What's Happening Now
As development has slowed I have decided to strip out the game modes that didn't get as much traction as the Skull Ball game mode did.

The game will be rebranded to be known as Skull Ball Heroes and will only feature the Skull Ball 4v4 Online pvp game.

All of the heroes are still available, and anything previously purchased or unlocked will still be available at this time.

All user accounts have been credited with 200,000 in-game currency (Salvage) to spend on skills, skins, and unlocks as a thank you to anyone who played Tuebor with us in its early stages.

There are still bots to help round out the matches (as it will likely be scarce for a while), and no, they still don't know what the ball is so you will likely always win against them, so bring a friend, the game is now completely free (except for the Extra Life backpack).

The Extra Life backpack is the only DLC left in the game and the majority of proceeds from this purchase will go to Extra Life for the Children's Miracle Network.

Development Roadmap

• Get Skull Ball branding complete in all marketing artwork
  
• Get Skull Ball to Unreal Engine version 4.25 (it's currently stuck in 4.11)
  
• Get Skull Ball branding complete inside the game post UE 4.25 update
  
• Deploy 3 new Skull Ball maps (4v4)
  
• Start Bug Fixes (too many to list, but almost none that are game breaking)
  
• Figure out how to grow player base.
  
• Figure out how to earn some money off the game afford to open up servers outside the US.
  
• Localization fixes for obvious Google Translated languages in the menus.
  
• Determine next steps tbd.

Why This, Why Now?
After spending so many years of my life (and very very much money) I thought it would be a waste to just let this game die. It's honestly fun to play and deserved more love than I was ever able to bring to it (players).

I'm moving the game to be F2P so that anyone who wants to can see it and play it and maybe have fun for some time between AAA game playing and COVID quarantine boredom.

I'm not looking at trying to make a million dollars off this game, I'd be happy if everyone just had some fun and told a friend.

Not really, but the paths in Snacko can be on slopes.

Wait, there’s a lot to unpack in that sentence. Before that…

Meowllo everyone! It’s time for the monthly devlog! Does it feel like August? This year is weird, isn’t it? It’s simultaneously long and short at the same time. We’re over halfway done 2020, and we’ve been working harder than ever on Snacko.

Yes, that’s right. You read our first sentence correctly - we now have two new features: paths and building on uneven surfaces.


To start off, we added Softwood, Hardwood, and two variations of Cobblestone paths. These can be snapped to the grid, or moved and rotated freely like the other buildable items.


We also added the ability to place buildables on slopes and such. You can’t place buildings on uneven terrain, but it still opens up a lot of new decorating possibilities, like a menacing wall of Scarecrows all dyed different colors.


To help facilitate this new “wow, I can have slopes!” thing, we gave the map a little bit of a makeover. You might’ve noticed some new landmarks, like the different waterfalls or arches, and the new way cliffs are done. All of these changes are so we can make our maps more organically shaped.


Now with more cliffs and more lookouts, it became more apparent that the horizon was a little…sudden. We added a slight depth of field to the distance to soften up the transition between sea and sky.


One of my favorite additions to the farm map is the new lake south of your farm. We’ve also expanded the building areas so you could decorate that as well. Lots of space for your creativity! Or your Scarecrow disasters, either works.


Having the extra bit of terrain and cliffs really help the island feel more alive!


In addition to expanded building areas, we also connected the farm (tiles) and the farm (map) building areas. Now you can easily place your fences, paths, and more!


The starter furniture set also became the Softwood furniture set, and we started working on their cousin, Hardwood furniture. The Softwood set has more of a cozy, suburban feel to it while the Hardwood set takes a lot of inspiration from traditional Japanese furniture. Some changes were made to make the sets more cohesive, like swapping out the low table in the Softwood for a more standard, rectangular tall dining table with chairs (and optional mats!)


We’ve had this feature for a while, but all the surfaces can have items placed on them as long as they fit. That means we purposefully left some cubbies in the Hardwood Bookshelf empty so you can decorate them to your taste!



Here’s the part where we list off a bunch of other things that we worked on that doesn’t really fit into one category or the other.



We’ve started working on more story and quest content. We don’t want to spoil everything, so we’ll be showing just the bare minimum of that! We hope you can enjoy all the dialogue for the first time when you play the game in it’s final form 😊



The first thing that needed some touch-up was the dialogue selection choice. We never really had…one. So it was just floating text. But no worries! Now the box creates itself so it better fits the contents.


The second thing we noticed that needed a bit of polish was the quest tracker. The old one was quite small, and the checkbox looked stiff and not very fun.



Now it’s extremely fun, featuring a cute lil’ paw stamp that goes bonk when you complete a subtask! Don’t you feel more productive already?



The little opacity shift as you complete the subtask was suggested by one of our Kickstarter backers and Discord members, Foxling! If you haven’t yet, you should join our little community!

The last little bit of UI Juice™ is the pickup notification. It used to just kinda…pop up in the lower right corner. It didn’t even really have a quantity counter. It just told you “You got Item!”. So we made it better!



The new item pickup notification sits in the lower left where your inventory bar is, and updates in the same stack if you pick up additional items that are the same. Very handy! Also, it goes pop just a little bit.

That’s all for this month! Thanks for reading, we'll see you in another four weeks 🐾

Greetings!

We have released a new minor update for Maze Qore Arena, which fixes a few bugs and polishes the game with new features, as well as pave the way for the upcoming multiplayer update.

Improvements:

• Most objects above the player now fade when overlapping with the camera view distance. This is known as CVOF (Camera View Object Fading). For instance, if you enter buildings with a 'roof' they will fade instead of blocking your way.
  
• To complement CVOF, few structures are no longer transparent by default, such as those in the Yellow Sector missions.

Changes:

• Upgraded to Unreal Engine 4.25.
  
• Added folder directory path preparation for the multiplayer release (for the tech savvy).
  
• Deprecating 32-bit support for Windows support soon due to changes with in Unreal Engine 4.25.

___

Establish, Explore, Expand

I've got a small update but it's a good one: Bombertown now has a map that shrinks over time. It's the last piece needed to give it the battle royale treatment, and games will now end faster, and get more intense as time goes on. No more Bombertown games that drag out forever.

Keep me posted if there's something you want changed/added.

All the best!
-Jaime

• Animation Photo reward for unlocking a full set (page) of portfolio
  
• Minishops that unlock by scrolls.

• Optimized asset bundle loading
  
• Portfolio photos as asset bundles as well
  
• Preview images in menu are now low resolution
  
• Images uncompressed for much faster load. Size & Memory handled by asset bundles mentioned above.
  
• Reduced menu reloads on some user actions.
  
• Custom package images no longer fill previews wasting memory. Click them to see custom image

• Image and checkpoint indicator
  
• On first play only Peterson is 1st image as intro.
  
• New second image. Painted over Gia's 3d model so it's much better than the old one.
  
• 10th image improved
  
• 12th image improved
  
• Subtle Animations for few key Gia images
  
• Portfolio photos resized with improved card look
  
• Visually break fallen balls on wrong answer
  
• Mutate fly particles now better
  
• Score text now 3d
  
• More sounds
  
• Adjusted font sizes
  
• Hearts underwater are most often now greyed out
  
• Sparkles on the last images along with chime bling sounds
  
• When score heads speak there are sounds
  
• Occasional spinning coin visual detail
  
• Improvement round for Gia images
  
• Previous Round rewards are now visually shown in scoreboard.
  
• Score board current score looks nicer
  
• A nicer image for score after main challenges completed
  
• Redrawn menu Peterson
  
• Menu Portfolio displays photo numbers and page
  
• More stats displayed after game is through once
  
• Stats give info for specific words. Search field
  
• Hover-over circle around menu balls that are clickable for clarity
  
• Previously secret animation reward for unlocking all icons is now shown in menu
  
• "Fully Seen" bgcharacters show in menu background
  
• Menu bg ocean with slow animation

• Photoreward is timed better (now between black frames)
  
• Flowers now also skip to next word if it was wrong and does not force you to answer this word.
  
• Pro hi-scores reward dingdongs so that new portfolio animation reward is easier to achieve
  
• New minimodes (dark color) unlocked by Hi-scores.
  
• Background characters now unlock by unlocking all dark minimodes mentioned above.
  
• Star-achievements in menu. Each rewards a star in-game.
  
• Stars now cover 3d style as well
  
• Star drops a coin also
  
• Instead of only reaching 18 image every round changes into variation pics ~
  
• Rare long boat is short now. It was too annoying.
  
• Small Morning secret from unlocking hi-score rewards.
  
• Balloons now pass minimodes.
  
• Image 13 has tiny extra balloon (only with Gia)
  
• Achievement are better timed so you notice everything end of the round.
  
• Fast forward button to daily challenge
  
• "Forever no limit" challenges have a cross to remove but you lose your wagered ball(s)
  
• Wheel Reward now mutated to enable Dingdong with Dingdong ball instead of green ball
  
• Secret Final Challenge unlocks also by unlocking 3 Minishops (not possible on first play). Therefore Final challenge unlocks by either A. Unlocking all icons or B. Unlocking 50 photos or C. Buying Fly Lab or D. Unlocking 3 Minishops.
  
• Fast extra fly each game that fills either Style or Pose meter if you catch them (to greatly speed up progress)
  
• Tips to help you on your journey (Mostly game related tips)
  
• Find a specific word error history under Stats. Works only with words answered after this update.

• Readme daily-reward-icons were old
  
• Some of the Steam achievements should work now
  
• Visually disabled special coins could be used anyway. Now fixed.
  
• Some minimodes had dots ... ... Now fixed
  
• Fixed preview images in stats loading hi-resolution
  
• a menu button was unreachable when bucket enabled
  
• Some minimodes logged/saved words wrong without spacing
  
• No more idle taunts when round is done
  
• Daily challenge timer was from level load, not counting idle time
  
• Required materials for coin marbles cast were wrong
  
• steam music played after exit. Now should stop if enabled

1. Fix archive loss

Now there is only one automatic archive, and the format of the archive name is "date_time", For example: the archive name is 20200803_ 085503, the storage time of the archive is 8:55:3, August 3, 2020, and the "automatic archive" is added after the date "_AutoSave"

2. Add style richness to various buttons to make them look more beautiful.

The problem that the game start interface can't enter the game has been resolved. This problem is caused by the maximum capacity of the server sourcing the archive. We are deeply sorry for the distress this issue has caused.

Hello all, and thanks for your patience!
I am sharing an update on Quarter II's expected release in the link below
https://techexecutivetycoon.azurewebsites.net/2020/08/02/quarter-ii-delayed-update/

The Lost City of Gold event! Gather Pure Gold with your guild to claim great rewards for your guild... including an exclusive blueprint!

Hey there, Booty Calls Players!

Did you know that Shannon never learned how to ride a bike? Isn't that crazy for a girl who lives near the beach! She's a little embarrassed about it, so she wants to practice on a bike trainer... Maybe to calm down her nerves, she should ride it with a dildo seat~ That should really relax her.

Your Booty Calls Team