Amazing Frog? News

testing the cardboard cars

[h3]!********** NOTE **********![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1559680
[h3]Amazing Frog? V3 continues it development on this separate app and remains free for owners of Amazing Frog?[/h3]
[h3]!!********END NOTE ********!![/h3]

Happy new year! Long time since I wrote one of these... Here is the short version:

On Xmas Day we put a new Amazing Frog? "V3" update out. This was a MASSIVE milestone for us and one that we wish we could have reached sooner. Also, just now, we put another update out with some more UI options better train and car impacts and a bunch of bug fixes.



Now the longer version..



It's taken much more time that we had hoped to get comfortable with "V3" - Or as I now like to call it "Amazing Frog?®" We had worked with V2 ( "Legacy" ) for many years and as some of you may know it was build in a very old version of Unity. We tried for many years to bring the Amazing Frog? Legacy version into newer technologies, alas we never felt we could recapture the essence of the Amazing Frog? gameplay. We came close last year with the "halloween V3 beta" but while preparing the next update for last New Year we just felt there were too many holes and neither Hal or I was comfortable with how it played. So throughout 2020 we started again. (When I say started again Its never really from scratch, but we rebuild and restructure)



We wanted to get the core systems more reliable and scalable and maybe I will talk about that in a future blog like the why of F.A.P.S. Our goal has always been for Amazing Frog? To be an online multiplayer game, but for this to happen the underlying structures of the game needed to support this. It will not be too evident yet how the new underlying systems work in this new version of Amazing Frog? , but it is going to help us massively in further development. The bottom line is that you will now begin to see much more frequent updates as we begin 2021. With more updates I expect I will find more time to write more Blogs (unlike now when it is about to strike midnight at the end of 2020 and I am putting this blog together on my Mac in the kitchen )

So rather than go into too much detail about the how and what of Amazing Frog? I'll just try and answer some of the questions that have come our way.


[h3]What about V2 content and save files?[/h3]
We really had to think of them as separate, the beta last year shared save data with V2 and it just caused too many headaches and issues. These were mainly development problems, but ultimately the biggest reason why they will remain separate is because the saved data historically has been one of the most difficult obstacles to over come when adding new content or more specifically new systems. The way the "skins" work in V2 is not how frog customisation works in the new version where we have items of physical clothing. Also by retaining and supporting legacy saved data from 6 years ago it can impact progressive gameplay in a way that is extremely restrictive to how we can develop new gameplay systems in the future. This is one of the main reasons why they are separate.
[h3] What will be the frequency of Updates?[/h3]
They should be more frequent now. If you have played the xmas update this year then you will know that although the world is newer many Amazing Frog? "Usuals" are not present yes, there are only the VROG cars no sharks or alligators, no guns. Basically many of the features we need to redesign, rebuild etc. I would say though, just because there are no sharks today doesn't mean they won't be there very soon. So watch out! We really wanted to put something out at Xmas and many things we held back as they require just a bit more work or need more consideration on how we integrate them to gameplay. I will try and announce updates better this year as now we have this first version we can be more organised about it. Sometimes we may just put a small update out, but there will be big updates like flight school or the sewers which I will try and make a song and dance about and other which will be just about items and expansions.
[h3] Are you still going to update V2?[/h3]
Most likely, yes. We had a bunch of stuff we started for V2 last year and I would like to finish it off.We even had some new costumes but had not completely decided on how you could unlock them, But from this point forward V2 (or Legacy) will not be as high priority as the new version.


[h3]Whats the news of other platforms?[/h3]
I am sorry that I have not made the Mac version yet. I will make one tomorrow and see if it's stable and upload it as soon as possible. After I do this blog hopefully I will be reacquainted with how the Steam Dev portal system works and find a way to post smaller announcements about updates. I haven't had the time yet. Its been annoying how Legacy has not been working on the new OSX software, but Steam Mac version is high on my list. IOS and Android. We get a lot of requests for Android and I did have a version from Legacy back in April, but I could only get it to run in 32bit which made if inferior to the iOS version. I am pretty certain I can pull a mobile device version from what we are working on now, but I need more time as my focus right now is to flood the Steam version with more content and updates. Consoles and whatever - yeah one day but it's a bit out of our reach at the moment as we are still actively developing.


[h3]Will There be multiplayer?[/h3]
Yes Ok? Yes... but not before it's ready and its taking me a me quite some time. We also have lots of other things to implement. It's worth noting, that one of the main reasons for the complete code rewrite this past year was to facilitate Multiplayer at the core. I hate how long its taking me but there you go.


[h3]Where is the Day night cycle?[/h3]


Honestly surprised no one found that.. was doubting we should put it in the game because the zombies were not ready yet.

Happy new year all.  Thanks for being a part of Amazing Frog?

Hello again,
I must apologise that I have not released any information for a while. As I have said before - I know how important developer blogs are to let you know what we are up to. In this case, I started writing this a few weeks back and then I end up showered in errors( of my own making) :( Mostly I just like to get on with stuff :)   Beyond that, I have said it before … I find writing frustrating at best :P



So, after The Flight School update at Xmas with the Giant Alligator, we kind of threw things up in the air, purposefully of course! I know many of you were expecting a V3 beta update, it didn't happen ( YET! ) and  I shall try to explain why in this post, also I hope to explain what we are working on so you can get an idea of what's happening next in the immediate future and what will follow.

I'll start with what we were going to do. We had intended to follow up the V2 Flight School update with a quick update primarily to help you physically move things around and new toilet overflow system for making unlocked activities like "Giant saddle on Alligator" or "Shark Blimp” or flying "Megladon" much easier to “reactivate” and then we were going to release another V3 beta in the new year. Well, it didn't go as planned and in typical Gaz and Hal style, we changed our minds and decided to smash both those updates into one action… I shall explain why but first:

[h3]A Few Definitions - V2 and V3[/h3]
If you are reading this blog with no idea what V2 and V3 are… Welcome! To be honest I am not sure I know any more. They are terms we use to describe developments, but things have changed so much. So as I write this - this is how we think of V2 and V3 or to be more specific the version of Amazing Frog? that we are actively working on.

V2 describes for us the active version of Amazing Frog? this is defined by being on Steam and also the pocket mode available on IOS this version is built in Unity 4.7.2 and has the downside of being built in older tech but the benefit of having years of content added.

V3 describes the newer version of Amazing Frog? that we have been working on in the latest version of Unity it has a much higher resolution environment a day-night cycle is built on much better architecture and we are actively building online multiplayer for it (but have not released that yet)… the downside is it does not have as much content as V2

V is effectively short for “version”. Version 1 was the version on OUYA back when we started, Version 2 we released on Steam and Version 3 is the "future". But just to confuse things I may well change all that. As V2 is changing. The work we are doing on V2 should allow us to distribute it on more platforms meaning there will be multiple versions of V2 more so than just Steam and pocket mode. But I will talk about that in a bit first why has there not been a V3 Beta Holiday Update?



[h3]The V3 Beta Update that didn’t happen[/h3]
So why didn't the V3 beta update happen in the new year? A lot of it comes down prioritising out time in line with an overall plan of action. Ultimately, we want to make Amazing Frog? available for more platforms and be able to keep updating it. Last year we made some big steps in this direction, but our methods were slightly flawed and needed change. Basically, in October our intension was for V3 to replace V2 so we would carry on just working on one project - V3. For some time we have felt that V2 was dying, left behind by progressing technology. Our solution to this dilemma was always V3 a new version and also a chance to erase our mistakes and build something cleaner and more professional. Perhaps blinded by pride and ambition we felt the best course of action was for V3 to replace V2. We converted what we felt we needed from V2 to augment what we had created for V3 and throughout 2019 were of the mindset that V3 would replace V2 and during this ongoing process, we spawned the V3 beta of Halloween 2019. Unfortunately, we started to see the error of our ways in that we had approached this process with the wrong mentality. We found ourselves saying things like -  We don’t need X or Y feature from V2 as we can simply “recreate” feature  X or Y as we continue V3 development. This process was going to force us to spend more of our time building and not leave us in a position to release much. One example of this is that I didn't take any of the weapons or pick up mechanics from V2 as I reprogrammed holding items to work with a new character system in V3 (honestly its much better in V3)

V3 started to feel like it should be a sequel and not a successor. In thinking of V3 as the successor to V2 it paled in comparison. It was like going back to the barren Amazing Frog? versions of 2015 before we had added sharks even, but with better models, nicer mechanics and real-time lighting. It was beginning to feel like we were taking leaps backwards for the sake of some more contemporary technology. Obviously, we are not going to stop Developing V3, we want a day-night cycle, we want frog fingers! we want online multiplayer and we want to make “F.A.P.S". a thing… but we are not ready to lose everything else that we have built up over the past few years in V2 and the dilemma is we couldn’t integrate what we have in V2 without rebuilding it all so we changed our philosophy.

[h3]Messing about with a Giant Alligator Opened my mind [/h3]


I was not happy with how I was rushing V3 to replace V2 - As December 2019 approached, we wanted to deliver a “fun” V3 Beta Update.  I found I was just taking things from V2 to make V3 better and started to feel uncomfortable with this approach. V3 needed more time and careful consideration to be as fun as V2. From a development point of view, for me as the programmer at least -  there is a certain clarity and purity about V3. This is because it allows me to build more complex core systems, like Multiplayer, and integrate them from the ground up.  Rushing content in was breaking the integrity of the project and not what V3 was supposed to be.  Xmas is always a panic month for us, I no longer remember Xmas without an Amazing Frog? Update and honestly, I love it. Throughout 2019 we had planned to replace V2 with V3, but by the time November hit I realised how this was not a possibility in the short term. I distracted myself by making a Xmas V2 mobile version. I didn't think it was possible any more as Unity 4 was so out of date. Nonetheless, for a distraction, I thought I would give it a go and with some weird workarounds I found a way and put the Xmas content onto Apple and I found myself in V2 project again with Xmas knocking at the door for a Steam update...

So I made a giant Alligator, OK?

Initially, I was just experimenting, but after chatting with Hal we decided to go all out on the Flight school Update for a bit. We had kind of shelved Flight School in April or May after the Drone Update in favour of concentrating all our energy and resource on V3. Simply put - I couldn’t bear not having a “Holiday update” So we reactivated it, crunched and launched that at Xmas…

[h3] ...Meanwhile[/h3]



We had been prepping a V3 Beta update… Among other things, Hal made onesies for every outfit from v2 into an actual onesie in the V3 Beta that you can change into (if unlocked in V2)… We were pretty excited.  We made the cars better and more of them, added a film studio, replaced the landscape with a higher detailed Landscape, fixed a bunch of the silly door bugs like when you enter the… Hal made a Xmas light generator… and we hung a few pictures in the Gallery.



Actually we did a bunch of stuff we are always making progress, but for now, we put a pin in V3.



[h3]You will get a V3 beta Update, but first, we wanted to try a different road[/h3]



[h3]A Fresh Perspective.[/h3]
In January Hal and I had a careful think about where we were with development. Subsequently, we took the difficult decision to convert EVERYTHING from the V2 flight school update to Unity 2019.3 (the software we build V3 in). Once we had come to terms with the inevitable fact that V3 was not ready to replace V2 there was only one road we could walk down and we have gone all out on that route.

A complete conversion of V2 with no content left behind opens many new doors too. It's a big change in direction, but one we are both pretty happy with. Some times you have to analyse your actions very critically and break a few things to make progress.  Maybe not in a “Thanos” way… Disclaimer -  We are not advocates of Thanos' philosophies, but more in and eggs and omelette kind of way.



There are still a few outstanding issues from me in the systems conversion, but this has given Hal plenty of time to go nuts on the V2 landscape. So much is now possible in V2 now the project is in 2019.3, trees, rocks, water landscape features would now be available in V2. Making the world feel much more as we originally intended but could not originally achieve. In some tests, it has run better on my older laptop than Flight school. Finally, V2 is taking advantage of newer processors and graphics cards.

More detail does make it easier to get lost in SwindonShire.



Its been a really productive few months and I think we are on the cusp of our best update ever. The oddest thing is its V2 update.. only it doesn’t feel like V2 any more.



I cannot lie converting the ENTIRE project from unity 4.7.2 to Unity 2019.3 has not been without its issues, but...



Grass…



I can’t tell you how long we wanted grass….and lawn.



trees...



and rocks...



rocks and trees...



did I mention trees?



cos we have trees now



and metal trees obviously





And better water… (with wildlife in it)





I hope the images explain what we are doing. I always feel there is so much more to say. I was going to talk about the pitfalls and problems we had with “game design” if you can call it that. Like how the balloon Jet pack, for example, has been a hindrance as much as an advantage in designing what features we add next to the game. Or how we feel about just being 2 developers and should we expand? Or that GDC got postponed, or like how we will make it easier to move big objects around and not take a day to get a saddle on a giant alligator or the Hat app or more practical things like building a Fayju account system so you can save data across platforms and not lose it, or that we will output Flight school to iOS and Android with split-screen, very soon.. Or what platforms we want to take Amazing Frog? to this year...There is so much to talk about and honestly, I never know where to begin or end with these posts...


but I will say this - Thanks for playing Amazing Frog? I can’t say it enough - we love working on it and are so grateful that we can.

It just doesn’t feel like Xmas unless I am rushing an update out for Amazing Frog?  - And So Flight School is now available in SwindonShire.

The doors to flight school can now be opened.  Learn to be a pilot also if you are really committed to the fly, you may be able to earn your wings…

Had a lot of fun making this one and to be honest some of the new stuff is a little experimental and honestly, I am not sure what's going to happen to a lot of if. Riding the Alligators is now more as we wanted, I should have fixed that ages ago. The trouble with Xmas updates, in fact, most updates for Amazing Frog? is there is always something else that can be added or fixed!

Ultimately We are going to need a bigger boat.

We put the grotto back in the town centre if you feel like thrashing around in the snow…Also, it gives us a reason to do another update to move the grotto back to the mountain. Don’t forget to check the changelog

(PS V3 Winter update is also close, I’ll write more about it all when I have had some sleep)

Welcome to The First V3 Beta. You can access it by selecting  " v3_public_betas" You can access Betas by right-clicking the game name and going to properties. There should be a tab to Betas. Select the 'V3_public_betas' option. If you cannot see the beta in the list try restarting Steam.



It's in beta so we expect things to be a bit unstable, please let us know of any problems. Currently, we have only built support for Windows 64 bit. This is only the beginning, there is a long way to go, but there will certainly be a lot more regular updates from here on.



I don’t really have the words to explain just how excited Hal and I are about this milestone. We have been trying to get V3 into your hands for ages, this is just the beginning though and I expect it won't work for everyone, but we are going to resolve that.



Although I will probably start on the from tomorrow ...