Steam Launch and Trailer! (+Prologue Version 1.4 Release)

Alongside the full reveal of Tales From the Herd by way of a new trailer, the Steam page release, and Patreon announcement with access to in-development builds and other perks, there is another, smaller update available to the Prologue right now.

Most of my last 5~ months of development has been spent working on the full game, and getting the reveal ready; but I've also made a few additions to the new prologue that's available to download today. I will of course continue to announce new content and talk about development of Tales From the Herd on social media, including on Patreon which will be usable as free source of news and updates, but this blog post will be mainly for detailing the changes and additions to Prologue 1.4.

List of changes:

• Much better support for non 16:9 displays (not including ultra wide)
  • The pause menu and intro screen will now scale nicer when outside of 16:9 aspect ratios.
  • The customization menu should look better outside of 16:9 as well.
  • Dialogue windows track better along the screen outside of 16:9 and just in general.
  • It's very comfy to play the game in 4:3 imo. However, going the other way, and increasing the width of the game's display well beyond the norm will likely still incur some weirdness.
• New and improved audio
  • I was originally using stock royalty free hoof clopping sfx, but have since recorded my own.
    
  • While the quality of my foley work may be questionable, it does offer one distinct advantage: consistency. I've recorded three sets of hoof sfx, all pertaining to different surface types, which you will likely notice now change based on what your pony is walking on.
• More expressive character behavior
  • Cooper will not always be in the same location now, while you're visiting the game. 
    
  • Characters can now change their expressions based on the line of dialogue they're reading.
  • You can hold the gallop button (default: SHIFT / LEFT BUMPER) while standing still to do a cute little stomp with your hooves. Does it actually serve a purpose? No.
• Fixes and changes
  • I have made the decision to default the talk button onto a left mouse click, instead of a right mouse click. This has been a contentious point, and for the longest time, my argument for it being on RMB has been that eventually your character will be using objects such as shovels and fishing rods, which in my mind made more sense to have bound to LMB. However it's clear to me now that engaging with characters in conversation will likely far exceed how often you need to click to use a tool, so I've swapped their default positions on the mouse. You can of course still change this in the settings menu, if you prefer.
    
  • A particularly strange bug that broke Cooper entirely showed up in this new build – but not in the Unity editor. This led to a frustrating experience that culminated in me designing my own custom in-game debugger. It is not available to players, but I mention it because it may help development go more smoothly in the future.
  • The intro should now properly display, instead of hitching while your PC loads the game.
  • The mirror menu will no longer play its 'whooshing' noise every time you pause and un-pause the game while engaged with it.
  • The color detail buttons will no longer display in the customization menu after you've clicked off of it.

Coming up...
As I talk about in my Patreon blog, the next update to Tales From the Herd will be the first slice of chapter one – now called "Arrival". This will finally allow you visit your own pony village, and get to grips with the world and its mechanics. Read about in more detail on the blog post.

I expect Patreon milestone builds to begin launching in Spring 2024, and the Steam public early access to follow in Winter 2024. Hope to see you then!