GmanGavin

September 9th, the website is mostly done waiting on publishing, a few days into android game development, and potential schedule changes.

• Mobile game is now titled “Party Pressure”
• Mobile game is now using “LiteNetLib” for networking
• Riverfishin is mostly complete waiting on the client

With this website update, it has been made compatible with different screen sizes such as mobile devices. The website is mostly waiting for changes on text, images, and sponsors before it can be published.

The mobile app is mostly UI with some networking worked in using Unity’s UNET system which will soon be removed from the engine. I have been given advice on using a third party UDP networking solution called LiteNetLib although learning resources with this is a lot more ify compared to UNET. The GitHub can be found here.

Development Review: Networking is a lot more difficult than I had expected especially with the number of multiplayer games that exist. There has been difficulty in getting certain devices to connect with other devices, some ways work, some don’t with the current UNET system. Hopefully, with LiteNetLib I can get things to work the way they should.

Side note: I may be getting a job soon and development is likely to slow down.

August 27th, I’ve been working on learning new software, techniques, and art to create better time efficiency and polished products.

• Developing an unnamed mobile game project.
• Learning Xmind Zen & Scrivener.
• Updating LinkedIn and Indeed accounts.
• New Game Industry Tycoon itchio icon.

Attempting new forms of planning using a tool called Xmind Zen, a mind mapping software used by enterprise companies. A problem I ran into with developing Game Industry Tycoon was brainstorming with Google Docs and not all that much. This led to problems in development due to a lacking plan leaving me to constantly slow down production to figure out what I wanted to do with the project.
The current mobile project I’m working on still has a title in progress, I’m not really sure what I want to name it. Although Underworld Espionage is sort of growing on me with an acronym of “U WHEN” kind of like a reverse “PUB Jee”. This is a mafia-like project with inspiration from Spyfall and Town of Salem. However, something to set it apart is inspiration from “Text Adventures” and “Collectable Card Games” (CCG), such as Hearthstone.

I always decided to put a little more effort into my ongoing project Game Industry Tycoon and create this new icon for the itchio website. Hopefully, it is nicer than the previous icon and draws in more clicks. Although I may do another iteration of this design in the near future or make adjustments to the icon.

August 19th, have been working on a website for a week, along with being on vacation for another week.

• Remaking riverfishin website
• Learning HTML5 / CSS
• Applying for positions at Unity Technologies Bellevue
• Updating my Linkedin profile

Since my last update on the 31st of July, I’ve been taking time off of developing Game Industry Tycoon to instead find full/part-time work and have an income for my near future. This includes a revised resumé, revised LinkedIn profile, and focus on getting experience to build up a more professional profile with experience.

I was hired a couple weeks ago to make minor changes to riverfishin but I had a feeling towards learning HTML5/CSS3 by remaking the entire website with Visual Studio Code. I’m currently making the whole website with not frameworks or JavaScript and everything is so far working the way I want it to.

Completing development on this website may actually have me working on another website for one of my Grandfathers business.

However, even though there has been a complete halt in developing Game Industry Tycoon, I may be back in Unity3D soon but working on a much smaller Android play store project. Plans are currently a Mafia / Town of Salem idea that works peer to peer, thus allowing me more Unity3D experience and a published product to have under my experience.

I also have ideas for working in Adobe’s InDesign to create well-designed pdf files for ideas that will be more organized versions of my google documents. This should help with future projects and development processes with more planning and overseeing development.

Day 144, added design and decoration to the main menu with settings menu functionality

+Added - ‘Main menu’ background animation
+Added - 'Main menu’ info text bar
+Added - auto-scrolling text to 'info text bar’
+Added - 'Settings menu’ media functionality
~Updated - 'Setting menu’ text color, dimmed unfunctional options
~Updated - 'Setting menu’ visual settings option text
~Adjusted - 'Main Menu’ monitor animation to be '50%’ slower
*Fixed - 'Settings menu’ missing background gradient

Patch: With this patch, it begins the process of cleaning up the first impressions of the project, improving the main menu, adding details, and a learning experience. First I created an animated background using a pattern created with Adobe Illustrator, I also slowed down the animation on the monitor by 50%.

The learning experience mostly comes from the animated info bar at the time, the animation is actually completed scripted and not created with Unity tools. It also is the first object in my project to use instantiation to have it repeat. I did originally have difficulties making this work with location values, originally using transform.position and transform.localPosition giving me strange location values until I finally made an array of two rectTransforms and used anchored position.

Another simple change was making the checkboxes actually function within the visual settings and providing feedback about which ones aren’t actually functional.

Future plans: I’m currently working on completely replacing the Character Creator scene with a brand new scene that is currently not applied to the build settings. I also have plans for creating new assets for the settings menu UI and changing the audio settings a bit. I plan on creating a character creator that uses instantiation, and character personality options with micro stats.

I also have thoughts to replace the character info screen with an object such as a phone or tablet that also can contain other options similar to 'Saints Row The Third. However, this system may go towards another idea of void or universal view similar to “Skyrim” or “The Darkness II”

Development Review: The instantiation function is something I’ve been planning on learning for a while and works very well so far. Taking into mind the design decision that have been put into place of other products such as “Saints Row The Third”, “Mount and Blade Warband”, and “Skyrim”. At one point I had post-processing working in the main menu, however, it was being applied to every object when I only had it planned to work with the background animation.

Side note: Thinking of creating a BTS blog like content with a camera, Broll, editing and more. Also trying to organize the blog text a bit more with sub headers.

Day 143, slow development lately, been sidetracked

~Updated - [‘Unity 2018.2’] -> ['Unity 2018.2.1’]
*Fixed - 'JeeOS’ 'F’ key dis-functionality after 'DevApp, new’
*Fixed - 'JeeOS’ 'ESC’ key dis-functionality after 'DevApp, new’
*Fixed - 'DevApp’ being open after 'F’ / 'Esc’ exit
*Fixed - 'Main menu’ setting master audio not allowing '5 Db’ option

Development continues with the project but this time I’m taking a step back and reviewing the project as a gamer rather than a developer. I’ve been working 'In the business rather than on the business’ in other words as the follower trying to find a lead through very lackluster experimentation.

I’m going back into idea/planning mode, finding my values as a gamer rather than a workaholic and finding aspects in every other title that I believe bring enjoyment, along with the questions I receive from others. I’m reviewing what I want from the perspective of my intent and motivation, a product that I wish existed and would love to have. I’ve begun going back into my idea documents on google drive and thinking hard about what I want to have completed in the project. I also have plans of making a problems/solution page but not project specific more of marketplace specific, the problems and solutions of consumers for consumers. What is going to make this product better than alternatives!

I know there is a lot for me to do, but I need to construct much more specific solutions for what I actually need to complete, and from this, I’m starting from the beginning, the character creator and working all the way to end the game. I know I want to build a universe for the project some light end lore background, using this to add to the experience while also allowing players to have all the freedoms to play the way they’d prefer.

Side note: I’ve been kind of distracted with personal things and working very light on the project, but I hope to pick up the pace soon.

Day 142, updated specific Vectorized assets to a new importer

+Added - outlet to left wall
+Added - music to ‘ingame’
+Added - sfx to 'JeeOS’ when you press 'F’ to launch it
+Added - content to new project in 'DevApp’
~Overhauled - 'Room’ object placement and sizing
~Overhauled - 'ingame’ world objects to use unity vector graphics
~Updated - 'Room’ to have more detail with floor texture
~Updated - volume sliders 'ingame’ to be functional
~Adjusted - character to be larger
~Adjusted - colliders
~Adjusted - hover ui size
~Adjusted - days to be 50% slower
*Fixed - strange anti-aliasing / growth issues with objects
*Fixed - being able to open the tab menu while in 'JeeOS’

I spent two days working on this update is that the first day was mostly trial and error, figuring out how to get the new Vector Graphics importer to work with the older SVG importer. Both have pros and cons, however, the new Vector Graphics importer is the official Unity support importer that is currently in its preview stage.

One major benefit of the new importer is that it converts assets into sprites allowing me to use Unity’s other 2D tools such as their new animation toolkit. However, downsides are to do with a little buggy tesselation that occurs with the new importer, it seems to create more vectors than needed along with having very odd connection points.

I updated the room asset to gives a wooden floor texture design, this may be improved in the future, I felt that it was a larger improvement to the overall design of the game. The character is still of course in heavy need of replacement and with the new importer, I’m sure that I only need to make a front and back side of the character that are illustrated at the isometric side.

Development Review: Overall, taking a step back and looking at my development progress, it’s been pretty lackluster. I’m working on a project that I’ve been experimenting with for some time now, I need to concept what I’m actually trying to achieve and focus on finishing up many systems. Gameplay is heavily lacking and there is no clear decision of how I want to design it as of yet. I have a few fixes for tomorrow, but I really need to head back into planning and figure out the problem I’m facing and the solutions I want to bring.

Side note: I’ve been getting back into polyphasic sleep, changed my schedule a smudge, and started getting back on track, hopefully, this is beneficial to the development of the project.

Day 141, Progress continues to be made on the computer UI rework

+Added - ‘DevApp’ title
+Added - 'Esc’ functionality to 'JeeOS’
~Updated - 'Main menu’ to apply settings menu when pressing 'esc’
~Updated - 'Main menu’ welcome back message
~Updated - 'Settings menu’ to save new audio settings
*Fixed - 'File’ button in 'DevApp’ highlighting on child objects
*Fixed - game not resuming if 'F’ is pressed in power on state
*Fixed - being able to change time while in 'JeeOS’
*Fixed - being able to open pause menu while in 'JeeOS’
*Fixed - character missing in character creator

Small visual progress has been made, but a lot more technical advancedments have been made with the UI, communicating it with other scripts currently in place. Soon this system will replace many older scripts giving a whole lot more content and aesthetic improvements creating a better overall experience. Many changes I make in a single day are from player feedback, a complaint of design which quickly gets resolved such as the time changes, lack of 'ESC’ functionality and more.

Design decisions for what comes next in the computer UI rework are still being experimented and thought over. I’m unsure of how I want to create the plan, design, and dev stages in terms of gameplay mechanics.

I have plans to remake the levelup graphic with some animated action similar to the way I have the exit object in the main menu. I also have several types of audio to use for leveling up, and many other types to review for game implementation to fill up the entire experience.

Side note: Awaiting suggestions and feedback via Itch.io discussion.

Day 140, continued development towards reproducing ui and gameplay

+Added - ‘JeeOS’ apps
+Added - 'JeeOS’ task functionality
+Added - 'JeeOS’ open app animation
+Added - 'JeeOS’ wip message called error 400
+Added - 'DevApp’ file content and functionality

Work continues on developing the virtual operating system, giving a much better experience in terms of design and looks. Functionality is being scripted in to allow for a much more dense experience and getting refreshed gameplay mechanics in.

With this update and ui system, I am having thoughts on remaking the 'ingame’ development process. Perhaps splitting of the planning and design stages, creating a system with a lot more management for the player. I want to continue making the gameplay, art, and everything a whole feel like a higher quality product than what it currently stands as, along with continuing to create a system that stands out from other indie and triple-A titles.

Upcoming development focus will be furthering the “DevApp” filling up a lof unused space, fixing any problems found in development, and adding some audio. I really hope that audio is something that can help polish up the product.

I am also going through some old steam titles and really examining them for what creates good UI and memorable systems. There is a lot to be done with this product and a lot more experimenting to do. Most of not all development and design lies on my shoulders to create the best possible experience for someone to play.