Peaceable Kingdom (for a Day)

[loboLoco]

[youtube]87-I6RJp4h8[/youtube]
Video link: https://youtu.be/87-I6RJp4h8

Thanksgiving has rolled around again, and we’re still working on WolfQuest 3. But at least we’ve persuaded the animals to put aside their differences and gather together peaceably* for a day. (Well, except for the bull elk, who drew the short straw…)

At its very best, Thanksgiving is a time to pause to think about what we are thankful. We know a lot of WolfQuest players don’t have Thanksgiving as a holiday in their countries, but we would still like to share our thanks with you this week.

We are thankful for:
* Eleven years of WolfQuest! It is remarkable that the game has persisted and we are able to keep improving and expanding it. Thank you to everyone for supporting WolfQuest!

* Our dedicated and enthusiastic players! Without you, WolfQuest would not be possible. We especially appreciate all the supportive and constructive comments we hear.  Your thoughtful input is always considered and helps shape the game. Also, someone makes us smile every day, which is essential to our perseverance.  

* Our talented WolfQuest team: Tommi, Andrei, Zach, Nick, Steve, Duncan, Paul, Omar, Tom and the amazing artists at GIM, and many others who are contributing their talents to the game. We are thankful to work with such creative and dedicated folks.

* Yellowstone National Park and all the conservation efforts that help ensure wolves continue to thrive in the real world too. We are thankful for parks and wild places. We hope all of you get to experience the call of the wild!

* And most of all, those incredible gray wolves and all the wild creatures out there. We can’t imagine living in a world without them.

We continue to make progress on WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition, albeit with some interruptions like last week’s server troubles (which have continued some into this week), and some other glitches that have slowed things down a bit more this month than we hoped. Tommi has been building out more animals, finishing Mule Deer and Moose and now turning to ravens and other birds. Zach has been slogging away on multiplayer for longer than any of us would like to admit, and is finally getting close to having it all working (more from him in a blog post soon). Andrei has been expanding secondary systems like music and weather. Nick, the latest Unity developer to join our team, has been improving various things like save-games and scent rendering, and is now diving into optimization to make the game run better on a variety of hardware. Susan has been researching animal behaviors and answering questions on social media, while George handles game reports and player support. Steve has been creating more animal animations for the wolf and now moose as well, and remaking more of the original wolf coats. The GIM artists have been working on more grizzly and fox animations, and some other animals we’ll show off soon. And I’ve gotten back into the environment work, focusing on the forests of Amethyst Mountain with more beautiful models by our vegetation artist Kerry.

We know everyone wants to know when when when! We are still hoping to release the first episode, Amethyst Mountain, by the end of 2018 for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access — but we aren’t quite as far along as I had hoped to be by now, so that’s a goal, not a guarantee. At any rate, that’ll be followed by Slough Creek some months later in 2019, then followed by the mobile versions. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall.

* Inspired of course by “The Peaceable Kingdom” series of paintings by Edward Hicks, depicting humans and animals working and living together in peace.

[YellowstoneWolves1]

Happy Thanksgiving WolfQuest team! Honestly, not much to say. I am going to say I am thankful for the future update, as we get prey locking. I like this short clip to show us all the future animals, very creative way to show everyone the new models. I would like to say that if you don't manage to get the update down by the end of 2018, it's ok for me. This was a huge project, I wouldn't be surprised if Early Access ended up coming out in the middle of 2019! But you know what? That's ok, and it will be all worth it in the end, for the team and us players. Happy Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a nice day.

[Whirl-Oakpaw]

Wow it looks amazing. I'm really looking forward to playing the new game. Thanks for all the work you guys are putting into it!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[MysteryFoxSpirt]

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Including all of the prey, the preds, the young, the old, the cute, the ugly, even the dead. (Like that bull elk!)

Love all the models! Bear and bear cub! The cougar! Wolf, fox and the coyote! Mule deer, moose, elk and their offspring! And of course, the beaver! Bighorn sheep, and their offspring! The snowshoe hare! And you can’t forget the birds. (Even if they weren’t shown here)

Keep it my, my wolf loving pals!

[wolf_whisperer98]

Very visually stunning! This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for what others are thankful for: that the game has made amazing progress, and for 11 years, I think that this moment with all animals gathered here takes the cake. Like most players, I look forward to the initial release, be it before the year is out, or next. Good job WQ Team! Keep up the good work!

[LamarWolf]

The models look great. I really like the fox.

[Phasoli]

Happy Thanksgiving, WQ team!
I truly appreciate all of the work and effort put into this game. The result is breathtaking, and I'm more than certain that this will be a revolutionary simulation game when it's released. The realism, attention to detail--it's just, wow! Look at that landscape! If I could escape the city and dive right into the tranquility of the vegetation, I would. All of the animal models are in their prime, and I'm so excited to be witnessing juvenile and yearling animals added to the mix. That bear cub is so sweet looking, and look at that yearling moose calf! I almost missed the beaver and the fox, but they're looking amazing as well! That said, I understand that the release of the game is still in murky waters, and rightfully so. I wouldn't mind if the early access was released in 2019 at all. All the work that the team has done is really showing. It will be more than worth the wait to play the game when it's finished.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone once again. I'm so thankful for this community as well! I hope everyone enjoys their day.

[sophiaww]

Wow this is beautiful I could watch this all day! Happy Thanksgiving hope everybody has fun! (this is the closest emote to a turkey)

[Koa]

All of the new models look so lovely in the upgraded terrain! Thank you, Dave!

[Nor-easter Forecast]

And we are thankful for a dedicated and talented team who continues to keep our community in mind, even on a holiday!

[DispersedHowl100]

I love this! Thank you for Wolf Quest!!! And that scene where all the animals are together would make a really cool home screen!

[SnowSprite]

Thank you for giving all of us WQ players a unique and wonderful experience for years
And is that a bear cub I can see? It's so cute.

[xc92u3]

One thing I'm thankful for: I'm not a bull elk!
It was very nice seeing all the game mobs put together :3 thank you so much Dave!

[Ivaylos]

Thank you to the WolfQuest team for all the hard work that goes into this amazing game!

[xX_WillowWisp_Xx]

Hello, this was so beautiful to see and I am so grateful for all the work you have all put in and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to all your efforts finnaly coming together- don't dispair that it might take longer than expected, were all rooting for you !
Just one quick question, I know there will be snowfall as we've seen in previous blogs, but will there also be rainfall and thunder storms like in the current version - if so, it would be amazing if the animal's pelts would appear to dampen in the rain. Thank you again wolfquest team and goodluck!