Tower Unite News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for December 16th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since December 9th, 2019. 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.


Work continues on getting the update containing Holiday Events for 2019 out the door! There are over 40 new holiday items for you to enjoy, along with some fun holiday events and visits. You can check on the current progress and all the upcoming features of the update here.

Johanna worked this week on decorating the Plaza for the holiday events.

Lifeless worked this week on decorating Nahnia for the holiday events.

JJosh continued working on over 40 new items, such as a nutcracker, jingle bells, wreath, new wearables, and many more.

Wheezwer worked on the holiday banner for the holiday events.

macdguy created a Targeter condo tool, a new item type string/ropes for christmas light string items. He also added a Face wearable slot so you can combine certain customization items. He also worked on new holiday items and the holiday events update.

[h3]Targeter Tool Demo[/h3]
A new tool was created called the Targeter, which allows for easier setting of targets for items that have targets to point to such as teleporters and the new string items.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Holiday String Decorations Example[/h3]
New holiday string items are included in the holiday events update, which feature a new item type that allows for dynamic string/rope items.



[h3]Holiday Customization Items Example[/h3]


[h3]Face Wearable Slot Example[/h3]
A new face wearable slot is being added, so you can combine certain customization items easier. The new wearable slot is currently used for cig, red nose, and cigar. It is based off the glasses offsets.



[h3]Holiday Items WIP[/h3]


Gloves continued working on animations for the arcade, fixing some animations for Whack-a-mole.

macdguy finished up ticket animations and other Arcade base work.

[h3]Fixed Whack-a-mole Animations WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
(sorry about the low FPS)

Sketchman worked on stabilizing the chat server so that it doesn't need to be restarted as often, and continued cleaning up some code used by both the chat server and the AGC.

Sketchman and Caboose700 continued working on improving moderation handling.

ThisIsntNath finished the Monthly Dev Breakdown for November 2019 video:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


That about covers everything that happened since December 9th, 2019 at PixelTail Games.


Most of us will be away during Christmas through New Year's, so this may be the last dev log for the year. We plan to have an end of year post and more. See you all beginning of next year!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for December 9th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since December 2nd, 2019. 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.


Work continues on getting Hotfix 0.8.5.1 tested and ready for release. You can read all about what is in this hotfix here.


We're conducting a Christmas Condo Contest on our forums! Submit your festive and cosy contest for the chance to win 800,000 units! You can check out all the details here.

Gloves continued working on animations for Arcade, working on improved throwing animations for "Little Birde Feeders" and "Ice Cave", along with creating a Basketball pickup animation. He also finished working on animations for "Salmon Says".

Johanna modeled "Ticket Heaven" (the ticket eater machine), along with decorating the arcade with various props. She also started reworking the "Wheely Rigged" model.

JJosh continued working on plushies for the arcade.

Madmijk continued working on "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano", working on getting the demo gameplay completed, along with figuring out some replication issues.

Wheezwer worked on art for "Ticket Heaven" (the ticket eater) and the Token Machines.

macdguy finished the gameplay for "Mas Fuerte 2K", as well as completing the HUD feedback for when rounds start for both "Mas Fuerte 2K" and other machines that don't have physical screens.

For "Pluck-a-pal", issues with physics desyncing were resolved, along with, plushies spawning frozen, and restoring physics after playing being incorrect. Implemented different types of plushies other than just the turtle plush we've been using for testing.

He finished up gameplay for "Bug Bytes", also implementing the Multiplayer System and the Multiplayer Scoring System. He also improved and fixed some issues with the hammer system, which is used with "Whack-a-mole" and "Bug Bytes".

He created an arcade attract sound system that will handle attract sounds for multiple arcade machines while they are not being played, as well as implemented the Meteoroid Mania and Ice Cave music that Will created. Sounds effects for game timers were also added, so that the player has an audio cue for when a round is about to end.

Several optimizations and bugs were fixed which heavily improved FPS inside of the Arcade. Optimizations were done to the colliders, networking, overlaps, buttons, and to several machines themselves. One networking improvement was a system that keeps track of players around machines and only sending network updates to those players, to cut down on networking traffic.

Throwable physics objects in the Arcade now have a pullback curve, so it's easier for the player to understand where the objects will eventually end up.

Ticket models were created, resulting in models for a single ticket, multiple tickets, and stacks of tickets. Work has begun on actually animating the tickets as they come out of the machine.

Bonus support was integrated into "Ring God", along with the finished version of the screen.

Pluck-a-pal Gameplay WIP

More Arcade Plushies WIP

Token Machines WIP

Bug Bytes Multiplayer Gameplay WIP

Tickets WIP
1 ticket, 10 tickets, 30 tickets, 50 tickets.



Gloves continued working on emotes, making progress with "Face Splat".

Face Splat WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Sketchman continued working on fixing issues with Unreal Engine 4.19 migration.


Lifeless is back from mandatory two week jury duty.
ThisIsntNath continued working on the Monthly Dev Breakdown for November 2019.


That about covers everything that happened since December 2nd, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Brr, did someone turn down the thermostat? Snow has appeared all around the Plaza! Wrap up warm and check out Lobby 3’s winter look in this bite-sized update.

• Updated the Plaza for Winter
  
• Optimised the original canvas model, should reduce draw calls in condos with lots of canvases
  
• Optimised some appearance items
  
• Added Ghoulcery Store to Celebrations (so you can still spend your Ghoul Coins after the events)
  
• Plaza: Added ladders around the lazy river to allow players to get out easier
  
• Virus: Added "out of ammo" HUD notification next to the crosshair for better visibility when you're out of ammo
  
• Virus: Added "infected by Player Name" HUD notification
  
• Ball Race: Improved "ready go", "fail", and "bonus" HUD animations

• Plaza: Fixed various holes and collision issues
  
• Plaza: Fixed various doors not having solid collision
  
• Plaza: Fixed palm trees having wind in the Casino
  
• Plaza: Lazy river is less likely to make you collide onto the outside walls
  
• Plaza: Lazy river is now much faster
  
• Fixed ceiling fan item colliding with inventory traces
  
• Fixed an exploit with upgrades
  
• Fixed ball race orb milestone not loading workshop models or having animations
  
• Fixed issues when using the appearance editor while having the ball race orb milestone equipped
  
• Fixed an exploit with Condo items
  
• Virus: Fixed Plasma Autorifle sounds playing even if the weapon is out of ammo
  
• Virus: Fixed Plasma Autorifle sounds not playing after auto reloading
  
• Plaza: Fixed collisions with minigame arena, where sometimes players would clip through the center area
  
• Plaza: Fixed minigame pickupables (ex. food from Food Frenzy) spawning underground sometimes
  
• Plaza: Fixed inventory traces breaking in various places, preventing placement of fireworks on boardwalk, etc.
  
• Plaza: Fixed being able to enter minigame event teleporters with RC vehicles
  
• Minigolf - Alpine: Fixed hole 1 railing collision issue when going down one of the ramps
  
• Fixed AO not being enabled in Little Crusaders
  
• Fixed AO not being enabled for the third person camera in Plaza
  
• Minigolf - Sweet Tooth: Fixed HIO for hole 8
  
• Minigolf - Sweet Tooth: Fixed HIO for hole 2
  
• Minigolf - Sweet Tooth: Fixed hole 16 wedges saving the ball position as safe (will prevent golf balls getting respawned on the wedges)

You can follow our current developments on our Trello:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

You can follow our weekly developer logs here: http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

You can report bugs on our forums: http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report

Or you may also report bugs on our Steam community, but please expect slow response time.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for November 12th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since October 28th, 2019. 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.

The Halloween 2019 Event is running until November 16th (PDT)! It’s your last few days to get those event exclusive items! Remember, a few items will still be available in Celebrations once the event ends. You’ll also be able to spend your Ghoul Coins after the events with Lil’ Pup in the Celebrations.

Over the weekend we released a hot fix with several bug fixes, and a major change to Virus gameplay.
You can read more about it here: https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791441305225/announcements/detail/1616157550887933037

macdguy worked on Arcade machine gameplay, as well as adding explanation screens for how to play each machine, the controls, improving networking/physics, and fine tuning the arcade systems. Work was also done on game type switching (difficulty settings, etc.).

Arcade items were defined on the item manifest.

Madmijk continued to work on Planetary Piano.

Will worked on Arcade music for Ring God and Avalanche.

wheezwer worked on logos for Arcade machines.

Josh made some Arcade plushies and additional items.



https://youtu.be/Iw4fIgfbxtE



https://youtu.be/CB75ybPNpmU



https://youtu.be/fdnXBPUDGwI



https://youtu.be/9h22cCVvtt4



Josh has been modelling Arcade plushes.











Work has begun on the mutator systems for Game Worlds. Work was done on the backend systems itself and networking.

ThisIsntNath’s Halloween Condo Contest 35 came to a close, and we gave away prizes to three winners. Take a look at the thread 35 to see all the spooky submissions.

Sketchman continued working on the engine upgrade (4.19) and fixing some bugs.

That about covers everything that happened since November 4th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

This update addresses several issues that were recently reported.

The largest change in this hot fix is to Virus. You can now infect by touch as well as the slash!

Changes

• Virus: You can now infect survivors by touch as well as slash
  
• Optimized treasure/remains system (reducing ping lag issues)
  
• Optimized casino machines
  
• Optimized event character interactions (reducing ping lag issues)
  
• Optimized store NPCs (reducing ping lag issues)
  
• Optimized loading doors (reducing ping lag issues)
  
• Added setting to disable decals (helps with FPS issues in Zombie Massacre)
  
• Added setting to disable gun flash effects in Zombie Massacre
  
• Temporarily removed Planet Panic join board in the Game World Ports

Bug Fixes

• Fixed devil horns not being aligned correctly on Minigolf balls
  
• Fixed Plaza tree material issues
  
• Fixed hold type animation issues for Laser Tag milestone and Ghost Hunt minigame
  
• Fixed minigame activities not clearing off scoreboard properly
  
• ZM: Fixed zombies staying alive but not being anywhere in the map
  
• ZM: Fixed visible hole in Trainyard in the Boss arena
  
• ZM: Fixed navigation issue in Trainyard
  
• Ball Race: players should no longer occasionally fall forever when falling off a level
  
• Fixed Virus, Casino and Bowling Trophy Collisions
  
• Fixed a hole in the ceiling of Condo
  
• Fixed the eyes on some of the event characters
  
• Minigolf: Reduced Alpine wind sound volume

You can follow our current developments on our Trello:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

You can follow our weekly developer logs here: http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

You can report bugs on our forums: http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report

Or you may also report bugs on our Steam community, but please expect slow response time.