After all this time, Beta 1.2 - Playground's Open is finally out! This has been something we wanted to work on for so long now. Prior versions have always felt like a tech-demo, and that's due to the lack of things you can do to the game. Since we focused on improving the game's systems on Beta 1.1 - Terra Nova, in this update we wanted to focus on the gameplay aspects of things to make this feel like a more complete game.

Changes

World Generation

Pretty much all of the biomes have been updated to clean up, balance, and make them a bit more interesting! There's been so many changes that I can't list out all of them, but here are some notable ones.

• Added several new biomes
  • Added plains
  • Added sunflower fields
  • Added bogs
  • Added shrublands
  • Added tundra (tundra from previous versions was renamed to snowy tundra)
  • Updated snowy tundra
• Added several new structures
  • Added vine
  • Added false paradise
  • Updated campsite
• Updated heat and humidity
• Updated cave generation
  • Updated stone and ore distribution
  • Developer's Note: This has been a long-standing issue with the world generation for a while now, and it felt like the perfect time to look into how these generate and work on improving their placement and rarity.
  • Removed large caves

Creatures

• Added hostile hostility type
• Added flight movement type
• Added hurt sound effects
• Added several creatures
  • Added bats
  • Added butterflies
  • Added cows
  • Added ducks
  • Added ghosts
  • Added goats
  • Added mummies
  • Added ostriches
  • Added penguins
  • Added scorpion
  • Added skeleton
  • Added squirrel
  • Added tortoise
  • Added wraith
  • Added zombie
• Updated all creatures balance out their hitbox, HP, drops, and attributes
• Updated creature drop system
  • Each item drop can now only drop based on the creature's sprite index
• Improved pathfinding
  • Developer's Note: Many creatures still do not have animations. This beta is focused on implementing several new gameplay systems for creatures to create a gameplay loop, and animations are currently not a high priority.

Items

There have been a bunch of new items, as well as existing items that have been updated to be functional! This update has been focused on gameplay which is why there has been so many changes with the items that they needed to be in their own section!

• Added several items
  • Added spears
  • Added platforms
  • Added workbench variants
  • Added stone variations
• Updated item functionality
  • Added sign functionality
  • Added door functionality
  • Added pot functionality
  • Campfires can now be toggled
• Updated swinging animation for all items
  • Spears 'poke' instead of swing
  • Bows no longer swings and only stay in place
  • Other item types' default swing is now smoother
• Updated several tiles to be able to be destroyed when its floating. This feature affect(s):
  • All wood types
  • All bamboo types
  • Cattails
  • Cactus
• Updated damage of several tools and weapons
  
• Updated values of several consumables
• Updated several textures
• Several item placement (such as doors and tents) can now face the player 
  
• Campfires can now be toggled

Splash Texts

• Added date-specific splash texts
• Updated the list of splash texts
  • This means that most of the old splash texts have been replaced due to redundancy.

More Changes

• Added cave ambience
• Added several sound effects
• Added several creatures
• Added several attires
• Added knockback
• Added several language support for German, Japanese, Dutch, Russian, Français, and Filipino
  • Developer's Note: These translations are mostly unfinished. This is only bundled in with this update so that we hope that you can contribute on some of these languages.
    
• Updated settings
  • Added profanity filter
  • Added blur strength
  • Added several refresh rate options
• Added open folder option in edit player/world menu
• Added image shortcut to snapshot
• Updated credits
  • Added several names
  • Added several social media links to contributors
• Updated several creatures
• Updated item drops
  • Updated gravity to be much lower
  • Item drops can now combine with each other
• Updated credits
• Significantly optimized startup
• Significantly optimized lighting
• Optimized particles
• Optimized backgrounds
• Optimized chat history
• Optimized sound effects
• Optimized camera
• Optimized world generation
• Optimized inventory

Technical Changes

Sound Effects

• Sound effect calculation has also been rewritten to be faster and to add a bunch more effects
  • Added low-pass filter
  • Optimized reverb calculation

More Changes

• Added Datafixer
• Rewritten save/load system
• Updated emotes to be data-driven
  • We will be adding an expression picker in a future update, so stay tuned for that while we work on more important features.
• Updated chunk save files
  • This system now uses regions, which means that instead of 64 individual chunk files, these 64 chunk files are now packed into a singular region file.
• Optimized memory usage (up to 500mb less than before!)
• Optimized rendering

Bugfixes

• Fixed several issues related to save files
• Fixed several issues related to crafting
• Fixed several issues related to cave generation
• Fixed several issues related to structure generation
• Fixed several issues related to connected textures on chunk generation
• Fixed several issues related to tile lights
• Fixed an issue where durability bar doesn't display properly
• Fixed an issue where the player/world list don't get their positions probably sorted
• Fixed an issue where the edit and delete option for player/world don't move properly
• Fixed an issue where the tooltip background doesn't change size based on the item amount
• Fixed an issue where the background transitions even if the backgrounds used are identical
• Fixed an issue where the sky color of the main menu background isn't gotten from the biome itself
• Fixed an issue where the credits have leftover debug text at the top left of the screen
• Fixed an issue where a chat message sent isn't trimmed
• Fixed an issue where structure generation continues to check even when player is not moving
• Fixed an issue where creature sound effects don't play
• Fixed an issue where sound effect reverb calculation is calculated on top of the world
• Fixed an issue where diegetic sound effects are louder compared to other sound effects
• Fixed an issue where several items don't show several details
• Fixed an issue where pausing or unpausing doesn't pause/unpause the audio
• Fixed an issue where the delta time values are off depending on your refresh rate and if the window is focused/minimized
• Fixed an issue where particles on Min or Max setting have broken chance calculation
• Fixed an issue where any horizontal movement can cause the "phantasia:action.dash" sound effect to play
• Fixed an issue where structures generating on negative x on startup can cause them to generate partly or not at all
• Fixed an issue where the world time is not affected by delta time
• Fixed an issue where item drops that fall onto the ground don't slow down and just stops abruptly
• Fixed an issue where background music can overlap when transitioning into multiple biomes
• Fixed an issue where opening and closing the inventory multiple times can cause a memory leak
• Fixed an issue where inputs can be registered multiple times leading to inconsistent physics
• Fixed an issue where sun ray positions are not loaded properly
• Fixed an issue where tiles placed by the player have a very low "index_offset" value
• Fixed an issue where collision boxes don't probably scale with negative values
• Fixed an issue where tile updates don't run properly (e.g., leaves not producing any particles)
• Fixed an issue where deleting a world causes you to go back to the player list menu
• Fixed an issue where exiting a world doesn't save your message history