Overland news & patch notes

Howdy folks! Just summarizing a bunch of small quality of life changes that have come through in the last few patches:

• fixed a rare issue with music in the second intro level
• fixed an issue with save file upgrades
• "relaxing" characters get access to basic Organize and Inspect abilities
• fixed a Steam Achievement issue with the pickups badge
• some pugs were Too Large, it Wasn't Healthy
• fixed an issue where the "relax" action sometimes wasn't available when it should have been
• fixed a terrain offset
• fixed a campfire offset
• fixed a AI issue where they sometimes would just... leave the level for no reason

I think that should do it! Hope everyone's enjoying 1.2 otherwise <3

Overland Version 1.2 is now available! Explore the end of the world with new pug dog companions and new rest stop levels. Enjoy the new introduction and prologue! This version includes 3 new difficulty settings, 7 new game modifiers including all dogs mode, tourist mode, and expert settings. You can browse records from your past trips and check out updated badge and stats displays. Overland v1.2 also includes dialog, item and environment updates to make Overland even better.

• Pugs! They're very cute I promise
• Rest stops! Take a breather halfway through each biome (if you need one).
• New introduction and prologue! Includes spooky lore :O
• 3 new difficulty settings! Includes a new normal mode for players new to the adventure.
• 7 new gameplay modifiers including all-dogs mode, tourist mode, and expert settings
• Updated badges and stats display
• Browse records of past trips!
• Dialog, item, and environment updates

Game development during a plague year is never really exactly how you want things to go, but we've been creating and testing these changes since about January, and are so happy with how they've turned out. We hope you enjoy them too!

Adam and Rebekah Saltsman and the Overland Dev Team show off live gameplay from Overland's massive upcoming update. Watch live here or at http://www.twitch.tv/FinjiCo

Adam and Rebekah Saltsman take your questions on the process of running a game studio, game development, and more. Watch live on this page or on http://www.twitch.tv/FinjiCo

Sound designers Lena Raine, Gordon McGladdery, Kevin Regamey, & Eli Rainsberry chat about what it takes to make the music and sound effects that bring our favorite games to life. Watch live on this page or at http://www.twitch.tv/FinjiCo

Adam and Rebekah Saltsman welcome you to the Finji Virtual Booth, tour the demos, and answer your questions! Watch live on this page or on http://www.twitch.tv/FinjiCo

Since the last patch notes, we've added a bunch of little things to improve the overall feel of the game, including:

• Hint outlines to help new players find good scavenging spots
• Organize window can support Large UI mode
• Improved vista rendering performance
• Streamlined some campfire/map transitions
• Fixed some glitches in the vehicle animations
• Fixed some mouse UI stuff

And a handful of fiddly other bits. I think this is the last v1.1 patch - we're already working on v1.2, so it's gonna be a while before another update drops here. I'm really excited about the stuff we're adding, but localizing into almost 20 languages means it might be a bit of a wait, so thanks in advance for your patience!

We have these new signs. That's it. Honestly they usually don't even face the camera. They have accurate stop names and distances on them though!!

Rebalancing a live game can be a really controversial process but I'm really excited to share with you all that patting dogs now costs zero action points. I think this is a game changer for our competitive players and I'm excited to see what they do with this buff. Other changes include:

• new quicksand crater visuals
• changed inspect and organize to have full black backgrounds
• added 0.1s show/hide fades to a lot of the level UI elements
• adjusted the timing of title screen and level exit fades
• boatloads of overdue audio fixes

I know I keep saying this is the last one before we buckle down to start work on the bigger update but I keep finding things from the bigger update that is fun to share earlier. We'll probably have another patch next week too! Thanks and have a good weekend?

This week was all about refinement - lots of little UI, level generation, audio, and graphics improvements in this patch:

• Re-skinned the Inspect view to match the Organize view!
• Re-did some of the trading site logic so that traders usually start out next to tables (seems small but feels so nice)
• Added new end-of-level audio cues that change depending on failure/victory/etc
• Increased survivor movement speed by almost 10%. Feels nice!
• Fixed some long-standing bugs with audio and lighting
• Various balance + difficulty changes

We've got one more small, mostly-audio patch coming early next week and then we'll be focusing on the big final content drop!

Hey folks, new gameplay and UI cleanups headed your way!

• New creature! First sighted in the grasslands...
• New mid-level event! First sighted in the mountains.
• Trap-hole update - these mountain/desert hazards are more interesting now.
• UI update - improved the move-range visuals.
• Graphics update - improved the crater/burrow visuals.
• Audio updates!

More UI and audio updates coming soon...

Hey folks! Thanks for bearing with us over this holiday break, and giving us a bit of time to work on the vinyl release. Build 713 is live now with a bunch of little features and fixes:

• Dogs can pull people into cars now
• Organize view available in more situations
• Added new cold-weather idle animation in snowy levels
• Stealing cars and gas will count as burglary again
• Fixed missing Steam Overlay / Achievements on Mac OS 10.15
• Fixed a level generator issue with searchable barrels
• Fixed rare issues with the quicksand and falling objects events
• Fixed organize view rendering issue with certain trades
• Fixed animation issue with lit flares and the relax poses
• Fixed issue with beach campfire showing up in the organize view
• Adjusted some introduction pacing stuff
• Texture maintenance stuff

Feels good to be catching up on QA. We've got a few more patches coming in the next week or two, and then there probably will be a bit of a gap while we work on a couple of bigger additions.

We have been wanting to have the soundscapes of Overland available on vinyl for... let's just say, a long time now. We're super excited to finally have the opportunity! With the help of our friends at Bandcamp we can make a very carefully crafted physical copy. We wanted to do this vinyl campaign because it lets us distribute affordable records, which usually you need a label to do, but without a label, and with a ton of creative control. Heck yeah! Join our crew and help us make this a possibility! Overland: Biomes takes you on a slow, evolving journey through the biomes of Overland. Experience intense and surprising moments punctuated by distortion and low-frequency power. Instructions on how to have the best listening experience: grab your favorite bevy, invite a friend(s), find a warm blanket or fire to sit by, and turn off the lights. Safe travels... Overland: Biomes is a limited edition 12" double vinyl LP + digital album, in a matte gatefold jacket, with original art by Heather Penn. The second pledge level includes a jacket signed by Jocelyn Reyes. The third pledge level is a signed copy of an extremely limited test pressing. All pledge levels come with custom stickers and original biome postcards. CLICK HERE for preview tracks and to reserve your copy {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/25281479/455c696abfad15df53301f738428f56e99446562.png

We fixed the achievements.

Hey folks! Bunch of small updates this week, including:

• Built a new rendering system for some of the full-screen weather fx
• Fixed some bugs in the new inventory management system
• Adjusted triggers for trading camp dialog
• Various performance improvements
• Fixed a couple of rare crashes
• Level generator fixes
• Audio fixes

As always, more good stuff on the way (after the US holiday)!

Folks, it's time for Overland v1.1! The biggest change here is major improvements to inventory management and trading, but there's a bunch of other gameplay fixes in there too.

• Inventory Organizer: swap items while you're in a car! Or at a campfire!
• Trade Interface: use the inventory organizer at trading sites!
• Drag and Drop Inventory: yes, even on gamepad!
• LOOT Action: recover that backpack when your Bad Driver suffers an "accident"!
• PILE IN Action: get everyone back in the car in one easy move!
• Save file upgrading should actually work now
• Relaxed fuel combining constraints
• Fixed some action preview flickers
• Title screen audio improvements
• Table improvements
• Various other bug fixes

We're already getting started on Overland v1.2 and will continue to share news and plans about that as those things come together. Thanks!

Hey folks, we're wrapping up this week's maintenance with a new location - the city trading camp, which means an extra shot at another backpack before you head out into the woodlands!

• Added a trading camp to the city biome
• Updated camp invite and NPC options
• More camera improvements

Earlier this week we added a ton of fixes for the new Stun gameplay, the level camera behavior, and more fixes for the level generator RNG issues. Maintenance patches will probably drop off for the next week or two while we work on some new inventory management stuff, so thanks in advance for your patience.

Hey folks, tonight we've got a bunch of good bug fixes to smooth out some of the new Stun gameplay plus a grab-bag of other minor improvements:

• Radios and dog barks won't create diplomatic incidents at camps anymore
• More range and reactiveness for the level camera gamepad controls
• Shadow-banned popular Twitch bots
• Disabled the camera zoom-cuts during level action
• Reduced camera angle resets
• Stunned creatures can block burrows now
• Most stunned creatures cannot be shoved anymore
• Slime won't stun creatures anymore
• Various other stun fixes
• Slime will devour creature corpses now
• Vehicle headlight cutscene fix
• Particle and animation adjustments
• Mac OS 10.15 compatibility

Hey folks! More maintenance goodies coming your way:

• Fixed shy dumpsters
• Rebalanced mountains and desert to fix tripwire placements
• Daisy-chaining out-of-gas scenarios will consume fuel now (sorry, time travelers)
• Tents are searchable now
• Fixed crash from SUVs offroading into anomalies during escapes
• Fixed rare "walkouts trapped forever in tiny tree prisons" issue
• Husks won't get knocked back by explosions anymore
• Added "level restart off required" icon to Badges interface
• Changed "level restart off" requirement on a bunch of achievements
• Fixed "restart level" button being enabled during campfires
• Fixed some map placement issues
• Camera adjustments

Expect another patch before end of week to address some issues that have come up with the new "stun" feature, and hopefully some small camera improvements too.

Hey folks! Sorry for the delay - we wanted to get a little extra QA in and also got sidetracked doing some weird code signing stuff that may or may not have actually worked. ANYWAYS:

• Fixed accidental roadblocks
• Dogs can push stuff now
• Rebalanced out-of-gas scenarios
• Minor rebalance on pickups
• Updated wood shield and stick assets

Y'all won't be able to tell hopefully but we also rebuilt our deployment automation, which will help us keep the PC stores sync'd up more easily, and comply with some weird new security stuff too. Basically, future patches are even easier to upload.

Hey folks - fresh patch here for your weekend adventures!

• Stunning: impact effects like explosions will stun creatures, freezing them for one turn.
• Auto Bail-out: survivors will try to jump out of any car that is about to explode.
• Rebalanced all blockades
• Night-time Undo support for Level Restart mode
• Testing improvements for mouse axes and variable refresh monitors
• More Twitch fixes (still working on the name shuffling thing tho)
• Updated some 3D models
• Fix for dogs carrying pills (dogs... you can't have those... those are for people)
• Misc balancing + difficulty adjustments

Played through a few biomes tonight taking all this stuff for a spin and I really like where things are headed. We're prototyping a couple more big UX improvements targeting a Halloween release, but we'll have more updates about those soon. Thanks again for traveling through the unknown with us!

Hey folks - today's patch is a small one, but fixes some important stuff:

• Woodlands and grasslands pharmacies have been rebalanced.
• Fixed a bug with negative-HP shields in certain rare scenarios.
• Fixed an issue with telefragging yourself without actually teleporting.
• Fixed an issue with backpacks at camps.
• Fixed an issue with fidgety traders.

We're also continuing to look at other learning curve issues and will have more updates about those things soon. Thanks!

Hey folks! I wanted to just take a minute to give an overview of the updates that we put together this week. We've been listening, watching, and working to address some of the most glaring issues that made it past us toward the end of development, and I'm really excited for folks to spend time with the version of the game that's up here now. We were at build number 600 for launch day, and are already at build number 622. Some of the improvements include:

• Major fixes to the Twitch integration, including better support for map voting, viewer role-play, and more.
• A new confirmation popup if you're thinking about leaving a level without the rest of your group.
• Big upgrades to the Inspect window's functionality.
• Ground items get contextual outlines as you play.
• Complete overhaul for d-pad / arrow-key inputs.
• Variety of pacing and difficulty adjustments.
• Improvements to the AI scavengers.
• New camera axis settings.
• Reworked intro levels.

We've got a lot more stuff planned, but it seems like these changes are making a big difference already. Good luck out there!

Hey folks! Thanks for your patience. Super happy with today's patch:

• Fixed the issue with attachment detachment. Detach away, detachers!
• Driving or walking out with abandons will trigger a confirmation popup now.
• INSPECT includes ground items now, and show's more item status.
• Updated full bottle's 3D model to differentiate from empty bottle more.
• Built-in screenshot function should take the post-processing into account now.
• Turning off the car engine is faster now.
• Various other bug fixes.
• Audio adjustments.
• Streaming fixes.

We have some more PC-specific quality-of-life stuff coming but hopefully we can go into a slightly less frantic maintenance cadence for the next little bit here!

Another day, another patch. More good stuff is available now:

• Mouse and gamepad axes preferences are saved separately.
• Drastically improved d-pad and arrow-key inputs.
• Other light adjustments to yesterday's patch.

We've got a couple more basic quality-of-life things in the pipe for tomorrow too.

Hey folks - Build 612 will be live in just a few minutes. Here's what you can expect:

• Teleport loops should be proper fixed finally.
• The in the Basin have a stronger attack now.
• Invert X/Y Axis option now applies to mouse controls.
• Vehicle headlights stay on at night even while the car engine is off.
• Added the creator of the Open Dyslexic font to the credits.
• Low-content campfire conversations will get skipped.
• Ground items will get outlined just from cursor hover.
• Extinguishers can be used to rescue generators now.
• Fuel scavenger NPCs are a bit smarter and more efficient now.
• Updated some of the game over dialog logic.

Likely another patch coming tomorrow and thursday as we continue to isolate little bits and pieces that aren't having quite the effect that we hoped. Thanks!

Hey folks - build 608 will be up in about a half hour, and has some nice improvements:

• Level Restart feature works properly in out-of-gas scenarios.
• Updated Introduction levels to address some weirdness.
• Fixed a rare crash bug involving people catching on fire and dropping their stuff wrong.
• Fixed an incredibly rare softlock involving warping.
• Fixed some icon resolutions on 4K screens.
• Fixed controllers vibrating when plugged in but not actually used.

Keep an eye out for another stack of fixes coming tomorrow, including some vehicle difficulty adjustments and other odds and ends. Thanks!

Hey folks! Launch weekend was exciting, and reading everyone's stories of surviving out in the wastelands has been really inspiring. We're working on some improvements around difficulty and onboarding and wanted to keep everyone posted on our plans. The biggest thing is we are finally fixing an issue with Level Restart that was preventing it from working on walkouts. We also pinpointed another rare crash, and an exceedingly rare soft-lock involving and in the Mountains area. We are also planning some adjustments to the introduction levels and other minor gameplay fixes. We'll get an official change log up as soon as the patch is ready. We're aiming for tonight, but it's possible that it'll be tomorrow morning. Thanks!