News: Release 1.9

Dear Friends, “The best laid plans of mice and men…” Robert Burns might well have been a poet Jane Austen would have read. But we are quoting him by way of apology. We thought that, as we had completed all the major features of the game, we would be ready to launch our Beta version by the end of September. We were wrong!

We had thought that the limitations on customising characters were final, but Ike is a specialist in Unity, the engine behind our game, and he was able to fix the issue, and we chose to take a month to redo the character art, so that we could accommodate Unity's optimisation methods – these were making it impossible for us to incorporate a mesh swap, which we need for changing our characters' clothes.

Then we needed to completely re-do the tutorial. We knew we would have to re-write the first draft, but we decided to take a completely different approach, which we think you're going to like. We're now busy converting it to the new format. This release has the new opening story, and the first two stories, or quests, in the new format – the other two stories are still in the old format.

And, of course, we were over-optimistic about how long this was all going to take....

However, we do have a new release for you to download, which you may do by clicking here. In fact, please do use this release, and don't use 1.8 any more, as it might cause the system to crash!

The new character meshes mean we've had to wipe our character databases, and you will have to re-create all your characters. Sorry about that, but it gives you the opportunity to play with the “character create” screen – the men's hats and women's dresses are just examples of what is to come. They are not yet “fabric”, just colour, but it will give you a feel for the kind of thing we're aiming at.

Some of the AI characters don't look right yet – they are apt to be rather pink! Our artistic team hasn't yet had a moment to convert them. And if you wish to leave the main house, to visit the shepherd, for example, you will have to go through the wall just next to the door! Also, if you are a man, please don't nod, or you'll be bouncing up and down..... bowing is fine, though.

We do apologize for the balls no longer working, again the dancers need their new character models and the animations that go with them.

We look forward to an October Closed Beta release as for now we don't anticipate any major changes of direction and we are polishing and generating massive amounts of art in preparation. And hopefully our optimism will not get the better of us this time and we can follow up with an OPEN Beta that coincides with the 2 year anniversary of our Kickstarter campaign. That is our goal. With best wishes, The EverJane development team.