Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for July 22nd, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since July 16th, 2024. 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.
Kalleira Plushie and Pins - 3 days left!
Since you guys are awesome and funded our previous campaigns, we were able to start two Makeship campaigns on June 28th!
You can order them in a bundle, so you can save, if you want to do that!
The campaigns will be running for a limited time, so be sure to keep an eye on them if you want to snag them for yourself!
Buying this merch seriously helps us with funding TU's development, and we can't thank you enough for supporting us in any way you have already.
Also, to those of you who bought the Cornelius Plush: keep an eye out! Those should be shipping out later this month!
August 2024 Condo Contest (Sci-Fi)
Hey everyone!
The theme of this month's contest is Sci-Fi!
So, think alien invaders, spaceships, laboratories, robots, high-tech cities, or anything else like that that reasonably fits the theme!
Your submission can be a regular Condo or a Workshop Game World Map. The submission should be something that was made after the contest was announced.
Winner will take home 2,000,000 units!
The submission period ends on September 2nd, 2024 at 11:59 PM CT.
Be sure to look at the prizes and follow the rules here.
New Guide Website
We wanted to share the New Tower Guide website with everyone.
The new guide website is a collection of all our guides all in one location, and covers a range of subjects, such as Condo I/O, Movers, Map Makers, etc.
This new guide website will serve as the place for players to look for help on certain aspects of the game - and people can use it to link to others if people need help with common things.
Existing guides have been updated as well. For example, the Condo IO / Movers guides have more information and now there's a guide on how to use the Spline tool.
Right now, we focused on porting and updating existing guides, as well as creating the Minigolf Map Maker guide, but we want to also cover some more simpler guides, like how to get started when first decorating your condo, and some gameplay guides on each game world.
There are videos and image examples included in most guides. We'll be updating the in-game help menu to open the guide website as well. The Minigolf Map Maker guide is on here if you want to get a preview of it before the map maker update comes out.
Sabrina finished setting up the new guide website.
Johanna finished working on the Plaza optimizations.
Lifeless continued working on the Minigolf map, "Dino Drive".
macdguy worked on AI navigation changes required for the Workshop Map Makers, as well as adding testing support to all of the Minigolf objects. He also worked on adding information to the guide website.
Nuclearxpotato continued working on the Minigolf map, "Dino Drive".
Sketchman worked on bug and crash fixes.
Wheezwer worked on art for Virus and the Plaza.
Will continued working on music for SDNL.
Custom Map Thumbnails
You can now set a custom thumbnail for your workshop condo/maps.
Condo I/O: Camera Example
The camera volume is now complete and ready for release. We've made an example of what's possible with the new tool.
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since July 16th, 2024 at PixelTail Games.
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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 July 16th, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since July 8th, 2024. 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.
Kalleira Plushie and Pins
Since you guys are awesome and funded our previous campaigns, we were able to start two Makeship campaigns on June 28th!
You can order them in a bundle, so you can save, if you want to do that!
The campaigns will be running for a limited time, so be sure to keep an eye on them if you want to snag them for yourself!
Buying this merch seriously helps us with funding TU's development, and we can't thank you enough for supporting us in any way you have already.
Also, to those of you who bought the Cornelius Plush: keep an eye out! Those should be shipping out now!
Miscellany
Sabrina worked on setting up a new guide website.
Johanna finished working on the Plaza optimizations.
Lifeless worked on the Minigolf map, "Dino Drive", as well as some screens for the Game Worlds Ports.
macdguy worked on finishing the Minigolf Map Maker, finished the Unit approval tag for Workshop Maps, worked on a Live Surface Previewer, worked on the new guide website (Minigolf Map Maker guide), and the VR menu and VR IK arms.
Nuclearxpotato continued working on the Minigolf map, "Dino Drive".
Sketchman worked on bug and crash fixes.
Wheezwer worked on Makeship marketing and helping with the guide website.
Will continued working on music for SDNL.
Condo: Live Surface Preview
Now when you hover over a surface, it'll update the in-game surface as you hover allowing you to preview it live (works with your color settings as well).
Minigolf: Dino Drive Prop
A souvenir shack with some Dino Drive accessories. The accessories are unlocked with the usual Minigolf map-specific achievements (Played, Mastered, etc).
The shack has the same scale as the other Booth-style condo items and will be available as an item.
Game Worlds Ports: In-Progress Board
A new board that will show you all currently in-progress games across all game worlds, allowing you to quickly jump in an active game.
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since July 8th, 2024 at PixelTail Games.
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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 July 8th, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since July 1st, 2024. 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.
Kalleira Plushie and Pins
Since you guys are awesome and funded our previous campaigns, we were able to start two Makeship campaigns on June 28th!
The campaigns will be running for a limited time, so be sure to keep an eye on them if you want to snag them for yourself!
Buying this merch seriously helps us with funding TU's development, and we can't thank you enough for supporting us in any way you have already.
Also, to those of you who bought the Cornelius Plush: keep an eye out! Those should be shipping out later this month!
Minigolf Map Maker
We're nearing completion on getting the Minigolf Map Maker out the door, and into all of your hands. We're super excited to see what maps the community is able to create with these tools.
While doing some internal testing, we made a couple proof of concepts using props and the same tools you'll be getting.
Minigolf Map Maker: Testing
Using the Sky Volume, Post Processing Volume, and some set decorations, it's very easy to make a Martian landscape.
Minigolf Map Maker: Hole Piece
Every Minigolf course will need a hole! This week, we setup the tool to work well with actually placing down flags into it. It'll automatically snap into the hole for you, even when adjusting dipped mode and such (mouse cursor is offset from the recording).
Minigolf Map Maker: Camera Editor
All of the hard work of getting splines working and the camera system culminated in the Minigolf Intro Camera tool. This allows you as the map maker to make custom camera intros for each hole. If one isn't place, it'll default to a static camera.
I/O Camera
The Camera tech for the Minigolf Map Maker has also been exported for use for other game world maps, as well as for use in the Condo.
I/O Camera: Splines
I/O Camera: All Settings
Miscellany
Johanna worked on fixing issues with the Plaza for the next update, as well as implementing changes to the Minigolf Map Maker due to feedback from internal testing.
Josh continued working on character models.
Lifeless worked on adding the SDNL voice lines, made a couple minigolf holes for the new Minigolf map, and continued working on several QOL features.
macdguy worked on finishing up the Minigolf Map Maker, and worked on some workshop browser improvements (fixing issues where maps wouldn't load, fixing the UI, ading controller support to the UI, etc).
Sketchman fixed an issue that was blocking further VR development, and continued working on bug fixes and optimizations.
Will continued working on music.
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since July 1st, 2024 at PixelTail Games.
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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 July 1st, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since June 24th, 2024. 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.
Kalleira Plushie and Pins
Since you guys are awesome and funded our previous campaigns, we were able to start two Makeship campaigns on June 28th!
macdguy worked on a camera volume and camera IO items. They have follow and static modes. He also worked on a physics spawner, designed for Ball Race / Minigolf obstacles, but could be used for anything.
Camera Volume / IO Items
Physics Spawner
Miscellany
Johanna finished working on the Minigolf SDK, and worked on optimizations for the plaza.
Lifeless finished the Ball Race map, Eruption, worked on adding the SDNL voice lines, and continued working on several QOL features.
macdguy worked on finishing the Minigolf and Ball Race SDKs.
Nuclearxpotato continued working on a new Minigolf map.
Sketchman worked on bug and crash fixes. He also made achievement icons for the Ball Race map, Eruption.
Wheezwer worked with Makeship on the plushie and pins, wrote the Dev Update, and continued working on the arcade art pass.
Will continued working on music.
Achievement Icons for Eruption
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since June 24th, 2024 at PixelTail Games.
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Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!
Hello everyone! We’re back for the July Dev Update!
Funding/ Makeship Campaigns
Hey everyone, we’re here again for our Monthly Dev Update! This is a big one! First off, since you guys are awesome and funded our previous campaigns, we were able to start two Makeship campaigns on June 28th!
The Minigolf map editor is planned to be the next update now that Eruption is out! During June, progress was made on the Base Height Settings and S-Bend tool. These are tools that will help with the shape and style of courses players make.
Features still in progress include the Ramp tool and the Holes tool. For the Ramp tool, progress has been made on Steepness settings and Ramp Type variations. We’re still working on Curve Tightness settings, the Flat Base setting, Base Height setting , Wall Variations, and Wall Height settings. For the Holes tool, we’ve been working on the Hole Type setting and the Dip setting.
Ball Race Map Editor
Lots of progress has been made on the Ball Race map editor! We’ve completed options to hide Bumpers and Trampolines, we’ve made a spline mesh for platforms, and we’ve finished making Start Tubes, Arrows, Spikes, Buttons, and a tool to test the ball. We’ve added Tubes, a Ball Launcher, Drums, Gongs, and Boost Volumes as well.
Plaza Optimizations
In the mean time, progress was made on Plaza Optimizations. We’ve finished up work on the art pass and optimization of the Transit Station and have moved on to optimizing stores (and doing some art improvements)!
These optimizations will not only help with performance inside these locations, but they will also help with performance in the surrounding areas in the Plaza, so we’re excited to get them all out to you.
These changes will be included in an upcoming update.
Moderation Tools
We’ve implemented a new ban appeals system which will greatly streamline ban appeals.
In short, you will now use this ticket system for appealing bans and will no longer appeal bans through our email.
This will allow for easier resolutions of appeals as well as informing appealing users of the status of their appeal in a more timely fashion.
After the Minigolf and Ball Race SDK are out, we plan to release an update for Dedicated Condos, the Workshop 3.0 Rig, SDNL, and some more new maps!
Workshop Rig 3.0 Preparations
In regard to Workshop Rig 3.0, right now we are preparing the SDK Importer and creating a tutorial for the rig. Once that’s done, we’ll release another update where this new rig will be usable.
SDNL Update
In June, progress has been made on the SDNL update we’ve mentioned this year.
We’ve been organizing and implementing the Announcer voice lines that were recorded last summer by the voice actor Gianni Matragrano, along with getting work done on some additional sound effects!
If you don’t remember, the SDNL update will include Announcer voice lines as well as changes to Container Ship and the release of SDNL: Lookout. Lookout is a rework of Zombie Massacre: Acrophobia for SDNL, giving you an opportunity to see that map from a whole new perspective!
Dedicated Condos
Due to Canvas and Workshop issues, there hasn’t been more progress on Dedicated Condos this month, but it’s still in the plan. We should be able to get to work on this in full swing in the coming months, so keep an eye out for updates.
We have also had some discussions this month on how to better advertise Dedicated Condos so more people can understand the concept by giving it a flashier name. Community Worlds was one we came up with, and we’re still brainstorming others.
For reference, our current progress on Dedicated Condos can be viewed here.
Arcade Update
We love the Arcade as much as you all do, and we’re always itching to get back to it. We have a fun Arcade update planned for the future that will bring in some new games. We’ll be getting to work on this very soon. Like Dedicated Condos, just keep an eye out for this in the future.
Map Work
In the world of Game World maps, progress has been made on a new Minigolf map! We aren’t ready to dive into the details of it yet, but know that more than half the holes have been completed!
VR Support
We also wanted to share that we recently had a breakthrough with getting motion controllers working again! With that issue out of the way, work can continue on VR Support.
July Calendar
Here is the calendar for July events! If you want notifications, we have the events set up on our Discord here. If you would like to make a suggestion for events, do so here. That’s gonna do it for this Dev Update! Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time.
<3 PixelTail Games
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Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!
Race through fire, flames, and face heat itself! Careful not to catch fire and burn away in the dangerous lava fields. This is a hard difficulty map that focuses on speed and quick reactions, with a flare of the dramatic!
We've also added a new fun item that you can place in your Condo to take pictures with you and your friends. Use this timed camera to take screenshots in various poses using your emotes!
Canvas Loading Changes
Due to changes with Discord's image hosting policies where images will expire after 72 hours, and to help with canvases failing to load, we have disabled Discord image support. You will have to rehost these images elsewhere and you can do that by copying your Discord image links into a private discord server (to get the image) and save and rehost to another image host.
Upcoming Updates
Stay tuned for more information on what we're cooking up next, we'll be posting our July 2024 look ahead and monthly status update soon! We're hard at work on the Minigolf and Ball Race level SDK.
Changes
New map - Ball Race: Eruption!
Workshop Sound Packs now sort alphabetically
Workshop Sound Packs now shows options to let you vote up, favorite, or uninstall a sound pack while in the sound pack browser
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for June 24th, 2024, detailing all the changes that have happened since June 17th, 2024. 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.
Hot Fix #2 0.17.12.0
Last week, we released another hotfix to fix some outstanding issues with the initial 0.17.12.0 release.
Johanna continued working on finishing the Minigolf SDK, as well as the Plaza optimization pass.
Lifeless worked on getting the Ball Race map, Eruption, ready for release. He also worked on getting the SDNL Voice lines integrated, as well as other QOL changes.
macdguy worked on finishing the Minigolf SDK, working on the camera system and physics spawning for map objects like barrels.
Nuclearxpotato continued working on a new Minigolf map.
Sketchman worked on bug and crash fixes.
Wheezwer continued working on an art pass of the arcade cabinets, along with other art related tasks
Will continued working on music.
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since June 17th, 2024 at PixelTail Games.
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Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!