Introduction

This page details the progress of Kemoverse Online alpha builds. Alpha builds are unstable versions to test and implement new features. The final goal (and then upgrading to Beta status) is to implement the most important game mechanics; such as a gameplay loop, crucial social features, most customization options and make sure the idea of the game actually works in practice.

Pre-alpha

Started	Ended
Spring 2019	Spring 2020

Pre-alpha was the process of porting the existing code from Unity in to godot, which mostly consisted of "existence" code such as being able to walk around, focus on things, turn your head, and load different scenes as well as implementing a basic user interface, character creation and few basic items to look around you. So basically, the essential stuff to get up and going. I released only a few pre-alpha builds as I was figuring out where to take this project, and until I had a clear view, I just wanted to get the groundwork down.

Alpha 1

Started	Ended
June 2020	August 2020

Alpha 1 was to implement proper character customization and multiplayer synchronization. For this, I created the Kemoverse Server that keeps track of players in the world as well as saving custom user data in a database that is directly connected to the Kemoverse Forums user account. The character customization was also updated to allow for individual coloring of either mesh parts or of texture parts of the clothes. Character customizations are made to be saved and loaded as a long text code.

Alpha 2

Started	Ended
September 2020	November 2020

Changed company name and updated Login/Intro screen
Improved some repeating textures
Improved spawning system
Added motion blur and CRT effect
Improved some equipment and added flashlight
Lots and lots of various small fixes

Refined and standardized ambient feeling in every area
- Refined main school (/l school_main) and library (/l school_main_lib)
- Refined workshop (/l school_workshop) and added rooms (_art, _photo, _lab, etc)
- Refined church (/l school_church)
Improved target menu (the menu that appears when interacting with something)
Improved quickmenu (bottom right icons) with hotkeys Z,X,C,V
- C interacts with the closest interactable object
- V either cycles pose, stops an emote or unequips an equipped item
Expanded "pack" and "area" main menu tab

Alpha 2, named the "Theme update", was to implement a day and night cycle and special feelings in to each and every currently implemented are of the game. 3D models were refined and reimported due to a fixed bug in Godot and shadow baking was massively improved. The interaction menu and the UI were further refined and streamlined and some functionality was added, namely the motion blur. All of the interior areas were cleaned up.

Alpha 3

Started	Ended
December 2020	January 2021

Implementation of phone and book
Tweaking models

Alpha 4

Started	Ended
April 2021	May 2021

Improved interactions with objects (door, chair, etc)
Better camera edge detection
New Felinae race model
Remake most animations
Room customization, with item placement and wallpaper/floor
Vehicles (skateboard, computer chair)
Computer Touhou-like game
RigidBody physics
Raindrop shader
Vending machine
Lowered system requirements and lowered cpu usage
Added music playing and visualizer system
More map/worldbuilding

Alpha 5

Started	Finished
May 2021	June 2021

Kemze was started.

Intro video and cutscene work
Redesigned character customization
Many more character and clothing patterns
Weather transitions
Sound and ambience tracks
Music demos in certain areas
Player savefile and story progression
Overhauled and streamlined UI
New player tag look
Student book and phone menus functional

Later, the first trailer was released.

Alpha 6

Started	Finished
June 2021	August 2021

Summer update.

Fleshing out room customization

Hiatus

There was a year-long development hiatus due to life changes and the need to reflect on the content, purpose and goal of the game. The initial ideas and plan were very ambitious (but also open to change), however, the content beyond the school wasn't fleshed out and the planned features were too heavy. After taking this year-long break to think about the worldbuilding and the contents of it, it reached a more mature level.

Alpha 7

Started	Finished
July 2022	October 2022

Post-college update. Lots of cool enhancements to the world.

Redesigned campus environment with new buildings and nature
New trees and vegetation that sways in the wind
Added a moon during the night
New loading screen with loading bar
Introduced gardening and bug-catching systems with special tools
Added some prototype music to the campus.

Improved light and shading systems, shadows now enabled
Improved reflections
Improved furry face detail and expressions
Introduced LOD system
Better sounds and ambient tracks
Redesigned and improved all haircuts
Fixed clothing clipping issues

Alpha 8

Started	Finished
October 2022	November 2022

Yet another attempt at working full-time on this thing. Let's hope this works. Lots of exciting updates!

Hugely improved LOD system
Increased performance and setting toggles
Introduced character schedules and actionscript editor
Improved all emotes and animations
Improved face animations
Made the character mood settings work
Fixed and improved the idle animations (G and Ctrl+G)
Fleshed out school main/lib/loc
Text color depends on distance
Fixed players facing the wrong way when logging in
Chat icons and custom text effects
New intro video and story cutscene

Alpha 9

Started	Finished
November 2022	December 2022

Development pace picked up. Lots of changes and new players. It's fun!

Added the forest area with mushrooms and a big lake
Added the Foodraise goals, collect resources and hand them in!
There aren't any rewards yet, awaiting player feedback of this gameplay
Added two new tools: shovel and fishing rod
Shovel makes server-side plants and digs up mushrooms
Fishing rod lets you fish in the lakes
Added sticky notes
Updated campus, library music and added forest music
Added running by rapidly tapping the A and D keys
Added customizable and tradeable player cards with plenty of stickers and backgrounds
Added animation/indicator when typing a lot of text
Inventory items can now be scaled

Fixed random connection drops and added auto reconnection
Fixed unrecoverable camera (still glitches but should be fixed with restart)
Added scheduling for yourself to automatically manage your scripts
Added a command to load other scripts, making chained scripts possible

Implemented stylish volumetric lights with toggleable dynamic lights
Added water rings and sound effects on water surfaces
Implemented random weather in server and improved all weathers
Performance improvements everywhere

Added a piece of paper at the center tree that tells you who is online
Moved character customization to the student room.
Made Linux/Mac versions

Alpha 9.2

Started	Finished
December 2022	December 2022

Some bugfixes.

Disabled collision on dirt plot
Added projector streaming functionality (very alpha)
Fixed plot overwatering issue
Fixed bouncing player issue
Improved performance when joining area with lots of entities
Added a paper at the collection boxes with a log of foodraise submissions
Added a bunch of torches around campus and made them affect scenery
Fixed darkness of night time indoor/outdoor
Added some new year fun stuff
Added wave emote

Alpha 10

Started	Finished
February 2023	March 2023

The "KemZrave update", an update focused on posing/emoting and the dog race.

Added a new dog race
Added a character picker at the start of the game
Improved server connection by moving to new host
Fine-tuned clothing styles for felinae
All window popups now save and load position correctly
Browser window is now resizable and loads automatically on open
CEF can now be downloaded automatically in-game
Digging piles under stuff is not glitchy anymore
New savefile saving system, should prevent corruption
Moved Emotes main menu tab in to two separate windows:
- "Emoter" to show all built-in emotes and your own emotes
- "Poser" to move your bodyparts around in real-time
- "Animator" to create custom animations for yourself
Moving camera now fades open windows
Cutscenes are now skippable
Planting plants now require seeds
- Seeds are not given out at the moment
Flashlight dark bug fixed
Can now move in place by holding LMB
Fixed some NPC bugs
- Merka now sleeps properly on the desk
NPCs now turn correctly and start living their lives when game loads
Fixed using items using it for everyone else
Moved animation code to native module, improving performance
Server now has maximum 64 clients
Server can now send custom objects to load, providing more dynamic environments (for events, etc)
- Server can now also make custom event scripts for NPCs.
Actionscripts commands do not use one letter commands anymore.
- This means that scripts you've written needs to be fixed.

Alpha 11

Started	Finished
March 2023	April 2023

The "Kitchen update".

Fixed focused objects sometimes not highlighting.
Fixed player sliding down slopes when animating.
NPCs no longer merge with you when sitting at your seat.
Added Kitchen and School basement areas, with music for the Kitchen.
Kitchen introduces food making mechanics to the game.
- Added several equipments: knife, bowl, prepping tray
Added a hunger and energy mechanic.
- Getting hungry will make your energy drop faster.
- Low energy will make you unable to run. or do strenous activities like planting or fishing.
- You can recover energy by sitting or laying.
Added a first person camera mode by zooming in all the way.
Added a new NPC: Retakatekt
- Retak is the nightwatch of the school, who guards the entrance and keeps the peace during the evening.
Retired the phone and replaced it with the Eventpad, a calendar that lists upcoming events.
Card menu now has folders for organizing them.
The "Occupied" toggle switch in the planner now works. Toggle it on to prevent interactions from others.
Added a slingshot toy that can knock other people holding a slingshot down.
The pipe and catching net now knocks people down properly.
Your pose now might randomly switch stance after standing still for a bit.

Alpha 12

Started	Finished
April 2023	May 2023

Music played through the browser is now played physically in the game.
Adjusted the music visualizer in the bottom left to be more accurate.
Fixed issues of character customization sliders not applying.
Fixed the soup always being dirty and unsliced.
Fixed camera glitching out a bit when laying down.
Seeds now show correct names.
The mushroom collection bins are now working correctly.
Improved performance of baking alpha textures.
Better savefile saving, should prevent most (if not all) corruptions.
New walking animation for dog race.
Changed the mouse behavior so that hovering on objects highlights them, and pressing once brings up the menu.
Added a room tab at the bottom menu. (Incomplete)
Updated the look tab with an unlockable lister, and a working accessory hider.
- Different outfits are available and swappable now in the look tab.
You are now forced to wear uniforms every monday until either of these conditions:
- The food raise gets completed. Everyone can wear their personal clothes.
- You hand in enough food to the collection bins. You get to wear your personal clothes.
Improved entity performance when loading from server
AFK status when unfocused from the game

Alpha 13

Started	Finished
May 2023	June 2023

The "Player room update".

Added working student rooms and room ownership system. Single rooms at the first floor, twin rooms at the second floor.
- Ownership of the room means you can kick/notify visitors, lock the door, and change the title.
- Objects can be unlocked, created, placed, and interacted with in your room.
- Themes can used to apply unique wallpapers, floors, and fabrics to objects.

Added an collectible catalog where you can unlock things with tokens.
- You can find the catalog through the student planner. It includes room objects and themes, playercard backgrounds and stickers, and clothing models and patterns.
- You gain tokens by fulfilling 100%, 200%, and 300% of your workweek. You can check your progress by the yellow paper near the foodraise containers.
- Some items (stickers) are not unlockable, but can be found through various in-game actions. Figure them out!

Added a small reminder/about dialog explaining the state of the game and future plans.
Improved the paint interface for spraycan.

Updated the campus day and night theme.

Fixed an issue of editing casual clothes during workweek.
Fixed the first person view sometimes disabling when being up close to walls.
Fixed issue of NPCs being shoved off seats.

Reintroduced the skateboard as an equippable item.

You can type unlocked stickers in the chat by typing the <name> (small icon) or <NAME> (big icon)
You can now quickly do emotes by typing them with exclamation mark: "!bow" makes you bow.

Dog race now have custom sliders in the character creator. Create a new character or approach me in-game to customize it again.

You can now toggle random AFK stance in the settings.
You can type an option called "autoafk" in lifescript to automatically run when standing still for a few seconds.

Alpha 14

Started	Finished
June 2023	July 2023

This update prepared for the second in-game event as well as fixing issues and adding items for housing. An initial android build was also released to the public.

Added new room objects.
- Added special unique posters that are given out through in-game events.
- Added bug cages/fish bowls to keep a pet bug of your choice in your room.
- Added placeable plant pots where you can plant decorative plants.

Added new equipment.
- Added the board item used to draw images and showing them to other players.

Fine tuned spray stuff.
- Fixed applying a spray that would sometimes disconnect you.
- Spray images now lazy-load when getting close to them. This should improve performance.
- Added Shift-Remove safety measure when removing sprays.

General gameplay improvement
- Fine-tuned targeting system and added a finger cursor when you can interact with something.
- Made the room editing list of objects sorted by addition order.
- The savefile is now synchronized with the server in order to submit food.
  - Sometimes it breaks. There is now a compost behind the kitchen to discard all of your gathered resources in exchange to submit food again.
- Players are now hidden when the camera merged with them.
- The target menu buttons now aims correctly together with the camera.
- Fixed the detection sphere around you being weird at different heights.
- Made water particles move with direction.
- Shovel digging does not require you to hold mouse button anymore.

Added nice shiny stuff
- The DiscordSDK/CEF addon download now works in the planner settings.
- Hotkeys F1, F2, F3, and F4 can now quickly start a lifescript option.
- Chat can now display some foreign languages. (Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic)
- Added ui scaling command (/scale <1.0-2.0>) and fps limit command (/fpslimit <15-144>)
- Added more dance-themed animations to the Animator.

Alpha 15

Started	Finished
July 2023	August 2023

Need a break.

New features:

Middle clicking now shows a "walk-to" indicator.
The eventpad now shows a number in the bottom right menu for upcoming events.
Swapping existing cards with others has now been re-enabled.
Rooms now makes use of Player cards for the room sign.
Foodraise in the student book has been simplified and now also shows personal contribution.
Catching bugs now has a chance of yielding either a decoration seed or an edible seed.
Holding the quickmenu buttons (bottom right) now triggers their alternative use.
- Toggling on SPC mode is now either holding X, pressing Shift+X, or long pressing the planner.
- Unselecting your focused object is now either holding C, pressing Shift+C, or long pressing the eye icon.
- Stashing an item away is now either holding V, pressing Shift+V, or long pressing the item icon.
There are now special themed musics that can play for story purposes.
- Not that no solo play story content actually use these songs yet, but they are used for lore events.

Fixes:

Fixed issues involving multiple hair styles being toggled on and off.
Fixed eventpad events not being on the correct days in certain cases.
Fixed silent player pawpads when starting game.
Fixed random crashes and freezes when using kitchen utilities and tools.

Android version has several improvements.

The game should no longer start with PC settings (should greatly improve performance)
There is now an on-screen joystick to move around.
You can long-tap on the screen to select where to walk to.
Back button (and quitting on Windows) now has a confirmation.

New characters:

Onrakh, a new teacher character, was added.
- Onrakh is a big dog teacher that is keen to teach you all about living in the Kemoverse.
- Onrakh is aiming to hold lore events every Wednesday.
Merka now handles two things: Foodraise rewards and Getting a room
- The foodraise rewards are given out at the weekend, but only if the foodraise has passed. Everyone can get rewards but the amount of rewards are based on your contribution to the foodraise.
- To get a room for yourself, you need to have over 100% contribution. Merka will follow you to the student dorms and when you find an empty one, you can get it.

Alpha 16

Started	Finished
September 2023	October 2023

I seem to have lost my changelog notes for this version.

https://kemze.itch.io/tko/devlog/621150/alpha-16

New NPC added: Ikt
The library received a design overhaul
- In addition, the bookcases can now have player books contributed.
- You can get books by receiving foodraise rewards from Merka.
The forest now has special mushrooms that only grow in certain conditions.
Added introduction information books in the sanctuary
Players now leave pawprints.
- The pawprints can be cleaned up with the broom item.
Improved performance of players loading in.

Alpha 17

Started	Finished
November 2023	December 2023

Interface changes:

Occupied status now hides all player tags and suspends all interactions with online players.
- This is useful if you still want to go online, but not interact with people.
- You will appear to have a pause symbol next to your name to others.

There is now an escape menu with an About, Controls, and Settings page, with a much more comfortable layout. This is much easier than cramming everything in the planner settings tab. That one is still in the planner, but will go away soon.

The interface was cleaned up a little, such as the top menu.
- Autotexts now have a global toggle.

Cursors and interaction systems were updated to be more mouse friendly.
- The cursor now indicates if an item is too far away to interact with. You can still select them!
- The camera no longer focuses on the selected object, making it easier to do /emote.
- Clicking around in the target menus isn't as chaotic anymore.

Player icon in the planner is now fixed. I accidentally broke it before.
The talk speed in settings was reversed to the correct direction.

The chat log system was updated.
- You can now select text by pressing space and then selecting text.
- URLs in the chat are now automatically linked underneath.
- The chat log can be resized with the handle on the left.
- Text above the head are now toggleable and looks much better/glitches less.
- The chat should not jump anymore when people are talking.

Game changes:

Forest music was updated with new day and night tracks.
Various performance improvements, especially when zoning and starting the game.
Bug with soil darkness was fixed.

Fixed various physics issues
- NPCs no longer slide or bounce around inappropriately.
- Falling from height no longer zooms you out of the world.
- Certain unclickable doors or items were now fixed.

Cutscenes now hide players trying to intrude.

Shader differences between GLES2 and GLES3 were resolved.
- There should be minimal amount of light blasting on your character in GLES2.

Random startup crashes should be a thing of the past. Should be...

Starting up the game will put your character in the right rotation.

Story changes:

The campus now has added lesson circles around the center tree. They don't work yet, but the plan is to eventually represent each 12 lessons on them with token requirements.

Merka now gives rewards on a rotation, starting with four week variations.

New (and first!) student NPC added: Takar.

Alpha 18

Started	Finished
January 2024	February 2024

Story

Added a cinematic introduction lesson to continue the story.
- Sera now stands at the tree to wait for you for your introduction class.
- Existing players have already completed this, but can retake the intro class by talking with Sera at the pagoda.

Added Lora. Lora and Takar are now visible on campus after completing the introduction.
Added Anjraz and Anjraz' forest cottage. She is not yet in-game, but the cottage serves as club rooms.
Onrakh, Ikt, and Retakatekt can now offer you various creative tools by exchanging tokens.

The center tree paper slip can now show upcoming events. (However, Lessons are not yet added)
The campus and forest now has a winter seasonal change depending on date.
The campus now has improvements to the road side, to better reflect the story developments.

Interface

The planner tabs were updated. There is now a selection of guide books, introducing the various activities in the game in the Help tab.

Chat log is improved, with faster scroll catch-up and clearer legibility of player's chat messages on dark background.
The target menu has been updated to a radial target menu style.

Popup overlays (painting, writing, book reading, etc) can now be dragged around properly.

Game experience using gamepad/analog axes are more consistent in third-person and first-person mode.
On-screen navigation axes can now be enabled in the settings.

Added some useful setting toggles, such as automatic server connection, auto-look at, and more.

Character running on Android is now possible by tapping the on-screen axes controllers.

Gameplay

Introduced club rooms as unique owned instances available to funders only.
- Club rooms can be entered by the bike lock on Anjraz' cottage and entering the room code.
- As a funder, you can see your assigned funder room number by typing "/funder" in chat.

Updated the creative tools and made them available in exchange for tokens.
- Books are now offered by Ikt.
- Spraycan was replaced with a paint bucket.
- Writing books or using a paint bucket now requires ink. You can get ink from Onrakh.
- Added musical instruments: snare, drum and cymbals. You can get them from Retakatekt.

Added character health stat.
- Your character can now get sick, which negatively affects your movements and causes coughing and sneezing.
- Coughing or sneezing near players can make them sick too, if they're also not healthy.
- Sickness is worsened by being hungry for long periods of time, or improved by eating yourself full.

Added Text-to-speech (TTS) support with a new TTS plugin.
- You can pick your own unique voice
- The TTS volume can be adjusted in the settings.

Added a new chair sitting alternate animation.

The cooking pot now works offline.
Actionscript can now play character emotes. ("em yes")

Android version can now be played in portrait mode with an adjusted interface.
Default Godot video driver changed to GLES2.
Linux build is now available.

Changelog

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