Blog #9

Hello Rafters!

We have found time to work on Raft again! And do we have some exciting stuff to show you! First though, we would like to talk about the future development of Raft. Lets start with some background.

The Raft prototypes that you have been playing was originally created during an University course. We never had any idea about how big of a following it was going to get or how much you all would appreciate it. When we first noticed YouTubers making videos of it and we started getting a lot of downloads, we wanted to give you all something for it, so we made small updates with some new stuff. Now that we’ve seen your love for the idea, we want to turn it into a ”real” game. By that we mean something much bigger than it is now. This means bigger, more technically difficult features, a lot more content and more polishing. In order to be able to do this, we feel we won’t be able to keep uploading new versions as this means we need to make sure everything works for each update, which takes a lot of time. Because of this, we have decided to stop posting more updates on itch. Instead, we are going to take a bigger chunk of time, work hard and try to eventually launch on Steam!

Steam?

Yes, you heard us right! As many of you have requested, we will try our hand at launching the game on Steam. Nothing is set in stone yet, but this is our goal! As to when the game will launch, we can’t say at this point. We hope you understand our decision to stop updating the game on itch. While it will take longer until you will be able to enjoy new features in Raft, we believe this will speed up the development and lead to a better product in the future!

We will not keep you in the dark however! We will keep showing you the process in the development, just as we have in the past! So, without further adieu…

…Lets get to the fun stuff!

So! We have for a long time felt that the raft is a bit stiff. It doesn’t really feel like you’re in the water. That’s understandable since the raft has just been moving up and down slightly. This is about to change!! Let us introduce… Buoyancy!!

As you can see in the gif, the raft now actually floats on the water! This provides a much more raft-like feeling to your floating home. We think you will like it!

We also feel it’s a bit weird that you can’t swim into the depths of the ocean. It is a game based at sea after all. Well would you look at that! You can now! You can finally take a dive into the blue abyss!

So. What do you do in the ocean except being afraid of the shark? Well, we’ve been working on something we hope you’ll appreciate! Reefs!

Reefs are a new place to find materials in order to craft new stuff! Exactly what will be found here won’t be revealed quite yet though. What we can tell you is to watch out for eels. They don’t like you invading their home!

We hope you like the stuff we’ve shown and we would like to wish you happy Easter! As always, we love to hear your feedback on what we show here, so let us have it! Until next time!