Amazing Frog? News

[h2]The Taxi Job Update has arrived![/h2]

Yes... We hit a few 'bumps' in the road, but the new update and frog job is here! Let the series of Delivery updates commence with this Taxi update.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h3]Grab your Taxi [/h3]
its a Job for any frog, pick up a fare andy day of the week, earn Swindon Frog pounds and unlock some strange new outfits.



Don't forget to deliver your fare safely and quickly ( ...also we don't care how they get there! )

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[h3]Frogs Get Freaky in Ride Share[/h3]

If you are clever you can pick up multiple fares in one trip.





[h2]The New Water System[/h2]

We started working on the newer water system after the jam maker. I shared in the Status Update a few weeks back that we had been working on the water
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/332570/view/505080786253255049?l=english





[h3]Cool Hats To Collect?[/h3]

There are a bunch of new hats dotted around Swindonshire and if you get them all you gety a special reward - spoiler alert ... yes another hat !



[h3]Time to Get Horny and pick up some Frogs![/h3]




All aboard!! You can not toot the horn to entice local frogs to enter you vehicle and deliver them where ever you can drive to


Even toilet town!

Thry out the Catapults - they are like cannons, but from the past.
Perhaps the skeletons are bolstering their defences, is something worth defending?

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As always, esecially with an update that has taken this long, we have been making a lot of system changes. Particularly with the Frog intelligence. This is again helps us progress towards Law and Order.
We hope you and enjoy this update

[p]As we approach the next Major update for Amazing Frog? I thought It would be a good time to share a status update of what we have been developing in Swindonshire. We have been working on some big additions.[/p][p]Often in game development some steps, that seem very small, can end up taking quite a long to implement. On the positive side when these step are done well, larger subsequent steps can begin to happen very quickly.[/p][h3]New Water?[/h3][h3][/h3][p]We have been upgrading the Water System, making it feel more atmospheric. Which has enabled us to add many things we have been wanting to implement for some time. Things like splash effects, impact ripples and more fluid surface movement for boats and creatures.[/p][p][/p][p]The new Water has also helped up to create more synergy in the world's style throughout Swindonshire.[/p][p][/p][p]Also things like shore waves (...and some new boats)[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]What is Delivery?[/h3][p]The next upcoming 'Job' is Taxi Driver. We needed to get this system right to empower us to create the other "delivery systems" that we have also been working on. I imagine you can guess what those other delivery systems maybe just from walking around the world. Hopefully, there will be still be some surprises in there.[/p][p][/p][p]While driving a Taxi, after you have found a citizen requesting a ride...[/p][p][/p][p]...you will be able to earn Frog Pounds and unlock costumes depending on a speedy (and successful ) journey[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]How does it lead to Law and Order?[/h3][p]This category of task we call "Delivery" is now more dependant on more advances in NPC management and behaviours[/p][p][/p][p]NPCS taking up seats and positions and even collecting or using items from the floor, but ultimately having a more determined sense of what they want do and where they need to be.[/p][p]This library that drives the behaviour is very much the basis of how we will bring 'Law and Order' to Swindon, but before we reach that goal there are still a few more steps.[/p][p][/p][h3]New Stuff to wear?[/h3][h3][/h3][p]Naturally, in the next major update there will be a bunch of new outfits and accessories[/p][p][/p][p]As you know we are always building new 'Things' for Amazing Frog? so expect some of that too...[/p][p][/p]

As you may know we were hit by some problems with the Jam Maker update.


In this patch we have made sure that the process for collecting berries and turning them to jam jars was fixed! We wish we could have released it sooner.

[h3]Buuuut, sometimes you just have to fix a bunch of stuff at once. [/h3]
(and it can take some time)


First, we got wrapped up in another major bug - what happens when you eject from the jets or indeed what happens when you crash a jet... ( If you had not noticed it ... it was a bad one )


However, its not just jets that should be able to take to the skies!


[h3]Indeed, Pigs will fly![/h3]
Since one of the major parts of the Jam Maker update was the Saddle Launcher (If your Jam Maker was working) The saddle logic itself needed some care and attention.


Especially when it comes to using Jet Packs either in saddles or indeed on some bikes.


We still think we need to spend some more time on this part of the control system, but we also think we moved it a big step forward in this patch.

There were other issues that we solved and there are some that we are aware we haven't solved yet. We want to say thanks for all the feedback (and awesome artwork), we try and keep up with everything posted, it's all really very helpful and is going to lead us to leaving Early Access soon.


[h3]Buuuut, The saddle logic is actually really dangerous![/h3]


I will say though, we had a lot of fun shooting each other with the Saddle Launcher. Even as i write this i am aware that there is a bug where you can continally get Saddle Launchers from the dispencer... gulp.

The saddle logic did send us a down a bit of a rabbit hole, especially when thinking about how to control a shark... we ended up following a path that had not expected to engage with so soon . Luckily it will yield a new update pretty quickly.


This image should give you some idea of what we aaaaaaare currently wrapped up in.

[h2]The Jam Maker
[/h2]

Yes thats right! Make Jam. A new fundemental and core system added to Swindonshire.


Here's a video with some ideas on how to farm for berries to make jam.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We are expanding our range of objects throughout the world and of course thinking about their value. This is all important mechanics that will make Law and Order have more depth... I hope its all starting to make a bit more sense now.


[h2]More Persistence with Collectables[/h2]
This is a feature upgrade. Have you ever been familiar with scenes like this


You have just been on a kill Rampage and there is just so much stuff to collect, but if you walk too far away it will all be gone?


Not any more...
(Heres the boring Game dev bit)
Lots of physics objects = bad for runtime
especially when they are left just hanging around. So Gaz decided that cleaning them up after you went away would be a "normal" thing to do. but what if you need to go back to the hideout to get the vacuum or you got killed whill fighting a load of zombies?
Since the objects are becoming increasigly valuable when we found a way to make them persist in the session. They won't stay if you refresh Swindon (ie go to moon or sewer) but the objects should stick around and wait for you to collect them.

[h2]Time To Mount UP ![/h2]


Unlock the saddle Launcher (with jam Jars) you should be able to shoot any living thing with it to add a saddle and ride it...




When you mount up, it might be easier tovisit places you could not get to before.




But be careful.



[h2]Team up in the Sewer.[/h2]


We've put some chainsaws in the sewer and a vacuum to make collecting things of the dead in teh sewer more productive.


Cos Zombies carry loot too.


We don't know what the fastest way to gather "stuff" is yet, what are you doing?





[h2]First Pathogen Dart Gun[/h2]

We won't tell you how to get it, but like the saddle launcher the gun will appear in the hideout when unlocked.


You can Infact just about anything with a pathogen dart gun


And try new things



[h2]Yeah... there has been Fixes[/h2]
There have been fixes and there are a few new outfits and unlockables and more Magic! I won't go into detail.
One notable fix is to make the treads on the tanks more deadly and the tank shot explosions too.


As we move towards Law and Order and "1.0" (which is very close now) we are also refining some of the core components. Jam jars, saddles and pathogen darts all work with various aspects of the evolving tech that drives frog life in Swindonshire.
[h3]Unity 6[/h3]
This was also another major step for us since we have moved the project to Unity 6 - this allows us to future proof the game and unity 6 is very much becoming a requirment for us roll out the console version when we hit 1.0 with Law and order.

Also we should be "delivering" a new update very soon.

[h2]Welcome to the Chainsaw Update![/h2]
While you may know we have been working on some bigger updates, we wanted to give you a little slice (..wink..)


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Its pretty powerfull You can chop most things :)


So many things to cut up... but remember, you are not the only frog packing a chainsaw.

[h2]Washing lines...[/h2]
Its washing day! some frogs will have put out their special items.


Don't steal new T shirts for your collection.


Find that perfect something to complete your outfit.


Other clothing items have also been left lying around, it may be hard to find the dustbin as a seperate costume.



[h2]Bouncy Mushrooms ?[/h2]

You demanded it... You got it. What will you demand next? a yeti? with sun glasses? I dunno.
(We always intended for the big mushrooms to be bouncy, like big parasols, but we had not got around to it - So Thanks for the push! )



[h2]Magic Toilet Progress... [/h2]

I won't spoil the magic toilet surprises, but check the Toilet Message Board for new things to add.

[h2]So Whats next?[/h2]

Well, Its been 2 months since the bin day update. We didnt want it to be so long, but there was a lot of "groundwork" to do. Now, we will start another run of updates which will add more magic, more places to spend you hard earned... um "things"... jobs, death, coffee, LAW, aliens, loads of costumes and much more and not nescessarily in that ORDER!