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[Zaphos]

I'm assuming in the Unity engine, the vertex data is stored as a 16 bit integer.
This means it can store 2^16 vertices, which is 65,535.

What I think might be happening is an integer overflow with your vertices.
This could cause corruption, as vertex data could be overwriting data in memory.

A max of 2^16 implies an unsigned short, so the overflow would just wrap around through zero, so you likely wouldn't overwrite/corrupt anything -- you'd just have polygons that point to the wrong vertices (which indeed is what it looks like is happening) ...

Anyway, the fractal levels are cool!  Looking forward to wandering around in them

[vividhelix]

First of all, great devlog!

In devlog update #220, some of the images have a mix of colors. I though the only coloring was supposed to be a hint of which direction the gravity is in. What do the different colors (in the same image) mean?

[William Chyr]

A max of 2^16 implies an unsigned short, so the overflow would just wrap around through zero, so you likely wouldn't overwrite/corrupt anything -- you'd just have polygons that point to the wrong vertices (which indeed is what it looks like is happening) ...

Anyway, the fractal levels are cool!  Looking forward to wandering around in them

I'm actually thinking that I'd keep this broken workflow (in addition to the correct one), just because it looks really cool. Maybe calling it 'Glitch effect' or something.

Typical programmer trick of turning bug into feature, I guess... 

First of all, great devlog!

In devlog update #220, some of the images have a mix of colors. I though the only coloring was supposed to be a hint of which direction the gravity is in. What do the different colors (in the same image) mean?

Nice catch! The colors don't really mean anything in the image right now. However, I am thinking that if I like the visuals well enough, I will try to work them into the game. I've discussed elsewhere of having a 'glitch' arc, where the world starts to break down towards then end. Having multiple colors would work, just because players are so familiar with navigation and everything at that point.

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #221 - 06/12/2015

Willy Chyr's RELATIVITY at PlayStation's E3 Booth!



I'm super excited to share that I'll be showing RELATIVITY at E3 next week as part of the PlayStation Booth!

Here's the announcement from Sony, and includes a list of some of the other games you'll see there as well.

This will actually be my first time going to E3. I remember watching the livestream last year and thinking how cool it'd be to attend E3 one day. And now to find myself going... and part of the PlayStation booth as well... It's pretty surreal.

Also, make sure to tune into the PlayStation livestream on Wednesday, June 17th, at 2:30 PM PST for a very special surprise!  

[vividhelix]

Congrats, well deserved! Looking forward to the post-mortems (that's actually how I found this devlog, your megabooth post-mortem).

[William Chyr]

Congrats, well deserved! Looking forward to the post-mortems (that's actually how I found this devlog, your megabooth post-mortem).

Thanks! And yes, there will for sure be a post-mortem. I can't believe how long ago I wrote the Megabooth post-mortem. Pax East 2014 was actually my first consumer-facing event.

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #221 - 06/13/2015

Did another level design stream last night.

Here's what was made:

[KeinZantezuken]

Looks absolutely fantastic.

[Connor]

man, still really looking forward to this. sadly i cant be at e3 since im a highschooler, but i might be in dc and la for a class im taking (1 class for 6 months and all it is is hardcore game devving, super excited) sometime in 2016, maybe one day we could meet up or something

[William Chyr]

Looks absolutely fantastic.

Thank you!

man, still really looking forward to this. sadly i cant be at e3 since im a highschooler, but i might be in dc and la for a class im taking (1 class for 6 months and all it is is hardcore game devving, super excited) sometime in 2016, maybe one day we could meet up or something

The game dev world is actually quite small, so I'm sure we will meet someday!

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #222 - 06/22/2015

E3 Post-Mortem - Part 1: Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday

Back from showing RELATIVITY at the PlayStation booth at E3... Boy, it was an incredibly exhausting week!

Going to try to remember everything that happened, as well as some of my thoughts about the event while my memory is still fresh.

SUNDAY

I arrived in LA just a little before noon. I made the mistake of not looking into transportation from the airport before my trip. Internet wasn't the most reliable for me out there.

I got a shuttle to the hotel just outside of the terminal. It was $15. I'd recommend booking a spot in advance just because it's possible that the shuttle would be full at that time. I was able to get a spot with Prime Time Shuttle (there's another company there called Super Shuttle). There seems to be a shuttle around every 20 minutes or so.

I actually rode on the same shuttle as the devs from Salt & Sanctuary (hello James and Michelle!) - they were seated behind me and I heard them talking about E3. It turned out they were also showing their game in the PlayStation booth and staying in the same place!

After checking in at hotel, the day was mostly spent picking up the exhibitor badge and the Sony press conference badge. There was a bit of a confusion, and I ended up getting sent to another hotel about mile away to pick up my exhibitor badge. After I walked there, it turned out my badge was actually back at the original hotel... It all worked out in the end though.

MONDAY

On Monday, I had to be at the booth at 11 AM to do a booth walkthrough and check that the game was working. I had submitted a build to Sony about a week before E3, but then had put together a new build of the game with a few additional levels that I wanted to show. I brought the build on a USB and was able to get it running on the PS4 testkit just fine.



After running through it a few times and making sure that there weren't any major game breaking bugs, I proceeded to walk around the PlayStation booth checking out some of the other games, knowing that I wouldn't have any time once the show started. One game I really enjoyed was Thumper.

At around 4 PM, I headed over to the PlayStation Press Conference.

Here are some photos of the pre-conference reception:  





At the conference!



TUESDAY - DAY 1 OF E3!

On Tuesday, the show started at 12 pm. I got to the convention center around 8 AM to do a few more runs of the demo to check for problems, and then had a look around the show floor.



A ton of people were already waiting outside watching the twitch stream:


I visited South Hall (PlayStation booth was in West Hall), and made sure to pay respects to our alien overlords:



Once the show started, it was pretty much GO GO GO from there. I was booked the whole day with press interviews.

Lots of people tried the game as well, and the response was really positive.



All I remember was the show started, then I was on floor talking to people, and then before I knew it, it was 6 pm and the security guards were asking everyone to leave the floor.

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #223 - 06/22/2015

E3 Post-Mortem - Part 2: Wednesday and Thursday

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was super exciting for me. At 2:30 PM, I went on the PlayStation E3 livestream to chat about RELATIVITY with Anthony Carboni:



Carboni was super cool. Really nice guy and a great host. He actually came by the booth on Tuesday before the show started and played through the demo to familiarize himself with the game.

The original plan was to have me play the game on stage, but there was some lag with that setup so it didn't work out. However, Justin, who does social media for PlayStation, was able to step in last minute and be the driver (that's the term for the person playing the game). We got him to play the demo about half an hour before we went live, and then he played the game live just off to the side while I was talking to Carboni. He definitely saved the day. (Thanks Justin!  )

After the show was over, I headed over to Glitch City for demo night:



It was packed! Ran into lots of cool people there.

THURSDAY

Last day of E3. By then, I was pretty exhausted, having been on my feet and talking for 6+ hours each of the previous days.

What was very exciting was that RELATIVITY got a "Best of E3" badge from PlayStation Lifestyle!



That pretty much made my day.

Here's a pic of me next to the game at the end of E3:  

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #224 - 06/22/2015

E3 Post-Mortem - Part 3: Final Thoughts

For me, being at E3 was a totally crazy experience. A few years ago, I didn't even play video games, and yet it was still one of the few video game events that I had heard about on the news. Last year, I remember watching the livestream from my apartment and thinking how cool it'd be to attend the event in person, but never thought I'd be showing my game there.

This year, I showed RELATIVITY at E3, and in the PlayStation booth no less! It's still really unbelievable for me.

I owe a huge thanks to Sony for the opportunity. There are A TON of great games that they could have chosen to show at E3 instead.

Also, because Sony took care of all the setup, it was not only the best presentation I've had at a show, but also the easiest logistically. Instead of having to lug a laptop and monitor to the convention center and set it all up, I just had to show up. And when the show was over, instead of having to stick around and pack up everything, I was able to just walk away. This made it a really great experience for me.

I got a tremendous amount of press during the event. Below is just a partial list of some of the coverage the game received during E3:

Canadian Videogame Awards - Willy Chyr's RELATIVITY

PlayStation Universe - E3 2015 - Relativity PS4 preview impressions with gameplay footage

PlayStation Nation - E3 2015: Hands on with 'Relativity'

GamesRadar - Relativity is the mind-bending cousin of Portal and Echochrome

PSNStores - Relativity Coming to PS4 in 2016

Multiplayer.it - LA RELATIVITÀ È RELATIVA

Multiplayer.it - E3 2015 - SCOPRIAMO WILLY CHYR'S RELATIVITY

IndieMag - Relativity, l’héritier spirituel d’Antichamber !

I would say that the one thing about E3 that was very different from other game events I've been to, is how few indie devs there are proportionally. At GDC and IndieCade, you're constantly running into familiar faces, and other indies you know from the web. At E3, most of the people I didn't recognize.

It's also much more international. There were people from all over the place at E3. I met developers from Costa Rica, journalists from Peru. It was a really cool atmosphere. In a lot of ways, definitely the biggest game event of the year.

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #225 - 06/22/2015

TEASER TRAILER!




Finally! Super stoked to share this with you all. I worked with Jake Strasser on this teaser. The wonderful music in it is by Ryan Roth.

[vividhelix]

Great post-mortem as always!

[William Chyr]

Great post-mortem as always!

Thanks! It's pretty much my journal now.

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #226 - 06/23/2015

New team member!

Chris Wade, a local Chicago indie dev, has come on board. He'll be working on the game full-time for the summer, helping me overhaul all the gameplay systems and making sure all the mechanics work together.

During this time, we'll also be working on adding more visual and game feel polish.

Here's a small thing Chris implemented earlier:



The cube colors now fade nicely between active and inactive states, making the transition much smoother.

I think from here we're going to making a lot of progress. Will definitely be posting updates here.

Also, continuing to stream on a regular basis.

here's the stream from last night:



And here are images of the level that was made (still not completely finished yet):

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #227 - 06/25/2015

Images from dev stream. Adding more details to the architecture.

[acatalept]

TEASER TRAILER!

This game is looking better and better, and the trailer music is perfect.

Will in-game soundscape be something along these lines?

EDIT: Any chance of VR, even after release?  Even if it's not a "feature", maybe as an unsupported hack (such as in Alien Isolation)?  I would literally pay twice as much to be able to explore these infinite fractal spaces in a Rift, even if it's not an optimized experience.

Really looking forward to playing this!

[Connor]

so, major question now is sony or microsoft? lol


im actually quite honestly thinking about making the switch to playstation. sony seems like a really chill group, and
it looks like they actually have fun doing what they do, and this is from an xbox fanboy, so.