Just a quick post about the submission of version 1.45 earlier today, regarding the improvements to engine’s region processing system and the new level generator.

New terrain shown in our testing app. The red spot is rubies!

We’ve gone through our async pipeline, line by line and discarded another few thousand lines of code. Keep it simple seems to be the motto of the new year for 2.0 studios. We’ve spotted a number of opportunities for optimisation, that has yielded a 20% performance boost on lower end hardware. That means for the vast majority or WP7 owners without 2nd gen hardware, this should make an impact you can feel.

We have also created a new level generator that features the following:

• Better caves, that range from deep to shallow, small to large, round to long and snake like.
• Gem seams.
• Rubies and Gold ore. Rubies will play a large part in the magic system later…
• Sandy beaches
• Naturally occurring sandstone, which can be found in pockets of sand, or even on the beach (if lucky)
• More natural, and interesting terrain. Less tiny ponds, more oceans and lakes with mountains and landmarks.

Also a bunch of smaller tweaks, such as ramping up the damage of tools, and their durability, and fixing little hints and things. I’ll do a full post when it’s not 3am.