Julys a wrap, folks! This month has seen a big leap forward with regards to the games visuals, UI/UX, and our AI backend. We have also put together a rough release roadmap for your eyes only! Things may change, as they often do, but this will give you a better idea of our goals.

Visual Upgrades:

As has become standard, you can expect some visual improvements to many aspects. The main two being the addition of ambient occlusion and an outline effect for when the player selects a character or piece of furniture. The outline effect in particular is crucial for providing some much-needed visual feedback to the player, both for interactivity and visibility. Without proper visual and audio feedback, everything would feel pretty flat. This approach allows players to more easily see what they have selected, even behind other objects. Heres an example of the tech:
Ambient occlusion really makes shadowy regions pop in a more realistic manner by simulating how light interacts with objects in a scene that would typically not receive much lighting as a result of their proximity to other objects. It adds a ton of depth to the scene that a typical direct lighting pass wouldnt be able to produce. Weve used it before, but Unity broke it and now its back. Heres a comparison!

AI

Weve done a complete overhaul of our AI system. Our previous system was more of a placeholder while we tested and fleshed it out. During the implementation of more complex AI behaviours and after some feedback from our helpful community, we identified numerous issues that needed to be resolved. The previous system had to take far too much into account and be spread across many different systems, which lowered stability and required longer development for any new AI behaviours. The main focus of the redesign was to abstract a lot of the work we had done and make it more reusable and lightweight. Were very happy with the progress! Its far more structured and scalable. New functionality can be added with less of a chance of accidentally breaking something. We can even take guest groups/families into account, which wasnt possible before. This means guests will be able to form groups with friends or strangers (new friends) and do activities together instead of wandering the hotel alone.

Roadmap

Below is a rough release roadmap that weve been putting together to give people a better understanding of our current plans. We know there have been some delays and we apologise to everyone who were hoping for it sooner! Our team has grown substantially and we are working better than ever. You can find a more detailed roadmap HERE that will be updated with more information over time.
As we are in the midst of our new AI integration, so there sadly wont be any new builds or hotfixes released with this update. Thanks so much for keeping up with development! We hope these little blogs are always informative and give you a better look into whats been happening behind the scenes. Dont forget to drop into our Discord to get more involved!