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[JobLeonard]

Oooof, hang in there (turns out the real hellscape is the programmer room I guess)

[brainwipe]

It's been a while but repeatedly saying "I'm fixing multiplayer, it's going ok..." gets old fast!

Moving from Mirror to Unity's official Netcode for GameObjects (NGO) has been tough and I have hit only a few limitations.

Moreso, I've found that I've stripped out huge amounts of netcode that was serving limitations in Mirror. With the limitations gone, I could rethink some ways I did things.

The big one was parenting. Although not perfect, and has limitations, it is useable, where Mirror just says no.

I've also found the support being excellent. The spotty support from the volunteers at Mirror could be hit and miss. I don't blame them - they're volunteers, they're not being paid for their spare time. However, I can't hang on two weeks for an answer about whether something is a bug or a feature.

I'm currently reducing the effects of lag by implementing very simple prediction and reconciliation. I want the client to have a snappy, sharp feel, even under a 300ms lag.

I've also stepped up marketing with a new Twitter account and Discord. I will need to do more player-focussed content soon and make a steam page. It's still a little early.

Thanks all for the continued support, I do love coming back to read through other people's games.

[JobLeonard]

Yay, update!

How about a mastodon account? There's indy gamedev-specific ones too you know

(the video is set to private, btw)

[brainwipe]

Thank you, Leonard! I posted the post too early. What a tool.

I'm not on mastodon just yet; I'd tried it in my TTRPG days and I found the server admins less accountable than twitter. I'll search out some game-dev ones too.

[brainwipe]

Happy Holidays everyone! If you're catching this in 2023, I hope it's turning out ok.

I'm delighted to report that the netcode rewrite from the 3rd party Mirror library to Unity's official Netcode is complete. I wouldn't recommend it unless, like me, you keep hitting problems with the core design of the library.

My next goal is another playtest, so I am being ruthless about what gets fixed, improved and so on. I need:

Menus
Not needed when testing with Mirror because it had a debug window for port/IP. I don't mind putting these in because they would be needed eventually anyway. Right now I've done all but the pause menu. I'm using Unity UI Toolkit to build the menus, which feels like web dev. I like that for style setting across components but it suffers from bleeding jQuery like loose coupling magic string nonsense FFS. I can live with that.

Localisation
I don't have a lot of text in just yet but I need to get this in before I build too much more. As a by-day web dev, I'm used to creating/implementing these but I'm glad that Unity has an official package that appears to be sensible, so I'll use that.

Player Preferences
Let the player set a name, there'll be more later but that's the least I need for the playtest!

Changes to Clomper Movement
I'm not happy with it. I'm using the physics engine in an over simplified way. I'm going to implement a PID controller* and give it a good test. I still want to use physics but not quite as it is.

Personally, I'm delighted to be working on something else. Moving netcode means creating a mountain of bugs from what was previously working. That can be demoralising - especially when you're doing this as a hobby. I'm through it now - I am sure there will be some found during play testing and I will need to harden some of the systems but for now, a sliver of time, it's all working!

* Sounds complex but I have a 1st Class Masters in Cybernetics, if I couldn't write a PID controller with my eyes shut, I'd probably have to give it back. It's one of the few things that the degree is useful for apart from sounding cool.

[brainwipe]

I was bitten by the Scope Creep Bug and put legs on the Clomper in the name of marketing. It was a lot of fun to mess with, especially as I knew that they weren't 100% needed for the game itself. There's still bugs with them but they won't take long to test and sort. It's just for fun!

I also changed the movement code from using forces to setting velocity. It's more complex but gives me a degree of control that I didn't have before. To develop that faster, I split out some parts into separate Unity scenes. However, switching scenes in the IDE then became a pain so I created a scene switcher tool that allowed me to load multiple scenes in the IDE at once. Moving back and forth between game states is much easier now and I don't have to go through the menus every time I hit play.

I also messed up with git, which lost me about 7 hours of work.

I tried a new format with the devlog this time and I think the reception has been good. I think most people haven't realised that I don't normally talk into the camera. It did take a little longer to record but I found it easier to ad-lib than if it was scripted.

Next goal is a play test with friends - to test out lag and see if the new environment and movement code is fun! I think it is but we'll have to wait to see.

[JobLeonard]

Not gonna lie: you need those legs. It looks so much better and so much more alive already

[brainwipe]

I've moved onto the event driven Unity Input System and it takes me back to Windows C++ MFC eventing in a big way. The old way of checking key presses in the frame update loop was all very well but to keep things sensible (and so bindings and so on), you have to wrap the whole thing in your own system. Next up is the menus for resolution, key binding and all that jazz. After that will be another feature - I have 2 left to do before the demo.

I also had a successful pre-alpha playtest. There was some neat feature feedback (such as a "cancel" button when attempting to connect to a host). But no massive, game breaking bugs - which was wonderful! Pleased as punch with that. Most of all, it was a laugh and my friends really got into the swing of things. I've tacked an edit onto the end of this video.

The video below goes through the roadmap - a broad list of tasks that I know I need before I put up a demo on Steam. I've started the process of getting onto Steam but that... well, I'll let the video explain my problems with that.

Thanks all for your continued support and interest!

[JobLeonard]

I'm still impressed you find the time to work on this on top of a job and having a family

Good luck with polishing it all up for a proper alpha release! 

[brainwipe]

The past 6 weeks has definitely been split in two halves.

Firstly, I needed to add settings menus. I have put it off as long as possible while in search of the minimum viable product but I couldn't dodge it anymore. I have a very basic set of display, sound, mouse and keyboard settings screens that you can access while the game is playing and at the start menu. It's kind of boring but utterly necessary.

The second half has been getting the Steam page together! I finally got into Steam - having got a new passport to do it. Which is ridiculous but it's done now. It's just gone live so from now on I'm on the big Wishlist collection train.

I am still working on the Steam trailer - I have found a very talented composer in the form of Karen Tingley, who has absolutely nailed the brief. I can't wait to get the music into the game and on the trailer. I do need to reshoot some of the footage as I only created a rough cut for Karen to compose to.

To let me make decent footage for the trailer, I've added a photomode camera - which I wish I had long ago because it makes getting footage for devlogs a lot easier! Being able to clip and see the world from a different perspective has been wonderful. I can get really close to things and it feels more personal that way. And almost like a new game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2349380/Clomper/

[JobLeonard]

Wishlisted. I don't know if I ever get to play it (I'm not good with multiplayer games) but this thread alone has given me enough entertainment value that I owe you one sold Clomper game for that alone

[brainwipe]

It's been a hard month at home and my day job. Nothing catastrophic, just a LOT going on that has seriously depleted my spoon count. The times when I have had to work on Clomper have been diminished - half an hour here, 45 minutes there...

Fortunately, I've been working on a new feature - the inventory. I go into detail about my architecture and the designs I have in the video. And I knackered my fingers. I explain that too.

Another milestone has been receiving lovely unsolicited fan art from the Discord community. The works left me somewhat breathless - it feels like I've arrived!

I'm working toward launching an "evolving demo". It's a term I've heard Thomas Sala (Falconeer, Bulwark) use to describe a long running beta test. All the game systems will be included in the demo but I will restrict the amount of content - leaving that for the full game. I think the demo will probably still be a good few hours of gameplay.

After inventory, I have the weather feature, a batch of quality of life bits I want to change and then polish - which is mostly adding sound/music (which I have) and a graphics overhaul.

Here's #63, I hope there's something useful for you in there.

[JobLeonard]

Ooof, glad that you didn't truly lose any fingers

Also, "THE OLD TOOL" took me by surprise lol