Tower Unite News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for September 30th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since September 23rd, 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.

Gloves continued creating Zombie Animations for the "House of the Zombies" arcade game. He also started working on idle animations for the untitled Wheel Maze game.

wheezwer continued working on art for the "House of the Zombies" cabinet.

madmijk continued working on the gameplay code for "Captain Calypso’s Planetary Piano". He made a system which can play melodies based off of notes, and started writing a program that can convert midis to these notes.

JJosh continued working on new prizes for the Arcade.

Will continued working on music for "Ring God", "Little Birde Feeders", and "Whack-A-Mole" as well as adding debug queues for working on the general ambience.

New Prize for Arcade: Plasma Ball
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

macdguy started finishing up improvements to the scoreboards and UI for Plaza, Game Worlds, and the Condos. Scoreboards have been improved for each game world and now display types of payouts (and eventually more information on each map). In the Plaza, the scoreboard now provides quick links to the appearance editor & collection book, a map of the Plaza with fast travel, Condo server browser, Plaza settings, and news. In Condos, condo settings have been moved from the "C menu" to the scoreboard, as well as a link to Tower Express. The unit counter UI has also been updated and there is a setting to allow players to select various GMT unit counters.

Virus also has new UI in various areas of its gameplay.

You can also now set your condo name while still hosting your condo.

ThisIsntNath started working on little info-graphic brochures for the scoreboard "About" pages to teach players a bit about the map and the Game World.

Virus Scoreboard and UI Improvements WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Minigolf Scoreboard Improvements WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Zombie Massacre Scoreboard and UI Improvements WIP

Condo Scoreboard Improvements WIP

New Unit Counter / GMT Unit Count WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Infographic Brochure for Plaza WIP

Plaza Map Player Location WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

macdguy worked on a fast travel system for the Plaza, using the new Plaza map in the new scoreboard. Players can now locate all of the activities inside of the Plaza, and click on them to quickly teleport.

Plaza Fast Travel WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Lifeless continued working on Acrophobia.

Sketchman continued working on fixing the networking issues regarding Workshop models. He got workshop model loading to work and network properly using the new system. He's also working on fixing up other loose ends like Workshop settings and Gameworld specific features, and factoring out duplicate code for handling the various Gameworld pawns.


That about covers everything that happened since September 23rd, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for September 23rd, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since September 16th, 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.

macdguy worked on gameplay code for "Ring God", the unnamed maze wheel game, and the unnamed wheel spinner game.

Gloves continued working on button press animations for "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano", as well as creating Zombie Animations for the "House of the Zombies" arcade game.

wheezwer worked on art for the "House of the Zombies" cabinet.

madmijk is working on "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano", currently working on the scoring and figuring out multiplayer, including how to divide the scoring between the two players during the new time trial game mode.

JJosh continued working on new plushies for the Arcade, as well as some props for the Shooting Gallery.

"House of the Zombies" Cabinet Art WIP

"House of the Zombies" Zombie Animations WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Shooting Gallery Props WIP

macdguy finished the poker rewrite, and updated the poker HUD so that it's no longer completely full screen.

Updated Poker HUD WIP

macdguy continued working on the plaza map for the new scoreboard that will show players where people are in the plaza, provide information about the area, as well as allowing the player to fast travel to locations.

Scoreboard Plaza Map WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

macdguy worked on a flame effect for the minigolf ball when the ball is hit at full speed, as well as updating the Minigolf HUD and improving the player name font

Minigolf Flame Effects WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Minigolf Updated Font WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Minigolf Updated HUD OLD vs NEW WIP

macdguy improved the Virus infected skin.

Virus Updated Skin WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

macdguy added vomit decals.

Vomit System WIP
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Johanna spent time last week down-scaling the Plaza by 15%. There were several reasons this was done.

1. The plaza will feel a bit less intimidating, and more cozy.
   
2. Distances between objects have been slightly decreased. For example, the lighthouse and roller coaster are the same size as before, but the distance between them is 15% smaller.
   
3. Some areas and doorways around the main plaza are no longer cartoonishly large in comparison to the player. The world no longer feels like a world for giants.
   
4. These changes only affect the plaza. No other part of the game is affected.
   
5. Not all areas of the plaza have been downsized. The main areas have been, but several interiors, such as the theater, laser tag, bowling, and casino, have not.
   
6. The smaller main areas will increase the ratio of players to empty space, making the plaza more fitting for the current number of players.
   

Johanna also started preparing Lobby 3 for the holiday events, setting up the event system to allow for Halloween and Winter props to be spawned, as well as fog and snow.

Lifeless continued working on Acrophobia.

Sketch continued working on fixing the networking issues regarding Workshop models. He also fixed a bug where new players would have their unit count listed as -1, and started setting up the new in-house server browser.

Caboose700 finished working on the in-house server browser (which provides for easier server look up and matchmaking) solution.


That about covers everything that happened since September 16th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for September 16th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since September 9th, 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.

Johanna continued working on the Shooting Gallery for Arcade.

wheezwer worked on cabinet art for the "Destroy" cabinet, and started working on the art for the "House of the Zombies" cabinet.

madmijk continued working on the gameplay code for "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano", along with implementing the animations.

Gloves continued working on animations for "Lonely Gun".

Sketchman continued working on achievement icons for the Arcade.

JJosh continued working on new plushies for the Arcade, as well as some props for the Shooting Gallery.

macdguy worked on improving Ring God gameplay, finishing off Newton's Apples, and reworking the physics pickup system to allow for multiple arcade physics items to be held at once (so you can throw 5 rings at once for Ring God).


"Destroy" Cabinet Art WIP



Arcade Plushies and Shooting Gallery Props WIP



macdguy started work on a 2D map of Lobby 3, which will be used in-game for a fast travel system.
Chris continued working on boats for the boat rental system.

2D Plaza Map



Boat Rental Boats WIP



macdguy spent a little time updating the logos on the Tower Unite Steam store page.

Updated Tower Unite Store Page Logos

macdguy finished refactoring the poker UI system, which will allow for non-poker specific card games (such as blackjack); as well as decoupling the betting system to allow for non-card based betting games. Work on endless Texas Hold'em is now complete.

Lifeless continued working on Acrophobia.

Sketchman continued working on fixing the networking issues regarding workshop models.
Caboose700 continued working on the in-house server browser solution.


That about covers everything that happened since September 9th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for September 9th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since September 3rd, 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.

Johanna continued working on new machines for the Arcade, working on a Maze Spinner game.

wheezwer worked on art for the Shooting Gallery and the "Destroy" arcade cabinet. She also started cleaning up art for "The Offering" cabinet.

madmijk continued working on the gameplay code for "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano", along with implementing the animations.

Gloves continued working on animations for the arcade, this week working on animations for "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano" and "Lonely Gun".

Sketch worked on achievement icons for the Arcade.

JJosh continued working on new plushies for the Arcade.

Arcade Achievement Icons WIP

Untitled Maze Spinner Arcade Machine WIP

Arcade Plushies WIP

macdguy continued working on improvements to the Casino. He worked on optimizing the backend code to make it easier to implement other card games, such as Blackjack and Five-card Draw. Five-card Draw gameplay code has been completed.

Lifeless continued working on Acrophobia.

Sketch continued working on bug fixes and optimizations in several areas of Tower Unite. This week he worked on replacing the networking for how player models get sent, in the ongoing quest to fix the workshop model loading issues.

Lifeless worked on fixes for Emission, smoothing out curves and fixing issues with the bridges.


That about covers everything that happened since September 3rd, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for September 3rd, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since August 26th, 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.

This weekly dev log was released later than normal, as September 2nd was a national holiday (Labor Day).

Johanna continued working on new machines for the Arcade, last week working on a unnamed game in which a coin is inserted, travels down the chute, goes into a funnel, and lands on a revolving wheel which determines your ticket winnings.

wheezwer worked on the Dragon's Treasure art, a backdrop of Salmon Says, and heavily cleaned up and updated the Little Birde Feeders machine art.

madmijk continued working on the gameplay code for "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano".

Gloves continued working on animations for the arcade, this week working on animations for "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano" and "Candy Slam".

Sketch worked on achievement icons for the Arcade.

Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano Endless Mode Gameplay
https://youtu.be/jxe3Pczdca0

Arcade Achievement Icons WIP

Unnamed Coin Drop Arcade Machine WIP

macdguy continued working on improvements to Poker. The improvements to Poker include a new UI, Spectating Support, and the Endless Poker mode. You can now also join and leave the table at anytime. If you join during a game, you get put in waiting for the next hand. And if you leave early, you are considered folded.

The casino multiplayer game base was made more expandable to allow for additional multiplayer casino games such as Blackjack and Roulette.

Although not in any of the media shown, there is also now a separate log of all player actions in poker to refer back to at any point.

New Poker UI / Gameplay WIP
https://youtu.be/3zXLj013fm4

New Poker Spectating System WIP
https://youtu.be/0NSE5q8z1_g

New Poker Spectating Screen WIP
https://youtu.be/h1WbsLV3oWY

Poker Spectating Test
https://youtu.be/AwiHA8gXUIk

Sketch continued working on bug fixes and optimizations in several areas of Tower Unite.

• Added a player mesh manager component to help make model setting code cleaner/more consolidated
  
• Made player mesh manager enforce an ordering to model setting (i.e. last model requested will be set, not the last to finish loading)
  
• Made model switching effect
  

That about covers everything that happened since August 26th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!