ABD: A Beautiful Day
Patch Issues (Edited)
We've had some kind of major issue that occured during Friday's patch, and I was waiting to do a post about it until everything uploaded alright. Looks like there was a big problem and many of the games features broke, so we'll be addressing that today. Once that's been addressed, I'll make another announcement. You may get a series of patches throughout the day, so don't jump in until I make another announcement. More than likely early Tuesday or Wednesday we'll have that all sorted out, there was just so very much content that went into this patch it was likely something would break.
I'll let you all know as soon as it's sorted!
-EDIT:
Actually what I'm going to do is do the patch notes and dev blog below this sentence and delete the above when it's rectified.
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Dev Blog 12/21/2015
Animals, Items + Crafting, Persistence (Player, Unit, Structure, Inventory) and even Dynamic Infinite Terrain made it in this patch! Unfortunately, we experienced some major issues on Friday with the patch and it's been wicked weird all weekend. I've done some problem solving with it and I think I have some ideas myself, but ultimately it comes down to Jack tinkering with it to see what happened. This week has made leaps and bounds of progress, we really have most of the fundamentals down which will allow us to expand incredibly. Below, I'll give a brief description along with the major modules that have been in the works for the last couple of weeks.
-Animals.
-Items + Crafting.
-Persistence.
-Dynamic Infinite Terrain.
-Data
-This/Next week.
-Future.
Animals: We haven't had the budget or the sales to make our own, so these were outsourced some time ago; totaling 30+ animal variations across the entire spectrum. Each of the tiles of terrain are broken down into roughly 600mx600m chunks, with 156 of each variant on these tiles. So essentially we'll have a huuuuuuge quantity of wildlife all over the place. I'm not sure what other games come close to that number, but at 40-60fps that's pretty great.
Items + Crafting: Due to an obnoxious problem on Thursday and Friday, Allen is still costing us money. He tinkered around with the save/prefab settings that saves into Unity, even when you delete/redownload components and the entire animal system had to be reconfigured, organized, and arranged properly. Items and crafting are largely in, but there is some items left to do pertaining to them due to the setback. This week should have that addressed, so until then you'll see a crafting tab but it's not working.
Persistence: This is huge, we have the whole spectrum persistent minus minor things that don't interrupt gameplay; once we have the time, we'll make the entire board persistent. Your units, your inventory, your future ABD Coins & Non-Lootable inventory, your structures, most of the terrain, everything is persistent.
Dynamic Infinite Terrain: We took a large portion of the former area and made it seamless, then arranged it in a way that would be largely difficult to notice differences if you intend on traveling enormous distances. Essentially, you can walk (with supplies of course) for weeks, months, or years, build a structure, and that structure is persistent as well as reachable by other players. I'm really not certain if we are the first MMO with persistent, infinite terrain, but this should allow for people to spread their wings out from the spawn area and generate some truly unique data.
Data: I am going to be very vague with this, but we have a lot of plans pertaining to data tracking and it should really prove to be something wild. Our website is garbage right now, I was mostly focusing on game development rather than PR so I went with wix. In the near future, we will have a new website, pertaining to said data among other things, which should prove to be remarkably impressive.
This/Next Week: ALL of the above items have had presidence over the holiday, I'd rather gameplay functionality make it in even over my own personal wishes for epic holiday madness. Christmas is my favorite holiday overall, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa coming in as a close second and third. I'm certain next year will be better for us, we'll have more staff and be expanding with sales over the next few months to ensure we never miss another holiday again. We can probably make everything snowy and white for the holiday, but again, we've had some issues this last week that take presidence over making a bigger headache for Jack last minute.
Future: We are desperately close to checking off the final boxes on our editors, modifiers, modules and nodes. There really isn't a whole lot left before we refine/fine-tune/polish the game, to a point where we can litterally just let our scripts interpret new items and stats then push to live branch. What does that mean? We are close to tiers, after we do initial polishing we will begin working on tier progression.
It's too bad we had a break this week, Boris and I were going to capture footage for new gameplay video over the weekend and do a promotion on Steam. Anyway, this should get sorted out earlier on in the week, and we'll still be able to gather a trailer. I've got some work to do on Steamworks revising the game manual, but there are certain steps that need to be taken first before I go ahead and do that. I'll be removing the game manuals because they're outdated, both UI and functionality wise.
This is a long post and I'll wrap it up. Long story long, this has been an amazing week! I can't wait to see your reactions when this gets taken care of, we are so close!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Dev Blog 12/10/2015
I was trying to do a dev blog last week, but Steam wasn't allowing me. It seemed to be an issue in Steamworks that was a big to-do-about, so I left it alone for a week.
Instead of posting the update I wrote last week, I'll talk about what we have going on. We ran into a roadblock with how much we can do with Unity, so we've had to do some unique scripting to handle various components of game objects. In short, it's going really well and the visual difference is remarkable - as well as a huge FPS increase - so we are very excited. Initial testing with FPS is showing 90+ frames per second, with a massive increase in terrain objects. We won't have an update this week, as we will continue testing through the weekend and finalize some features for the 18th which is next Friday. Such a large game with so many working parts is rough, with Unity not cooperating it's even more difficult.
Next weeks update inclues:
-FPS Fixes
-Bug Fixes
-*New* Infinite Terrain
-Updated Terrain
-*New* AI NPC's
-*New* Inventory Management Integration
It is possible we will get these in for the update, but if we do not they are to follow shortly after:
-*New* Building Persistence
-*New* Wildlife
-*New* Items
In terms of what remains for us, a HUGE chunk of our foundation is complete and we are nearing up on the tail end of our initial development phase. From here, we add and modify any number of new resources, items, equipment, weapons, components, structures, characters, aesthetics etc. As we start pumping the game full of interactable objects that have been shelved for months, we will continue to polish the gameplay and functionality as the final components for the bane of ABD. The biggest thing about a MMO is a large database of items, and interaction with the environment is especially important. There will be a point when we have a enormous database of game objects, which will be created and implemented regularly without any additional coding.
A large portion of the game requires fundamental editors and extentions for us to add new items, modify their statistics, and how they are acknowledged by the game. When I mention these stages, or use terms like "Inventory management" it is a brief mention of one of these editors. So lets say we have a Tier 1 hatchet, well that hatchet also has stats that a Tier 30 M4A1 uses since it is a weapon, such as damage, conditions etc. With these large editors being created, we can go back through the game and add any number of items in various categories, from throwing a Banana to a hand grenade.
One thing I will make a special mention of is the new Infinite Terrain. By taking the extra time the last week and a half, Jack has worked with Boris to create Infinite Terrain that is persistent. Not every component of the terrain is complemetely persistent, but it is rapidly getting there. Yep, from trees which will regrow over time from their stumps, to rocks and bushes and other foliage you will be able to harvest in the near future. With this new system, all it takes is modeling a resource and run it through a compiler and bam we have a new component with its own requirements, conditions, statistics and information.
Again, we are getting rather close. There are a few modules that will take extensive time such as our Diplomacy and Alliances, but we will take care of that while you all are exploring and destroying the environment to your best ability. We all very much look forward to seeing your reactions after next weeks update, hang in there and have a great holiday if we don't get to see you after the update!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Dev Blog 11/26/2015 - Combat, Building, Fixes, & More
From our hearts to yours, we hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!
I'm not sure if Jack is out getting some last minute In-N-Out, but I just finished testing the third iteration of our build and it's really solid. Remarkable lag fixes, tons of bug fixes, and we've introduced combat as mentioned in last weeks dev blog. Once Jack gets back, if I can catch him before the Holiday, he'll probably push this to both Beta & Live. Otherwise it is a Holiday week and Jack has been kind enough to continue (As well as Boris) working this week, especially having the flu to top it off, so we should all give him a hand.
Since it's a Holiday I'm going to keep this short, I know everyone is strapped for time. Building structures and harvesting wood has been fixed, so people can build correctly now. We have the framework for inventory management completed a while back, so with the combat that has been introduced we'll be able to swap out weapons and loot pretty soon. There is a large quantity of physical items that have been shelved due to the setback, but these are just waiting for Jack versus waiting for the modeling to be done. Overall, I'm really happy with the update and I can really see its potential, as well as where we will be down the road. The area is so huge, and we don't have sprinting in yet, so it'll be difficult to find players to fight unless a bunch of you play at once. Or, if you don't want to fight, banding together and creating a settlement. Structural components are not persistant, but units are, so if you leave the game your stuff will dissapear but your units will be in the place where you left them. Structural persistance is just one step we haven't been able to get around to yet, so many other things have taken a priority.
Have a great Holiday, see you all in a bit!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Legacy Edition
Table of Contents:
-Legacy Edition
-Upcoming Update
-FFFFFFFFFFFLOOOL
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Legacy Edition:
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Legacy Edition comes at the point when we surpass where we were at launch, having fully recovered from a scandal and exceeded quality of gameplay initially. In addition, we are releasing this edition of the game as a singular component of a very large process as we move through Early Access. Game production is a rather involved, hefty process with a plethora of moving parts and angles. ABD: Legacy Edition is the, "Special Edition" which includes all future DLC & Expansions which will begin coming out in January-February and continue up to and surpassing Tier 40. ABD is a custom, networked simulation with real time user feedback and analytics, as a multipurpose, multifacet, "Endgame" RTS solution which can be tailored to any and every playstyle.
You will be able to read the full description of Legacy on our store page later today.
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Upcoming Update:
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We are about to release last weeks update, which had a few major snags but have since been fixed, which will encompass a large array of fixes and features which were previously damaged. Although we aren't there yet, we have been making a lot of progress, and we will continue to do so regardless. We do our best to make weekly updates, not monthly updates, and you recieve content as soon as it's available. Lastly, with this update we will be putting together a gameplay trailer, which is long overdue.
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FFFFFFFFFFFLOOOL:
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It appears that nobody understood what I was doing, we are "Gag A Maggot" afterall... Anyway, the canceling of Legacy Edition being free for people who bought it in that two week window was a joke. The forums were totally dead, nobody was defending us in any light and everyone kept saying "we have nothing for our money" which is inaccurate; you have permanent access to ABD: A Beautiful Day as we progress through Early Access. The game recieves regular updates, and we don't update only when it's a broken update that will cause severe issues. I wanted to make a splash before this next update, and it looks like I've slightly accomplished my gag.
Who qualifies for a complimentary copy of ABD: Legacy Edition?
-Non-Refund Game Owners
-Dates: August 14th, 2015 to August 31st, 2015.
-User does not have an active community hub ban.
-User does not incur a community hub ban before delivery date.
-Delivery Date: November-December timeframe.
-Process: Steam API Checking
It's going to take probably a full day to cross check initial owners and configure users who bought the game initially, and who still own the game. I'm not going to be stopping production to distribute the DLC Edition that won't have substantial content until like January anyway, so we'll be doing that when we have down time before January-February timeframes.
With this being said, I hope all of you had a great weekend and I look forward to see you killing eachother post-update!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Legacy Edition
For those new players who are curious about Legacy Edition, we have had to rebuild the game since late August and we are issuing weekly updates as soon as they are available. As any Early Access game, you can expect issues or functions that do not work correctly. As we progress through Early Access, your opinions and ideas matter to us, and your suggestions do not go unread or unreplied. Please use the designated forum for questions, suggestions, bug reporting and conceptual contributions.
Thank you!
11/19/2015 - Update Delayed
A few very integral things broke, and there is just no way we can update right now. We're going to go through and make these fixes, and we will post another announcement as soon as we are ready. Sorry for the delay!
-Robert
Dev Blog 11/18/2015 - Update Tomorrow (We hope, we are just three dudes.)
Unless something stupid comes up, we should have an update out tomorrow. There is some cleanup and stiching to do, but this should be a very hefty update with quite a splash. A lot of fixes have been made, a lot of features are being introduced, and we are yet again stepping closer into the threshold of redemption. Here is a list.
-New tasks.
-Combat.
-New minion inventory and contextual equip.
-Multi-minion tasks (resource, build, move).
-Context actions(move selection to building/tree/minion).
-Minion attributes: Health, Attack, Speed.
-Minion idle tasking, find shelter for HP regen.
-FPS(Frames Per Second) enhancement as a stopgap.
-Trees have been revamped.
-NPC AI.
-Base for items and crafting (they'll go in the UI on RMB).
-Items and mountpoints for weapons.
-Hammer is in, more to follow next week.
-Fixes for animations and speed differences based in task
-Run/Jog caused a weird skip issue, so I took it out atm)
-Move/harvest/build are now RMB (Right Mouse Button) on terrain/tree/building without any mode issues.
There is a lot Boris has also been doing, revamping game models and structural items, but these won't neccessarily be in this update. Why? We are purely focusing on core features and mecanics right now, and when the time arises as we progress through development we'll update these items. Some of the stuff Boris has been covering are as follows:
-Structure Animations.
-Storage + Animations.
-Resources.
-Tools.
-Weapons.
-Characters.
-Weather.
-Environment: Rivers, Seasons etc.
A lot of this, especially with SUCH a small team, involves creating assets to be readied for when they can be coded in. What does that mean though? We prepare game objects a long time in advance so we can code them in at a later date, it's kind of like juggling a schedule a few weeks in advance. You might not need that tent now, but when the weather changes and you have a school field trip you better have booked the tent. Get it? If not, don't worry.
Anyway, we are moving forward and its an exciting time to be developing. It feels a bit slow from a user standpoint, but in the end it is incredibly fast. I am excited to bring this to you all, we are really making leaps and bounds of progress. As soon as we get a larger player base, we can really expand and hire more staff. Until then, you're stuck with just us three for the time being. See you after the update!
-Robert
Dev Blog 11/14/2015 - Update Status
Today's update has been postponed to early next week because of a few issues, which very understandibly are delaying the update. Although we do have a slight delay, the promise behind this upcoming update is pretty cool. Among a decent FPS fix, we've got a lot of improvements and fixes as well as new features.
What all made it in this week?
-FPS Improvements.
-Bug Fixes.
-Framework for Steam Workshop.
-Framework & Functionality for AI: Behaviors, Priorities.
-Framework for Modules: Breeding, Diplomacy, Crafting.
-Combat.
Here are some pretty .gif's for people to see the progress in the back end.
Each minion has a, "Posture" which dictates their actions in specific circumstances. The postures include; Covert, Passive, Defensive, Aggressive. This helps people do two things: Distinguish a minions posture for their units, and locate unit's in heavy foliage.
https://gyazo.com/566a577a53dba93db7fed00ded617cfc
At a distance, these posture outlines are still visible for easy identification.
https://gyazo.com/c31ae9ecb642d31ae7b2349d8db1ceae
Initial attacking if weapons aren't available, but this was an early gif from earlier in the week.
https://gyazo.com/647d76aac966333d6f0c38b2988c30ce
Ganging up with multiple units on a threat.
https://gyazo.com/8076e4ac83740a9b27281b23179f63ba
Bug: Items are having scaling issues, but this is mostly addressed. We want to make absolutely sure a few of these are rock solid before pushing, hence the delay today. Hammer's aren't supposed to be q-tips, and ear wax isn't a threat!!! :-p
https://gyazo.com/8a15316f2c1514b1758a7b9237acfd72
Mount points made it in, so this opens a lot of possabilities such as displaying owned equipment on the body as well as in the hands for grabbing/taking/moving environmental items.
https://gyazo.com/b4c41a74f73f916291910c35d9f2b19d
Bug: I got 99 problems and this is one.
https://gyazo.com/e3663106bb62417448e2e8589ab51fe6
Bug: I like to hold ze hammur by da FACE!
https://gyazo.com/9d814330caed6ab9d6396c42c8cb98eb
Animations are firing correctly, but we'd like to really see how much we can lay this out framework wise so that it has as many applications as possible.
https://gyazo.com/9631c1b99323a4f015d8f5db5aaf6481
Get em'!
https://gyazo.com/35abc42842979da8bb60d5f525f05912
Different View
https://gyazo.com/4b4f02b041dd5980ac9860232c89f464
Attacking with multiple units, starting to look really cool here. Reminds me of stealing a bycicle in the wrong neighborhood of San Andreas.
https://gyazo.com/46c108b4cef4b9754717bd5cb6ccb509
Notice the equip and unequip when cycling between interactions.
https://gyazo.com/b8d20d7b7a35d580785792eb595615d5
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Overall this has been a very promising week! We have a ways to go still, but we are heavily focusing on module and feature creation after we set the framework up for the rest of the game last month. The behavior system, including the priorities and tasks are what is particularly interesting and remarkably unique. Sure, other games have little guys that walk around and do things, but by the sheer capacity of the AI system and the scope of ABD, the game should feel VERY much alive when people are able to start making villages. This next update will certainly allow for that, so for sure feel rest assured that it's going to be pretty visually exciting as we progress through Early Access. This system in particular should certainly give everyone a deep glance into our future.
As a final note, in light of the attack on Paris today, we would like to relay our deepest condolences to our French players. We hope all of you are in a safe place, and that if you are affected by this tragedy that we are sending positive thoughts your way in this time of peril.
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Dev Blog 11/14/2015 - Update Status
Today's update has been postponed to early next week because of a few issues, which very understandibly are delaying the update. Although we do have a slight delay, the promise behind this upcoming update is pretty cool. Among a decent FPS fix, we've got a lot of improvements and fixes as well as new features.
What all made it in this week?
-FPS Improvements.
-Bug Fixes.
-Framework for Steam Workshop.
-Framework & Functionality for AI: Behaviors, Priorities.
-Framework for Modules: Breeding, Diplomacy, Crafting.
-Combat.
Here are some pretty .gif's for people to see the progress in the back end.
Each minion has a, "Posture" which dictates their actions in specific circumstances. The postures include; Covert, Passive, Defensive, Aggressive. This helps people do two things: Distinguish a minions posture for their units, and locate unit's in heavy foliage.
At a distance, these posture outlines are still visible for easy identification.
Initial attacking if weapons aren't available, but this was an early gif from earlier in the week.
Ganging up with multiple units on a threat.
Bug: Items are having scaling issues, but this is mostly addressed. We want to make absolutely sure a few of these are rock solid before pushing, hence the delay today. Hammer's aren't supposed to be q-tips, and ear wax isn't a threat!!! :-p
Mount points made it in, so this opens a lot of possabilities such as displaying owned equipment on the body as well as in the hands for grabbing/taking/moving environmental items.
Bug: I got 99 problems and this is one.
Bug: I like to hold ze hammur by da FACE!
Animations are firing correctly, but we'd like to really see how much we can lay this out framework wise so that it has as many applications as possible.
Get em'!
Different View
Attacking with multiple units, starting to look really cool here. Reminds me of stealing a bycicle in the wrong neighborhood of San Andreas.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall this has been a very promising week! We have a ways to go still, but we are heavily focusing on module and feature creation after we set the framework up for the rest of the game last month. The behavior system, including the priorities and tasks are what is particularly interesting and remarkably unique. Sure, other games have little guys that walk around and do things, but by the sheer capacity of the AI system and the scope of ABD, the game should feel VERY much alive when people are able to start making villages. This next update will certainly allow for that, so for sure feel rest assured that it's going to be pretty visually exciting as we progress through Early Access. This system in particular should certainly give everyone a deep glance into our future.
As a final note, in light of the attack on Paris today, we would like to relay our deepest condolences to our French players. We hope all of you are in a safe place, and that if you are affected by this tragedy that we are sending positive thoughts your way in this time of peril.
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Dev Blog 11/10/2015 - Fresh Start, Lag Issue, & Upcoming Items
It has been a really awkward experience from the beginning, and by beginning I mean from Kickstarter to Steam Greenlight to present. The game has had so many ups, downs, and sideways turns, but we've prevailed against a huge tide of hardship. It has been difficult to produce the game without being successful on Crowd Funding, it has put a huge damper on what we are able to actually pull off versus the funding we do have. We aren't out of the woods yet, and we might have to head back to IndieGoGo in the near future if Legacy does not sell well. Anyway, let me get to the update for you.
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Fresh Start
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I have been pretty strict on the forums, and the players who I have removed from the community hub are rather passionate and regular about stampeding the review section which I can't touch. Rightfully so, people need to know what's going on. On the other hand, what HAS been said in the review section via the comments is very harsh and on the verge of online harassment. Anyway, I applaud the creativity and passion of ALL of my players, and I'm certainly willing to give the formerly banned players another chance.
Please feel free to leave a review, at least do us the justice of updating your review as we progress through Early Access. If you want to have a discussion about my former work or my credability, that's what PM's and the Community Hub is for; which you all are now being given access back to. In return, I'd like to ask that these formerly banned players clean up their comments in the review section. So please, take this gesture as it is intended and let's all have a fresh start with eachother.
Welcome back!
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Lag Issue
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Some of you think we're over here going like...
But this is just not the case...
There has been a lag issue that opened up in one of our recent updates, and it has taken a while to get to the cause of it. As we switched over to an AI system, there was a big problem with environmental content and quantity. This is the primary reason you don't see any large scale MMORTS's out there, it's quite a big problem. In December, Unity is launching v5.3 which manages draw calls a lot better, so until then we've got to take it a little easy on the quantity of trees in our environment among other items. It's going to take some time and be a progressive fix, so hang in there!
The Unity issue is something that is causing a lot of problems all across the board, a lot of developers are experiencing the very same issue. On one hand, Unity shines in a lot of ways, and on the other, different engines like Unreal have their strengths and weaknesses as well. With the current level of sales I can't bring on another programmer or two to has this stuff out really quickly, so this monster job will be progressive. It reminds me of 1995 being on dial up trying to play a game where my computer isn't strong enough.
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Upcoming Items
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As well as some fixes and changes for the next update, there is a lot on the plate for this month. We've got Combat and Crafting coming really soon, theres advanced behaviors and all sorts of other neat stuff on the way as well. I'm leaving this a little vague because I don't want to over promise, and I don't want to under deliver. Like I said in the first paragraph, we didn't reach our crowd funding goals, we didn't get many sales, so development is going to go slower than what was envisioned. If Legacy underperforms, then we'll take another shot at IndieGoGo before we turn the lights off for ABD after December.
If anyone is curious why we haven't made an update, we've run into a couple snags. For future reference, if you would like to know what a snag looks like, check out this poor fellow. Yup, we can't release that can we?
https://gyazo.com/1a87a4ce602516c611c5c5f3c8dee263
Which makes us have this kinda face...
-Robert