Reality Check: Back in Yellowstone!

Find out what we're doing and thinking as we develop WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition and the Tower Fall expansion!

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loboLoco
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Reality Check: Back in Yellowstone!

Post by loboLoco » Thu Sep 23, 2021 3:35 pm



Earlier this month, Susan (Pepper) and I (Dave/loboLoco) returned to Yellowstone on our third research trip for WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition (though truth be told, we didn’t need that excuse to make the trip again). We hiked into some areas of the Northern Range that we are considering for future game maps, and we also visited Slough Creek’s First Meadow again — it’s one of our favorite places in the world. I was curious to see how the real place compared to the game map that we created since our last visit two years ago. So today’s video looks at a few aspects of real nature and how the game shapes up in comparison — and a few ways that I’ve been working since coming home to nudge the game a bit closer to reality.

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WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) Once the game is completed on PC/Mac, we will turn our attention to other platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!
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rowantobias
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Re: Reality Check: Back in Yellowstone!

Post by rowantobias » Sat Sep 25, 2021 2:23 am

always so great to see the team up in yellowstone! i can respect the dedication to accuracy :) (and i'm sure it's just fun being in the wilderness too!)

the new vegetation is excellent - it's a good new variety! especially happy to see new stumps. it really makes the map/s feel more lived-in!

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Re: Reality Check: Back in Yellowstone!

Post by DaniBeez » Tue Sep 28, 2021 11:16 am

Looked like a fun trip. Was quite nostalgic to see you standing on the same large rock where the wolves usually spawn at the start of the game with the music playing!! I noticed that detail.

My caption for the thumbnail... Felt cute, might delete later 😂🤠

I got to see dense boreal forest for myself on a trip to a gold mine (on the adjacent logging roads, no trees at the actual mine 😅). It's incredible how large animals like moose, caribou (and for the West coast) elk have adapted to maneuvering in these super dense forests. We humans have quite a time getting through them in comparison!!

The elk sighting got me thinking. I wonder if it has anything to do with the rutting season, given the large bull standing near the cows. Apparently bull elk will target certain waterbodies for "wallowing" which allows them to coat themselves in their urine. Although that rocky streambed in the video isn't ideal, there might be a good (muddier, more stagnant flow, and shallower) location nearby connected to that river. Apparently beaver dams and groundwater seeps are good locations for wallowing. But I'm just speculating on this with respect to the video!

One idea that I thought of while watching re mimicing the challenges for animals of dense vegetation and ground cover in the game is some sort of stamina or health penalty. Maybe moving through the denser parts of the game maps could have an associated cost to the player without having to worry about the physics of the objects.

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