v4.2.4 Changelog - 16/07/2024

• UI: Updated some incorrect Chinese localisations.
• UI: Added guest count to prestige window.
• UI: Increased maximum money from 1,000,000 to 10,000,000.
• UI: Updated Daisy Star Polyp latin name to Knopia Octocontacanalis.
• Balance: Arctic Skate now tolerates abyssal.
• Balance: Dislikes stony coral is now counted by science poster.
• Graphics: Fixed minor error in 3d model of Mega Polar Tank.
• Graphics: Whale skeleton is 100% opaque now leading to less glitchy use in abyssal tank.
• Graphics: Improved frozen paint UVs on some objects.
• Fixed bug/modding: 'Chemistry' objects with footprints larger than 9 tiles caused error. Very small change to some 'chemistry' object prices as a result to moving to an algebraic approach for the footprint discount.
• Fixed bug/modding: If an object is added to the child of a child the tank stats update to reflect this.
• Misc: New code signing certificate means the .exe may need to be whitelisted again in any Antivirus software.

[ 2024-07-16 09:06:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

v4.2.3 Changelog - 07/05/2024

• Misc: Upgraded back up to Unity 2019.4.40f1 after fixing the issue causing textures and audio files not to load correctly on OSX and Linux.
• Optimisation note: Upgrading to 2019.4.40f1 has yielded a significant boost in the rendering side on my Macbook Pro. I don't know if this is limited to OSX, but it felt like possibly all versions were running a bit smoother. Nice to have! steamthumbsup
• Misc: Changed Peacock Squid latin name to: Taonius Borealis.
• Fixed bug: In staff level up tooltip, on hover over skill, modifiers from talents that were zero (--) appeared in red, instead of green.

[ 2024-05-07 10:10:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings curators! Behold the spring cleaning update - an update dedicated to minor improvements and bug fixes that have been raised by the community. Let's take a look! EDIT: After this update was made live, a bug was detected within the Mac version of this update. Due to this Mac players are still on v4.1.0 for the time being. I am working on a true fix so I can get Mac users up to the latest version ASAP. Thank you for your patience.

Let your researchers take a break

When playing with mods there can be a lot to research, and that means a lot of popups. Many Megaquarium players asked for a way to opt-out of research. Now there is a setting that allows you to do that. Options -> Interface -> Allow no research project -> On; Now the game will no longer force you to have an active research project. Warning: Your ecology and science points will be wasted so unless you're playing with mods I'd recommend leaving it off! Speaking of the research windows, I've also optimised them so they load quicker, especially when there is a lot of research.

Objects on objects on objects

This update brings improved support for scenery objects that are mounted on other bits of scenery for a more modular build-style. While not currently featured in any official content, there are mods that make use of this feature on our workshop and now they are easier to work with and appear correctly in tanks of all depths.

Science consumption - red or purple?

After the launch of Deep Freeze several players requested that the science consumption icon be changed from red to purple. Their justification was that, yes the science was lost, but it isn't a bad thing, as it is a deliberate choice by the player. After some testing, I've decided that I agree. Science consumption is now purple. There are many other tiny fixes, all listed below. If you notice any bugs while playing do let me know. While this update is more of a tidy-up, I can reveal I have been working on more substantial things which I look forward to sharing with you in the future. Thanks and enjoy! Tim Twice Circled

Changelog

• Feature: Added option to allow the game to continue without a selected research project.
• Feature: Improved resolution detection code across operating systems and added a "Detect Native Resolution" button.
• Feature: Added separate float up/down in 1st person mode hotkey.
• Feature: Added option to toggle anti-aliasing (always on before).
• Feature: Added autosave period option.
• Balance: Excluded Divider from levels 1 and 2 but added a tutorial to introduce them properly in level 3.
• Balance: Level 2, removed size requirement from wall tank objective. Any new wall tank will do.
• Balance: Level 3, allow any type of deep tank (including corner and observer) for the deep tank objective.
• Balance: Level 10, reordered objective rows in Builder Blackmail objective.
• UX: Slightly reduced start height of floating cost-text when you place a new item.
• UX: Science consumption from Abyssal Tanks is now purple rather than red.
• UX: Show active swimmer/flyer range in build menu (min-max).
• Fixed bug: Objective rows no longer get stuck red after flicking from complete to not-complete in quick succession.
• Fixed bug: Staff with power tools equipped caused all item toggles in advanced tab to be red.
• Fixed bug: Could not walk through tunnels in 1st person mode.
• Fixed bug: Fixed centre of 'u' tank.
• Fixed bug: Build menu refreshes when you unlock a new food via a merchant process, even if the staff tools window was the last one opened.
• Fixed bug: Raised parrotfish and triggerfish lower bounds by 5cm.
• Modding: Objects hosted on objects hosted by tanks now appear in the right place, both while placing and after placement.
• Modding: Objects hosted on objects hosted by tanks now appear in the tank's contents list and affect system chemistry and aquascaping. Animals will not function correctly unless hosted directly on the tank.
• Optimisation: Improved load time of research window especially with lots of extra animals from mods.
• Optimisation: Staff item/skill toggles on advanced tab reuse data structures to reduce memory allocations.
• Optimisation: Enabled Unity's incremental GC.
• Miscellaneous: Dumbo Octopus scientific name changed to: Opisthoteuthis Californiana.
• Miscellaneous: Upgraded Unity version to 2019.4.40f1. Should be no change in-game but mentioning it in case it introduces any bugs.

[ 2024-05-01 09:18:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings curators! I want to say one last time, thank you all for the amazing response to the launch of Deep Freeze last month. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2574770/Megaquarium_Deep_Freeze__Deluxe_Expansion/ If anyone has enjoyed the expansion, please consider leaving a review on the store page. steamthumbsup For the last few weeks I've been working on an update based on all the feedback I've received from the community. I've focused on frequently requested features that could be implemented in a reasonable timeframe. Let's take a look!

Sortable staff

As I briefly introduced in last week's post, it's now possible to sort the staff management table by: status, zone, skills and accessory.
As this was a highly requested feature, I'm sure the community already has ideas on how to maximise this feature. Here's what I could come up with myself:

• Sort by highest active skill to make mass levelling up quicker. Just work your way through all the feeders, then the fixers etc. No more hunting for the right button to press.
• Sort by zone and then check the 'status' column to see if anyone is idle near the end of the day or visa versa. This insight can be used to rebalance your staff zoning so you're maximising each staff member's productivity.
• Similar to above, sort by 'status' to easily see if you have idle staff who can be put to better use.
• Sort by 'accessory' to quickly find staff who haven't been assigned an accessory yet.

In my own playtesting I found this feature especially useful when paired with...

To overlap or not to overlap

Before now, it's not been possible to place the same area in more than one zone. When you added an area to new zone, it was removed from any zone it was currently assigned to. With the latest update there is now a setting in the Options which, when enabled, will allow your zones to overlap. I prevented zones overlapping in the original design because I thought having lots of overlapping zones might be confusing for players. Plus, if I'm honest, I didn't understand the use case for this feature... until now. You see, zones are really useful for stopping your staff from wasting too much time walking. That's because, while staff do prioritise nearby tasks, if the only task available is far away, they'll still do it.
However, it can be quite painstaking to balance your zones perfectly so that staff idleness is minimised, especially for your fixers, because equipment breakdowns are semi-randomised. I personally found overlapping my fixer zones helped deal with breakdown spikes, while retaining the advantage of zoning, that is: reducing the amount of time spent walking between tasks. Not to mention, overlapping zones makes it easier to zone the separate jobs (gift shop, cleaning etc.) because each zone is essentially on its own layer, independent of all other zones. So I'll say it: I'm a convert! And I suspect I'm only beginning to scratch the surface of what can be done.

Let's reconnect

A quick one to finish with. When you pick up and move a tank, any pumps, compressors and posters that were connected to it before you picked it up will reconnect with it when you place it down (assuming they are still in range!). This will hopefully make tweaking your aquarium layout a more rewarding experience. :)

A final word

That's just the big hitters, as usual there are many bug fixes, balance changes and general improvements. Full changelog below. Just before I go, there are still a few hours left to nominate Megaquarium for Steam's 'Labor of Love' award. If you haven't voted yet, please consider casting your vote using the link below. https://steamcommunity.com/games/600480/announcements/detail/3864713384553759932 Thanks and enjoy! Tim Twice Circled

Changelog

• Feature: You can now sort the staff management table.
• Feature: Added setting to the options to allow zones to overlap (default is off).
• Feature: Pump, Compressors and Posters reconnect automatically when you move a tank, if the tank is still in range.
• Balance: Abyssal animals can now be unlocked with Ecology in 'Everything Available' mode in Sandbox.
• Balance: Abyssal animals cost much more Ecology to unlock than regular animals.
• Balance: Improved several Deep Freeze Sandbox objectives so they are easier to trigger.
• Balance: Reduced the number of animals required to fulfil some of the hardest Deep Freeze Sandbox ARG objectives.
• Balance: Staff feed the lowest health animals first.
• Balance: However, animals do not regain health unless fully fed (partial feeding is not enough).
• Balance: Supplement Manual bonus increased from 40 -> 60.
• Balance: Dictaphone bonus increased from 20% -> 25%
• Balance: Deep Freeze level 2, otter objective, science requirement reduced to 190. Added '(Check end of message)' to the otter sub-objective.
• Balance: Deep Freeze level 1, the message about observation pops up as soon as you place the Antarctic Sea Pig.
• UI: Renamed Mirror Anthia -> Mirror Anthias. Purple Queen Anthia -> Purple Queen Anthias.
• UI: Changed "Roles" to "Skills" on individual staff window.
• UI: Squeezed out a bit more width for skill name in staff management table (helps non-English localisations).
• UI: Slightly increased the height of the staff window.
• Fixed bug: Plant Destroyer and Breeding function in Passive Mode when they should be disabled.
• Fixed bug: Wrong tooltip on light icon on tank window.
• Fixed bug: Incorrect access points on Medium Beach Tank, Island Beach Tank and Small Polar Dome.
• Fixed bug: Too many overlapping containers on Medium Beach Tank and Island Beach Tank.
• Fixed bug: You could place underwater decorations under the cliffs on Small Polar Dome and Mega Polar Dome.
• Fixed bug: You could build a bridge through a Large Abyssal Tank.
• Fixed bug: Lines to connected Compressors were not shown when you hovered over the tank.
• Fixed bug: When placing a new Compressor, invalid tanks were highlighted when they should not have been.
• Fixed bug: 'dev mode' level up staff button works again.
• Fixed bug: freeze when you try to connect a pump or compressor to a tank before it has finished animating in.
• Misc: When mods are copied from Steam's folder to My Games\Megaquarium\ we do the copy and rename in one method call rather than 2. Hoping this reduces chance of permission issue occurring.

[ 2023-11-28 10:53:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello all, I've been delighted by the response to the release of Megaquarium's latest DLC: Deep Freeze last month. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2574770/Megaquarium_Deep_Freeze__Deluxe_Expansion/ But today I'm here for a different reason. I'd like to ask you to consider nominating Megaquarium for Steam's 'Labor of Love' award. Thank you!

Quality of life update incoming

In other news, I've been working on a QOL update for you all based on the feedback I've received since Deep Freeze's release. There's been a tonne of good ideas coming from the community, but I've focused on the things mentioned by the most players that I could add in a reasonable time-frame. The headline new feature will be the ability to sort the staff management table!
You'll be able to sort by status, zone, highest skill and accessory. You'll also be able to reset the order back to the default (the order staff were hired), by clicking the button again. There'll also be some bug fixes, balance changes and a few other things too. Watch this space! Until next time, Tim Twice Circled

[ 2023-11-21 18:00:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello all! Just a quick post from me to promote a Steam Festival that, as players of Megaquarium, you might be interested in.
Cosy Quest is an event dedicated to cosy games. As the cold nights draw in (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) it's nice to have a few games you can relax with after a tough day. You can check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/CozyQuest2023 Until next time, Tim TwiceCircled

[ 2023-11-16 18:05:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

v4.0.12 Changelog

• Fixed bug: an animal in the final level could be sold stopping a later objective from being completed.

v4.0.11 Changelog

• Fixed bug: mod animals outside level's ranks caused a no progress bug.
• Fixed bug: duck egg appeared underground.
• Fixed bug: Sandbox menu went slightly offscreen on Mac.
• Fixed bug: When Architect's Collection is disabled in sandbox mode, some exclusive objectives would still appear.

[ 2023-10-18 15:08:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

The latest expansion for Megaquarium: Deep Freeze, is out now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2574770/Megaquarium_Deep_Freeze__Deluxe_Expansion/ I've tried to pull out all the stops on this one. I really hope you enjoy it! If you're a day-1 buyer, please consider leaving a review on the DLC's store page, once you've had a chance to check it out. DLCs don't tend to get many reviews and it can be really helpful for prospective players to hear other players' thoughts on them. steamthumbsup One final request: The game has gone through rigorous testing but if you notice any bugs while playing, please let me know via the Steam forums.

New achievements

To celebrate the launch, I've added two new sandbox achievements to the game: Sandbox Trials - Limited Veteran - In Sandbox mode, have 80 different species of animals in your aquarium using the Limited Supply preset on hard difficulty or higher. Sandbox Trials - Quick Start Veteran - In Sandbox mode, reach 10,000 Prestige using the Quick Start preset on hard difficulty or higher. The theme of this pair of achievements is to give veteran players something to reach for in Sandbox mode especially when playing with one or more DLCs. Good luck!

v4.0 Update

The game has also got a significant update alongside the launch of the expansion. For a more in-depth look at some of the new features check out last week's post: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/600480/view/3705957146504027925 This time around I have a full changelog to share with you (see below). This is of course in addition to all the brand new mechanics and features within Deep Freeze itself! Thanks and enjoy! Tim Twice Circled

Changelog

• Feature: You can now toggle each DLC individually during Sandbox setup. Rank up levels will be adjusted accordingly.
• Feature: You can toggle on/off care requirements and equipment breakdowns in Sandbox mode.
• Feature: Added 'Passive Mode' preset to Sandbox. (Same as Creator mode but has care requirements and breakdowns switched off)
• Feature: Basic Divider is now available in base game.
• Feature: You can press Page Up/Page Down to levitate in first person mode. You fall back to earth if you move.
• Feature: Added latin names for every official animal. Hover over the (i) or the animal portrait to find it.
• Feature: U-Shaped tank is now extendable.
• Feature: Every object's rank is now shown within it's description (hover over the (i)).
• Balance: Staff start with 15 skill at level 1 and gain 30% every level.
• Balance: Lemon Shark max size reduced to 75
• Balance: Copperband Butterflyfish now eats Live Mysis.
• Balance: Clownfish now worth +2 Prestige if with an anemone.
• Balance: Prestige reduction for animals with large aquascaping/land requirements
• Balance: Prestige increase for combinations of the following factors: large size, greedy, skill required, live food and expensive food.
• Balance: Starfish moved from Other Inverts to Echinoderms
• Balance: Jellyfish moved from Other Inverts to Jellyfish
• Balance: Leopard Clam moved from Anemones, Gorgonians and Clams to Bivalves.
• Balance: Capped positive prestige from cheap vending machine and gift shop sales to 6 prestige points.
• Balance: Improved flexibility of many sandbox objects to work better when playing on 'limited supply' and 'everything available' presets.
• Balance: You are not offered breeding objectives in sandbox if you cannot currently unlock the 'light' required (if any).
• Balance: U-shaped tank is now unlocked when you start Carbon City level.
• Balance: Large tunnel tank can now support lights.
• UI: Level up staff on the management window and their individual staff window.
• UI: Option to disable staff level up messages.
• UI: Schedule multiple talks at single podium.
• UI: Added 'Not in aquarium' toggle which has the same effect of count=0 in the search.
• UI: Added range highlight on hover.
• UI: New 'enclosed' paperclip icon for messages that have objects inside.
• UI: Search by rank, ecology, science and prestige.
• UI: 'Skill required' icon is now incorporated into the task icon.
• UI: Hide warnings now hides all warnings, even deadly ones.
• UI: Reduce maximum search text.
• UI: Stop control characters in input boxes.
• UI: You can now see if a supplement needs doing today (0/1) or has already been given (1/1).
• UI: Breeding parents are stated on Breeder icon at all times.
• Graphics: Added shoaling/grouping behaviour to many animals across base game and all DLCs.
• Graphics: Reduced water wave in 1st person mode.
• Graphics: Improved animals transition between land and water.
• Graphics: Fixed minor issues with sponge, broom and mic headset animations.
• Fixed bug: You cannot set vending machine and gift shop prices negative.
• Fixed bug: Water continued to ripple when paused via entering menu.
• Fixed bug: Highlight flickers when hovering near the edge of an object.
• Fixed bug: Green Pellet Dispenser was called Greens Pellet Dispenser.
• Fixed bug: Hovering over a zone button in the zone menu and pressing escape caused all the zones to remain shown.
• Fixed bug: You are no longer offered tanks as "aquascaping" for breeding purposes by Emmanuel Tosh.
• Fixed bug: Game froze if you removed the last empty tile within 20 tiles of a guest.
• Fixed bug: Podium contribution to ecology/science income estimate is more accurate.
• Fixed bug: OSX resolution changes made by editing global.data take effect first time now.
• Fixed bug: in some resolutions, the main menu would not return to the centre after it moved to the left at least once.
• Fixed bug: if an animal eats another animal when it's been hungry for at least a day, the health loss is not reset correctly.
• Fixed bug: staff portrait would sometimes be invisible in zoning menu.
• Fixed bug: level file name was shown when first saving after starting a new level.
• Optimisation: Animal ledger was updating even when closed under some circumstances.
• Optimisation: Sped up sandbox objective generation.

[ 2023-10-18 10:00:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

The latest expansion for Megaquarium: Deep Freeze, is coming out next week on the 18th October! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2574770/Megaquarium_Deep_Freeze__Deluxe_Expansion/ In this post we're going to check out some of the improvements that will be added to the base game alongside the new DLC's release. These improvements affect all players, whether or not they own any of the DLCs. steamthumbsup

Staff improvements

For starters, it'll be possible to level up your staff directly from the staff management window.
A single click and bam - levelled up! By default you can continue to level up your staff via the message log as well. However, you can toggle this off and do all your levelling up in the staff window if you like. Very useful in big aquariums! Next we have a balance change. Currently all staff skills start at 10 and increase 10 every time you level them up. This is simple and easy to understand but leads to a bit of a strange improvement graph. At level 2, they are twice as quick, then gain another 50% at level 3. From there on it's diminishing returns. This has made the first couple of level-ups much more important than subsequent ones, which I think is a missed opportunity.
With the new update, skills will start at 15 and improve by 30% each level. This makes every single level up important. In addition levelling all the way to 10 now rewards you with a base skill of 159 (+60% compared to current build). This should go some way to alleviating feeding bottlenecks in huge aquariums. Salaries will adjust for the changes in skill, so it won't change the economic balance of the game.

Shoaling animations

This one has been on players' request list for a long time! Some animals will now form groups in the tank.
This is a purely aesthetic change. I'm really pleased with the variation it creates in the display. As an added bonus I've made animals with the 'wingman' tag follow a large animal in the tank, just like symbiotic pilotfish do in the wild!

Improved podium UI and balance

You will be able to schedule different talks on different days at a single podium thanks to its updated UI.
In addition I've tweaked the simulation/balance a bit: The more valuable the talk, the higher the skill required to give it. Any staff can attempt any talk but if they are not skilled they will take a lot longer to give the talk. What's more, guests will get bored and wander off mid-talk, leading to less points. On the flip-side, skilled talkers will complete talks in less time while generating their full value.

Basic divider

Since the release of the Architect's Collection I've come to rely on dividers (half walls) to create soft divides in the aquarium. I've decided to make the basic divider part of the vanilla game while all the fancy ones still remain part of the Architect's Collection.

Skill level/task icon combined

The 'requires skill' icon will appear on top of the task icons, rather than separately. This small change makes it easy to grasp all the important info without looking in multiple places.

Passive mode

This is quite big news! Passive mode is a new sandbox preset which turns off care requirements and equipment breakdowns. You can build an aquarium almost like you're painting a picture. It's up to you whether you let guests in or if it's a private creation for your eyes only!

Latin names

Ever wanted to pin down the exact species featured in the game? All official animals will have their latin name listed when you hover over their (i) icon.

Range highlight

The range of an object will be highlighted by hovering over it e.g. Tanks, vending machines, seating, toilets, posters. This can be very helpful when planning your aquarium layout!
Believe it or not, there are still many more improvements I didn't get a chance to mention. Discover them all when the update goes live next week! Until next time, Tim Twice Circled

[ 2023-10-11 19:45:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

In case you weren't aware, Megaquarium is getting a new expansion: Deep Freeze. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2574770/Megaquarium_Deep_Freeze__Deluxe_Expansion/ This time we are focusing on the polar dome, a brand new tank with a whole lot going on.

Keep a lid on it

Polar domes are the first tanks in Megaquarium to have roofs (strictly speaking the abyssal tanks from last week's post share this honour). This deceptively simple addition opens multiple possibilities.
For starters we can keep seabirds. You might not think of these as aquatic creatures but the Atlantic Puffin spends most of its life at sea and only needs land to breed! From a gameplay perspective, there are two new quantities to track:

• Air Volume - Required for "active flyers" who need plenty of space to swoop.
• Perch Capacity - This works similarly to Land Capacity, giving a place for your flying friends to perch between dips in the water.

The other feature of an enclosed tank is that it can be air conditioned. This is necessary for the polar animals who spend some of their time out of the water and are used to chilly conditions!
Air conditioners can be located remotely from your tanks using compressors. These act like pumps but for air instead of water.

An enriching experience

Polar animals also introduce a brand new type of aquascaping - enrichment! These objects provide mental stimulation so your animals don't get bored.
Enrichment has unique mechanics compared to other aquascaping: the first object of each type is worth more than subsequent objects of the same type. In other words, variety is key when it comes to meeting enrichment needs. Each enrichment object is a different size and shape, so there's never a 'one size fits all solution'. In summary: the tank design puzzle just got even more satisfying!

The return of breeding

I'm sure many of you will be delighted to read that breeding makes a return in Deep Freeze. This time the focus is on polar mammals and birds.
As you might expect, breeding these animals has its own feel compared to the breeding in Freshwater Frenzy. For example, many of these animals lay just one or two eggs; so it's really important to ensure the tank parameters stay on point. On the other hand, predation is easier to avoid because the eggs are out of the water limiting the number of hungry animals that have access to them!

Ice ice baby

Enrichment is not the only aquascaping requirement in Deep Freeze to break with convention. Some of your animals like ice floes to sit on. The only way to create these is to cool the air down to freezing temperatures using extra air conditioning!
But don't worry, there is an unexpected upside! Freezing the floes creates additional land capacity allowing you to create even more stunning polar dome exhibits!

Polar party

One of my constant goals when designing Megaquarium is to give players as much creative freedom as possible, but with plenty of interesting mechanics to shape that creativity. With this in mind, I'm really pleased with how polar domes have come together for Deep Freeze. They are the most flexible tank yet - with scope for land, sea and air animals to all live together. Within that flexibility comes so many interesting decisions:

• Will I freeze the ice to create extra land capacity?
• Will I build the tank big enough so that flyers have adequate air volume?
• But that will increase the air conditioning needs - especially if I'm freezing the ice floes...
• And what mix of aquascaping will I spread across the substrate to fulfil the needs of the various fish, mammals and birds I include in the tank?

While the abyssal animals we learned about last week demand a lot of attention from your aquarists and staff management skills, the polar animals demand it from your design skills! My hope is that, together, they'll combine to create a gameplay experience you will really enjoy! Until next time, Tim Twice Circled

[ 2023-10-04 17:30:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

In case you missed it, Megaquarium is getting a new expansion: Deep Freeze. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2574770/Megaquarium_Deep_Freeze__Deluxe_Expansion/ Today we take a deeper look at some of the new abyssal species and the tricky challenges associated with looking after them.

The perfect habitat

In Deep Freeze you gain access to a new style of tank: The abyssal tank!
These tanks are designed to recreate the conditions found in the abyssal zone so that your creatures feel right at home.

The cost of science

But there's a catch. For the first time in Megaquarium history, these tanks consume science points.
But remember, science points are also used to unlock new equipment. Build too many abyssal tanks and you'll find your research progressing at a sea snail's pace!

Observe closely

Another Megaquarium first! Many abyssal creatures require observation, some as often as every single day.
This means some animals need to be fed, observed and given a supplement in a single day. Thankfully there are some accessories that can help with this - more on that another time!

Filter feeders

On the bottom of the ocean, under 3000m of water, there's not enough light for plants to survive. In this region, carnivorous corals thrive, lending crucial aquascaping and decoration to your tanks.
The monstrous Bubblegum Coral grows to 3m tall and needs a constant supply of live mysis shrimp to keep it fed!

Burdensome beasts

You'll only have access to abyssal animals in limited numbers, and that might be a good thing! They need high water quality, have awkward compatibility issues, tricky tank requirements and many eat nothing but live food!
However, if you manage to build a collection and look after them well, they'll reward you and your guests with a show like no other! Until next time, Tim Twice Circled

[ 2023-09-27 13:37:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'm delighted to announce a brand new expansion for Megaquarium: Introducing Deep Freeze! [previewyoutube=YFTDsX5h9ks;full][/previewyoutube] This is Megaquarium's most ambitious expansion to-date, chock full of popular elements from previous expansions plus loads of brand new features including a five-level campaign. Later in the post I'll be touching on a couple of the key ideas for this expansion, but for a top-level rundown head over to the store page. Remember to wishlist so you'll be notified when it goes live! steamhappy https://store.steampowered.com/app/2574770/Megaquarium_Deep_Freeze__Deluxe_Expansion/ The expansion will be priced at $13.99 (or your regional equivalent) and will launch in mid-October on both GOG and Steam. As usual this expansion will be launching alongside a big upgrade to the base game with improved UI, animation and rebalanced gameplay. More on those another time.

Two for one!

In Deep Freeze we've added two unique biotopes unified by a central frozen theme. On one side you have the abyssal animals. These are deep ocean species that dwell in the perpetual darkness.
On the other side we have the aquatic polar animals who need a special enclosed polar dome supported by racks of compressors and air-conditioners!
Each type of habitat has specific design challenges associated with it. However, there are some core mechanics that reach across. The result is varied gameplay with a unified theme.

Giving me chills

I love coldwater animals and in this expansion I'm delighted to fill out the roster with some amazing species. Every single animal in Deep Freeze requires cold water.
But we've not stopped there. Many of the animals from the deep ocean and polar regions don't just need cold water, they need it to be positively freezing! That's where the 'Superchilled' requirement comes in.

More to come

During my playtesting I've really loved how much variety Deep Freeze adds, especially when combined with the other expansions. It's possible to build a truly MEGA-aquarium! There is so much to talk about with Deep Freeze, over the course of the next few weeks I look forward to revealing more features and details. To make sure you don't miss a thing, click the 'follow' button under the trailer on the main store page and at the top of my developer page. Until then, Tim Twice Circled

[ 2023-09-21 16:00:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'm thrilled to announce that Megaquarium is part of Simfest the Steam festival celebrating all things related to simulation games. From today through the 24th of July, 10am PDT 2023, you can save 60% off the base game plus 30% off each of the DLCs. Make sure to check out all that's on offer across Simfest, there's a bunch of titles on discount as well as demos for games that are coming soon, all within the wonderful Sim genre! -- In Megaquarium news, as many of you know, I have been working on something new for the game for several months. I'm not in a position to share more details at this time, but I'm getting close so watch this space! steamhappy

[ 2023-07-20 17:05:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello aquarium architects. I hope you've had a great start to the year. I've been working on a little update for you guys. Let's take a look.

Staff gate added to Architect's Collection

Shortly after the Architect's Collection DLC launch, a suggestion was made to me. With the addition of all the new "dividers" (a selection of low wall-like objects which block movement but not visibility), was it possible to add a divider which only staff could pass through? I'm very happy to announce that the all-new Staff Gate has been added to the Architect's Collection with this update. This object is essentially a cross between the Staff Door and the One-Way Gate which was added to the base game last November. Like the Staff Door, only employees can use the Staff Gate, but it has the nice low aesthetic associated with the One-Way Gate that makes it look good paired with the dividers added with the Architect's Collection.
In the above picture I've used the Staff Gate to separate off a section of the aquarium where I'm storing gift shop refills away from potentially thieving guests. In fairness, a One-Way Gate from the base game facing in the correct direction could be used to achieve the same result.
Here is where the Staff Gate comes into its own. When you have just a single line of dividers but want to allow an employee to take a short-cut rather than walk all the way around the route. Like almost everything else in the Architect's Collection, the Staff Gate is paintable so you can customise it to your liking. What will you use it for?

Changelog

Along with the Staff Gate there are bunch of bug fixes and improvements included with this update:

• Feature: Added Staff Gate to Architect's Collection.
• Fixed bug: Double clicking trade button very fast would cause multiple animals to be traded away while filing only a single trade slot.
• Fixed bug: Impossible "Biodiversity" objective offered in sandbox mode.
• Fixed bug: Floating plants in Feeding Platform Tank appeared at the wrong height (FF).
• Fixed bug: Fixed occasionally bugged UI with guppy breeding (FF).
• Fixed bug: Sand eel appears in wrong place when staff carrying it and a tool belt does a fixing task.
• UX: Fixed UI positioning in save and load menus in non-English languages.
• Optimisation: Sped up message log loading.
• Modding: If only English strings are present, these will be used even when the selected language is not English.

[ 2022-03-08 11:15:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey! It has been a while since I have posted a Fishblast for you all. From now on Fishblasts will be coming out every 2 months rather than every month.

Community build

Whenever you are playing a map, it is often a big challenge to keep staff active but not overworked. User Jasper found a great way of planning their aquarium and placing the filtrations and such on strategic points as shown at the end of this video! Jasper created a 30 minute video to show their big build. And the thing I want to praise here is the great layout. It must take a lot of time to plan such a build. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo1pzO37PD4

Try and build this!

Often people are looking for challenges. Sometimes having no idea what to create. This short segment will give you some guides to unfold your very own creativity. Are you ready to give it a try? Try and build this: Presentation Arena How to build this:

• Place a podium near a tank.
• Place benches around this podium (around 2 tiles away from it)
• Place stairs and platforms behind these benches to create multiple layers
• These layers will give the impression of multiple seating heights

Have fun building!

Mod Spotlight

The many waters on our planet are either saltwater or freshwater. However, there is an in between. It is called brackish water. One of the most important ecosystems in our world is the mangroves. Unique flora and fauna living in harmony while the flora is keeping the ocean away from claiming more land.

Amazing Mangroves by Anubite and the H.A.A.I. Team

This is a fan-made expansion that adds animals and plants from this unique biotope. Both for freshwater and saltwater. So definitely worth a look as it adds animals such as: Horseshoe crabs, Fiddler crabs, Scats, Whistling ducks, Upside-down jellyfish and for plants a huge variety of trees and grasses!
[Click here to discover this fantastic mod]

Fishypedia

Common Name: Picasso Triggerfish

Scientific Name: Rhinecanthus aculeatus

Range: Western Indian Ocean Habitat: Reefs Size: 30cm (1ft) Diet: Meaty foods such as squid, shrimp and small fish.

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Tropical waters
• Water quality at least 65%
• Eater of Crustaceans, Starfish, Clams, Gorgoians, Stony corals.
• Feeding Skill: 1
• Territorial
• Bully
• Nibbler
• Explorer

Fun facts:

• The Picasso Triggerfish is known in Hawaii as: humuhumunukunukupuaa
• With powerful jaws and sharp teeth, Picasso triggerfish are formidable guardians, and have been known to nip at divers who intrude on their territory.
• The Picasso Triggerfish is able to grunt. This is a sound they make to get attention from others (with aggression).

How does it work?

In this segment we are looking into the life behind the scenes of machinery or tasks that happen in public aquariums. We might ponder the question: How do UV filters work? Or investigate the breeding progress of a certain species. For this edition of How does it work we will be looking into how PH meters work. All the water in the world has an acidity, also known as pH. Aquaria in the world need to measure the acidity to make sure the fish they are planning on adding, will survive. The reason for this is that everywhere in the world, the water has a different acidity. Some water can have more acid in it than other places in the world. Some places even have alkaline waters. The water's pH even changes from time to time in smaller bodies of water. It is important to measure this once in a while, even in your home aquarium!
The pH meter shown above is an electrical version of a test that can also be done with fluids on a special piece of paper. In the pH meter is a piece of glass that works with specialized electrodes. Very complicated! The electrodes measure the acidity of the water while another electrode is a reference to a fixed sample that is set as a base. The voltage in these machines is measured and is linked to a pH level. But if you do not have a machine available testing strips work just fine. Have you ever measured pH in any type of water? -- Want to be more involved in our community? Join our [Discord] and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast. See you in the next one! Your community liaison, Anubite

[ 2022-03-03 17:31:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today is a day I've been looking forward to for ages. SO thrilled to finally announce that Freshwater Frenzy - the first deluxe expansion for Megaquarium will be coming to Switch, Playstation and Xbox on 25th January 2022! Yep that's right, in just 2 weeks. [previewyoutube=TCB54OCxnIQ;full][pic][/previewyoutube] I know most of you reading this will be familiar with the fan-favourite expansion, but for anyone new to the world of Megaquarium, feel free to head on over to the official Megaquarium website for a full rundown of what's contained. Just like the console edition of the base game, I've partnered with Auroch Digital to develop this expansion. Check out what they have to say about the new DLC in this blog post!

[ 2022-01-11 15:20:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click-Clack, Click-Clack Oh hi! Long-time no see, first off Happy New Year! Welcome to my office! Here I carefully write your Fishblasts every month! I am still recovering from an amazing New Years party, so ignore the empty soda bottles and popcorn laying around. But I think we have quite a bit to catch up on. We had a new DLC release in November, the holidays came, and I think just many amazing things happened. I hope you had a great time as well!

Community build

To celebrate the new year we hosted a unique building challenge. Asking all members to build a facility in the shape of the year 2022. And people had so many ideas, and it was a tough pick. Here we are though: The winner of the 2022 build is: Sardine. They created such a compact version of the theme, but with unique use of the new Architects Collection bridges. We just could not let it slide.
The smart use of smaller tanks under the bridges created a dynamic but interesting walk for all the guests. Maybe this is something you could try too!

Try and build this!

Often people are looking for challenges. Sometimes having no idea what to create. This short segment will give you some guides to unfold your very own creativity. Are you ready to give it a try? Try and build this: Dining area next to a reef tank How to build this:

• Create a reef tank that covers a whole wall.
• Place benches facing each other against the window.
• Have a buffet-type area with all the food options you want to give your guests.
• Too much central open space? Add a small tank there too, so all guests can have a similar experience.

Have fun building!

Mod Spotlight

We started this year with a fantastic release of a huge new mod pack for you creative people. One that allows second floors to your builds and more tools to create heights in a way you have never seen before. I am talking about the:

Rickreptile Building Kit by RickReptile

This mod adds various tools (and even has expansion mods) to change your game into literal new levels. There are almost no words to describe the possibilities with this mod, and I could only recommend it for you to try and make something yourself.
[Click here to discover this fantastic mod]

Fishypedia

Common Name: Arapaima

Scientific Name: Arapaima gigas

Range: The Amazon Habitat: River Basin Size: Up to 3 meters (10 ft) Diet: Fish and other animals on the water surface

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Tropical waters
• Water quality at least 60%
• Acidic Waters
• Feeding Skill: 1
• Greedy
• Heavy Armored
• Likes floating cover: 9
• Likes Caves: 11
• Open Space: 3x3
• Fish and Crustacean Eater (minimum size: 4)

Fun facts:

• The mouth of an Arapaima works like a vacuum. When hungry, it opens its mouth to suck up nearby food.
• Arapaima can breathe air and stay submerged for 10-20 minutes at a time. It can survive up to 24 hours outside of the water!
• Arapaima are mouth brooders.

How does it work?

In this segment we are looking into the life behind the scenes of machinery or tasks that happen in public aquariums. We might ponder the question: How do UV filters work? Or investigate the breeding progress of a certain species. For this months How does it work we will be looking into how public aquaria introduce new fish to a tank. When visiting a public aquarium you might notice empty tanks, or even new fish in an already established tank. Sometimes they are changing their collection, and sometimes it is just another fine addition to a tank. But do they just drop the fish in the tank and let it live its life?
When adding a fish to a tank, it is very common to first quarantine the fish. Meaning to separate it for a while to make sure it does not hold diseases and to make sure it eats fine. Quarantine is often a room behind the scenes with multiple tanks on separate filtration systems. Separate because if there is a disease, you do not want this disease to end up in all tanks linked to that filter system. After a few weeks with the fish showing healthy behaviour, it could be ready to move it to the display tank. Do you have quarantine tanks in your Megaquarium builds? -- Want to be more involved in our community? Join our [Discord] and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast. See you in the next one! Your community liaison, Timmiegun

[ 2022-01-04 17:00:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mostly bug fixes this time around. Thank you for all your feedback. :) A special welcome to all the new players. I hope you're enjoying your time with the game. If you're enjoying the game and feel like helping out, please feel free to leave a review for Megaquarium and/or its 2 expansions. This can be done directly on each of the store pages.

Changelog

• UX: Decorations can now be placed even where there are no viewable locations.
• Fixed bug: Mods with non-capitalised folder names were not being read correctly on Linux OS.
• Fixed bug: Could not place underground tunnel in a position where walls would be against the middle edges, at some angles.
• UX: Slightly tweaked code for positioning decorations in tanks with raised or lowered substrates.
• Modding: Container 'adjust bounds' variables no longer apply to land-based animals when they are on land.
• Modding: Added hosting.childLayerConverter to allow tanks to adjust the occupation layers of incoming decorations. This is required for tanks which occupy layer -1 or 1 but not 0.

[ 2021-12-08 12:12:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Some more bug fixes and some balance changes for Sandbox. Thank you for all your feedback. :) Lots of small, inconsequential sounding things in this list, but when they add together they really do make a difference. Sandbox is now playing better than ever! If anybody is enjoying the new expansion and would like to help out, please feel free to leave a review. This can be done directly on the store page.

Changelog

• Fixed bug: If sandbox reward animal is a breeder it was overriding the minimum number of animals to 2, even if it was a shoaler or group spawner which has a higher requirement.
• Fixed bug: Greek Arch and Acropolis can no longer be placed under bridge/jetty tanks platforms.
• Fixed bug: Sunken wreck can no longer be placed under roofs, archways and bridges.
• Fixed bug: Science poster now says Pairs Only instead of Dither Fish
• Fixed bug: Science points cannot be offered as a reward in sandbox before rank 3.
• Fixed bug: Adorned Decorator Crab counts as a Decorator Crab for objective and count purposes.
• Fixed bug: Science tank version of 'Donation' objective had not been updated in the last patch. It now requires a lower science total, the same as the ecology version of the same objective.
• Balance: Added an addition trade rarity range (3 total) so that trade rewards match trade requirements more closely. Rarity (prestige) 1-8 trades up to 9-12 which trades to 13-16 which trades to 17-20.
• Balance: Trade objectives offer more appropriate animal numbers based on size. More small animals, less big animals. Exception: minimum requirements for shoaling or breeding.
• Balance: Added additional trades which give a supply of an animal instead of a finite number for more variety.
• Balance: Reduced rarity of animals available from merchants. Trades and objectives are required for best stuff.
• Balance: 'Sponsored exhibit' objective in sandbox is now easier and only targets theme decorations. The science and ecology point totals will only be updated in the objective tracker if the tank already matches the 'x different animals' requirement. This will hopefully reduce the occurrences of multiple tank contributing to the same objectives.
• Balance: Trades which unlock animals are added to reward tracker so that you don't get offered the same animal again from another opportunity.
• Balance: Sandbox 'Rehouse' objective, animal is counted as a reward as well as an objective so you won't be offered the same animal as a reward for another opportunity.
• Balance: Sandbox 'Display using X?' objective, decoration is counted as a reward as well as an objective so you won't be offered the same decoration as a reward for another opportunity.
• Balance: Reduced difficulty and increased frequency of FF poster objectives.
• Balance: Paints are added to objective tracker so you won't be offered the same paint objective more than once.
• Balance: Bridge, poster and archway objectives will only be offered once even if you decline and never build any of those objects.
• Balance: Multisize decorations cannot be offered by merchants or objectives. The only example of this is Acropolis.
• Localisation: various strings improved.
• Modding: Removed requirement for attractions to occupy layer 0.
• Modding: Fixed bug where hyphen in mod name was causing standalone custom maps not to work.

[ 2021-11-23 12:51:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

A few bug fixes. Thank you for the reports. :) Glad to see everybody enjoying the new expansion!

Changelog

• Fixed bug: you could place Jetty and Bridge tanks over bridges.
• Fixed bug: Tanks not being visited under certain conditions.
• Balance: In Full Unlock mode in Sandbox, objective difficulty is tied to your rank even though you have access to everything.

[ 2021-11-13 17:25:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Megaquarium: Architect's Collection is out now. What are you waiting for? Go get it! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1339440/Megaquarium_Architects_Collection/ I hope you enjoy it!

New achievements

To celebrate the launch of the Architect's Collection, I've added three new achievements to the game: Decorator - Have 1500 Prestige income from decorations and paint. Sell sell sell! - 4000 daily revenue from food, drink and gift shop sales. Helpful - Complete 30 side objectives. All three achievements can be completed whether you own the new expansion or not. However, I have designed them around the themes of the expansion and the update that comes out alongside it.

Update

As you're probably aware, the game has also got a huge update alongside the launch of the expansion. If you missed them, here are some blog posts I wrote about the major features: Sandbox improvements New mechanics For a full list of the changes see below. Tim Twice Circled

Changelog

• Feature: Decorations can be placed outside of tanks.
• Feature: Paints generate prestige.
• Feature: Added one-way gate.
• Feature: Improved arrow behaviour.
• Feature: Guests will actually steal from gift shop supply boxes now. ;)
• Feature: You can place guests and staff at different heights e.g. platforms, bridges (AC).
• Feature: 1st person mode respects height. But you can still walk through walls.
• Feature: Added 3 new objectives.
• Sandbox: Improved opportunity variety
• Sandbox: Animal rarity affects animals which are excluded/unlocked
• Sandbox: Max objectives = 6.
• Sandbox: Added abandonment of objectives.
• Sandbox: All messages can be deleted after you have finished interacting with them.
• Sandbox: Increased starting money.
• Balance: Staff talks now have difficulty levels. Low skilled staff will find high difficulty talks very time-consuming. Guests will wander off if a talk is too long and you will receive only partial point income.
• Balance: High value food and drink dispensers and massage chairs can break down.
• Balance: Decreased breakdown rate increase on higher difficulties. (hard:10%, brutal:25% faster breakdowns).
• Balance: Food, drink and gift shop default margins are now 200% (increased revenue from these sources). The highest value food and drink base values were decreased though.
• Balance: Added negative thoughts when a guest cannot reach the exit and when an unfulfilled need is making them want to go home.
• Balance: Larger decorations have a much greater prestige enjoy chance (internal and external)
• Balance: Decoration prestige enjoy change affects cost.
• Balance: Increased prestige difference between ranks to allow for increased prestige gain from decorations and paint.
• Balance: Guest entrance rate is now constant for a given prestige value, even if distance between ranks is modified by DLC or campaign level.
• Balance: Increased prestige from feeding tank (FF).
• Balance: Slightly increased entrance ticket rates at ranks 1-6.
• Balance: Slightly reduced prestige value of biggest decorations and increased cost.
• Balance: Tweaked some animals sizes.
• Balance: Gift shop shelves now arrive empty. But they cost less.
• Balance: Higher value gift shop items have a lower chance of attracting guests, you need to keep guests near them longer to get the sale!
• Balance: Tool dispensers sell for 0 if they are empty.
• UI: Split disallowed skill levels into different roles.
• UI: Added hotkey to 'copy object'.
• UI: Added hotkey to 'copy paint'.
• UI: Added tooltip to prestige value on prestige window. Tells you your current base prestige.
• UI: Added build menu category to all objects when you hover over the (i) or the portrait on its individual window.
• UI: Improved message formatting.
• UI: Added many additional icons to non-animal game objects to better describe their behaviour.
• UI: Added thousand separators to many numbers.
• UI: Objects in the build menu always have the default blue theme.
• Graphics: People smoothly transition between different floor heights.
• Graphics: People show the object they are holding when you pick them up.
• Fixed bug: Poster not updating when animals are added to attached tank.
• Fixed bug: 'Floating stuff'
• Fixed bug: entrance flag waving.
• Fixed bug: sound load paths are escaped so any path can be valid.
• Fixed bug: delete bench with guest on it, guest animation resets and item follows guest.
• Fixed bug: dislikes food competitors requirement was always met for growing up purposes.
• Fixed bug: FF aquascaping types were not increasing costs. FF aquascaping has therefore become more expensive.
• Stability: Check for missing staff members on load to avoid error.
• Stability: Clamp staff talents and skills at 50 (even via modding).
• Optimisation: Improved loading time of staff manage tab.
• Optimisation: Spread out objective checking code.

[ 2021-11-11 11:03:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Architect's Collection will launch alongside a huge update the base game on 11th November 2021. In the last post I went in-depth on the new sandbox mode. This time I'll shed some light on the other most exciting new features.

External decorating

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed in the trailer and screenshots that some of the guests are paying more attention to decorations outside your tanks than before.
Previously, decorations only earned you prestige when a guest viewed them inside a tank, but once this update goes live they will earn you prestige when placed externally too. One of the neat things about launching this alongside the Architect's Collection is that the expansion contains a set of dividers (like the velvet rope you can see in the picture above) that can be used to cordon off your decorations while still allowing your guests to view them. Fun fact: guests can view external decorations from up to 3 tiles away!

Paints earn prestige

Staying on the theme of making the spaces between your tanks as important as the tanks themselvesin the new update paints will earn you prestige! As your guests traverse your aquarium they will note all the painted objects they encounter (including the floor itself). Once they have encountered a sufficient amount of an individual paint, they'll earn you some prestige. I really like this mechanic because it rewards you for making a beautiful aquariumsomething you'll probably want to be doing anyway. I also like the way it requires a build up of a single paint style which incentivises you to theme your aquarium in blocks - much like a real aquarium! NB If you're not a paint enthusiast, don't worry! Painting is not mandatory. It's just another opportunity to convert your design skill into prestige.

Arrows

I've upgraded the floor arrow to give a more intuitive behaviour. It attracts guests to it and then sends them on their way in a straight line in the direction it points. Guests will explore all the attractions in an area first, before paying attention to the floor arrow. This makes floor arrows really helpful for moving guests along to the next area, rather than dawdling about getting lost! Overall this new behaviour is more transparent and provides better feedback than the old arrows did, so it's easier to tweak them to your liking.

One-way gates

I've wanted to add one-way gates to the game for a long time. They are another example of a deceptively simple idea which took a significant system rewrite to get working. The result is really nice though.
You can use these gates to enforce a one-way system around a small part of, or even your entire aquarium! Thankfully staff can still pass through the gate in either direction. With their inclusion it's easy to automatically trap guests so they cannot leave. To combat this I've included some new negative guests thoughts when guests want to leave but cannot find a path to the exit. So be warned: while it's very easy to trap guests inside your aquarium, your prestige will take a significant hit if you try it. ;)

Per-skill task controls

This one is straight out of the community suggestion inbox. Previously you could prohibit a staff from carrying out tasks of certain skill levels. However, this was applied to all roles at once.
This meant that if a staff member was good at fixing but poor at feeding, you couldn't prevent them from doing the high skill feeding tasks without also stopping them doing the fixing ones too! In response to player feedback I have split this control so there is a separate set of toggles for each role. I'm so pleased with how Megaquarium continues to evolve. Thank you all for your ongoing attention, I hope you enjoy everything when it goes live on November 11th. Tim

[ 2021-11-06 17:27:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Architect's Collection will launch alongside a huge update to the base game on 11th November 2021. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1339440/Megaquarium_Architects_Collection/ In this post we'll take an in-depth look at the changes I've made to sandbox mode as part of this update. Before we get started I'd just like to clearly state that this update will be available to all players regardless of whether they own any of the expansions.

A scalable sandbox

I had many goals when redesigning the sandbox mode. Primarily I wanted to create a more scalable sandboxone that could respond to however many expansions or mods you have installed. Secondarily I wanted to create a more responsive and varied sandbox, where every playthrough is different and where the challenges and opportunities you are offered depend on your actions as a player.

Unlimited opportunities

One of the problems with the previous sandbox mode was that there were a finite number of opportunities (side-objectives, trades and merchants) that appeared in your inbox. These opportunities were linked to your prestige value rather than time, so even if you spent a lot of time at the same rank, no new opportunities would appear. The first change I made was to unlink the opportunity generation from prestige and have them become available based on the passage of time instead. This means that, if you wait long enough, eventually every single animal will be available via an opportunity, even if you have hundreds of animals from various expansions and mods.

More responsive, more varied

If we are generating new side-objectives etc. as we go along, rather than at pre-determined prestige levels, we can also make those objectives respond to other factors within the simulation. For example, the game might offer an objective which encourages the player to use an animal or item they've not used yet.
The game can also create progressive objectives challenging the player to keep pushing further in various metrics such as animal diversity, combined point totals or guest count. To achieve this I have designed a system where objective "styles" can be defined. These comprise:

• A set of conditions which need to be true for the objective to be offered.
• A reward definition which allows an appropriate reward to be chosen based on the current state of the aquarium.
• A set of objective goals which can also be programmed to adjust based on the current state of the aquarium.

Put all this together and you have a system capable of incredible variety while also being responsive to ensure balance and good gameplay.

Highly moddable

It won't be a surprise, then, to learn that this system is incredibly moddable. I've covered all the basics so that all animals will fit into one opportunity or another. But a modder could be much more targeted and specific. Imagine a mod which adds 1 or 2 animals but also includes special objectives which are the only way to obtain said animals. This is 100% possible. I'm excited to see what modders are able to do with this!

Rarity factor

One of the things I'm most excited about with the launch of this new sandbox is the creation of more of a rarity factor among animals in the game. Unless you set animal availability to "Everything Available" when creating the sandbox, a selection of animals will be excluded so that they are not available to unlock with ecology. Previously this selection was purely random, but with this update, the selection is now based on a rarity factor for each animal. Put simply, it's much less likely for you to be able to access high prestige animals like whale sharks and ocean sunfish with simple ecology. Instead you're going to have to complete difficult objectives or trades for them. I think this will create a really nice rarity factor that I've wanted in the game for a long time.

Expansion-specific objectives

Finally, I'm pleased to announce that both Freshwater Frenzy and the Architect's Collection will include unique sandbox objectives that only appear if you have the expansions active. For example, with Freshwater Frenzy active, you'll be offered special breeding objectives from the master breeder himself Emmanuel Tosh!
Likewise, with the Architect's Collection, you'll be offered architect challenges where you are incentivised to make use of all the new content in the collection. This model allows me to create tailored content for each expansion, all accessible simultaneously via sandbox mode. With each new expansion the gameplay becomes richer, more varied and hopefully more fun! So that just about sums things up. For me this update is integral to the future of Megaquarium. Just like the optimisation updates earlier this year, it creates a foundation upon which future content can be built. I'm thrilled to share it with you finally. Tim

[ 2021-10-31 10:32:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Introducing the Architect's Collection: a brand new expansion for Megaquarium! [previewyoutube=lOakY29Qask;full][/previewyoutube] I'm going to talk about the design process for some of the key features later in the post but before we get started, head over to the store page for a full rundown. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1339440/Megaquarium_Architects_Collection/ The expansion will be priced at $7.99 or your regional equivalent and will launch on 11th November 2021 on both GOG and Steam. Remember to wishlist if you want to be notified when it goes live! steamhappy This expansion will be launching alongside a big upgrade to the base game introducing more quality of life features as well as some brand new mechanics. More on those another time.

Spaces between the tanks

Now I love designing tanks in Megaquarium as much as the next person, but wouldn't it be cool if you could spend as much care and attention over the design of the spaces between the tanks? This is what the Architect's Collection, and the update that releases alongside it, are all about.

Layering up

You may not realise, but up until this point Megaquarium has been limited to just a single layer of objects. In other words, you can't build objects on top of one-another. For an expansion all about architecture and design, this limitation had to go!
It took a major system rewrite but adding multiple layer functionality paves the way for all manner of new objects in the game. Without it, archways, roofs, bridges and tunnels simply wouldn't be possible.

Over and under

Have you ever built yourself into a corner? You finally finish that Mega Tank and then you realise there's no route for your guests to continue their journey further into your aquarium. Enter bridges and tunnels...
This is just one of the many uses of bridges and tunnels! I also think they add so many possibilities in terms of layout, design and aesthetic.

Paintable = Customizable

Painting offers a wonderful opportunity to make our aquariums unique. It was only earlier this year when designing this expansion that I realised how powerful this tool could be. By making almost every object included in the expansion paintable (major props to my artist here as this was not the easiest task!) it allows almost infinite creative possibilities. Plus it gets better, all paints are back-compatible, so as new paints are added in the future the creative space grows even more.

Aquatic VIPs

Let's talk about the animals. This expansion was the perfect opportunity to go all out on the inclusions. If you're an aquatic enthusiast, you will already know and love so many of the animals on this list. If Megaquarium is your entry point to the world of aquatic life - well you're in for a treat, this eclectic mix of the weird and wonderful may just ignite an interest you didn't realise you had.

Designed for Sandbox

We believe the Architect's Collection is best enjoyed alongside the content from other expansions (both past and hopefully future!). For this reason we decided that a standalone campaign wasn't the right fit. Instead, the Architect's Collection is launching alongside a huge update to the game's sandbox mode! My goal: to generate a campaign-like experience but where all your expansions (and even mods) can intermingle to create the deepest and most varied experience possible. I will be releasing a separate post specifically about the new sandbox mode closer to release, but here's a taste of what to expect:
Until then, Tim Twice Circled

[ 2021-10-25 18:03:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Summer has officially ended, and the weather is getting colder. But does that also happen under the sea? I am no aquatic expert, but I do know that during winter the oceanwater feels warmer even than in summer. However the deeper you dive into the waters of the world, the colder it gets. This Fishblast we will be looking into the cold water of Megaquarium. So gear up and dive right in!

Community build

Last month we did have an amazing challenge for you all that celebrated the 3 year anniversary of Megaquarium. However only one could win this challenge. In the end ClaghornTull took the victory with their complete aquarium.
ClaghornTull took the challenge in their hands and decided to create larger areas that displayed animals for each theme we gave them. The modded area was created in a way to represent a museum and that just blew us away! A very spacious and minimalistic concept that really shows off the animals in the build. Congratulations ClaghornTull!

Try and build this!

Often people are looking for challenges. Sometimes having no idea what to create. This short segment will give you some guides to unfold your very own creativity. Are you ready to give it a try? Try and build this: A dive into the ocean themed aquarium How to build this:

• Start with shallow tanks and slowly make them deeper the further your guests go into your aquarium.
• Use darker paints the deeper the guests go.
• Do research on what fish live in each layer of the ocean to make them fitting to the place your guests are at.
• Use a lot of corners to keep your guests surprised to see what is coming next.
• Large tanks often need seating area for guests to sit down and watch your fish go by.

Goodluck with building!

Mod Spotlight

By now we all know that the community can create insane things that really help your builds to another level. But some mod creators boost this even further. They create expansion packs that hold everything you would ever need in that theme. An example of this is...

Northern Plunge by Flishster

Adding over 30 new freshwater species, new scenery and even a campaign for you to play through!

[Click here to discover this awesome mod]

Fishypedia

Common Name: Wolf Eel or Wolffish

Scientific Name: Anarhichas lupus

Range: Atlantic Ocean Habitat: Bottom of the ocean floor near rocks and caves Size: up to 150cm (5ft) Diet: Molluscs and crustaceans

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Cold waters
• Water quality at least 75%
• Crustacean Eater
• Feeding Skill: 1
• Likes Cave: 7

Fun facts:

• They sometimes get itchy skin and can be seen swimming upside down rubbing their backs on rocks to scratch the itch.
• Wolf eels are very friendly to divers, despite their dangerous looks.
• Wolf eels are not real eels, they are long skinny fish.
• Young are brick red with bright orange and purple highlights.
• Octopus and wolf eels often compete for den space.

How does it work?

In this segment we are looking into the life behind the scenes of machinery or tasks that happen in public aquariums. We might ponder the question: How do UV filters work? Or investigate the breeding progress of a certain species. For this months How does it work we will be looking into how a Chiller works in tanks. In tanks a chiller is used to keep the temperature of the water down to a specific level. In the hobby, chillers are also used to stabilize the temperatures of tropical tanks to prevent overheating and killing the corals active in that tank. But how do they work? They work in a similar way as a refrigerator. Water is pumped through the chiller. All heat is removed via a heat exchanger that pumps out the warm air through a vent in the back. The water is being pumped in via a hose and pumped out through another hose. In small tanks often they must be linked to an external filter, but in big public aquaria the filter is often included in the chilling machine. Luckily, we do not have to link a chiller to a filter/pump first in Megaquarium. In real life you set a temperature to the machine that you wish to keep your tank at. The bigger your tank is, the larger your chiller has to be as well to keep the temperature down. In Megaquarium we would sometimes have to build a second chiller to keep our fish in a lovely, chilled tank.
Chillers are quite expensive as cooling something down is much harder than heating it up. But considering they help your expensive collections alive; it might just be worth the investment. Just know that a heater and chiller do fight! They will both try to get their pre-set temperature through the tank and if it differs from the other they might just be turned on at all times and cost a lot of electricity or even defects that could harm your tanks. But even for those issues, there are machines to help control that. Hope you learned something new on how chillers work. What would you like to learn about in public aquaria next time? -- Want to be more involved in our community? Join our [Discord] and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast. See you in the next one! Your community liaison, Timmiegun

[ 2021-10-01 17:00:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Birthday to Megaquarium.. Happy Birthday to Megaquarium.. Oh hi! Sorry, I completely forgot this was on record. Welcome back to a brand new Fishblast. I hope you had an amazing summer, I did! But here we are releasing a new read for you all about Megaquarium turning 3 years old on September 13th. Time flies when you are under the water. We have some amazing creations for you all, looking back at the beginning of the game. Many of you learned about the game only in the last couple of years, but there are a few that have been following the game since before it was even released. We fondly remember the video blogs over on the Twice Circled YouTube channel, showing the game as it was developed. What an amazing run we have had so far, and we are all looking forward to seeing what the creator, Tim Twice Circled, has in store for us next!

Community build

To celebrate this special moment in the life of Megaquarium, wed like to show you a very special build. User Flash on the Megaquarium Discord was the very first to share their Megaquarium build. So why not celebrate with looking at this special milestone!
Can you tell how much the game changed since? You all became very creative with your builds, and the game evolved a lot since the start. What was your very first build in Megaquarium? Let us know in the comments!

Mod Spotlight

When the workshop was opened for Megaquarium, the developer Twice Circled released the very first mod, to show us how to make mods! However, shortly after the very first mod on the workshop came from user stlnegril9 They added a brand-new tank for us to house our jellyfish in!

Rounder Kriesel Tank by stlnegril9

Introducing a tall tank that gives all your jellyfish the space to float around! Click here to discover this unique mod].

Fishypedia

Common Name: Black Pacu

Scientific Name: Colossoma macropomum

Range: The Amazon and Orinoco Habitat: Rivers Size: Up to 100 cm (3 feet 5) Diet: Fruits, seeds, zooplankton

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Tropical waters
• Water quality at least 45%
• PH either Neutral or Acidic
• Plant Destroyer: 3
• Likes Plants:: 5
• Active Swimmer
• Open Space: 3
• Greedy

Fun facts:

• The Black Pacu is also known as the Tambaqui.
• Pacu and Piranha are very similar, however one eats meat and the other eats plants.
• Pacu have human-like teeth that are used to crack open nuts to eat.

Special building challenge

On the official Megaquarium Discord, we have a unique building contest going! Honouring the Megaquarium 3 year Anniversary. The challenge is shown below, but for all the information head over to the discord to participate!
We cannot wait to see your creations. Feel free to post them in our discord or upload your images on to the screenshot page for Megaquarium on the steam page! -- Want to be more involved in our community? Join our [Discord] and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast. See you in the next one! Your community liaison, Timmiegun

[ 2021-09-02 14:32:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

The main reason for this patch is the first bullet below. Otherwise it's just a few tweaks and bug fixes that I've come across while working on new content. ;)

Changelog

• Rolled back Unity version to 2019.4.24f1 as it was causing a crash on some users' systems.
• Fixed bug: Partitions and walls drop down again when you exit 1st person.
• Graphics: fbx.alwaysVisible applies in normal mode as well as 1st person.
• Modding: multisize specs without sound behaviour will not throw exception during load.
• Added the word 'Paint' to Freshwater Frenzy paints so they follow same naming convention as base game paints.

[ 2021-08-02 14:25:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey and welcome back to a brand new summer edition of the Fishblast! We are going to be looking into some fantastic creations by our modding community and building creations by the designers hidden in our community.

Community build

As summer has arrived for most of us, we wanted to see how you could create something that feels very summer-like but in an aquarium. User 100_pourcent on the Megaquarium Discord did just that with a fantastic build!
By using various paints, tank-types and mods they created a beach-themed aquarium. I will just try to avoid sticking my toes in the floor tanks.
All the small details really make this type of build work. How long did it take you to realize this was made in Megaquarium?
Are you going to try something similar? What do you think? Tell us in the comments.

Mod Spotlight

In the theme of summer, one of the things I instantly think of is: colours! Summer is always lovely, bright and happy colourations everywhere. So what better way to share a mod by using this creation by Irritating Fish! This mod was created for a modding challenge on the discord with the theme: Small Fish.

Blue - Reef Rainbow by Irritating Fish

Introducing 7 colourful fish for any beach-party!

• Redcoat (Sargocentron rubrum)
• Dispar Anthias (Pseudanthias dispar)
• Golden Hamlet (Hypoplectrus gummigutta)
• Belted Wrasse (Stethojulis balteata)
• Blue Hamlet (Hypoplectrus gemma)
• Purple Reeffish (Chromis scotti)
• Western Gobbleguts (Ostorhinchus rueppellii)

With these fish you too can enjoy a colourful day under the water! [Click here to release this mod pack into your aquarium].

Bubble-Tea Time

As a new segment for the Fishblast we would like to interview one of our members from the community and learn about their experiences with the game. Today we will be talking to SaltbrushC a member that has been around for quite a time and has created various mods for the community. Q: When did you learn about Megaquarium? A: I watched YouTuber GrayStillPlays as they played the game in April 2019 I believe! Q: What aspect of the game made you buy it? A: I have always loved fish and other aquatic animals, and the style of the game was just intriguing. I was absolutely thrilled at the idea of putting sea lettuce in a tank. The animals were neat as well but it was the artstyle of the overall game that I initially liked. Q: What is your favourite thing to do in Megaquarium? A: Well, if I'm honest, it's modding. Although I do have some ideas for builds that I either am too lazy to make or can't figure out how to make. Sometimes I'm missing something that I want for a build, which causes me to try and add it through a mod. Q: Is there a species you always use in your buildings? A: I often include Coral Groupers, Clownfish, and Purple Queen Anthias in reef sections which are usually all I end up actually making. For the freshwater DLC: I love having Giant Hatchetfish and Fan Shrimp. Q: Do you have any tips or tricks for the community to share? A: I always use deep wall tanks or other wall tanks and make them really wide, I just like the feeling of gallery-like tanks that are extended along a wall.

Fishypedia

Common Name: Green Sea Turtle

Scientific Name: Chelonia mydas

Range: Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Ocean Habitat: Near reefs and in water above 10 Degree Celsius Size: up to 150 cm (5 feet) Weight: 68190 kg (150419 lb) Diet: Omnivorous (Carnivore as a young, Herbivore as an adult)

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Tropical waters
• Water quality at least 55%
• Armored
• Likes Plants
• Green Pellet Eater
• Active Swimmer
• Requires Feeding Skill 2

Fun facts:

• The green turtle is the largest species of hard-shelled turtles, and is the second largest of all sea turtles.
• Sea turtles lay their eggs in a nest they dig in the sand with their rear flippers. The group of eggs is called a clutch.
• The temperature of the eggs determines if the turtle becomes a male or female at hatching. Colder incubation temperatures create males, while warmer incubation temperatures create females!
• Green turtles are named after their green-coloured fat, which they get from their herbivorous diet of seagrass and algae.

Monthly building challenge

Last month we asked you to do an aquascaping challenge and we found an awesome tank for you! User SwornEnemy79 created this lovely aquascaped tank using the mods we provided for you.

The theme of next months build is: "Open Ocean"

If you're struggling for ideas on where to start, why not post in the comments, Steam discussions or pop on the game's [discord] and ask for a helping hand. :) We cant wait to see your creations. Feel free to post them in our discord or upload your images on to the screenshot page for Megaquarium. -- Want to be more involved in our community? Join our [discord] and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast. Have a great summer! Your community liaison, Timmiegun

[ 2021-07-06 17:00:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changelog

• Rolled back Steamworks version to previous version as it was causing a crash on some users' systems.

[ 2021-06-29 09:21:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

A small patch with a few bug fixes.

Changelog

• Fixed bug - couldn't click anything after offering incorrect trade item.
• Improved robustness of simulation with additional error catching.

[ 2021-06-14 09:04:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

A small patch with a few bug fixes.

Changelog

• Fixed bug - cashflow was appearing garbled when PC culture set to French.
• Fixed bug - breeding animal numbers incrementing additional times.
• Fixed bug - animation blending was not working in multithreaded rendering mode.
• Fixed bug - custom menu categories were not searchable.
• Fixed bug - when placing a rotated object, sometimes it would appear in non-rotated position for a split second before being placed - this issue may only have occurred in multithreaded rendering mode.

[ 2021-06-08 16:30:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

After spending the last 4 weeks in beta, v2.2.2 is now live for all players. Thank you to everybody who took part in the beta and provided feedback. I'm thrilled to hear so many of you are enjoying a boost in performance! Below is a copy-paste of the original announcement posted when the beta was launched, for anybody that missed it. All these changes are now live for all players.

Optimisations and more

This update is all about building a foundation upon which Megaquarium can continue to grow. After the launch of the remarkably popular DLC, Freshwater Frenzy, last year and the continued success of the game's Steam Workshop, it became clear to me that some parts of the game needed a significant overhaul if the game was going to be able to continue to grow.

Performance boost!

The major feature this update is a big performance boost which should allow every player out there to build bigger aquariums and enjoy a smoother framerate while they do it. The exact improvement you will experience will depend on your specific hardware, but I'm expecting most players to see a 50-100% boost in average FPS. This has been achieved by a complete rewrite of the game's rendering engine. Almost every object in the game (including modded objects, more details below) are now integrated into my own specialised rendering pipeline. This pipeline takes advantage of direct memory manipulations to get the vast arrays of mesh data from where they are stored to where they need to be, in record time. In addition, much of the per-vertex computation (offset, rotation, scaling and animation blending) has been shifted onto the GPU to lesson the load on the CPU. If that weren't enough, I've introduced an experimental feature called 'Multithreaded rendering'. This feature is designed for players with CPUs with at least 4 physical cores. In this case, 3rd and 4th cores will be used to do rendering calculations, freeing up even more headspace for the main two cores. The trade-off is that this feature may cause a slight animation delay, especially on less powerful PCs. If you try it out, let me know what you think. Believe it or not, there is still further optimisation to be done - especially around pathfinding and memory allocations. But I decided to leave these for a future update so that you, the players, could start enjoying this one!

UI redesign - bigger text

The secondary feature of this update is a redesign of much of the game's UI to devote maximum space to text and maintain a minimum text size wherever possible. This was made a priority after several players came forward complaining of having difficulty reading the text in some areas of the game, especially on lower resolutions. Check out the following before and after screenshots to get a feel for the impact of these changes.

The effects are most noticeable if you open the two images in two separate tabs and flick between them. I hope you'll agree that the changes are significant and make a big difference to the ease of reading all those complicated tank stats! In some places, where the text is too long to display in full, the text is truncated and an ellipses (...) is added. Most of the time, the full text can be seen via a tooltip when hovering over the text. Finally, a small feature that has been requested several times over the years: there is now a setting which makes the per object count in the build menu visible at all times without needing to hover over it. Like the performance boost, these improvements are about getting the foundations of the game into a great place so it can continue to grow.

What's next?

The perceptive among you will notice that I keep alluding to the idea of the game "growing" in this post. I think it's finally time to announce that new content is indeed in the works. I'm tremendously excited about it and can't wait to start sharing the details with you, but that will have to wait for another time. A big thank you to everyone who's been waiting so patiently. steamhappy

Modding

I've worked hard to try to make the optimisations included in this update as compatible with mods as possible. With that in mind, mods are now automatically assigned a "voCollection" on load to enable them to integrate with the custom rendering pipeline. This means that mods should now run roughly as fast as vanilla objects!* *Models will still run slower the more meshes and vertices there are, so try to keep these to a minimum where possible. In my testing of over 30 of the most popular mods, I didn't find a single mod that failed to work with the update installed. However, I did discover some mods which are "incompatible" with the optimisations. These mods continue to work but could cause the game to run slow, so they are marked with an 'unoptimised' icon in the Mod Manager. Thankfully this should be easily remedied. Currently the only cause of incompatibility is the use of multiple materials within a single mesh. To make a model compatible, the modder needs to divide meshes up so that each one only has a single material. Additional sources of incompatibility may be discovered, so please check the game's log file and the mod's info panel for issues with specific mods. If you spot any issues with any particular mods while playing with the new update, then please let me know via the Megaquarium Workshop Forums and I will see if I can solve the issue. The changelogs associated with this update can be found here: v2.2.0 v2.2.1 v2.2.2

[ 2021-06-03 11:21:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome back to another Fishblast, this month's edition is all about extinct creatures. We will be looking into some amazing things the community has done with the theme. Did you know that Megaquarium has a very active extinct creature modding community? You will read all about it here in the Fishblast!

Community build

Imagine a public aquarium, but when you walk up to the first tanks you see extinct animals. You would be confused right? Maybe a bit amazed as well. User Paleodude on the Megaquarium Discord showed us a lovely creation using various extinct marine creatures.
They created a lovely small facility that could show the beginning of a public display that focuses on extinct animals returning to the current times. With the big open area, guests can see what to expect during their visit.
Do you like this lovely creation as well? Let us know in the comments!

Mod Spotlight

In the theme of extinct animals, this mod spotlight will focus on a collection of animals that could be readily housed in modern aquaria if they were alive today. All the animals included in this mod come from the Green River Formation, and lived about 50 million years ago.

Artificialis - Paleogene Collection by Tenth Architect

Introducing fifteen new species of extinct animals for your tanks.

• Amyzon gosiutensis
• Apalone heteroglypta
• Borealosuchus wilsoni
• Crossopholis magnicaudatus
• Diplomystus dentatus
• Heliobatis radians
• Hypsidoris farsonensis
• Knightia alta
• Lepisosteus simplex
• Notogoneus osculus
• Phareodus encaustus
• Presbyornis pervetus
• Priscacara serrata
• Procambarus primaevus
• Tsoabichi greenriverensis

With these animals, your guests will get a peek into the distant past! [Click here to discover this mod pack].

Fishypedia

Common Name: Chambered Nautilus

Scientific Name: Nautilus pompilius

Range: Indo Pacific Ocean Habitat: Shallow Seas (Maximum of 2000 feet) Size: up to 20 cm (8 inch) Diet: Live prey and carrion

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Cold waters
• Water quality at least 85%
• Dislikes Lights
• Greedy
• Wimp
• Armored
• Congeners Only
• Requires Feeding Skill 3

Fun facts:

• Nautilus are considered living fossils and have been around for hundreds of millions of years.
• A Nautilus moves by jet-propulsion by blowing out water through a siphon. Position of the siphon decides the direction of the nautilus: front, back, upward or descending.
• Nautilus have 90 tentacles, situated outside the shell to catch and manipulate their prey.

Monthly building challenge

For the monthly building challenges we would like to challenge you in a different way this month. We have carefully selected a few mods from the workshop and want you to create a singular tank using vanilla items and only these mods. By doing this you can practice with new ways of decorating tanks.

The theme of next months build is: "Freshwater Aquascaping"

• Must be a freshwater tank
• Only use mods that are in [this collection]
• If you're struggling for ideas on where to start, why not post in the comments, Steam discussions or pop on the game's [discord] and ask for a helping hand. :)

We cant wait to see your creations. Feel free to post them in our discord or upload your images on to the screenshot page for Megaquarium. -- Want to be more involved in our community? Join our [discord] and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast. See you in the next one! Your community liaison, Timmiegun

[ 2021-06-01 17:00:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've just updated the [beta] branch with what is hopefully the final patch before v2.2 comes out of beta. This patch (v2.2.2) includes some pathfinding optimisations, guest behaviour improvements, fixes a couple of bugs and also include translations for all languages.

Changelog

• Fixed bug - if a mod caused an animation error, it would cause the animations of all the following objects to stop working. Now, only the modded object itself will stop working.
• Fixed bug - after selecting and deselecting a paint, all items on people could be picked up with the move tool for a limited time.
• Fixed bug - stopped a harmless "collection modified while iterating error" from occuring.
• Simulation (Freshwater Frenzy) - Changed Electric Eel starting size so that it eats size 3 animals.
• Simulation - starfish eater size ratio changed to 40% (same as fish eater and crustacean eater) for consistency.
• Simulation/optimisation - when attracted to an object, guests will choose a random square within range, rather than always the closest one. This creates a more natural looking behaviour and also makes it more likely for guests to view a tank from interesting locations like the middle of bridges and tunnels, rather than always going to the closest square.
• Optimisation - added a maximum range to the guest pathfinding algorithm equal to the maximum range of the object which is attracting the guest. This saves a significant amount of computation in the case where the pathfind is impossible e.g. glass edges of tanks which are inaccessible. In particular, this change will make Mega Tanks run a lot faster.
• Modding - Mods which contain geometry with no material assigned no longer stop the game from loading and force the player to disable all mods. Instead the geometry is ignored during the load process and a warning is shown in the mod info panel if you are the mod's creator.
• Modding - Added 200 chars to Chinese Atlas for modding purposes.

[ 2021-05-26 08:44:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

First of all a big thank you to everybody who has been getting involved in the public beta and offering up feedback. I've just updated the [beta] branch with a small patch (v2.2.1) that aims to correct a couple of things that have come up.

Changelog

• Fixed bug - stopped warning bubbles above tanks from querying the simulation more than once before the simulation had replied. This was causing a build of queries on the simulation thread which was causing the simulation to freeze while the rest of the game kept running - fun fact: this was introduced because the recent optimisation update made the main thread run so much faster! steamfacepalm
• Optimisation - increased performance of some simulation thread code.
• Fixed bug which was causing some weird behaviour when reordering mods in the Mod Manager.
• Fixed bug which caused the position of the animal when being picked up to be incorrect in perspective mode.
• Fixed bug which caused a harmless warning in the log: "Material doesn't have a texture property '_MainTex'".

[ 2021-05-07 13:41:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

v2.2.0 is now live on the public beta branch. To access all the features detailed below simply right click on the game in your library -> Properties -> Betas -> Select Beta from the dropdown list.

Beta notes

• If it doesn't appear right away, try restarting Steam.
• A beta branch is also available via GOG Galaxy.
• The aim of a beta is to allow players early access to new features on the understanding that there may be minor bugs.
• If you do encounter a bug it's unlikely to be game-breaking, but it's still recommended to either start a new save, or make a back up save of your current game before updating to the beta.
• To help this update move out of beta as quickly as possible, consider reporting any bugs you do find on the Steam forums in the Bug Reports subtopic.
• The update is back-compatible in both directions, so if for some reason you need to roll back to the previous version, your save file should still load.
• If you use a lot of mods, please read the section at the end of this announcement for some extra information.

Optimisations and more

This update is all about building a foundation upon which Megaquarium can continue to grow. After the launch of the remarkably popular DLC, Freshwater Frenzy, last year and the continued success of the game's Steam Workshop, it became clear to me that some parts of the game needed a significant overhaul if the game was going to be able to continue to grow.

Performance boost!

The major feature this update is a big performance boost which should allow every player out there to build bigger aquariums and enjoy a smoother framerate while they do it. The exact improvement you will experience will depend on your specific hardware, but I'm expecting most players to see a 50-100% boost in average FPS. This has been achieved by a complete rewrite of the game's rendering engine. Almost every object in the game (including modded objects, more details below) are now integrated into my own specialised rendering pipeline. This pipeline takes advantage of direct memory manipulations to get the vast arrays of mesh data from where they are stored to where they need to be, in record time. In addition, much of the per-vertex computation (offset, rotation, scaling and animation blending) has been shifted onto the GPU to lesson the load on the CPU. If that weren't enough, I've introduced an experimental feature called 'Multithreaded rendering'. This feature is designed for players with CPUs with at least 4 physical cores. In this case, 3rd and 4th cores will be used to do rendering calculations, freeing up even more headspace for the main two cores. The trade-off is that this feature may cause a slight animation delay, especially on less powerful PCs. If you try it out, let me know what you think. Believe it or not, there is still further optimisation to be done - especially around pathfinding and memory allocations. But I decided to leave these for a future update so that you, the players, could start enjoying this one!

UI redesign - bigger text

The secondary feature of this update is a redesign of much of the game's UI to devote maximum space to text and maintain a minimum text size wherever possible. This was made a priority after several players came forward complaining of having difficulty reading the text in some areas of the game, especially on lower resolutions. Check out the following before and after screenshots to get a feel for the impact of these changes.

The effects are most noticeable if you open the two images in two separate tabs and flick between them. I hope you'll agree that the changes are significant and make a big difference to the ease of reading all those complicated tank stats! In some places, where the text is too long to display in full, the text is truncated and an ellipses (...) is added. Most of the time, the full text can be seen via a tooltip when hovering over the text. Finally, a small feature that has been requested several times over the years: there is now a setting which makes the per object count in the build menu visible at all times without needing to hover over it. Like the performance boost, these improvements are about getting the foundations of the game into a great place so it can continue to grow.

What's next?

The perceptive among you will notice that I keep alluding to the idea of the game "growing" in this post. I think it's finally time to announce that new content is indeed in the works. I'm tremendously excited about it and can't wait to start sharing the details with you, but that will have to wait for another time. A big thank you to everyone who's been waiting so patiently. steamhappy

Modding

I've worked hard to try to make the optimisations included in this update as compatible with mods as possible. With that in mind, mods are now automatically assigned a "voCollection" on load to enable them to integrate with the custom rendering pipeline. This means that mods should now run roughly as fast as vanilla objects!* *Models will still run slower the more meshes and vertices there are, so try to keep these to a minimum where possible. In my testing of over 30 of the most popular mods, I didn't find a single mod that failed to work with the update installed. However, I did discover some mods which are "incompatible" with the optimisations. These mods continue to work but could cause the game to run slow, so they are marked with an 'unoptimised' icon in the Mod Manager. Thankfully this should be easily remedied. Currently the only cause of incompatibility is the use of multiple materials within a single mesh. To make a model compatible, the modder needs to divide meshes up so that each one only has a single material. Additional sources of incompatibility may be discovered during the beta, so please check the game's log file and the mod's info panel for issues with specific mods. If you spot any issues with any particular mods while playing with the new update, then please let me know via the Megaquarium Workshop Forums and I will see if I can solve the issue.

Localisations

There is some new text as part of this update which has not been localised yet. If you are playing the game in any language other than English, you may see a few bits of text that are in English. This is nothing to worry about and will be corrected prior to the update leaving beta.

v2.2.0 changlog

• New graphics pipeline for increased average framerate and increased capacity for on-screen game objects.
• Reduced memory allocations for reduction in frame spikes due to garbage collection.
• Added experimental feature: multithreaded rendering, accessible via the graphics options tab.
• UI redesign - increased text size, increased tooltip size, reduced empty space.
• UI redesign - Some text is truncated with an ellipses (...) but the full text can be read by hovering over it.
• UI redesign - space for icons in individual object window now changes based on number of icons. So when there are only 1 or 2 icons, only a single row of space is taken, but for tanks with 15+ icons it now has space for 4 rows so that everything is legible.
• UI redesign - Increased opacity of omni-present in-game buttons.
• Added a setting which makes the object count in the build menu visible at all times.
• Current Prestige value has more momentum and does not rise and fall so drastically. Your average prestige will remain the same but you won't experience the same oscillatory behaviour.
• New guest and staff models, there are now more combinations of guests and staff because glasses and hats have been divided into their own meshes.
• Some staff have had their hair style or color changed.
• Freshwater Frenzy - Breeding survival chance increased by 2% across the board.
• Freshwater Frenzy - Breeding survival chance affected by game difficulty. Easy +2%. Hard and Brutal -2%.
• Freshwater Frenzy - Added a place sound for fry and eggs.
• You can no longer assign LMB, RMB or MMB to hotkeys.
• Added a new tooltip to tell you how key assignment works on the key assignment tab in the options.
• Added a confirmation before starting a new game if one is already in progress.
• 'Browse Workshop' button in Mod Manager now scrolls so it doesn't overlap mods.
• Guests and staff can now be rotated while picked up.
• Reduced size of guest and staff colliders slightly so it is easier to select objects behind them.
• All scrollable menus have scroll speed capped at some value. The value can be edited via gui.data.
• Text for toggles in the build menu are now on one line in all languages.
• Dropdown menus now use full box height.
• Improved readability of downdown menu for podium.
• Added 5120x2160 as official resolution.
• Fixed bug where podium was not included in zone unless the access square was in the zone.
• Fixed bug where scrollable menus would effect each other when overlapping.
• Fixed bug where water in UI would distort text.
• Fixed bug tooltip for items on gift shop shelf window was wrong.
• Fixed bug where contents of Rank Up menu was not scaled correctly on non-1080p height monitors.
• Fixed bug in bounds calculation during load causing root rotations of geometry to be ignored.
• Fixed bug where objects won't make sounds after being picked up and dropped.
• Fixed bug where staff were not making a sound when they initiated feeding.
• Fixed bug where staff were making the sweeping sound when giving a staff talk.
• Fixed bug where staff would do a single frame of their last animation when they were dropped causing a flicker effect.
• Fixed bug where staff doing a fixing task while carrying some fish food would clip with the fish food.
• Fixed bug where top right toggle values were not being reset between games even though the UI made it look like they were.
• Fixed bug where guest thoughts would appear in English at the beginning of some levels, even if the languages was set to something else.
• Fixed bug where you could click a second level button after clicking a first. No effect, but animation would play.
• Fixed bug where if you pressed escape while a dropdown menu was open you could get stuck in the menu and not be able to cancel the dropdown.
• If using 'manual save path.txt' it is ignored if the slash after the drive letter colon is not present.
• Updated to Unity 2019.4.25f1.
• Updated to latest version of Steamworks.net.
• Modding - voCollection is automatically assigned when left blank. It is recommended to leave it blank and the game will assign the most optimal voCollection automatically.
• Modding - added 'unoptimised' icon and tooltip to Mod Manager for mods which have multiple materials in a single mesh. These objects are not assigned a voCollection and continue to run with the (slower) legacy graphics system.

[ 2021-05-05 11:08:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Good to see you again! We are back with some amazing works by the community. It has been a relaxed month for all of us, but we saw some amazing work that we wanted to share with you. Very soon we will also get an amazing optimization update to make your games run smoother! The theme of this month is Back in Time, focussing on the early days in the game. So starter animals and no mods! Are you excited?

Community build

For this months community build that fit the theme we asked our Discord members to create a vanilla build. No mods and therefore true to the games beginning. Creator Endy3032 made this nice aquarium for you to enjoy!
A small but cozy public aquarium. But as you can see, even without the usage of mods, you can make good looking tanks and facilities!
As you can see even in the early days we could create amazing builds. With the addition of the DLC and our workshop our works are only going to get nicer. What is your favourite decoration item in the vanilla game? Let us know in the comments.

Mod Spotlight

For this spotlight we want to give you a look at one of the oldest mods around in the workshop. One created by the early birds when the workshop just opened for this game. Crazy thought right?

Banana Moray Eel by HarryLMM

Introducing a brand-new species for your aquarium: Banana Moray Eel (Gymnothorax miliaris). This yellow moray is amazingly created and was one of the very first creatures we could download from the workshop.
Get this unique mod right [here].

Fishypedia

Common Name: Azure Demoiselle

Scientific Name: Chrysiptera hemicyanea

Range: Indo-West Pacific Habitat: Reefs Size: up to 7 cm (2.7 inch) Diet: Plankton and Algae

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Warm waters
• Eats Orange Pellet
• Water quality at least 50%

Fun facts:

• Damselfish are egg layers.
• First they clear a site ready for a nest, then engage in a mating dance with rapid swimming and fin movements, during this time the males will often turn a shade or two darker and may display white blotches. Spawning occurs at dawn.

Monthly building challenge

Each Fishblast we try to inspire you to try and create new things. Last month we asked you to try and give a go at the All around you theme! As you can see user Wolfi created an amazing Aquarium looks around all the fish!

The theme of next months build is: "Colourful Reefs"

• It can be a singular tank or a themed area
• You can use vanilla or add mods to spice up the build
• If you're struggling for ideas on where to start, why not post in the comments, Steam discussions or pop on the game's [discord] and ask for a helping hand. :)

We cant wait to see your creations. Feel free to post them in our discord or upload your images on to the screenshot page for Megaquarium. -- Want to be more involved in our community? Join our [discord] and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast. See you in the next one! Your community liaison, Timmiegun

[ 2021-05-03 09:22:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey there, welcome back to the third edition of the Fishblast. This time we have some amazing new creations for you to explore in the community. We will be talking about how to use heights in Megaquarium. Using those heights can really spice up your creations and challenge you to (literally) a whole new level.

Community builds

Heights can really add to your aquarium and spice up the way you and your visitors experience the creatures of the oceans. User RickReptile gave us an in-depth look at how he uses heights in their builds.
Using platforms and stairs, RickReptile created various viewing points for visitors to enjoy a tank from. By also having the Building Kit mod RickReptile was able to hide the supports for the platforms, this really adds to the idea of the second floor. RickReptile said to us: People have been requesting multiple floors since the release of the game. By being a little creative you can already achieve this as you can tell from the images. Using multiple floors will change your aquarium from stale looking to something more diverse and interesting.
Have you tried something similar yet? Or how would you use this technique in your aquarium? Let us know in the comments.

Mod Spotlight

Last month we looked at animals that love to live at the bottom of your tank. So lets take a look at those that live on the waters surface this time.

The World's Rivers Teaser - White-faced Whistling Duck by Irritating Fish

Introducing a brand-new species for your aquarium: White-faced Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna viduata). This mod adds ducks into your aquarium. Perfect to add some variety into your beach tanks, and have unique interactions between these feathery friends and the other animals living in their enclosure.
Get this unique mod right [here]. Note: You need Freshwater Frenzy to use this mod.

Fishypedia

Common Name: Giant Hatchetfish

Scientific Name: Thoracocharax securis

Range: Amazon Rivers Habitat: Ponds, swamps and rivers with heavy vegetation Size: up to 9 cm (3.5 inch) Diet: Mosquito larvae & bloodworms

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Warm waters
• Eats Brine Shrimp
• Wimp
• Shoaler of 3+
• Likes plants
• Likes floating cover
• Needs open space
• Water quality at least 80%

Fun facts:

• This species of Freshwater Hatchetfish is able to jump and glide over the water surface for almost 3 meters (9 feet)
• There are saltwater Hatchetfish (Sternoptychinae). However, these live in the deep sea. They are also not related to the freshwater Hatchetfish

Monthly building challenge

Each Fishblast we try to inspire you to try and create new things. Last month we asked you to create a dock! As you can see user Sardine created an amazing dock-themed viewing platform for a mangrove tank! The platforms used to create a dock floating on the water makes this such a creative build!

The theme of next months build is: "All around you"

• It can be a singular tank or a themed area
• You can use vanilla or add mods to spice up the build
• If you're struggling for ideas on where to start, why not post in the comments, Steam discussions or pop on the game's [discord] and ask for a helping hand. :)

If you're planning to take part in this month's building challenge, post in the comments below! We cant wait to see your creations. Feel free to post them in our discord or upload your images on to the screenshot page for Megaquarium. -- Want to be more involved in our community? Join our [discord] and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast. See you in the next one! Your community liaison, Timmiegun

[ 2021-04-01 17:00:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

A brand-new month and that means, another Fishblast! This edition we investigate an amazing community build and check out a great mod to add to your aquarium. But first we start off with some news for those that want to start making mods for the game.

Modding news

In the past month a big revolution happened regarding creating mods for our beloved game. User Synchrolight created a guide for making your own mods using Blender. This means that modding will be more accessible for Megaquarium and gives all of you a chance to make the fish and scenery you always wanted. [Click here for a tutorial on that] Awesome right?!

Community builds

You might have noticed that on the workshop there is a flood of mods being released within a regional theme every two weeks. After these two weeks we ask the members to build a themed area with the fish from that region. Today we take a look at the build of Ark-a-saurus Rex.
The builds theme was the freshwater fish of Melanesia, which is the region of Papua New Guinea and a few surrounding islands. In this region we know that there are a lot of rainbow fish, however, there is so much more to be seen. Ark-a-saurus Rex really captured the beauty of the region with a nice variety of tanks.

Mod Spotlight

In real life, every tank has multiple layers in which your fish prefer to live. While some like to explore at all depths, some only swim near the water surface or in the middle of the tank. However sometimes you want to have a fish that stays near the bottom. Reef tanks will instantly become more interesting when you must look for these creatures.

Ze Fush Company Goby by Amnaa

Introducing two new species of goby for your tanks. - Orange Stripe Prawn Goby (Amblyeleotris randalli) - Two Spot Goby (Signigobius biocellatus) By adding these into your tank, your guests will also have to look down and search for these rapid bottom dwellers!
Get this unique mod right [here].

Fishypedia

Common Name: Epaulette Shark

Scientific Name: Hemiscyllium ocellatum

Range: Australia and New Guinea Habitat: Shallow tropical waters Size: 70 to 90 cm (27 to 35 inches) Diet: Crustaceans, worms and small fish

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Warm waters
• Eats Sand Eel
• Rock Requirement +5
• Supplements
• Damages crustaceans
• Water quality at least 70%

Fun facts:

• This shark prefers to walk rather than swim, using its stiffened under-fins to walk across the sea-bed.
• Epaulettes can survive outside the water for three hours. And during this time, it can even walk back to the ocean!

Monthly building challenge

Next months edition will need a brand-new build to be featured. Submit your best build fulfilling the following theme and your aquarium could be in the next Fish Blast!

The theme of this challenge is: "The Docks"

• It can be a singular tank or a themed area
• You can use vanilla or add mods to spice up the build
• If you're struggling for ideas on where to start, why not post in the comments, Steam discussions or pop on the game's [discord] and ask for a helping hand. :)

If you're planning to take part in this month's building challenge, post in the comments below! We cant wait to see your creations. Feel free to post them in our discord or upload your images on to the screenshot page for Megaquarium. -- Want to be more involved in our community? Join our [discord] and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we will feature your work in the next FishBlast. See you in the next one! Your community liaison, Timmiegun

[ 2021-03-02 10:02:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone and welcome to the very first FishBlast. The FishBlast is your monthly update on what is happening within the Megaquarium community, their creations and more.

Community builds

Dont you love it, when the aquarium is well decorated, and the visitor emerses themselves in the theme of your aquarium? User 100_pourcent_clafoutis really showed us what your builds could look like by using some of the many mods on the Steam workshop. This cave-tunnel adds depth and style to your builds. Causing all your visitors to feel like they are in an underwater cave-adventure!




You might be wondering; these items are not in the game, are they? These are some of the top-notch mods that are available for you on the workshop. Look for the Building kit, Custom Rocks, and maybe you can create this build yourself!

Mod Spotlight

This editions spotlight will be focussed on a mod that changes the way your aquarium looks. Not in the way of the fish collection but the way you can display the fish. We are talking about the Raised Tanks mod by Flishter. These tanks change the way your aquarium looks by putting the tank floor on eye-level for your guests. Now everyone can easily spot those hermit crabs and look through the caves to see that one tiny chromis in the back of the tank. This really is a mod you would need to have in your game.
Build of the tank is by Bosjesman Get this amazing mod right here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1996820999&searchtext=raised

Fishypedia

Common Name: Spotted Boxfish

Scientific Name: Ostracion meleagris

Range: Indo-Pacific and predominately along the coast of Mexico Habitat: Lagoons and seaweed reefs Size: 15CM (6 inches) Diet: Small sponges, mollusks, algae, and other small marine life

Needs in Megaquarium:

• Warm waters
• Greedy
• Dislikes Food Competitors
• Armored

Fun facts:

• Males of the Spotted Boxfish are more likely to swim in open waters than females
• Juveniles of the Spotted Boxfish stay usually near rocky areas, while the adults tends to go near reef crests.
• All Juveniles are born as a female; some can change biologically to become males over time.

Want to be more involved in our community? Join our discord and share your works, we love seeing what you created and maybe we feature your work in the next FishBlast. https://discord.gg/jKpSJKA7Rh See you in the next one! Your community liaison, Timmiegun

[ 2021-02-05 11:01:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a little while since the last update so I thought I'd let you know what I've been working on.

Performance improvements - almost there!

I mentioned back in August that I've been working on a significant performance update. I've achieved what I originally set out to and am currently looking at a potential fps (frames per second) improvement of 64% over the current live version! However while working on this I've delved into the engine more and discovered that even greater gains could be possible. The figure mentioned above would probably only be available to those with quad core CPUs because it relies on a lot of multithreading. The next stage has the potential to deliver the same sort of performance to those with lesser systems by making greater use of the calculation potential of the graphics card. It's an exciting development and if all goes to plan should pave the way for bigger and better aquariums than ever! I'm hopeful to release the update early in 2021. Thank you for your patience!

A longer view

Beyond the performance update, there are many exciting things on the horizon. For starters, I have an ambitious redesign of the sandbox mode planned. My aims are to:

• Improve the way Sandbox mode interacts with DLC and mods. Lots to talk about here, maybe enough for an entire blog post! ;)
• Make a truly everlasting sandbox where trades and quests are generated forever rather than at specific prestige values.
• Increase the variety and complexity of side-objectives.

But these are just ideas. How would you like to see sandbox mode improved? I also want 2021 to be an even bigger year for Megaquarium than 2020! It'll be a tough year to beat, but I'm going to give it my best shot! I would love to be able to release new official content more often and I'm working on some ideas which might help with that. I'll hopefully have more to share next year. All that remains to be said is: Happy holidays!

[ 2020-12-18 17:03:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugs

• Fixed bug where you couldn't delete miscarriage reports.
• Fixed bug where some items would not appear in build menu at ultrawide resolutions.
• Fixed typo in 4. Valberg. "less" -> "fewer".
• Removed unused eater tags from midas cichlid.
• Reduced width of cashflow window so it can appear in very narrow resolutions.
• Staff with all level 10 skills will not create a level up message. Existing messages created before this patch will stay around.

Modding

• Fixed another issue that was preventing custom sounds in mods. Should be working now.

[ 2020-10-22 14:23:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

After spending the last week on the public beta branch, v2.1.1 is now live for everyone. Apart from a couple of minor bugs which I've now fixed, the latest update appears to be going down really well. Thank you to everybody who switched over to the beta branch to test the new features, I appreciate all of your feedback! I've posted the same information as appeared in the original beta announcement below, for reference.

New features - designed by you!

This update is crammed full of great suggestions that have come directly from the community. From an improved build menu interface to a button which allows you to toggle all your mods at once - this update is all about making it easier for you to play the game. A better interface allows you to concentrate on what's important - all of the fishies! For a full changelog see the bottom of this post, but first let's take a closer look at the heavy hitters.

Perspective mode

I mentioned this in the last dev blog but perspective mode is now live!
It's a subtle difference but for those who find the orthographic camera mode disorienting, this small change will make the game much more accessible. For the rest of us, it's a matter of personal preference.

Collapsible build menu categories

I wasn't 100% sure about this feature prior to implementing it, but I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.
It's now possible to collapse individual categories in the build menu so that you're not looking at everything at once. Coupled with a button at the top which allows you to collapse/expand all the categories at once, it's now really easy to find a particular group that you're interested in. I think this feature will be especially helpful to those players who have a lot of mods installed. NB Don't forget about the search function though! If you know the name of what you're looking for, the search function is still the fastest way to find it IMO. Remember you can use the Enter key as a hotkey to start a search!

Tropical / Coldwater toggle

Another feature that I never considered until it was suggested by the community. There is now a toggle at the top of the animal build menu which allows you toggle between showing Tropical or Coldwater animals.
Given that these animals will never safely occupy the same tank, I can see how dividing them like this makes a lot of sense.

Improved growth icon

When you hover over the growth icon of an animal that isn't fully grown there is additional information now. As well as telling you how long until it grows up, it also lists any further stages of growth afterwards.
In addition the mechanic has been flipped around to make it easier to understand. Instead of an increasing count e.g. 0/3, 1/3. 2/3 etc. It's now just a simple day countdown. 3 days until growth, 2 days until growth, 1 day until growth. It's a small thing, but in my testing it made an immediate impact on how easy it was to keep track of things.

Enable/Disable all mods button

Modding enthusiasts rejoice! You can now enable/disable all mods with the click of a single button at the top of the Modding Manager.

Extra mod stability

Another one for people who use a lot of mods. If a mods causes the game to fail to load, then all mods will be automatically disabled and the game reloaded. This will at least allow players to get into the game. From there, they can re-enable mods one at a time (or in groups) via the mod manager to try to determine which mod is causing the issue. The most common cause of the game failing to load was when a mod depended on another mod for extra animal food types, but this depended upon mod was not installed. If this specific case is detected by the game, it will now automatically insert "Orange Pellet" as the required food for the animal, rather than fail to load.

v2.1.0 changlog

• Added perspective mode.
• Added collapsible headings to build menu.
• Added coldwater toggle.
• Improved growth icon.
• Added a note about when certain breeding locations unlock to the breeding tooltip.
• Added a count to the messages when fry and eggs grow up.
• Added a bubble above the poster when it's not connected to a tank.
• You can now build walls up against the edge of all tanks.
• Staff don't prioritise tasks for which they have the required item quite as much. When comparing tasks, those which don't require the staff to fetch a new item are considered slightly closer than those that do require an item switch. Previously, they were considered infinitely closer and prioritised above all tasks that required an item switch.
• Increased performance of build menu.
• Slightly improved efficiency of some graphical operations. (More substantial performance improvements are still on the way!)
• Fixed bug where if a Biter caused the death of another animal, no cause would be shown in the resulting message.
• Added a message when a pregnant animal loses their baby (miscarriage).
• Corrected autofeeder food tooltip.
• Added light icon to lights when you select them.
• Fixed bug where center of feeding platform tank was wrong.
• Calcium reactor (and other external "aquascaping") no longer counts towards explorer count.
• Increased stability of camera to stop it going out of alignment. 'home'/'h' shortcut should always correct issues.
• Fixed bug where staff animation kept playing when assigned a single square zone.
• Fixed bug where water quality would go above 100%.
• Fixed bug where long necked turtle, dwarf crocodiles, green anaconda and manatee could not be eaten. IE They can be eaten now!
• Improved aeroplane objective on 5. Diamond River so that freshwater subcondition will only tick if the aeroplane is in a freshwater tank.
• You can no longer sell the aeroplane on 5. Diamond River.
• You can no longer sell the panther crabs on 5. Diamond River.
• Fixed bug where you couldn't search for communal animals.
• Fixed bug where guests got stuck in toilet.
• Fixed bug: "Tank not listed in Ledger for some Animals" - blue knuckle hermit crabs.
• Fixed bug in 4. Kairobi where the small beach tank did not start available.
• The random seed is used for more things in sandbox mode.
• Fix type in Chinese on 10. Megalopolis.
• Fixed bug where highlight in game world would persist when moving over UI.
• Vending machines no longer sell an item to a guest when they reach them if they have run out.
• Removed shadows from animals while placing them.
• Added 1st person tutorial to 3. Elmshorn.
• Added ledger tutorials to 6. Hartcliff and 2. Paskovka.

  Modding

  
  
• Added Enable/Disable all mods button.
• If a mod causes the game to fail to load, all mods are disabled automatically and the game is restarted.
• If an animal food is detected as missing, the animal is set to eat "Orange Pellet" instead.
• Added support for land predation. This is not currently used by any vanilla animals but can be added to a land egg with the following: "predation":{ "landOnlyPredators":true, "parentProtection":0.06, },
• Fixed bug so that mods can use custom sound effects.
• Added additional logs during mod loading to help identify which object/mod is causing the issue.
• Regarding change "Staff don't prioritise tasks which use the same item quite as much." the parameters can be tweaked inside a data file: "parameters":{ "taskfinderHasItemTaskDistanceMultiplier":1, // When taskfinder already has required item, the distance away is multiplied by this number. "taskfinderHasItemTaskDistanceAddOn":-11, // When taskfinder already has required item, the distance away is added to this number. }

v2.1.1 changlog

• Fixed bug which occurred if W, A, S or D was held while transitioning out of 1st person view.
• Fixed issue where animals without a temperature requirement would not appear regardless of which temperature filter was selected. They now appear all the time.
• When a guest is selected, negative thoughts now appear with the number in red while positive ones appear green. This matches the color coding in the main guest thoughts list.

[ 2020-10-18 11:26:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

v2.1.0 is now live on the public beta branch. To access all the features detailed below simply right click on the game in your library -> Properties -> Betas -> Select Beta from the dropdown list.
If it doesn't appear right away, try restarting Steam. A beta branch is also available via GOG Galaxy. After a short period in beta the update will move over to the standard version. If you spot any weird behaviour or bugs while playing on the beta be sure to let me know!

New features - designed by you!

This update is crammed full of great suggestions that have come directly from the community. From an improved build menu interface to a button which allows you to toggle all your mods at once - this update is all about making it easier for you to play the game. A better interface allows you to concentrate on what's important - all of the fishies! For a full changelog see the bottom of this post, but first let's take a closer look at the heavy hitters.

Perspective mode

I mentioned this in the last dev blog but perspective mode is now live!
It's a subtle difference but for those who find the orthographic camera mode disorienting, this small change will make the game much more accessible. For the rest of us, it's a matter of personal preference.

Collapsible build menu categories

I wasn't 100% sure about this feature prior to implementing it, but I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.
It's now possible to collapse individual categories in the build menu so that you're not looking at everything at once. Coupled with a button at the top which allows you to collapse/expand all the categories at once, it's now really easy to find a particular group that you're interested in. I think this feature will be especially helpful to those players who have a lot of mods installed. NB Don't forget about the search function though! If you know the name of what you're looking for, the search function is still the fastest way to find it IMO. Remember you can use the Enter key as a hotkey to start a search!

Tropical / Coldwater toggle

Another feature that I never considered until it was suggested by the community. There is now a toggle at the top of the animal build menu which allows you toggle between showing Tropical or Coldwater animals.
Given that these animals will never safely occupy the same tank, I can see how dividing them like this makes a lot of sense.

Improved growth icon

When you hover over the growth icon of an animal that isn't fully grown there is additional information now. As well as telling you how long until it grows up, it also lists any further stages of growth afterwards.
In addition the mechanic has been flipped around to make it easier to understand. Instead of an increasing count e.g. 0/3, 1/3. 2/3 etc. It's now just a simple day countdown. 3 days until growth, 2 days until growth, 1 day until growth. It's a small thing, but in my testing it made an immediate impact on how easy it was to keep track of things.

Enable/Disable all mods button

Modding enthusiasts rejoice! You can now enable/disable all mods with the click of a single button at the top of the Modding Manager.

Extra mod stability

Another one for people who use a lot of mods. If a mods causes the game to fail to load, then all mods will be automatically disabled and the game reloaded. This will at least allow players to get into the game. From there, they can re-enable mods one at a time (or in groups) via the mod manager to try to determine which mod is causing the issue. The most common cause of the game failing to load was when a mod depended on another mod for extra animal food types, but this depended upon mod was not installed. If this specific case is detected by the game, it will now automatically insert "Orange Pellet" as the required food for the animal, rather than fail to load.

Full changlog

• Added perspective mode..
• Added collapsible headings to build menu.
• Added coldwater toggle.
• Improved growth icon.
• Added a note about when certain breeding locations unlock to the breeding tooltip.
• Added a count to the messages when fry and eggs grow up.
• Added a bubble above the poster when it's not connected to a tank.
• You can now build walls up against the edge of all tanks.
• Staff don't prioritise tasks for which they have the required item quite as much. When comparing tasks, those which don't require the staff to fetch a new item are considered slightly closer than those that do require an item switch. Previously, they were considered infinitely closer and prioritised above all tasks that required an item switch.
• Increased performance of build menu.
• Slightly improved efficiency of some graphical operations. (More substantial performance improvements are still on the way!)
• Fixed bug where if a Biter caused the death of another animal, no cause would be shown in the resulting message.
• Added a message when a pregnant animal loses their baby (miscarriage).
• Corrected autofeeder food tooltip.
• Added light icon to lights when you select them.
• Fixed bug where center of feeding platform tank was wrong.
• Calcium reactor (and other external "aquascaping") no longer counts towards explorer count.
• Increased stability of camera to stop it going out of alignment. 'home'/'h' shortcut should always correct issues.
• Fixed bug where staff animation kept playing when assigned a single square zone.
• Fixed bug where water quality would go above 100%.
• Fixed bug where long necked turtle, dwarf crocodiles, green anaconda and manatee could not be eaten. IE They can be eaten now!
• Improved aeroplane objective on 5. Diamond River so that freshwater subcondition will only tick if the aeroplane is in a freshwater tank.
• You can no longer sell the aeroplane on 5. Diamond River.
• You can no longer sell the panther crabs on 5. Diamond River.
• Fixed bug where you couldn't search for communal animals.
• Fixed bug where guests got stuck in toilet.
• Fixed bug: "Tank not listed in Ledger for some Animals" - blue knuckle hermit crabs.
• Fixed bug in 4. Kairobi where the small beach tank did not start available.
• The random seed is used for more things in sandbox mode.
• Fix type in Chinese on 10. Megalopolis.
• Fixed bug where highlight in game world would persist when moving over UI.
• Vending machines no longer sell an item to a guest when they reach them if they have run out.
• Removed shadows from animals while placing them.
• Added 1st person tutorial to 3. Elmshorn.
• Added ledger tutorials to 6. Hartcliff and 2. Paskovka.

  Modding

  
  
• Added Enable/Disable all mods button.
• If a mod causes the game to fail to load, all mods are disabled automatically and the game is restarted.
• If an animal food is detected as missing, the animal is set to eat "Orange Pellet" instead.
• Added support for land predation. This is not currently used by any vanilla animals but can be added to a land egg with the following: "predation":{ "landOnlyPredators":true, "parentProtection":0.06, },
• Fixed bug so that mods can use custom sound effects.
• Added additional logs during mod loading to help identify which object/mod is causing the issue.
• Regarding change "Staff don't prioritise tasks which use the same item quite as much." the parameters can be tweaked inside a data file: "parameters":{ "taskfinderHasItemTaskDistanceMultiplier":1, // When taskfinder already has required item, the distance away is multiplied by this number. "taskfinderHasItemTaskDistanceAddOn":-11, // When taskfinder already has required item, the distance away is added to this number. }

[ 2020-10-09 10:03:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a little while since the last update so I thought I'd let you know what I've been working on.

More performance improvements

I'm currently in the middle of a significant update on the performance side of things. As the game continues to grow both via official content and user generated mods, great performance is a must. At this point, a lot of the "low hanging fruit" has already been harvested, so to make significant performance improvements I need to make fundamental changes to the game engine. I'm currently working on a new system which utilises the CPUs additional cores (currently the game only uses 2 cores at a time) to crunch the numbers for objects which move and are animated (animals, guests, staff). As you can imagine this is a big update which is taking time to do right. But early signs are pointing to a good performance boost, especially on very high spec CPUs which have many cores.

Perspective mode

Another feature I'm excited to share is a new perspective camera mode. I know that this is really important to some players out there so I'm glad to finally be able to add this.
It's a subtle difference but for people who find the orthographic perspective unpleasant I imagine it'll be a real blessing. You'll be able to switch between the two modes at will so it's up to you how you play. Will you switch to perspective or continue with the "classic" orthographic camera?

25% off Freshwater Frenzy DLC

Thank you to everybody who's had kind words to say about the expansion. The response has been overwhelmingly positive which is really great. If you've played the expansion, please consider leaving a review to let other know what you think of it. This will help other players decide whether it's something they're interested in. You can do this via the store page if you own it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1315300/Megaquarium_Freshwater_Frenzy__Deluxe_Expansion/ And finally, just a quick note that there's currently 25% off Freshwater Frenzy for the next week. If you've been sitting on the side-lines not sure whether to dive into the world of freshwater, now might be a great time to get stuck in!

[ 2020-08-06 10:13:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small patch in between larger updates to stay on top of recently reported bugs.

Balance/Improvements

• Added message about search feature to 5. Napalos.
• Moved search examples tooltip to a little info 'i' to the right of the search bar so it's easier to find.

Bugs

• Fixed issue where tasks say they are inaccessible to staff when they are not.
• You can no longer sell the Manatees in FF 5. Diamond River.
• German: Steinkoralle renamed to Montipora

[ 2020-07-22 11:40:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Balance/Improvements

• When zoned staff don't have a task they will return to and stay in their zone. They can still exit their zones to complete any part of an assigned task e.g. to reach a dispenser or if the shortest route to a task is outside the zone.
• Zoned staff are assigned tasks before non-zoned staff. This means when a new day starts, they will have first pick of the tasks and then non-zoned staff will collect tasks from the ones that are remaining.
• Guests will not be attracted to podiums if they have already heard the current talk.
• Prestige generated by guests who have left the aquarium will continue to count toward your prestige total until they decay in the normal way (1 game day after the prestige was generated). Previously, you lost the prestige immediately when the guest left.*
• Smoothed out work done when a new day starts to reduce the frame spike in large aquariums.

Bugs

• Sandbox: merchants and trades which provide shoalers will give 1 extra animal so it can be traded away.
• Fixed bug where guest thoughts would show the thoughts that were generated the latest in the day, rather than most recently, first.
• Removed large margin on right hand side of dropdown items to make more space for the text.
• Fixed bug where accessory icon stayed grey in staff manage tab even after it has been collected.
• French and Russian: money symbol next to current money will not roll onto next line.

*In practice this won't make a large difference. In medium to large aquariums, guest prestige tends to decay before they leave anyway. However this small tweak will make the mechanic easier to understand. Your prestige total is simply the amount of prestige generated in the last game day.

[ 2020-07-05 07:53:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

This patch fixes an issue in the Chinese version of the game, where the cashflow window did not appear correctly. I have a more substantial update coming soon with some nice (much requested) improvements to the staff behaviour when they don't have a job, plus some optimisation improvements which will hopefully smooth out some of the frame spikes that occur when you are operating a large aquarium. steamhappy

[ 2020-06-26 09:17:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Balance/Improvements

• Bred animals appear at the location of eggs/fry.

Bugs

• Updated Chinese and Japanese fonts with missing characters.
• Altered Japanese font to use Japanese variant of shared characters.
• Fixed typo in Portuguese.
• Fixed bug where Piranhas were not affecting all animals.
• Fixed bug where larger animals would get stuck in the corner of the tank.
• Improved stability of game when starting a new day.
• Fixed bug where tiles painted with default paint would switch to current default paint when save as loaded.
• Fixed a rare bug with ledger table when switching tabs.
• Fixed a bug where correct accessory bonuses were not shown in all locations.
• Fixed bug where tooltip would not disappear after bringing up sell confirmation dialog.
• Fixed bug where land animal animations would flicker on low detail mode.

Modding

• Game can now recover if a save is loaded and the current research has been removed because it was a mod.

[ 2020-06-16 14:13:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Balance/Improvements

• Added 4 extra staff to 4. Kairobi in case they are needed.
• Improved land animal movement so they smoothly enter the water after climbing down from the land.
• Feeding platform and viewing platform tanks no longer accept lights. Existing lights on these tanks will continue to work correctly, but you can't add them to any tanks from now on.

Bugs

• Fixed issue with lights not appearing in the correct place.
• Fixed issue where the tooltip would hang around after deselecting the sell tool while hovering over something.
• Fixed a bug where the move tool would get stuck on and would only deselect if you clicked the button in the top left or pressed the hotkey.
• Improved save behaviour to check for and remove 'read only' flags on save files.
• Fixed bug where new save thumb would be blank if you returned to the save menu multiple times before returning to the game.
• Fixed a bug where the coldwater icon on an animal would not indicate that the animal was insufficiently chilled.
• Fixed a typo in 1. Hitama.

Modding

• Removed the limit on the number of research projects available (properly this time, I hope!).

[ 2020-06-11 13:26:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Balance/Improvements

• Hybrids have a hybrid name when they appear e.g. Emerald Cobra Guppy 1.
• Added the name of the animal to the tooltip for the animal portraits in the ledger.
• Merchants and trades give a minimum of 2 animals so that you always have 1 extra to trade away.
• Slightly reduced initial health decrease when an animal is at the wrong pH to give you a little more time to fix the issue.
• Posters now always generate prestige. A guest can enjoy up to 3 posters. The prestige generated is a random number from 1 to the prestige value shown on the poster.
• Slightly increased various chances of mutation during hybrid breeding to speed up the initial process, without removing the skill and challenge from the overall process.
• Tweaked target animals on level 3 'Rare Guppies' objective so that the colors are slightly closer to the starting color.

Bugs/Improvements

• Fixed some translations strings.
• Fixed a bug where the wrong message was deleted in the message log.
• Fixed a bug where a tank would changing between saltwater and freshwater incorrectly when pumps were involved.
• Fixed a bug where a tank would highlight as connectable to via pump, but wouldn't actually connect when you clicked it.
• Fixed a bug where the naming process would not complete due to leading or trailing space.
• Fixed a bug where a animal which requires a supplement would grow from a fry and immediately say it had missed a supplement.
• Fixed a bug where points floating off guests were not correct, under representing low numbers of points within a large group of a different type of point.

[ 2020-06-08 15:40:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

I released two small patches today.

Balance

• Made it so autofeeder cannot feed live foods.

Bugs

• Fixed/tweaked some text in French, Italian and Chinese version.
• Fixed bug where destruction events were not deletable.
• Fixed issue where floating plants could be placed over bridges/platforms at some tank rotations.
• Made it so you have access to the starting paint in level 3 and 4.
• Added autofeeder textures for roach, vegetables, brine shrimp and bloodworm.
• Fixed issue where sandbox could create objectives which you couldn't complete. If your save is affected by this it will automatically upgrade when you load it so that all quests are completable! steamhappy
• Fixed icon for "dislikes rocks".

[ 2020-06-06 11:00:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Version 2.0.5 is live with some bug fixes.

Changelog

• Fixed an issue where land animals got stuck walking on the spot.
• Fixed an issue where animals could do breeding interactions the day they grew into "full" animals.
• Fixed issue where unlocking live mysis did not automatically unlock zoo plankton.
• Fixed issue where after moving a tank which had a poster attached, you couldn't attach another poster until the game was reloaded.
• Fixed issue where you could build under the stairs of the platform/bridge tanks. Any that have already been placed will continue to have the issue but newly built tanks will be fixed.
• Fixed issue where the science/ecology windows didn't update when something new became available.
• Fixed issue in level 2 where additional grant funding was not released.
• Prevented strange bug where timer at the start of level 1 did not start properly (hopefully!).

Modding

• I believe I have fixed an issue where some modded tanks' rotations and offsets were wrong when built at the smallest size and in the menu.
• The issue where some tank mods crash the game remains. I believe the modders are aware of the solution (swap 'w', 'W' and 's' codes from the "multicode" of the tanks for other letters, and update the codes in "tileFbx" too). But please be patient with them as this issue has been sprung on them unexpectedly and they haven't had much time to fix it yet.

[ 2020-06-05 13:42:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new chapter in Megaquarium history. Freshwater Frenzy is the first Deluxe Expansion for Megaquarium. It adds a brand new environment for you to explore and master freshwater! It is now available to purchase: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1315300/ Today I want to draw your attention to two features which I'm excited to share with you.

Land animals

Freshwater Frenzy introduces the first land animals to the game. They are:

• Eastern Long-necked Turtle
• Dwarf Crocodile
• Green Anaconda

All three are reptiles and have some extra requirements compared to most of the other animals in the game. First off then require tanks which provide some land out of the water. This is provided by a set of new tanks called "beach tanks".
Another interesting requirement of the reptiles is that they need light to flourish. Only a select few other animals in the game have this requirement (mostly corals) so it's nice that the lights have some additional use in the expansion.

Accessories

These are a brand new mechanic unique to Freshwater Frenzy. Each staff can now be assigned a single accessory which helps them as they go about their work. There are 4 to choose from:

• Backpack - doubles the food carrying capacity of the staff member.
• Sneakers - increase the fitness talent of the equipped staff member, increasing their speed and making them better at cleaning and gift shop tasks.
• Feeding stick - increases the feeding skill of the equipped staff member, but only if they are feeding an animal which 'requires skill'.
• Tool belt - increases the fixing skill of the equipped staff member, while also removing the need for them to carry a toolkit.

I spent days carefully designing each of them to make the choice between them as interesting as possible. I think there is room for each of them even in a fully ranked-up aquarium.

Full animals list

To finish, here is a full list of the animals in the game.

• Convict Cichlid
• Midas Cichlid
• Red-Striped Eartheater
• Amazonian Angelfish
• Butterfly Ram
• Discus
• Guppy
• Gardner's Killifish
• Cardinal Tetra
• Congo Tetra
• Blind Cave Tetra
• Tinfoil Barb
• Giant Hatchetfish
• Boeseman's Rainbow
• Red Bellied Piranha
• Pacu
• Adolfo's Cory
• Redtail Catfish
• Ripsaw Catfish
• Sunshine Pleco
• Porcupine River Stingray
• Electric Eel
• American Paddlefish
• Arapaima
• Fan Shrimp
• Panther Crab
• Eastern Long-Necked Turtle
• Dwarf Crocodile
• Green Anaconda
• American Manatee.

I hope you enjoy the expansion. Don't forget to leave a review once you've made an opinion on it. :)

[ 2020-06-04 10:00:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

v2.0.3 is now live! Ahead of the launch of Freshwater Frenzy tomorrow (!) I thought I would push the base game update a day early so people could get used to some of the new features before diving into the expansion.

Ledger

The animals ledger (found via the little fish-book icon in the bottom right) allows you to view all your animals and tanks in one place.
If you switch the filter to problems, it will only show you tanks/animals which have problems associated with them - very handy!

Live cultures

Live Mysis, Live Lug Worms and the new Live Artemia are all now Live Cultures.
This means that these food dispensers need to be fed themselves with Zoo Plankton. Don't worry, your old saves will work just fine, but you may need to pop down a couple of extra Zoo Plankton dispensers.

Tunnel tanks now generate prestige!

Support has been added for tanks themselves to generate prestige. The small and large tunnel tank will each have a chance to generate a new prestige thought when your guest views it. Just like every other prestige thought, a guest can only enjoy an object once. So don't go filling your aquarium with 100% tunnel tanks - it won't work!

Three new achievements

To celebrate the launch of the expansion I decided to add 3 new achievements. They focus on sandbox play and can be completed with or without the expansion installed. Sandbox Trials - Standard - In Sandbox mode, reach rank 12 using the Standard preset on normal difficulty or higher. Sandbox Trials - Limited - In Sandbox mode, reach rank 12 using the Limited Supply preset on normal difficulty or higher. Sandbox Trials - Completionist - In Sandbox mode, unlock every animal using the Quick Start preset on hard difficulty or higher. That's some of the highlights but check out the following list for all of the changes.

Changelog

• Ledger added.
• Live cultures added.
• Moon Jelly now eats Zoo Plankton.
• Guests don't like seeing food/tool dispensers now! Put them behind the scenes with your filters. ;)
• You can now set default paint for new construction by right clicking on the paint in the build menu.
• Improved messages - growth events have a clickable link to the animal and you get a message when a tank is too small for an animal to grow up.
• Tunnel tanks generate prestige.
• Increased prestige of some of the more prestigious animals (some sharks, green turtle).
• Costs of most animals have gone up a small amount in a balance pass. The cost of some high prestige (12+) animals has been increased quite a bit as they were underpriced before. Noticeably the Whale Shark and Manta Ray both cost 2-3x what they cost before.
• New reliability icon tells you estimated time between breakdowns so it's more useful in making judgements between equipment.
• Tweaked equipment reliabilities so that they remain useful throughout the game.
• The aquarium can now be closed. You can find the toggle by selecting the entrance.
• A number of sharks and rays require skill now.
• Autofeeder cannot be used on as many animals due to previous change. The time between breakdowns has been increased to make it more competitive.
• Research window now scrolls rather than shrinking the projects. It also has unlimited capacity now.
• Build menu scroll speed has been capped for when the menu gets very full (with mods!)
• Improved tooltip for growth icon.
• Tweaked tooltip for tank depth and require tank depth icons for compatibility with expansion.
• Tweaked tooltip for warning/danger to icons for compatibility with expansion objects. It now shows the size as a range. "Fish" has been replaced with "Animals" so that it can include reptiles and mammals. Mechanically nothing has changed. It basically means any animal that is not a crustacean, starfish, clam, gorgonian, soft coral, stony coral or anemone.
• Added new icons for starfish, clam, gorgonian, soft coral, scavenger, anemone and empty dispenser.
• Guests holding balloons can go inside toilets now.
• Animals move between containers e.g. they will move between all parts of the u-shaped tank.
• Small tunnel tank has an extra container at the top to allow animals to swim over.
• Mega tank is now a large tank instead of huge. It doesn't need its own category.
• Food dispensers appear before the fish in the search so they are easier to find.
• Improved scenery placement on tanks with sunken floors. The scenery now appears at the cursor instead of below it.
• Messages with enclosed objects do not jump to the top when you pick one up.
• Creator mode starts on rank 12 so you have access to better staff.
• The quick start preset has been tweaked to work better with the new achievement.
• 3 new achievements: Sandbox Trials - Standard, Sandbox Trials - Limited, Sandbox Trials - Completionist.

[ 2020-06-03 13:04:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

The first two videos in a series taking a deeper look at the expansion are now live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPImMP8RCJo This first one introduces how some of the basic mechanics work like freshwater, pH and some of the new care requirements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w76fYXMBog In the second we look at how you can breed and hybridise the animals in our aquarium. There are two more videos in the works which will go live before the expansion releases next Thursday 4th June, so keep a look out for them! steamhappy

[ 2020-05-29 17:26:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new chapter in Megaquarium history. Freshwater Frenzy is the first Deluxe Expansion for Megaquarium. It adds a brand new environment for you to explore and master freshwater! This expansion has been in the works for the last 9 months! Suffice to say, it is jam-packed with exciting new features and content. Here's a brief rundown:

Features

• 5 levels in a freshwater-focused campaign
• 30 freshwater species
• Breeding and hybridisation
• 7 new tanks
• 4 accessories to equip your staff
• Dozens of new objects including decorations, plants, equipment and posters
• 4 brand new paints to keep your aquarium looking fresh

The expansion will be priced at $11.99 or your regional equivalent. I'm going to draw a spotlight over some of these features later in this post but before we get started, head over to the store page for a full rundown. I'd also recommend adding the expansion to your wishlist so you get a reminder on release day, which is 4th June 2020. steamhappy https://store.steampowered.com/app/1315300/ What's more, the base game is set to get a huge upgrade with additional quality of life features, gameplay improvements and even some brand new mechanics. But more on that later. First, let's dive into some of the big features in Freshwater Frenzy!

I mean like... it's FRESHWATER!

I have received a lot of requests to add freshwater to Megaquarium over the months and I know its addition will make a lot of people happy. I've taken the time to do it right. Freshwater comes with its own set of unique challenges: new aquascaping types, pH requirements and compatibility considerations. This all adds up to a design challenge with a completely new feel. I mean how many of these icons do you even recognise? steamfacepalm

The big one - Breeding!

Ever dreamed of raising your own baby fish in Megaquarium. That will soon be a reality. A selection of the new freshwater fish are breedable. Each has its own set of unique breeding requirements, which, if you fulfil them will allow them to breed. Some require a special location to lay their eggs, others need lighting or a specific temperature to induce their breeding tendencies. Getting them to breed is the easy bit. Then you have to look after the eggs and fry until they reach adulthood. Trust me when I say this: it's going to require your full attention.

There's more - Hybridisation!

There are some very special species in the game that can be hybridised to create new colors and patterns. Check out what is possible with the humble Guppy:
I won't reveal all the mechanics just now, but suffice to say this isn't a purely random thing. By pairing specific animals together you can increase the chances of getting the hybrid you want.

Base game goodies!

Let's talk about some of the improvements heading to the base game. Let me be 100% clear: players who don't own the expansion will still enjoy all of these improvements. Live Cultures - live foods such as live mysis, live lug worms and artemia will need to be fed themselves to ensure a constant supply of food.
I think this is a really fun mechanic. It's a low skill job so if you can get your weaker feeders to feed the cultures while your experts handle the actual feeding to the animals it works well. Default Paint - another popular request. Ever wished you could change the default paint used on new constructions like it does on some campaign levels? Well soon you will be able to do just that. Animal Ledger - one of those features that once you get used to using it, you won't know how you ever coped without it. This ledger provides a filtered list of your tanks and animals allowing you to simultaneously get an overview of your aquarium as well as focus down on any areas that need attention.
New non-freshwater specific care requirements - some of the new care requirements introduced in the expansion are not specific to the freshwater environment. I've decided to make these compatible with the base game too so that modders can make use of them on their marine animal mods!

Hungry for more?

If you're as excited as I am about this release then I have more to share with you. Between now and launch day I'll be releasing a series of videos which will show off all the new features in more detail. If you don't already, consider subscribing to my Youtube channel.

[ 2020-05-21 17:02:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

The major addition this update is Japanese language support. But for all the existing players there's a neat package of bug fixes and small improvements. See below for all the details.

New content is coming

I've mentioned this a few times in the forums, but I can officially confirm that new content is in the works. I would love to share certain details about the theme of the new content, and what the exact format will be, but as things are still changing from week to week as I explore ideas, I've decided to wait until I have something concrete. Thank you for your patience. steamhappy

Full changelog

• Japanese localisation.
• Place staff doors directly over walls.
• Slightly reduced memory footprint.
• Fixed bug where floor tiles in maps with default paint were not being automatically painted.
• Fixed bugs where painted objects were not appearing correctly when being moved/placed.
• Fixed 'silent sound bug' which occured when you held shift in first person mode.
• Fixed positions of shark hat and copperband toy gift shop items.
• Fixed bug where not all water quality icons (skimming, uv sterilising, heating, chilling etc.) were appearing in the context bar when placing an object.
• Fixed hard and brutal difficulty strings which had some incorrect figures.
• Fixed bug where tank point value was updating before animal health, leading the out of date tank point values (until updated again, which happened regularly).
• Fixed bug where pump could connect to same tank twice.
• Fixed bug where you could switch to the pipe connecting tool when already using it, caused extra connections to stay on screen permanently.
• Fixed bug where staff did not return their item when they were fired.
• Fixed bug where staff did not resume their work animations when game was loaded.
• Fixed various bugs where item accessibility was not being updated correctly for use in tasks.
• Fixed bug where music label disappeared when at a value of 0.
• Fixed bug where guide book shelf was not lit correctly.
• Fixed bug where supplements were not causing animals to lose health correctly.
• Centred "Let's Go" button on rank up screen.
• Expanding, filling in, walls, platforms and stairs all vary in cost based on difficulty.
• Guests now switch to standing animation when they view a tank or use an object.
• Tweaked Megalopolis final objective to remove the angelfish and surgeonfish requirement. Too restrictive.
• Tweaked Napalos level so that you need 24 animals to win. The level lasts slightly longer and forces you to use some of the animals you unlock at rank 7 which is fun.
• Reworked podium code to be more robust and deal with interruptions, saving/loading etc. mid-talk.
• Fixed bug where dispensers for non-consumable items were being refilled at the beginning of the day.
• Fixed bug where if you moved a wall when it was 'dropped' then it would not drop in the new position.
• Increased size of text in drop down list items.

For modders

• Tanks no longer *need* PointGenerator.
• Expanding, filling in, walls, platforms and stairs costs are set in data file so can be overriden within mods.
• Doubled bonus Ecology and Science from cheat hotkeys for faster testing.

[ 2020-01-27 11:40:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, v1.5.2 is now live and comes with lots of nice goodies.

Randomised staff

Since the addition of Workshop support for Megaquarium, players are building bigger and better aquariums than ever! One piece of feedback that came back to me as a result was that there were not enough staff in sandbox mode to cope with all the extra animals available via the Workshop. I communicated the various options available to increase the staff numbers and asked for additional feedback on the preferred option. The results were unanimous: adding fully randomised staff to sandbox mode - thus removing the staff cap completely. Just in case you're not aware. Before this change, all the staff were hand-designed by me which, to avoid duplication, lead to a hard cap on the total staff available. One of the things I liked about this solution was that it also has the potential to add a new gameplay dynamic to sandbox games. Due to the randomisation, there's a larger variety in the type of staff that are available.
While testing, I found there were often times where I had to compromise on one talent. Like "this person has some fixing skill and decent precision but they have 1 for fitness! Do I really want to hire this slowcoach?" or "Nice, a 7 for fitness, and actually a decent amount of Empathy for feeding but they currently have no feeding skill and a 2 for Memory so they are going to learn really slow!". During the time that this update spent in beta I received additional feedback that people were missing the predesigned staff, so as of v1.5.2 you have the best of both worlds: unlimited randomised staff with a sprinkling of your favourites from the campaign missions. All hail Dante - the divine comic! Personally I've really enjoyed playing with this new feature and I hope you do too!

Graphics pipeline overhaul - part 1

It took several weeks but I think the results are worth it! This is part 1 of a large rewrite of the entire graphics pipeline for Megaquarium in an effort to improve performance. The increase in FPS that you see will depend on the size of the aquarium and PC specs but I've recorded an increase of 75% (!) when zoomed out on a large map where the CPU is the limiting factor.
I've also slightly reduced the maximum zoom-out level. The reason for this is that the number of objects onscreen is a major factor when it comes to performance. Off-screen objects contribute a lot less. My goal is to reach a point where the engine can run at 60fps, on a PC with the recommended specs, with an aquarium of *any* size. This is much more likely to be achievable with this new max zoom level. The alternative would be a cap on total game objects which I believe would be much more restrictive for players.

Improved sandbox

Based on yet more player feedback, I've made a few tweaks to the sandbox generation code. 1. Trades and merchants are generated even with animal availability set to 'everything unlocked'. 2. With animal availability set to 'standard', Trades and merchants generally try to offer the player animals that can't be unlocked with research points. Previously, when these ran out, no further trades or merchants would be generated. With the update, they will still be generated but will offer animals from a rank above instead, so they are still valuable. 3. Some side-objectives will offer base prestige as a reward instead of money. There are few other subtle changes but overall I think the play between the various trades, merchants and side-objectives now feels better than ever!

Italian localisation

Megaquarium can now be played in Italian! :)

Other changes

• Tweaked staff speed algorithm to make increase between fitness levels more linear. Speed now increases by 8% for each level of fitness. These values are exposed for modding in simulation.data.
• Added staff salary to staff window.
• Fixed bug where game would not load when a mod had a corrupted info.data file
• Added Italian localisation.
• Smoothed out 'freeze' on new day in large aquariums.
• Removed freeze during autosave when entering the menu.
• Improved animal swimming animations.
• Tweaked fixing animation so that toolkit sits on the floor next to staff.
• Fixed bug where an object could be not "in game world" but still occupying the floor.
• Reduced cap for zoom level.
• Fixed darkening of rounded corners of tanks when viewed from behind.
• Improved visual look of animals with transparent meshes like the Volitans Lionfish.
• Added minimum work animation speed for staff.
• Fixed purple plume fan and leopard clam icons.

This update has been live on the beta for a little over a week so it should be pretty stable, but if you notice any bugs or graphical glitches, don't hesitate to let me know. If you'd like to gain early access to the next update while also helping me test the game, then consider switching to the [beta] branch of Megaquarium as described here. Make sure you subscribe to the discussion so you know when a new beta is available. Tim

[ 2019-10-20 10:57:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'm thrilled to announce the Megaquarium is now available to play on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PS4! If you're reading this then you probably already own the game on PC and that's great, there's certainly no need to buy the game on another console unless you want to - although I know a few people are excited to play the Switch version on the go!
However, perhaps you have a friend who doesn't have a gaming PC or a partner who's in love with their Switch, and up until now you've been unable to share your enthusiasm for the game with these people, well now you can! :D Put simply, more platforms means more access, more people playing and hopefully, more fun for everyone involved! Here's the links to the various store pages for those that are interested: Switch Xbox One PS4 I'll finish by repeating something I've said before. Megaquarium on console is a collaboration between myself and a company called Auroch Digital. The fantastic thing about this is I've been able to continue working full-time on the desktop version throughout the development of the console one. With that in mind I have a big update just around the corner which will improve game performance and upgrade the sandbox game mode with unlimited randomised staff and better trader and merchant generation! In fact, it's currently available to try in the new beta branch.

[ 2019-10-18 10:47:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today's Deal: Save 20% on INDIE TYCOON BUNDLE!*

Titles included:
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game
Production Line
Megaquarium

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Friday at 10AM Pacific Time

[ 2019-08-28 17:05:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small patch with a few bug fixes and improvements.

Changelog

• Added ultra widescreen support.
• The pause hotkey (spacebar by default) now brings up the next message that's stopping progress.
• Fixed bug where the game could unpause when completing an objective in the first scenario even when a message should be blocking progress.
• Tweaked numbers for detail settings (determines when animations are disabled/hidden based on zoom level).
• Entrance is now paintable.
• You can select rubbish that's on the floor at the entrance.
• When disabled, cloud save does not sync with the local copy of the save files in the Steam folders.

[ 2019-07-25 13:31:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today's Deal: Save 40% on Megaquarium!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends July 30 at 10AM Pacific Time

[ 2019-07-22 17:05:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

The workshop is now live for all players! With 49 different items and counting (many of which contain entire sets of extra content) the Megaquarium workshop is certainly flourishing. And it just got even easier to access. No beta branches, no special Steam Group, to access all these items all you need to do is go to the Megaquarium community hub and click Workshop.

Nurse Shark has arrived!

To celebrate the full launch we're adding a new fish to the game! The nurse shark!
We are releasing this new shark as a mod. So to access it, all you have to do is subscribe to the mod here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1808619883 (If you're playing the game via GOG then you can manually install the mod based on the instructions here) If you are new to using Steam Workshop and want somewhere to start, I highly recommend starting with the Nurse Shark. I've designed and balanced it to work as part of the main campaign so don't hesitate, give it a go!

Creating the Nurse Shark

As an added bonus we've recorded a 'making of' series which documents how the entire Nurse Shark model and mod were made. Part 1 - Modelling https://youtu.be/2eJnDDQMnKw Part 2 - Animating https://youtu.be/gzKb5j-qS0E Part 3 - Designing https://youtu.be/vZxRJXsoyWs The series also operates as a tutorial for new modders. If you're interested in the full patch notes for this update, you can find them here.

[ 2019-07-22 10:54:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changelog

• Added Steam Workshop support.
• Fixed issue with transparent elements of 3d models being in the wrong order.
• Optimised info bubble reorder algorithm.
• Half fed fish carry over food amount to next day to help with feeding very large fish over multiple days.
• Tweaked food UI, the number remains 'full' on days that the animal doesn't eat so it's easier to see what needs feeding.
• Upgraded to Unity 2018.3.14f.
• Fixed many typos.

[ 2019-07-22 10:54:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, the Megaquarium Workshop has now entered public beta. This means it is open for everyone to use but is currently operating via an opt-in mechanism.

Me want fish! How do I join?

To join the beta you need to join this community group: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/megaquariumworkshopbeta And follow the instructions from there. Look at all the exciting things that are already available for you to download:

Why beta?

Firstly it will give modders a chance to get used to the workshop and upload their creations before the full public launch. By the time the public launch comes it should be nicely stocked with all manner of things to play with! Secondly it gives everyone, modders and players alike, a chance to give feedback on features, request new ones and report bugs. With that in mind, please take extra care using mods during the beta period. I recommend that you manually save any existing games before applying mods in case they break the game. Another note: the new mod manager in-game is in English only currently. When the full launch comes it will be localised into your local language.

How long will the beta last?

This depends on the volume of feedback/requests that come back. Somewhere between 2 and 6 weeks is probable.

[ 2019-06-22 10:53:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, just a quick post to let you know the latest with the game.

Dev away for 2 weeks

The first news is I'm going to be away for a couple of weeks from today so I won't be able to answer any questions via the forum or email until I return on 23rd May. Hopefully other players will be able to pitch in and help any new players to the game. :)

Steam Workshop

But don't worry, the next update is already well underway. One feature that has been highly requested ever since launch is Steam Workshop. I'm happy to announce that the next update will include support for this. I'm about half-way through implementing it and I'm looking to release a beta with the new features soon after I return. This will give a chance for our enthusiastic modders to populate Steam Workshop with new and interesting mods so that when the official release comes there'll be lots of new things to try out. As part of this I'll also be releasing a basic modders guide to cover the basics of modding the game. You'd be amazed at the sorts of things you can add with just basic text and image editing skills; things that can have significant gameplay impacts. I'm really looking forward to seeing what people create.

And after that?

I can also announce that I am in the early stages of working on the next batch of official content for the game. I can't reveal all the details yet but I thought players would appreciate knowing that something new is in the works. That's it for now but stay tuned in the coming months for lots more exciting stuff in the world of Megaquarium. steamhappy

[ 2019-05-07 12:07:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Few more bug fixes. ;)

Changelog

• Fixed issue where new point meshes (introduced in Feb update) were not cleaning up after themselves causing crashes for some players.
• Made improvements to blended mesh animation code to reduce game's memory allocation.
• You can no longer delete rubbish.

If you notice any new issues let me know in the normal way! :)

[ 2019-04-13 12:51:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another set of bug fixes for you. :)

Changelog

• Reverted back to an earlier build of Unity (2018.2.21f) because the newer version still seems to be causing the odd crash.
• Another attempt at fixing the animal counts going out of sync. They seem to be working well now, but let me know if you see it go out of sync again!

Any issues just let me know! :)

[ 2019-04-07 06:00:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another little patch fixing a few things.

Changelog

• Fixed bug where object counts visible in build/buy menu would go out of sync when you traded an animal away.
• Fixed issue where if an error is logged from a worker thread the game would crash (*shakes fist at Unity developers steamfacepalm*).
• Modders only: Fixed bug where when the game generated a new tc3d from a new fbx file it would fail in countries where ',' is used as a decimal point.

[ 2019-04-02 12:39:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small patch fixing a couple of things.

Changelog

• Fixed so that animal mods which are missing a string for their id don't crash the game when added to a tank.
• Fixed so that animals swim again when hovering over them in the menu.

Regarding the first fix, it is still highly recommended that mods are created with string files to avoid populating the logs with errors. If you are using other people's mods, make sure you remember to add the .json file to the strings/en folder of the game.

[ 2019-03-31 13:54:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi guys, the latest update is here. Here are the big hitters:

Additional staff orders

This month's update comes with two new features increasing the possibilities for staff management. The first is the ability to disallow your staff from using certain items or tasks which 'require skill'. The most immediate use of this is prohibiting your less experienced staff members from taking on the tricky jobs such as 'high skill required' tasks and supplements. You can find these new controls under the Advanced tab after selecting a staff member. You can also right-click on a staff portrait directly from the staff management window. I'm looking forward to seeing what other uses players come up with for using this new feature!

Important tasks

The second new feature is the ability to mark a task as 'important' by clicking on its task bubble. This will make staff prioritise this task over all others regardless of distance away. However, it will not overrule the role priority or zoning orders. Therefore, if a staff member has the feeding role set to a higher priority than the fixing role, they will still do all feeding tasks before fixing tasks, even if one of them has been flagged as important.

Auto-feeder change

The Auto-Feeder has undergone a significant change. It now refills automatically at the beginning of each day so it does not have to be filled by staff anymore. To make up for this, they will break down from time to time and the associated fixing staff is 'very high skill required' so it will be awkward to use unless you have skilled fixing staff available. In addition the Auto-Feeder can no longer feed animals which 'require skill' or feed Supplements to any animals. Both these types of feeding task still need to be done by hand. I like this change quite a lot. The Auto-Feeder clearly works best to replace the role of low-level feeders. It can handle large quantities but struggles with higher level animals which 'require skill' and supplements. At the same time it puts additional pressure on your skilled fixers so there'll be some interesting decisions to make here. It also might add interesting curation decisions: will you design a tank that can be fed 100% by Auto-Feeders at the cost of leaving out that show-stopping fish?

Prestige tweaks

This update brings some tweaks to the prestige generation formulas which I believe bring it more in line with what you would expect from a real-life aquarium. More information in the changelog below and also in the latest dev vlog. https://youtu.be/N_dGVIxXSv0

Full changelog

• Tweaked prestige generation rates so that larger animals have a greater success chance than small animals. In other words, you need less in a tank for them to be seen.
• Likewise, larger decoration items have a higher chance to be seen, reducing the need for many large items in a single tank which could look less appealing. Groups of small items are still encouraged.
• Tweaked the prestige generation rates so that you get diminishing returns, the more animals of the same type you add to a tank. This encourages more smaller groups of small fish in different tanks.
• However for large animals a single group will continue to be sufficient.
• Added a more detailed tooltip when you hover over the prestige icon on any animal so that it communicates the prestige generation mechanics better, allowing the player to make more informated decisions.
• Added option for window to close when you click a second time, this is also now the default option but can be switched off in the settings.
• Changed "requires skill" icon to military chevrons. Added this indicator to task bubbles so you can see the skill level of a task at a glance
• Auto-feeder changes color depending on what food it is feeding.
• Reduced some animal aquascaping requirements. Many of these were increased in the February update but I believe they threw the balance off especially for small animals which need to be kept in larger numbers to fulfil their prestige potential.
• Added additional details to the task bubble tooltip so that it lists the skill level and a breakdown of the animals that need feeding in the tank (for feeding tasks only).
• Added load game confirmation dialog if a game is already in progress.
• Facilities apply their effects to guests instantly now, rather than over time.
• Fixed paint glitch
• Stopped guests dropping rubbish straight after looking at something
• Added reset to default key bindings
• Increased cave value for gaping cavern
• Increased rock value for rubble and live rubble
• Increased starting money for level 3. Elmshorn
• Fixed so the search menu doesn't come up when you finish naming something.
• In sandbox, all side objectives, trades and merchants appear on the way to rank 12. Before they continued to appear above Rank 12 but this led to some confusion and missing some events.
• Sped up zooming with keys.
• Fixed a pump UI error.
• Refresh message count immediately when you delete group of messages.
• Fixed 'running on spot' bug when auto saving and returning to menu.
• Fixed bug where supplement feeding times were sometimes over-calculated.
• Fixed ground dweller eating animation.
• Shows skill numbers when you hover over skill bars in the manage tab.
• Fixed the positions of the skills in manage tab so they are always in the same places.
• Fixed bug where it would show "When fully grown" eat/damage information on animals even when no numbers change as they grow. For example, when an animal will damage Gorgonians or Stony Corals.
• You can open the advanced tab by right clicking on the portraits in the staff manage tab.
• Cursor texture only loaded once
• Decreased some coral sizes (affects food consumed, bioload and prestige generation rate). Note: growing corals to full size now has large effect on prestige because size determines the prestige generation chance.
• Added '=' as alternative to ':' in search box.
• Added 'equipment' as a search criteria to differentiate to animals.
• Fixed bug where end game credits could be interupted by pressing escape.
• Fixed bug where end game credits would be in 'fast-forward' mode if you were at that speed when you completed the game.
• Fixed bug to do with info/task bubble positioning on some objects.
• Fixed coral food box which had the wrong icon on it.
• Fixed Power Light so lights are in the correct position.
• Dropdown menus go in front of other information windows.
• Improved platform laying tool so it guesses the height your require more intelligently.
• Upgraded to Unity 2018.3.

[ 2019-03-28 15:09:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mini patch with a couple of things that didn't quite make it into the big February update, plus a couple of bonus fixes/features. :)

Changelog

- Upgraded underlying Unity version which should hopefully fix the 'Citrix workstation' bug. Let me know if you still encounter this issue. - Added 'Exclusive fullscreen' mode. - Added tooltip to point button toggle in top right. - Fixed bug where messages don't reload if you drop an animal with the message window closed. - Fixed bug where floor arrows blocked 'attraction aura' For the next couple of weeks I'm going to be working through the backlog of small and medium sized feature requests that have built up over the weeks and months and making some headway through that. I'm also going to be experimenting with some tweaks to the prestige generation formula and the way that this information is communicated to you. steamhappy

[ 2019-02-17 15:04:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello all, a new update has just gone live with a bumper crop of new features and improvements. Let's take a look.

New search menu

You can now bring up a new search menu in-game which allows you to filter the contents of the build menu to just the items you are interested in! For example: by writing "tropical shoaler count:0" you will see only tropical animals with the shoaler care requirement, which you currently have zero of in your aquarium. For more examples check out the latest episode of the official Megaquarium vlog: https://youtu.be/BKINwrUdP9U You can bring the menu up by pressing the Return key (this is rebindable) or by clicking the search button at the top of the build menu.

New plants

(Click on thumbs to enlarge)


5 new plants have just been added to the game. The focus here was adding more large plants and also adding more variety in terms of the gameplay purpose of each plant. For example, the all new 2x3 Shellweed is only worth a few additional plants but adds a lot to the rock count and a whopping 50 filter power! Meanwhile the Velvet Horn is more balanced with a mixture of plants, rocks and filter power. I've also rebalanced some of the existing plants to make the differences between them more drastic. Some are excellent for plant count, while others are strong passive filterers and then there are the ones which give a range of minor benefits.

New sandbox modes

The final big feature is an expansion to the sandbox mode. There are now additional options which allow you to unlock all animals and equipment from the start of your game, as well as toggle access to unlimited money. I know some people have missed having a fully "creative" mode with absolutely no restrictions and these new settings allow you to do that. I've also added a set of new presets to challenge you to try the game in different formats. Let's take a look: Full unlock - here you have access to everything from the start but don't have unlimited money, so you still have to create a balanced aquarium. It's harder than it sounds! Research mode - here you have unlimited money but you still need to work through the ranks to unlock all the animals and equipment. This is definitely a relaxed mode where you can proceed at your own pace however it does reduce the burden on managing your staff efficiently. Creator mode - the ultimate sandbox experience. Everything is unlocked and you have unlimited money. Just like all the other presets you can tweak individual settings to your own preferences.

And the rest...

That's the major stuff out of the way, but the update comes with all these minor improvements/fixes too:

• Added drag-to-paint for tiles.
• Added rebindable hotkeys for all the buttons in the top left.
• Rebalanced plant/rock/cave lover requirements. Some are also worth extra prestige.
• Added info panels for any animal given to the player as a gift in the campaign so you can see what its needs are before picking it up.
• Added difficulty to save game info.
• Switched to proper fullscreen borderless window mode. If you click on your other monitor it won't minimise the game.
• Fixed animation speed going faster than simulation.
• Optimised build menu so that it loads quicker.
• Optimised animations in general for better FPS in large aquariums, especially on low detail mode.
• Redesigned point bubble system to increase performance.
• Optimised objective checking to increase performance.
• Zoning interface now scales/wraps when it gets to full.
• Slightly increased opacity of build menu UI.
• Added feeding skill requirement to Blue Spotted Ribbontail Ray.
• Striped boxfish no longer eats starfish.
• Danger to tooltip now says "Starfish with size x or less".
• Fixed bug where tank counts were calculated incorrectly.
• Slightly increased size of tooltip text and width.
• Fixed mega light lights.
• Megalopolis tank enquiry objective tells you to check log.
• Fixed objective tooltip in level 1 tutorial with incorrect description of button.
• Tweaked active swimmer icon so that it always says the required volume even when met.
• Added rounded tank and kreisel tank icons.
• Fixed minor display bugs for needs rounded, needs kreisel and congeners only icons.
• Fixed supersonic walking bug.
• Fixed issue where tooltip hangs over edge of screen on higher than 1080p resolutions.
• Added kreisel tank description.
• Fixed a number of portraits positions.
• Fixed double unlock of some science items in sandbox modes
• If you have already unlocked everything at a new rank it skips the "newly available" screen. =Modding=
• Animal mods can create a new animal category without updating gui.data, see Azure Demoiselle for example.
• Game is slightly more resilient to mods being added/removed midgame

Hope you enjoy the update guys, please let me know if you notice any bugs via the Steam discussion forums as usual. https://steamcommunity.com/app/600480/discussions/0/ steamhappy

[ 2019-02-07 14:46:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, quick patch with a few bug fixes.

Changelog

- Fixed bug where one of the Chicago tanks was always available regardless of the rank you started at. Unfortunately the fix only affects new sandbox games. Sorry about that! - Cursor is now hidden in first person mode. - Altered the way the game calculates whether a deep tank has been correctly connected to the floor in level 3. - Fixed a minor graphical issue caused by moving stairs. There's still a ton of smaller tweaks/features that I'm itching to get into the game over the next few weeks but the next major feature I'm planning to work on will be some kind of smart search/filtering system for the build menu to make it easier to find things (especially animals) in the later stages of the game. Exciting stuff!

[ 2019-01-07 16:24:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Howdy all and happy holidays! The brand new Winter Update for Megaquarium is brimming with new features, improvements and even some new stuff to build!

New and improved Staff Management

Managing your staff just got a whole lot easier with a new and improved 'Manage' tab and zoning tool
The new 'Manage' tab shows your staff in a vertical list rather than a grid. Each row has enough space to show useful information such as what they are currently doing, which zone they are assigned to and what their skill priorities are. What's more, you can directly adjust the skill priorities right from this tab, rather than having to bring up each individual staff window. You can also get directly into the new and improved zoning tool by clicking on the zone button itself...
I'll be the first to admit that the old zoning tool needed some improvement, but I'm really proud of its replacement! As you can see in the screenshot above, all the zones are shown at the same time and in different colours, so it's way easier to get a overview of how your zones are set up. Even better you can now directly edit zones and reassign staff with a few easy clicks, all from inside the tool, no more having to go find each individual staff member just to edit a few zones.

The Chicago tank!

Players have been calling out for a new rounded tank that is larger than the Belfast or Small Tunnel Tank but not quite as big as the Mega Tank. One that comes out early enough in the ranks for your fully grown Spotted Eagle Rays. Well, I listened! Introducing the brand new Chicago tank. Rather than just being a large version of the Belfast tank, I've tried to design something interesting.
This tank comes in two variants, one with the access on the inside edge, and one with the access on the outside. This means it can be used as an internal or external corner of your wall of tanks.

New large decorations

The update also comes with 6 new decorations spanning sizes between 2x2 all the way up to 6x3.
I'm also planning to add some brand new plants in the early part of next year. They are fully designed, I'm just waiting on the assets from my artist.

Steam cloud support

Some of you might wonder why the game didn't release with Steam Cloud support. The truth is that I had a fully functional version working pre-launch using Steam's own "auto-cloud" feature. However, literally days before launch I discovered that the system had serious flaws including being unable to delete saves from the cloud, once they were up there. For me, this was totally unacceptable. Therefore, I waited until now, when I had some more dev time, to implement a really robust version using the more complicated Steam Cloud API. The bonus news about this is: with this in place, I'm halfway to implementing Steam Workshop, which should also land in the early part of next year!

Other changes

• Added information about the max size an animal can eat when fully grown to its tooltip.
• Slightly reduced volume of small tunnel tank.
• Swapped Angel and Lemon shark ranks so that you have access to the Mega Tank at the same time as the Lemon Shark
• Added difficulty tooltips on the main menu.
• Redesigned animal animation system to avoid clipping issues and weird movement of larger animals.
• Fixed various issues to do with animals eating each other.
• Fixed bug where negative prestige would not show on prestige bar on load.
• Fixed various minor graphical bugs.

As always, please let me know if you notice any bugs. I'm around until this Thursday and then I'm on my hols for a couple of weeks. Happy holidays everyone! steamhappy

[ 2018-12-15 16:40:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, I've been super busy with a house move over the last week but I've still managed to squeeze out a little patch for you!

Changelog

- Added staff priorities to level up messages. - Added fully grown active swimmer requirement to tooltip. - Fixed bug where cashflow was misreporting the costs of food, drink and gift shop items. - Fixed bug where guide book and balloon refills were too cheap. - Fixed bug where calcium reactor was free. - Reduced number of horse eye jacks given as gift in Myra level from 5 to 3. - Fixed bug with deep outcrop tank where staff would go inside temporarily if you dropped it on top of them. - Fixed bug where Blue Whiting had no ecology point value. - At end of day we don't auto drop items that are being carried by the player unless they are tanks or animals. - Scenery no longer produce negative prestige if a guest sees it over and over. - Clicking cancel task now drops the item making it slightly easier to force staff to do a particular job. (More stuff coming in this area!) - Fixed bug where staff learned slightly slower on fast mode. I'm still very busy with the house move but after I've moved I'll be back with more update goodness! steamhappy

[ 2018-10-23 11:18:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, big update for you today. There really is something for everybody in this one!

Upgraded message log

a) Important message toggle - filters out unimportant messages like autopsy and growth reports after they have been read. Also trades, merchants and missions that have already been completed. b) Delete message functionality with the option to "delete all" of the same type e.g. autopsy and growth messages.

Staff level ups

Staff level ups are now just messages which sit in your log until you are ready for them. This was a highly requested feature from players who found the constant interruptions annoying. The good news is that staff continue to accrue skill points even when they are ready to level up. Therefore there is no penalty if you delay levelling up while you are busy with something else!

Staff cap increased

I have added 14 brand new staff to the game. That is a 50% increase on the existing staff cap. I have made this change in reaction to requests from players whose aquariums were being constrained by the old staff cap, especially in sandbox mode. This boost should help a lot! If you already have a large sandbox aquarium you should be able to load it up and you'll immediately gain access to new staff! I am not ruling out additional increases to the staff cap in the future but I want to change things gradually, to avoid breaking the game. One thing I'm keen on, is staff not feeling like mindless drones like you get in RTS games. I want to keep the total number low enough that the player is familiar with their staff and can manage them effectively. To that end, the next area I want to focus my attention on is improving the productivity of each staff member via additional control settings, improved zoning, a better staff manage tab and by tweaking certain mechanics. My hope is that by improving overall staff productivity we can allow for huge aquariums but without resorting to the blunt instrument of hundreds of unmanaged staff, which I believe would reduce the overall fun of the game.

Other changes

- Massively increased performance of the simulation when running on fast speed setting. - Build menu now remembers its place if you return to the same menu as last time. - Min and max volume of tanks is now shown in the build menu. - Fixed bug where hats and hair appear to lift off guest and staff heads on low and medium detail graphical settings. - Fixed bug where guest animations would stop when too close in first person mode. - Added two new hair colours for guests and staff! - Slightly reduced point bonus when giving talks with a very high talking skill. - Added missing food boxes to Hartcliff, Myra and Carbon City levels. - Calcium Reactor no longer gives Prestige points (whoops!) and will stop providing coral growth benefit if broken down for too long. - Corrected coral growth bonus provided by Calcium Reactor. The bonus was being incorrectly inflated before. - Slightly increased staff salaries. - Renamed Other Inverts to "Anemones, Clams and Gorgonians". There were two sections named "Other Inverts" before. - Added missing string to end of level 10. - Fixed issue where daily sales objectives were blank in French language. - Sandbox mode always starts with at least one "cleaner" - Large tunnel and Kreisel tanks are now paintable. - You can now paint underneath Belfast and Kreisel tanks. - Fixed various Kreisel tank issues: off-centre task bubbles, could not build across back wall. - Fixed bug where certain walls on Deep Outcrop and Large Tunnel Tank could not be built across. - Fixed bug where info box on message would escape its message window when you scroll. - Tweaked words on level 3 to point player to message log for two of the corals. Enjoy! steamhappy

[ 2018-10-12 15:49:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, lots of background performance stuff in this patch, plus a few minor bug fixes.

Changelog

- Increased performance on main thread for better UI responsiveness in large aquariums. - Slightly reduced memory consumption rate during game (more work needed here! Quite complicated!) - Increased performance of save and load menu. - Reduced memory usage of save and load menu. - Fixed issue where staff in level up window would poke through windows in front of it. - Fixed issue where closing the rank up window after clicking the rank up button would get the game stuck. - Fixed minor graphical bug where rank tabs in research window would remain highlighted after everything was unlocked. - Tweaked a few portrait positions to stop them escaping their boxes. - Tweaked text in first level a little. Now there is still plenty of optimisation to be done but I'm going to take a short break from that work to deliver some much needed quality of life and UI improvements, as requested by you, the players! Top of the list are making the staff level up popups optional and improving the message log to make it easier to find what you are looking for.

[ 2018-10-02 12:44:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, here's what's new in the latest patch.

Changelog

- Completely revamped system for packaging 3d models to decrease load times. - This seems to have relieved the issue with slow loading times on OSX - This also seems to fix one issue facing the Linux version of the game but may not resolve all issues. Next week, I'm hoping to do a bit more work on optimisation and try to reduce the memory footprint of the game. I have been listening to all your quality of life improvement suggestions and some of these will start to filter through too!

Modders

If you have been modding the game or using mods read here for how the latest update will affect you: https://steamcommunity.com/app/600480/discussions/0/1733213724906948173/

[ 2018-09-23 14:53:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, another set of minor bug fixes and tweaks for you.

Changelog

- Fixed a range of issues with autofeeder. - Fixed bug where lights get in the way of tanks after paint tool has been selected. - Animals cannot eat another animal if they just grew up themselves, this will give the player time to adjust. - Fixed bug where an animal that just grew up is eaten even though it shouldn't be possible at new size. - Attempted to fix black background bug (let me know if not fixed). - Fixed bug where you could sell things for more than you bought them for. - Fixed a couple of bugs to do with supplements. - Egg wrack is deep tank only. - Fixed Unicorn Surgeonfish typo in level 10. - Removed second Penny from level 10. - Fixed issue where hotkey definitions are overwritten if on AZERTY keyboard but not playing in French.

Mac/OSX Users

Thank you for being so patient, I am halfway through creating an update which will hopefully relieve the loading time issue. I hope to be able to trial it within the next couple of days so please check back over the weekend. ːsteamhappyː

[ 2018-09-21 11:26:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another patch for you guys:

Changelog

- Made zones more accessible, they now include tasks adjacent to the selected square and if any square of a tank is selected it will be included in the zone. - Added additional safeguards against global save file and autosave becoming corrupted. - Fixed bug where rubbish on stairs was not collectable. - Fixed bug with bench where it couldn't be placed 1 away from wall - Fixed bug with bench where it wouldn't let anybody else on. - Allowed text on portraits to be a little bigger. The big additions today are the tweak to the zone algorithm and the additional safeguards against save games becoming corrupted. Please let me know if you prefer the way the zones work now compared to before, and whether you still have an issue with save games being corrupted (black screen bug).

[ 2018-09-19 13:50:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, I've just pushed a hot fix for an issue introduced with yesterday's optimisation changes. If you had the issue where your staff were standing idle and not completing tasks, this patch will immediately fix the issue. I am so sorry to anybody who lost their aquarium or fish due to this bug. I am going to continue to test the issue this afternoon to make sure it is 100% fixed but I wanted to get this patch out to you as soon as possible. Tim

[ 2018-09-18 13:48:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today's patch tackles two issues that have come up a lot in the last 48 hours.

Changelog

- Major performance improvements in large aquariums. - Severely reduced logging in log files. - Some underlying bug fixes and stability improvements.

Performance improvements

I know some of you have been waiting for this one. The improvements I made today should make a significant difference to the smoothness and speed of the game once your aquarium gets large. In very large aquariums you'll still probably encounter the odd judder here and there but the game should be totally playable right into the late game. I can still squeeze more performance out of the engine in due course so more performance improvements will come out over the course of the coming days and weeks.

Log files

If you're one of the people who's suffered with a humongous log file and running out of disc space, please accept my apologies. These files are completely safe to delete (although I believe the game will wipe it automatically next time you run it) and from now on the logs should be much smaller. Please let me know if they are still too big. I know some of you like to play the game for many hours in a row! Thank you again for your continued patience. I hope you agree that the game has come a long way in terms of stability even since release just 5 days ago. My next job is to tackle those loading times. Let me know if you have any other problems, Tim

[ 2018-09-17 15:35:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, thank you for your patience over the last few days while I've been fixing bugs. Got some nice improvements in this build for you.

Change log

- Added rebindable keys - Reduced pause after levelling up staff - Staff come out quicker in sandbox mode (this only affects new games) - Decreased rate of staff level up as they become more experienced - Improved feedback given on tasks when they are prevented. Advice is more specific and there is no longer a lag before they update. - Changed take screenshot (no UI) button to F11, this is rebindable though - Fixed translations in some languages where it said 'Home' key rather than 'H' to return to the entrance. - Fixed bug where guests and staff wouldn't move out the way in very specific circumstances. - Fixed some more background bugs - Added dialog on game load which complains if the game cannot access the save folder. The idea is to force opening access first so no progress is lost.

Staff levelling

I know some of you have been frustrated with the staff level up popups, and some of you want this popup to be optional. I am happy to do this, but it will take some time to do. In the meantime you will see I have enacted a gameplay change where staff now level up slower, the more experienced they get. I have done this for two reasons: - It felt like the staff level ups felt more like a nuisance rather than something the player is waiting for. This change will make them more impactful and you will want to think about the choice more. - It will also mean that as the game goes long and the aquarium gets large the rate of popups will not necessarily increase, as inexperienced staff are hired they will level up quicker, but your veterens will slow their rate of level up. As I said above, I also plan to offer an option to make these popups optional but that will take longer as it needs some additional localisation.

Mac users and loading times

To Mac users: I have not forgotten you! My next job is to take a look at decreasing loading times. This will help all users but especially those on Macs.

Performance in large aquariums

Another area I am planning to focus on next is improving performance in large aquariums. I appreciate you patience on this issue and it will definitely be improving in an update soon.

Random freezes still an issue?

Finally, I have noticed that the rate people are reporting random freezes has reduced on the forums. If anybody is still experiencing them then please do send me a log file from straight after the freeze occurs. This will help me get rid of any that remain. Instructions: https://steamcommunity.com/app/600480/discussions/0/1741094390462646200/ You can email me here: support@twicecircled.com Or post on the Steam discussions: https://steamcommunity.com/app/600480/discussions/

Flickering highlights

I've looked into these and I now have an idea where the issue is happening, but I haven't been able to work out exactly what is causing it. It runs a little deeper than originally thought. If you encounter the issue, a quick save, quit and restart will fix it. I will take another look at this further down the line after some more important updates have been made.

[ 2018-09-16 12:42:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Two patches in one day, you lucky things!

This patch has a number of behind-the-scenes stability improvements. Hopefully the game is starting to run a little more stable for you now. ːsteamhappyː Any re-occurring bugs please send them to support@twicecircled.com with a log and save file.

[ 2018-09-14 20:48:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

The inevitable bug fix patch is here!

Patch notes:

- Stopped softblock on Elmshorn, if your Toadstool Corals die, you can buy more from the shop. - Fixed bug where main volume did not affect atmosphere volume. - Fixed bug where volumes set to 0 were not saved between game runs. - Fixed growth tooltip on corals. - Fixed bug where Elmshorn objective, skimmer wasn't recognised if connected by pump. - Fixed bug where autosave failure due to not being able to access the user area makes the game crash. - Fixed bug on Napalos where Herbivore Habitat will not complete. - Fixed some other crash bugs. - Reduced requirement for first part of Elmshorn objective from 6 to 5. - Added cap for number of point bubbles on screen at once to improve stability. Next I'm going to be seeing if I can improve load times on the Mac version of the game. Then I'm going to be looking into improving the general performance.

[ 2018-09-14 13:30:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Megaquarium is now available to purchase. I know many of you have been waiting for a long time for this game, so I really hope you enjoy it! I'm very proud of Megaquarium, I think it's the best game I've ever created. The mechanics are relatively easy to learn but there's a hidden depth to the decisions you make. I am still coming up with new strategies for playing the game and I've been working on it for 2.5 years. There's a full 10 level campaign and a customisable sandbox that should keep you busy for many hours.

But wait there's more!

However release just the beginning. And I'd like to let you know my plans for the future. Directly after launch I'll most likely be working flat out working on bug fixes, optimisation and user interface improvements in reaction to feedback from players. After that there are a couple of fundamental features that still need to be implemented. These are:

• Cloud save
• Steam workshop/mod support

After this is when things start to get really interesting, with the potential for new content and ways to play the game. I'll be deciding what's next based on your feedback so be sure to let me know what you'd like to see in the game! Tim

[ 2018-09-13 10:09:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello all, it gives me great pleasure to announce that Megaquarium will release on September 13th 2018! To celebrate I'm launching a new trailer. Check it out below, and feel free to share it with anyone you think might be interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4dGMeIEKb0 Feel free to throw any questions at me here or on the forums. ːsteamhappyː

[ 2018-08-16 16:11:39 CET ] [ Original post ]