Weekly Progress Report #16

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving (or just a nice week if you aren't in the US). This week was more productive than I expected it to be!


I've signed PogoChamp up to be part of the Steam Game Festival in February! It is going to take a lot of work to get a demo ready by then. The more I think about it, the more I realize how much is left (I don't even have sound effects or music!), but nothing motivates like a deadline. I'm going to do my best to get the demo ready by then, but I might have to opt out if I don't think it's good enough. Wish me luck!


This week I wanted to start styling the levels based on the example level I got last week. Unfortunately, the example level uses Ambient Occlusion, a Unity post-processing feature that's only in Unity 2020.2. I am currently using Unity 2020.1, and when I upgraded to Unity 2020.2, the library I use to give the character the hard-edge outline effect stops working. So I'm currently caught between 2 bad alternatives: either the levels look wrong, or the character does. I was planning to do a few playtests this week, so I decided not update to 2020.2 yet, so that I can quickly make changes based on playtest feedback (ex: fixing a build that won't launch at the beginning of a playtest). I'll go into more detail about the incompatibility in next week's post, when I finally pull the trigger and upgrade the project to 2020.2.

• Various clarity adjustments for Air Control: Moved the 2nd cannon a little closer to the first, removed walls, removed platform pillar. These should help new players understand that there isn't a "trick" to the level.
  
• Reordered levels slightly.
  
• Removed walls from Cann Cann.
  
• Fix some possible null reference errors related to input sprite caching.
  
• Options menu resolution and display mode now properly populate with your current settings.
  
• Only use delayed resolution changes when you're using Exclusive Fullscreen (not borderless).
  
• Reorder some of the Difficulty 2 levels.
  
• Added small safeguard to prevent beating a level and automatically exploding due to High Scores Only mode (doesn't full fix the bug).
  
• Fix broken button prompts in Replay List menu.
  
• Adjust several keys for Keyboard controls to make them more standard. ("z", "x", & "c" are now "f", "r", & "e")
  
• Changed level select button in Crashed menu for consistency (was X, is now B, like in all other menus).
  
• Fix fullscreen settings not saving properly.
  
• Add screen's actual supported framerates as options in frame rate picker.
  
• Change default display setting to Borderless Fullscreen instead of Exclusive Fullscreen.
  
• Change sound settings increments to 5% instead of 10%.
  
• Delete Cinema4D import plugin.
  
• Slightly adjust ground and upper body physics material friction.
  
• Prevent main menu from closing when user hit's B / Circle / Esc button.
  
• Fixed bug where grounded characters could not properly jump in certain situations (mostly on fast conveyor belts).
  
• Add debug text to character which describes why the character can't jump if they are prevented from jumping.
  
• Fixed bounce inconsistencies when bouncing on conveyor belts. (There was a bug that caused some bounces to be significantly higher than they should be).
  
• Various changes to Long Jumper geometry so it's less annoying now that the conveyor belt bug is fixed.
  
• More slight tweaks to level order (move Get Me Down after Cubby Hole).
  
• Fix UnityEditor build issues.
  
• Make Tight Rope level 3 star time more lenient.
  
• Finally remove text from Repeater.
  
• Fix typo in "Piano" level name.
  
• Fix Cann Cann lighting.
  
• Victory replay camera now uses camera FOV setting.
  
• Replay mode camera now uses camera FOV setting.
  
• Victory input help text order changed from "exit | rety | save" to "retry | exit | save" for cosistency with other menus.
  
• Add new level to introduce rings.
  
• Lower the walls on Controlled Fall so you can't fall under them and escape the level.