Tower Unite News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 23rd, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since March 16th, 2020. 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 Update 0.8.9.0 which included an upgraded version of Tower Unite now running on Unreal Engine 4.20, and packed with bug fixes, optimizations, and the new Minigolf map, Island. In addition, we released Hotfix 0.8.9.1 which addressed some minor issues that cropped up.

You can read about what was in Update 0.8.9.0 here, and what was in Hotfix 0.8.9.1 here.


Now that the Engine Migration is release, we're working exclusively on the Arcade as fast as we can, so we can get Arcade - Phase 1 released to you all.

Johanna continued working on Art for the Arcade.

macdguy worked implementing gameplay improvements for "Avalanche" and "Whirl-a-Fish", as well as working on the backend support for the Tickets. He also started making some final touches on various Arcade machines, and creating Ticket prices for the various Arcade Prizes.

Wheezwer continued working on art for "The Day the Corn Stood Still" and "Quick Service", while also creating design art for the Arcade NPCs.

Will worked on music for the Arcade trailer.

[h3]Arcade: Avalanche Improvements[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Arcade: Whirl-a-fish Improvements[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Arcade: Newton's Apples Score Card[/h3]


[h3]Arcade: Quick Service Art[/h3]


JJosh started working on designs for Accelerate Karts.

ThisIsntNath, macdguy, and Will started working on the trailer for Arcade.

Sketchman worked on fixing issues with the Workshop Materials, fixing the Translucent Materials. He also fixed a crash relating to Workshop Models with garbage materials. He worked on stabilizing listen server connections, fixed several client and server crashes, and worked on the achievement icons for Minigolf: Island.


That about covers everything that happened since March 16th, 2020 at PixelTail Games. This log was a bit short as most of the time last week was spent releasing the update and hotfix. See you all next week!

This update addresses several issues that were recently reported.

• Updated map icon and loading background images for Waterhole
  
• Adjusted water and sky brightness in Waterhole to be less dark
  
• Added "playing" category to player list so you can easily find people who are playing games
  
• Added quick voice mute button next to player names in scoreboards
  
• Bowling: When getting a gutter ball, the roll turn ends much quicker now
  
• Added an option to show inventory name titles below item icons
  

• Crash fix: Fixed Turret milestone causing crashes
  
• Crash fix: When viewing player workshop model information from scoreboard
  
• Additional crash fixes
  
• Virus: Fixed subway lighting being broken
  
• Minigolf - Island: Fixed Island Completed achievement not registering
  
• Fixed some issues with swimming
  
• Fixed shamrock Glasses being offset in Minigolf
  
• Fixed pets being visible in first person
  
• Fixed "killed player" UI element in Chainsaw Battle not displaying the player who was killed
  
• Fixed Minigolf - Island not having an "introduced in" label
  
• Fixed some map select icons displaying blurry
  
• Fixed workshop editor not loading your own uploads
  
• Improved workshop items that use translucency
  
• Fixed shift+1 and shift+2 not selecting hot bar items 1 and 2
  
• Fixed Plaza scoreboard not sorting players by their name
  
• Fixed The Stray not having animation
  
• Fixed Typing Derby not giving units properly
  
• Fixed condo permission for allowing edibles not working properly
  
• Fixed condo permission for allowing laser pointer not working properly
  
• Fixed condo permission for allowing potions not working properly
  
• Fixed jetpack/wing items showing up in "Other" hotbar category
  
• Fixed walking animations being too slow
  
• Fixed workshop animation bug with speed shoes and crouching not ending properly
  
• Fixed hot bar item inventory not displaying every item if you have a lot of items
  
• Fixed Minigolf - Island: Hole 14 having a weird OOB collision issue
  
• Fixed dolphin jumping out of water being really laggy
  
• Fixed morph items (including dolphin) being wrongly scaled by potions, causing issues with their movement
  
• Fixed an issue with slot machines being stuck
  
• Fixed bowling customize NPC not having dialogue due to engine migration
  
• Fixed kick/ban prompts in condo drawing under the player profile UI
  

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

We're also active on Twitter! https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

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! http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/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

With this update, Tower Unite has upgraded from Unreal Engine 4.18 to 4.20. There were a bunch of optimizations, improvements, and fixes included in this update, which we can take advantage of for Tower Unite. The biggest improvements come from how Unreal Engine handles networking, enabling us to once again have 64 players in the Plaza with minimal lag, and making experiences in Game Worlds much better.

In addition, there were several graphical optimizations made, not only through the engine upgrade, but on our end as well, and during our public beta test, we received many reports from players of FPS increases.

This update just scratches the surface of the improvements from the Engine Upgrade. There’s many more new features and optimizations ready to be used in Unreal Engine to help make Tower Unite run even better, and throughout the next several updates, we hope to take advantage of them.


Due to lots of optimizations done and improvements to net code, we now can have 64 players in Plaza servers! We'll be rolling out new servers with better hardware across the globe that support this new player count.




In this update, we've made several changes to the player tags. Player tags can now be seen at a larger distance so you can locate players easily in the Plaza. Your friends' player tags have their own unique color as well!

Chat messages now display above player's name tags, a much desired feature.

There's plenty of settings to adjust as well, such as changing what colors your friends will display and adjusting name tag display.





Changes

• New Minigolf map: Island
  
• Upgraded Unreal engine from 4.18 to 4.20, with lots of fixes!
  
• Tons of optimizations, netcode improvements across the board. See optimizations list below.
  
• Minigolf: Waterhole lighting and artwork improved
  
• New player name tags for Plaza (easier to find players with these). You can toggle them off in the settings
  
• New text chat & AFK symbols
  
• Swimming movement was improved, players are no longer buoyant always (when submerged the buoyancy effects are removed)
  
• Minigolf: Added a new UI during customization state (before the first hole starts) that shows which players are currently customizing and which are done customizing
  
• Condo inventory improvements: Items can now be aligned onto objects in a more deterministic fashion. Before, the item previews would jitter and change orientation when dragging across differently oriented surfaces. Now, the item orientation is determined from the surface angle directly, so no more sporadic/slight differences in orientation when you drag an item across different surfaces
  
• Camera item now properly hides HUD elements and player name tags completely when equipped. Also the flash only happens for other players, not the player who is taking the shot (which prevents the flash from getting in the screenshot)
  
• Added achievements for Knightsend-by-sea
  
• Added new items for Valentine's Day to Celebrations and appearance (these were delayed due to the engine update, sorry)
  
• Added items for St. Patrick's Day to Celebrations and appearance (enjoy the discounts!)
  
• UI: Gameplay settings were split up into tabs for easier discovery
  
• UI: Updated hot bar look by adding icons for each category (also added vehicle tab)
  
• Graphics settings now automatically apply (if there's pending changes) when the pause menu is closed (or by escape key)
  
• UI: Added the ability to change color of use key prompts
  
• UI: New text hat style (with option to revert to old text hat)
  
• UI: Weapon reload circle is now displayed as a ring instead of a full circle (so it doesn't block vision as much)
  

Bug Fixes

• Improved Minigolf, Ball Race, and Bowling physics
  
• Condo: Fixed canvas surface crash
  
• Condo: Fixed canvas surface colors not saving properly
  
• Condo: Fixed canvas surface tiling not saving properly
  
• Laser Tag: Fixed a bug where sometimes players could enter the Laser Tag arena even if they aren't playing Laser Tag
  
• Fixed soft lock when pressing escape while having the chat open
  
• Fixed an issue where chat would remain open when entering a piano (with high ping)
  
• Fixed an issue where the flying dragon pet would roar while using a piano
  
• Fixed various typos
  
• Bowling: Adjusting spin no longer increases faster if you have a higher framerate
  
• Bowling: Recoded Bowling player animation system to resolve issues with workshop models being respawned, player colors not being set properly, and player hats floating on the lanes or in the seats, and various other major bugs. Recode also fixes name tags and stutters when a player goes to roll
  
• Bowling: Improved Bowling physics/netcode
  
• Condo: Fixed door in Theater condo
  
• Minigolf: Fixed Kingdom Mastered achievement being an incorrect par value
  
• Minigolf: Reduced delays in network related events which improve delays when hitting the ball and pocketing the ball
  
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Hole 11 curved section after the first cannon is now done with splines, which fixes major issues with the hole
  
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Hole 2 rocks now have collision
  
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Hole 8 cannon now has collision
  
• Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Hole 13 HIO is more reliable
  
• Minigolf: Fixed players who late join a game during customization not able to see customization menu or the overview camera
  
• Virus: You can now see when other players are charging the Plasma Auto Rifle
  
• Fixed key UI prompts visually colliding with chat. Now when chat is opened, all key prompts are hidden
  
• Improved collision reliability on throwable weapons in Plaza
  

Optimizations

• Many network optimizations - improved network stability across the board
  
• Plaza: Optimized toy store pet/planes
  
• Plaza: Optimized game screens
  
• Plaza: Optimized seats
  
• Plaza: Optimized ferris wheel
  
• Plaza: Optimized expensive character ticks and player rotations
  
• Plaza: Optimized flashlights
  
• Plaza: Optimized theater media player
  
• Plaza: Optimized animal life (dolphins, whales, birds, etc.)
  
• Plaza: Optimized store NPCs
  
• Plaza: Optimized exterior Plaza signage (bowling ball that rotates)
  
• Plaza: Optimized event teleporters
  
• Plaza: Optimized plaza fountains
  
• Plaza: Optimized many particle effects
  
• Plaza: Optimized moving meshes such as the fishing store wheel and boats
  
• Plaza: Optimized firework particles
  
• Plaza: Optimized slot machines
  
• Plaza: Optimized various UI elements for Plaza
  
• Plaza: Optimized weapons
  
• Plaza: Optimized wearables
  
• Optimized wearable display logic
  

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

We're also active on Twitter! https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

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! http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/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

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 16th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since March 9th, 2020. 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.


We are in the final stages of getting this update ready for the general public. Last week was spent mainly figuring out some small networking issues. We're hoping to get this update out sometime this week or next week. We are working hard to get Phase 1 of Arcade released shortly after.

Johanna worked on creating Pizza and Ice Cream shops inside of the arcade.

JJosh worked on several arcade items, such as the Vacuum Robot and a Pug Plush.

macdguy worked on various aspects of the arcade gameplay. He created new HUD elements for "How to Play", token costs, and tickets in hand. Work was also done on better ticket handling and a bonus system for games that have bonus modes.

wheezwer worked on creating logos for both the Pizza and Ice Cream shops and worked on dialogue and designs for the Arcade NPCs.

Will worked on getting sounds figured out for "Pluck-a-pal" and "Wheel of fire".

[h3]Arcade: Pizza and Ice Cream Shops WIP (characters are not finished)[/h3]


[h3]Arcade Overview with Pizza and Ice Cream Shops WIP[/h3]


[h3]Arcade HUD Improvements WIP[/h3]


[h3]Arcade Items WIP[/h3]


Madmijk worked on some improvements for condo editing. Items can now be aligned onto objects in a more deterministic fashion. Before, the item previews would jitter and change orientation when dragging across differently oriented surfaces. Now, the item orientation is determined from the surface angle directly, so no more sporadic/slight differences in orientation when you drag an item across different surfaces.

[h3]Condo Editing Improvements[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Sketch and macdguy continued working on the Unreal Engine 4.20 upgrade.


That about covers everything that happened since March 9th, 2020 at PixelTail Games.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 9th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since March 2nd, 2020. 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 our first public beta test of Tower Unite running on Unreal Engine 4.20! These beta tests allow us to catch bugs that we might have not have caught by ourselves in testing, to help make actual releases less buggy. If you want to read more about this and how to get involved, please check out our forum post here!


Continuing on from last week, we were unable to find an absolute fix for the Skeletal Mesh Artificating issue in a reasonable amount of time, so we've settled on using the workaround fix for now until we come up with a better solution. If you've participated in our Public Beta Tests, you will see this workaround in action.

We're continuing to wrap up some bugs that were introduced with the migration. During the creation of this Dev Log, an issue with how the dedicated servers talk to Valve was resolved, and right now we're working on fixing some issues with the Game Coordinator that runs Bowling and Poker. Once these issues are resolved, and no major other issues crop up, we're hoping to get the update out very quickly.

We'd like to thank everyone for sticking with us during this period. We want to get this out as soon as we possibly can just as much as you guys want to be able to take advantage of these improvements and optimizations, so we can get finally get the Arcade - Phase 1 released to you guys.

Johanna worked on decorating the Arcade, as well as creating a Pizza and Ice Cream shop.

macdguy worked on some changes and fixes to various Arcade games, as well as working on some Arcade items.

Sketchman created some achievement icons for Arcade in-between waiting for things to compile.

Wheezwer worked on creating ticket icons to go onto score charts for each machine, while also creating some score charts for machines that didn't already have them. She also created logos for the Ice Cream and Pizza stores.

[h3]Ice Cream Store Logo WIP[/h3]


[h3]Arcade Machine Score Charts WIP[/h3]


[h2]Arcade - Future Attraction[/h2]
We also wanted to take this opportunity to show off an Arcade attraction that will be appearing in the final phases of the Arcade. This attraction is yet to be given an official name, but in essence this attraction is a rail-based shooting gallery, taking a cart of players through various levels to defeat random enemies that pop out of the environment. This attraction was planned from the very beginning of development, originally being conceived as a boardwalk attraction, until being given a home in the Arcade.

The Weapon Model we showed off in the February 24th, 2020 Weekly Dev Log will be used in this future attraction as the primary weapon.

[h3]Rail-Based Arcade Attraction WIP[/h3]


JJosh continued working on items for Cooking, this week tackling meats, corn, and ice cream.

[h3]Cooking Items WIP[/h3]


ThisIsntNath created the Monthly Dev Breakdown for February 2020.

[h3]Monthly Dev Breakdown for February 2020[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Sketchman and macdguy continued working on the Unreal Engine 4.20 upgrade.


That about covers everything that happened since March 2nd, 2020 at PixelTail Games.