The Coin Game News

Hey Islandvillers!

First off, I want to say thank you and welcome to all the new Islandvillers that have joined us this year. Without all of you NONE of this would be possible. So THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. Your support allows me to do this full time and I am very grateful. I am also very excited for the new year coming.... as I really feel that 2024 is going to be the best year yet for The Coin Game. For now lets get to the new update.

This update is a little thing I have been working on in the background for a few months along side of the regular stuff I have been working on (Mall, Optimizing and Multiplayer.. etc). I have always wanted to add some kind of water attraction to the island and I finally got it done enough to share with all of you.



WATERPARK:

New Lenny's Water Wonderland Waterpark. It's all new and located near the Beach on the East side of the island. The new waterpark is complete with Waterslides, Wave pools, Dunk Tanks and of course a lazy river to just relax at the end of a hard arcade bender. It is open 24 hours a day... Seven days a week and the best part is that it is FREE to all Islandville residents (yes that's you).



To ride the Lazy River just head into the entrance and click on the single yellow innertube that is at the edge of the Lazy River under the awning. You will be loaded automagically. You can rotate the tube by paddling with your hands left and right. Nice and lazy... Just like its supposed to be. Let the waterfalls splash off your forehead as you plan your next payday at the pawn shop. You will auto exit at about the same location after completing a full "lap". Its actually very relaxing. haha.



To ride the two waterslides just walk to the top of the stairs and you will see 4 tubes at the top. Two on the right and two on the left. Click on one of them to choose right or left side. Single or double tube. Single tube is just you alone on a tube and double is when you go plummeting with a bot friend in a two seat tube.





You can exit any "ride" at the waterpark by hitting the E Key (Or exit button with a controller).

Here's Lenny the Mascot.



The Wave pool has a simple physics system on it that will "surf" you up to the beach if you are in the waves "pocket". It is still a WIP and will change to be a little more advanced in the future. Currently the floating bots are animated but I really want to be able to interact more with them in the future but for now I wanted them in the mix bobbing around. They look pretty happy to me.



You will notice that there is a Dunk Tank at the front of Lenny's Waterpark. Barrys is currently collecting a donation for the kids. Its 3 bucks a shot to try to dunk him in a pool of Mineral Oil. (water will make him rust). If you dunk him... his helper will get you a "nice" prize for participating. So it could pay off or it couldnt. You never know with my man Barry. But its for the kids. Right?





CINEMA:

The mall theater is complete and ready to watch movies from your hard drive. You can also purchase food goodies from the concession stand located in the Islandville Cinema.



Loyd and Evan are great employees at the cinema and always keep the place looking sharp.





TO watch a movie from your hard drive. Place an .Mp4 video in your Documents\devotid\TCG_Videos folder. For now it will only play the first video in the folder. In the future you can watch back to back movies but for now one is the limit at a time. You may need to create the "TCG_Videos" folder if you have not already. Once the file is in place... you can just purchase one "indie film" spot from the theater kiosk and the countdown on the wall next to the pricing will start. Take your seat and the movie will start automatically.



To choose a seat just stand in front of it and click on it. Hit the Exit button (E Key) to stand up. Its pretty simple.



I am still making a short film for the "Feature Film" at the theater but it is not done yet. Turns out to be a 1000x harder than I thought to make a small short movie. I will add it to a future update. It will work about the same as the Indie films.

Note: The "fastest" output size for the Mp4 Videos is around 800x480 (Windows phone size) I did some HD ones... but it wasnt really needed in that high of resolution. I use the old Windows Movie Maker to convert old videos to Mp4 format.


NEW COIN DROP GAME at Jerrys in the Mall food court:



I just had to add one of theses... so I talked Jerry into getting a Coin Drop game. It was pretty tough to get it right with a lower frame rate of the mall. It took some grinding on optimizing of the mall to get it to work. I think I spent about 2 full weeks on just the "feel" of the game. Its such a simple thing in real life but can be so challenging to model in a game and make it feel right. I am glad I did it though as the game is really fun.

The idea of the drop game is to make the coin land on the lowest platform of the spinner and BOOM. One free Gourmat Tuna Sammich from Jerry (a $7.50 value). Limit of 3 per day. After you win 4 sammys, Jerry will make up some fake story about the thing being "dirty" and needed to be cleaned... but we all know thats just code for "you're winning too much kid". He will eventually turn it back on because its good for business.


That's about it for the update stuff. I will have more news after the new year.


KNOWN ISSUES:
- Clicking on the innertubes at the top of the waterslides can be tricky. Make sure to move the floating cursor off the tubes when choosing between the two options. Sometimes a click on the Blue double tubes will register as a click on the single Yellow tube.
- Swimming in the new Wave pool is not complete and WIP. I have a good plan for it but it will take more time. ;)
- There is no pallets next to the dumpster at the waterpark. I simply forgot them. So its almost impossible to jump in right now. So for now... its "Bring your own step" to the dumpster party for all the scavengers.

BUG FIXES:
- Updated all the maps with new locations around Islandville.
- fixed a small visual bug in the carnival Lilly pad water game and Pluck A Duck games.
- Made flashlight 2x the power draw. Now runs out of batteries faster.
- Fixed the spawning of wrong prizes and sides of UFO Claw machine at the Mall Arcade.
- Adjusted Culling Distance on Mall stores
- Took the flashing Lights out of the Pumpkin Pusher at Arcade Castle. They were a little too intense and had some users concerned about seizures. We need to be safe! Thanks to users for helping me with the friendly warning. :)
- Added a nudging tool to the Pumpkin Pusher Orange Balls on the winner ramps. They were getting stuck pretty bad.
- Christmas is on at the Mall and Jerrys Gas and Go. Go see Santa Bot!
- Added Popcorn Bucket for 5.00 bucks at the theater. (+10 Health and +25 Energy)
- Fixed the leaderboards on larger High Res monitors.
- Fixed the zombie Hands walking bug that would happen after using the Pause/ESC Menu button when in the golf cart.
- Removed the pinball machine from One Eyed Billies for performance reasons. You can still play it in the Islandville Market store.
- Movies at the Cinema are indie only for now. The fun short film I am working on is not completed yet but I wanted to test the system out before then. The current system will only play the "first" movie in the TCG_Videos folder. So name it accordingly, as the system will grab them alphabetically.
- Only supports 10 video "spots" total in the TCG_Videos Folder. WIP
- Only plays one video for now. The first one in the folder.
- Fixed Garys Water dish and the fish food level GUI bleeding through everything.
- Nerfed the return Pawn $ value of four food items from Jerrys. Apparently Berry has been buying back the food items that Jerrys is selling for 100% value. Dont know how Barry stayed in business for so long. What a man of the community though. Huh?
- 6 Pack of batteries is now $0.50 at the pawn shop.
- Gourmet Tuna Sandwich is now $0.50 at the pawn shop.
- Jerrys Jerky is now $0.50 at the pawn shop.
- Local Milk is now $0.50 at the pawn shop.



Thank you again for the support and dont forget to leave us a good review if you like the game. It makes a big difference for an indie dev.

Kevin

I am very excited to post pics of the upcoming Mall Cinema that is coming next to The Coin Game. It will be on the end of the Islandville mall in the NEXT update. I had to "massage" the lighting in the mall quite a bit to get the theater to run smoothly during the playing of movies. AGAIN... the Cinema will be available in the next update to The Coin Game.



I am currently finishing up a "feature film" starring Popcorn Pete and a bunch of the Islandville characters that you can watch for about $5.50. It has been fun making it and challenging myself to do something that I have never even tried before. There is just so much in "film making" that I have been getting a little lost in it. haha. I still have a bit to go with audio and other little things like silly rolling credits at the end and a couple funny commercials for the concession stand. I may even make an AMA from Gary about the dangers of tanning beds.



When complete, the movie theater will also have the ability to watch .mp4 movies from your local hard drive. Maybe you have a movie you always wanted to watch at the theater... now you will be able too!



All of the 80 seats spots will be available to sit anywhere you like... unless it is occupied by a bot or their family. Then you will have to pick another one. Hopefully a bot doesnt come and sit in front of you and talk the whole time.... well I guess you can move to a new spot. But how rude huh? You might even see Gary and Nanny Bot there. They have been known to sneak away and catch a matinee every now and then.



I have been working on making the island feel more alive and having other bots in the theater causing small interruptions will def add to the movie going experience.




and a couple extra future location teaser pics:

- A new huge waterpark complete with waterslides, a lazy river and a wave pool full of bots to dunk.




and last....Yes. I am still working on Multiplayer. haha.

As always a HUGE THANK YOU to all of The Coin Game supporters, players and streamers out there sharing the game with the world. I am forever grateful.

See you all soon.

Kevin

May 20th 2023

Update #027
Version: V0.9988
Build# 11280585

I am happy to share that I have finished the public release of the new Islandville Mall update along with a bunch of other goodies. The rest of the mall will come in a couple phases. This first phase will include everything in the current beta (minus the Santa stage and the snow!) with the addition of some new games at the new Arcade Castle arcade, new bank account system, programmable bots to hire, goofy machines and a ZolBot fortune teller treasure hunt. The second phase of the mall update will be the movie theater and a couple more surprises.



This first stage of this Islandville Mall includes the new Arcade Castle, a food court with four eatery locations, Spunkies Prize Store, a shady public restroom hangout area complete with lotto scratchers and smooth public radio pumping 24/7 throughout the air waves. The movie theater and a couple more stores will come later in development.



The new arcade is called "Arcade Castle". It is complete with many of Islandvilles most popular games and a few new ones. Just like the other arcades on the island, there is a free money machine for Birthday mode and plenty of great prizes to win. As always the arcade is packed with little tykes going bonkers. I hope you enjoy.





The Arcade is themed after a local mall arcade I went to as a youngster. It went out of business many years ago but I hope this will let it live on for all of us to enjoy.



The new arcade also features a fun ZolBot fortune teller machine. If you are skilled enough to get the coin in ol'ZolBot's mouth, he will drop you a collector card. Once you collect all four color cards you can see the entire map in your tree house by placing them on the map. You may be able to find some goodies if you can read the map and locate some loot boxes. There is now a light always on in the tree house. That way you can see and dont get scared out in the woods. ;)








[h2]New machines at Arcade Castle:[/h2]
"Pumpkin Pusher" marble coin pusher:



The newest coin pusher at Arcade Castle in the mall is a marble style of "coin pusher". It has two different sizes of marbles. The smaller white "Ghost" balls and orange "Pumpkin" scoring balls.

The idea of the game is to drop the white marbles through the pins on the gameboard into the 7 different traps. As each white marble is dropped through the traps you will see the lights illuminate and count above them. Once you illuminate all of the lights on one side or the other, you will enter "Pumpkin Party" Mode. The right side of the gameboard offers free tickets and the left side of the board offers more free ghost balls dropped onto the pusher table.



If you are so lucky as to be in the Pumpkin Party mode (30 Seconds) you will score even more free ghost balls or even more free tickets (Depending on which side of the lights activated the Pumpkin Party). But the best part of the Pumpkin Party mode is that when you drop the Orange Pumpkin balls off the edge (These are won by hitting the orange middle trap on the gameboard) you have a chance to win the large Jackpots on the right side bonus wheel. Once the Pumpkin Party timer runs out you can no longer win the Jackpots with the right side spinning wheel and must re-light all the center gameboard traps again to enter the bonus mode. You can still score big tickets with the orange balls on the right side spinner during non Pumpkin Party time but you can ONLY win the jackpot during Pumpkin Party time. So be sure to save some ghost balls to drop during the bonus round that will push the orange balls over during the Pumpkin Party bonus.

Whew! that was a mouth full and sounds confusing. haha. I think its just easier to play and learn as you WIN BIG!




[h2]UFO Catcher New style Claw Machine[/h2]



Up next is a machine that has been requested by the community for a while now and I am glad to finally get it completed. It may need a little tweaking, but its pretty realistic the way that it is.

The UFO catchers are a new updated "modern" style of claw machine. The object is to "simply" knock the item off of the platform and it is yours to keep. Sounds easy right? Its not.

Insert your card and use the standard game controls to move the UFO crane around and once you have it in the desired position simply click the interact button to drop the UFO claw. If the item is grabbed and knocked off the platform you win. Upon winning, the machine will automagically drop a new item in a new location for you to try to win another one.

One of the new UFO Catcher machines features Kyle the cow plush and the other machine has a nice large amount of tickets to win in a plastic case. It makes it pretty hard to grab and can be very challenging. I wish you luck.

Other features of the new mall.

[h2]Sit and relax in the Food Court:[/h2]



Grab a hot pie at Pirate Pizza:


Sip an ice cold lemon yellow drink from Lemonista


Islandtime Sweets Company is here for that sweet tooth. Good for energy. Not so good for health.


Jerry Gourmet Sammies are expensive but filling



[h2]Spunkies Prizes:[/h2]



A cool hip store that takes cash for prizes instead of tickets. Hey not everyone is good at games and can earn enough for that one prize they covet. This way you can simply use cash to get prizes instead of grinding on the ticket hustle.



[h2]Coin funnel wishing well:[/h2]
Help aging bots get the rust prevention they need by donating to the Cash Funnel. Insert your card and waste a little hard earned money. But just know that a bot somewhere is getting the help and care their old bearings need. Its for the bots. Seriously. Donate. Today. For the bots.



[h2]Public Restroom Hangout area:[/h2]
You know what to do. Grabs granny purse and hit the scratchers in secret. She will thank you when you hit the big one.






[h2]New Islandville Credit Union Banking system:[/h2]



I built a new banking system for some "bigger" and "different" purchases that are coming to Survivor mode. ;) The bank is called Islandville Credit Union and is conveniently located all over the island with walk up ATMs. This is a different money account from the Players Club Card/Wallet that you currently have on you. This is now another separate way to pay for things that dont accept the players card. I will explain below.

This new bank account will be used to pay programmable worker bots for "services" and for making "larger purchases" that are coming at a later date. The first two worker bots are old school "Uncle Phil era" programmable bots. The first two characters names are Stinky Jimmy and Scoop the news bot. They are old V1 versions and do not accept your fancy "Players Club Cards". You see, these bots were built in a time when the Players Club Cards didnt exist in Islandville yet. Uncle Phil was still building the early framework and had not nailed down a payment system for all these new modern ticket arcade machines. He eventually decided on the Players Club Card for most things as that was what all the "cool arcades" were using. So going forward in Survivor Mode you will need both payment systems for different reasons.



To deposit money into your savings account simply insert your card into one of the ATM machines around the island and choose how much to deposit or withdrawal. Its pretty simple. You can see the account balance on the game screen (Little Locked Chest looking Gray Icon) and also on your watch menu. Being the classy Uncle that Phil is he started you out with $10 smackeroos in there to save towards programming bots or to withdrawal and waste on games. its your call. For now the ATMs are located next to the Islandville Market, in front of the UFO Arcade and inside the new Islandville Mall.

TLDR: I am using the programmable bots as a way to introduce the new bank account system. The bank account will be used to purchase other items and features in the future.


[h2]Programmable Bots:[/h2]



Programmable bots are something that Uncle Phil thought you could use to make the survival day a little easier. Who wouldnt want a bot friend that will work for peanuts? Now there are a couple bots around the island that do just that. They will have a small yellow button on their lower backs. When you approach a programmable bot they will stop moving like normal and then you can click on them to grab them and throw them around... if that is your thing. But if you click the button again you will notice the mouse cursor change from the grab to the interact cursor. Their outer case open up and a numerical keyboard will pop up on screen. If you have enough money in your savings account you can then input 4 digit codes to program these old school bots. For now each bot only has one program to run but more jobs and functions will come later in development.

[h2]Stinky Jimmy:[/h2]


Stinky Jimmy is a Islandville OG. He landed day one on the maiden voyage with Uncle Phil, Gary and One Eyed Billy. Duder was born with a shovel in his hand. He is not afraid of hard work and it shows on his rough and dented composite laminated shell. Dont let the flies around him fool ya... he is never stagnant. Catch him behind the Islandville Market in his "office". He is ready to be programmed to work. Currently Stinky Jimmy is available to program/hire for a "Dumpster Junking route". This entails Mr Jimmy checking all the local dumpsters around town in one route. He will return the found items behind his office dumpster for you when he has collected them all. Remember Jimmy is old school and only accepts bank transfers... so you must have the fee he is asking in your Islandville Credit Union Account or the 4 digit program will fail. Since Jimmy is an absolute junking pro, he gets deep into the boxes and bags hidden in the corners and finds the good loot you didnt know was there. That means he leaves plenty of dumpster items untouched for you the player to find later when you need them most. So go say hi to Jimmy today and put him to work! Uncle Phil's orders.

[h2]Scoop the news bot:[/h2]


Scoop is another early version bot that Uncle Phil built shortly after arriving on the island. He is a young whippersnapper with go get em attitude just like Uncle Phil was in his youth. Ready to earn an honest dollar by rolling up his scout uniform and get things completed. He is found by the news stand. His only job so far is to complete one route of delivering papers. He will pay you all the money and rubber bands that you would normally get by doing it yourself when completed. He is so honest he doesnt even skim off the top. You can find his Scout Troop sponsored flyer with codes and prices displayed for programming on the News stand wall by the delivery van.



You can identify the current running program by the small LED on the backs of the programmable bots. below are the colors of identification. The programmable bots will also have their corresponding work hats on when on a task or being hired. When they are available for hire they will not have a hat on.

Stinky Jimmy:
Default Idle = LED GREEN No hat
Programming Mode = LED YELLOW
Junking route = LED BLUE Flashing with his cowboy hat on

Scoop news bot:
Default Idle = LED GREEN with his favorite trucker hat on
Programming Mode = LED YELLOW
Newspaper Delivery = LED ORANGE Flashing with his news hat and newspaper bag on.



[h2]Summary of updates and optimizations:[/h2]
- Optimized the newspaper delivery system to be zone based and not always on. This will save some load.
- Optimized the Pizza delivery system mesh with a LOD system.
- Changed the update frequency on the Mini Map camera mover.
- Updated the Mini Map with "Mall" Location. The Limo/warehouse Fork Truck Area now go to the Mall entrance.
- Removed the money blower from the mall in survivor mode. Oops.
- Added more gas in the golf cart to start with. Now start with 25% instead of 11%
- Added a little cash to the birthday mode. You know start with $300. Uncle Phil's orders.
- increased Volume distance on the Karts Racing.
- Golf cart is a little slower top speed.
- Golf cart gets a little better gas mileage now.
- Changed Cart audio wind noise.
- Added a light in the tree house
- added a interactive map of hidden loot boxes in the tree house that is unlocked with Zolbot Cards.
- Added Mall with arcade, food court and prize stores.
- Wishing well funnel for the aging bots.
- New Pumpkin Pusher Machine
- New Crane game UFO Catcher
- ZolBot Fortune Teller
- Programmable bots
- Bank Account system
- Many more things to come in the mall. ;)

Thank you very much for supporting The Coin Game. I would not be able to make the game I that I love without you all and trust me... we still have plenty to build together. ;)

Kevin

Hello fellow Islandvillers! Tis the Season!

[h2]I have a small last minute Christmas gift for you all![/h2]

I have uploaded a "Beta Preview" for the Holiday Season. The Beta password is christmasbeta. I thought I would do this to show you all some progress of the next location in The Coin Game. I have been very quiet building and changing a lot of things for the next major update.... but I wanted to take a minute and put out a small BETA preview to show the new location with a little Christmas flare to it. As with any beta there may be bugs and it is not optimized in any way yet. This is just a small unfinished "peek" for the holidays.

We all remember the "local mall" when we were young. Window shopping, crowded stores, Christmas music everywhere and of course getting your pic taken with Santa. If you grew up in the old days like me before cell phones and online shopping you would know that people actually went out to the mall just to hang out. No destination in mind except being seen and socializing with other shoppers during the holidays. I know... Sounds crazy right? As crazy as it sounds... It was wonderful and I hope you all enjoy my small simple rendition of it. The mall will change a bit through development as I still have many things to add.


The new Beta Preview includes a couple of the new stores coming to the mall. It also contains a very early version of the new arcade called Arcade Castle. The BETA Preview version is not optimized much at all... so expect some hiccups and low frame rates. Im getting about 90 FPS average with an old GTX2060 and an i7. When you are inside the mall there is no optimization zones yet, so all of the stores are on at once.

Again.... This is a beta preview just to show off the new mall for the Holiday Season. Your old saved games will work but I advised you to start a new game with the beta.


Arcade Castle
The new Arcade Castle Beta version does not have any of the new arcade machines or prizes in it yet. (Hint: the next new machines will be a new coin pusher, a new claw machine and a new arcade shooter cabinet...but more on those later.) These new machines will come later with the "full release" of the mall. For this BETA preview I have filled Arcade Castle with some of my favorite prizes and machines from the years of building them. I hope you enjoy my temporary choices.


Spunkies Gifts
You can now buy many of the "nice" prizes with cash instead of grinding on the arcade machines all day. The prize machine works just like the ticket kiosks but just accepts coins/money instead of tickets.


Food Court:
Lemonista
Islandville Sweets
Pirate Pizza
Jerrys Gourmet Sammys


Bulk Candy Store


Sneaker Bot
Where all the coolest bots shop! Nothing for sale for you but the bots need love too.

Islandville Cinema:
The Islandville Cinema is NOT ready yet. When it is complete, it will be a fun nostalgic place to view movies (In the future you will be able to watch movies here with multiplayer friends.). I am still deciding on how this is going to work and I will have more on this as I figure it out.

Old Empty Department Store:
This is saved for something funny in the future I have planned. I mean what else could go at an old large department store?

To play the beta... just opt-in to The Coin Game beta with password christmasbeta. To do so... Just right click on the game in your steam library and go to properties. Then click on Betas. Enter in the code christmasbeta and then click on Check Code. The Christmas Beta will show up as a button in blue. That will opt you into downloading the beta version. When you want to play the normal version just change the drop down in the betas tab again.

The Beta version will install itself in the same game folder and work just like the main version. You should start a new game file with the beta. The beta will only be available for a limited time.

The password is christmasbeta

That about does it for the Christmas Beta Preview. I hope you all enjoy it. I will have more info and news about the full update and coming multiplayer after the new year. Thank you all for the support of The Coin Game and have a wonderful Holiday Season! 2023 is going to be our biggest yet. ;)

Kevin

Hello Islandvillers!

Just wanted to share some more pics of the coming Islandville Mall. I have finished all the malls mesh, collision colliders, Interior & exterior lighting and I am currently finishing the texturing on the stores. I didnt realize how much area and extra little items there is in an entire mall. After the texturing is done, I am going to finish up the Arcade Castle and its new arcade machines. I have been reading the wishlist comments and trying to add some last minute favorites that I see mentioned the most.



I have really enjoyed looking through thousands of pictures of old malls across the country and I am trying to put a little bit of all of them in here for proper nostalgia. Here is a couple of the new "stores" in the mall.

Arcade Castle: New arcade with new and old arcade machines from the other arcade locations. This will be the main attraction at the new mall.
Spunkies Gifts: A new retail store that will allows players to purchase prizes with cash right from the mall.
Candy Crazy: Bulk Candy Store for food.
Sneaker Bot: More info later...
Islandville Credit Union: More info later...
Food Court/ Pirate Pizza: Cheap pizza and Pirate Punch combos
Food Court/ Jerrys Gourmet Sammys: Good healthy but pricey alternative.
Food Court/ Lemonista: pricey fancy Lemon drink.
Food Court/ Islandtime Sweets: Elephant ears and other combos.



Also... This weekend marks a 10 year milestone for me as an indie game dev. Whew... how time whips by. So for that I am putting all of my games on sale for the weekend (4 Days only). This is the deepest discount there will be for a LONG time on The Coin Game. Once the Mall and Multiplayer are finished the game will have another small price increase. So this is a great time to get it cheap.

As always.... I THANK ALL OF YOU for making this game possible. Now back to work for me.

Kevin