Tower Unite News

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s Tower Unite Dev Log!

[h2]Cosmic Catsack Makeship Plushie![/h2]



Bring the cosmos home with the neverending mystery of the Cosmic Catsack! Gaze into the abyss of its eyes and find a friend... or the comfort of space-time!

The campaign will be up for a limited time (10 days left!), so check out the store page to see how it all works and get one for yourself!

These limited time plushies go directly towards supporting our developers!

Check out the Makeship page here!

[h2]Humble Bundle: Madcap Multiplayer Missions[/h2]



Tower Unite is part of the Madcap Multiplayer Missions Humble Bundle supporting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Check it out here!

[h2]Halloween 2024 Condo Contest - NOW VOTING[/h2]



The contest is now closed for submissions! Thanks so much for joining and sharing your awesome creations!

Click here to vote!

[h2]August 2024 Survey Results[/h2]

Thanks to everyone who participated in the August 2024 Interest Survey!

We had 2,403 people answer this time!

We’ll be using these results and the comments made to help us decide where to take the game next!

You can check out the results here.

[h2]The Road to 1.0[/h2]



Last week, we announced our plans going forward on our march towards releasing Tower Unite out of early access!

If you missed it, you can check out the forum thread here!

[h2]Plaza[/h2]

Johanna continued working on optimizations, bug fixes, and art passes of the Plaza, getting it ready for 1.0 release.

[h3]Plaza: Updated Peninsula Fishing Hole WIP[/h3]



[h3]Plaza: Updated Lazy River Hang-out-homes WIP[/h3]



[h3]Plaza: New Casino Entrance WIP[/h3]



[h2]Zombie Massacre: Escape[/h2]

Lifeless continued working on the Zombie Massacre map, Escape.

macdguy implemented level streaming code required for Escape.

[h3]Zombie Massacre: Escape WIP[/h3]

The first image is Day 1, followed by Day 2, Day 3, and Day 5.



[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

macdguy worked on bug fixes in preparation for the 1.0 release. He added proper client prediction to the SDNL Grav Glove, added a "quick bar" to the condo inventory, fixed some quirks with the Mirrors, and more.

Nuclearxpotato continued working on the Minigolf map, Dino Drive.

Sketchman worked on fixing bugs in preparation for the 1.0 release.

Wheezwer worked on art for various projects, managed the condo contest, and wrote up the "Road to 1.0" post.

Will continued working on music for SDNL and the 1.0 release trailer.

[h3]SDNL: Grav Glove Client Prediction[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Condo: Inventory Quick Bar[/h3]
This is a new small bar that has quick options for condo builders such as toggling volume visibility.



[h3]Condo: Mirror Fixes[/h3]
You can finally see your own head in mirrors when first person legs is on.



[h2]That’s a Wrap![/h2]
Thank you for reading and we’ll see you all next week for more!

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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.

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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

If you like our game and want to support development, please consider getting a Supporter Pack:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2792910/Tower_Unite__Supporter_Pack

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/announcements/weekly-dev-logs/65

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

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally at a point where our next goal is a 1.0 release for Tower Unite.

We’ve been itching to tell you guys about this exciting next step for Tower, and we can’t wait to have you all in the mix of making this dream a reality!



Releasing to 1.0 is going to cover a lot of ground that has been long-awaited!

Updates will be focused on getting the game to a more stable and functional position.

There will, of course, be map releases and in-progress content updates coming up, but we mainly want to get the game to a place where we will be proud to call it version 1.0!




We’ve set up a feedback survey to get some insights on the game!

You can fill out the survey to whatever extent you like, and feel free to come back and add to your submission later.



You all have been so great at helping us out this year, and we’re happy to still be around after all this time being carried by you guys.

We’re still struggling financially and trying to stay afloat as best we can without breaking the team apart. If you want to support us financially while we push to get Tower in great shape, we’d be extremely grateful.

Your support is always appreciated. If you aren’t able to support us financially, please try to get the word out about Tower to friends!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2792910/Tower_Unite__Supporter_Pack/

We also have another plush campaign going on with Makeship, if you want to support that!



The 1.0 Release is focused on game stability, performance, and major bug fixes. We will be resolving long-standing issues that have been brought up throughout Tower’s existence.

Now that we have a huge percentage of the content that was intended for Tower Unite, we are ready to leave early access.

We will still be providing further updates on Tower after 1.0. Leaving early access does not mean the game will stop having updates. Tower has always been a passion project and we have plenty of ideas and projects to improve the game. As many know, this game is constantly evolving.



So far, on the Road to 1.0, we’ve been handling major bugs!

We’ve been already planning for 1.0 before this post, taking care of major bugs such as Workshop, Arcade optimizations, Plaza optimizations, Bowling, and other major areas of the game.

In previous updates, we’ve resolved major issues with Billiards, Pluck-A-Pal, Little Crusaders, Condo I/O, and a lot more.

Expect to see more major issues resolved, long-standing issues first, then more general fixes and polish.


During this transition, we’ll be re-organizing our Trello. Many features on Trello have been seemingly dormant publicly, but internally they’ve had progress. However, there’s a few projects that we need to discuss.

For the foreseeable future, we are uncertain that we’ll be able to complete the following:

[h2]Mac Support[/h2]
Discontinued because: the requirements for the platform have changed drastically since we first announced support for this platform. It would be of great cost to us at this time due to hardware and developer costs.

[h2]Linux Client[/h2]
Discontinued because: Linux client is no longer required thanks to Proton. The Proton port has been very stable. We have a developer who uses Linux daily and they play Tower through Proton exclusively. We are suggesting that Linux users use Proton to enjoy Tower.

[h2]Arcade 2D API[/h2]
Discontinued because: Before we added Libretro support, we wanted to have our own Arcade 2D API for players to create games with. We ran into many issues and security concerns during its development. Knowing this, we worked on adding Libretro support to provide the same experience without the security concerns.

The below projects are delayed, but not discontinued.
Many are in different stages of development.

• Game World: Horror Hill - This game world is still in development for a post 1.0 release. We plan to have more announcements on it in the future. We originally conceived a Game World for this that ended up being too large for Tower, so we are in the middle of redesigning it to better fit Tower.
  
• Game World: Planet Panic - This game world has had various amounts of redesign. We have put this one on the backburner based on very low community votes and have prioritized other game worlds and projects. We intend to have a demo post 1.0 release.
  
• Condo: Cooking - Cooking is nearly complete. We have been working on it in the background. We had to change a lot of the crafting code to handle Steam requests better as in the past Steam API’s have been a tad bit unreliable. This will be included in a post 1.0 update.
  
• Condo: Condo Pets - This will be included in a post 1.0 update.
  
• Plaza: Ocean Expansion - We will have more information about this feature post 1.0.
  
• Plaza: Workshop Condo Rental Store - We have the backend code for this completed and we are just waiting on free development time to complete this feature. It’s a feature we added later on in the stages of Condo Hub and less priority than other features.
  
• Plaza: Dueling - Due to concerns with Plaza performance and lower ranking on community polls, dueling has been on the back burner. We have been planning on redesigning our original idea and possibly moving the arena map into SDNL.

We understand that many players are waiting on these features exclusively, and that it is upsetting they aren’t finished yet. We also feel this way. We have been working on getting them moving again and hope to renew them and their designs so they can come out sooner than later.



Among all the development work we’ll be doing, we’re gonna be doing a lot of clean-up and stuff behind the scenes!

We will be updating our store pages, organizing our Trello, creating a more clear and concise roadmap, re-organizing our priorities, taking in feedback, and listening to your comments and helpful feedback on the surveys.



Mac came up with the dream of GMod Tower in 2006 when he was in high school, and it’s been 18 years of work on this passion project. Everyone on the team and who has been on the team in the past has had passion for the game, gaming, or their part in the project.

We just want you guys to know that Tower is supposed to be a dream game. It’s a game we on the team want to play and have wanted to exist. It means a lot to us and is shaped by our experiences and love of gaming in general.

We have always been humbled by how much love and appreciation Tower has gotten and that Tower has found a place in many people’s hearts. Working on Tower for these years has been a dream come true. We’ve all gone through life changing events and formed memories that will last a lifetime thanks to Tower. We are so thankful for a supportive community and for those who have enjoyed Tower and shared with us their memories and happiness.

We just wanted to say thank you again to all of you once again, and for any feedback and support of Tower Unite throughout the years, and we can’t wait to keep working on this project with you all!

We want to discuss the history of Tower’s development in the future, and talk to you guys more informally about it when we have the time.

~ wheezwer

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s Tower Unite Dev Log!

[h2]Cosmic Catsack Makeship Plushie![/h2]



Bring the cosmos home with the neverending mystery of the Cosmic Catsack! Gaze into the abyss of its eyes and find a friend... or the comfort of space-time!

The campaign will be up for a limited time (18 days left!), so check out the store page to see how it all works and get one for yourself!

These limited time plushies go directly towards supporting our developers!

Check out the Makeship page here!

[h2]Humble Bundle: Madcap Multiplayer Missions[/h2]



Tower Unite is part of the Madcap Multiplayer Missions Humble Bundle supporting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Check it out here!

[h2]Halloween 2024 Condo Contest[/h2]



Hey everyone!

It’s time again for the Halloween Condo Contest!

The theme is Halloween, so make a Condo or Game World Map that fits the spooky season! Whether that’s a haunted house full of scares or a festive and cozy Halloween party, as long as it’s in the Halloween spirit, we want to see it!

Note: Your submission can be something made any time, as long as it hasn’t been submitted to a previous contest (or, if it has been submitted, has been significantly updated).

The submission period ends on October 23rd, 2024 at 11:59 PM CT.

Be sure to look at the prizes and follow the rules here.

[h2]Halloween[/h2]



Last week, we released Update 0.18.2.0, which brought with it the 2024 Halloween Events!

You can checkout everything released with that update here!

We also worked on a few patches to fix issues discovered after the initial release, and are working on more to iron out all the bugs.

[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

Johanna continued working on a bunch of fixes and optimizations for the Plaza.

Joshua continued working on one of the new player models.

Lifeless continued working on the Zombie Massacre map, Escape.

macdguy released the Halloween update, and worked on bug fixes for the Halloween update.

Nuclearxpotato continued working on the Minigolf map, Dino Drive.

Sketchman worked on fixing bugs with the Halloween update.

Wheezwer worked on art for various projects.

Will continued working on music for SDNL.

[h3]Minigolf: Dino Drive Iguanodon obstacle[/h3]



[h2]That’s a Wrap![/h2]
Thank you for reading and we’ll see you all next week for more!

---

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.

---

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

If you like our game and want to support development, please consider getting a Supporter Pack:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2792910/Tower_Unite__Supporter_Pack

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/announcements/weekly-dev-logs/65

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

IT’S BEGUN!


https://www.makeship.com/products/cosmic-catsack-plush


Bring the cosmos home with the neverending mystery of the Cosmic Catsack! Gaze into the abyss of its eyes and find a friend... or the comfort of space-time!


The campaign will be up for a limited time (20 days), so check out the store page to see how it all works and get one for yourself! These limited time plushies go directly towards supporting our developers!


We hope you like this plush, and as always, we cannot thank you enough for supporting us and we can't wait to bring you more fun in the future!

Our Halloween events have begun! Enjoy the Halloween festivities and fun as well as some new items that can be found at the Ghoulcery at the center fountain!

We have plans to dish out more Halloween fun in an upcoming update as well!

Ghoul Coins

Earn ghoul coins to exchange for Halloween items! You can earn ghoul coins by playing Plaza minigames or Game Worlds, Prehistoric Remains, as well as in the Arcade and through Fishing!


Prehistoric Remains

Collect Prehistoric Remains and put them in the Cauldron. You can earn various items and some of the new items with the remains!




The Cosmic Catsack Plush Campaign with Makeship has started and will be up for a limited time!🎊 Check out the campaign and order one for yourself here:


https://www.makeship.com/products/cosmic-catsack-plush





Ghoulcery Store

• Batmask
  
• Carnivorous Plant
  
• Spooky Pipe Organ
  
• Cocoadaemon
  
• Exoplanetary Hatcrab
  
• Hatcrab
  
• Flying Broomstick (Witchy)
  
• Flying Eyeball Pet
  
• Following Sigil
  
• Holdable Ragged Torch
  
• Melted Candle Hat
  
• Necronomicon
  
• Necronomicon (Canvas)
  
• Personal Blood Cloud
  
• Personal Storm Cloud
  
• Swarm of Witches
  
• Throwable Rotten Tomato
  
• Toadstool Cap
  
• Trail of Flames
  
• Plush Hatcrab
  
• Plush Exoplanetary Hatcrab
  
• The Galvanizer SR1031
  
• Player Profile Backgrounds
  
• Pumpkin Background
  
• Bone Background
  
• Cat Background
  
• Princess Cat Background
  
• Ghost Background
  
• Orange Background
  
• Purple Background
  
• Halloween 2024 Background
  

Celebrations

• Throwable Tomato
  
• Holdable Ornate Torch
  
• Holdable Candy Bucket

Tower Threads

• The Galvanizer

Songbirds

• Victorian Pipe Organ

Fresh

• Pineapple

New ways to customize yourself have been added - profile backgrounds!

These profile backgrounds decorate your scoreboard profile throughout the game. This Halloween, we have exclusive Halloween only profile backgrounds. We plan to add more non-Halloween profile backgrounds in the future!

To equip your profile backgrounds, go to Appearance > Profile > Scoreboard > Background.




Hot bar had some improvements with a new feature that allows you to toggle weapons and potions. You can toggle holster your weapon by pressing the corresponding key on the hot bar for your equipped weapons, and you can toggle size potion effects on your potions as well!


Pluck-a-Pal was completely redone. The game is now 100% physics driven and the plushies no longer are inside capsules, which brings a more authentic crane game experience. We also fixed many, many bugs with it!




Billiards now has improved physics for pocketing, and lots of fixes!




A new Condo builder feature - one that has been requested many times is now available! Media Volume is a new IO Volume that builders can use to automatically toggle on Mediaplayers when players are within the volume. You can set these volumes up by connecting a Mediaplayer to the Media Volume with the Tower Glove.





In an effort to provide a safer environment for our players, we have added a Mature Only condo filter feature.

By default, condos that have certain words/tags in their title will be tagged as mature. They will be hidden by default.




When enabled, they will have a Mature Tag assigned.



When you go to host your condo, there's a new tag button to enable the Mature Content tag, which appends "18+" to the condo title.

Please be advised, if you host your Condo with mature content without applying the tag, you may be subject to moderation actions. Please use the mature content tags appropriately. Some keywords that will mark your condo as Mature Only are: 18+, NSFW, 21+, Mature. We also have a built-in list of keywords that will automatically mark your Condo, these keywords will be expanded in further updates.






We’ve added the ability to more easily remove objects from groups! This allows you to remove single items from your group without having to break the entire group apart.





Changes

• Start of Halloween 2024!
  
• Added Halloween Player Profile Backgrounds
  
• Arcade: Pluck-a-Pal Redo
  
• Weapon items now can be holstered/unholstered by pressing the hot key they reside in
  
• Size Potions now can be toggled by pressing the hot bar key they reside in
  
• You can now leave equipped vehicles with Leave Drivable key bind (default Left CTRL)
  
• Added sound effects when equipping Size Potions (clientside only)
  
• Added new Media Volume to Condo IO. Connect a media player to this volume and it will automatically turn on the media player for players who are within this volume. Players can individually disable this feature in the settings
  
• Condo: Added new space skybox condo materials
  
• Condo/SDK: Added "Remove From Group" to right click item properties, allowing you to remove individual items from a group
  

Plaza Bug Fixes

• Plaza - Billiards: Fixed various major billiards issues such as: balls not spawning, camera getting stuck in the ground / origin, etc.
  
• Plaza - Billiards: Improved pocketing, the balls now properly fall into pockets instead of floating above them or bouncing back on to the table and disappearing
  
• Plaza: Fixed milestone weapons (such as flamethrower) not doing their shoot effects after respawning in Plaza
  
• Plaza: Fixed Toy Store planes not having a wire holding them up
  
• Pluck-a-Pal: Fixed pluck-a-pal dropping item lagging
  
• Pluck-a-Pal: Crane now has physics to it (sways and swings)
  
• Pluck-a-Pal: Improved physics and friction handling
  
• Pluck-a-Pal: Removed the need for plushies to be inside orbs
  
• Pluck-a-Pal: Rework of networking
  
• Pluck-a-Pal: Fixed game not clearing prizes within the prize area sometimes
  
• Pluck-a-Pal: Fixed prizes dropping into prize area then teleporting back
  
• Pluck-a-Pal: Fixed prizes spawning immediately after prize awarded
  

Game World Bug Fixes

• Little Crusaders: Fixed issues where players would be invisible or not spawn in properly
  
• Little Crusaders: Fixed dragon light not turning off when the dragon was killed
  
• SDNL: Fixed chainsaw not always exploding on impact and spinning mid-air
  
• SDNL: Fixed hatchet not hitting players
  
• Ball Race: Fixed shoulder width player model metadata not always applying
  
• Ball Race: Fixed empty leaderboard UI showing up on custom maps that aren't payout approved
  
• Ball Race SDK: Fixed rails and tube collisions not working on ball race spline item
  
• Accelerate: Fixed various game music issues
  
• Minigolf - Sweet Tooth: Fixed hole cameras for hole 2 and 7
  
• Minigolf - Kingdom: Fixed hole cameras for a few holes
  
• ZM: Fixed pausing in singleplayer breaking game timers
  
• ZM: Fixed camera intros not playing on custom maps
  
• ZM SDK: Fixed spawn IO event spawning the previous zombie type
  

Condo Bug Fixes

• Condo: Fixed several mouse input lock issues with inventory
  
• Condo: Fixed Canvas Flags not re-applying their flag speeds properly
  
• Condo: Fixed having to double click gizmo toggle, reset, and lock scale buttons
  
• Condo IO: Fixed Canvas Button not doing delays properly
  
• Condo IO: Fixed counter not passing activator across properly which would cause %name%, etc. not to work
  

UI Bug Fixes

• Fixed settings description sidebar clearing setting information often when it shouldn't
  
• Fixed bottom left media player volume popup fading out even while you have the Q menu open (it should always stay on while Q is held)
  
• Fixed map fast travel keeping the scoreboard up after traveling (now it will close automatically)
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed various issues with text hats not showing up for yourself
  
• Fixed Steam VR inputs getting grabbed on setting keybinds, causing binding issues for keyboard input

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

If you love our game and want to support its development, please consider getting a Supporter Pack! We'd be so grateful!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2792910/Tower_Unite__Supporter_Pack

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/announcements/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