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[jctwood]

It really does feel like a city! Think you will use this as a feature?

[Mark Mayers]

Hey Willy, reading through a few of your old DevLog posts.

This one particularly stood out to me:

I'd say that for me, the first ten months working on the game, it was really easy to get myself motivated. I was still high from the idea and being able to work on a game, that I just wanted to work on it during all my waking hours. During this time I was programming the feel of the core mechanics and designing a lot of puzzles, so the process itself was very interesting and a lot of fun.

...

Mentally, I just can't work on the game during all my waking hours anymore. If I try to do that, I notice that I don't get any work done, and just end up feeling depressed and defeated. The game has become such a big part of my life now that it's just like air. It's always there. And because I'm working on the game alone, from home, it can be hard to dissociate from the game. Everything gets tied up together, and how I feel on a personal/emotional level ends up relying too heavily on how things are going production-wise with the game, which is no good.

...

One other thing I've found that has been super helpful in keeping me sane is having a community of local developers. I'm very fortunate to be in Chicago, as there is a thriving indie scene here. Between meetings for Indie City Games (our local collective), Chicago Unity3D, and different industry events, there's always at least one event a month you can go to to talk and socialize with other gamedevs. Some of them are not necessarily indie people, and may not understand what you're going through or what your game is about, but it's still cool. This has been really awesome, and I encourage you to find a community in your area. Even if you have to travel for a bit, it's totally worth it.

Kind of a weighty question, but how did you get past that stage of development and avoid burnout?
Besides the general exercise/sleep enough/go to local events type deal, anything you recommend?

If you could say one thing to yourself ~14 months ago when you wrote that post, what would it be?

[Impmaster]

Don't feel like reading the past 40 pages but I feel like following the rest. Roughly how far are you through the game? What percentage?

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #235 - 07/23/2015

Last few days have been really busy. There was a mysterious bug that we spent three days working on that derailed everything.

Was pretty stressed out about it. We finally got it fixed today. Chris, who has been helping me with gameplay programming for the past month, will do a write up on it in a bit. I will also write an intro for Chris in another post soon.  

Getting around to answering some questions:

Hey Willy, do you work from home every day? I'm curious because I'm going to start streaming development of my game more often, but it wouldn't really work from the shared office space I'm at (well, it would, I just couldn't give any commentary as I work). And unfortunately I'm a lot less productive when I work at home. Got any tips for maintaining productivity while working at home? I'm planning on streaming once a week.

(Ooh, I just realized I could maybe reserve one of the meeting rooms at my shared office for a few hours for streaming).

Yes, I do work from home pretty much everyday. I don't really find it difficult to be productive from home. In fact, I'm probably the opposite of a lot of people I know - I can't work around others. Over the years, I've sort of streamlined my home office to my exact specifications, so whenever the work setup changes, it actually makes it really difficult for me to work. Messes with my zen thing, you know?

Working from home, I think it's important to keep a schedule, and to dress up. Some people like to work in the pyjamas or underwear, and I just can't do that. I have to dress like I'm going to an office somewhere. It helps with the mentality.

The hardest part about working from home is keeping a work/life balance. I'm really not good at this. I don't really have a living room. That's where my computer is, and that's kind of the focal point of the room. There's no couch. So there really isn't an area to relax - a basically just end up at my desk by default... I'm trying to change that.

You should definitely stream! Let me know when you start to do it. It does take some time to get the set up right and everything.

It really does feel like a city! Think you will use this as a feature?

Not exactly a feature, but a level, sure!

Hey Willy, reading through a few of your old DevLog posts.

This one particularly stood out to me:

I'd say that for me, the first ten months working on the game, it was really easy to get myself motivated. I was still high from the idea and being able to work on a game, that I just wanted to work on it during all my waking hours. During this time I was programming the feel of the core mechanics and designing a lot of puzzles, so the process itself was very interesting and a lot of fun.

...

Mentally, I just can't work on the game during all my waking hours anymore. If I try to do that, I notice that I don't get any work done, and just end up feeling depressed and defeated. The game has become such a big part of my life now that it's just like air. It's always there. And because I'm working on the game alone, from home, it can be hard to dissociate from the game. Everything gets tied up together, and how I feel on a personal/emotional level ends up relying too heavily on how things are going production-wise with the game, which is no good.

...

One other thing I've found that has been super helpful in keeping me sane is having a community of local developers. I'm very fortunate to be in Chicago, as there is a thriving indie scene here. Between meetings for Indie City Games (our local collective), Chicago Unity3D, and different industry events, there's always at least one event a month you can go to to talk and socialize with other gamedevs. Some of them are not necessarily indie people, and may not understand what you're going through or what your game is about, but it's still cool. This has been really awesome, and I encourage you to find a community in your area. Even if you have to travel for a bit, it's totally worth it.

Kind of a weighty question, but how did you get past that stage of development and avoid burnout?
Besides the general exercise/sleep enough/go to local events type deal, anything you recommend?

If you could say one thing to yourself ~14 months ago when you wrote that post, what would it be?

Hey Mark! I'm not really sure if I got past that stage of development. There are definitely times when I feel like that. I do think I'm getting better at dealing with it. The last two days were pretty rough, for example, as there was this mysterious bug that kept causing Unity to crash when we opened a scene, and it was really stressing me out. It completely threw off my schedule, which is something that's really important to me.

I actually think general exercise and sleep are really important. I try to wake up pretty early these days, around the same time, and do yoga almost daily. I still do work all the time, but I also try to take breaks when I need them (that usually consists of binging a game or a TV show).

I made the decision to not travel to conventions for a few months. That was partly to focus on development, but also because preparing for shows is incredibly stressful, and coming back, it always then takes me around a week to settle back into a routine and get back to full productivity. I wanted to just coast at the productive level, and not have it disrupted.

My emotional state is still very much tied to the game and how it's going. I think the streaming has been really helpful. There's a really cool community that's grown over on the twitch channel - lots of regulars and cool discussions. So it's kind of a nice break at the end of the day, where I can work in a relaxed manner and talk about what was done during the day. It also helps me maintain a schedule, because I know I need to be there at a certain time, so I have to make sure I'm up early and have some stuff to talk about. It's not actually stressful like a deadline, more like motivation.

So I think that's what I'd tell myself? Stay in touch with the community. Don't be afraid to reach out to other devs for help when you need it. And keep a regular schedule!

Hope this helps, Mark!

Don't feel like reading the past 40 pages but I feel like following the rest. Roughly how far are you through the game? What percentage?

It's hard to give a percentage as I've actually never made a game before, so I don't know what the entire game dev cycle is like, but I'd say I'm about 50% done?

[etodd]

Completely identify with everything you're saying here. The initial burst of productivity, spending all day at your desk, becoming too closely identified with the game, eventually realizing that you can't work on it every minute of every day, the benefits of exercise and community... exactly what I'm dealing with. Still trying to figure it out.

It sounds like you're pretty good at maintaining a routine, which is really great. The main problem I face is when I spend every waking moment at my desk in an attempt to be productive, but end up wasting the day away by constantly "multi-tasking" between work and Twitter/Gamasutra/HN/YouTube/etc. You get all the mental and physical downsides of working, plus all the productivity downsides of not working.

[Mark Mayers]

Hey Mark! I'm not really sure if I got past that stage of development. There are definitely times when I feel like that. I do think I'm getting better at dealing with it. The last two days were pretty rough, for example, as there was this mysterious bug that kept causing Unity to crash when we opened a scene, and it was really stressing me out. It completely threw off my schedule, which is something that's really important to me.

I actually think general exercise and sleep are really important. I try to wake up pretty early these days, around the same time, and do yoga almost daily. I still do work all the time, but I also try to take breaks when I need them (that usually consists of binging a game or a TV show).

I made the decision to not travel to conventions for a few months. That was partly to focus on development, but also because preparing for shows is incredibly stressful, and coming back, it always then takes me around a week to settle back into a routine and get back to full productivity. I wanted to just coast at the productive level, and not have it disrupted.

My emotional state is still very much tied to the game and how it's going. I think the streaming has been really helpful. There's a really cool community that's grown over on the twitch channel - lots of regulars and cool discussions. So it's kind of a nice break at the end of the day, where I can work in a relaxed manner and talk about what was done during the day. It also helps me maintain a schedule, because I know I need to be there at a certain time, so I have to make sure I'm up early and have some stuff to talk about. It's not actually stressful like a deadline, more like motivation.

So I think that's what I'd tell myself? Stay in touch with the community. Don't be afraid to reach out to other devs for help when you need it. And keep a regular schedule!

Hope this helps, Mark!

That definitely helps! You're pretty much going through exactly what I am.

It's difficult not to let your game drive your emotional state, as you've mentioned.
 
I've found this especially true when dealing with impediments (like bugs) in development.

Also, getting caught in a 'thought loop' can be discouraging.
Ex. "There's potential in this -> but I have so much left to do -> is this good enough -> will/can I ever finish? -> I need to because there's potential in this."

I'm assuming you've probably experienced something similar.
You mentioned once you've redone your World 1 ~40 times, and changed your core mechanic too!
However, you've arrived at a comprehensive and logical execution of an idea because of that.

Only advice I can say to *you* for development, is have confidence in yourself.
Try not to get discouraged and look at the big picture, you're making awesome stuff!

At least that's what I ostensibly feel, and tell myself, hahahaha.

[melos]

keep it up! we can stream and talk shit about ps4 games soon

[William Chyr]

Completely identify with everything you're saying here. The initial burst of productivity, spending all day at your desk, becoming too closely identified with the game, eventually realizing that you can't work on it every minute of every day, the benefits of exercise and community... exactly what I'm dealing with. Still trying to figure it out.

It sounds like you're pretty good at maintaining a routine, which is really great. The main problem I face is when I spend every waking moment at my desk in an attempt to be productive, but end up wasting the day away by constantly "multi-tasking" between work and Twitter/Gamasutra/HN/YouTube/etc. You get all the mental and physical downsides of working, plus all the productivity downsides of not working.

The last bit about spending all day and your desk but really wasting time hits hard. It's so true. You felt like you worked (w/ the mental & physical downsides), but really you would have been better off spending the day hanging out with friends and relaxing.

That definitely helps! You're pretty much going through exactly what I am.

It's difficult not to let your game drive your emotional state, as you've mentioned.
 
I've found this especially true when dealing with impediments (like bugs) in development.

Also, getting caught in a 'thought loop' can be discouraging.
Ex. "There's potential in this -> but I have so much left to do -> is this good enough -> will/can I ever finish? -> I need to because there's potential in this."

I'm assuming you've probably experienced something similar.
You mentioned once you've redone your World 1 ~40 times, and changed your core mechanic too!
However, you've arrived at a comprehensive and logical execution of an idea because of that.

Only advice I can say to *you* for development, is have confidence in yourself.
Try not to get discouraged and look at the big picture, you're making awesome stuff!

At least that's what I ostensibly feel, and tell myself, hahahaha.

It takes time to redesign. You just have to keep staying open to ideas (but don't lose focus), and always be analyzing the game and see if it can be improved.

keep it up! we can stream and talk shit about ps4 games soon

Yes! Soon! Do you play NBA2k15?

[chris wade]

Heads up this is going to be a somewhat technical and Unity specific post!

Hi all! I'm Chris Wade.

I've been helping Willy out with Relativity!  To give some background, I'm a contract game programmer (mostly around Chicago) and recent graduate of DePaul University's game development program. At school, I learned to design and develop games from scratch in C++ and using pre-made kits like Unity. During school I worked at local studios (Robomodo, Phosphor and NetherRealm Studios) in internships and contract jobs doing a mix of game design and programming work. I also have and continue to work on a lot of side projects, which you can check out over here: http://christopherwade.co/

My job on Relativity is make all the game systems work, interact and feel polished. So far, I've overhauled the cube and tree systems to be more robust while adding some more functionality and lately I've also been adding a bunch of small, editor-focused tools to help improve Willy's level design workflow. Today I want to share a wild bug we ran into that halted our productivity for a few days. This specific bug caused the editor to crash whenever trying to load certain scenes that meet certain conditions. It's fixed now, but it's an interesting case that brings up some questions about how Unity operates and highlights the dangers of incomplete engine documentation.

First, some information about our system's setup:

In the game we have a singleton setup, RelativityUtils where a bunch of colors and game feel tweak variables are held when multiple things need to get access to it at once. Some examples include cube colors, wall colors and button color. This isn't a great way to do things if you're sticking strictly to object-oriented design, but it makes it easy to change things in the inspector and have them be updated in the game.

Next, several objects in the game can be in any of the 6 gravities and look different between them. Gravity cubes, trees and color change beams are all like this. To improve workflow for Willy, I made it so changing an enum in the inspector of any of these objects changes their color to match. This is done in each scripts OnValidate method.


With this system in place, the editor started crashing on the load of our main testing scene. Cue panic. Every time we deleted our library files, the scene would load again but only once. After reloading the scene or re-opening the editor, we'd get a crash. After spending (probably) too much time changing one or two things in the scene and retrying, I moved onto reading crash logs.




So this looks pretty gross and on first it was total information overload, but after looking around a bit online it came to my attention that there's a stack trace at the bottom. A stack trace is just an ordered list of as many commands as Unity can hold in reverse chronological order. Looking at this file, we can see all the steps taken leading up to the crash. Super helpful!

A good first step when looking at the stack is to find the most recent code that you wrote. Although Unity has it's problems it's much more likely for me to have messed up. So the first thing I wrote was OnValidate being called on the color changing beams in order to set their colors to match the set gravity direction. That process requires a call to our singleton, RelativityUtils which hasn't been set as an instance yet. Here's some code from the version of that singleton which was causing our crash:



When stepping through this code as the editor is starting, I noticed that OnValidate was being called just after the constructor of each class (as they're being added to the scene in editor mode) which means that the scene has only partially been set up so far. In the color change beam's OnValidate, we set the color with a value we get from RelativityUtils. Look again at the code for our singleton instance. If we haven't assigned an instance of the class, then we try and use FindObjectOfType to search through the scene and check for that type of object! This is hugely problematic because we've only partially setup the scene and this is the cause of our editor crashing bug.

This is also where my questions start. How does Unity set up the scene graph at the start of a scene? Does it wait for all objects in the scene to load before assembling the hierarchy? Does it add them as we go through and instantiate objects? In cases like this where we're given useful, but poorly documented functions like OnValidate. If I had source access or more filled out documentation, I could have more easily found the answer to this problem and saved more than a day's work. Anyways, frustration aside, onto the solution.

The big problem here is that OnValidate is called when the editor is in the process of loading up a scene. That was unexpected behaviour, but now we know. What's the solution? Add a check to not try and execute our OnValidate code if the scene is currently loading!




You'll notice that my singleton code also removes the bit about creating a new object if there are none to find in the scene and that's just to make sure we remember to add managers to our scenes. Otherwise the color and game feel variables on RelativityUtils will just be set to their default instead of the handpicked values they should be. Otherwise this is a very simple solution to an obscure and annoying problem.

Let me know if you have any questions about debugging in Unity or if you want to talk about our used of singletons or anything else game-related either here or on twitter: @cjacobwade

[jetuser]

The big problem here is that OnValidate is called when the editor is in the process of loading up a scene. That was unexpected behaviour, but now we know. What's the solution? Add a check to not try and execute our OnValidate code if the scene is currently loading!




You'll notice that my singleton code also removes the bit about creating a new object if there are none to find in the scene and that's just to make sure we remember to add managers to our scenes. Otherwise the color and game feel variables on RelativityUtils will just be set to their default instead of the handpicked values they should be. Otherwise this is a very simple solution to an obscure and annoying problem.

Let me know if you have any questions about debugging in Unity or if you want to talk about our used of singletons or anything else game-related either here or on twitter: @cjacobwade

That was quite an interesting crash then. I was helping Willy try to figure out the crash during one of his streams.

I do have a couple of comments though-

While I do understand the workaround due to the scene load issue, you are technically violating the singleton pattern by returning null during load and you are leaving yourself open to further null references/funkiness if you dont protect ALL calls into the singleton from load time calls.

I suggest that you return Activator.CreateInstance<T>() during application load to sidestep any issue until such a time you can create/obtain a legit instance. It wont always work for all types you use but it should help with relativityutils

note: this technically creates as many instances during startup as there are calls before you are able to get the actual instance used by the editor, so I suggest you hold some sort of "startup" instance to return during editor loading

[melos]

i don't play nba2k15 but i would try to (seriously) learn to play it if it was on a stream. usually i just end up making funny teams and messing around. it could be fun to play VIDEOBALL when that comes out.

[acatalept]

Looking at these, I distinctly felt something snap deep in the recesses of my mind   People throw around terms like "mind-blowing", but damn, this takes the cake.

[unsolicited brainstorm]
I'm sure you've explained elsewhere how the infinite repetition works, so this may not be feasible... but I'm curious: would it be possible to subtly mess with the player's head, by portraying slight aberrations between each "instance" as they fall or traverse among them?  To give a concrete impression that this truly is an infinite space of countless, slightly imperfect copies, versus some bizarre time/space loop.  Though I guess either alternative is just as mind-blowing...

Or perhaps a suggestion of a "watcher" or "other" standing on or traversing another distant "instance", not necessarily antagonistic but just... watching?  I'm not sure what your story arc will be, but one of the things I found particularly intriguing about (for just one example) NaissanceE was a sense that although those places were outwardly empty (well, at least until The Host), there was an uncanny sense of someone or something just out of sight, unknown and unknowable, and... unwelcoming.

I don't get the sense you're going for an unsettling atmosphere, but IMHO some subtle signature of the ghost(s) in the machine, the creators of The Cube, what have you, could only help draw the player in further.
[/unsolicited brainstorm]

And I mean this only as flattery, but I keep finding those endless stairways of yours worming their way into my world, like a virus:



Get out of my head!

Seriously though, keep up the great work!

[William Chyr]

i don't play nba2k15 but i would try to (seriously) learn to play it if it was on a stream. usually i just end up making funny teams and messing around. it could be fun to play VIDEOBALL when that comes out.

That actually would make for an interesting stream, as I think NBA2K15 (and many other sport simulation games) doesn't do tutorializing in the same way that most games do. So much of the knowledge is based on basketball knowledge, which the game doesn't really explain.

I'll need to get a PS4 camera though...

And yes, would be fun to play VIDEOBALL when that's out.

Looking at these, I distinctly felt something snap deep in the recesses of my mind   People throw around terms like "mind-blowing", but damn, this takes the cake.

[unsolicited brainstorm]
I'm sure you've explained elsewhere how the infinite repetition works, so this may not be feasible... but I'm curious: would it be possible to subtly mess with the player's head, by portraying slight aberrations between each "instance" as they fall or traverse among them?  To give a concrete impression that this truly is an infinite space of countless, slightly imperfect copies, versus some bizarre time/space loop.  Though I guess either alternative is just as mind-blowing...

Or perhaps a suggestion of a "watcher" or "other" standing on or traversing another distant "instance", not necessarily antagonistic but just... watching?  I'm not sure what your story arc will be, but one of the things I found particularly intriguing about (for just one example) NaissanceE was a sense that although those places were outwardly empty (well, at least until The Host), there was an uncanny sense of someone or something just out of sight, unknown and unknowable, and... unwelcoming.

I don't get the sense you're going for an unsettling atmosphere, but IMHO some subtle signature of the ghost(s) in the machine, the creators of The Cube, what have you, could only help draw the player in further.
[/unsolicited brainstorm]

And I mean this only as flattery, but I keep finding those endless stairways of yours worming their way into my world, like a virus:



Get out of my head!

Seriously though, keep up the great work!

I think I know exactly what you mean when you say "I distinctly felt something snap deep in the recesses of my mind". I think it's the same feeling that I got when I saw the trailer for Inception for the first time, and when I read Blame! I'm really glad to hear you say that about those images, because that's precisely what I'm going for.

Regarding changing slight variations of each instance to mess with the player, I don't think that's something I'd do. The reason is because the game's geometry actually leads to some really crazy consequences as it is. And in order for players to internalize that rule set and master the physics of the world, it has to be consistent.

If I start adding arbitrary ways of messing with the player, I lose the player's trust, because the world then becomes unpredictable.

I don't a sense of "other" works quite as well in my game. I think it worked well in NaissanceE, because that world felt real and very alien, like it wasn't built for humans. I think my game is too abstract to have that sense of place. But I think there are other means of achieving the feeling that you are going for, and I think I do have a response to that.

Also, that image you shared looks really cool. I'm certainly not the first to invent endless stairways, but I'm happy they're getting into your head.

I honestly can't wait for you to play the game!

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #236 - 07/28/2015

Long devlog post.

Been quite busy these days, so not as easy to find time between development, streaming, and everything else to update the devlog as frequently as I would like to.

Apologies in advance for decrease in quality of writing. Easier for me to just spew out everything stream of consciousness style.

Interlockables / Polynominos



Interlockables are giant polynomino pieces that can't be picked up, but which still react to gravity. They are always double gravity pieces: red-blue, yellow-green, orange-purple.

On the Interlockables are color lines which act like wires, and can connect switches to different objects that can be turned on or off (usually opening and closing doors).

The parts that are marked in red are the areas where other connectors can join to, in order to continue the power line:



Below an image of the line lit up. Notice that it's made up of multiple line segments.

[img notice]http://i.imgur.com/hGVxRAj.png[/img]

Originally this system was very much hard coded. I'd design a puzzle, and just put triggers on where I want to Interlockables to eventually get to, and just detect its position.

However, what we've done is made it so that it's an actual system, so that the Interlockables actually act as wire connectors. This makes it much easier to design puzzles, and also allows for much more interesting (and surprising) interactions.





A bug earlier where the color got screwed up. It should be blue and red:



One major problem with the interlockables is that the visuals need to be redesigned. It's hard to see the line on top of the interlockable. It also looks really really ugly right now.

Line Manager

Arrow on line manager in editor to let me know which way is its forward direction:



Very helpful

UIC Artist Residency

I'm an artist in residence at the UIC maker space this summer:



Will be working on manifesting the ideas in Relativity in different ways.

Today, I learned how to use a 3D printer.



Printed a simple box:



Gotta start somewhere! humble beginnings.

It took 20 minutes to print the box, which is 2.5 cm x 2.5cm x 0.5cm

I can foresee there being lots of trial and error, and experimentation already. I'm excited to start making physical things. 3D printing is something I've wanted to try for a very long time.

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #237 - 07/29/2015

Working on new designs for Interlockables. As you can see, I am obviously a professional 

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #238 - 07/30/2015

Switching player camera to orthographic, my edge detection shader created a beautiful glitch effect:

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #239 - 07/30/2015

Just realized I can make these in other colors as well!!!

[SafetySnail]

Rainworld? Is that you?

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #240 - 07/30/2015

Started working on orthographic projection edge detection.

Here were the first few passes. The lines are too thick:







Glitchy effect due to my other edge detection shader not working well with orthographic camera, but still really cool looking!



Now using thinner lines for the edges:



You merely adopted the madness. I was born in it, molded by it:









Playing around with adding background color: 



Getting close:







This geometry above is probably too bland and repetitive. But the lines are getting there.

Stepwell level, still a bit glitchy:



Future poster?

[William Chyr]

Devlog Update #241 - 07/31/2015

Trying to work out designs for the interlockables:



I think a gradient base works really well.

It needs some work though.

I like the outline, but not sure about the diamonds:



Diamonds need to be there to show direction.

Maybe having this background pattern?



Making the end of the white lines arrows?



Inactive state (also needs arrows somewhere):