Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

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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Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by loboLoco » Fri Aug 04, 2017 2:51 pm

[youtube]plnOGea7Abk[/youtube]

Video link: https://youtu.be/plnOGea7Abk

We’re making good progress with development of the new episode Tower Fall, but as you’ve seen in recent posts on the blog, many of the things we’re working on would apply to the existing game as well as the new episode. These include the new animal spawning and scent system that I wrote about a few weeks ago, plus other improvements like a new wolf-controller and territory system.

Our original plan was to finish and release Tower Fall, then go back and revise the Amethyst and Slough Creek missions to bring them up to par with Tower Fall. But as we work on these new systems, that plan has become increasingly unsatisfactory. It would be quite strange to play through the current game, then go to Tower Fall and find all-new systems that create (we think!) much better gameplay. You all who’ve been playing the game already would probably understand that, but new players would not, and it would not make a great player experience overall.

So we’ve revised that plan by flipping the release schedule around. Now we’re going to release a major game update, WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition, which will be a remake of the existing game using the new codebase. The basic mission arc will be the same, but much of the core gameplay will be reimagined and redesigned to be more realistic, more sophisticated, and more fun.

What’ll be new in the Anniversary Edition?
* New, more robust codebase for all gameplay
* Improved camera and wolf controller
* More naturalistic AI logic
* New animal models
* Improved hunting gameplay
* Bigger and better maps
* More naturalistic animal spawning and scent system
* More naturalistic territory system
* And more!

We will release the Tower Fall expansion several months later.

What’ll be new in Tower Fall?
* All the improvements in WQ 3
* Big new map of the Tower Fall area of Yellowstone
* New missions to raise your pups, introduce them to hunting, and keep them alive.
* Pups grow from 3 months to 7 months
* Pack vs. pack territorial struggles and fights
* And much more!

I know this may be a bit confusing — why doesn’t WolfQuest 3 include a new episode? Well, it could…but then we’d have to delay the rebuilt versions of Amethyst and Slough Creek until Tower Fall was done, and that seems silly. There’ll be a lot of great new stuff in WQ 3 and we want to get it in your hands as soon as we can.

In short, the 2.7 update keeps getting bigger and better -- so we finally realized it was turning into a new version in its own right. Voilá, the Anniversary Edition!

Of course, the big question is When? I really want to release WQ 3 late this year, on the tenth anniversary of the original game. We may actually manage to do that, but since we keep thinking of cool new things to put into WQ 3, it’s just as likely that we won’t finish it until 2018.

WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition will be a free upgrade for everyone who purchased 2.7, and the price will remain the same. Tower Fall will require an additional purchase; we haven’t decided exactly how much, but probably $6-$8.

One big caveat: Our players are roughly split between PC/Mac and mobile devices. We’ve worked hard to maintain parity between those platforms, but we also don’t want the significant limitations of mobile hardware to hold back the PC/Mac version. This mainly applies to the larger maps and possibly some other improvements — for example, the day/night cycle I wrote about awhile ago. We’ve got a lot of work to do before we know how to ultimately resolve these issues, so this is just a preliminary note that the mobile version of WolfQuest 3 is not guaranteed to be exactly like the PC/Mac version, and we may need to establish minimum hardware specs for mobile — most likely, 1.5GB of RAM memory. If you’ve got a lesser mobile device, you’ll be able to keep playing WQ 2.7. (And we're looking into ways to let you keep 2.7 on PC/Mac as well, for nostalgia purposes.)

It’s remarkable — perhaps nearly unbelievable — that nearly ten years after releasing the original game, we’re busier with WolfQuest than ever before. And it’s entirely because of you, the players, who wouldn’t let it fade away as almost all games do. I can’t think of a better way to mark WolfQuest’s first decade than with the Anniversary Edition and Tower Fall.
Dave/loboLoco
WolfQuest Game Producer

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by Sunset-Light » Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:00 pm

This. Is. Amazing. Oohhh, I'm so psyched! Thanks so much Dave!

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by PearlyReborn » Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:11 pm

Oh my gosh, the lighting on the video is AMAZING.

I'm super hyped, and if I have to wait longer for the free update, I don't mind. Genius takes time! I also like how you are trying to preserve 2.7 for nostalgia purposes, which I'm sure a lot of people will like.

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by Lebron BMT » Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:17 pm

This is perfect. I still remember the dark days when the users were all trying to save Wolfquest while the admins were all set on killing it.

As an aside Dave, most games--even triple A mainstream games--have marked differences between mobile and PC versions of their games. I do not think any user can ever expect a mobile version of a game to be on par with PC/console versions. I would think our mobile users are aware of this as well.

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by Loach » Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:21 pm

Is that sun rising over the distant mountains over that 20 second clip or do my eyes deceive?

This is great news. I can't wait to get a taste of what everyone's been working so hard on these last months. Hopefully despite everything you guys want to implement, everything will be smooth so it can come sooner rather than later.

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by PearlyReborn » Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:25 pm

Quikke wrote:Is that sun rising over the distant mountains over that 20 second clip or do my eyes deceive?
Nice catch! Very interesting...

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by cloudlover07 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:31 pm

I might have died from excitement!!

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by SolitaryHowl » Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:33 pm

So exciting! This makes me feel as giddy as a kid :mrgreen:

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by Daniella12565 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:09 pm

So awesome I am so excited!!!!!

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by QueenRuby » Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:12 pm

Wait, I'm confused. So, basically, the 'Anniversary Edition' is just going to take the place of the original 2.7 update coming out later this year, and the mule deer, new wolf model, etc, will be released then? And then Tower Fall will still come out separately a few months afterwards?

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by Shadziulec » Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:32 pm

Oh my god....I just noticed the sun is moving in the video! Is that the automatic day/night cycle? Wow,these news are so amazing,I'm hyped more than I was for 2.5 when I was a little kid,that's incredible! Can't wait,and already saving up for WQ 3 <3 Keep up the good work staff team!
I am definitely looking forward to seeing more spoilers about the anniversary edition! Can't wait for rebuilt maps sneak peeks ;D

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by Kipcha28 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:35 pm

Lebron BMT wrote:This is perfect. I still remember the dark days when the users were all trying to save Wolfquest while the admins were all set on killing it.
The admins weren't set on killing it; it just didn't have the kind of funding needed to keep it running, and had lasted way longer than expected already so they kept it going as long as possible. (Games like this are expensive; WolfQuest's original grant was over $500,000, and that was only enough for Amethyst Mountain.) That's why, once it was clear there was still a lot of interest in the game - not just "fans who don't want it to die", but "enough interest to be able to fund itself through sales, without grants and donations" - they were able to turn it into a project of their own (which I imagine involved some agreements and legal stuff to go through since it was originally the Minnesota Zoo's game too) and pick it back up.
QueenRuby wrote:Wait, I'm confused. So, basically, the 'Anniversary Edition' is just going to take the place of the original 2.7 update coming out later this year, and the mule deer, new wolf model, etc, will be released then? And then Tower Fall will still come out separately a few months afterwards?
Yes, this version is all the updates they were talking about (overhauling the codebase and AI and all), and will be free to people who have 2.7.
Last edited by Kipcha28 on Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by SheWolf17 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:36 pm

Wow, that's amazing, Dave, when is this month's contest ? 8)

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by Brinnadaze » Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:38 pm

I literally have no words. This blows my mind!
Keep up the good work! :D

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Re: Announcing WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition!

Post by loboLoco » Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:38 pm

QueenRuby wrote:Wait, I'm confused. So, basically, the 'Anniversary Edition' is just going to take the place of the original 2.7 update coming out later this year, and the mule deer, new wolf model, etc, will be released then? And then Tower Fall will still come out separately a few months afterwards?
Right. The 2.7 update keeps getting bigger and better -- so we finally realized it was turning into a new version in its own right. Voilá, the Anniversary Edition!
Dave/loboLoco
WolfQuest Game Producer

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