More updates for Sapphire Safari! This patch updates some flow issues in the user experience for the workbench and shop interfaces and fixes all the bugs the community has been reporting on the last beta update. Browse through the changelog below for more details!
Changelog v027.3585
Greetings my photo snapperinos! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Years!
2025 has been crazy for Sapphire Safari, we managed to have a fantastic release, we won two awards Best Monster Game 2025 from Sex Positive Gaming and Top Furry Game 2025 from tophouse adult game awards. We even managed to clear the secret special chocolate tier from Steam and were gifted a box of really nice French treats! We even have a best-selling plushie connected to the game!
I, personally, had some goals that we absolutely smashed to bits. I wanted to get to 1000 reviews on Steam, which we nailed within the first three months (crazy). Our player base is closing in on 1.7 million players now thanks in part to the breathtaking people at GOG and their support to fight back against censorship. Yours truly was even able to standup in Australian parliament against the overbearing control credit card companies have over what customers can and cannot own. It was a year of ups and downs. We lost our ability to sell on numerous stores, but Steam has been very supportive to our game and it makes building new things that much easier.
But enough yap, let’s get to the plap.
Since the drop of v027 in September we have been working around the clock to push out the next big features for Sapphire. The team originally wanted to focus on the new AI Lifestyle Director but figured that the camera upgrade system would be done in a faster time so we could get another update in before the end of the year. And that, ah… kinda worked out? We were able to get in version one of several new features, keep in mind these are all the most basic implementations of the mechanics, simply because we underestimated the complexity. It cascaded into countless new changes and overhauls. One example was that to make new camera lenses we first needed to recreate the photo-saving system so FOV could be applied to images the engine can save. Originally it was using a screenshot tool inside Unreal, but not being able to apply filters, FOV, etc., means we outgrew how simple it was. Hence, needing time to build our own version.
So what did we add?
The new workbench system allows photographers to customize how their cameras perform in Sapphire Safari, you simply apply whatever modules you want to the inside of your camera and the system will take on the new enhancements. Version one of the bench only has a handful of options to choose from and the associated tiers for each upgrade (because, yes you can stack em). Space is limited inside the camera itself so once the system is fully designed and implemented you’ll need to make choices on what items you want installed to best suit your current needs.
Obviously the art for all this is temporary, and once we find a nice design for it all we will be changing it all to suit what we require. So come in looking at this with eyes of understanding heh. Having said that if you have a cool idea for an upgrade for the camera systems you’d like to see, we wanna hear it! As part of this upgrade we had to make the baseline camera pretty crap compared to how you used to interact with it, but quickly upgrading the camera will make it feel very very powerful and responsive.
The shop is the next part of the equation here, currently it is only a “visibility” system but the core of it is to allow players a progression mechanic. See, when a player increases the Research Level of their current save, they will gain money. Every few levels, they will unlock a new shop tier, which includes all the tools, camera upgrades, and fun items the players can use and equip in the game world. For the purposes of testing this new system we have unlocked all modules for purchasing in the shop, but in the game proper you’ll unlock shop tiers when the Research Level increases to a particular point.
Right now we are entirely focused on the camera upgrade systems and modules. The future is gonna be a lot of fun with this system with things like the lust grenade having blueprint requirements to unlock the purchase option (harvesting 5 spore plants for example). The shop also adds another element to the completion percentage of Sapphire Safari, with items being purchased counting towards that delightful 100% rating. You can see this via the Guide Book tab.
Part of the systems we needed to build was a better UX loop for enabling and disabling/hot-swapping camera options and tech. Stuff like being able to swap your lens on the fly or turning off and on nighttime lighting systems like flash photography (yes we have flash photography now). You can do all this via the camera options menu, which now has its button on screen to show it easier!
You have your shop, but now you need to make money. Introducing the next new gameplay system, Bounties! This is a daily, repeatable photography miniquest focused purely on generating cash money. The goal is simple. Every new day at 9am in the game, you’ll receive a phonecall from the elusive Mr. Hands (played by the wonderful VoidSlut https://x.com/VoidSlutVA) who will present you with three new quests. These are photography bounties related to sex and adult imagery—take a photo of Bunets jolkin it as an example.
Currently, the system has a LOT of temp assets and such in there, including the bounties themselves. The final goal is to make the system randomly generate the bounties purely on what the player has discovered and make the system generic enough that it won’t be a hunt for specific photos like the Monpedia is. Ideally it would be doing . Lots of work and testing will need to go into it.
As you likely know, the dev team has been doing numerous things to solve models not correctly interacting with each other during sex animations, either clipping or odd faces etc. We tried solving it with IK systems and procedural penis generation, but what should have been a quick fix ended up making far more work than our small team wanted to handle. The answer to this was two fold, first, we hired renowned animator Wigfritter https://x.com/Wigfritter to help bolster our team. Second, we needed to redesign our animation pipeline. The first step to that was making sure all the models are the same size in terms of animation rig being used. Meaning all the models needed to be reworked. Here is the breakdown.
1 - Resize all rigs and models (including photographers).
2 - Remaster all meshes to include missing features (buttholes, eye frames, etc).
3 - Create a new standard animation rig that includes a penis.
4 - Remaster all sex animations with a focus on penetration and making sure orifices animate correctly around penis models.
With the help of our new animator and our current team we are now on part four of the above breakdown. The animations will take a bit to remaster but we are already working on it and the success is great!
This is all taking place on the beta branch of Sapphire Safari, this will likely be pretty unstable so please enjoy at your own risk. Don’t expect your save files to come out of this alive, but we are doing all we can to not have everyone restart all the time (even on the beta). The team and I thought it was more important to show our progress and to get feedback on systems earlier. So, I hope you can all look past the very “in-dev” aspect of the build and see what we are aiming to achieve with it all.
Major Changes
General Additions
Bug Fixes
Thanks for reading this far, it was a long one, I know. So one final reward! Here are our plans for the next couple patches.
Here is a sneak peek of the photographer customization system, the image shows the extremes each slider will have, so you can tweak your preferences here.
See you all in the new year! Bring it on 2026!
Heyo Photographers! You’ve been very patient with us as we have been building the next big patch for Sapphire Safari, and the day has finally arrived! Version 027 is ready, and it is STUFFED with new and exciting content. I want to extend a massive thank you to all of our community for jumping into the Beta Branch of Sapphire Safari and helping us find and squash a lot of bugs with the new systems and creatures. With your help, we fully expect this patch to go off without a hitch!
Sapphire Safari has a birthday coming up on September 26th! It has been four years since we released our first playable build for our die-hard supporters. The game has undergone massive changes since then, and we are super pleased with how it has grown! As a show of thanks, we will be running events and sales during the month of September, so now is a perfect time to jump in and explore what the game has to offer.
If you’ve been keeping up with the beta patches, you might already know of the three new species on Sapphire Island. All creatures are fully voiced, they all have unique conditions about them, and they all have associated 100% achievements as well.
Lustra - Otter (small classification) voiced by: @JCalistahhh
Found cavorting around moving sources of water, streams and rivers. Lustra is a happy and generally jovial creature, known for sticking close with her kind and teaming up to take down larger predators if they happen to enter her territory. Their creativity is unique among the natives found on the island, generally finding quick solutions to problems due to their high adaptability and creativity.
If unprovoked, it is possible to close the distance, allowing for interactions, as their curiosity for humankind seems to overrule their sense of danger for the unknown. It should be noted, however, that there have been several reports of the creature outright demanding that researchers rub their foreheads, prompted by their aggressive head bashing.
Salatonie - Axolotl (tiny classification) voiced by: @SLNebula
The Mexican water dog is not something researchers expected to find on Sapphire Island, as its base class of species is rarely found in the wild outside of this environment. However, you can almost always expect to see this creature during the frequent storms and rain showers. Perhaps they are harder to find during other weather events, but their identifying feature is the long, fin-like tail that reaches high into the air as it catches the rain that falls.
The Salatonie’s position in the ecosystem is not yet clear, since it can be seen mingling with the other species during the moments it explores the landscape. The infrequent sightings have made any sort of approach difficult, but this researcher expects a similar behavior pattern of curiosity if enough time is spent with the creature.
Sultray - Moth (medium classification) voiced by: @SultryLampVA
After the heat of the day ends, the Sultray appear. Seeking out food sources around the island along with the ejactulate of other island natives. It is noted that the creature is believed to store the ejaculate as a means to sustain itself during the long day periods. This interesting behavior seems to be the source of her growth that has allowed this species of insect to increase its body size, allowing for more potential mates and further growth.
It is highly possible that if not discovered today, the Sultray would have continued to grow its classification to meet the demands of much larger creatures. A possible study should be conducted into the methods it uses to enlarge itself, and the time it has taken to be the size it is. The creature itself does appear willing to reproduce even with Humans, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find people willing to participate.
A big focus for v027 was the overhaul on Photographer interactions, movements, and player feedback. To do this we are using ALS Community locomotion tools, with a big customization injection for adding in unique elements to Sapphire Safari. Photographers can now mantle up environments, climb ropes, balance on planks and wood, run and lean, and ragdoll when needed.
Cliff barriers are also no longer a thing, so you can throw yourself off them willy-nilly!
Intimacy options with the natives have gotten a huge boost in v027! Now you have access to clothing options, a first-person view mode during sex, an updated camera movement system, and the ability to take photos during sex! However, player included sex photography, which excludes those photos from scoring eligibility; however, you will be able to save them to your Memories folder for viewing later.
Adding to this, we had a HUGE overhaul on the IK system we previously released. We have been tweaking for months each and every animation in the Monsutra, along with making upgrades to sockets and joints to make the experience as nice as possible. We do plan additional upgrades, but these will be corrections to the animations themselves.
Cum fluids also got overhauled in order to build up to leaving stains and effects on characters who happen to be hit with ejaculations. Both male and female particles happen, and stains can be left on props and the environment.
Finally, the Skip button now forwards the animation right up until the climax of the scene; previously, it would simply fade to black. This should let you witness all the money shots you want!
Sapphire Island has received a bunch of new upgrades and micro-biome changes. There is now a hidden Underground Garden microbiome and an autumn-themed forestry area. Both regions should add some diversity for your photography endeavors!
Adding to that each and every radio beacon now has a climbing puzzle associated with it, along with a brand new climbing challenge achievement!
Weather has also been upgraded, now rain will happen for longer periods of time, and you’ll get a forecast for the next upcoming weather condition. These do have a variable length to them, but this will help with the Salatonie hunts you’ll be embarking on!
A lot of fixes and changes have gone into Sapphire over the last few months of work. But here are some highlights.
Nine new achievements have been added to Sapphire Safari; these include a lot of gameplay achievements, along with three dedicated to the new creature Monpedia completion.
Stealth has been overhauled, allowing photographers to be behind creatures and remain hidden. As long as you do not move, you won’t grow the alert state of creatures unaware of you.
Saving and submitting photos will no longer cause massive FPS spikes and frame drops! We have rejiggified the saving systems for moving the photos around on your system, leaving the game with a flawless and uninterrupted UX for saving. It is a massive improvement over the old one.
In order to help ease confusion, users were having over “how to submit photos,” so we have renamed the Gallery and “Save to Gallery” buttons to My Memories. Hopefully, this helps.
Systems have been built to help address the issue with creatures not being identified by the camera. We still have some remaining conditions to fix here, specifically around creatures doing sexy time, but it should work 100% of the time during normal gameplay conditions, and about 80% of the time during sex acts. Work will continue on it to make it perfect.
Additional UX has been added to the game to help players understand shots that will never be included in scoring. Like environmental shots, or photographs with the player/rival inside. These now appear with a light blue border.
You can now enable or disable Sprint, Crouch, and Aiming hold toggles in the gameplay options menu.
There are a bunch of other fixes as well. Be sure to read the changelog below for more details.
Now that we have added all the commitments we have made to our community, we will be moving our attention to two major systems. The first is the Lifestyle Director, the second is the Shop and Camera Upgrade system.
The Lifestyle Director is the last massive overhaul the game will need, and we fully expect it to take several months to complete. This means that the very fundamentals of Sapphire Safari will be changing. Creatures will now roam the island with direction and purpose. You will be able to track particular creatures and watch them complete their tasks for the day. You’ll witness species flocking together in their nests and interacting with each other in the safety of numbers. And most importantly, creatures will react to conditions of the island, weather, day/night cycles, etc.
The Shop and Camera Upgrade system is our answer to players experiencing the game however they want. With the shop, you’ll purchase camera upgrades (and other things later), which you’ll need to slot into the upgrade section of the camera itself. Upgrades will have their own shapes and sizes, and it will be your job to place them into the grid as best you can. You won’t have enough space for everything, but you’ll be able to make the camera perform however you like! This mechanic is similar to inventory tetris like you might have experienced in Diablo 2. There is a lot more to the shop and such that we will build on, but that is the immediate focus.
Both of these upcoming features will be accessible via the Beta Branch, so be sure to check them out when released. Community feedback for our betas has been very valuable.
I hope you all enjoy the new release! I am excited to hear everyone's feedback!
Creatures
Adult Content
Gameplay Systems
Environment Upgrades
General Fixes and Updates
Good luck and have fun!
