Tower Unite News

Minigolf: Nostalgia & Workshop Map SDK Update (0.17.7.0)

Minigolf: Nostalgia

A new minigolf map is here! Feel the nostalgia as you putt from courses of colorful toys into a mysterious world inside of an old computer!

Workshop Game World Maps (Alpha)

Players can now create playable maps for SDNL, Virus, and Little Crusaders!

This update includes the official Alpha release of the Workshop Map SDK.

Simply open the Workshop Editor, select the Map Editor, set up the map, test it out, and share it to the world!

Once a player uploads a map, they can play it by downloading it from the User Creations menu!

You can start a Game World server by opening any maps you have downloaded from the User Creations menu or by selecting them in the end-of-match map selection screen.

SDK maps support a wide range of features that Condos support, such as Condo IO, Canvases, and Workshop models. Certain Volumes work, such as Damage Volumes which affect gameplay (in Virus it will infect a survivor or damage an infected, in Little Crusaders it'll set Knights on fire, etc.), Teleporter Volumes, and Trigger Volumes. Size Volumes are disabled.

You can also import Condo maps to the SDK directly, by using the Load button in the SDK's scoreboard menu. You'll just need to rename the CondoData file to have a .map file extension.

A guide on our SDK website is being written up and should be out by this weekend, which will give more information on how to use the SDK.

We'll be adding SDK support to additional Game Worlds over the next month, along with Custom Workshop Sounds support, and more SDK items.

User Creations Menu

All Workshop Maps (both for Condos and Game Worlds) are now available to browse and download through the User Creations menu on the Main Menu.

In addition, there were several changes to clean up the tag system and allow for tags for some specific Game World criteria.

Workshop map descriptions also now allow for more text formatting options (such as heading </> and bold </>) and should be more visible than before!

Virus Crash Fix

We made a temporary change to Virus in an attempt to fix a crash that happens when a player dies. If this change solves or does not solve your crashing issues, please let us know!

Changes
New Minigolf Map: Nostalgia!
Workshop Map SDK for SDNL, Virus, and Little Crusaders (Alpha release)
Main Menu: Added new "Creations" menu option, which will be home to all Workshop Condos and Game World Maps
Main Menu: Updated "Condo List" option to be "Player Condos"
Main Menu: Updated Workshop browser top navigation tabs and removed the sidebar on the left. Favorites/Subscribed/Uploads is now on the top
Main Menu: Fixed Workshop browser tags being on multiple lines for most widescreen resolutions
Main Menu: Moved Workshop Condos outside of the Condos section, now in the "Creations" section
Main Menu: Condo image content warning now only displays once per game launch
Main Menu: Improved Workshop browser tags for Condo browsing
Main Menu: Improved sizing of the Workshop Condo browser thumbnails (now widescreen)
Main Menu: Workshop Condo descriptions now support bold and h1 text formatting
Main Menu: Improved how the Workshop Condo description text looks, allowing for more of it to be visible and readable
Main Menu: Fixed Workshop Condo descriptions text getting cut off - now will show the entire description
Accelerate: Melons now have more boost (single and triple, but not gold)
Accelerate: Pin Shield now shows up more often (lowered player count requirement)
Accelerate: Flux shows up less often now
Accelerate: Added boost speed lines for better boost feedback
Libretro: Adjusted standing positions for certain cabinets (moved them towards screen)
Condo: Fish can now swim in Water Volumes
Condo IO: Improved connection tool UI. It will now display the output and the input your connection is about to make
Condo IO: You can now set the output with scroll up/down while highlighting over the first actor of the connection with the connection tool
Condo IO: Optimized wires being drawn when connected actors are nearby
Condo IO: Made persistent connections more clear with the connection tool
Minigolf: Waterhole - Expanded the area on Hole 1 so players can bounce off a log without going out of bounds
Condo: Added rich text formatting to Notebooks. Examples: bold</>, underline</>, italic</>, header 1</>, header 2</>, highlight</>
Updated Bert Gun arcade item to be more like the SDNL version
SDNL: Increased damage dealt by the Toy Hammer (from 24 to 30)
SDNL: Increased damage dealt by the Bert Gun (from 18 to 20)
SDNL: Increased damage dealt by the Flamethrower (from 5 to 7)
SDNL: Increased damage dealt by the Crossbow (from 50 to 60)
SDNL: Increased damage dealt by the Minigun (from 9 to 15), reduced spread, reduced clip size from 150 to 100
Ball Race: Melons collected in singleplayer now award Units

Bug Fixes
Fixed individual voice volume settings not applying to Game World voice chat
Condo: Fixed Push Volume causing network desyncs with physics items when physics items are pushed by it
Minigolf: Waterhole - Attempted to fix desync for Hole 18
Condo: Fixed Floating Text glowing with volumetric fog enabled
Libretro: Fixed arcade idle screens not animating for clients
Fixed crash issue with Diamond Trophies/Diamond Jetpacks
SDNL: Fixed Gun Game not switching to the proper weapon and staying on Toy Hammer
Condo: Optimized Push Volume
Condo: Fixed Transformer Tool not working in co-op Condos
Libretro: File list selector now restores scroll position to what it was after it was closed
Libretro: Fixed bar stools being created for racing cabinets
Fixed traveling to an SDNL workshop map from the Game World ports not working
Fixed rolling pets staying attached to players after players sit down in seats
Condo: Fixed Workshop items not displaying again if they are placed down and not set and the condo is saved then reloaded

Known Bugs
Selecting a Workshop Game World map from the Game World Ports doesn’t work currently
There are dark shadows in small areas of the Plaza
Using the underline </> rich text formatting in the Workshop description highlights it

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! 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 January 22nd, 2024

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for January 22nd, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since January 16th, 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]Minigolf: Haven[/h2]

Lifeless continued working on Minigolf: Haven, finishing all 18 holes, and now starting on art for the remaining holes.

[h2]Minigolf: Nostalgia[/h2]

Johanna worked on setting up all of the collisions and worked on getting the map ready for release.

macdguy setup all of the cameras, added achievements, stats, and leaderboards.

Nuclearxpotato continued working on holes for the "toy room" area.

Sketchman worked on achievement icons.

Wheezwer worked on some graphics for props used in the maps.

[h3]Minigolf: Nostalgia Achievement Icons WIP[/h3]

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

macdguy continued working on the Workshop Map SDK, creating a weapon pickup system (for spawning weapons in SDNL and Condo).

[h3]SDK: Ball Race SDK WIP[/h3]

[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

Johanna finished the optimizations for the Game World Ports interior.

Joshua continued working on the new Workshop Skeleton.

macdguy made a new Minigolf camera system.

Sketchman continued working on the engine upgrade and CPU optimizations for the Arcade.

[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since January 16th, 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

Weekly Dev Log for January 16th, 2024

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for January 16th, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since January 8th, 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]Winter 2023 Condo Contest (Winter/Festivity) - RESULTS[/h2]

The Community Vote is over, and the results are in!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the vote! There were 63 responses this time!

Since there were only 7 entries, I expanded the placements and changed some of the prize amounts.

The winners of the community vote are:

1st Place - 2,000,000 Units - @Cayla
2nd Place - 1,000,000 Units - @TrashPlus
3rd Place - 800,000 Units - @OuTSMoKE
4th Place - 600,000 Units - @galaxycat
5th Place - 450,000 Units - @haze
6th Place - 300,000 Units - @Kirbyrocket
7th Place - 200,000 Units - @grandwhizbang

Thank you all so much for participating in the contest and vote!

And keep an eye out for the next contests! Another Contest will open for submissions later this month.

[h2]Minigolf: Haven[/h2]

Lifeless has started working on a new Minigolf map, named Haven.

[h3]Minigolf: Haven WIP[/h3]

[h2]Minigolf: Nostalgia[/h2]

macdguy continued working on "Nostalgia", adding more holes to the "vaporwave" section.

Nuclearxpotato worked on adding holes to the "toy room" section.

[h3]Minigolf: Nostalgia WIP[/h3]

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

macdguy worked on more tools for the future Workshop Map SDK, working on tools for SDNL and Ball Race. The tools will also integrate with Condo I/O.

[h3]SDK: Ball Race Tools[/h3]

[h3]SDK: SDNL Tools[/h3]

[h3]SDK: New IO Connection Tool UI[/h3]

[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

Johanna worked on the optimizations for the Game World Ports interior.

Joshua continued working on the new Workshop Skeleton.

Lifeless edited the power levels of various SDNL weapons.

macdguy worked on Dedicated Condos and VR.

Madmijk fixed a few crashes relating to the MIDI instruments.

Sketchman continued working on the engine upgrade.

Wheezwer continued working with Makeship on the Little Crusaders Dragon plush.

Will worked on music for the Ball Race map, "Eruption".

[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since January 8th, 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

State of the Game 2024!

Hello and welcome to the 2024 State of the Game for Tower Unite!

This State of the Game post will include some of our plans for the game in 2024 as well as an overview of what developments were made in 2023.

STATE OF THE GAME

We want to get to the fun parts, but it’s important to mention that we are in need of financial support to keep the game going!

We’ve made a post about financial support as well as an upcoming increase to the price of the game.

This post can be found here.

That being said, we have some fun stuff on the road ahead for 2024!

This year we want to hone in on some areas that will keep Tower Unite around for years to come, and we want get to work on the next long-awaited projects!

So this year, there’s a focus on some popular favorites, user generated content, and other goals we’ve been working towards.

Some of the areas of the game that are at the forefront of our minds as we start this year are:
Minigolf Maps
Workshop & Modding Tools
Bumper Cars
Arcade Games
Weekend Events
VR Support
Dedicated Condo Servers
Horror Hill Development
In-Development Projects

Note: We’ll be linking to our Trello pages which will be updated with more accurate information in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that.

Some more information on where we are with some of these:

New Minigolf Maps!

Minigolf is a favorite of Tower Unite players and we have been wanting to get back to developing maps for it for a while. Based on the positive player responses from the survey, the 18-hole release of Mushroom Wood was an awesome start last year!

With the new year ahead, we’ve buckled down and started development on a new Minigolf map, Minigolf: Nostalgia. There’s already been substantial progress on the map, and you can follow along with development here.

Any further map ideas are still behind the scenes!

Workshop & Modding Support

This includes:
Workshop maps for Game Worlds
Workshop Custom Sounds
Custom Workshop Items (colorables, media player, Libretro support)

With SDNL’s release last year, we tested the waters for user-generated Game World Maps by giving players access to the Workshop Map SDK.

We were not surprised to see the awesome, creative content that popped up from it! Any participation helped us figure out how this feature can be feasible.

This year we are getting to work on fleshing out Workshop Game World map creation past this very early state, expanding it to more Game Worlds, and releasing it in a more proper update.

We are also planning on expanding the TU Workshop to offer other features such as custom sound packs and more complex item types!

Arcade Development

We’ve been doing some planning for the Arcade, and we’d like to get out some new games in smaller updates, rather than a full “Phase”.

We’re still ironing out the details on what games we want to jump in to, and some planned games may get scrapped, simplified, or otherwise reworked in order to accommodate our abilities as such a small team.

Some of the next Arcade games we’re thinking about developing include air hockey, the standalone Shooting Gallery, some of the 2D games, as well as unannounced games.

We’ll keep you posted in the dev logs with more info!

Dedicated Condo Servers

We’ve started development on dedicated Condo servers!

This means that Condo hosts will be able to leave their Condos up for others to join at any time, even if the host isn’t actively in the server.

If other players have permissions, they will even be able to edit and decorate the Condo as though it was a normal Co-Op Condo!

More Weekend Events

This year, expect to see some more variety in the weekend events, such as more Game World specific events, more Plaza events, and more themed map events.

We plan to start rolling these out as soon as we can. There are only a few more tasks that need to be done to make this happen.

Bumper Cars & Boardwalk Games

The 2023 Boardwalk updates have gotten us that much closer to focusing on Bumper Cars, a feature promised on the original TU Indiegogo campaign!

And development is on-going! You can check out the Trello page for it here.

We also have plans for several more Boardwalk Games to be added!

VR Support Progress

VR support has always been a hefty side project, and we won’t stop development on it!

If you’d like to see the current progress for VR, check out our Trello here.

Horror Hill Development

With SDNL finally in the game, the next game world we will work on is Horror Hill.

It’s in the planning and concept stage at this point, but, as we knock out some of these other projects, we’ll soon be at a point where it will be our main focus!

One thing we are very excited for is our plans to have Workshop SDK support for creating your own monsters!

If you want to see Horror Hill progress, here is its Trello page.

Other In-Development Projects

We know there is a lot going on in the development of Tower Unite, and we have not at all forgotten about the projects that are already in development that may not have been mentioned here.

Although we are shifting gears to certain areas of the game at the start of this year, development will still continue on other projects.

Still expect map updates, bug fixes, implementations of backlogged content, and all of the other usual stuff that comes with Tower Unite.

We have a lot of stuff that we want to get into the game and are getting our bearings as we start this year, so we appreciate your patience!

Now, let’s look back at 2023!

In 2023, Tower Unite had 28 releases, including 15 major updates and 13 hot fixes!

Below is a summary of the major releases over the past year! Full lists of changes can be found on the change logs for each update.

Cardboard Castle and Condo I/O Phase Two

To kick off the year, in January, we released a new toy-themed map for Little Crusaders, Cardboard Castle!

We added new Condo I/O features such as:
the ability to activate variables
the toggle module
counters
timers
and color palettes!

Box Selection was added to Condos, allowing players to more easily select multiple items at once.

Tower Unite x Libretro + Lightguns & Touchscreens

In February, we were able to release a feature we’d been keeping under wraps for a while: Libretro support for Tower Unite!

This release added 19 gaming console items into Tower Unite, all of which have Libretro support that allows a player to emulate games within their Condo!

The items include handheld devices, home consoles, and arcade cabinets. The arcade cabinet items have lots of Canvas capabilities so players can display images to make realistic looking arcade cabinets with custom art!

In March, lightgun, touchscreen, and keyboard support was added for items using Libretro, as well as 6 more compatible console items and other changes!

Mushroom Wood Update

Also in March, we released the updated, 18-hole version of Minigolf: Mushroom Wood (formerly known as Dark)!

More work on the very early stages of VR support, such as the VR menu and some SteamVR input support, was implemented in this update.

Tower Unite Anniversary Events Update

April marked the return of the Anniversary Celebrations events! New items were added along with the event festivities, and Accelerate and Little Crusaders payout increases were implemented!

Catzek Temple Update

April also brought the release of the the Virus map Catzek Temple! It’s the largest map so far in Virus, and offers interesting ways to strategize against your opponents, including the addition of jump pads!

Heavenscape Update

Towards the end of May, Ball Race: Heavenscape released!

The update came with with various changes, including the Condo quick-save button and updates to the server browser and server lists.

Summer Cleanup Update

In June, we released the Summer Cleanup update! This update brought changes and fixes to various areas of the game, including:
Improved Netcode and Prediction & Animation Optimizations
Changes to drifting, turning, and the camera in Accelerate
Media player connectivity
Custom spawn points for Condos
Canvas/Surface rotation
and more!

SDNL (Slaughterday Night Live) Beta Release

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2AUx3LrNfY

One of our major goals this year was to wrap up development on and release a new game world, SDNL, and it finally came out at the end of August!

It’s a fast paced arena shooter with 12 different game types to play, each offering different gameplay.

It released with 3 maps:

Frostbite

Meadows

and Hinderance!

With this update, there were several SDNL balancing Hot Fixes, as well as the addition of the Water Volume for Condos!

Decommission Update

In late September, SDNL: Decommission released! Decommission is a rework of the Virus map Corrosion designed for SDNL.

Among other things, this update also added Condo sounds and lasers! Over 50 new sounds were added, as well as laser beams that can be activated through Condo I/O!

Halloween 2023 Events + Boardwalk Carnival Expansion

The Halloween 2023 events started in October with the usual festivities and some new items!

A second update brought with it the long-awaited Boardwalk Expansion, the Haunted Catsack, more new items, and the Dark Co-Op weekend event!

Container Ship

In November, SDNL: Container Ship was released! On this beached freighter map, players can maneuver through (or over!) shipping containers to fight their way to the win!

There were also some changes to achievement payouts and other fixes and optimizations in this update!

Winter Holidays Update 2023

December brought the Winter Holidays update for 2023! This was a huge update that expanded on the existing Winter Holiday events, added MIDI support, post processing volumes, and introduced the new boardwalk renovations, and a lot more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXrwIF7JoQg

Holly Jolly Highway Update

The final update of the year was the Holly Jolly Highway Update! It added a new festive and snowy map to Accelerate, as well as much needed optimizations, bug fixes, and other changes.

That concludes the State of the Game post for this year!

Be sure to keep up with developments on our Trello, Steam, and Dev Logs!

Weekly Dev Log for January 8th, 2024

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for January 8th, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since December 18th, 2023. 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]Winter 2023 Condo Contest (Winter/Festivity) - NOW VOTING[/h2]

Voting has begun for the Winter Condo Contest.

You can see all of the submissions on the main forum thread here.

You can find the voting form here.

Voting ends on January 11th, 2024 at 11:59 PM CDT.

[h2]We're Back![/h2]
We're back from our winter break, we hope you all had a great time on your break, and we're excited for 2024.

While this Dev Log will be shorter than normal, we do have a few things to show you.

A new Minigolf map, named "Nostalgia" has been started.

macdguy took some time over the break to look more into the Dedicated Condos and VR support. We're actively working on getting these systems working and ready to be released.

nuclearxpotato worked on a Clipboard Note item, which is functionally equivalent to the Notebook item. Also Notebooks have had their character limit set from 999 to 4999.

[h3]Minigolf: Nostalgia EARLY EARLY EARLY WIP[/h3]

[h3]Clipboard Note Item WIP[/h3]

[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since December 18th, 2023 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