Adding the aquatic stage Spore never had (evolution sim devlog 2-5)

[@MrLumagu]

With this expansion I feel reassured that the project won't be forgotten by the dev(s) as many indie games are. Might buy the game soon, after seeing how much effort you put into it. Great work!

[@S3bby9-t5d]

I was so impressed by the work he put5s into the game I bought it before season 1 ended. Props to the developer for putting so much work in

[@jadedstonedmonkey]

Hope this comes with amphibians, fish, and roe type eggs, and per say "fish" as in not need air and usually don't evolve to land, and also have mammals that are aquatic, that can interchange or adapt to the environment that suits them better, and then a update for fight and flight for how everything interacts Flora and fauna wise

[@transnewt]

Amphibian and fish type eggs are more-or less the same, and almost every secondarily aquatic animal (such as marine mammals and reptiles) has the same or very similar adaptations. Ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, and cetaceans being a collective example mirrored by penguins, plesiosaurs, and seals.

[@jaysonklein6018]

I want aquatic arthropods. 🦀🦞🦐

[@ruudvandenhove6905]

yeah whith aguatic animals it would be better

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

No more people should like this comment we have reached a perfect 100

[@The_Darke_Lorde]

I bet something like putting an air breathing mouth on an otherwise fish body with absolutely crap land movement could work.

[@kopykat9310]

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened” -Dr Seuss. We will miss you Island.

[@GustavSvard]

So, season 2 has brought us seasons, sounds, and aquatics. I hope this project keeps going and and can't wait to see what a future season 3 might bring us!

[@literallyagalaxy7789]

same

[@TheSapling]

Haha, assuming my current plans don't change (which they always do), the update will be slightly less (but still quite) ambitious :)

[@GustavSvard]

@@TheSapling Less ambitious? I'm sure we'll all be amazed anyway :) oh and random idea: poop! animals poop, animals & plats die, bugs & worms eat that to create nutrients helping to make some areas more fertile.

[@YLLPal]

@@GustavSvard Less ambitious than this is like saying shorter than Everest, haha. Probably there will be more focus on fleshing out and interlinking the systems developed in this season. That's my guess anyway. Very excited

[@gamingcat6034]

@@TheSapling bugs

[@nicholasoneal1521]

This adds a lot of realism, especially if you have the option to let life start in the ocean

[@renzbongers337]

Yeah I really hope that he ads that option to! He always ones accuracy so that would be great.

[@renzbongers337]

Let’s go I can’t wait! Amazing to see this expansion to my favorite game, thanks for this amazing feature!

[@qui-gontimtherandomraptor1072]

YESSSS SO EXCITEDDDDD CAN IT RELEASE EARLY 😭😭😭

[@renzbongers337]

@@qui-gontimtherandomraptor1072 I agree I really want to view it now!

[@chickenmoglies5891]

I hope this game gets famous some day

[@Stonewren]

So excited to watch, but for now I'll speculate! It'll be so interesting to see the implementation of water. Will plants be capable of swapping between terrestrial and aquatic lifestyles, will there be a separate aquatic plant type with its own separate editor, or will sea grass be a food source which just grows in the environment without dying, reproducing, or evolving? I could see arguments for all three possibilities! I expect the shallows to be the only places which can support plant life, so that the vast open ocean doesn't have organisms reproducing and using computer resources that could've been spent elsewhere. It'll be interesting to see if animals can swim across the open ocean to reach distant shores, or whether there's an invisible wall preventing them from wandering too far from land. I expect aquatic animals to just be handled by swim-capable leg types, and it'll be funny to see animals who can *technically* swim, but not very well, accidentally wander into the open ocean to starve. So much to be excited for!

[@jorko2752]

In previous devlogs there have been multiple mentions of an "algae editor" so that's what these underwater plants most likely are.

[@Stonewren]

@@seal6015 I never said that lol, I was just talking about how having huge oceans with things reproducing and mutating would slow down the time jump feature in an unnecessary way. Resources should go towards areas that have things players are likely to see and be interested in (meaning the shallows, unless we get brightly-glowing hydrothermal vents). Though perhaps I'm overestimating how much of these planets will be covered in water. If we end up having deep sea fish, I'd hope that the food chain would be supported passively from plankton which just deplete and replenish over time.

[@ruudvandenhove6905]

respect for wessel stoop that he can make this game alone

[@junkbrick2491]

I wonder if life will start underwater and then eventually evolve to live up on ground. The possibilities are high for this update.

[@lesussie2237]

It's the most accurate approach. Lets see if he's made systems for plants & animals to evolve into land and maybe even back into water

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

We can see how Earth life will evolve

[@scarecrow9501]

I can’t wait to make a Wednesday my dudes.

[@bilciper9687]

@@lesussie2237 Like the death oreos?

[@lesussie2237]

@@bilciper9687 death oreos?

[@ajoshdroid]

You mad man you've done it! You have done something both amazing and inspirational. You've motivated me to go back to my indie game!

[@loganshark667]

Spore has found a worthy successor

[@crispybacon9917]

This game really is spore but the creatures actually evolve and the environment changes.

[@Szyszz]

I'll be real, i was wondering about buying the game for quite a while now, and this part of the update single handedly made me a new owner of one copy!

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

This will let me symulate the history of all life and will help me with earth experiments to see how fish would evolve

[@nicholasoneal1521]

So, three kingdoms of life are now represented: Plants, Protists (by algae), and animals. What's next, fungi, bacteria? lol

[@lordshennington2756]

@Dino Yooo 3d Plague Inc LETS GOOOOO

[@TheSapling]

Haha well a downside of these is that they're less visible, and invisible things don't playtest well. I still dream about a virus editor sometimes :P

[@nicholasoneal1521]

@@TheSapling Yeah, I was only joking lol. Though having the Sapling mixed with Plague inc. is a very tempting thought

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

@@TheSapling it would be cool for fungi but that seems hard as fungi are usually decomposers so not stable in game

[@badideagenerator2315]

@@TheSapling they could be made visible through cartoonish particle effects which give the implication of the organism being infected or through visible symptoms such as spots.

[@leothedinogamer3480]

I literally commented that the next update after fight and flight should be aquatic creatures and now a year later it is finally here

[@Fummy007]

I'm still mad from 2008 when I heard they cut the aquatic stage, that and flying creatures.

[@scarecrow9501]

I never played spore and I always just assumed they never planed to add aquatic and flyers where did you hear this from if I may ask

[@Fummy007]

@@scarecrow9501 I remember before the game came out the trailer showed swimming and flying animals. Then in the run up they announced there wouldnt be an aquatic stage.

[@michaelmccarthy8749]

Spore had wings tho

[@idioticed4379]

@@michaelmccarthy8749 you could only rlly glide with them

[@scarecrow9501]

Is this trailer still up?

[@ixpo]

I last saw this channel about a year ago! While your still underrated i've noticed a lot of new changes compared to last time! I hope this is not discontinued.

[@samuellima6193]

Aquatic life! LET'S GO!!!

[@LunarForte]

I'm already impatient!

[@pipp972]

Love it! This is a project worth supporting even if for how fascinating it is alone. The fact that it's also fun is just icing on the cake.

[@MuffinNPC]

The fact that the beta is released on my birthday 👌

[@nauro5222]

Im replaying spore and having another game with aquatic related stuff is amazing Edit: it would be great if you instead of removing the island, just put it as a easter egg

[@ruudvandenhove6905]

same

[@Riley_The_Snailsquid]

*WOOOOOOOOOOOOO*

[@CharliMorganMusic]

This changes things. 0.o Whoa!

[@nshorts7063]

I have an idea for the next update it could be the niche update witch adds more niches and make predators hunt down prey and makes it so large herbivores can live whith small herbivores and many more species

[@obiomajronyekwere4469]

AYYY THE PROGRESS IN THIS ONE IS GREAT , honestly outdid yourself with this one your on track to even surpass species alre infact i think in many regards you have! honestly cant wait to see what the future holds!

[@gerrardjones28]

Excited for this, after this I could sorta a do a proper evolutionary timeline for the planet with the life starting in the water

[@literallyagalaxy7789]

YES!!!!

[@forg3214]

Now it would be cool to see the algae evolve into simple mosses and later terrestrial plants.

[@TheSapling]

Hey Forg, the transition from alga to plant is not implemented yet, but I definitely plan to add something like it soon.

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

I think it would be hard to make one kind of thing to transform into the other that to the game would be like a animal becoming a plant which seems hard to do

[@KamranWali]

The progress is looking really good! The algae is spot on and I really like how it moves around. Really like the optimized feature of the algae movement for far distance, that is really clever. With the added water effect it does look like under water. Also the sound effect under water adds so much to it. The new music matches so well with the under water. Keep it up! :)

[@chemems135]

It would be really cool to see omnivorous mouths in the game, as it could help introduce carnivores more naturally in sandbox, as it could smooth the transition over from herbivore to pure meat eater.

[@TheSapling]

Hey Chemems, will indeed be in the next update!

[@quinnburgess7748]

I recently got this game after seeing the "making a game" vid you did. I looked into it more and got it. Hasn't let me down. I've been goping for an underwater aspect for the game, though. I'm excited to see how this will turn out. Keep going!

[@cyberfutur5000]

An Idea, leave the island level in the game, but make it so, that it only unlocks, after finishing all the others. (Maybe there will be more to scrap in the future and this would be a way to document the progress) Or I guess, people could just load an old version via steam. By the way, I am really impressed. Like a third of what you have shown so far, would be impressive, even just bug fixes, would have made me happy, but this could lead to a brilliant game. And I am amazed by the rabbit holes, you have to deal with. It's always like you have to learn a whole new skill, to make the most minor changes. You have my utter most respect.

[@TheSapling]

Thanks Cyberfutur5000, there's indeed a lot of skill learning involved in this project :). Also, (without making promises) I like the idea of having old material available as an easter egg somewhere.

[@Bartsona]

Cant wait

[@YLLPal]

I'm so excited for this update, it's shaping up to really flesh out the whole game. I'm sure you've thought about life forms transitioning between land and water environments, if you implement that, I think it would really bring the water areas into the game play.

[@TheSapling]

Indeed thought of it, see next week ;)

[@bencake28]

OMG that's awesome. 🤯 Great solution and it looks so good and the sound matches perfectly. 🤗 And did I see aquatic tetrapods at the end? 😱 Oh yeah, fill that habitat with mobile and sessile lifeforms! 🦐🦈🍣🐟🐳🐬🐙🐌🐚 Like the terrestrial ones you have. 😍 That would be gigantic. Your game will definitely be the best evolution game. I'm so looking forward to it! 🦖

[@dynolab1959]

R.I.P island

[@bjarnes.4423]

There are creatures on land and flying through air. So the engine should make it _rather easy_ to implement creatures on the ocean floor and flying- I mean swimming through water. What will be difficult is the transition zone for the evolution. I think a great selective pressure would be seasonal sea level changes (and maybe disasters in a future release). This looks pretty great already. If plants produce light, fish learn to move to light, fish gets eaten by angler fish using light as bait :D

[@itsjustalf7747]

Yesss this is what I’ve been hoping for!

[@zupzugsecend2467]

i hope animal limbs start like fins and then become feet or better fins

[@erlinacobrado7947]

Wonderful! I love it! I wonder though if you might want to add plankton as food source in the game? I heard from previous dev logs that you don't want to add invisible systems as much as possible, but it might be cool to replicate the largest source of food on earth as well as the major determinant of aquatic ecosystems. Probably they can be seen the same way groundwater and temperature can be seen on land, in gradients, although slowly moving and expanding in the water column. Then you might be able to add nektonic filter feeders, from small fish like organism to whales. Good luck with the good work!

[@TheSapling]

Hey Erlina, thanks for your suggestion! Plankton won't be part of this update because I couldn't figure out how to do it in a way I like, but I would really like to have filter feeders one day, so I'm not giving up B)

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

@@TheSapling you could make it the colder somewhere is the more algae there will be like in real life because nutrients from the deep can mix with same temperature waters causing more algae

[@PaladinOfNerds]

This is a dream come true. Thank you.

[@CharliMorganMusic]

Looks good

[@transnewt]

I see blowholes, but not gills. I suppose the latter would be simpler, but if bother are too be implemented then don’t forget the wide variety of gills. Cephalopods and fish have very different breathing systems, which let them bypass certain defenses and use different movement options (fish gills can be used filter-feed or turned into jaws, while cephalopods use theirs to move and don’t have to worry about clogging) Both gill types should fall out in efficiency to lungs, since oxygen doesn’t dissolve as readily in water, allowing for a wide diversity of breathing apparatus’s.

[@reiteration6273]

All these dev blog videos are great. I've not actually bought the game yet, but I definitely will once this update goes live. The only reason I've not done so already is that I feel like I might be disappointed if I start playing now without all the great stuff that'll be added in the next update.

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

You wont be disappointed I already have it

[@TheSapling]

Hey Reiteration, thanks for considering :). Heads up: I'm thinking of a small price increase in September (once the new update goes live on the main branch), so if want to buy you might want to do it before that time.

[@lahavmorris9919]

I believe i can swim

[@de-zo6ex]

🎶I believe i can touch the ocean🎶

[@Tyulenin]

Oooo

[@hardworkingslacker7233]

Wow, the underwater levels came somewhat unexpected for me but now I am very excited to play it myself. All in all, glad to see that the game continues to be developed! By the way, you could keep the island level for a retro level section, maybe refitted for future purposes ;D

[@TheSapling]

Hey HardworkingSlacker, without making promises, having some way to add old levels and other things is an idea I like indeed!

[@hardworkingslacker7233]

@@TheSapling Nice!

[@aureumengi_pl9239]

We have Algae? Now create water animals :D I have some ideas, but i want to write them in Polish, so translate them to your Language - Dodać wodne stworzenia - Stworzenia żyjące w wodzie mogą wyjść na ląd, i odwrotnie (tylko raz aby cykl się nie powtarzał) - Najmniejsze stworzenia mogą tworzyć ławice (jak ryby) - Dodanie unikatowych części ciała dla wodnych stworzeń (płetwy, płetwy ogonowe, a może nawet forma przejściowa między płetwami a nogami, coś aka Tiktaalik) Other Ideas: Inteligence Herding Other Reproducion ideas (like Life Birth, Amphibian eggs etc) Btw Spore is my Childhood, you doing good work man :) Edit: OMG LE FISH

[@TheSapling]

Hey AureumEngi, if Google Translate works well (and I think so), you will like the next episode :)

[@aureumengi_pl9239]

@@TheSapling Yey and thx :D And yes, Translator is 100% right

[@goldfinchproductions3526]

THIS IS GONNA BE LIT

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

We still have one more thing in season 2 I wonder what it will be comment your ideas for what it could be

[@Т1000-м1и]

Underwater terrain should also have gradual but big differences in nutrient content between places. This could be the way to merge algae and plant types, with them trading off high energy to grow long underwater holding things with some resource absorption capability and even more if they're going to be as stable. How rigid a part is could work differently if it's under or above water Edit: the idea is that in certain regions it would be viable to rely more on ground nutrition, maybe not as efficient but still possible to go in that direction

[@KaroqiTimelapse]

Loving all these new devlogs

[@flechedesneiges5114]

This is beautiful and amazing, thank you for the great job !

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

It is nice having a new life type even if plants can't evolve from the water

[@Pixel_Forge_]

You are doing a great job, but I have a suggestion. Carpeting plants, AKA grass, but allow the player to edit and create multiple grasses. They would add a lot more life to the game, making the surface not look like just rock.

[@TheSapling]

Hey Indominus, thanks! It's a frequent suggestion indeed, not 100% sure how I will solve it.

[@andorsolaris2539]

@@TheSapling Maybe just a ground texture that spreads (or recedes) slowly over time? The editor for it could be like paint, with some brushes and stamps which allow the players to design the texture.

[@Versuffe]

cant wait for the update!

[@Stonewren]

glub glub glub glub 🐟

[@scarecrow9501]

On thing I wonder is will there be Amphibians would be awesome another thing is what would a ocean ecosystem look like and if there ponds rivers waterfalls maybe I don’t know i was exited to see the other updates but this one to me seems to me is really exiting like will there be algae is the water effected by the light will land animals interact with water infinite possibilities I can’t wait to see what happens

[@TiernanOleary]

Intelligence and civilisations

[@draftybag3466]

YES

[@pinetorch7876]

The fish at the end, I hope the creature editor for the aquatic animals is same as land animals.

[@TheSapling]

Hey Pine Torch, it will be!

[@pinetorch7876]

@@TheSapling ok thanks, I had my concerns cuz, although not bad, the alge editor feels the most restrictive in what you can do with it. Will you consider making the player have more control over their creations in the algae editor?

[@pinetorch7876]

@@TheSapling btw, I’ve already asked this but are u thinking about giving Mac support for the game

[@TheSapling]

Hey Pine Torch, the most important design goal for algae is to keep them simple, but I'm very interested in the ideas people might have to add more variety/player control while keeping it simple. As for Mac support: still no plans to expand to other platforms, but if I ever do, Mac will likely be the first because it would be the simplest to realize and it is the most common request.

[@kamale.abdelkader8561]

A wonderful game I must say. If I can suggest to you an idea for future updates, it would be the creation of Parasites and Parasitoids life forms, which need to be attached inside or outside of the animal, producing a colour change showing that the plant or animal is Sick. This could be a great implementation for future updates, of course, you don't have to hurry up to do it, just take all the time you need

[@TheSapling]

Hey Kamal, thanks! Without making promises, parasites indeed would be cool

[@beniven-dev]

You have to add a workshop for mods in the future and saving, exporting, and importing creations so you can put it on the workshop and let other people use it. Also naming creations and more instincts? Just ideas but the best of them would be mods and instincts, most likely instincts.

[@piglin469]

ahh yes the ending fish

[@samuellima6193]

I think you could add a level where you need to design an aquatic ecosystem and make the animals and plants go to land

[@TheSapling]

Will be discussed in the next episode :)

[@scarecrow9501]

Man this going to be awesome I wonder if fresh water and saltwater will be part of system and I wonder if update will also add swimming for land animals maybe I don’t know I wish I could play but I don’t have pc (maybe mobile version probably not hah sad times)

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

I don't think there will be different kinds of water that seems hard to add

[@scarecrow9501]

If he doesn’t that would be shame but would it be that hard actually though? Because to my knowledge the water cant rise or fall (as of right now) and there probably a algorithm out there that would be able to make where salt water and fresh water will be also brackish water would be cool but since the maps are small I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t add it. But I not programmer/game designer so what do I know. (And another thing to consider is in future he probably will add floods or droughts in future so maybe that would be factor but I think pros out way the cons)

[@TheSapling]

Hey Spino Dude, in this update there will be no difference between fresh water and salt water, mainly because I couldn't come up with how it would affect the animals... is there a clear visible difference between fresh water and salt water fish that you know of?

[@scarecrow9501]

Hey The Sapling no not really I was think more around the lines like some fish could survive salt water and freshwater maybe they would need to evolve a special type a gill maybe or something. Also when you said there will be no difference between fresh water and salt does that mean it is ingame and it just doesn’t have any effect?

[@faytleingod1851]

103 likes and it hasn't aired yet. I'm one of those because I already know it'll be amazing ,😂

[@0content21]

Sponges and Coral would be really cool and, would make the sea more colorful!

[@TheSapling]

Fully agreed, 0Content, but it won't be in this update because they're so different from the animals you can currently make in the animal editor.

[@0content21]

@@TheSapling That makes sense. They are a very complex thing to add to an evolution game as they could be a habitat for animals as well as its own living changing thing.

[@SlipNperiodSlide]

cant wait!!!

[@Leyva0scarVRL]

I can only describe my exciment in a single phrase Im le fish glub glub glub

[@trollster7133]

Ok idea: Idk if you’re planning on doing this but what if in the sandbox mode, algae can evolve into regular plants or just randomly spawn a simple fish. I’m pretty sure it came from bacteria or something else stupidly small but I mean it would be cool to just place an algae and 1 million years later have both plants and animals completely added naturally

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

To the game that is like animals evolving into plants kind of difficult to add

[@TheSapling]

Hey Trollster, the transition from algae to plants I want to add for sure in some way!

[@FireTurkey]

That ending really caught me off guard

[@jaxxives243]

Woo Woo swimmy Bois!!!

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

1:05 maybe we shouldn't have asked so much

[@milkman1818]

Hyped

[@tuckertechnolord6126]

I am so exited!! I’m so glad I already have this game, and the sandbox updates are going to be super appreciated. Is there ever going to be some sort of scenario creator, so you can make a scenario and post it on the steam workshop?

[@TheSapling]

Hey Tucker, thanks! Without making promises, I indeed like the idea of workshop integration one day

[@ZewdPlays]

This is a huge update

[@tylerhawley2106]

I'll add to the idea spam. What if the organisms could affect the environment? Say there's local/biome scale parameters, like moisture, which can be affected by the abundance or lack of plants. If an animal eats up the plants, it could become too arid for more of those plants to grow, driving that plant and animal to extinction, which could then lead to the aridity declining, plants recovering, and so on.

[@TheSapling]

Hey Tyler, thanks for your idea! Without making promises, some interaction between the soil and the lifeforms would indeed be interesting.

[@erlinacobrado7947]

@@TheSapling Just adding here some simple suggestions you can probably implement easily much any addition to animation: a plant, whether small or large trees shadow (since I see you already have shadows) decreases the temperature for the animals under it by a small fraction, thus animals will intentionally seek shade in moderately hot temperature. Second one, bioturbation: burrowing animals that had digging claws make the soil more soft and loose, in turn, making plants there have an easier time accessing soil nutrients. Just to add: I think plant roots should be added as a food source to your digging animals. You don't have to implement any of these of course, they're just suggestions :)

[@erlinacobrado7947]

@@TheSapling Another suggestion also, to replicate the Amazon's trees to manipulate weather: perhaps if trees beyond a certain mass or height congregate around a certain contiguous area in large numbers (say, 25) they might alter the local moisture levels to be much wetter. This may work only on the very large trees especially since they live long too. And if the trees in that are drop in a certain threshold, the moisture levels go to the normal levels.

[@TheSapling]

Hey Erlina, without making promises, indeed cool ideas, thanks for writing it all down!

[@Larry_muncher]

Can you please add parasitic life, it will be quite interesting to make! But it might be complicated.

[@TheSapling]

Hey Venosblox, without making promises, it's an interesting idea indeed!

[@UntoppableTopHat]

Here are some things I personally think you should add one the ability to manually change terrain now I'm not sure if this already it's not clear but I think it would be cool to say raise and lower terrain with say a brush.

[@TheSapling]

Hey Elowehi, thanks for your suggestion! At the moment, I've opted for random generation instead, so the update would be ready faster, but never say never :)

[@bluesoman]

I would use a vertex displacement shader for the algae to save on performance.

[@TheSapling]

Thanks for the suggestion, much appreciated!

[@mrcrunchies8688]

YESSSIIIRRRRR

[@jansalomin]

What is especially deep water uses an altered version of the new space theme

[@Thatguy10148]

lets gooooooooooooooooooooooo

[@cookiederpy1518]

fish gang for life

[@modernmajorgeneral4669]

I hope there will also be the ability to make aquatic plants.

[@TheSapling]

Hey RHF, without making promises, it's an idea I like, but not in this update!

[@thebluepikmim]

Letsss gooo fish

[@ruudvandenhove6905]

and you could keep the old map and add an special code feature in the planet editor so you can add codes to get special maps in the editor

[@ruudvandenhove6905]

other option: just split it in two different scenarios so you can keep the map

[@TheSapling]

Hey Ruud, without making promises, I indeed like the idea of bringing back old maps and other stuff with some sort of easter egg!

[@ivohunter24]

Will algae and aquatic animals be able to evolve into land organisms? Looking great btw.

[@TheSapling]

Aquatic animals definitely, for algae to mutate into plants is not implemented yet, but I definitely want to do something like that.

[@ivohunter24]

@@TheSapling Alright, that makes sense, thank you!

[@talonortiz6004]

You should add wind the higher you go

[@TheSapling]

You mean that the wind strength should be high on the top of mountains? Because right it's mostly the flat areas that are really windy.

[@talonortiz6004]

@@TheSapling yeah i just did not word that right my bad

[@lincolnc8658]

Hey, since there’s no bug report section in your discord, there’s 2 glitches where one, the plants, erm, well develop oddly phallic appendages down low, and the second bug is that during sandbox mode there’s a chance your game will just stop, all animations either freeze or loop and the only way you can continue is by saving then reloading the save. Hopefully you see this and they are fixed.

[@Leyva0scarVRL]

I dont think the first one is a bug lol, but the other one absolutely neds to be fixed

[@TheSapling]

Hey Lincoln, I mostly use Steam forums for bug reports! What you describe sounds like a problem with the visualization... any idea of what I can do to reproduce the problem (or to increase the chance of the problem appearing)? Let me know.

[@lincolnc8658]

@@TheSapling The first one you can recreate by creating a small plant and then just let it evolve with random mutations on for a while. The second one you can recreate by just leaving the sandbox running for a while.

[@tobenamed610]

I get that normal grass isn’t doable and would probably lag the game out of existence, but could you make it a texture for the ground? Like how animals have textured fur and things like that, there could be a pattern that covers the ground and looks like grass!

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

That would be perfect like when there are a ton of plants somewhere the ground would become the color of the plants near to it

[@TheSapling]

Hey ToBeNamed, my first approach to grass would be to find some super optimized / simplified way to make grass visible and something that can evolve, just like the rest of all life in the game. Coloring the ground is the backup option ;)

[@tobenamed610]

@@TheSapling In that case, I have another idea: look at the way Minecraft does their grass/flowers. They’re two sprites put together to make an illusion of a 3D plant, but you can see that it’s sides are 2D if you look from directly above. This won’t be a problem in the Sapling, it won’t look bad and looking outward you’d see all the sprites, but the illusion of 3D is a lot easier than trying to render thousands of real 3D objects. Just an idea in case you decide to try!

[@RP-og6rv]

Why not use the low-pass filter for both the underwater and pause music?

[@TheSapling]

Hey RP, good point! I tried that first, but somehow my brain thought the game was on pause each time I want underwater, so I felt like I had to remove that association somehow.

[@darkturtle9996]

It would be cool if the water color changed based on the star's light as well

[@TheSapling]

Agreed... any sources on what light color does to water color on a planet?

[@Tsuchimursu]

I assume you just simplified your explanation, and use fog to smoothly hide the fact that you stop things from rendering far from the camera? Because some beginners don't realise that your engine might be rendering things far away from the camera, even though they're behind a fog, causing extra strain instead of added performance. I just feel its worthwhile to mention.

[@TheSapling]

Hey Tsuchimursu, good point, but explanation was not complete! Indeed, the algae have a really short render distance, and THAT is what the optimization really is... the fog just hides it.

[@itstimetogameomgh7857]

this man must be a multi-millionaire

[@TheSapling]

Haha I wish... so far this game is not making enough to provide for my family ;)

[@cgstudiosthebaconbro]

Nah bro W update I'm inpatient so I REALLY want it to come out already but I understand that u have to do a lot and cant just release it the next day