Tower Unite News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for June 29th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since June 22nd, 2020. 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]Accelerate Alpha Release[/h2]
Last week, we released the initial alpha version of Accelerate, with one map, Pine Valley. You can read more about this alpha here.

We're currently working as fast as we can on resolving all of the crashes that the community has reported, so stay on the lookout for another hotfix very soon.

[h3]Accelerate: Alpha Trailer[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Accelerate Progress[/h2]
While the Alpha of Accelerate has been released, there's still many other components being worked on.

Johanna continued working on Sunrise Isles, finishing the map design and art, while also updating the lighting. She also worked on Bedzoom, adding some additional shortcuts.

Lifeless continued working on the second track of Bedzoom.

macdguy prepared Accelerate for release, fixing any last minute bugs and tweaks.

Madmijk worked on bug fixes for Accelerate before release.

ThisIsntNath worked on the Alpha trailer.

Sketchman fixed backwards movement.

Wheezwer created banners from the end of race podiums.

Will worked on music for Sunrise Isles.

[h3]Accelerate: Sunrise Isles WIP[/h3]


[h3]Accelerate: Bedzoom Shortcuts WIP[/h3]


[h2]Miscellany [/h2]
Caboose700 continued working on the OpenTDB rewrite, and helped release the Accelerate updates along with its assorted hotfixes.

JJosh started working on the character model for the Arcade Ice Cream vendor.

macdguy parsed the various crash dumps posted on the forums, sorting them in our backend system.

Sketchman fixed some issues with Steam rich presence, fixed an issue with net time stopping in game worlds, and helped investigate several crashes.

Wheezwer continued working on new flowers for the Plaza.

[h3]Miscellany: Arcade Ice Cream Vendor Model WIP[/h3]


[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since June 22nd, 2020 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun!

https://discord.gg/pixeltail

We love awesome people like you!

We're also active on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames


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

Thank you all for your feedback and enjoying the Accelerate alpha. We've made many changes and bug fixes in this update to Accelerate.

Changes

• Accelerate: Increased horn volume
  
• Accelerate: Reduced dirt slow down effect
  
• Accelerate: You can now drift with shift (without jumping)
  
• Accelerate: Improved homing ball nearby player targeting. Now the homing ball will only go towards a nearby player if they are in front of you in the race (instead of targeting players behind you), otherwise it'll travel on the track to find a target
  
• Accelerate: Improved item flinging (easier to land the items)
  
• Accelerate: Adjusted network correction snapping
  
• Accelerate: Updated minimap for Pine Valley to display the shortcuts
  
• Accelerate: Rotated minimap to be oriented the direction of the starting line and added a finish line to it
  
• Accelerate: Moved controller button for horn to left shoulder as right shoulder is now drift (without jump)
  
• Accelerate: Selected color now saves
  
• Accelerate: Flux now has a sound effect when used
  
• Accelerate: Updated homing bowling ball fire particles

Bug Fixes

• Accelerate: Fixed reversing not working properly
  
• Accelerate: Fixed drifting not starting when going downhill
  
• Accelerate: Fixed over-steering while drifting over boost pads
  
• Accelerate: Reduced boost sounds on game start
  
• Accelerate: Fixed kart customize showing low resolution textures
  
• Accelerate: Fixed kart customize rotation animation be tied to FPS, thus being faster on some machines than others
  
• Accelerate: Fixed drifting and boost pads causing the drift smoke effects to end (but you are still drifting)
  
• Accelerate: Fixed spinning out not ending drifting
  
• Accelerate - Pine Valley: Fixed various spots where players could glitch out of the map
  
• Accelerate - Pine Valley: Fixed various spots where players could get stuck out of bounds
  
• Fixed name tags not showing up with Q held when "Always Display Name Tags" is disabled
  
• Fixed workshop editor player model error "Model null for upload"
  
• Fixed Plaza 2D map player avatar scales
  
• Fixed crash in menu
  
• Fixed a few crashes related to rich presence

Known Issues that are currently being tackled

• Bowling: Memory leak with media players
  
• Various crashes in the game
  
• Dedicated server crashes/instability
  
• Accelerate: Late join has issues spawning players in and unable to grab items
  
• Accelerate: Drift effects stay on during first starting boost

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

We're also active on Twitter! https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames

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

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

StarT-Up your engines, overtake your opponents, and drift into first place in Tower Unite's new kart racer: Accelerate!

• The Alpha version includes our first Accelerate map: Pine Valley.
  
• Up to 10 players can race through 2 rounds of the map with 5 laps in each round.
  
• The new Game World includes singleplayer, multiplayer, and friends-only options.
  
• New maps, tracks, upgrades, and items will be added in coming updates!
  
• The next map to release is Bedzoom!

In this update, we've added Steam rich presence support. You can now more easily see what your friends are playing within Tower Unite. We've added a setting to disable rich presence if you want some privacy.


We plan to have a hot fix after this update, addressing additional issues that were reported during development of Accelerate. We're working hard to tackle these as quickly as we can.




Changes

• New Game World: Accelerate! Now in Alpha
  
• Accelerate launches with Pine Valley
  
• Added Steam rich presence
  
• Virus: When enraged, the virus model is now red
  
• Added local block and ban player list to Content settings
  
• Summer characters are here!

Bug Fixes

• Workshop: Resolved issues with static workshop models not loading properly in condos
  
• Moving platforms/object fix for Ball Race and Minigolf
  
• Minigolf - Emission: Made various changes across the map to -try- and fix some inconsistencies when putting
  
• Little Crusaders - Amphitheatre: Fixed various dragon camping spots
  
• Little Crusaders - Knightsend-by-sea: Fixed various dragon camping spots
  
• Little Crusaders - Market: Fixed various dragon camping spots
  
• Little Crusaders - Market: Fixed various collisions resulting in players getting stuck on certain geometry
  
• Little Crusaders - Throne Room: Fixed some Z-Fighting issues
  
• Virus - Overtime: Fixed some collision issues
  
• Virus - Overtime: Fixed an invalid spawn point
  
• Virus: Fixed host being able to walk around during waiting for players
  
• Virus: Fixed TNT respawning infected as survivor under a certain circumstance
  
• Fixed latest news image on the pause menu being completely broken for various reasons
  
• Fixed various sounds not adhering to volume settings
  
• Fixed various load hard references which should help load times a bit
  
• Fixed grammar and wording in Game World menu descriptions

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

We're also active on Twitter! https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames

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

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for June 22nd, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since June 15th, 2020. 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]Accelerate Progress[/h2]
Work is wrapping up on the initial Alpha release of Accelerate, slated for our next major release, 0.10.0.0. As mentioned last week, this initial version of Accelerate will feature Pine Valley, with two rounds per race. Future versions of Accelerate will have two tracks in each map per race.

Johanna worked on finishing touches for Track 1 of Pine Valley, and then worked on finishing Track 1 of Sunrise Isles.

Lifeless continued working on Track 2 of Bedzoom.

macdguy worked on items, bug fixes, gameplay improvements, camera adjustments when drifting and boosting, and implementing the upgrades system.

Madmijk worked on bug fixes, created the catsack and dogbag crowd system, and improved the aesthetics of some items.

Sketchman worked on fixed for the Flux effect, and some issues with the nametag system.

Wheezwer created a "Do Not Enter" sign, updated the flags for the catsack/dogbag crowd that watches you race! She also created banners for the ending podiums.

Will continued working on music and sounds, finishing Pine Valley and Bedzoom tracks and adding new sound effects for boosting, item use, lapping, voice lines, and other gameplay events.

[h3]Accelerate: Ready Set Go WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate: Bedzoom Crowd WIP[/h3]


[h3]Accelerate: Track 2 of Bedzoom WIP[/h3]


[h3]Accelerate: First Place Cam WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate: Improved Boost Effects WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate: Special Items and Powered Up Players on Minimap WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Miscellany [/h2]
Caboose700 updated the in-game moderation system to require additional information for reports, such as specifying if the offending action was happening over text or voice chat, and what type of offense was being committed. He also continued working on the OpenTDB rewrite.

Johanna continued working on touchups to the Plaza.

ThisIsntNath continued working on the brochures.

Sketchman added time dilation to the moving platforms system, fixed some more bugs with the Rich Presence system, worked on some screen drawing utilities, fixed some more bugs with the net sync system, and work on P2P connections for player groups.

Wheezwer worked on improved flower textures.

[h3]Miscellany: Improved Flower Textures[/h3]


[h3]Miscellany: Brochures WIP[/h3]


[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since June 15th, 2020 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun!

https://discord.gg/pixeltail

We love awesome people like you!

We're also active on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames


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

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for June 15th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since June 8th, 2020. 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]Accelerate Progress[/h2]
Work on Accelerate progresses, and we're now planning on having an Alpha version of Accelerate in Update 0.10.0.0, our next major update. This initial version of Accelerate will feature Pine Valley, with two rounds per race. Future versions of Accelerate will have two tracks in each map per race.

Johanna finished working on Track 1 of Pine Valley, and continued working on Track 1 of Sunrise Isles and Track 2 of Pine Valley. She also implemented the new fern texture into Pine Valley.

Lifeless continued working on Track 2 of Bedzoom.

macdguy worked on finishing the last core parts of gameplay for Accelerate, including the pre-round, customization UI, the "ready set go" logic, scoreboard, minimap logic, end of race podiums, lapped and finished UI, an incoming item indicator, and gameplay tips.

Madmijk continued working on Accelerate items.

Sketchman worked on events for the Flux item, name tags for other racers (including Avatar, and a line traced to the player), and changed the boost to account for the vertical direction of the kart.

Wheezwer worked with Johanna to improve the skybox in Sunrise Isles to more represent a sunrise.

Will mastered and completed the music for Bedzoom. He also started working on various sound effects, including dirt rumble and time flux sounds.

[h3]Accelerate: Game World Menu WIP[/h3]


[h3]Accelerate: Scoreboard WIP[/h3]


[h3]Accelerate: Kart Customization UI WIP[/h3]


[h3]Accelerate: Lapped UI WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate: Incoming Item Indicator WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate: Pine Valley Intro WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate: Pine Valley Crowd WIP[/h3]


[h3]Accelerate: Pine Valley Start Area w/ Leader Cam Screen WIP[/h3]


[h3]Accelerate: Pine Valley WIP[/h3]


[h3]Accelerate: Sunrise Isles WIP[/h3]


[h2]Plaza Improvements[/h2]
Johanna worked on some improvements to the Plaza, working to update the atmosphere to feel more warm and tropical, while also implementing a work-in-progress version of the updated Games building.

[h3]Plaza Improvements WIP[/h3]


[h2]Miscellany[/h2]
Caboose700 finished implementing caching for the Moderation API, and continued working on the OpenTDB rewrite.

Chris finished working on the cart for the rail-based shooting gallery attraction for a future phase of the Arcade.

Lifeless worked on bugfixes for the "Knightsend-by-sea", "Amphitheatre", "Market", "Throne Room", "Overtime", and "Emission" maps. He also created individual mega-threads on our forums for every single map in the game to keep reported bugs organized.

macdguy worked on some new unit popup UI concepts.

ThisIsntNath recorded new footage for an updated Arcade trailer.

Sketchman fixed some more issues with the Steam Rich Presence. He also wrote parts of the Moving Platform code, fixing a bug that was applying a constant offset to the net sync system, and adding guards to prevent NaN errors. He also fixed some issues with the implementation of the Moderation API.

Wheezwer worked on coloring the Steam Trading Card for Little Crusaders.

[h3]Rail-Based Arcade Attraction Cart WIP[/h3]


[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since June 8th, 2020 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!


Join our Discord for development updates and community fun!

https://discord.gg/pixeltail

We love awesome people like you!

We're also active on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames


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