poses, but we could have a system that shows how toey a monster girl is by the size of their erection. I mean. That just makes sense The full erection sizes wont change as it will make our sex system complicated, however, we have a nice way to randomize the flaccid penis size. The system will spawn a dong size between our largest and smallest possible sizes. They all grow to the same length, but it will offer a nice diverse selection of futaness.
And yes, physics is a thing
Speaking of physics, the first pass for our new models for physics is up and running, here is a look at our lovely fox, with her floppy ears and bouncy assets.
On the back of an open-world move, we had to develop our own conversation system. There will be about 6-8 human NPCs and some more intelligent monster girls you can converse with in the game so building a system that allows for unique conversations is important. Couple this with our dynamic facial animation system we have quite a nice system in place. We can configure close-ups or wide shots, over-the-shoulder shots, etc depending on the dialogue used and how many participants in the conversation there are. Two examples here are talking to NPCs in person and taking a Holocall (our version of a phone call).
Surprising no one we continue to build upon the island to get it ready for her launch in v016. Here are some money shots to keep you all excited!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Hope you all enjoyed this brief look at what weve been working on! More to come soon!
[ 2023-07-10 12:07:39 CET ] [ Original post ]
Wassup explorers! Welcome to another Sapphire Documents Issue! Today we are talking all about the progress our team has made, along with a long-requested feature!
The angle of the dangle
Yes, youve guessed it, the team has created flaccid penis assets for our models. We have been putting off this long-requested feature for a while, as it was never essential. With the open-world rework, we decided why not and threw in the tech needed to arouse and unarouse?
The mobs will determine when they grow, normally when they enter sex poses, but we could have a system that shows how toey a monster girl is by the size of their erection. I mean. That just makes sense The full erection sizes wont change as it will make our sex system complicated, however, we have a nice way to randomize the flaccid penis size. The system will spawn a dong size between our largest and smallest possible sizes. They all grow to the same length, but it will offer a nice diverse selection of futaness.
And yes, physics is a thing
Speaking of physics, the first pass for our new models for physics is up and running, here is a look at our lovely fox, with her floppy ears and bouncy assets.
Dialogue and Holocalls
On the back of an open-world move, we had to develop our own conversation system. There will be about 6-8 human NPCs and some more intelligent monster girls you can converse with in the game so building a system that allows for unique conversations is important. Couple this with our dynamic facial animation system we have quite a nice system in place. We can configure close-ups or wide shots, over-the-shoulder shots, etc depending on the dialogue used and how many participants in the conversation there are. Two examples here are talking to NPCs in person and taking a Holocall (our version of a phone call).
Sapphire Island gets more tweaks
Surprising no one we continue to build upon the island to get it ready for her launch in v016. Here are some money shots to keep you all excited!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900/Sapphire_Safari/ Hope you all enjoyed this brief look at what weve been working on! More to come soon!
Sapphire Safari
Kinky Fridays
Critical Bliss
Coming soon
Action Indie Strategy Casual RPG Adventure Simulation F2P Sports MMO Racing Singleplayer Multiplayer Coop EA
Game News Posts 23
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🕹️ Partial Controller Support
🎮 Full Controller Support
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http://www.kinkyfridays.com/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526900
Answer the call of the wild with Sapphire Safari an open-world Photography Adventure Game! Capture the beauty of real-life Monster Girls in their natural habitats. As a wildlife photographer, you venture deep into unexplored territories, capture the Monster Girls as they socialize, hunt, sleep, mate, and hopefully come out in one piece.
The Sapphire Islands were mysteriously discovered, and a team of daring scientists and explorers was sent in to uncover its secrets. The lure of a virgin Archipelago to explore, teeming with unique wildlife, an amazing discovery! Who wouldn't be excited to chase this opportunity? A month passes, and the First Team has lost contact with the home base. Take on the role of a wildlife photographer, seeking glory, and fame! Follow the tracks of the First Team to discover their fate, while documenting the islands in all their splendor!
- Explore five fully realized environments, teeming with Monster Girls.
- A full complement of voice acting by industry professionals.
- Explore many unique locations and capture/catalog the wildlife on display.
- Bond with the Monster Girls in their unique environments, and experience new sensations!
The Sapphire Islands were mysteriously discovered, and a team of daring scientists and explorers was sent in to uncover its secrets. The lure of a virgin Archipelago to explore, teeming with unique wildlife, an amazing discovery! Who wouldn't be excited to chase this opportunity? A month passes, and the First Team has lost contact with the home base. Take on the role of a wildlife photographer, seeking glory, and fame! Follow the tracks of the First Team to discover their fate, while documenting the islands in all their splendor!
- Explore five fully realized environments, teeming with Monster Girls.
- A full complement of voice acting by industry professionals.
- Explore many unique locations and capture/catalog the wildlife on display.
- Bond with the Monster Girls in their unique environments, and experience new sensations!
MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Ubuntu 16.04+
- Processor: Intel i7-3370 or similarMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 970 or similar
- Storage: 4 GB available space
- OS: Ubuntu 16.04+
- Processor: Intel i5-9400F or similarMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: RTX 2060 or similar
- Storage: 4 GB available space
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