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You can watch a video version of this dev blog here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9moOykmyr94

Hi everyone! It’s been 4 months since our last major update, and we wanted to outline all of the new content and features we’ve completed during this time in addition to discussing the plan for release.

After reviewing and considering all the moving parts, we do not yet feel comfortable giving a concrete final release date at this time. We feel that it is too early in development to be able to commit to an accurate enough date, and the last thing we want to do is over promise and under deliver. Releasing Path of Titans on all our supported platforms at the same time takes a huge amount of synchronization and any small delay can potentially shift the release date slightly. We simply want to be transparent and will continue providing updates as development continues and we feel more confident in a set date.

That being said, we are still on target for our end of September Pre-Release date. We will be releasing the exact day in September as we get closer to it.

Now we’d like to share a summary of everything we’ve worked on in these past 4 months, as well as what is coming next.

Collision

One of the biggest features nearing completion is collision. By collision, we are referring to the ability to accurately collide into other dinosaurs, something we have worked on getting right for over a year. Previously, there was no collision and you would simply walk through them as if they were not there, which is obviously unacceptable and an easy exploit for various mechanics, such as combat. This also caused problems with how your Dinosaur interacted with the environment, including partially clipping through various surfaces in a number of ugly ways.

It may seem like a simple, even silly detail given how obvious it is, but accurate Collision is a huge milestone for Path of Titans, and fundamentally changes the way the game feels and functions. Very few games in this genre have this level of functional collision, and in this way we hope to set a new standard for what is expected from this genre.

Trample Damage

In addition to collision we have also added trample damage, which as a larger Dinosaur is a tool to hurt or even kill smaller dinosaurs that attempt to attack you from below. You can also use it to deal damage to smaller creatures by simply running over. This new feature will help balance combat between Dinos of disparate size.

Movement Improvements

We have implemented some important additional movement options, such as turning in place, reversing, strafing, and crouching, which have recently been polished and are relatively bug-free. This is an important step forward from the more common tank-style controls which can often lead to frustrating navigation issues, especially near environmental dangers.

Gameplay Ability System

We have spent a solid month working on integrating the Unreal Engine Gameplay Ability System into our dinosaurs, and it’s now essentially complete. With this new system, we are able to easily add new abilities and status effects to the game without the need for additional code complexity. Abilities such as speed debuffs, attack buffs, headbutting, venom, and much more are now possible with this system. As an added bonus, this makes life for modders much simpler with regards to adding and modifying abilities of their own, and we look forward to seeing what you all can come up with! And speaking of modding...

Mod Support

We now have Mod Support functional on mobile devices and also in single player mode. With modded maps like Stoneclaw Highlands and The Grim Expanse fully supported, we also now have full support for adding new creatures to the game, such as the Playable Platyhystrix mod. These Mods are stackable, and allow you to play them together so long as they are not modifying the same files.

Cloud Cooker

Modders now have access to our cloud cooker which will automatically build and package their mods to be compatible on all of our supported platforms. The Cloud Cooker is compatible with Github, and allows for modders to create their own repository for the Cooker to pull files from. This also allows modders to have version control so they won’t have to worry about backing up files or losing their data. We are super excited to see what modders will do with Path of Titans, so we want to make sure you all have the best tools at your disposal.

Map Progress

Thousands more hours have been put into our map, and we are nearly complete with the second pass; which includes overall polishing, adding new points of interest, and stamping out as many bugs as possible. We have streams of map development up all the time on our Youtube channel, so be sure to check in if you are curious!

Vocal Wheel

A new vocal wheel lets mobile players and controller users easily access all the dinosaur calls and emotes. It’s also available on PC by simply holding down the V key. This makes it much easier to access the wide variety of dino vocalizations while helping to reduce on screen clutter for both console and mobile users.

Fishing and Swimming

We have also wrapped up our fishing and swimming mechanics, which allows our semi-aquatic creatures like Suchomimus and Spinosaurus to dive underwater, catch, and carry fish to the shore.

Nesting and Growth

While Nesting and Growth is still very much work-in-progress, we have completed most of the related art assets. Seamless dinosaur growth blending for all our playable dinosaurs is complete, as well as dinosaur nest and egg models, and custom baby dino vocalizations are in the works!

A Few Extra Details

We have also added some other smaller items to the game that add little details to the world and gameplay. One of these neat little touches is interactive water that ripples when you come in contact with it. These are not particle effects, but actual textures on the normal map that will react to limbs and tails that touch the water’s surface.

We are also nearly finished with every dinosaur subspecies for the initial 18 playable dinosaurs. Each dinosaur has 3 subspecies, with unique aesthetic variations to give players some awesome customization possibilities.

Another small but extremely valuable feature added is Localization which we have successfully integrated. While we have not completed the actual text translations for every major language, the functionality is now implemented to allow us to do so!

Of course, in addition to all these new features we have been squashing thousands of bugs as well as making game tweaks based on community feedback. A big Thank you to everyone who has been and continues to report bugs for us. You all have been extremely helpful in making Path of Titans as bug free as possible.

We hope you have enjoyed this update video. We will continue to post bi-monthly dev blogs and remain committed to being transparent about the game’s ongoing development. Thank you for your time, and thanks for reading!