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Weekly Dev Log for February 20th, 2024

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for February 20th, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since February 12th, 2024. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.

[h2]February 2024 Condo Contest (Kitchen)[/h2]



Hey everyone!

The theme of this month's contest is Kitchen!

Make or decorate a kitchen! The submission should be something that was made after the contest was announced.

Your submission can be a regular Condo or a Workshop Game World Map.

The submission period ends on February 21st, 2024 at 11:59 PM.

Be sure to look at the prizes and follow the rules here!

[h2]Workshop SDK: Mover Tools[/h2]

Much work has been done on making condo items move, along with SDK support for the upcoming Minigolf and Ball Race SDK toolset.

[h3]Mover Simple[/h3]

A simple mover that moves items in a direction, with spin settings.



[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Mover Path[/h3]

This is a mover that moves across a spline path.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Mover Train[/h3]

Has acceleration/deceleration built in. You can adjust cruising speed and stop at points (stations). This actually is the same train that we use in Dark Voyage, Monorail, and Posiedon.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

An example of a more complex Mover Train. Mover Train is still in development.





[h3]Movers Misc[/h3]

Movers come with rotation settings such as Direction (which will rotate the items towards the direction of the spline), Spin, and Rotate Towards item (which will face a selected item as it goes across the spline).

Movers work with grouped items, so you can group items together and attach them to a Mover module and move the entire group.

Movers can move pretty much every type of item, such as chairs, lights, sounds, doors, etc.

You can adjust how movers loop, with No Loop (just move an object from one place to another), Back and Forth (move to location, then back to the starting position over and over). Stop And Loop (move to location, stop for X seconds, then back to the starting position).

All movers have IO and start, stop, pause, and reverse input events.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You can attach movers to movers as well.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Real-time Spline Editor for Condo Mover Tools[/h3]

Movers required a spline system, so we've made a real-time spline editor for these mover tools. Splines can be useful for multiple items in the future as well, such as a fence generator.

Items with spline support will have an "Edit Spline" option with grabbers for adjusting the spline. For example, Mover Path has spline support.

You can remove points and add points between points using the editor or hot keys (such as Delete).







[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

Johanna continued working on the Minigolf SDK.

Lifeless continued to work on Ball Race: Eruption.

macdguy worked on the mover tools for the Workshop SDK, as well as fixed some bugs.

Madmijk worked on pipe organ sounds.

Nuclearxpotato worked on new items and models.

Sketchman continued working on the engine upgrade and CPU optimizations.

Wheezwer worked on banners for upcoming weekend events.

Will worked on music for Ball Race and SDNL.

[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since February 12th, 2024 at PixelTail Games.

---

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time: https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

If you like our game and want to support development, please consider getting a Supporter Pack: Tower Unite - Supporter Pack

Take a peek at what's being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There's bound to be something interesting every week! https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7

Weekly Dev Log for February 12th, 2024

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for February 12th, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since February 5th, 2024. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.

[h2]February 2024 Condo Contest (Kitchen)[/h2]



Hey everyone!

The theme of this month's contest is Kitchen!

Make or decorate a kitchen! The submission should be something that was made after the contest was announced.

Your submission can be a regular Condo or a Workshop Game World Map.

The submission period ends on February 21st, 2024 at 11:59 PM.

Be sure to look at the prizes and follow the rules here!

[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

Johanna continued working on the Minigolf SDK.

Joshua continued working on the new Workshop Skeleton.

Lifeless worked on getting Minigolf: Haven released, and worked on bug fixes. He also continued to work on Ball Race: Eruption.

macdguy released the update, as well as worked on the Game World Workshop Map SDK. He also worked on upgrading the Libretro cores, bumper cars, and moving platforms.

Nuclearxpotato worked on new items and models.

Sketchman continued working on the engine upgrade and CPU optimizations.

Will worked on music for SDNL.

[h3]Workshop Map SDK: Dynamic Path Finding[/h3]



[h3]Condo: Mover Tool w/ Group Support WIP[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since February 5th, 2024 at PixelTail Games.

---

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time: https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

If you like our game and want to support development, please consider getting a Supporter Pack: Tower Unite - Supporter Pack

Take a peek at what's being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There's bound to be something interesting every week! https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7

Hot Fix 0.17.8.0

This update addresses several bugs from the new update.

Changes
  • Minigolf - Haven: Added boost pad visuals
Bug Fixes
  • Minigolf - Haven: Added OOB triggers where people were getting stuck on Holes 4, 9 and 12
  • Minigolf - Haven: Fixed rock sticking through the ground on Hole 12 in the tunnel
  • Minigolf - Haven: Changed an OOB trigger near Hole 7
  • Minigolf - Haven: Made some changes to level 17 to make it more consistent
  • Minigolf - Haven: Made Hole 6 HIO pipe more reliable
  • Minigolf - Haven: Fixed players getting stuck on HIO hole on Hole 10
  • Minigolf - Haven: Attempted to fix a weird issue on Hole 5 when the pyramid door closes
  • Minigolf - Haven: Fixed HIO hole on Hole 12 sometimes ejecting you out the side randomly
  • Minigolf - Haven: Added a boost pad at the bottom of Hole 4's ramp to try and improve consistency of getting over it
  • Minigolf - Haven: Removed unnecessary collision on some palm trees on Hole 17
  • Minigolf - Haven: Fixed Hole 17 and 18 having the same names
  • SDK: Fixed "OnRoundEnd" on Game World event module not firing off in some cases





Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

If you like our game and want to support development, please consider getting a Supporter Pack: Tower Unite - Supporter Pack

Take a peek at what's being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There's bound to be something interesting every week! http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7

Haven Update (0.17.8.0)



Minigolf: Haven

We’ve released a new minigolf map, Minigolf: Haven! Putt through a scenic oasis of curvy courses with plenty of obstacles and ramps! Test your hole-in-one skills with plenty of tricky hole-in-one opportunities on this map.



Mediaplayer Fullscreen Mode

As requested by our players, Media players can now be played in full screen mode! Activate full screen mode by selecting the full screen button on the bottom right of the media queue. Chat is still displayed in full screen mode.



We will be adding full screen mode for Libretro in a future update!

Desert Weekend!

To celebrate Minigolf: Haven’s release, we’re holding a Desert Weekend event with a 1.5x unit bonus for desert-themed maps. This includes Minigolf: Haven, Virus: Desertion, and Ball Race: Oasis.


SDK Changes and Improvements

In this update, we've fixed several SDK issues and added new features for level creators to use in their maps. Virus survivors now have health which can be adjusted by Damage Volumes, there's a new “Weapon Strip Volume” which will let you take weapons from players, there's a new Game Type for SDNL called “Team Last Man Standing” which can be used for team-based maps involving traps, and interactions with traps/trigger volumes now have been expanded and fixed for all the Game Worlds that support SDK right now.

The play test mode also now has a way to swap Game Types for SDNL - so you can see how the CTF flags work when testing your map before uploading.


Changes
  • New Minigolf map - Haven!
  • SDNL: Added new game type - Team Last Man Standing. Team vs. Team, 1 life, no respawn, last team standing wins
  • Virus: Added health bar to the HUD
  • Virus: Reduced max rounds to 5 (was 10)
  • Virus: If there is only 1 infected left, they will always become enraged (fixes issues where if a player leaves and there's only 1 infected left after that)
  • Little Crusaders: Reduced max rounds to 10 (was 20)
  • Media: Added Fullscreen mode. You can now click the full screen button (square icon) on the media queue UI to full screen media. Chat will show up above it
  • Condo: Adjusted load in networking to help reduce freezing on hosts
  • Bowling: Decreased waiting for players time from 30 seconds to 15 seconds
  • Trivia: Improved look of Trivia screen UI


Misc Changes
  • Condo: Weapons given by Weapon Pickup are now exempt from Condo weapon rules
  • Condo/SDK: Added new materials - Cardboard Checkers, Plastic Slide, Wavy Glass, Hazard Striped Concrete, Piled Gloop, Wooden Backframe
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Changed the floor materials in the "inside the computer" scene to look more visually accurate to the scene
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Updated the computer and chair models in the bedroom to be higher detail
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Added course signs for the bedroom area of Nostalgia
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Improved the pipe cam's behavior in hole 13
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Improved the camera collisions on the rock ramp in hole 13
  • Media: Added dynamic media lights toggle button to the media queue UI for easy access to toggle dynamic media lights
  • Media: Faded out active media volume slider. Pressing Q (inventory key) will make it show up again
  • Libretro: Improved light gun models and materials


SDK Changes
  • SDK/Condo IO: Added Weapon Strip Volume
  • SDK - SDNL: Added Activate/Deactivate inputs to CTF Flag
  • SDK - SDNL: Added game type switching during play testing mode. Switch game type using the top left popup during your play test session
  • SDK - SDNL: Ranged weapon pickup type now works
  • SDK - SDNL: Changed special weapon pickup type to spawn just Plushy Nade
  • SDK - Virus: Damage volumes can now damage Survivors just like other games - won't infect the player unless the damage kills the Survivor
  • SDK - Virus: Play test mode now skips waiting for infected state, and also gives all weapons to allow for easier testing
  • SDK: Added TeamC filter setting to blocking and trigger volumes (TeamC is used for Little Crusader Ghosts)


Bug Fixes
  • SDNL: Fixed collision issues with Bug Buster weapon
  • SDNL: Fixed oddball collision issues
  • Virus: Fixed players colliding with TNT
  • Virus: Fixed players colliding with other players
  • Minigolf: Improved collision mesh of golf hole to lessen stop balls from getting stuck on the rim
  • SDNL: Fixed Oddball not returning to gameplay on Workshop maps
  • SDNL: Added checks to ensure Oddball will always be present, if it's somehow gone, it'll respawn another
  • SDNL - Meadows: Fixed OOB damage not applying
  • SDNL - Container Ship: Fixed water damage not applying
  • Trivia: Fixed trivia screens not rendering at a decent frame rate & optimized screens that are inactive/have no players
  • Trivia: Fixed a bug with seats that would cause players not to be put into the game and would get stuck unable to play the round
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed a bug that would cause the player to occasionally slip through the boost rings in hole 1
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed an Out-of-Bounds bug on the bouncing plushy segment of hole 4
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed a bug in hole 6 that would occasionally cause the ball to phase through the course walls
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed hole 8's flag from being off-center
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed players getting stuck at the bottom of the boost ramp on hole 9
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed an issue that caused the player to get stuck in the deep/sharp corners of the "inside the computer" scene on hole 9
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed the ball getting stuck on the rim of the flag's hole on hole 12
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed a bug on hole 13 that would sometimes cause the ball to phase through the floor near the flag
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed the ball getting stuck on the rim of hole 15's flag hole
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed the ball getting stuck on the rim of hole 17's flag hole
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Ball should no longer get stuck on the flag hole's rim on hole 18
  • Minigolf - Nostalgia: Fixed a bug in hole 18 that caused an occasional out of bounds issue
  • Virus - Subway: Fixed issue where the Hula Doll was difficult to shoot
  • Virus - Subway: Fixed players being able to get above ceiling in one spot
  • Virus - Subway: Fixed areas in that could cause players to get stuck inside the construction walls after being shot with a sonic shotgun's blast ability
  • Condo: Fixed mesh issues on Canvas Elbow (gaps at edges, missing sharp edges)
  • Condo: Fixed Transdimensional Paintings and Portals rendering even when hidden
  • Condo: Fixed Size Volumes not resizing player cameras properly
  • Condo: Fixed Sky Volume issues in Smooth Autumn (Moon being corrupted visually, and Sun being very small)
  • Fixed Adrenaline not stacking with other speed altering items
  • Condo: Fixed Holdable Food given by Weapon Pickup taking food out of the player's own inventory
  • Condo: Fixed ladders not disabling collision when no collide or hide is applied
  • Condo: Fixed Sky Volume not removing global effects when stashed
  • Condo IO: Fixed a crash with counters and adding/updating counter
  • Plaza: Fixed the reels of one of the Wheel of Money machines that were popped out of the machine


SDK Bug Fixes
  • SDK: Fixed Game World Events module not reporting game world types properly under certain circumstances. Also fixed gametypes being called during waiting for players state and fixed OnMatchEnd/OnRoundEnd being called before the game even began
  • SDK - LC/Virus/SDNL: Fixed hidden or no collide objects colliding with players
  • SDK - Virus: Fixed infected hitting trigger volumes way too often
  • SDK - Virus: Fixed damage volumes that insta-kill not infecting survivors
  • SDK - Virus: Fixed damage volumes not updating enraged gameplay states
  • SDK - LC: Ghosts no longer can interact with trigger volumes, unless TeamC filter is enabled
  • SDK: Fixed being able to enter NPC camera mode (soft locks you). Now NPCs will show floating dialogue (using the Talked To dialogue) above their head when interacted with to prevent gameplay from being interrupted
  • SDK - LC: Fixed Laser Beam not colliding with Dragon properly
  • SDK - Virus: Fixed Laser Beam not hurting infected or survivors
  • SDK - SDNL/Virus/LC: Fixed Spike Board, Iron Maiden, Guillotine items not damaging properly
  • SDK - Virus/LC: Fixed Spike Board, Iron Maiden, Guillotine items colliding wrongly
  • SDK - SDNL: Fixed CTF Flag OnRespawned output not calling when flag was returned by player holding it being killed or when another player returns the flag after being dropped
  • SDK: Fixed target Game World drop down being reset back to SDNL after returning from a play test
  • SDK: Fixed Weapon Pickup not hiding the pedestal model when hidden






Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

If you like our game and want to support development, please consider getting a Supporter Pack: Tower Unite - Supporter Pack

Take a peek at what's being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There's bound to be something interesting every week! http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7

Weekly Dev Log for February 5th, 2024

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for February 5th, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since January 29th, 2024. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.

[h2]February 2024 Condo Contest (Kitchen)[/h2]



Hey everyone!

The theme of this month’s contest is Kitchen!

Make or decorate a kitchen! The submission should be something that was made after the contest was announced.

Your submission can be a regular Condo or a Workshop Game World Map.

The submission period ends on February 21st, 2024 at 11:59 PM.

Be sure to look at the prizes and follow the rules here!

[h2]February 2024 Dev Update[/h2]



Earlier today, we released our Developer Update for February 2024. In this post, we thank everyone who supported us via the Supporter Pack and our Patreon, as well as a few ideas for items for the Patrons and supporters. We also gave a quick update on our progress.

You can check out our developer update here.

[h2]Workshop Game World Map SDK Progress[/h2]

macdguy continued working on the Workshop Map SDK, fixing a ton of tiny bugs. He also added a Game Type switcher, which will set up the map to use the appropriate game type (such as Arena or CTF).

Johanna continued working on the course pieces for the Minigolf SDK.

[h3]Minigolf SDK: Ramp Pieces WIP[/h3]

Ramp pieces can be snapped together like other Minigolf course pieces, and have various settings to configure (steepness, walls, wall height, etc).



Various shapes and designs can be made with the ramps.



A random course design using all of the modular pieces snapped together, using the ramps, corners, flats.



Various corner pieces.



[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

Johanna worked on Minigolf: Nostalgia, getting it ready for release, and also worked a bit on Bumper Cars.

Joshua continued working on the new Workshop Skeleton.

Lifeless continued working on Minigolf: Haven and Ball Race: Eruption.

macdguy setup the achievements and leaderboards for Minigolf: Haven. He also worked on the Dedicated Condos, added a fullscreen mode to Media Players, and added a Health Bar to Virus.

Madmijk made some sounds for the retro guitar.

Nuclearxpotato worked on new items and models.

Sketchman continued working on the engine upgrade and CPU optimizations. He also helped work on the Dedicated Condos, and made the achievement icons for Minigolf: Haven.

Wheezwer worked on logos for the new weekend events, made the February calendar, and made some concepts for Minigolf course signs.

Will worked on music for Ball Race: Eruption.

[h3]Minigolf: Haven Achievement Icons[/h3]



[h3]Virus Health Bar[/h3]



[h3]Fullscreen Media Player[/h3]



[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since January 29th, 2024 at PixelTail Games.

---

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time: https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

Take a peek at what's being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There's bound to be something interesting every week! https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7