Gameplay, Content and Optimizations

Gameplay:
Dramatically shortened in-game dialog.
No more “missions” but instead encourages you to explore.
Reverted back to the original controls where dog sprints when you hold shift.
You can now toggle between your graphite sensor and flashlight in the caves using the ‘F’ key.
The menu now pauses the game like a normal menu.

Content:
Splash Screen the accurately reflects the current state of the game.
Added a main menu level to set options and toggle VR (this was inspired by the lobby in Natural Selection 2).
Expanded the cave section.
New DOG Model!!!
Additional effects when hovering over water.
Recorded new audio dialog (is isn’t good but it’s better).

Optimizations
The levels now stream in from the main-menu level, drastically cutting down on the initial load time.
Loading screens.
Fixed some problems with the AA so VR experience should be a lot smoother.
Added Vsync options to the Main menu.
Updated to UE4.10.
A number of back end improvements to how menus and variables are passed from level to level.

State of Development
I wanted to include a statement about how development is going, the status of the game, and also try to get feedback on what you think.

Development
Currently I couldn’t be happier with how development of CAT Interstellar is going. It is the work of myself and another writer and started off as a gamejam submission that just grew. This is not the conventional type of development since both of us have normal jobs and do this on our free time. The downside to this is that development is much slower. The positive is that we actually get to make the game we set out to make without having to worry about financing it or compromising the original story. We’ve learned a lot over the last couple months of development and I’m happy to confidently announce a release date of Jun 1 2016.

Status
With this latest update the core gameplay, game mechanics, state machines, animations, AI, shaders, and modelled assets are complete. The rest is primarily level development of the caves and a “master” texture used on the base’s monitors to explain the back story. On the Steam side we are 1 review short of 100 positive reviews and currently sit at a 78% recommendation rate (an overall thumbs up). We’ve also gotten incredibly lucky with the vast majority of negative reviews in that they are mainly (and understandably) complaints about the length of current game. I think a lot of those reviews could possibly change to positive recommendations when the full game is released.
Sales of CAT Interstellar have essentially dropped to 0. Normally this would be detrimental for a developer and is usually when people jump ship. For us, it’s literally the best thing that could happen. We have a very healthy community that provides consistent feedback on updates. Until the game is complete there really isn’t any reason to market the game. We have everything we need to make an awesome game and none of the pressures that seem to lead to a rushed release. For the next couple of months we'll be developing in the shadows of Steam.

Feedback
I say this every time but I sincerely want your feedback. Not just on the updates but also on how we prioritizes updates or handle announcements like these. We had a little hiccup with last month’s release because it was flagged by AVG but we should stay on track from here on out. I’m also going to try to get the other writer, slowmath, active in the forums. He’s been creeping for a while but could probably give a little more insight into some of these discussions.

Thanks again for all your support-
Ionized Games