Hey everyone - sorry for the radio silence.

I got married! And then moved 600k away!

Still moving things in but the PC is up and running which means development for Lost and Hound is full speed ahead again.

Speaking of which, I have two features coming up that I wanted to tell you about because they will make the game much easier. The first is, the camera didn't snap back to a home position, directly behind the dog in the previous version. You could move the camera, and it would stay to the side. I didn't realize this was a problem for people without sight until very recently and I apologize for that. It didn't come out in my playtesting with my eyes closed because I knew I shouldn't move the camera around, but an average player wouldn't know that so again, my fault and I'm sorry and I'm fixing it.

The next one is pretty big, and I think it will take you guys into the world of being a dog: the audio is using different algorithms now to simulate location. If you've ever petted a dog you know that when it's paying attention to stuff, it's ears rotate forward and they stand up, meaning everything directly in front of them is amplified and everything to the sides and behind is muted a bit. I'm making the audio work in the same way. Now, it will be much easier to tell if you're facing the river, or a tree or whatever. Navigation and imagining the world around you through it's aural cues will feel really easy, I hope.

I know this stuff isn't flashy or impressive but if you've been playing the game, the next update will (HOPEFULLY) improve things in a big way!

Stay tuned, more coming! And if you want to follow the game's smaller updates you can check out the gamejolt page.

https://gamejolt.com/games/lostandhound/281570

Where do I download this game? Is it doable using wine for Linux? It looks like an incredably cool game. I was getting an error when extracting that the extraction didn't support parcing.

Hi.

did you see my previous post?
I suspect when you've implemented the changes you mention about making the forward sound kews more noticeable that might help a lot with direction especially with beacons or smell trails since as I said in the previous post I was having a lot of trouble telling which way I was facing, it was odd, sometimes I'd follow the trail and be fine, sometimes I'd go off at a complete tangent.

For rpg elements, one suggestion I do have might be some special abilities which you could unlock over time, rather than actually changing stat progression.

Special abilities could include "home finding" in which you could be told the distance and direction to the location you started from or get a sound indicating), scent marking, in which you got a specific  like a ping when you were following a trail and it turned another direction, orientation, in which you could have a sonar like ability to know how far the edge of the map was in a given direction, concentration, in which all external sounds would disappear accept the scent trail for a given amount of time, and fast running.

I'll be interested to see where this one goes, and hopefully will be constructing a database entry for the game soon which might even help with publicity.

Audiogames.net has a database on all pages, and all people have to do is select your game; once it's added; from a dropdown menu.
Later!

Hi everyone! I didn't make the last deadline I set for myself, but I've got a few breakthroughs in the game regarding audio directionality that I think you'll really dig! Check out this video. It's somewhat loud. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMKF_J5jCoE
It features the new audio system where when you're walking, your head is pointing to the ground and you're automatically sniffing. When you stop, your head comes up, you're alert and your ears are pointing forwards, and the sound is very directional and focused to show you what's directly in front of you. It's also a way to focus on the scent trail, so that will get a bit easier. 

I'm going to have this up by the end of the weekend so you can try it out.

In other news, I'm having a mini-documentary shot on what I'm doing regarding a game for both sighted and blind gamers. I'll link it here if you want to check it out.

The updates are coming! Also I got a new computer so development is SPEEDING ahead! I'm also still looking into the errors given to some users and an export for Linux.

Thanks guys!!

Hey LordLundin, yes that's right. You can still bark, but the auto-follow is fixed now, and was broken before. In future levels bark will be used to call his attention to something, but only a few times at most per level if at all.

Wow! Really, sounds so interesting! I am excited to try this game out. I am visually impaired so I can see a bit, but anyway, most of the time I prefer to play games without looking and stuff, since my eyes can get tired very fast. Sooo, going to try it and will recommend it to my friends as well!

hello guys i want to try this game but i can't download it. can you upload it on other websights?
thanks

Hi Masroor, I am days away from finishing a much more polished version. I’ll post in here when it’s done okay?

high
@168 i can't wait to try it. when you publish it in here?

Thanks @169, I appreciate that!! I'll take you up on translation eventually too.

@170 I'm hoping by Wednesday. I'll send it to your inbox when it's up!

high @172 do you finish the game? if you do, send it to me by email. my email: [email protected]