Fireworks Mania News

Hey!

Its been another month and time for an update from the developer - aka me 🤓

In contrast to January and February, March have been a month with more progress - which is nice!

Overall I'm still working on stuff related to upgrading to Unity 6 and related packages. Its dragging a bit more out than I was hoping for sadly, but that's just how it is sometimes.

I do not wanna go into technical details here, as this post should be fairly high level.
However, if you wanna know more about what is going on I recommend you seeing some of my live stream:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In short, process is being made and I hope to soon be able to push this new version to all.

[h2]Experimental branch[/h2]
It has been a while since I pushed an update to the published version of the game, I have however pushed some updates to the EXPERIMENTAL branch.
This is an "beta branch" you can which to in Steam to try out this new version.

Right Click on Fireworks Mania -> Properties -> Betas -> "Experimental" in dropdown. To go back to the normal version, change it to "None".

As I'm mainly focusing on various upgrades currently, as stated, this version doesn't have a lot of new "features" as such. However, there seem to be some performance improvements in some cases, just because its now build with Unity 6.

So if you wanna help test the upcoming version or just if you are curious, give it a try.
Last week I did a live stream test session where I played and tested the new version with you guys.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Pretty fun and you guys found some bugs that I have been working on, so very useful and something I will for sure do again.

That's all for now 🤓

[h2]Change log[/h2]
I have pushed the following updates since last Developer News.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/508449788991111562
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/508449788991111382


YouTube | Twitch | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

NOTE: This version is only available on the EXPERIMENTAL branch. You need to manually switch to it in Steam. Right Click on Fireworks Mania -> Properties -> Betas -> "Experimental" in dropdown. To go back to the normal version, change it to "None".

### Changed
- Changed the Hide UI feature so it now also hides the outline on objects
- Changed the logic around what tool is selected after throwing an pickedup object
- Updated various internal packages

### Fixed
- Fixed issue where clients where not always respawned when falling off the map
- Fixed issue where error were thrown after some destruction

YouTube | Twitch | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

NOTE: This version is only available on the EXPERIMENTAL branch. You need to manually switch to it in Steam. Right Click on Fireworks Mania -> Properties -> Betas -> "Experimental" in dropdown. To go back to the normal version, change it to "None".

This is the first version of the game build in Unity 6.

As its stated below, there are no new features (except the FOV) its all about making sure all still works as expected when build in Unity 6.

### Added
- Added Field of view (FOV) setting for the First Person FOV

### Changed
- Upgraded to Unity 6
- Upgraded Netcode For GameObjects to 2.2
- Upgraded various packages to versions working in Unity 6
- Updated translations from Crowdin

### Known Issues
- Better Graphics Mod: This mod cannot be enabled for now, as the map will not load. I'm aware of it and I'm working with Guanaco to fix it - but I need to update the Mod Tools for him to fix it
- Objects are not always destroyed/despawned on clients when falling off the map. This result in network errors in console
- Some object are not affected by explosions. Like the fire stairs in City are never destroyed when exploded


YouTube | Twitch | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

Hey!

Its been another month and time for an update from the developer - aka me 🤓

February have been a very silent month for me in relation to Fireworks Mania.

I have been super low on energy for the majority of the month. Maybe due to this time of year with various flu flying around or the effect of some very very work intensive months leading up to and during the release of the multiplayer update.
Maybe a combination of the two really - nevertheless, I did not have energy to work on the game after my normal day job for most days.

As I have been making games in my spare time for many years and tried this many times before, I know with myself that when I have it like this, I need to take a break to avoid stress and burning out.

It seems like it's working as I'm starting to have more energy again and recently did a live stream as you can see below, where I worked on the upgrade to Unity 6 and related stuff - good progress!

As I mention in the beginning of that live stream, I plan to continue on the Unity 6 upgrade (including tasks like upgrading packages which is actually a bigger task then the upgrade to Unity 6 on it own).
Anyway, you as a player don't really get anything from this directly, but I need to keep up with Unity versions to have a good foundation to continue to develop the game on.
I know, super technical and you just want to features and fixes - but it's coming - patience - I do what I can :D

I recommend you sub to my Youtube channel or follow on Twitch to get a more up to date with what's going on as I plan to live stream a bit more here in 2025 than I did in 2024.

[h2]Live Streams[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

That's all for now 🤓

[h2]Change log[/h2]
I have pushed the following updates since last Developer News.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/499437972949565966


YouTube | Twitch | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

### Changed
- Disabled PickUp logic when you have the Physics Tool equiped as some players reported that they sometime pickup an object when they tried to rotate the object they hold with the Physics Tool. I couldn't reproduce the issue, however, multiple players reported it, so I simply disabled the pickup logic when using the Physics Tool
- Upgraded Unity to 2022.3.55 + upgraded various packages
- Trying out a new shader on the default smoke particles to work a bit better with lighting in some cases. I might change it back again, as it do look better in some cases but worse in others
- Changed some sky lighting/color settings to make it possible to make maps darker if needed (Like German Town and German City District)
- Updated the "What's New" link in the menu to show the overview of updates on Steam
- Added 2025 cake to Cody's Workshop
- Updated translations from Crowdin.com
- Added Hungarian and Ukrainian language support, so if you speak one of these you can help translate the game here https://crowdin.com/project/fireworks-mania


### Fixed
- Fixed issue where empty mortars were not saved in blueprints
- Fixed bug where you couldn't select another tool if you were holding an object in your hand. If you tried it would drop what you where holding, but never actually pick the tool you wanted. That works now
- Fixed issue where some mortar racks was not saved/loaded propertly from blueprints and generated an error when you were looking at it


There are still a lot of languages that have not fully been translated, if you wanna help out you can do so here: https://crowdin.com/project/fireworks-mania


YouTube | Twitch | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/