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[nu_muso]

So freakin' cool! All the best with the IndiePlus competition! The poster really does look great

[Ishi]

Congrats on being a finalist!

Also loving the new logo, the addition of colour makes a big difference.

[Louard]

Congrats on being a finalist!

Also loving the new logo, the addition of colour makes a big difference.

Thanks, Ishi. I'm not 100% on using it as the logo yet. I'll be trying it on the title screen next week. Spruce it up for GDC. We'll see.

[Pixel Noise]

Congrats on GDC! Well deserved - every time I come back to this thread, it's always pure joy. Enjoy the trip!

[Louard]

Days to go!
Only days to go!
GDC with only days to go!
HOLY CRAP!

Given that GDC is (I don't know if you know) only days away, I concentrated my efforts this week on getting the game show ready! And freaking out a lot...

The only piece of new content I worked on was a set of more mummy-like animations for the Mummy Skull enemies. They used to simply use the basic Skull animations and behaviour but I thought this made them too similar and lack personality. They are now more zombie like in their unrelenting and, frankly stupid, chasing of Suzy. And they walk around like cartoon mummies...



As for the whole getting-ready-for-GDC thing... I chose to showcase two levels, Level 2-1 and Level 3-4 because they are quite different both visually and in game play.
I made some small design tweaks to both levels, fixed small bugs and had a go at some optimizations. (BTW, huge thanks to my old colleague Sim for optimizing my scrolling texture shaders!)
Mostly, though, I spent my time on decoration! And what better way to illustrate this than with screenshots!?







If you're interested in seeing a couple more screenshots (and bigger versions) you can find them on my blog:
http://louardongames.blogspot.com/2017/02/suzy-cube-update-february-24-2017.html

So, all that's left to do now is to make the final demo build and upload it to TestFlight for safe keeping! I'll likely have a Mac build handy to try out too. (no, the game isn't coming to Mac... probably not...)

Ok, folks! Wish me luck! And, don't forget, if you are going to GDC and are interested in trying out the game, hit me up on Twitter (@LouardOnGames). I plan to post my location during down time at the con for folks who want to find me and try the game.

I look forward to telling you all about how the conference went next week!

[Louard]

Hey, folks! I'm back from GDC and have written a big ol' blog post about it all right here:
http://louardongames.blogspot.com/2017/03/suzy-cube-at-gdc-2017.html#more

TLDR:
Lot's of cool games and folks!
Suzy didn't win IndiePlus
Suzy DID win 2nd place at the Big Indie Pitch!

Usual update next Friday!

[oahda]

Congratulations!

[jg.camarasa]

Man, this looks so lovely. 3D platformer movement is so difficult to get down but this is looking reeaaally good, definitely keeping this one on my radar.

[Louard]

Hey, everyone! Back for my first weekly update since returning from GDC!

Funny enough.. not much to update you on... Sorry! It's tax time and I've been busy with that. I did tackle a handful of small bugs and tweaks just to make SOME progress, though. Check out the facelift I gave the Rock Skull...



Though it had the colouration and rock-like treatment before, it used the same model and expression as the basic Skull. It's now a bit more squat and has that heavy brow, making it much easier to read as a different enemy during game play.

Suzy also garnered some attention this year at GDC. You can read my big GDC wrap-up from Monday for more on that:
https://louardongames.blogspot.com/2017/03/suzy-cube-at-gdc-2017.html

Oh! I almost forgot!
The folks from Pocket Gamer asked me if they could have a video to add to an article they will be publishing about the Indie Pitch winners... I told them I'd have a video ready for when they needed it! And so, I present to you: Suzy's first pre-release trailer!





GIFs are fun and all, but c'mon! Who doesn't like a full-on video from time to time? So, I guess I was busy with a bit more than taxes.

On that, I say farewell and see you when I see you. I'm going to be busy for the next few weeks and won't get to put much work into Suzy Cube, if any. But please, keep checking back in for my next update!

In the meantime, you can share the video with everyone you know ^_^

[traisane]

Excellent trailer! Good luck with the game!

[nu_muso]

A vibrant and polished trailer. Congratulations

[Louard]

Late update this week! But hey.. it's an update! That's right, I'm back from vacation and did almost no work on the game!!
There was some unpacking... Some relaxing after one of my wife's typical (totally not relaxing) vacations... And some upgrading to Unity 5.6

The upgrade to 5.6 hasn't been too painful, but, like all major releases, there are new bugs and errors to look at and their new lighting system forced me to rebake the lighting on all levels.

I did get around to a bit of work surrounding the redesign of Level 3-3, though!



This was one of the first levels I worked on as it's dab smack in the middle of the game and I thought it would be good for figuring out what a "typical" Suzy level should be. You know, length, difficulty etc. Problem is, it now stands out to me as a low point in the game, especially its slow pace... Mostly the fault of these things:



The major hook of the level is that many of its elements are timed to the music. The problem with these rotators is that they force players to sit and wait alot... Which isn't fun. I'm looking to replace them with these:



I call them Beat Blocks... and yes.. I DID mishear someone talking about the BEEP Blocks in Super Mario 3D World!

These weren't hard to implement or anything, but they did require some special considerations to get right. Instead of setting them up using my generic triggers, I ended up writing a custom script to ensure no bugs and perfect timing with the music.

To get the timing right, I wrote the script to calculate the timing of the blocks based on entering the exact length of the music clip, the number of bars in the clip and the number of beats in each bar. Also, the script can spit out the proper state of each block at any arbitrary time which is important as the game's culling system regularly disables chunks of the level so any scripts within the disabled chucks also don't run. The way I have it, a set of Beat Blocks can sit disabled for any length of time and know exactly which state to set all blocks as soon as it becomes active as those states are basically a function of the current game time.

I also had to hide a trigger inside each block to disable collisions with the block if ever Suzy is inside it. This keeps the physics from freaking out if a block turns solid while Suzy is inside.

And finally, I used the same trick I used on my collapsing platforms, adding a slight delay to the collision being disabled when the block disappears. This gives players an extra split second to react once they see the platform pop away.



Finally, finally, I've been starting talks with a few interested mobile publishers. I'm not saying I'm going to go that route, but I'm definitely coming around to the idea of partnering up with a publisher to help ease my workload and help Suzy get in the hands of as many players as possible.

That's, unfortunately, it for my big return update. Hopefully next week's will be beefier but it is Semana Santa down here, so we'll see. I've got some more 5.6 related issues to look at and hope to make some progress on the Level 3-3 redesign. We'll see how much I actually get done next week. See you then. It's great to be back!

[mrKaizen]

Saw the game on twitter, from @PixelProspector (here: https://twitter.com/PixelProspector/status/851846262739673088?s=09) and I love it! This looks very good and fun to play!
Great stuff, I'm very curious to try it even because I'm making a similar game but more in Mario64 style (camera from behind). Took a look also to your blog and it seems you have nailed it with unity.

Congrats and keep up the good work -_^

[Louard]

Saw the game on twitter, from @PixelProspector (here: https://twitter.com/PixelProspector/status/851846262739673088?s=09) and I love it! This looks very good and fun to play!
Great stuff, I'm very curious to try it even because I'm making a similar game but more in Mario64 style (camera from behind). Took a look also to your blog and it seems you have nailed it with unity.

Congrats and keep up the good work -_^

Ya, that Twitter thread has gotten me a bunch more eyes! Super grateful to PixelProspector for sharing! I'm glad you're stoked about Suzy and I'm psyched to hear you're working on a platformer of your own. Anywhere we can follow progress on it?

[mrKaizen]

Ya, that Twitter thread has gotten me a bunch more eyes! Super grateful to PixelProspector for sharing! I'm glad you're stoked about Suzy and I'm psyched to hear you're working on a platformer of your own. Anywhere we can follow progress on it?

PixelProspector is a nice help and there are a lot of cool stuff to watch and care. ^_^
tks man, I will open soon a page here (+ on my site), need just to find some time (I'm late with everything). Tks for the interest ^__^

[Louard]

Even lamer update that last week!

I, basically only worked two days this week as we have a house guest and we threw my wife a birthday shindig... blah blah blah, you don't care.. SUZY!

Ok, ALMOST done with Level 3-3 redesign...



I've got to try out a couple ideas for the last bit of the level to settle on which to go with. Remember, game design doesn't happen in notebooks and there's no substitute for puttin' it in the game and seeing what works!

I've been wrestling with a, still unfixed, crash which only happens on iOS and produces no error in the editor. Those are always the worse to debug, almost no info from XCode, no info from the editor, several minutes per iteration having to build/compile/install to the device each time... Ugh... Back to boardgames for my next project, maybe?

I had a call with another publisher this week as well, with a couple more to go next week. I should be in a good place to make a decision by then.

Oh, and big announcement no one is going to care about! I'm reorganizing my Trello board! I use Trello to manage my tasks, but for years now, I've been using it more or less as a to-do list. This week, however, I've rejiggered it into a set of time specific columns: "Current", "This Week", "Next Week", "April", "May", etc.

That's right folks, I'm scheduling tasks now!

This isn't about forcing myself to stick to some strict timeline as much as it's about motivating me to complete a more consistent amount of work each week. A nice side benefit is that I should start to form a much better idea of a release timeframe... WHICH I STILL WON'T SHARE PUBLICLY!

As I said... ANOTHER crappy update... Check in next week when I, hopefully, redeem myself!

[mrKaizen]

Remember, game design doesn't happen in notebooks and there's no substitute for puttin' it in the game and seeing what works!

ahah true story, dammit! :D cool concept that you find out are just crap 

Oh, and big announcement no one is going to care about! I'm reorganizing my Trello board! I use Trello to manage my tasks, but for years now, I've been using it more or less as a to-do list. This week, however, I've rejiggered it into a set of time specific columns: "Current", "This Week", "Next Week", "April", "May", etc.

That's right folks, I'm scheduling tasks now!

This isn't about forcing myself to stick to some strict timeline as much as it's about motivating me to complete a more consistent amount of work each week. A nice side benefit is that I should start to form a much better idea of a release timeframe... WHICH I STILL WON'T SHARE PUBLICLY!

As I said... ANOTHER crappy update... Check in next week when I, hopefully, redeem myself!

Nice to hear I'm not the only one late with stuff and that need to motivate himself for being better.
Never used trello but it's in the.. toDO list I installed times ago this app about your life in weeks timeline (per year), and that was a scary experience. Now I see my life in a different way - in a much sorter way. @_@
Ok, hope to see a new update next week when you will redeem yourself

[Louard]

Been an interesting week down here... Things are.. uh... getting interesting...

http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2017/4/19/72e2d8cf361c4c2aa2088dadcb5594bf_18.jpg

Aaaanywho... Amidst all this, Suzy Cube continues to move forward. I spent several hours this week talking with publisher types. What I'm hoping to find is a good partnership which will allow Suzy Cube to be the best it can be while, hopefully, also bringing the game to as many players as possible by opening up the possibility of targeting more platforms. I won't have any concrete news on this for a while, but wanted to keep you all in the loop.

I, FINALLY, finished work on the Level 3-3 redesign.



Nothing much to say about it other that.. YAY! I can move on now!

I made these little mushroom decorators, perfect for forest levels.




You'll notice that with a little scaling and sticking them in a tree, they can look like those awning style mushrooms you find growing on tree bark.

I also made these star hint panels.



Their inclusion might be a bit controversial as I risk robbing players of "Ah-Ha!" moments if they are overused. In the example above from Level 1-2, a star is revealed if Suzy defeats all three of the nearby enemies. In this case, the hint is meant to alert players that a star can be found here without telling them how. I hope this will strike a balance between giving it away and players never finding the star at all. As with most things in game design, only testing will tell!

Oh... that damn crashing bug from the Unity 5.6 upgrade I ran into last week? Ya.. I think I found the offending script. If I comment out everything in the script, no crash... Problem is, I still have no idea how the script could possibly be causing the crash in the first place... I've only wasted three days total working on that stupid crash... not bad... At this rate, i should have it fixed in time for next Christmas!

Dang... Should have closed on the mushrooms or something... Ending on a crash I haven't fixed? What a downer!

Well... on that happy note! See you all next week!

[Louard]

Got a better one for you folks this week!

First, gonna get the crappy stuff out of the way...
Lots of time spent on bugs. The crash that started happening after upgrading to 5.6 is still happening even after two patches, and yesterday, I started work on a rolling block behaviour (not as trivial as it sounds). It.. uuuh.. misbehaves.



As you can see, it works fine along one axis, but not along the other. When moving the cube along the Z axis, its rotation becomes dependant on the cube's starting rotation rather than rotating around world X. Anyone who thinks they can help with this issue can pop in on the Unity Answers page to chime in:
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/1346346/how-can-i-get-rigidbodymoverotation-to-rotate-in-w.html?childToView=1346414

Ok, on to less depressing stuff!

Folks who follow me on Twitter (@LouardOnGames) may have seen this gif I posted early last week:



I call them Spinner Pucks and I'm sure they will prove to be great fun. As you can see, they bounce around and off each other, which, let's face it, looks fun already! But they can also make short work of any enemy caught in their spinning spikes as well as pick up coins and stuff for Suzy! She just has to look out for the rebound...



And as you can see, they can be activated and deactivated by jumping on the button.



Sooo, those are pretty cool, right!?

I also started doing some design sketching for Level 4-4. In fact, that's the primary reason for the rolling blocks. In addition to the rolling blocks, though, I'm also planning to use rotators again. But to set the level apart from the, admittedly similar, Level 2-2, I went ahead and designed some more complex rotators to keep things fresh and interesting.



In accordance with my rule  of avoiding mesh colliders unless absolutely necessary, though, I had to use pretty complex mashings of box and capsule colliders to properly support smoothly running over the rounded corners.



Well, that's it for this update. I was not able to get through all my tasks for this week (though I hope to knock a couple more off this afternoon) but I did make some nice progress. Check in next week, when I hope to have a lot of Level 4-4 playable.

[Louard]

What's up folks!?
Wish I had better news, but, unfortunately, this week has involved a lot of banging my head against bugs... Mostly (all) relating to the block rolling behaviour I mentioned last week.

Before we wade into the sludge, let's have a look at something that worked out much better. Remember my Piggy Bank guys?



Well, a problem with them was that they were really easy to corner. To fix this, I added a really simple obstacle avoidance algorithm to their behaviour. I would like to point out that they are still pretty dumb, but Suzy Cube isn't really about outsmarting genius A.I.s or anything. The idea here was simply to make chasing them more interesting. So how does this algorithm work?



I simply perform a raycast out the front of the pig (blue). If this first raycast hits something, I calculate a reflected vector and do another raycast at this new angle (white). I recursively repeat this, shortening the raycast every time, until one returns no collision. Once this happens, I set the Piggy's new desired heading to match the last raycast direction and voila! In the example above, you see that after reflecting off the sign and a couple more times more, the final raycast will have the Piggy turning left to avoid going in the corner.

As I said, it's pretty simple, it isn't perfect, but it makes the Piggies much more fun to chase and helps avoid them being easily cornered.

So, on to the stuff that hasn't been going so well. I'm still struggling with my rolling blocks.

I was hoping to use the behaviour on these rolling lava enemies who leave a deadly trail behind them, but the script's bugginess had me fall back to simply hand animating them rolling.



I mean... It works fine now, but the amount of time I wasted before doing it this way.. ugh...

I was also hoping to use the rolling block behaviour to make ridable rolling platforms.



Ok... honestly, these work ok. They are more limited than I was hoping, but they basically work.
These tumbling spike frames on the other hand...



You can't really tell from the gif thanks to the low framerate, but these are jittery AF! Not at all usable.

On that happy note. I will leave you for this week and keep seeing about fixing my rolling blocks.
Maybe next week, I'll actually make some progress on Level 4-4? See you then.