Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for July 8th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since July 1st, 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.

Last week we released the Summer Update, which introduced two new minigames Chainsaw Deathmatch and Booze Bash, along with a bunch of new pool tubes and other summer accessories. You can read all about the update here.

A couple months ago, we introduced another version of Tower Unite which used PAK files to contain all of the game data. When using the PAK method, loading times are dramatically reduced.

During our testing, before the PAK version, it would take our Hard Drive test computer 2 minutes and 45 seconds to load into the Plaza. With the PAK version, it takes only 24 seconds. This speed increase is also found on SSDs, going from 43 seconds to only 7 seconds. You can read more about our testing in the original thread.

One of the downsides with the PAK version, is that while the files are compressed which helps loading times, this compression results in having to download the entire game (around 8GB) every time there is a new update to Tower Unite.

This week, we’ve decided we’re going to be making the PAK version the default version of the game. However, we do recognize that there are many players out there with slow or heavily capped internet connections. For this reason, there will be a new “lowbandwidth” branch of Tower Unite, which when selected, will revert to how the game is currently packaged. This will save on your internet bandwidth, but you won’t get any of the speed improvements.

We’ll make another announcement when the “lowbandwidth” branch is released, so that people have time to switch over before we make the PAK default live in our next update.

TL;DR: We will be swapping the PAK version from opt-in to opt-out. There will be a new branch that you can opt-into if you have slower or metered internet. The branch is currently available called “lowbandwidth”, so you can opt-into it now before the next update.

We’re still holding a short survey for feedback about the game until the 26th of July. Your input really matters, so if you have a chance you can fill out the survey here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xRONXJWae6DEuqDNmjZ8sAAs4IJN_9srGqcW1pqTwvQ/viewform?edit_requested=true

So far we’ve had over 1,200 responses, making this our most popular survey by far.

Wheezwer and Johanna continued working on the Arcade Machine art. Work was completed on the Lonely Gun 30XX and Captain Calypso’s Planetary Piano machines. Work began on another “Ball Drop” arcade machine.

Wheezwer worked on Mural Art for the Prize Redemption areas, along with a logo for the WarpZone arcade and posters.

macdguy worked on the logic for the Pluck-a-pal Claw Machine, Ball Toss Fish Bowl, Wheel of Fire, and also improved networking events for scoring so there is no effect/sound delays for the player who is playing the arcade machines.

Madmijk continued working on the shader for the Captain Calypso’s Planetary Piano machine.

Claw Machine Logic WIP
https://youtu.be/px9Rrmi-S4w

Prize Redemption Mural WIP


Lonely Gun 30XX Cabinet Artwork WIP


Captain Calypso’s Planetary Piano Cabinet Artwork WIP


Captain Calypso’s Planetary Piano Cabinet Shader WIP
https://youtu.be/7y2CKoJiCw4

"Ball Drop" Arcade Machine Cabinet WIP


Arcade Mural WIP


Arcade 4K Screenshot

4K Version

WarpZone Logo WIP


Arcade Poster WIP


Chris continued working on karts for Accelerate.

Accelerate Karts Untextured WIP


Accelerate Karts Textured WIP


Accelerate Karts Closeup WIP





Josh started working on a Drivable Scooter for the Plaza as part of a set of transportation items.

Drivable Scooter WIP


Sketch continued looking into the workshop memory leaks and optimizations.

That about covers everything that happened since July 1st, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Summer is here! While we've been actively busy working on Arcade, some of us have spent time working on a TUbular Summer update to celebrate the season.

We've added two new minigames: Chainsaw Deathmatch and Booze Bash. Chainsaw Deathmatch is a classic GMT minigame but with its own death arena.

Franky's grill is now open! He's got hot dogs and beer for you to drink responsibly.

Our resident pool tube expert (a.k.a. Josh) crafted 53 beautiful pool tubes for you to express yourself with.

• New Plaza minigame: Chainsaw Deathmatch
• New Plaza minigame: Booze Bash
• Franky's grill is now open
• Added new summer related items:
  • Holdable Beer (casually drink beer anywhere. please drink responsibly)
  • Holdable Hot Dog
  • Holdable Soda
  • Orbiting Sun (keep your sunny friend close)
  • Pool Noodle (smack your friends)
  • Sparkler (draw in the air)
  • Beanbag
  • Cornhole Board
  • Pineapple Glasses
  • Palm Tree Glasses
  • Inflatable Glasses
  • Neon Light Glasses
  • Steampunk Goggles
  • Holographic Sunglasses
  • Holographic Backpack
  • Flower Crown
  • Bowler Hat
  • Cig
  • Ushanka (okay well sometimes it can get cold at night during the summer and well...)

• Our resident pool tube expert (a.k.a. Josh) crafted these beautiful pool tubes for you to express yourself with:
  • Airplane Pool Tube
  • Alien Pool Tube
  • Balloon Dog Pool Tube
  • Boat Pool Tube
  • Burger Pool Tube
  • Cat Pool Tube
  • Cherry Pool Tube
  • Chicken Pool Tube
  • Coconut Pool Tube
  • Cool Duck Pool Tube
  • Cool Snake Pool Tube
  • Cosmic Pool Tube
  • Crocodile Pool Tube
  • Diamond Pool Tube
  • Dog Pool Tube
  • Dragon Pool Tube
  • Eagle Pool Tube
  • Fish Pool Tube
  • Fox Pool Tube
  • Giraffe Pool Tube
  • Gold Pool Tube
  • Heart Pool Tube
  • Holographic Pool Tube
  • Horse Pool Tube
  • Iridescent Pool Tube
  • Lime Pool Tube
  • Neon Pool Tube
  • Orange Pool Tube
  • Palm Tree Pool Tube
  • Pelican Pool Tube
  • Pig Pool Tube
  • Pinata Pool Tube
  • Pineapple Pool Tube
  • Pizza Pie Pool Tube
  • Pool Pool Tube
  • Popcorn Pool Tube
  • Racecar Pool Tube
  • Rainbow Pool Tube
  • Shark Pool Tube
  • Silver Pool Tube
  • Snake Pool Tube
  • Splash Pool Tube
  • Stingray Pool Tube
  • Strange Pool Tube
  • Swan Pool Tube
  • Toilet Pool Tube
  • Toucan Pool Tube
  • Turtle Pool Tube
  • UFO Pool Tube
  • Unicorn Pool Tube
  • Watermelon Pool Tube
  • White Horse Pool Tube
• Added an option to disable gore
• Added appearance button on quick context UI (when you hold C) in Plaza/Condo
• Improved appearance item unlock feature so you can actually see the item icon instead of the giant shopping cart icon
• Bongo now changes pitch while looking up or down
• Catpack now has scuba gear when you go underwater
• Best Pickup Line achievement now works

• Minigolf: Fixed Garden Hole 17 HIO pipe
• Fixed fishing while on rocks not working all the time
• Fixed a massive invisible block/barrier preventing from placing down fireworks on the boardwalk
• Fixed fish not swimming around properly in Condos
• Fixed flashlight being way too bright
• Fixed floating tree above lazy river
• Fixed a debug brush still existing near the docks
• Fixed pool tubes no longer going into pool tube mode after you jump out of the water (now they re-enable after 5 seconds automatically)

---



Check out all our Arcade development blogs:
July 1st, 2019
June 24th, 2019
June 14th, 2019
June 7th, 2019
Arcade Machines and You

---

You can follow our current developments on our Trello:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

You can follow our weekly developer logs here:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

You can report bugs on our forums:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report

Or you may also report bugs on our Steam community, but please expect slow response time.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for July 1st, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since June 24th, 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.

We just posted a new survey asking some helpful questions to get input from the community.

Your input is incredibly helpful in deciding where we take the game! Please spend just a few minutes of your time to let us know how we're doing!

Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xRONXJWae6DEuqDNmjZ8sAAs4IJN_9srGqcW1pqTwvQ


Work has continued on the Summer Update, which we plan on releasing sometime this week. macdguy worked this week on the Chainsaw Deathmatch and Booze Bash minigames, while JJosh has been working on over 40 new pool tubes.

Summer Update: Pool Tube Teaser WIP



Summer Update: Chainsaw Deathmatch Gibbing WIP

A new minigame Chainsaw Death match was made for the Summer update. Gore is toggable in settings.

https://youtu.be/RfVp3vWJLAo

Summer Update: Chainsaw Deathmatch Acid Pit WIP

https://youtu.be/mb-8NcaT7iE

Summer Update: Chainsaw Deathmatch Arena FX WIP

https://youtu.be/wsjtt5oUPgs

wheezwer and Johanna continued working on the Arcade Machine art. Work was completed on the Candy Slam, Ring God, Little Birde Feeders, and Stack 'em machines. Work started on the Tornado and Lonely Gun 30XX machine art.

macdguy continued working on the 2D Arcade game base, which will allow us to quickly create 2D arcade games with multiplayer support. This new Arcade game base allows for rendering workshop player models in 2D as well. You can read more about that here: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/t/56k-modem-warning-tower-unite-discord-development-sneak-peek/2661/6220?u=macdguy

Madmijk continued working on the Stack 'em machine code.

Final Little Birde Feeders Cabinet Artwork




Final Candy Slam Cabinet Artwork



Final Ring God Cabinet Artwork



Lonely Gun 30XX Cabinet Artwork WIP



Tornado Cabinet Model WIP



Stack 'em Cabinets WIP



Updated Upstairs Arcade Room WIP



Arcade 2D Gamebase Demo WIP

https://youtu.be/kEBNTd5kBbM

Arcade 2D Gamebase w/ Networking WIP



Arcade Item: Drone WIP




Lifeless continued working on the Altitude minigolf map remake.

Minigolf: Altitude Remake Overview WIP




Johanna worked on adding 3 more new levels to Woodlands, which weren't in the original GMod Tower version.

Ball Race: Woodlands New Levels WIP




Sketch continued looking into the memory leaks and optimizations relating to Workshop.

That about covers everything that happened since June 24th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for June 24th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since June 14th, 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.

A bunch of progress has been made with the arcade since the last development log. Salmon Says, Mind Tester, Skeeball, Whirl-A-Fish, Little Birde Feeders, Dizzy, Stack 'em, Wheely Rigged, and Ring God are all playable, yet their gameplay is not entirely finalized.

wheezwer completed the artwork for "Avalanche" and "Ring God", and is continuing to work on artwork for "Little Birde Feeders".

Johanna started working on a "moving target" arcade game model, and she also completed the model for a "duck punch" arcade machine. She also went and fixed some ceiling tile lightmaps in the Arcade, as well as tweaking the "Little Birde Feeders" model to better suit the gameplay. Lastly, she worked on materials for the animated lights for the arcade machines' attract states, and created some signage for the "Avalanche" and "Ring God" games.

Sketch worked on artwork for the "Wheel of Fire" game.

Madmijk started working on "Stack 'em", focusing on gameplay and replication.

Caboose700 finished the gameplay for "Salmon Says".

macdguy worked more on the arcade game base, adding several features such as player animation support, physics improvements, LED colors & attract animation support, improvements based on playtesting, and scoring zones for Skeeball and similar games. He worked on gameplay & controls for Skee Ball, Dizzy, Wheely Rigged, Super Hoopers, Salmon Says, Little Birde Feeders, Mind Tester, and Whirl-A-Fish. He also started working on gameplay for Ring God (Ring Toss) and started implementing the animations Gloves finished.

Gloves made some adjustments to the button press animations to make them play faster, as well as creating a different type of button press, which is more of a fist slam than a slap. Also started making throwing animations for "Ring God", as well as working on the Sledgehammer animations.

Will worked on sound effects for Dizzy, and started working on sounds for Skee Ball.

Skeeball Gameplay WIP
https://youtu.be/ar8oIwD3_i4

Skeeball Animations & Networking WIP
https://youtu.be/ZYw6od2QuqM

Skeeball Gameplay with Sounds WIP
https://youtu.be/tBvMT3ABzvg

Stack 'em Gameplay WIP
https://youtu.be/d7Wn1QeWJHg

Stack 'em Networking WIP
https://youtu.be/xip2isjYzVw

Salmon Says Gameplay WIP
https://youtu.be/VL27Zy5hmXE

Mind Tester Gameplay WIP
https://youtu.be/excTvzFmKns

Whirl-a-Fish Gameplay WIP
https://youtu.be/BpMtRWgKvEA

Little Birde Feeders Gameplay WIP
https://youtu.be/e3KWoouoREo

Dizzy Gameplay WIP
https://youtu.be/yOJQgt3xVio

Little Birde Feeders Cabinet Artwork WIP



Ring God Cabinet Artwork WIP


Avalanche Cabinet Artwork WIP


Wheel of Fire Artwork WIP



We also updated our arcade thread with new media here: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/t/arcade-machines-and-you/33738/

Lifeless began completely remaking the Altitude minigolf map.

Early Altitude Remake Screenshot WIP


Sketch continued working on memory leaks and optimizations relating to Workshop models.

That about covers everything that happened since June 14th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for June 14th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since June 7th, 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.

Now that fishing is in a stable state, our main focus has moved to Arcade.

Earlier today, we created a massive post detailing all the machines we plan on having in the arcade, which you can find here. We suggest you check that out if you want to see what each arcade game will be!

This week, a new button component system for all the buttons in the arcade was completed. macdguy completed all of the base code for the arcade machine gameplay, and has been working with Gloves to complete the animation system. In addition, the unit cost and ticket base code, along with the multiplayer handler for Galaxy Police was finished. macdguy also completed the physics system for the arcade games, and completed pretty much of all of the gameplay code for Dizzy and Super Hoopers.

Johanna and Wheezwer continued working on the arcade machine models and artwork. Wheezwer finished the artwork for the claw game "Pluck-a-pal", and started working on the artwork for the ball attack game, "Avalanche". Johanna completed the model for the ball toss game, "Bird Feeder", along with the "Piano" arcade game. Johanna also started working on a yet to be named ball toss game, and added a second floor to the arcade, which will contain more games.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlyinyheaOI


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8X5msZw8LA























Sketch worked on a fishing advertisement for Fishing.

Fishing Advertisement WIP



Sketch continued looking into the memory leaks.

That about covers everything that happened since June 7th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for June 7th, 2019, detailing all the changes that have happened since May 20th, 2019.

We normally post our Weekly Dev Logs exclusively on our forums, but we're going to start posting them on Steam as well!

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 the Fishing update, which introduced the long awaited Fishing minigame playable in the Plaza, with over 100 fish and items to obtain. You can read about the update's release here.

Yesterday, we released a small hotfix to fix some issues that were introduced with the Fishing update, which you can read about here.

We hired a new artist for the summer, Wheezwer. She'll be working on the cabinet artwork and sprites for the Arcade.

Now that Fishing is released, our focus has turned onto the Arcade.

Johanna has started working on a new ring toss machine and a new ball toss machine, as well as working on the prize redemption desk.

Wheezwer completed work on the cabinet art for Whirl-A-Fish, and started working on the cabinet art for the claw machine.

Gloves continued working on player animations for the Arcade, this week focusing on the animations for the Wack-a-mole machine.

macdguy started working on the arcade game base (that handles all the machines gameplay code), mechanisms to debug the player animations, as well as starting work on the basic game loop and networking of game events.

Arcade: Whirl-A-Fish Artwork WIP



Arcade: Ring Toss Machine WIP



Arcade: Ball Toss Machine WIP



Arcade: Claw Machine Artwork WIP







Arcade: Prize Redemption Desk WIP



Arcade: Wack-a-mole Player Animations WIP







Arcade: Player Animation Debug WIP



Arcade: Game Base Testing WIP



Johanna continued working on the interior of the nightclub.

Nightclub: Interior Hallway WIP



Nightclub: Hall to Dance Floor WIP



Nightclub: Dance Floor WIP



Madmijk has been working on the Playable Guitar, working on the user interface for storing chords and palettes.

Playable Guitar: Palette UI WIP

https://youtu.be/zNUdHc1M1dU


Chris has been working on the vehicles for Accelerate, finishing the Race Car and starting work on the Go-Kart.

Accelerate: Race Car WIP



Accelerate: Go-Kart WIP




That about covers everything that happened since May 20th, 2019 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

This update addresses several issues that were recently reported.

Changes

• Dragging items out of the hot bar is now more intuitive
• Added an All category for hot bar
• Fishing: Increased EXP earn rate for Fishing
• Fishing minigame: Fish difficulty text now colors the difficulty text to make it easier to tell from a glance
• Fishing minigame: Reduced screen shake when line stress is high
• Fishing minigame: Added a fish icon to make it easier for new players to know what to do
• Fishing minigame: Colored the fish catch ring by the difficulty of the fish
• Fishing catch log now sorts by the most recently caught fish
• Added a setting to make the Fishing minigame opaque
• Moved All items and New items buttons to the top of the store UI

Bug Fixes

• Minigolf: Fixed tube splines not always disconnecting the ball from the tubes
• Fixed a soft lock during Fishing if you have the chat box open when about to get a fish
• Fixed a bug where Fishing music would continue to loop if you dequip during the minigame
• Fixed underwater sounds sometimes staying on
• Fixed fishing playtime not being tracked
• Fixed being able to cast into rocks
• Fixed Bunny Ears not showing up
• Fixed Plasma Autorifle not showing up in the hot bar
• Fixed Throwable Drink not showing up in the hot bar
• Fixed Quarter and Magic Trampoline not having an version added set
• Fixed the Suite aquarium
• Fixed the Resort aquarium
• Fixed the Fish Bowl not keeping fish in
• Fixed Fish Bowl placement issues
• Fixed Ball Race orb sounds
• Fixed The Stray logo not displaying properly
• Fixed catch log positioning for lower screen resolutions
• Fixed RC plane invert settings not applying if you are already in a plane
• Fixed monster potion not dequipping properly

You can follow our current developments on our Trello:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

You can follow our weekly developer logs here:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

You can report bugs on our forums:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report

Or you may also report bugs on our Steam community, but please expect slow response time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiBDcziFouA


After tons of time and work, Fishing is finally here!


Fish With Your Friends
Fishing is a fun and relaxing Plaza activity that you can play with other players. Catch fish together and show off what you caught with your friends.



Catch Over 100 Different Fish and Weird Items
The aquatic ecosystem of the Plaza has been greatly expanded, and with over 100 different species of fish and a bunch of exclusive fishing items to be found, there’s sure to be some hidden treasure waiting just for you.



Use Various Bait
Different types of fish are attracted to different types of bait. We've added tons of variations of bait to help your fishing needs at the Gone Fishin' Bait Shop, right near the rollercoaster dock and the fishing docks behind the games building.

Adopt Sea Friends
Sometimes you'll catch a Sea Dollar. They're the currency of the sea. Once you have enough sea dollars, you can adopt aquatic friends such as dolphins, whales, and sea TUrtles.

Build Aquariums
After you've got a fish, you can place the fish in aquariums in your Condo. Just drag the fish into the aquarium and it'll be happy to call it home.

Become a Dolphin
That's right, become a dolphin. Fishing comes with several milestones and one of the coolest milestone is actually being able to become a dolphin.







Search
No more spending countless hours searching your inventory for that one soda can, the new inventory features a convenient search bar so you can get back to customizing that sick condo.

Easy Filters
Just looking for all your couches? There’s now a button for that too. With the easy filters, all of your couches, chairs, and other item categories can be filtered in just a few clicks.

Improved Tooltips
Tooltips now tell you more useful information, such as the store the item can be found in and in which Tower Unite update the item was added.

Sorting
You can also now sort items by their name, price, and version added.

Color
The new inventory is also colorable, so you can customize what color you want your inventory to be. Obtain that perfect nostalgic blue or the cute hot pink look.

Lock
A new lock feature was added which lets you lock the inventory in place. This keeps the inventory from automatically closing after you release the Q key.





New Logos and Themes (and some sounds)
The store UI has been completely redone with unique theming and logos, adding charm and character to each store.

Landing Page
The store UI now also splits the items sold into categories. Looking for just bait? Click that bait button. Looking for lures? Well, you get the idea.

Sorting
You can now sort items in the store by their name, price, and the version of the game they were added.



Wheel of Money was updated to now have a shared jackpot across all machines. This change makes it so no machine has a unique jackpot, keeping things a bit more civil amongst players. Also, we've increased the chance of winning the jackpot by just a tiny little hair.



----

Changes

• Added Fishing!
  • Collection book now has a sea encyclopedia to track caught fish
  • Bait shop and fishing rod now functional
  • Over 100 fish species and dozens of weird items
• Summer event characters are back
• Metal detector events are back
• Casino: Added shared jackpot for Wheel of Money - each WOM machine will now contribute to a cumulative jackpot instead of per-machine
• Added audio effects for diving underwater
• Added new Bowling Ball upgrades: Gumball Bowling Ball, Catball Bowling Ball, Dogball Bowling Ball
• Minigolf: Garden - Polishing Update
  • Art & lighting improvements
  • Updated tubes to use the new tube system, ensuring they no longer break
  • Several misc bug fixes
• Minigolf: Cove - Polishing Update
  • Art & lighting improvements
  • Updated tubes to use the new tube system, ensuring they no longer break
  • Several misc bug fixes
• Minigolf: Alpine - Polishing Update
  • Art & lighting improvements (including the caves)
  • Added new course signage
  • Added gondola track
  • Updated tubes to use the new tube system, ensuring they no longer break
  • Fixed hole 18 sometimes throwing you off course
  • Several misc bug fixes
• Inventory UI Rework
  • Separated furniture inventory from the hot bar - furniture inventory is now at the bottom of the screen and is much larger
  • Created a better filter system - now you can filter quicker and find items faster
  • Added search bar - you can search through names and item tags
  • Added tabs and subtabs by item types
  • Added sorting (sort by A-Z, cost, etc)
  • Added lock inventory feature, which allows you to lock the inventory and not have to continue holding down Q while using it
  • Hot bar will now automatically hide away when dragging an item for better visibility (unless you have locked the inventory)
  • Added hot bar tabs - for easier organization of different hot bar item types
  • Added favorite item support - now you can favorite items that you reused a lot
  • Added color setting - recolor the inventory to that perfect blue (or pink) or anything you want really
• Store UI Rework
  • Added new logos and unique colors for each store
  • Added a landing page for each store that shows the top categories that you'd care about in that store
  • Added sorting (sort by name, price, and version added)
  • Added newly added items page (so you can see which new items were recently added to the store)
  • Added friend grouping system for Plaza - create a group and add your friends! More functionality will be added in coming updates
• Lobby 3 Phase 3
  • New fishing areas added
  • Dueling Arena entrance added
  • Bumper Car entrance added
  • You can now sit in every chair/couch/bench in the plaza
  • Updated foliage in various areas around the map
  • Added fencing and details around the beach-side fishing hole
  • Fixed the concrete appearing metallic
  • You can now use the RC boats in the main Plaza fountains
  • Added more location volumes throughout Plaza
  • New Toy Stop advertisement
  • Changed from the Volumetric Indirect Lighting System to the VLM Sparse Volume Lighting System - improving lighting overall
  • There is now only one lobby elevator that goes to Project 12
  • Reduced the size of the cartoonishly large stair steps at the theater exterior entrance
  • Replaced "GAMES" sign with higher quality model
  • Updated materials on boardwalk
  • Added additional pathways to the beach side fishing hole
• Underwater condo improvements
  • Removed blue tint from interior of Underwater condo
  • Adjusted outdoor lighting in Underwater condo to look better
  • Removed caustic "milky" effect from inside the underwater condo
  • Improved indoor lighting in underwater condo
• Added bowling and trivia scoreboards to the scoreboard menu
• Added option to invert plane vertical controls
• Your player name now shows at the top of the scoreboard at all times in Plaza/Condo
• Added new aquarium items to the Gone Fishin' Bait Shop
• Added thumbnail support to Old Theater Projector
• Reorganized stores:
  • Moved Beer item from Fresh to Project 12 bar
  • Moved Theater items from Rob's Imports to the Theater store
  • Moved Old TV and Old Computer from Rob's Imports to to Central Circuit
  • Moved Buttons from Rob's Imports to DIY store
  • Moved Beach Volleyball Net and Boxing Ring from Sweet Suite to Toy Stop
  • Moved Body Pillow from Sweet Suite to DIY store
  • Moved Standing Picture Frame from Sweet Suite to DIY store
  • Moved all lamps from Sweet Suite to Central Circuit
  • Moved Fountain and Pergola from Sweet Suite to Seasons
  • Moved some outdoor items from Sweet Suite to Seasons
  • Moved Plastic Tent from Rob's imports to Seasons
  • Moved Fish Bowl from Toy Stop to the Gone Fishin' Bait Shop
• Improved look of inventory tool tips
• Inventory tool tips now show what store the items are from and what version the item was added

Bug Fixes

• Fixed not always being able to click on leave for the Golf Ball milestone
• Fixed poker UI bug that prevented you from using any of the buttons after the EXP UI popped up
• Fixed underwater effects not occuring (and for vehicles as well)
• Plaza Fixes
  • Fixed incorrect collision wall on top of the large peninsula in the Plaza
  • Fixed missing material on some Tower struts
  • Fixed the collision on the Gameworld Port building windows
  • Reduced the chance of falling down an invisible gap between the lazy river and landscape
  • Fixed being able to get under the Arcade building near the rollercoaster
  • Fixed lights from the subway station sticking up into the upper subway area
  • Fixed boat dock location volume being incorrectly placed
  • Fixed some missing collisions in the Casino
  • Fixed some areas of the Ocean being un-swimmable
• Fixed Trivia screen cutting off player names or answers if the question is more than 2 lines
• Fixed Stasher tool lagging when you stash items
• Fixed inventory bug where item icons would change to a different item icon unrelated to the item
• Fixed items still having a new tag even if they aren't new
• Fixed Jetpack, Football, Basketball, and Beachball clipping through the store pedestals
• Fixed game activity names on scoreboard not always displaying the activities due to networking distances
• Fixed Old Theater Projector drawing shadows over the projection
• Fixed RC plane trails
• Fixed a typo on the Pizza box
• Removed headband from Bunny Ears

UPCOMING UPDATES


You can follow our current developments on our Trello:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

You can follow our weekly developer logs here:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

You can report bugs on our forums:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report

Or you may also report bugs on our Steam community, but please expect slow response time.

This is our first Easter themed event, so we hope you enjoy these little games. This update also includes a Plane War minigame which will run in normal non-event rotation from now on.


We have more news with the release of this update. We've conducted some research into the PAK format which Unreal Engine allows us to package our game in. In conducting this research, we've found that PAK files can significantly reduce the loading times of the game, with some drawbacks we’ll detail below.

We tested how long it takes to load into the Plaza from the Main Menu. The test was conducted on a Intel Core i7-5820K, with a Intel 750 Series 400GB PCI-E SSD and a Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 RPM HDD. Of course, keep in mind that your results may vary from our tests.

• Hard Drive with PAK File: 24 seconds to load into the plaza.
• Hard Drive without PAK File: 2 minutes 45 seconds to load into the plaza.
• SSD with PAK File: 7 seconds to load into the plaza.
• SSD without PAK File: 43 seconds to load into the plaza.

There are some drawbacks to using the PAK file however, which is why this will be available via an opt-in process.

• Due to how the PAK file is generated, any change to the game will require a full re-download of Tower Unite.So for example, if we push out a small patch that only changes 25MB, the non-PAK users will only have to download the 25 MB that changed, while the PAK file users will have to download 9.8 GB.
• The PAK file is compressed, which helps reduce the amount of data that is required to be loaded, but comes with a small CPU overhead, which we weren't able to measure, but it could be an issue if the computer is lower powered.
• As the build times are slightly longer, when an update is released, there might be a small delay in when the PAK version of the game will be pushed out.

If this sounds fine to you, here's how you can participate. In your library, right click Tower Unite, and click Properties. Then, click the BETAS tab and select defaultpak. This will start downloading the PAK version of Tower Unite.

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Changes

• Added new Easter themed items (available in the easter egg hunt event): Bunny Ears, Catsack Bunny, Plush Rabbit, Basket, Throwable Eggs
• New Easter Egg Hunt event
• New minigame: Easter Egg Fall
• New minigame: Plane War
• Improved Fruit Frenzy minigame
• Removed trampoline from Fruit Frenzy and instead added increased jump height for all players in the minigame
• Fruit Frenzy now gives all players an air dash item that allows players to dash through the air
• Minigame HUD now shows who killed you last
• Minigame HUD now has kill feed

Bug Fixes

• Fixed workshop player models sometimes not loading in!!!
• Fixed Adrenaline milestone not working after first use

You can follow our current developments on our Trello:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap



You can follow our weekly developer logs here:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

You can report bugs on our forums:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report

Or you may also report bugs on our Steam community, but please expect slow response time.