deearly-official - Tumblr blog

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Trail cam catching a deer fawn with the zoomies

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Tule elk Cervus canadensis nannodes

Observed by pcrnaturephotos, CC BY-NC

Antlers are obvious instruments of intraspecific combat in deer, but not all deer have them. In that case, standing bipedally and swatting at each other with their forelimbs is an effective substitute, as demonstrated by these sparring tule elk Cervus canadensis nannodes. Note the presence of pedicles - the little bumps - at the crown of their heads. The pedicles are the structures from which the antlers grow, and show that are not female elk, which are naturally antlerless, but males whose antlers have been shed.

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Pathway to Kasuga Taisha Nara, Japan

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Roe deer/rådjur. Värmland, Sweden (April 7, 2023).

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Moose (Alces alces), juvenile, piebald coloration, family Cervidae, eastern Norway

photographed by Thomas Morch ᴍøʀᴄʜ ғᴏᴛᴏ 🇳🇴 (@m0rch)

[deearly-official]

Hello Deearly followers.

This is indeed an update, but it is not one that we are excited to bring to you.

Volk, one of the most important members of Deearly’s staff, is no longer with us. She passed away in her sleep on February 17th. We only found out a few days ago.

A note from our head Admin Pippin:

“Volk was more than just an admin, more than just our coder. She was patient and kind. She was always doing what she could to help me and others. Our hearts are broken losing her like this. I know we've always asked for your patience, since we as a staff have a lot of health problems, but I honestly never expected this outcome. All I can ask now is that you please understand that this will be a hard time for Deearly and the Staff. There's a lot to consider for the future of the site that we're just not ready to start dealing with at the moment.”

We thank you for your continued patience during this time. We are still dedicated to Deearly, but we ask that we are given the chance to grieve before we make any further progress.

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Elk aka Waipiti (Cervus canadensis), male, family Cervidae, western USA

photograph by David Turko

[deearly-official]

Hey guys! Been a while…

We know it’s been frustrating seeing no updates from us for such a long time, but fear not - we have some new art AND a tiny bit of development news for you!

These are the Cobalt and Calamity pelts, respectively. You’ve seen Cobalt before, but not on our lovely Eldeer. We wanted to showcase the Eldeer in more of our beautiful pelts for you guys. Calamity is actually one of our Head Admin's favourites - and will have special requirements to breed onto your own deer. Everything was drawn by our incredible artist Percy, who is hard at work whenever he can be to bring our artistic visions to life!

Developmentally, we’ve finish designing, naming, and genotyping all of our Red pelts! This is a very exciting step for us; since our genetic system is very complicated and we put a lot of effort into coming up with pretty pelts, it takes a while to complete an entire color category. We can't wait for you to discover all the Red pelts through breeding!

As always, if you'd like to be the first one updated on future developments (art or otherwise), please join our >>Discord server<<!

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Is this game ever coming at this point? Yall make all these promises but never show anything to show your actually following up on your word.

As stated in our FAQ and in several other answers, the majority of the creative staff have to prioritise severe and chronic health issues over Deearly's production. Since this project is primarily self-funded, we are unable to hire other creatives to speed up the process - all funding we receive goes to paying for things like yearly renewals and domains.

We understand the frustration at the lack of updates but we promise we are working as hard as we possibly can and are dedicated to releasing Deearly no matter what.

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I apologize if this has already been asked, but will there be markings? I've seen the current designs (which I love by the way), would those be "bases" with the possibility of markings be included to add to the bases?

If so, would those markings be inheritable?

Currently, markings are planned, but we're focused more on pelts right now since we need, like, a LOT for our genetics system. Everything will be inheritable to some degree, including markings!

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Roe deer/rådjur. Värmland, Sweden (September 4, 2020).

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Will there be a battle system? Can't wait to play by the way!

You will be able to battle NPCs with your King!

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Will deer permadeath be involved in this site?

Deer will age and die according to the site's rollover cycle. However, if you're afraid of losing your faves permanently, there will be items to 'freeze' them in time forever.

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Do the rewards for the deearly support bundles stack? As in, if I buy an Eldeer Runestone tier, do I also get all the $10 stuff and $5 currency? Also, any gameplay or lore updates? ^^

Unfortunately not, you’d have to buy each of those bundles separately. What’s listed in the individual bundles is everything you get when you buy one, but you can buy as many of each bundle as your heart desires! Of course, contributions are NOT necessary to be a Deearly supporter or follower. Please pay only what you’re comfortable paying, and if that’s $0, that is absolutely fine! We understand being worried about the wait or not having enough funds, and we’re totally chill with it all 😎

As for lore, we’ve actually shared some of it in this post here! A lot of thought has been put into Deearly’s lore, and we love sharing it with you. No gameplay-specific updates at this time, but if you’d like to be the first to know when there are some, consider joining our >>Discord<<! Members of our server get the inside scoop 👀

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Sorry if this has been answered already, but will the game have a bunch of necessary payments? Ex: paying for skins, breeds, and other elements of the game with real money. Or will it be mostly free like WD and LD?

Also, when do you think the public will be able to play? (This spring? This autumn? Next year?)

Hi! Sorry for the delayed response. The Admin team has been pretty busy this winter season. =) To answer your first question, there will be absolutely no necessary payments. While there will be some things in the USD shop that will be exclusive there, there will be no gameplay locked behind a paywall. Even for our limited edition species, the Eldeer, which can only be purchased until the game launches, they and all the pelts in the shop will be breedable and we will always be doing our best to spread those things to the free players, as well. Via events, raffles, etc.

As for when we'll be public, we unfortunately still have no solid date on that. But I can personally assure you that we have been working hard on our breeding system and when that is finished everything else should start falling into place. I promise when we have a significant update we will let you know! But please know that even when there are no updates, we are working on the site as often as we can manage.

Thank you all so much for your patience. We appreciate every person looking forward to this game, those who contribute, those who don't, the people who are in our Discord and the people just lurking waiting for news. You're all very important to us, because you're part of the community we're building! I look forward to playing with all of you in the future.

- Head Administrator, Pippin

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Hey everyone! We’re here with some exciting news. It’s not exactly an ‘update’ update (although we are willing to share that we have made some excellent progress with the breeding system) but it’s exciting news nonetheless. <3

We’re going to be selling a new Runestone in our >>Contribution Shop<<! It’s a very special deal - three EXCLUSIVE deer pelts for the price of one! In-game, the Runestone will create three deer at the same time, each with a unique, firework-inspired pelt. In order to activate this Runestone, you will need to have 3 available spaces in your herd. These pelts will, of course, be breedable, but there may be some surprises along the way. You will be able to choose one species for all three deer to be, and they will mostly be all female. Additionally, for our breeding enthusiasts, there will be a nice surprise with these pelts, even if they don’t pass 👀

These pelts are inspired by Fourth of July celebration fireworks and come in red, blue, and white. They are very appropriately named Red Finale, Blue Finale, and White Finale. They will normally be available during a week-long sale around the 4th of July, but for this time only they will be available during the New Years period, from December 31st to January 31st (CST). They’ll be $30 each, and as with all perks, you can buy as many as your deer-loving heart desires. You will receive all of them once the game is launched!

If you’re itching for more immediate Deearly updates, why not join or >>Discord?<< Our current Discord members get exclusive looks at game art and have their Deearly questions answered by staff members personally! We’d love to have you join our growing community of deer nerds.