PogoChamp News

This week I made a ton of progress on the new level select menu, and it's **almost** complete! I considered releasing it today, but I'm going to work on it for a few more days to make sure everything is stable before making it public.

Here's a little teaser image though:


From that image, you can see that I've completely reworked the level selection UI. Instead of the kind of weird 8 way arrow level selection, and the hidden "Quick Select Menu", I've made it so you permanently have access to the level list. In fact that's the ONLY way you access levels now. I'm extremely happy with this new UI. It solves pretty much every problem that people had with the old Level Select, and means that you don't have to move your focus all around the screen in order to get the information you need. And you won't accidentally go the wrong way when trying to get to new levels.

NOTE: The Steam leaderboards aren't shown in the screenshot above, but will be on the right side where they are now.

You can also see a little bit of the new level select environment in that image. I haven't finished styling it yet, and I'm still keeping the specifics secret for now. If nothing else: The giant tower is gone, never to return.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the new level select will be ready to go by next week's update post, if not earlier! I hope you'll like it!

My plan this week was to continue working on the level select redesign, but I got a little bored with that and decided to take a break and spend some time revamping the power up and replay systems to allow you to swap between different power ups in a single level. The 2 new levels play around with those mechanics, and I think they're pretty fun.


This level introduces power up removal portals, when you pass through them you lose any power up you have. It's a level where you swap between ball form and regular jumping several times.


This level has you swap between the jetpack power up and the fish power up. it's also the first time the jetpack is used in regular gravity (the only other jetpack level was in 0 G).

Hope you like the new levels! There's lots of other opportunities for multi-power up level designs, let me know if you have any ideas!

• CONTENT: Lots and lots of changes to the new Level Select (not in the game yet).
  
• BUG FIX: Updated door control logic to automatically detect door size (only affects Pushing Buttons).
  
• FEATURE: Allow power ups to be removed.
  
• FEATURE: Support multiple power ups in replays.
  
• UX: Ball power up animates with a dissolve effect when you lose it.
  
• BUG FIX: Various bug fixes related to losing / gaining power ups partway through a level.
  
• DEV: Update Unity version to 2020.3.17f1
  
• CONTENT: Add new level: Ball Buster
  
• CONTENT: Add new level: Hydroplane-ing.
  
• BUG FIX: Fixed missing "the" in end game screen text.
  

I've spent all of this week working on a total revamp of the Level Select. It's a multi-week project, so I don't have a ton to show, but here's some in-development teasers. NOTE: I haven't done any real styling & lighting work, so it won't look quite like this when you see it in-game.

Interior:


Exterior:


Other than that, I transitioned from using Unity Collaborate to Git for version control. Git is great as always, and I really should have been using it from the start.

This week I worked on a variety of bug fixes, but most of my time went towards an homage level to a particular game. It's not quite ready yet, and I think I'll deprioritize it a little bit so I can focus on some other levels, but I've got a little preview of the level without any styling. Let me know if you can figure out what game it is.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Big thanks to Bennett Foddy for giving me permission to make this level.


I also decided to update the store/box art for the game. The old art was pretty mellow and atmospheric, and didn't really "pop"... So I added an explosion to it.


I think this art is much more appealing, eye catching, and memorable. It also won't need to be changed if I ever (finally) get new art for the crash test dummy. Let me know what you think of it!

• UPDATE: Updated versions for Flatkit and Dotween assets.
  
• BUG FIX: Fixed issue where outline effect looked different at different resolutions.
  
• BUG FIX: Fix issue where changing the resolution didn't properly update outline values.
  
• BUG FIX: Fix bug where 2D mode levels could cause the character and camera could stutter.
  
• BUG FIX: Fix bug where the game would soft lock if you tried to load a replay file that was corrupted.
  
• BUG FIX: Fix bug where clicking A + B at the same time when in the replay menu could cause the game to soft lock.
  
• BUG FIX: Fix bug where hitting B -> A from screens like replay list or stats would instantly open another sub-menu. (Fixed by adding a slight input delay before main menu buttons can be activated).
  
• BUG FIX: Fixed issue where a replay failing to load made it impossible to close the replay list.
  

Lots of bug fixes, and 3 new levels added to the game! Let me know what you think!


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
A ball-based rollercoaster level that uses swinging grabber arms!


A level with new "super jump goop" that makes you jump extra high.


I had this level most of the way finished last week, but there were lots of bugs remaining. It's now ready for prime time!

• BUG FIX: Fix issue where colliders on the boxes in The Classic resulted in strange collisions when sliding across multiple boxes.
  
• CONTENT: Created a new level: On Rails.
  
• UX: Update Replay Mode text in 2D levels to show "Zoom" input commands.
  
• UX: Make focused replay outline less huge in 2D levels.
  
• BUG FIX: Fix replay ghost material colors in 2D levels.
  
• BUG FIX: Fix NullPointerException Replay Mode in 2D levels.
  
• BUG FIX: Camera background color in Replay Mode was wrong.
  
• BUG FIX: Disable cameras when leaving a scene to prevent issues where the camera was incorrect for a single frame when leaving 2D levels.
  
• IMPROVEMENT: Bounce Pads now also apply a minimum amount of upward bounce force.
  
• CONTENT: Various improvements to On Rails level geometry.
  
• UPDATES: Updated ProBuilder, Visual Studio Editor, and Post Processing versions.
  
• BUG FIX - REGRESSION: Fixed billboard text and see through controller errors when changing levels.
  
• BUG FIX: Swinging arms are now properly recorded in replays.
  
• BUG FIX: Fix metrics and crash log upload errors.
  
• BUG FIX: Jump speed adjusting colliders (like the tar pit) were applying their speed adjustment twice.
  
• BUG FIX: Adjusted tar pit jump scaling in The Pits.
  
• BUG FIX - REGRESSION: Fix ragdoll placeholders being the wrong color.
  
• VISUALS: Material outlines now scale with camera distance (instead of being relative to the screen).
  
• CONTENT: Added Flubber level.
  
• UX: Leaderboards now default to Global mode instead of Friends mode.
  
• BUG FIX: Using "Reset Level" from the pause menu caused various bugs in 2D levels.
  
• IMPROVEMENT: Update 2D level screen wipe to be faster because you can move while it's happening.
  
• BUG FIX: Game info exporters can now only run in developer builds.
  
• VISUALS: Update level select character materials.
  
• BUG FIX: The names above leaderboard ghosts in 2D levels were too small and positioned incorrectly.