Tower Unite News

This update includes the new Zombie Massacre map, Escape! Make your way to safety across 6 different locations as the horde comes after you. This is the first ZM map with alternate locations outside of the boss arena! It also is the first to incorporate sub-objectives.





Arcade physics have gotten some love in this update! The change improves the throwing responsiveness for Avalanche, Milk Jug Toss, Little Birde Feeders, Ring God, The Offering, Ice Cave, and Roll & Race.

Also, Pluck-a-Pal’s capsules have returned to help prevent prizes from getting stuck!

For bowling, thanks to your feedback and our testing, we’ve made even more major fixes to reduce desync issues and improve physics overall. We also did a sound pass and small art improvements to the bowling alley!




We’ve implemented graphics profiles to quickly adjust your game graphics using our recommended graphic defaults. We also made versions of this for Steam Deck and VR.




We have decreased the amount of bandwidth required to load in a new player substantially, which will improve networking with other players while using Condo I/O.


A new store is open in the Plaza! Here you can purchase milestone items (if you have reached the milestone), Game World props, and a few other goodies.





We are filling out our catalog of “That New Condo” Condo previews with help from the TU community! These new previews showcase Courtyard and Resort, along with updated versions of Suite and House.

• New Zombie Massacre map - Escape!
  
• Added new Kalarry's Wares shop
  
• Added graphics profiles for easier quick settings adjustment and for settings to apply recommend graphic profiles (Low, Medium, High, Ultra, Steam Deck, VR)
  
• Revamped settings UI, fixed up the overall look, colors, and placement on various settings, updated setting descriptions
  
• Separated graphics settings into categories for easier organization of graphics settings
  
• Added inventory item list shortcut to your player profile so you can access a list of your inventory items from the main menu
  
• Revamped inventory item list UI
  
• Players who have blocked each other no longer show up on the player list
  
• Enhanced lots of the hats/wearable models

• Seasons: Park Bench, Lattice Trash Bin, Gravelly Trash Bin
  
• Rob's Imports: Postbox (Legged), Postbox (Pillar), Pipe Wrench (Weapon), OEM Computer (Monitor, Tower, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers)
  
• Central Circuit: Electric Stove, Mastobox CRT TV, Trioptitrinix CRT TV, AquaBook, Mel Laptop
  
• Toy Stop: OEM Computer Setup (Libretro)
  
• Fresh: Cooking Utensils, Utensil Rack
  
• Vendy: TU Private Reserve
  
• Tower Threads: Cowboy Hat (Classic), Flower Crown (Classic), Ethereal Flower Crown (Classic), Flower Wristband (Classic), Hula Skirt (Classic)
  
• Oasis: Screamin' Eagle Tube, Dragon Tube (Classic), Flamingo Tube (Classic)
  
• Kalarry's Wares: Turret, Trivia Podium, Old Theater Projector, Spin To Win, Drivable Helicopter, Recharge Station, Bullpup

• Plaza: Added the ability to purchase items directly from store displays
  
• Plaza: Updated Jeff's model (no longer uses fuse models)
  
• Plaza: Horizon Condo videos now load from video files
  
• Plaza: New "That New Condo" videos for Resort and Courtyard
  
• Plaza: Added character visit signs
  
• Plaza - Chainsaw Battle: Added better visual / audio feedback to when the acid pit starts in the death arena, and made acid not instantly kill you
  
• New Plaza & Arcade Tutorials
  
• Arcade: Improved physics throw networking, eliminating the large delay when a throwing object is created. This improves throwing responsiveness for Avalanche, Milk Jug Toss, Little Birde Feeders, Ring God, The Offering, Ice Cave, and Roll & Race
  
• Arcade - Little Birde Feeders: Added improved sound effects for Little Birde Feeders and added sound feedback for when the ball has returned
  
• Arcade - Tornado: Bonus position no longer changes during gameplay
  
• Arcade - Pluck-a-pal: Plushies are now back inside capsules, making them easier to get, but also ensures they can be dropped in the prize section without getting stuck if they are a longer plushy

• Condo - Suite: Redid outer wall, preventing it from clipping inwards and allowing surface editing
  
• Condo - Suite: Alcove sofa can now be edited (color and hiding)
  
• Condo - Suite: Bathtub can now be edited (color and hiding, along with bathtub functionality)
  
• Condo - Suite: Shower curtains are now hideable
  
• Condo - Suite: Adjusted outer boundaries to let you interact and build through them (they still collide with you)
  
• Condo - Suite: You can now hide the rails on the patio
  
• Condo - Suite: Secret room lights now adjust to the light settings
  
• Condo - Suite: You can now hide the beams and ceiling lights in the secret room
  
• Added better fallback material for canvas failure for workshop maps. Reduced brightness of failure for normal condos
  
• Condo - Resort: Alcove Couch and Bathtubs have gotten the same replacements as Suite
  
• Condo - Resort: Replaced residential doors with Map Items
  
• Condo IO: Added "Eject" IO input to all instruments
  
• Condo IO: Added new Screenshake IO item, which will shake player's screen when activated
  
• Condo IO: Added new Day Night Events IO item, which has output events for when the time of day has changed
  
• Condo IO: Added "Toggle" IO input to Particle FX item
  
• Condo IO: Added "Play", "Stop", "Toggle" to Disco Duck item
  
• Improved dynamic lights for all media player items. Now dynamic lights fill the area better, use rectangular shapes, and are more accurate at emitting light

• ZM: Reduced pumpkin head explosion damage
  
• ZM: Reduced health of ghosts
  
• ZM: Reduced gun muzzle flash light amount, made it cast shadow for your own, reduced radius
  
• Accelerate: Improved boosting network desync issues
  
• Accelerate: Added key prompts for drifting and using items
  
• Accelerate: Added camera toggle button (C) which toggles camera positioning (zooms out camera in stages)
  
• Accelerate: Birb Shield shield effect is now blue

• Plaza: Optimized occlusion queries in the plaza by merging objects and props together to reduce the object count that needs to be queried
  
• Plaza: Improved LODs throughout the plaza, and made the plaza less reliant on dithered LODs to reduce triangle counts and overdraw when moving throughout the Plaza
  
• Plaza: Properly set up HLOD system for the electronics store
  
• Plaza: Various render distance optimizations
  
• Condo IO: Massively reduced network overhead with connections, no longer networking various aspects of IO logic to players, only networks to those who are editing IO items now
  
• Condo IO: Reduced CPU cost with persistent connections

• Fixed ping being inaccurately displayed
  
• Fixed Discord rich presence not working
  
• Bowling: Fixed bowling ball teleporting backwards/forwards right before hitting the pins due to network desync
  
• Bowling: Fixed additional networking desyncs
  
• Bowling: Fixed pin hit camera taking too long to display due to networking desync
  
• Plaza: Fixed scoreboard not sorting players by ABC
  
• Plaza: Fixed treasure sometimes spawning underneath the ground
  
• Fixed equip button showing up on non-equippable items in stores sometimes
  
• Plaza: Fixed voice chat muting when going into certain areas (ex. the central plaza to outside)
  
• Plaza: Fixed various level loading doorways not streaming in the Plaza properly when exiting interior places (Casino, Arcade, etc.)
  
• Plaza: Fixed Laser Tag not loading in the Plaza properly after a match ended
  
• Plaza: Fixed media players in party beach houses not rendering videos properly
  
• Bingo: Fixed wearables (glasses, etc.) showing up in your view when in mouse mode
  
• Shooting Galleries: Fixed player scores disappearing at the end of the match immediately, now they persist so you can see how many points everyone had
  
• Boardwalk - Roll & Race: Fixed collision issues where the ball would often times fly through the backboard, or through the glass
  
• Arcade - Planetary Piano: Fixed notes not always being hearable
  
• Arcade - Ring God: Fixed ring detection not always working
  
• Fixed speed shoes not re-enabling after leaving a minigame
  
• Fixed first person leg mesh not being created properly when toggling on/off the first person legs mode and also when first starting, which would cause the VR mirror player model to not function, and your own player model not to show up in mirrors until respawning
  
• Fixed head disappearing after playing an Arcade game while in third person if you have first person legs enabled
  
• Plaza: Fixed collision issue with a bridge in the pool area

• Condo IO: Fixed security camera / media player persistent connections not showing the screen for clients
  
• Condo IO: Fixed Sphere shape volumes not working when you scale the sphere
  
• Condo: Fixed NPC use prompt being too short
  
• Condo: Fixed editing instruments soft-locking players, now it'll boot out the player in the instrument when it is being edited
  
• Condo: Fixed media URL on physical media showing up as red all the time
  
• Condo: Fixed transformer tool not applying canvas scale properly
  
• Condo - Resort: Fixed some exterior light leaking through the floors of the Suites
  
• Condo - Resort: Fixed that door in the Suites hallway that had a gap

• Fixed being able to drop hot bar items into placeable inventory
  
• Fixed being able to drop placeable items into hot bar inventory
  
• Fixed alt-tabbing while having an item editor open causing the mouse to disappear
  
• Fixed not being able to equip a hot bar item if you swap it with another hot bar item while it is equipped to the hot bar
  
• Fixed Condo IO items not being usable/fading out when dragging them into another Condo IO item slot in the inventory

• Fixed dynamic media lights not working properly
  
• Fixed Witchbroom passenger seat being rotated and offset
  
• Fixed Witchbroom HUD not showing passenger mode
  
• Fixed LC Ghost milestone flickering for other players
  
• Fixed LC Ghost milestone not having hats or being able to hold weapons

• Minigolf: Fixed scoreboard not sorting player scores properly
  
• Accelerate: Fixed coin pickup not resetting for clients
  
• Accelerate: Fixed birb shield not showing up for clients
  
• ZM: Fixed gibs not spawning properly when you explode zombies
  
• Virus: Fixed Gold 9MM Virus milestone not saving/loading properly

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! Join Our Discord
We love awesome people like you!

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
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! Weekly Dev Logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: Bug Reports
For suggestions: Submit a Suggestion

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

[h2]February 2025 Art Contest[/h2]



Its time for another TU art contest!

This art contest’s theme is The Arcade

So, make something related to the Warp Zone Arcade, its games, and/or prizes!

Entries are allowed until February 26th, 2025 at 11:59PM CT.

You can check out all the rules and prizes available at the link below:
February 2025 Art Contest - PixelTail Games Forums

[h2]February 2025 Dev Update[/h2]



Today, we released our dev update for February 2025, going over our next update and plans before our 1.0 release.

February 2025 Dev Update

[h2]Upcoming New Items[/h2]

Nuclearxpotato continued working on a bunch of new items, working on an art pass for the Cooking Pots and Pans, as well a some new utensils and utensil racks. He also worked on some new computer items.

[h3]Upcoming New Items: Cooking Items[/h3]



[h3]Upcoming New Items: Computers[/h3]

AquaBook Laptop, OEM Computer (available as a full Libretro setup and individual pieces), Mel Laptop



[h2]Condo[/h2]

Joshua began working on the Condo Pets.

macdguy worked on adding adding Day/Night IO, allowing for events to be fired based off time of day. He also worked on reduce networking with Condo I/O, hopefully enabling more stable condos.

Nuclearxpotato worked on adding customization to certain map features. He also made some changes to the Vending Machine item.

[h3]Condo: Pet Demo WIP[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Condo: Map Feature Customization[/h3]



[h3]Condo: Day/Night IO[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h3]Condo: Vending Machine Item Changes[/h3]

Soda Vending Machine now allows you to select the flavour, it now defaults to a "Random" option.



[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

Johanna continued working on Plaza optimizations.

Lifeless continued working on tutorials for the Plaza, Arcade, and Condo.

macdguy fixed a bunch of bugs with inventory, the Bowling camera, and the Minigolf scoreboard bugs. He also added a milestone/game world prop store to the Plaza. He overhauled the settings menu, adding graphics profiles. Lastly, he worked on alternative cameras for Accelerate.

Sketchman continued working on optimizations and bug fixes.

wheezwer worked on getting things ready for the 1.0 trailer and continued to go through trivia questions to approve them.

[h3]New Settings UI[/h3]



[h3]Milestone / Game World Prop Store[/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

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

[h2]February 2025 Art Contest[/h2]



Its time for another TU art contest!

This art contest’s theme is The Arcade

So, make something related to the Warp Zone Arcade, its games, and/or prizes!

Entries are allowed until February 26th, 2025 at 11:59PM CT.

You can check out all the rules and prizes available at the link below:
February 2025 Art Contest - PixelTail Games Forums

[h2]SDNL Announcer / Bowling Physics Update (0.18.7.0)[/h2]



Last week, we released Update 0.18.7.0 which contained the new SDNL Announcer, Bowling Physics Rework, Accelerate Mirror Mode and Coin Paths, finished Arcade Milestones, Billiards fixes, and more!

In addition, we released a Hotfix to fix some issues that were found with the initial release.

You can find the changelogs at the links below:
SDNL Announcer / Bowling Physics Update (0.18.7.0) Hot Fix 0.18.7.1

[h2]Upcoming New Items[/h2]

Nuclearxpotato continued working on a bunch of new items, last week working on an Eletric stove and TV's from the 80's and 90's.

[h3]Upcoming New Items[/h3]
Electric Stove, Mastobox CRT TV, and Optitinitrix CRT TV.



[h2]Plaza[/h2]

Johanna continued working on optimizations on the Plaza, getting it ready for 1.0. She also started working on decorations for the Easter events.

macdguy worked on a new store that will feature Game World Props.

[h3]Plaza: Easter Decorations[/h3]



[h3]Plaza: Game World Props Store[/h3]



[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

Lifeless continued working on tutorials for 1.0.

macdguy fixed some bugs with Bowling and Billiards. He also finished replacing the NPC models across the plaza, as well as fixing up the "That New Condo" videos, fixing bugs with SDNL and the SDNL SDK.

Sketchman continued working on optimizations and bug fixes.

wheezwer worked on getting things ready for the 1.0 trailer.

[h2]That’s a Wrap![/h2]
Thank you for reading! I (Sabrina) won't be here next week, so no dev log next week, since no one else is capable of doing it ;)

---

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

This update addresses several issues with the latest update.

Changes

• SDNL: "Placement" payouts now work with 2+ players instead of only 4+
  
• Bowling: Adjusted the camera of the ball return to be more interesting
  
• SDNL: Announcer now announces the game title when switching it on the waiting for players menu

Bug Fixes

• Bowling: Fixed pins floating in mid-air or stuck in the ground
  
• Bowling: Fixed pins not always showing up on second round
  
• Bowling: Fixed pins not always freezing or unfreezing at the proper times
  
• Bowling: Fixed bowling store preview not working properly
  
• Bowling: Fixed a crash with bowling when entering / leaving the bowling alley
  
• Accelerate: Fixed drifting issues in Mirror Mode
  
• Accelerate - Hallway Raceway: Fixed incorrect unit coin placement
  
• Workshop SDK: Fixed Ball Race Level Start items not working with delays
  
• SDNL- Lookout: Fixed some objects fading out when they shouldn't (stone work, wooden planks)
  
• SDNL: Fixed announcer using the wrong lines for arcade mode's intro
  
• SDNL: Fixed barrels in Containership/Decommission being offset when being carried

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! Join Our Discord
We love awesome people like you!

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
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! Weekly Dev Logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: Bug Reports
For suggestions: Submit a Suggestion

We're super excited to bring you this packed update, which contains the new SDNL Announcer, Bowling Physics Rework, Accelerate Mirror Mode and Coin Paths, finished Arcade Milestones, Billiards fixes, and more!



It's been over a year since we got the SDNL Announcer lines recorded by voice actor Gianni Matragrano, and we're so excited to finally have them in the game! Testing them has been a blast, and we hope you guys have as much fun with them as we did making the announcer come to life.

The announcer has reactions for tons of different scenarios like:

• Introducing the gametype
  
• Getting a kill
  
• Dying
  
• Environmental Deaths
  
• Getting a special weapon kill
  
• Capture the Flag
  
• And intermission comments

The new announcer breathes a lot of life and joy into SDNL and helps push the TV theme of Slaughter Day Night Live! So hop on in there and get some frags!




We have redone the networking for Bowling from the ground up! Previously Bowling would have slow-mo physics, or pins freezing in mid-air, etc. It wasn't great. With this rework, we have addressed these issues and Bowling's networking is more reliable and the issues have been drastically reduced. This has been a major bug for a long time, and was highly reported in our feedback survey.





We have fixed core networking issues with Billiards, fixing the game getting busted on second play and Billiard balls not scoring properly. Billiards should be now be fully playable in this update, but we still have a few issues to work out with it.




Accelerate Unit Routes are now active and you can collect units while driving into the Unit marked track sections. Collecting Unit coins gives you a Unit bonus at the end of an Accelerate round, but at the cost of potentially losing your placement in the race if you're not quick about it!




We also added Mirror Mode, a game type that mirrors the track, so you can play your favorite tracks in a new way.






We have finished all the Arcade milestone items in this update. There is:

• Pluck-a-Pal crane - a new hookshot-like weapon milestone
  
• Ticket Spewer - a gun that fires a stream of tickets
  
• Shooting Gallery Rifle - a rifle taken from the shooting gallery

Those of you who have already unlocked these milestone weapons will see these items usable immediately.




This update includes a new SDNL map, Lookout! Get a whole new perspective on the verticality-focused Acrophobia map from Zombie Massacre as you fight to the death (and for the ratings) in first person. Watch your footing!



We also took in feedback on Containership and reworked the layout in various ways to help improve gameplay, movement flow, and visibility, with a focus on the central area of the map.





A small batch of new items such as Watermelon, Cheese Wheel, Heavy-Duty Shelf, Milk Crate, and Metal Signs (Traffic, Road Condition, Informational, etc.) have been released.




Changes

• SDNL: Announcer!
  
• Bowling Physics Rework
  
• New SDNL Map: Lookout
  
• SDNL - Containership: Edited the layout of the map for improved gameplay flow
  
• SDNL: Reduced round time from 5 minutes to 3 minutes
  
• Accelerate: Unit coin routes now have coins! These coins give a unit bonus at the end of the race
  
• Accelerate: Added mirror mode
  
• Arcade: Finished Pluck-a-pal Crane Milestone weapon
  
• Arcade: Finished Ticket Gun Milestone weapon
  
• Arcade: Finished Shooting Gallery Milestone weapon (replaces Lonely Gun Bullet)
  
• Condo: Further reduced cooldown on Service Bell item (allowing quicker spamming)
  
• Condo: Item finder now locks inventory open when you first open it by clicking on the button
  
• Condo: Reduced grittiness on Vintage Filing Cabinet, Clawfoot Bathtub (clean), Basic Laundry Machines, and Utility Cabinet items
  
• Updated various store NPC models
  
• Improved look of payout history
  
• Condo: If ceiling fans or industrial fan is force is set to 0, it'll no longer waste CPU cycles

New Items

• Fresh: Cheese Wheel (+ Physics), Watermelon (+ Destructible), Cucumber, Lettuce
  
• Rob's Imports: Milk Crate, Heavy-Duty Shelf, Metal Signs (Traffic, Road Condition, Informational, Blank, Text, Basic)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Game Ports missing matchmaking screens and stores
  
• Fixed Game Ports active server panels not updating properly after optimization
  
• Fixed Return to Plaza / Plaza Quick Join from the Game Ports or Condo Hub not always connecting you to a proper Plaza
  
• Billiards: Resolved issues with every other game breaking
  
• Billiards: Fixed pocket events and scratch events not happening due to network changes
  
• Fixed workshop sound emitters always playing when a player joins if the sound emitter was activated with IO
  
• Arcade - Pluck-a-Pal: Disabled crane collision with the prize glass wall to help with collision issues
  
• SDNL: Fixed killcam not working for dinosaurs in Dino Battle
  
• SDNL: Fixed weapon shadows showing up at all times even if the weapon was holstered
  
• Condo: Fixed dragging bottom HUD staying on after closing the inventory
  
• Fixed Fairy Pet glow being missing
  
• Fixed Plasma Bowling Ball being way too bright, and improved Gold and Fire Bowling Balls lights
  
• Libretro: Fixed keyboard mode not working
  
• Libretro: Fixed cores not always downloading properly
  
• Condo: Fixed crash with typewriter IO input
  
• Condo: Fixed collision on Chrome Trash Can
  
• Condo: Added variants to Glowing Gem item
  
• Condo: Added Neon material to Canvas Materials
  

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! Join Our Discord
We love awesome people like you!

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
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! Weekly Dev Logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: Bug Reports
For suggestions: Submit a Suggestion