In this release, we’re updating the engine from SDL to SDL2, and there are many optimizations to go along with it. Aside from the optimizations, SDL2 is also the stepping stone to ports. We have Linux compiling and playable; it just needs some testing.
Moreover, there is now a(n experimental) multithreading option in the game settings that makes the game even faster!
We also have some new individual tree graphics, and an update to grass ramps as well.
This has been mostly the hard work of Putnam! Meanwhile I’ve started up on adventure mode - the long work of updating menus and adding audio has begun! Hopefully we’ll have some progress to show their soon, as we continue updating fortress mode as well.
Less ‘money on the table’ (they survived off donations before), but instead supporting a product for paying customers is a higher priority when you’ve transition to an actual business rather than an artist patronage type arrangement. Which Tarn specifically didn’t want to do before, because he knew it’d be a lot of work with a lot expectations put on him, and at the time he was solely interested in making the game in his vision in his own time.
It was the cancer scare that forced him to change approaches, so truthfully I hope that it hasn’t been too hard on him. It’d suck to turn something you loved into a stressful job just because we don’t have universal healthcare here.