After releasing what I guess is my first solo art piece in ages*, I have returned to the wonderful world of remaking The Endless Forest in Unreal Engine. I will be able to devote a lot of time to it over the coming months until August when a new project starts. So I am aiming for a new release before then.
I still teach part time (at IULM in Milan) and I'm working on a secret Endless Forest related project once in a while. But still, I'm happy with the time available and I am already making progress.
Over the past two weeks I have added joystick control of the avatar and a system for showing different language versions of the menu. I am trying to get all the main features in the game, working towards a beta release (feature complete but lacking detail and containing bugs). But if there's any features you would like to see prioritized in the remake, please let me know.

All the best,

Michael Samyn.


* Information and free download of "Compassie" can be found here.

Thanks to a beautiful act of friendship, the fundraising for the remake of The Endless Forest has crossed the threshold of Phase Four. This means that, once the remake is complete, the game will be expanded with a new area, a very special character, and some activities.

Thank you all for contributing!

Phase Three has been completed in the remake. We are now in alpha stage!
Backers of the Second Decade should have received a download link to the new build via email.

Details about this step can be foudn on the development log.

I hope summer is ending beautifully for you.

We are working hard towards a first alpha release with the complete forest area. Implementation of the Drinkplaats feature is slow because it involves some Abiogenesis features. But it's good to have these implemented, anyway. The other, secret Endless Forest related project is also taking some of our time. But more about that later (when we can talk about it).

So the next progress update will have to wait another month. But it will be worth it!

Thank you for your patience and support. And above all for continuing to enjoy our work.

A small step this time. But it made the forest of Phase Three much more pleasant.

Details on the dev log

The forest in the remake is now just as big as the forest in the current game. There's a lot that remains to be done. But an alpha release may be in sight.



Read all about it in the dev log.

Thank you for your support and your patience and your trust!

I have added all the Phase Two features to the remake of The Endless Forest and created a build for the backers to try it out (sent via email).

Details in the dev log.

Enjoy!

Michael.

In this step of the remake of The Endless Forest we implemented taking a bath and worshiping.

Details in the dev log.

I'm sorry that it's been a while but here's something to make you happy: the forest of Phase Two in Unreal Engine:

Read all about it in the dev log!

We have moved to Rome, Italy, but we still have a lot of unpacking and administration to do. The remake of The Endless Forest is on our minds, though. So we hope to get back to the project soon from our fascinating new surroundings.

Moving to another country, even within the European Community is not simple. Apart from the paperwork involved with immigration (residency, taxes, social security, etc) we also need to learn how to live here. A major aspect of that is learning the language! So some of our time is simply taken up by following language courses. And then there's of course the apartment decoration. We had to leave most of our furniture behind in Belgium because it was too expensive to move it to Italy. A lot of time is spent thinking about that, calculating costs and then actually buying things and putting them together.

We live in a very central area in Rome, close to Vatican City. Whenever we go to the supermarket of take out the trash, we see many wonderful artistic treasures. This has been tremendously invigorating and inspiring. Here's something I noticed above the portal of a church building the other day:



Michael.