Tower Unite News

Breathe in that naTUre and enjoy the remake of Grassworlds from GMTower, featuring new levels and a brand new song.




Altitude was completely remastered with tons of bug fixes and design changes.
"I did it again hope you like it" - Lifeless



In this update we've also enabled PAK by default. PAK is a compression method that will greatly decrease load times for everyone (HDDs and SSDs).

However, PAK requires downloading the entire game for each update. We recommend users who have metered internet or low bandwidth internet opt out of this PAK version. You can opt out by right clicking on Tower Unite in your Steam library, click on properties and then the betas tab. Select the "lowbandwidth" beta branch via the drop down. The low bandwidth branch will download only the changed files in updates, drastically reducing download amounts - but will also increase load times.

Changes

• New Ball Race race map Woodlands
• Minigolf: Altitude - massive visual overhaul
• PAK is now default, greatly decreasing load times (opt out by switching beta branch to "lowbandwidth")
• Added "next event/minigame" HUD element for Plaza
• Fishing: Increased sea dollar spawn rates
• Fishing: Adjusted very hard difficulty to be more forgiving and less likely to happen
• Balloon Shoot now has combo support
• Virus - Subway: Widened a corridor entrance to allow infected to access an area easier
• Virus - Subway: Added some paneling near the main ticketing area to block a long viewpoint to prevent infected from being sniped off as easily
• Optimized the main menu a ton, should help boot up times (no longer loads in things it shouldn't need to). Also no longer loads the player model unless you are in appearance mode (menu fps speed up)
• Reduced chainsaw volumes
• Sea Dollar now shows up in the collection book

Bug Fixes

• Optimized PAK File: Assets in PAK are now arranged by load order
• Fixed workshop RAM/VRAM leaks
• Fixed various memory leaks
• Optimized more Plaza code
• Fixed collision issues with pool noodles
• Fixed inventory collision issues with fishing rod
• Minigolf - Garden: Fixed hole 4 pipe being too slow
• Minigolf - Garden: Fixed hole 5 HIO not being reliable
• Minigolf - Garden: Fixed hole 12 pipe issues (also added a camera for better viewing)
• Minigolf - Garden: Fixed hole 13 HIO not being possible (or unreliable)
• Minigolf - Garden: Fixed hole 13 out of bounds issue (near the HIO area)
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Fixed hole 1 tube being too slow
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Fixed hole 4 HIO not being possible (or unreliable)
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Fixed hole 5 tube being too slow
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Fixed hole 12 HIO not being possible (or unreliable)
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Fixed hole 13 left cannon causing out of bounds
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Fixed hole 13 HIO not being possible (or unreliable)
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Fixed hole 15 HIO not being possible (or unreliable)
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Fixed hole 16 not having effects for the barrels being spawned
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Fixed barrels on hole 16 being removed too soon
• Minigolf - Emission: Fixed hole 16 laser bridge bouncing balls out of bounds
• Fixed Alpine minigolf leaderboards not loading properly in the collection book
• Virus - Fixed a crash related to adrenaline

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 July 22nd, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since July 15th, 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.




Wheezwer and Johanna continued working on the Arcade Machine art.

Johanna worked on a 4 player arcade cabinet for 2D/3D multiplayer games, along with finishing the new Whack-a-mole cabinets.

Wheezwer worked on artwork for two Whack-a-mole machines, Whack-a-mole and Bug Bytes, and two new arcade posters. She also continued working on the murals for walls of the arcade.

macdguy worked on the logic for Whack-a-mole, Bug Bytes (multiplayer whack-a-mole), and Tornado machines. He also continued improving feedback for Ring God and The Offering (Ball Toss). Work was done on the arcade base, adding multiplayer scoring. He also worked on some fixes for Garden, Treasure Cove, adjusted sea dollar earn rates to be easier, and added Balloon Shoot combo support.

Madmijk continued work on the Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano, creating a solo play mode.

Gloves continued working on animations for Arcade.

Will finished the Woodlands song and continued working on sounds for various arcade machines.

Several machines were worked on this week.

Whack-a-mole & Bug Bytes WIP Artwork

Planetary Piano WIP Gameplay Solo
https://youtu.be/oekMge8HP2w

Whack-a-mole WIP Gameplay
https://youtu.be/uaLThz0U1Qs

Bug Bytes (multiplayer whack-a-mole) WIP Gameplay
https://youtu.be/Vl0fbNUK5ng

The Offering (ball toss) WIP Gameplay
https://youtu.be/z02xDGoFTic

Little Birde Feeders WIP Gameplay
https://youtu.be/-iC3WigBte8

Ring God WIP Gameplay
https://youtu.be/27V4u7TL9a4


Lifeless has been been working on another Accelerate level. This one is one based off our early Kickstarter level we showed off.

Super Early Screenshot


Sketch fixed a typo in the new Tiny Potion ad.




Sketch finished work on the memory leaks and optimizations for now. This week he fixed an audio related leak, various async leaks, and resolved Workshop VRAM issues. All of these fixes are now part of the Woodlands update. He also finished the workshop culling optimizations, which we'll be putting out a patch for soon. And lastly, he fixed issues with related to dev-builds that prevented us from performing certain types of debugging/profiling.


That about covers everything that happened since July 15th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for July 15th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since July 8th, 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.



Wheezwer and Johanna continued working on the Arcade Machine art. Signs for Skee Ball, Super Hoopers, Tornado, Salmon Says, and Stack'em were created.

Wheezwer worked on art for the Skee-ball backboard, finished art for Tornado, and started work on art for the "Jar Toss" game, another "Ball Drop" game, and the "Pachinko" machine.

macdguy worked on the logic for Wheel of Fire (90% done), Pluck-a-pal (80% done), Tornado (80% done), and Whack-a-mole (90% done) machines. He also continued working on Ring Toss to make the gameplay better and added effects. He worked on improved LED effects for Skee-ball and Little Birde Feeders. Work was done for the 2D/3D base, creating weapon support (w/ networking). He worked on the overall Arcade base, adding debug visualizations to help with optimizations, remaking the seat/multiplayer system, and overall improvements. He also started working on the gameplay for Lonely Gun 30XX.

Madmijk continued working on the shader and gameplay for Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano.

Gloves continued working on animations for Arcade, working on Stack'em and Skee-ball.

Will continued working on sounds for Skee-ball.

Skee-ball with Updated Backboard and Sign WIP

Super Hoopers Logo and Sign Art WIP

Stack'em Sign Art WIP

Dizzy Sign Art WIP

Tornado Cabinet and Artwork WIP

The Offering Cabinet and Artwork WIP

Unnamed Ball Drop Cabinet Model WIP

Little Birde Feeders Light Animations WIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwzQS1oMCvs

Skee-ball Light Animations WIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D6itG1SZ88

Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano Gameplay Demo WIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3UvBvR2fFA

Arcade Shooter Demos WIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb2jW9AszMw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ty_oEcK5d8

Pluck-a-pal Crane Machine Physics Demo WIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3JIrf7JF5o

Wheel of Fire Gameplay WIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YZ4iO3jqyE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El-u-utzlQY

Tornado Gameplay WIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0alvcShJ5us

Whack-a-mole Gameplay WIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE7GImIuAto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBXUi3YZDjI

Salmon Says Logo Artwork WIP

RC Tank Item WIP



Lifeless made some slight changes to a couple hallways in Subway, to make them less campable.

Virus: Subway Hallway Changes WIP

JJosh continued working on new Plaza Transportation Items, such as the Skateboard and Three Wheeled Trike.

Plaza Transportation Items WIP

Sketch worked on updated Plaza Banner Art, such as The Stray advertisements.

Updated Plaza Art WIP



Sketch continued looking into the memory leaks and optimizations. This week he implemented Axis Aligned Bounding Box calculations for Workshop Item meshes, which will be very useful for culling and performance optimizations.

Workshop Item Bounding Boxes WIP


That about covers everything that happened since July 8th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for July 8th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since July 1st, 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.


Last week we released the Summer Update, which introduced two new minigames Chainsaw Deathmatch and Booze Bash, along with a bunch of new pool tubes and other summer accessories. You can read all about the update here.


A couple months ago, we introduced another version of Tower Unite which used PAK files to contain all of the game data. When using the PAK method, loading times are dramatically reduced.

During our testing, before the PAK version, it would take our Hard Drive test computer 2 minutes and 45 seconds to load into the Plaza. With the PAK version, it takes only 24 seconds. This speed increase is also found on SSDs, going from 43 seconds to only 7 seconds. You can read more about our testing in the original thread.

One of the downsides with the PAK version, is that while the files are compressed which helps loading times, this compression results in having to download the entire game (around 8GB) every time there is a new update to Tower Unite.

This week, we’ve decided we’re going to be making the PAK version the default version of the game. However, we do recognize that there are many players out there with slow or heavily capped internet connections. For this reason, there will be a new “lowbandwidth” branch of Tower Unite, which when selected, will revert to how the game is currently packaged. This will save on your internet bandwidth, but you won’t get any of the speed improvements.

We’ll make another announcement when the “lowbandwidth” branch is released, so that people have time to switch over before we make the PAK default live in our next update.

TL;DR: We will be swapping the PAK version from opt-in to opt-out. There will be a new branch that you can opt-into if you have slower or metered internet. The branch is currently available called “lowbandwidth”, so you can opt-into it now before the next update.



We’re still holding a short survey for feedback about the game until the 26th of July. Your input really matters, so if you have a chance you can fill out the survey here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xRONXJWae6DEuqDNmjZ8sAAs4IJN_9srGqcW1pqTwvQ/viewform?edit_requested=true

So far we’ve had over 1,200 responses, making this our most popular survey by far.

Wheezwer and Johanna continued working on the Arcade Machine art. Work was completed on the Lonely Gun 30XX and Captain Calypso’s Planetary Piano machines. Work began on another “Ball Drop” arcade machine.

Wheezwer worked on Mural Art for the Prize Redemption areas, along with a logo for the WarpZone arcade and posters.

macdguy worked on the logic for the Pluck-a-pal Claw Machine, Ball Toss Fish Bowl, Wheel of Fire, and also improved networking events for scoring so there is no effect/sound delays for the player who is playing the arcade machines.

Madmijk continued working on the shader for the Captain Calypso’s Planetary Piano machine.

Claw Machine Logic WIP
https://youtu.be/px9Rrmi-S4w

Prize Redemption Mural WIP

Lonely Gun 30XX Cabinet Artwork WIP

Captain Calypso’s Planetary Piano Cabinet Artwork WIP

Captain Calypso’s Planetary Piano Cabinet Shader WIP
https://youtu.be/7y2CKoJiCw4

"Ball Drop" Arcade Machine Cabinet WIP

Arcade Mural WIP

Arcade 4K Screenshot 4K Version

WarpZone Logo WIP

Arcade Poster WIP

Chris continued working on karts for Accelerate.

Accelerate Karts Untextured WIP

Accelerate Karts Textured WIP

Accelerate Karts Closeup WIP

Josh started working on a Drivable Scooter for the Plaza as part of a set of transportation items.

Drivable Scooter WIP

Sketch continued looking into the workshop memory leaks and optimizations.


That about covers everything that happened since July 1st, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Summer is here! While we've been actively busy working on Arcade, some of us have spent time working on a TUbular Summer update to celebrate the season.

We've added two new minigames: Chainsaw Deathmatch and Booze Bash. Chainsaw Deathmatch is a classic GMT minigame but with its own death arena.

Franky's grill is now open! He's got hot dogs and beer for you to drink responsibly.

Our resident pool tube expert (a.k.a. Josh) crafted 53 beautiful pool tubes for you to express yourself with.

• New Plaza minigame: Chainsaw Deathmatch
• New Plaza minigame: Booze Bash
• Franky's grill is now open
• Added new summer related items:
  • Holdable Beer (casually drink beer anywhere. please drink responsibly)
  • Holdable Hot Dog
  • Holdable Soda
  • Orbiting Sun (keep your sunny friend close)
  • Pool Noodle (smack your friends)
  • Sparkler (draw in the air)
  • Beanbag
  • Cornhole Board
  • Pineapple Glasses
  • Palm Tree Glasses
  • Inflatable Glasses
  • Neon Light Glasses
  • Steampunk Goggles
  • Holographic Sunglasses
  • Holographic Backpack
  • Flower Crown
  • Bowler Hat
  • Cig
  • Ushanka (okay well sometimes it can get cold at night during the summer and well...)

• Our resident pool tube expert (a.k.a. Josh) crafted these beautiful pool tubes for you to express yourself with:
  • Airplane Pool Tube
  • Alien Pool Tube
  • Balloon Dog Pool Tube
  • Boat Pool Tube
  • Burger Pool Tube
  • Cat Pool Tube
  • Cherry Pool Tube
  • Chicken Pool Tube
  • Coconut Pool Tube
  • Cool Duck Pool Tube
  • Cool Snake Pool Tube
  • Cosmic Pool Tube
  • Crocodile Pool Tube
  • Diamond Pool Tube
  • Dog Pool Tube
  • Dragon Pool Tube
  • Eagle Pool Tube
  • Fish Pool Tube
  • Fox Pool Tube
  • Giraffe Pool Tube
  • Gold Pool Tube
  • Heart Pool Tube
  • Holographic Pool Tube
  • Horse Pool Tube
  • Iridescent Pool Tube
  • Lime Pool Tube
  • Neon Pool Tube
  • Orange Pool Tube
  • Palm Tree Pool Tube
  • Pelican Pool Tube
  • Pig Pool Tube
  • Pinata Pool Tube
  • Pineapple Pool Tube
  • Pizza Pie Pool Tube
  • Pool Pool Tube
  • Popcorn Pool Tube
  • Racecar Pool Tube
  • Rainbow Pool Tube
  • Shark Pool Tube
  • Silver Pool Tube
  • Snake Pool Tube
  • Splash Pool Tube
  • Stingray Pool Tube
  • Strange Pool Tube
  • Swan Pool Tube
  • Toilet Pool Tube
  • Toucan Pool Tube
  • Turtle Pool Tube
  • UFO Pool Tube
  • Unicorn Pool Tube
  • Watermelon Pool Tube
  • White Horse Pool Tube
• Added an option to disable gore
• Added appearance button on quick context UI (when you hold C) in Plaza/Condo
• Improved appearance item unlock feature so you can actually see the item icon instead of the giant shopping cart icon
• Bongo now changes pitch while looking up or down
• Catpack now has scuba gear when you go underwater
• Best Pickup Line achievement now works

• Minigolf: Fixed Garden Hole 17 HIO pipe
• Fixed fishing while on rocks not working all the time
• Fixed a massive invisible block/barrier preventing from placing down fireworks on the boardwalk
• Fixed fish not swimming around properly in Condos
• Fixed flashlight being way too bright
• Fixed floating tree above lazy river
• Fixed a debug brush still existing near the docks
• Fixed pool tubes no longer going into pool tube mode after you jump out of the water (now they re-enable after 5 seconds automatically)

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Check out all our Arcade development blogs:
July 1st, 2019 June 24th, 2019 June 14th, 2019 June 7th, 2019 Arcade Machines and You

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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.