Devlog #2 - Happy New Devlog!

It’s us again! As per our promise, we are happy to deliver the next update regarding Disco Simulator’s progress. Improved UI, day-night cycle, enhanced (yet simplified) building system, slightly more intelligent AI, and new in-game mechanics.


(Before)


(After)

Not only have we experienced an epiphany regarding the leading user interface theme (It's purplerer!), but we also finally designed some of the key windows in the game - settings, save, furniture and construction shops, time and budget indicators, and a juicy looking loading screen.


(Settings screen - will later be populated with more settings to customize your game experience)


(Save screen - and coming with it, a save system, so you can track your progress on levels without the fear of a sudden crash)


(Loading screen - it's cool and animated, but we're doing our best to show it for as little as possible)

Also, we've introduced more freedom in the creation of your dream club. The last building system allowed the player to create rooms by dragging his mouse over a certain area, which was then automatically converted into rooms with pre-designed walls and floors. The player was able to modify said room either by painting or removing walls, changing the floor, or manually placing other walls within the room. This made the whole system confusing to use, and it often lagged the game due to the number of calculations required to process the recalculation of the club (sounds complicated? Yeah, it was).

Soooo, we simplified it a lot!

A club is still created from 1x1 m tiles. But, instead of the whole “room/area” thingy that was automatically filling in the space for the player - they are now in charge of manually setting up the rooms. Whether you want to place a boring bathroom or a fancy bar with checkered walls and neon floors, you can now do so! (And the game won’t be questioning your taste either!)


(creating floor tiles - still 1x1m)


(new tool - ability to create walls)

Additionally, building upon the idea of freedom, you can now place your own roof tiles - which creates a new emergent mechanic - skylight - your clients will now be able to dance under an open roof (be wary of the rain though).

Although the rain and other weather effects are still a work in progress, they will certainly become an essential part of our new day-night cycle. For now, it features sun and moonlight, with changing colour near the dusk and dawn to make it feel more real. The player is also able to change the game speed if he wishes to!

(Day)


(Sunset)


(Night - Clients now come in at the start of the night, and leave automatically near the end)

Optimizations - the things you can't see:
Okay, we have to do a little tech-talk, so brace yourself. Unity is a complex engine that often needs a developer's know-how, and creating a game of this scope requires many refactorings to both allow for all the features you plan, and still not lower the FPS too much. As stated in the building system section, the game started to feel a bit laggy when players were creating their clubs - and we couldn't leave it that way. The game core was redesigned to allow for hybrid-rendering and multi-threaded computing (which essentially means that many operations are processed in parallel, maximizing your processor's capabilities). This change required even more changes (and so on) - a new physics system, AI navigation system, and object management systems were required to create what you can see in the screenshots above. You may ask "Was all this change necessary?" - Yes, yes it was. It allowed us to create even more amazing features, prototype them more quickly, and increase the game FPS from about 60-70 to 280-300.


Our next devlog will focus mainly on the AI side of workers and clients as well as the whole human resources tab in the game so be ready for even more under the hood changes and tech-talks. We will also introduce more furniture, lights, special effects, speakers to fill your club and give it the proper life it deserves.

It will also add additional views – to gauge whether your space is cozy and comfortable for the visitors, or rather reminisces them of an unkept basement.

(Something like this)

And the last great change that will be coming next devlog - we will be bringing this bad boy back into the game!

(For those of you who don't know him, this is an in-game DJ console that will let you play your own songs at the party)


We're working hard to bring you the demo of Disco Simulator as soon as possible so stay very tuned! If you have any questions regarding the development process (other than the release date) we will be very happy to answer them all! Once again, we would like to invite you to the Disco Simulator discord channel, where hopefully we will post different changes throughout the month. Once again, have a great 2022!!!