Weekly Progress Report #33

This week I worked on a lot of polish & bug fixes, as well as an upgrade to the replay system. Replays can now record & replay information about things in the level that aren't the main character. This means that in levels with moving scenery (like Sports!!!), the replays won't look super broken anymore.


I've streamlined process of creating a demo build, and am planning to release an updated demo this Friday. The new demo will include all of the general fixes & improvements that I've made over the last few weeks, and will include 4 different levels. The updated demo will also include the updated Star time requirements, which are significantly easier than they were before. Don't worry if you're "hardcore" though, the full game has something special for all you speed-demons.

The new levels are: Shooter, Make a Splash, Maxi Golf, and Getting Tilted.
These levels are designed to introduce players to certain mechanics, and are generally easier than the levels the replace in the demo build. I hope you enjoy them!

To keep the number of levels in the demo at 20, I had to remove 4 levels. The levels I removed are:
Up Hill, Hurdles, Facade, and Labyrinth. These levels have been moved to a later point the the level progression, and were kind of a difficulty spike for new players.

• Update colors of some levels.
  
• Update to Unity 2020.3 LTS.
  
• Adjust some level geometry for Duck And Dive to make the grid lines match up better.
  
• Update various level coloration / materials.
  
• Update Relaxing level geometry to be less placeholder-y.
  
• Update Frogger level geometry.
  
• Experimentation with programmatic music modifications.
  
• Update Black Diamond missing icon.
  
• Conditional goal zones are now visible before they're enabled (they're orange while not activated).
  
• Shadow settings are now applied based on the graphics quality setting. Low quality = Had Shadows (better performance). Medium & High quality = Soft Shadows (better looking).
  
• Fix some bugs with the conditional goal zone on Sports!!!
• Modified replays so that they can include additional scenery information. This allows things like the opposing players in Sports!!!, or the walls in Facade to be properly replayed when watching replays.
  
• The sheep in Shepherd is now recorded in replays.
  
• Scenery in replays is positioned based on the currently focused replay.
  
• Adjust lighting on Facade so ambient occlusion is less pronounced.
  
• Crash replays now stop recording when your character stops moving (prevents infinite recording if you just let a crashed character is there forever).
  
• Facade walls are now recorded in replays.
  
• Opposing players in Sports!!! are now recorded in replays.
  
• Apply grid texture to the ground in Maxi Golf.
  
• Adjust ground UVs in Maxi Golf so the grid lines up properly.
  
• Fix some light colors in Ramp It Up.
  
• Update buttons in credits, thanks and stats panels to expand slightly when selected so it's more clear which is selected.
  
• Simplifying the conversion between Demo & Full builds (various things now no longer need to be manually updated, and are instead done automatically).
  
• Prevent entering "End Game" in demo builds.
  
• Remove Demo tag in the main menu when in full builds.
  
• Replace "Review on Steam" with "Wishlist on Steam" on buttons when in demo builds.
  
• Fix bug where replays on levels with replayable scenery would fail to play if the replay was recorded in an earlier build of the game.
  
• More adjustments to programmatic background music.
  
• The game now checks against your current Steam achievements on start and on loading a profile, and will unlock any achievements you have locally but not on Steam. This allows for achievements that are unlocked in the demo to transfer over to the full game.
  
• Remove tooltip from options menu that said there wasn't music.
  
• Fix bug where Speed Run Timer wouldn't show the total minutes if they were 60 or more.
  
• The build number in the bottom left corner now automatically specifies whether or not it is a demo build.
  
• Update level select pause menu to use icons instead of words.
  
• Level select pause menu now supports the End Game.
  
• Level Select pause menu now shows the total number of stars that can be obtained.
  
• Update some secret achievement names.
  
• Fix bug where you could float on water without crashing if you landed in it at very low speeds.
  
• Water splash VFX now scale with the speed you land in the water.
  
• Water splash now only triggers on things that have rigidbodies (prevents scenery from splashing).
  
• Added intersection to the water shader (but it didn't work for the character for some reason...)
  
• Allow gate bumping position to be adjusted on a per-gate basis (fix bugs where you could animate through a gate while bumping into it).
  
• Update star icon in level select HUD, level select pause menu, and level gates.
  
• Update Replay Mode help text to have a black outline (for readability).
  
• Fix bug where profile icon could be blank if the profileIcon.txt file didn't exist.
  
• Added new level: Skee-Ball.
  
• Fix improperly sized star icons in target time UI.
  
• Move Jackpot level to be earlier in the level order, and put Skee-Ball in its old spot.
  
• Fix MissingComponentExceptions related to non-rigidbody objects being in the water.
  
• Fix bug where Skee-Ball gave double the score it should.
  
• Changed Black Diamonds to Rainbow Gems. They look better in the UI, and makes more sense thematically (since super jumps are rainbows).
  
• Added some more lights to Skee-Ball.
  
• Fix bug where camera reset would position the camera inconsistently at low speeds & tilt amounts.
  
• Skee-Ball level resets the camera when you get sent back to the start.
  
• Added distortion visual effect when entering the goal zone.
  
• Fix level geometry on Slope Progression.
  
• Implement call to play SFX when achievement popup appears. (SFX not yet added)
  
• Implement call to play SFX when rings are activated in levels. (SFX not yet added)
  
• Implement call to play SFX when score increases and score threshold reached in Skee-Ball. (SFX not yet added)
  
• Fix bug related to lens distortion triggering too early.
  
• Fix bug where deleting all of your replays, then recording another replay would result in the new replay not being selected in the replay list.