Tower Unite News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for June 7th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since May 20th, 2019.

We normally post our Weekly Dev Logs exclusively on our forums, but we're going to start posting them on Steam as well!

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.


Last week, we released the Fishing update, which introduced the long awaited Fishing minigame playable in the Plaza, with over 100 fish and items to obtain. You can read about the update's release here.

Yesterday, we released a small hotfix to fix some issues that were introduced with the Fishing update, which you can read about here.


We hired a new artist for the summer, Wheezwer. She'll be working on the cabinet artwork and sprites for the Arcade.


Now that Fishing is released, our focus has turned onto the Arcade.

Johanna has started working on a new ring toss machine and a new ball toss machine, as well as working on the prize redemption desk.

Wheezwer completed work on the cabinet art for Whirl-A-Fish, and started working on the cabinet art for the claw machine.

Gloves continued working on player animations for the Arcade, this week focusing on the animations for the Wack-a-mole machine.

macdguy started working on the arcade game base (that handles all the machines gameplay code), mechanisms to debug the player animations, as well as starting work on the basic game loop and networking of game events.

Arcade: Whirl-A-Fish Artwork WIP



Arcade: Ring Toss Machine WIP



Arcade: Ball Toss Machine WIP



Arcade: Claw Machine Artwork WIP






Arcade: Prize Redemption Desk WIP



Arcade: Wack-a-mole Player Animations WIP





Arcade: Player Animation Debug WIP



Arcade: Game Base Testing WIP



Johanna continued working on the interior of the nightclub.

Nightclub: Interior Hallway WIP



Nightclub: Hall to Dance Floor WIP



Nightclub: Dance Floor WIP



Madmijk has been working on the Playable Guitar, working on the user interface for storing chords and palettes.

Playable Guitar: Palette UI WIP

https://youtu.be/zNUdHc1M1dU



Chris has been working on the vehicles for Accelerate, finishing the Race Car and starting work on the Go-Kart.

Accelerate: Race Car WIP



Accelerate: Go-Kart WIP





That about covers everything that happened since May 20th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

This update addresses several issues that were recently reported.

Changes

• Dragging items out of the hot bar is now more intuitive
• Added an All category for hot bar
• Fishing: Increased EXP earn rate for Fishing
• Fishing minigame: Fish difficulty text now colors the difficulty text to make it easier to tell from a glance
• Fishing minigame: Reduced screen shake when line stress is high
• Fishing minigame: Added a fish icon to make it easier for new players to know what to do
• Fishing minigame: Colored the fish catch ring by the difficulty of the fish
• Fishing catch log now sorts by the most recently caught fish
• Added a setting to make the Fishing minigame opaque
• Moved All items and New items buttons to the top of the store UI

Bug Fixes

• Minigolf: Fixed tube splines not always disconnecting the ball from the tubes
• Fixed a soft lock during Fishing if you have the chat box open when about to get a fish
• Fixed a bug where Fishing music would continue to loop if you dequip during the minigame
• Fixed underwater sounds sometimes staying on
• Fixed fishing playtime not being tracked
• Fixed being able to cast into rocks
• Fixed Bunny Ears not showing up
• Fixed Plasma Autorifle not showing up in the hot bar
• Fixed Throwable Drink not showing up in the hot bar
• Fixed Quarter and Magic Trampoline not having an version added set
• Fixed the Suite aquarium
• Fixed the Resort aquarium
• Fixed the Fish Bowl not keeping fish in
• Fixed Fish Bowl placement issues
• Fixed Ball Race orb sounds
• Fixed The Stray logo not displaying properly
• Fixed catch log positioning for lower screen resolutions
• Fixed RC plane invert settings not applying if you are already in a plane
• Fixed monster potion not dequipping properly

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.

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



After tons of time and work, Fishing is finally here!


Fish With Your Friends
Fishing is a fun and relaxing Plaza activity that you can play with other players. Catch fish together and show off what you caught with your friends.



Catch Over 100 Different Fish and Weird Items
The aquatic ecosystem of the Plaza has been greatly expanded, and with over 100 different species of fish and a bunch of exclusive fishing items to be found, there’s sure to be some hidden treasure waiting just for you.



Use Various Bait
Different types of fish are attracted to different types of bait. We've added tons of variations of bait to help your fishing needs at the Gone Fishin' Bait Shop, right near the rollercoaster dock and the fishing docks behind the games building.

Adopt Sea Friends
Sometimes you'll catch a Sea Dollar. They're the currency of the sea. Once you have enough sea dollars, you can adopt aquatic friends such as dolphins, whales, and sea TUrtles.

Build Aquariums
After you've got a fish, you can place the fish in aquariums in your Condo. Just drag the fish into the aquarium and it'll be happy to call it home.

Become a Dolphin
That's right, become a dolphin. Fishing comes with several milestones and one of the coolest milestone is actually being able to become a dolphin.







Search
No more spending countless hours searching your inventory for that one soda can, the new inventory features a convenient search bar so you can get back to customizing that sick condo.

Easy Filters
Just looking for all your couches? There’s now a button for that too. With the easy filters, all of your couches, chairs, and other item categories can be filtered in just a few clicks.

Improved Tooltips
Tooltips now tell you more useful information, such as the store the item can be found in and in which Tower Unite update the item was added.

Sorting
You can also now sort items by their name, price, and version added.

Color
The new inventory is also colorable, so you can customize what color you want your inventory to be. Obtain that perfect nostalgic blue or the cute hot pink look.

Lock
A new lock feature was added which lets you lock the inventory in place. This keeps the inventory from automatically closing after you release the Q key.





New Logos and Themes (and some sounds)
The store UI has been completely redone with unique theming and logos, adding charm and character to each store.

Landing Page
The store UI now also splits the items sold into categories. Looking for just bait? Click that bait button. Looking for lures? Well, you get the idea.

Sorting
You can now sort items in the store by their name, price, and the version of the game they were added.




Wheel of Money was updated to now have a shared jackpot across all machines. This change makes it so no machine has a unique jackpot, keeping things a bit more civil amongst players. Also, we've increased the chance of winning the jackpot by just a tiny little hair.



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Changes

• Added Fishing!
  • Collection book now has a sea encyclopedia to track caught fish
  • Bait shop and fishing rod now functional
  • Over 100 fish species and dozens of weird items
• Summer event characters are back
• Metal detector events are back
• Casino: Added shared jackpot for Wheel of Money - each WOM machine will now contribute to a cumulative jackpot instead of per-machine
• Added audio effects for diving underwater
• Added new Bowling Ball upgrades: Gumball Bowling Ball, Catball Bowling Ball, Dogball Bowling Ball
• Minigolf: Garden - Polishing Update
  • Art & lighting improvements
  • Updated tubes to use the new tube system, ensuring they no longer break
  • Several misc bug fixes
• Minigolf: Cove - Polishing Update
  • Art & lighting improvements
  • Updated tubes to use the new tube system, ensuring they no longer break
  • Several misc bug fixes
• Minigolf: Alpine - Polishing Update
  • Art & lighting improvements (including the caves)
  • Added new course signage
  • Added gondola track
  • Updated tubes to use the new tube system, ensuring they no longer break
  • Fixed hole 18 sometimes throwing you off course
  • Several misc bug fixes
• Inventory UI Rework
  • Separated furniture inventory from the hot bar - furniture inventory is now at the bottom of the screen and is much larger
  • Created a better filter system - now you can filter quicker and find items faster
  • Added search bar - you can search through names and item tags
  • Added tabs and subtabs by item types
  • Added sorting (sort by A-Z, cost, etc)
  • Added lock inventory feature, which allows you to lock the inventory and not have to continue holding down Q while using it
  • Hot bar will now automatically hide away when dragging an item for better visibility (unless you have locked the inventory)
  • Added hot bar tabs - for easier organization of different hot bar item types
  • Added favorite item support - now you can favorite items that you reused a lot
  • Added color setting - recolor the inventory to that perfect blue (or pink) or anything you want really
• Store UI Rework
  • Added new logos and unique colors for each store
  • Added a landing page for each store that shows the top categories that you'd care about in that store
  • Added sorting (sort by name, price, and version added)
  • Added newly added items page (so you can see which new items were recently added to the store)
  • Added friend grouping system for Plaza - create a group and add your friends! More functionality will be added in coming updates
• Lobby 3 Phase 3
  • New fishing areas added
  • Dueling Arena entrance added
  • Bumper Car entrance added
  • You can now sit in every chair/couch/bench in the plaza
  • Updated foliage in various areas around the map
  • Added fencing and details around the beach-side fishing hole
  • Fixed the concrete appearing metallic
  • You can now use the RC boats in the main Plaza fountains
  • Added more location volumes throughout Plaza
  • New Toy Stop advertisement
  • Changed from the Volumetric Indirect Lighting System to the VLM Sparse Volume Lighting System - improving lighting overall
  • There is now only one lobby elevator that goes to Project 12
  • Reduced the size of the cartoonishly large stair steps at the theater exterior entrance
  • Replaced "GAMES" sign with higher quality model
  • Updated materials on boardwalk
  • Added additional pathways to the beach side fishing hole
• Underwater condo improvements
  • Removed blue tint from interior of Underwater condo
  • Adjusted outdoor lighting in Underwater condo to look better
  • Removed caustic "milky" effect from inside the underwater condo
  • Improved indoor lighting in underwater condo
• Added bowling and trivia scoreboards to the scoreboard menu
• Added option to invert plane vertical controls
• Your player name now shows at the top of the scoreboard at all times in Plaza/Condo
• Added new aquarium items to the Gone Fishin' Bait Shop
• Added thumbnail support to Old Theater Projector
• Reorganized stores:
  • Moved Beer item from Fresh to Project 12 bar
  • Moved Theater items from Rob's Imports to the Theater store
  • Moved Old TV and Old Computer from Rob's Imports to to Central Circuit
  • Moved Buttons from Rob's Imports to DIY store
  • Moved Beach Volleyball Net and Boxing Ring from Sweet Suite to Toy Stop
  • Moved Body Pillow from Sweet Suite to DIY store
  • Moved Standing Picture Frame from Sweet Suite to DIY store
  • Moved all lamps from Sweet Suite to Central Circuit
  • Moved Fountain and Pergola from Sweet Suite to Seasons
  • Moved some outdoor items from Sweet Suite to Seasons
  • Moved Plastic Tent from Rob's imports to Seasons
  • Moved Fish Bowl from Toy Stop to the Gone Fishin' Bait Shop
• Improved look of inventory tool tips
• Inventory tool tips now show what store the items are from and what version the item was added

Bug Fixes

• Fixed not always being able to click on leave for the Golf Ball milestone
• Fixed poker UI bug that prevented you from using any of the buttons after the EXP UI popped up
• Fixed underwater effects not occuring (and for vehicles as well)
• Plaza Fixes
  • Fixed incorrect collision wall on top of the large peninsula in the Plaza
  • Fixed missing material on some Tower struts
  • Fixed the collision on the Gameworld Port building windows
  • Reduced the chance of falling down an invisible gap between the lazy river and landscape
  • Fixed being able to get under the Arcade building near the rollercoaster
  • Fixed lights from the subway station sticking up into the upper subway area
  • Fixed boat dock location volume being incorrectly placed
  • Fixed some missing collisions in the Casino
  • Fixed some areas of the Ocean being un-swimmable
• Fixed Trivia screen cutting off player names or answers if the question is more than 2 lines
• Fixed Stasher tool lagging when you stash items
• Fixed inventory bug where item icons would change to a different item icon unrelated to the item
• Fixed items still having a new tag even if they aren't new
• Fixed Jetpack, Football, Basketball, and Beachball clipping through the store pedestals
• Fixed game activity names on scoreboard not always displaying the activities due to networking distances
• Fixed Old Theater Projector drawing shadows over the projection
• Fixed RC plane trails
• Fixed a typo on the Pizza box
• Removed headband from Bunny Ears

UPCOMING UPDATES

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.

This is our first Easter themed event, so we hope you enjoy these little games. This update also includes a Plane War minigame which will run in normal non-event rotation from now on.



We have more news with the release of this update. We've conducted some research into the PAK format which Unreal Engine allows us to package our game in. In conducting this research, we've found that PAK files can significantly reduce the loading times of the game, with some drawbacks we’ll detail below.

We tested how long it takes to load into the Plaza from the Main Menu. The test was conducted on a Intel Core i7-5820K, with a Intel 750 Series 400GB PCI-E SSD and a Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 RPM HDD. Of course, keep in mind that your results may vary from our tests.

• Hard Drive with PAK File: 24 seconds to load into the plaza.
• Hard Drive without PAK File: 2 minutes 45 seconds to load into the plaza.
• SSD with PAK File: 7 seconds to load into the plaza.
• SSD without PAK File: 43 seconds to load into the plaza.

There are some drawbacks to using the PAK file however, which is why this will be available via an opt-in process.

• Due to how the PAK file is generated, any change to the game will require a full re-download of Tower Unite.So for example, if we push out a small patch that only changes 25MB, the non-PAK users will only have to download the 25 MB that changed, while the PAK file users will have to download 9.8 GB.
• The PAK file is compressed, which helps reduce the amount of data that is required to be loaded, but comes with a small CPU overhead, which we weren't able to measure, but it could be an issue if the computer is lower powered.
• As the build times are slightly longer, when an update is released, there might be a small delay in when the PAK version of the game will be pushed out.

If this sounds fine to you, here's how you can participate. In your library, right click Tower Unite, and click Properties. Then, click the BETAS tab and select defaultpak. This will start downloading the PAK version of Tower Unite.

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Changes

• Added new Easter themed items (available in the easter egg hunt event): Bunny Ears, Catsack Bunny, Plush Rabbit, Basket, Throwable Eggs
• New Easter Egg Hunt event
• New minigame: Easter Egg Fall
• New minigame: Plane War
• Improved Fruit Frenzy minigame
• Removed trampoline from Fruit Frenzy and instead added increased jump height for all players in the minigame
• Fruit Frenzy now gives all players an air dash item that allows players to dash through the air
• Minigame HUD now shows who killed you last
• Minigame HUD now has kill feed

Bug Fixes

• Fixed workshop player models sometimes not loading in!!!
• Fixed Adrenaline milestone not working after first use

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.

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