Release notes

Behind-the-scenes fixes and improvements.

New

• Winter on the river. From December 1 to the end of February, snow lies on the snowy rivers: snowy banks and trees, ice along the slow water, and Christmas and New Year looks at camp and on the bridges, with fireworks over the valley and sparklers at the camp fire.
• Winter wildlife and winter folk. Cardinals, chickadees, snow hares and reindeer turn up on the banks, and the river's people wear winter clothes.
• Winter nuisances. Snowball kids on bridges, a snowball elf behind a snow fort, a living snowman who lobs his head at passing boats, a sledding penguin who slides onto your stern, icicles under bridge decks and ice floes drifting off the banks. Each has its own sound.
• Winter outfits. Eight winter outfits and a New Year party hat in the character settings.

Heads up

Online play changed in this version, so older builds can't join games with newer ones. Update before you play online with friends.

This build changes nothing in play. It is the first one we are delivering to testers through Steam and TestFlight.

Online play: this version changes how online co-op works, so everyone in a crew needs to be on v0.7.0 to play together. Older versions won't match up.

New

• A T-rex on Thunder Lizard Run. Three of them wade out from the bank to roar, bite and clamp onto boats. A swimmer it grabs gets shaken and spat back toward the middle of the river. A water gun sends it off, and if nobody has one, it gets bored and lets go.
• Language setting. Pick English, Simplified Chinese or Japanese, and the menus, crew screens and results pages follow. Online messages show in your own language too.
• Cabins and lake towns. Cabins now stand back from the water along the banks, and lakes have a town with docks and moored boats.

Improved

• Halloween ghosts and witches now reach every boat, the Jet Boat included. A ghost's pass or a witch's hex briefly stops your paddles or throttle, and online guests feel it the same as the host.
• Halloween cauldrons are a rare find now, and cobwebs hang from real trees.

Fixed

• Bear cubs no longer wear pumpkin hats at Halloween.
• Thunder Lizard Run keeps most of its bears.

New

• Halloween on the river. In October the rivers turn to autumn, with golden trees and russet ground, gravestones, cobwebs, ghosts, bats, crows and glowing wisps. Camp is dressed for the season, and the people on the banks wear costumes. The autumn trees stay through November.
• Costumes for your crew. Every player wears one of twelve Halloween costumes while the season is on.
• Six spooky river hazards. A spider web catches your boat until it tears. A dropping spider stops a seat's paddling until it is washed off. A sheet ghost drifts through and saps your crew's stamina. A cauldron witch ladles a slick that halves your strokes. A zombie wades out and holds on until it is shaken off. A broom witch's spin hex takes a crew's stroke for a few seconds.
• Grab crates by hand. A crewmate can lift a crate aboard when it is right against the hull on their side.

Improved

• Boats get a kick off the lip of a ramp, so a fast Jet Boat really flies.
• Swimmers can sprint for longer.
• Each local player can change their character with Y, and their card says so.
• Online co-op holds up better through a stalled connection.
• Release notes are now in Settings.

Fixed

• Each player now shows under one name, their character's, everywhere it appears.
• A saved camp remembers its season, and everyone online sees the season the host is playing.
• Separate boats on one device each get their own view.

The season setting turns all of the Halloween changes off.

Improved

• Boats now push floating crates aside instead of passing through them. The crate bobs off, your boat barely notices, and you can still fish it out. Swimmers can nudge crates too.

Fixed

• Small creeks that join a river no longer stand still. They now flow at a believable pace below their falls.
• Fallen trees that block the river now look right: one straight trunk leaning from the bank into the water, instead of a kinked trunk lying along the ground.

New

• Crates on the river. Crates float up as you go, and your crew can reel them in for an item.
• Tie boats together. Throw a rope across to another boat and, if someone aboard catches it, the two boats are linked and drag each other along. Hold the bow line button to let go.
• Guests can choose how many bots crew a boat when playing online.

Improved

• Crew bots now only rescue swimmers from their own boat, leaving other boats' swimmers to their own crews.
• The bank fisherman's bob now drifts with the current, and he casts again from a new spot each time.

Fixed

• When some boats made camp in online co-op, other boats still on the river could freeze. They now keep running, and only the boats tied off at camp stay put.
• On Easy, the boat no longer shows a water gauge when no water comes in.

New

• Jumping out of the boat is now a little hop over the side, the same for every animal.
• Online co-op: everyone in the crew plays the host's season.

Improved

• New players start on Easy.
• The camera no longer shakes when someone falls out of the boat.
• Climbing back in after a jump or a bump no longer earns rescue points.

Fixed

• Resuming a run from camp now scores your rope rescues correctly.
• Online co-op: picking a seat after a boat is removed no longer puts you in the wrong boat.

New

• Hold B to jump out of the boat as a swimmer, and a swimmer can climb into an AI crewmate's seat, sending the bot into the water.
• Paint your boat: pick a main and a trim colour. Any player can also add, change or remove boats and keep everyone seated.
• The end-of-run crew sheet ranks the boats by finish, the HUD shows each boat's health, and you can head back out on the river after a finished run.
• Rivers have twice as many bridges, and the balloon throwers on them turn round to throw at boats that have gone under.
• Water temperature now follows each river's climate, and the loading screen names the run's difficulty.
• Fishing casts reach farther, and the camp camera pulls back to keep the cast in frame.

Improved

• A boat with only AI crew now fights off every nuisance on the river.
• Pressing a stroke button puts you straight back on the paddle, oars or helm.

Fixed

• Hippos now come up in a patch that fits them, with a matching shadow.
• On Easy, no water comes into your boat.
• Bears back off after a knockdown and leave that person alone for a bit.
• Dinosaurs move smoothly for everyone in online co-op.
• The music keeps playing on the end-of-run cards.
• The map shows island camps in the middle of the river and no longer counts the take-out beach as a camp.

Otter Nonsense is a co-op river-running game. A crew of up to four animals runs rivers in kayaks, tubes, rafts and homemade boats, camps on the bank, gears up and goes again.

• Run rivers solo with an AI crew, or with friends on the couch, online, or both at once.
• Pick your animal from a roster that includes a fox, a sloth and a red panda.
• Fish from your seat or from the bank at camp, and keep a log of what each animal has caught.
• Pick Easy, Medium or Hard before a run to set how hard the river bites.
• Look out for hippos, gators and bears, and keep a water gun handy.