next »

[William Chyr]

Damn man, i always miss the stream. Any way to view it retroactively (youtube or something)?

I'm streaming quite often now ( 4 - 5 hours a day) so there'll probably be opportunities in the future for you to stop by.

And yeah, as Nusan pointed out, all the archives are on the twitch page.

[William Chyr]

DevLog Update #331 - 1/27/2017

I finally got water going through portal working with saving and loading.



It's not perfect, but the basics are there.

This is a really big step. It may not look like it, but there are a TON of really complicated systems at work here.

Level streaming loading, persistent save system, portal, water, etc.

The next step will be to refine this.

Of course there's a bunch of edge cases, so the beta testing for this will be very interesting.

[jctwood]

I always come back thinking I can't get more excited for Manifold Garden but I'm always proven wrong. The level loading looks so fast, when exactly do you begin streaming in the data?

[William Chyr]

I always come back thinking I can't get more excited for Manifold Garden but I'm always proven wrong. The level loading looks so fast, when exactly do you begin streaming in the data?

Just to clarify regarding the gif: it is sped up twice as fast just for demo purposes (so it isn't a full minute long)

However, the level loading is much faster now than before. We're streaming in the levels at runtime. The second level starts streaming in when you're halfway through the portal.

[William Chyr]

DevLog Update #332 - 1/28/2017

Community Building Round Up

I asked this question earlier on twitter yesterday:



https://twitter.com/WilliamChyr/status/824961649434042368

I got some really great responses.





It's been known for a while now that with how saturated the game market currently is, you can't just put your game on Steam and expect an audience to find it.

You also can't really rely on press to discover your game. They're bombarded constantly all the time by so many new indie games now.

I decided to take a look at the different platforms,  how I'm currently using them, and what I can do to better my efforts.


Twitter - This is the platform I'm probably the most active on. I post a lot of development updates here (along with a few dumb jokes). More recently I haven't posted as much visual stuff as I've been dealing with saving and loading system, instead of level designing. However, that should change pretty soon.  

Twitch - I'm also really active here. I've been streaming on average 4 - 5 hours a day, every day of the week. Sometimes even more than that. It's been a fantastic experience, and the community there has been awesome. I've improved so much as a programmer since sharing my process up through streaming. You're able to have instant discussions about the specific problem you're facing, which is the best way to learn, as opposed to some abstract example in a textbook.

I've also gotten a few tips on how to improve my work pipeline in Unity through this. For example, I learned about vertex snapping on stream because one of the viewers asked me why I wasn't using it. I just hadn't known about it then. Since learning it, I've been using it all the time.

Streaming also has the added benefit that it helps me keep schedule and maintain focus. I'm in the last stage of the project, and it really feels like a drag a lot of the times. It's all the boring and tedious details that were avoided early on in development, now coming back to haunt you. Streaming has been really helpful in getting through these rough spots.

Discord - This is really just an extension of the twitch chat. I hadn't been super active there for a while as I was knee-deep in code, but getting back into it.

Mailing List - I set up a mailing list years ago for Manifold Garden announcements and put up a link to it on the Manifold Garden website. It now has over 3500 subscribers, and I've still yet to send a single email there. From William Pugh's response above, emails seems like a really great way to reach people, so I think I'm going to start sending biweekly updates through the mailing list.

Facebook - I don't really use facebook in my personal life so I keep forgetting to log in and check the Manifold Garden page. I should post weekly updates here.

Steam Forum - There seems to be a small but fairly active group of people posting on the Manifold Garden steam forum. Considering the game isn't even out yet, this seems normal. I'm going to start posting weekly development updates there.

[quantumpotato]

Hey William, what are your thoughts on the Itch Refinery?

[William Chyr]

Hey William, what are your thoughts on the Itch Refinery?

I have some notes on Itch Refinery. I plan to do a more thorough post on it one day.

[William Chyr]

DevLog Update #333 - 2/14/2017

World Within World aka "Inception Effect"

The last major mechanic to be implemented.

I've had this idea since November 2014, and finally getting around to implementing it.

Here are some gifs showing progress over several days:

Version 1:



Version 2:



Version 3:



Version 4:



Version 5:



Version 6:



Version 7:



Version 8:

[quantumpotato]

That looks  , excited.

[quantumpotato]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOfll06X16c


Scaling reference you asked for

[William Chyr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOfll06X16c


Scaling reference you asked for

Oh yeah, I've been following this game for a while! It's a very different kind of scaling than what I have in mind though.

[William Chyr]

DevLog Update #334 - 2/15/2017

I got the exit looking smoother!



Still needs polish and optimization work, but it's looking pretty sweet so far.

[quantumpotato]

So how is that working? As you walk into a special zone, you shrink?

[William Chyr]

So how is that working? As you walk into a special zone, you shrink?

That was my original idea, but that had several problems:

1) you couldn't get close enough to see which world you were walking into

2) What would happen if you were carrying a box? I don't want player to bring a box into another level this way (gamebreaking), but I'd have to force player to drop the box then. Feels unnatural.

3) I'd need A LOT of space for this zone if it depended on distance.

4) What if players walked backwards into it?


In the end, I decided to make it so it's a button that you press. That way, you can be up close to look at the miniature model (which is the world you're going into), it forces player to drop the box first (in order to press), and ensures player is looking at the mini world.

[William Chyr]

DevLog Update #335 - 2/16/2017

Manifold Garden now has a working version of every system in the game.

Still a lot of work left to do, but this is a major milestone.

That is all.

 

[sidbarnhoorn]

DevLog Update #335 - 2/16/2017

Manifold Garden now has a working version of every system in the game.

Still a lot of work left to do, but this is a major milestone.

That is all.

 

Awesome! Congrats. Very much looking forward to playing this someday! 

[quantumpotato]

So how is that working? As you walk into a special zone, you shrink?

4) What if players walked backwards into it?

In the end, I decided to make it so it's a button that you press. That way, you can be up close to look at the miniature model (which is the world you're going into), it forces player to drop the box first (in order to press), and ensures player is looking at the mini world.

A controller button? Can you always shrink?

[William Chyr]

A controller button? Can you always shrink?

Ah, no. I meant you have to be looking at the miniature world and within a certain distance, and then press a button in order for the shrink to happen.

[Connor]

i said this on twitter earlier, but grats on 70%

[kuubaas]

So how is that working? As you walk into a special zone, you shrink?

That was my original idea, but that had several problems:

1) you couldn't get close enough to see which world you were walking into

2) What would happen if you were carrying a box? I don't want player to bring a box into another level this way (gamebreaking), but I'd have to force player to drop the box then. Feels unnatural.

3) I'd need A LOT of space for this zone if it depended on distance.

4) What if players walked backwards into it?


In the end, I decided to make it so it's a button that you press. That way, you can be up close to look at the miniature model (which is the world you're going into), it forces player to drop the box first (in order to press), and ensures player is looking at the mini world.

Textbook example on a good design decision driven by restrictions and solving several problems with one simple mechanic.

That being said, I've never come across a game design textbook that took a break from technical tidbits to talk about the process of good design.