UnrealCrash
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Development update - August 29, 2022
🕑 Added 2022-08-29 05:09:42 +0000 UTCMore progress on possibly more of an up-close shots, maybe it would be good to zoom-in camera whenever cut scene-like moments happen. Or maybe custom maps would like to introduce fighting modes, could be cool too.
For that - been fixing issues related to particles, bullet holes, did some progress on lip-sync. I'm not sure lip-sync will be anywhere great but maybe it will be alright if it will introduce 2 extra frames for slightly open mouth and a bit more open mouth.
More sound effects, more visuals for recently shown boss (S) as well as another entity I did work a while ago (R).
Not showing lip-sync example since I only did it to another skin that I'll not show yet. Still have to implement sync with spoken line volume as well as network sync and copying same lip-sync shapes for other Proxy skins. Probably for PB2's fan-art skins as well, but these aren't in a game yet.
Gameplay
- Made limbs of boss entity (S) indestructible until it runs out of hitpoints;
- Fixed issue causing limbs of boss entity (S) being non-destroyable when they fall into void (void deals instant damage to everything, effectively removing everything);
- Finished new kind of attack for boss entity (S);
- Visual effects for boss entity (S) attacks;
- Made destruction animation and physical debris for boss entity (S) whenever it is defeated;
- Fixed bug causing ammo information on HUD being shown after player dies;
- Fixed bug causing boss entity (S) to be unable to aim while frozen, instead it gets slowed down but is never frozen completely;
- Limbs of boss entity (S) now will teleport to boss whenever they are too far or there is a wall on a way between them;
- Fixed bug causing boss entity (S) to enter physical sleep state preventing it from moving;
- Fixed usability bug causing quick switch (usually Q key) not selecting expected weapon whenever weapon was dropped and instantly equipped;
- Fixed bug causing another entity (R) fighting for the same target, especially if target has multiple rigid bodies;
- Fixed bug causing laser attack sound being played of boss entity (S) whenever it is defeated;
- Added blinking light to another entity (R) because it looks more alive like this;
- Fixed issue with resting particles falling under the ground periodically due to optimization allowing each particle only interacting with one wall, water or ground (particle would only take background wall into account whenever ground is covered with this wall for some time). Solved by making particles remember 2 last walls. Probably should test case where 2+ backgrounds wall would overlap, but that could cause z-fighting too in general;
- Fixed improper formula for friction on top of angled surfaces for particles - particles no longer stick to it and can slide normally;
- Added reset logic for unreachable objects for another entity (R) after certain amount of time;
- Fixed bug causing attached grappling hooks to be cut by shields whenever they collide with them;
- Reworked grappling hook length control mechanic (used to be Shift + W/S/A/D but it wasn't too obvious nor handy). Still have to create in-game HUD to help players easily understand how new mechanic works;
- Added another Proxy variation skin;
- Made new Marine skin;
- Made it possible in Skin Editor to "draw feet over calf" which is required by new Marine's skin;
- Made detailed version of Marine's face on all existing skins;
- Fixed issue causing upward grappling hook shot of a player that is moving left/right to be thrown much faster towards direction player is moving;
- Fixed random physical impacts whenever game is trying to progress in-game world faster or with less frames per second;
- Fixed an issue causing glowing light in a shoulder of a player to not appear as glowing in game;
- Improved appearance of bullet holes in characters and entities - they are masked with limb sprite and no longer stick outside like it was before;
- Reworked dust particle sprite to be less of a gradient circle;
- Fixed bullet hole sprite when seen up-close;
- Fixed issue causing occasional sword attack when player intends to punch;
- Fixed issue causing toxic gas dealing damage to players that are within range but in a water;
- Fixed wrong sprite being shown whenever boss entity (S) is hit;
- Applied camera shake decrease for case when camera is zoomed in or zoomed out;
- Fixed bug causing death sounds as well as death animations to be not played when players bleed out;
- Made it so jetpack is not activated whenever player flies out of vehicle on big impact and happens to hold Space or W key;
- Particle optimizations;
- Blood decal optimizations;
- Started implementing face animations, probably just a few talking frames and blinking;
- Fixed bug caused by improper conversion of burn effect into basic color which caused faces to go completely black over time if facial expression changes;
- Optimized big part of sprite spawn logic whenever sprite is already cached;
- Added more line thickness settings as well as conditional appearance of layers for Skin Editor - this way facial animations should be possible for any custom character;
- One of Proxy skins can move her chin as if she was talking as well as blink (won't show it yet since it is new one). Still need to sync that to voice lines themselves in some way.
Sounds
- New boss entity (S) receives more sound effects for certain phases and death;
- Added sound effects (4 + 8 variations of one more sfx) for another entity (R);
- Sound of objects coming out of water.
Comments
UnrealCrash
^^
marzether
Proxy looks so cool!
AnarchE
Thanks for the replay. Cannot wait to play when it releases.
Patty
I Get your approach Eric! Definitely not the time to decide anything concrete just yet. But i do hope you consider the trailer approach i mentioned. Could be a good way to get some attention and see where they game is in terms of interests. Keep up the great work!
UnrealCrash
> Good Stuff. Amazing things. Lots of bug fixes I see. I do have a few questions though. > So for the blood sprites that appear on the damage player, are they permeant or disappear over time? Would stuff like jumping in water clean off the character or at least most of it? Currently they are permanent, can be easily disappear either over time or in water. They probably could even change appearance after getting into water. So far I want them to represent amount of hitpoints player has relative to its' original hitpoint amount, for the most part. Any kind of disappearance logic is not ready, though network sync is already able to handle disappearance of such holes. > The new Marine armor with the feet over calf stuff, for custom skins, will we be able to move the layers around like that? For example; I've been messing with some darkstar1 skins and those heads appear behind the torso rather than infront of it, also would it be possible to have certain parts of a limb will overlap certain areas while others don't? I'll be able to add options for head to be behind body next time it will be needed. Overlap - probably won't happen, limbs are strictly sorted by depth, and to not give depth control over each limb - Skin Editor will provide some switches about sorting of legs/head, perhaps. > How does this new boss work? How customizable is it? Is it only made or a specific faction or is there more to it? Specific faction, currently all limbs can be altered with decorations, but that is for every entity. I think I could make it as customizable as needed, perhaps limit variety of phases.
AnarchE
Good Stuff. Amazing things. Lots of bug fixes I see. I do have a few questions though. -So for the blood sprites that appear on the damage player, are they permeant or disappear over time? Would stuff like jumping in water clean off the character or at least most of it? -The new Marine armor with the feet over calf stuff, for custom skins, will we be able to move the layers around like that? For example; I've been messing with some darkstar1 skins and those heads appear behind the torso rather than infront of it, also would it be possible to have certain parts of a limb will overlap certain areas while others don't? -How does this new boss work? How customizable is it? Is it only made or a specific faction or is there more to it?
UnrealCrash
> Hey, Eric me again. Came with a late post this time as I have been somewhat busy for the past few weeks. Either way, I don't have any questions related to the post currently and instead would want to talk about something I noticed you have had a conversation about with the community on the discord a few days ago. > I am fully aware that you want Plazma Burst 3 to reach a much wider audience so that you can bring newer people back into the series and you probably have attempted things already in hopes to build toward that goal. > But as a consumer and somebody with knowledge of marketing I would like to leave my thoughts on how you should approach the situation before you continue to dive into it. > What's important eric is first making sure the game ends up in a presentable state. I don't know how far the game has come but for you to gain the interest of publishers willing to help you post the game to a wider audience and gain the attention of potential content creators you need to first make sure that what you are showing is at a stage where people can honestly be invested in it. > Once the game reaches a presentable state you then have a few options to go with. > First and foremost I suggest trying to get in contact with Armor Games. > You may remember them as they were quite a popular website that had plenty of flash games on it in the early days. They become publishers from what I can tell and have been helping flash developers make their game into a more modern and up-to-date version to be published on steam. Actually they've contacted me a somewhat long time ago, there was no current version of PB3 in development though so I had nothing really to reply to them. Also, I probably still can work with Coolbuddy - they did provide a huge help in terms of paying for servers through existence of PB2. > Speaking of steam I know you have a few doubts about posting the game on Steam but I'd like to say that posting it on steam is probably one of the best options for you. > You see the Gaming community is notoriously known to usually find and play games on steam. There are not many like-minded people interested in other gaming launchers let alone custom game launchers to play said games. > A game that went through a similar situation is called Metro Exodus. > This game originally was posted on the Epic Games launcher only. Meaning the game did not exist on Steam or any other platform. > This frankly split the community almost completely and had a lot of backlash to the game itself. > Eventually, the game would release on Steam but it did get quite hurt since many choose not to get it since the game was not purchasable on Steam. > Steam may have many games on it and most probably only get played for a few hours but choosing not to post it on Steam will drastically hurt the potential newcomers and publicity the game could have. > I don't think there are any problems with posting the game on other platforms alongside Steam but not posting it on steam could leave you with a negative outcome for the game which I doubt you would want. > Now I don't plan to stay on this topic for too long so I'll just give you some advice on what I suggest you do when it comes to presenting the game for the public view. > 1 - Release some form of Trailer about the game. > Does not need to be something crazy but a group known as Sky9 games announced that they were working on the remastering of the popular flash game Strike Force Heros. > Now the marking they did for the game was rather lackluster. Only posted a somewhat long Reddit post and 1 video about the game being in development. > I doubt Plazma Burst would go unnoticed should you publish some form of announcement trailer or sneak peeks into what you have been working on. > My approach would be to post some form of announcement trailer for the PB3. It's important to include Tags so people can easily discover the video. > 2 - Try to get in contact with Armor Games. > I highly suggest you do this should you publish the game onto Steam. > Like I said above they are quite popular and are known to help people remaster their old Flash games. That is definitely something to consider seriously. I do look through Developers talking about their experience with Steam. Keep in mind that these stores as well as sponsors also introduce a big cut in revenue. Probably a lot of integration work too. Then, PB players will get advertisements of other games they might consider better for themselves, which will result in faster playerbase shrink than ever. Cuts and advertisement of other games is why some game companies even consider their own stores/launchers in first place. There are also successful examples of developers going without Steam - Roblox, League of Legends. It probably depends more on game than just market. There are also not bad games on Steam that never got too much attention. Steam probably is not a some kind of charitable foundation - if multiplayer game requires bandwidth then someone should pay for it. If not enough new people buy game or do in-game purchases they just have to do their best to make less players play such game - probably they would have a variety of options on how to do that just so they won't spend their money on bandwidth game will be using. > Plazma burst is definitely a series of games people remember back in 2012 and 2011 and there is no doubt in my mind they would be willing to help you should you show them the game and the potential trailer. They could probably guide you a lot better than I can in terms of having the game reach a wider audience. > Other than that I don't have much else to say. Wish I could provide more but I ain't an expert on stuff like this. I just know a few things about marketing. > Hope I was able to help out or give you some potential solutions to consider in the future. Thank you! Steam was suggested to me before many times, though time for final decision probably hasn't come yet. There is plenty of stuff I could point out that I don't like about Steam. It really is a popular platform but it feels like it is an extra loading screen/multiple prompts too which I can't relate to so far.
Patty
Hey, Eric me again. Came with a late post this time as I have been somewhat busy for the past few weeks. Either way, I don't have any questions related to the post currently and instead would want to talk about something I noticed you have had a conversation about with the community on the discord a few days ago. I am fully aware that you want Plazma Burst 3 to reach a much wider audience so that you can bring newer people back into the series and you probably have attempted things already in hopes to build toward that goal. But as a consumer and somebody with knowledge of marketing I would like to leave my thoughts on how you should approach the situation before you continue to dive into it. What's important eric is first making sure the game ends up in a presentable state. I don't know how far the game has come but for you to gain the interest of publishers willing to help you post the game to a wider audience and gain the attention of potential content creators you need to first make sure that what you are showing is at a stage where people can honestly be invested in it. Once the game reaches a presentable state you then have a few options to go with. First and foremost I suggest trying to get in contact with Armor Games. You may remember them as they were quite a popular website that had plenty of flash games on it in the early days. They become publishers from what I can tell and have been helping flash developers make their game into a more modern and up-to-date version to be published on steam. Speaking of steam I know you have a few doubts about posting the game on Steam but I'd like to say that posting it on steam is probably one of the best options for you. You see the Gaming community is notoriously known to usually find and play games on steam. There are not many like-minded people interested in other gaming launchers let alone custom game launchers to play said games. A game that went through a similar situation is called Metro Exodus. This game originally was posted on the Epic Games launcher only. Meaning the game did not exist on Steam or any other platform. This frankly split the community almost completely and had a lot of backlash to the game itself. Eventually, the game would release on Steam but it did get quite hurt since many choose not to get it since the game was not purchasable on Steam. Steam may have many games on it and most probably only get played for a few hours but choosing not to post it on Steam will drastically hurt the potential newcomers and publicity the game could have. I don't think there are any problems with posting the game on other platforms alongside Steam but not posting it on steam could leave you with a negative outcome for the game which I doubt you would want. Now I don't plan to stay on this topic for too long so I'll just give you some advice on what I suggest you do when it comes to presenting the game for the public view. 1 - Release some form of Trailer about the game. Does not need to be something crazy but a group known as Sky9 games announced that they were working on the remastering of the popular flash game Strike Force Heros. Now the marking they did for the game was rather lackluster. Only posted a somewhat long Reddit post and 1 video about the game being in development. I doubt Plazma Burst would go unnoticed should you publish some form of announcement trailer or sneak peeks into what you have been working on. My approach would be to post some form of announcement trailer for the PB3. It's important to include Tags so people can easily discover the video. 2 - Try to get in contact with Armor Games. I highly suggest you do this should you publish the game onto Steam. Like I said above they are quite popular and are known to help people remaster their old Flash games. Plazma burst is definitely a series of games people remember back in 2012 and 2011 and there is no doubt in my mind they would be willing to help you should you show them the game and the potential trailer. They could probably guide you a lot better than I can in terms of having the game reach a wider audience. Other than that I don't have much else to say. Wish I could provide more but I ain't an expert on stuff like this. I just know a few things about marketing. Hope I was able to help out or give you some potential solutions to consider in the future. See you next post!
