PogoChamp News

This is a test branch for NVIDIA Highlights support. Having some issues where it crashes the game on certain computers.

Some bug fixes:

• Fix an issue where water rendering would get broken in Replay mode on Medium and Low graphics settings.
  
• Enforce a minimum amount of time before Achievement notifications can be dismissed (to prevent them from instantly disappearing).
  
• Change "Exit Level" button text to "Exit Replay" in replay mode.
  

In just 5 days, PogoChamp will be launching into Early Access! I'm excited to let you all finally play what I've been working on, and I hope you're going to love it. With the launch coming up, I've been doing some outreach to various press/youtubers/streamers, but I'm keeping my expectations in check. Other than outreach, I've been doing lots of bug fixes and prep to make sure people's initial impressions are good (and the game, you know.... works).


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]I made a new trailer for the Early Access Launch. This is the first trailer to use actual in-game music, I hope you like it, and that it gets you excited for the game. The trailer includes sneak peaks at many levels that aren't in the demo, so I'm counting it as this week's "Level Preview". The levels shown (in order of appearance are: Frogger, Piano, Maxi Golf, Labyrinth, Bullseye, Guided Swim, Pushing Buttons, Tread Lightly, Uphill, Skee-Ball, Boldly Go, and Frogger one more time.


Yesterday I finally fixed support for ultrawide (21:9) displays! Months ago I made is so the game would offer ultrawide resolutions if you are using an ultrawide monitor, but it turns out that old change didn't actually work (I don't have an ultrawide monitor to test with). I naively believed that when monitors (and games) say that they have an aspect ratio of "21:9", that means that their aspect ratio is 21 / 9 = 2.33333, the same way that a "16:9" monitor's aspect ratio is 16 / 9 = 1.77777. It turns out that is not the case. The "21:9" aspect ratio is actually a marketing term, and corresponds to the true aspect ratios 64/27, 43/18, and 12/5. (What?!?!?). With that newfound knowledge it was a relatively quick fix to modify my prior code to check against these "real" aspect ratios, and voila, ultrawide works like a charm.


I haven't done one of these in a while, but I wanted to showcase one of my favorite bugs (that's fixed now)

• Make screen wipe animations play in realtime instead of game time (fixes issues related to pausing immediately as a level loads).
  
• Add default camera to levels so that "Reset Level" looks better / doesn't complain about missing cameras.
  
• Adjust jump charge UI to not display in some situations when it shouldn't.
  
• Fix bug where opening & closing the pause menu in replay mode would make the replay at normal speed (ignoring your playback settings).
  
• Fix many issues with physics on Frogger.
  
• Made editing the cars in Frogger more consistent with prefabs.
  
• Cars in Frogger are now recorded in replays.
  
• In replays, scenery now teleports instead of animating when traveling long distances.
  
• Replayable scenery can now destroy child objects during replays.
  
• Fix bugs / errors related to replays in Frogger.
  
• Update lighting and wall materials in Relaxing.
  
• Update material of breakable platforms.
  
• Update Text Mesh Pro version to fix missing "/" characters in some text.
  
• Added new level: Boldly Go.
  
• Added Jetpack power up.
  
• Prevent clipping into conveyor belts on Long Jumper.
  
• Change level geometry on Boldly Go to be less annoying.
  
• You can see replay ghosts through walls in replay mode again.
  
• Disable seeing through walls in replay mode when you hide the UI.
  
• Various changes for replayable scenery so you can see through them in replays, but they don't collide with each other.
  
• Redesign The One Ring to be more of a tutorial level.
  
• Reduce the size of the gap in Slope Progression.
  
• Fix gap in the corner on Labyrinth.
  
• Added new level: Tread Lightly.
  
• Fix bug where Jetpack power up's acceleration was frame rate dependent, and update speed.
  
• Modify Jetpack power up so that it's less likely to result in skidding against a surface and losing all your momentum.
  
• Fix bug where you couldn't jump the full range of angles while on a conveyor belt.
  
• The camera on Contolled Fall now points down automatically.
  
• Update Ramp It Up level geometry & starting camera position so that you don't have to move the camera while playing it.
  
• Update Off The Wall level geometry to be more streamlined/less confusing.
  
• Remove Cubby Hole.
  
• Remove Hurdles.
  
• Add new level: Pushing Buttons.
  
• Add more safeguards to prevent winning and crashing at the same time.
  
• Adjust color of the helmet for Jetpack power up.
  
• Make Activatable Rings record in replays.
  
• Lay groundwork for other activatable stuff to work in replays.
  
• Fixed support for ultrawide displays.
  

Lots and lots of bug fixes and improvements in preparation for the release into Early Access on April 12! This week I also updated the demo build to include many of the latest fixes. I continue to update the demo when I make changes or fixes that I think are big enough to warrant an update (which happens pretty frequently). Don't forget to wishlist the game so you get alerted when it launches, and please encourage your friends to do the same!


This level is exactly what you think it is.

• Add icons to Statistics and Achievements sub-menu buttons.
  
• Golf balls in Maxi Golf are now recorded in replays.
  
• Windmill in Maxi Golf is now recorded in replays.
  
• Added a small saving popup to show the game in auto-saving.
  
• Cannons now look different while unloaded, and animate into their "Cannon" form when you jump into them. This should make entering them more obvious for new players, and remove any confusion about having to "jump into the barrel".
  
• Save file buttons now expand slightly when selected.
  
• Achievement menu elements now expand slightly when expanded.
  
• Add name tags to replays when watching other people's replays.
  
• Adjusted 3 star times for Controlled Fall, Cann Cann, and Guided Swim to be less strict.
  
• Prevent unlocking the "Perfection" achievement while swimming.
  
• Jump button now also skips the victory teleport animation.
  
• Show "Downloading" message when loading all replays from the leaderboard.
  
• Add feature that lets you watch all replays from the leaderboard at the same time so they can be directly compared.
  
• Fix bug where scrolling through the leaderboard rows while the level quick select menu is open could result in strange navigation.
  
• Add left/right jump-by-ten support to the leaderboard menu.
  
• Slightly update the appearance of activated rings.
  
• Add rank # to name tags when loading replays from the leaderboard.
  
• Sort replays loaded from the leaderboard by their rank.
  
• Automatically follow the #1 replay when loading replays from the leaderboard.
  
• Adjust name tag positions.
  
• Fix bug where you could try to open the leaderboard before it was loaded.
  
• Change level select "Speed Up" button from R-trigger to L-trigger so that it doesn't conflict with the leaderboard (this isn't revealed anywhere in the UI, but is there for convenience).
  
• Fix Reset Progress option in the "Delete Save File" menu to account for the new save file format & new fields.
  
• Fix bug where if your save file said you were on a level beyond the number of levels that exist, you could get stuck in a weird place in the level select menu (mostly an issue when switching between demo and full builds).
  
• Animate the autosave indicator.
  
• Add help text to the profile selection menu that explains autosave.
  
• Fix Salmon end-game time (it was 0).
  
• Update end game cinematic placeholder text.
  
• Fix level select pause menu using outdated end-game icons.
  
• Scale the water splash SFX volume with the size of the splash.
  
• Fix bug where changing full screen mode in options menu didn't work while the game was paused.
  
• Fix outdated end game goal time text icon.
  
• Move loading text slightly so it doesn't conflict with autosave.
  
• Change controller input for Save Replay so it doesn't conflict with "View All" from leaderboard.
  
• Fix steam and discord buttons in the credits not working.
  
• Fix bug where back button in "Show Controls" menu wouldn't respond to mouse clicks.
  
• Adjust lighting on No Floor.
  
• Change order of the last few levels.
  
• Change leaderboard "View One" help text to "View" & adjust spacing accordingly.
  
• Animate cannons in Level Select.
  
• Arrows in Level Select now pulse slightly to indicate which direction is forward.
  
• Updated audio.
  
• Fixed bug where Skee-Ball victory sound effect would never stop.
  
• Fix bug where cannons in Level Select wouldn't expand if you were in one when the scene first loaded.
  
• Fix replay "Saving..." popup not displaying properly in some resolutions.
  
• Add placeholder cinematic scene for obtaining all rainbow gems,
• Fix conditional goal zone in Flying Fish (the goal was always active).
  
• Fix animation angles when jumping off walls in Level Select.
  
• Allow level select entry points to override their orientation directions.
  
• Fix fish power up not rendering in some levels (is breaks whenever I change target platform).
  
• Fix bug where you could obtain a power up after crashing.
  
• Prevent "Goal Zone Activated" sound effect from playing when not in the "normal" game state.
  
• Fix character spawn rotation in Maxi Golf.
  
• Fix bug where perfect jump trails would display while resetting replays if you crashed while perfect jumping (finally fully fixed this bug?)
  
• Fix unnecessary duplicate calls to clear perfect jump trails in replays.
  
• Add level names to the level quick select menu.
  

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.