Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for April 20th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since April 13th, 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.
Arcade Hotfixes 0.9.0.2 and 0.9.0.3
Last week, we released two more hotfixes to add some optimizations, fix some bugs, improve / change Arcade gameplay, and other miscellaneous changes. You can click these two links to see what changed in both Hotfix 0.9.0.2 and Hotfix 0.9.0.3.
Accelerate
Now that most of the issues have been resolved with the Arcade update, it's full steam ahead on Accelerate.
Johanna continued working on the art for the various maps, creating custom tree assets and adjusting lighting.
JJosh continued working on the Taxi.
Lifeless continued working on the map, "Bedzoom".
macdguy worked on getting the kart physics and handling down, while also creating systems to handle Kart Drifting, Boost Pads, and working on the overall game loop.
Wheezwer worked on a carpet asset for "Bedzoom", while creating a texture for the tree assets.
Accelerate Early Gameplay Test WIP
Accelerate Kart Physics WIP
Accelerate Kart Drifting WIP
Accelerate Kart Drifting w/ Boost WIP
Accelerate Boost Pads WIP
Plaza Improvements
Johanna continued working on the new item previews that are themed for each store inside of the plaza.
Themed Item Previews for Plaza WIP
Achievement Icons
Sketchman worked on improving some of the old achievement icons.
New Waterhole Achievements (Waterhole Completed & Waterhole Mastered) WIP
Miscellany
Caboose700 finished setting up the code and infrastructure for the new Server Browser, getting it ready for it to be integrated into the game.
Johanna continued working on the condo item improvements.
JJosh fixed some bugs with various items.
Madmijk worked on bugs with Planetary Piano, and fixed an issue where Laser Projector beams would go invisible.
ThisIsntNath worked on an update trailer for Tower Unite which includes footage of the Arcade.
Sketchman worked on optimizations for Planetary Piano, fixed some internal bugs, and continued looking into lighting issues with Workshop Static Meshes.
Wheezwer continued working on the Steam Trading Cards.
Will continued working on music and sounds.
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since April 13th, 2020 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!
This update addresses several issues that were recently reported.
Changes
Achievements now show when you unlocked them
To avoid confusion, all available upgrade items now display in the upgrade list. If you do not own an upgrade, it'll display as "not unlocked". Upgrades that are currently not available will display as "no upgrades available of this type at this time"
Location now updates properly for Ball Race Orb milestone, Minigolf milestone RC cars, and vehicles
New wood material for condo furniture now has a much wider range of color availability
Ball Race: Started rework of moving platforms to help with clients desyncing
Bug Fixes
Fixed crash in menu
Fixed pluck-a-pal plushy stat displaying internal name on collection book
Fixed typo in Arcade milestones
Finished Arcade milestone icons
Fixed location on HUD displaying <unknown> after ragdolling/dying
Fixed additional incorrect hat offsets
Fixed additional underwater condo water issues
Admin player name tag no longer overrides backer tag (separated the two tags)
Arcade: Fixed a known exploit
Arcade: Fixed Lonely Gun ammo issues (ammo was being reset every round, which broke Total Efficiency achievement)
Fixed Stealth Box dequip not removing hidden state
Fixed Midway Mania achievement description being the wrong value
Fixed issues with Cat Protector achievement
Fixed smooth rotation not always occurring on local client
Fixed first person legs not appearing (even if setting was on)
Fixed the colors not being properly editable on the Dining Table, Coffee Table, Office Table Short, Office Table, Office Table Long, OfficeShelfWithDoor, Modern Entertainment Cabinet, LongModernCoffeeTable, Large Fluorescent Table
Fixed the color editable being maladjusted for the Computer Desk, Small Walnut Table, Room Table, Office Shelf, Short Table, Modern Reception Desk, Wood Glass Table, Victorian Table, waiting room chair, and Wooden Stool
Fixed the TV Stand item having the wrong wood texture applied to it
Adjusted Dizzy jackpot increase rate
Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!
This update addresses several issues that were recently reported.
Changes
Arcade: Audio volume changes for Arcade. If you are a spectator, or playing the game, or hovered over it, it'll play sounds at full volume - otherwise it'll play at less volume to avoid overlapping audio experiences
Arcade: Planetary Piano audio now only plays if you are looking at the cabinet you are spectating or if you are playing it so that you can hear each player individually
Arcade: Meteoroid Mania now has 3 meteoroids
Plaza: Implemented loading/unloading system for east and west plaza stores (Songbirds, Toy Stop, Central Circuit, Rob's Imports, and Sweet Suite). Improves frame rates when in main plaza
Plaza: Created more LODs for plaza to improve frame rate
Plaza: Improved planters behind tower to fix empty spots
Plaza: Some minor plaza additions (new potted plants and benches)
Plaza: Improved look of the sky in Plaza
First chunk of updated "standardized" condo furniture
You can now color the tricycle (and jump!)
Improved LED tie
Improved Jet Engine jetpack
Improved first person view in vehicles
Work in progress Arcade milestones set up (items don't have icons just yet and some items do not work, releasing these in full in the next hotfix)
Bug Fixes
Improved Whirl-a-Fish, Meteoroid Mania netlag
Optimized networking of Plaza games
Meteoroid Mania: Fixed bug where the ball would not drop if the droppers were opened after the ball is rotating around
Fixed underwater condo being filled with water
Lonely Gun exploit fix
Pluck-a-pal: Fixed an issue where sometimes a plushy farther away from the center of the crane would be grabbed, swapping with a plushy that is right at the center of the crane
Pluck-a-pal: Fixed an exploit
Pluck-a-pal: Crane grabbing is more reliable
Pluck-a-pal: Made it a little more difficult to grab plushies, you need to be lined up a lot more now
Pluck-a-pal: Fixed VIP achievement
Pluck-a-pal: Fixed Friendship achievement
Pluck-a-pal: Stabilized physics of pals just a bit
Fixed Total Efficiency achievement
Fixed Island achievements
Fixed ram plush issues
Fixed various hat offsets
Fixed Pluck-a-pal leaderboard
Fixed Dizzy leaderboard
Fixed Wearable Units Sign not appearing
Fixed throwable fuzzy die texture being corrupted
Fixed LC dragon plushy colorable materials not working properly
Fixed propeller hat icons being switched
Reduced instances of grass clipping into the lazy river in Plaza
Fixed ragdoll being invisible if you die while in first person
Fixed jellybean cat plushy colorable being broken
Fixed easter egg event eggs not spawning if you are in the arcade when the event begins
Fixed Lonely Gun "nice shot" sound not adhering to SFX volume settings
Optimized Planetary Piano networking, which should help with players disconnecting due to packet overflows
Fixed dizzy not landing on the same spot for spectators as the player who is playing
Fixed an issue with achievements and unit payouts
Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for April 13th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since April 6th, 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.
Arcade Update 0.9.0.0 & Status Report
Last week, we released the long awaited Arcade update, which brought 22 brand new games and 180+ unlockable items to the Tower Unite Plaza. You can read about all features of the update here.
Since we released, we've experienced a great boom in player count, almost 4 times as many players as we are used to seeing. The launch was complicated by one of our server providers dropping out from underneath us when the load got to high, so we had to scramble to search for a solution. Luckily, this only affected serving up the Server Browser, but did impact players for the first few days.
In addition, we noted an issue affecting some plaza servers where the server process would hang and stop processing, effectively making the server useless for players to join. We believe we have found the cause of this issue, and we believe the situation should be resolved now, but we'll be putting more fixes in the upcoming hotfix to help prevent this from occurring again. We also deployed 3 new additional servers, each of those machines can host 4 individual 64 player Plazas, for a total of 12 new Plaza servers to meet the demand. We'll continue to monitor and add more servers if needed.
Finally, our Global Chat system has been disabled due to the high load, as the process was causing issues on the server and preventing other applications from running properly.
We're working on a hotfix to fix some bugs that were identified during the initial release of the Arcade. We're hoping to release the hotfix within the next couple of days. You can read more about the hotfix here.
Plaza Improvements
Johanna worked on several improvements to the Plaza over the last week. She's been working on a system to remove the stores from the overall plaza level when the player is not around them, and by creating a cubemap effect that makes this entire process invisible to the player. She's also been working on adding more LODs to items and objects in the game, and been working on themed item previews for each of the stores in the plaza (instead of the weird grid void we have now).
Unique Store Previews WIP
Accelerate
Lifeless and Johanna have been working on their various tracks for Accelerate. Lifeless has been working on "Bedzoom" while Johanna has been working on "NightCity".
EARLY WIP PROOF OF CONCEPT for Bedzoom
Steam Trading Cards
@Wheezwer has been working on Tower Unite Steam Trading Cards.
WIP Steam Trading Cards
Miscellany
Caboose700 worked on adding more Plaza Servers, and administering the various servers that keep Tower Unite operating.
Johanna has been going through older furniture items, updating them models to bring them up to our standard of quality and make the textures and materials more consistent.
macdguy worked on various fixes for the Arcade.
Madmijk worked on some fixes for the Disco Ball item and various fixes in the Arcade.
Sketchman created an tick rate limiter for player model animations to help improve performance, fixed the lighting issue with the workshop player models, looked into crash issues and other bugs with the Arcade, helped look into server issues, and continued working on the SDNL prototype.
Will continued working on music for Accelerate.
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since April 6th, 2020 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!
This update addresses several issues that were recently reported. Thank you all for your support and patience while we get more servers up and running!
Server Status
We have moved to a new host to provide better server listing! We have set up 4 more US servers and 4 more France servers. We are in the process of getting 4 more US servers.
The time has come! The WarpZone Arcade is now officially opening its doors inside the Plaza!
We've put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this update to bring you the best possible arcade experience video games can offer. Each game has tons of painstakingly crafted detail and authentic arcade gameplay!
A couple of cool facts about this arcade:
There are 22 brand new games!
There are over 180 unlockable arcade prizes, including:
plushies
toy weapons
vehicles
...and more!
The WarpZone is filled with authentic gameplay, sound effects, and music!
Each arcade machine is a unique game with its own set of achievements, leaderboards, sound effects, art, music, and animations.
Every arcade machine is also networked and spectatable. This is an incredible feat and was extremely difficult to make!
We're extremely proud of the Arcade, and we can’t wait for you to enjoy it as well.
Updated Tower Lobby
This update also includes updates to the appearance of the Lobby of the Tower! We have changed the style of the lobby’s architecture and design to make it more welcoming to players.
Changes
Arcade is now open!
Arcade games ready to play:
Dizzy
Wheely Rigged
Whack-a-mole
Stack 'em
Super Hoopers
Salmon Says
Alley Roller
Wheel of Fire
Whirl-a-fish
Mind Tester
Ring God
Little Birde Feeders
The Offering
Bug Bytes
Pluck-a-pal
Newton's Apples
Planetary Piano
Meteoroid Mania
Avalanche
Tornado
The Ice Cave
Lonely Gun 30XX
Minigolf: Forest Art Pass
Added a new category to the Collection Book: "Arcade Prizes" section displays all the available arcade plushies (and how many you've unlocked) along with all the arcade toys/prizes you can unlock as a checklist for completionists.
In Plaza/Condo: If a player is near you and you are in first person, they will now visually hide to prevent people from blocking your vision while playing games
You can now drink and eat any holdable item (such as the hot dogs or beer) in any location even if the location disables weapons. You can get drunk in the casino, arcade, or even the theater
Optimized Plaza interiors
Plaza art pass
HUD now updates quicker when moving from location to location
Added 4 new unit HUD styles: TU Alpha, Minimalistic, Cute, and Cursive
Poker now displays ante in amount before you play (on use prompt)
Bug Fixes
Lots of optimizations!
Workshop NPC crash fix
Fixed instruments being able to be used while someone else is already in it
Fixed text hat displaying in first person for yourself
Fixed pool tubes not keeping you buoyant as they should
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for April 6th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since March 30th, 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.
Arcade Progress
Last Friday and Saturday we conducted two public beta tests of the Arcade to help us identify any critical bugs, smaller bugs, and to allow us to conduct a full performance profile to see how the servers and game would cope with a full servers playing all the arcade games. We are happy to report that other than some small issues (and a performance issue we're looking into not related to the arcade specifically) the tests were very successful, and we would like to thank everyone who participated on such short notice for helping us identify these issues. We're hoping to have this released to you all within the next couple of weeks!
Caboose700 updated the achievement icons created by Sketchman on Steam.
Johanna fixed some bugs in the Arcade, fixing the Arcade location volume not including the entirety of the Arcade, fixed the trivia hallway location volume extending too high into the lonely gun area, and moved a Pluck-a-pal machine upstairs.
macdguy made various improvements and changes to Arcade machines, working on stomping out bugs and preparing them for release. He changed Pluck-a-pal to use a capsule like system as the prior method was too buggy and didn't function correctly. He also created a system for smaller playermodels to have the correct eye height for all the Arcade machines, adding stools for visualization. Additional sounds for the Wowozela were added as well.
Madmijk worked on fixing issues with Planetary Piano.
ThisIsntNath finished the Arcade trailer.
Sketchman finished the achievement icons for Phase 1 of Arcade, and helped work on optimizations.
Wheezwer finished the mural for the Arcade.
Will helped conduct performance profiling on the Arcade, while also fixing any sound bugs identified during the beta tests.
Pluck-a-pal Capsules
Stools for Short Playermodels
Arcade Mural
New Wowozala UI & Sounds
Accelerate
While work on Phase 1 of Arcade is wrapping up and getting closer and closer to release, our artists have started working on maps for Accelerate, our next mission after Arcade Phase 1.
Johanna continued working on the NightCity map.
JJosh continued working on the Taxi cart.
Lifeless continued working on the Pine Valley and Sunrise Isles maps, while planning a third unnamed map.
Will started working on music for Accelerate.
Very Early WIP for NightCity
Very Early WIP for Sunrise Isles
Achievement Icon Improvements
Sketchman worked on improving some previous Achievement Art.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 30th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since March 23rd, 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.
Arcade Progress
Arcade development races on as our Number 1 priority, and we're hoping to get this out to you all within the next couple weeks.
Caboose700 added achievements and leaderboards to various machines, helped price Arcade items, and added the plushies to the "Pluck-a-pal" manifest.
JJosh started working on modeling the new Arcade NPCs designed by @wheezwer.
Johanna updated the Arcade exterior, updated the Arcade Prize desk, and implemented the new "Asteroid Belt" NPC.
macdguy worked on various gameplay improvements across all of the machines. While all the machines were tweaked, the ones that changed the most were "The Offering", "Lonely Gun 30XX", "Pluck-a-pal", and "Skee Ball".
"Skee Ball" now has better physics, making it easier to get into the top corner.
"Pluck-a-pal" gameplay was completed, so you can actually get plushies and have them rewarded to you, along with improvements to how the crane behaves.
"The Offering" now has LED effects, and players now have a indicator of their status towards the bonus rewards.
"Lonely Gun 30XX" is now fully replicated, and has holster and un-holster animations.
"Ice Cave" now has a bonus round with 50 additional bonus points.
"Little Birde Feeders" now has LED indicators for the bird feed bonus.
"Whack-a-mole" now has bonus ticket support, "Bug Bytes" was completely fixed to be playable, and "Wheel of Fire" gameplay was finished.
All of the machines now have proper scoring systems, along with proper ticket values associated with said scores. He also finished the backend systems required for tokens and tickets. Tickets no longer take an eternity to redeem. Additionally, he implemented leaderboards and achievements to various machines, implemented the Arcade EXP system, and updated several HUD elements. An absolute bunch of optimizations were made to the Arcade over the last week as well.
Madmijk continued working on "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano", finishing the gameplay and hammering out some bugs.
ThisIsntNath continued working on the trailer for the Arcade.
Sketchman worked on icons for the Arcade achievements.
wheezwer worked on the design for the new "Asteroid Belt" NPC, helped price Arcade items, updated the Arcade logo, and finished up the art for the Pizza and Ice Cream stores, and the "Destroy" cabinet.
Will finished the music for the Arcade trailer, along with the sounds for the "Wheel of Fire" machine. He also completed sounds and effects for "Pluck-a-pal".
Updated Arcade Exterior
New Asteroid Belt NPC
Lonely Gun 30XX Holster Animations and Updated Gameplay
Skee Ball Updated Gameplay
Skee Ball Score Indicators
The Offering Bonus Indicators
Arcade Achievement Icons WIP
Arcade NPC Concept Designs WIP
Pluck-a-pal Behind the Scenes (Plush Scaling)
Accelerate Karts
JJosh continued working on karts for Accelerate, this week working on the Taxi design.
Accelerate Taxi WIP
Miscellany
Lifeless began working on some Accelerate maps again.
Johanna continued working on some Plaza changes, finishing the new Tower Lobby interior and adding some benches and trash cans to the plaza.
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since March 23rd, 2020 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!
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.
Update 0.8.9.0 & Hotfix 0.8.9.1
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.
Arcade Progress
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.
Arcade: Avalanche Improvements
Arcade: Whirl-a-fish Improvements
Arcade: Newton's Apples Score Card
Arcade: Quick Service Art
Miscellany
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.
Wrap It Up
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!