Fixed a bug where respawn didn't work correctly after death and selecting same frog.
Fixed a bug where the Melee Objects like baseball bat, egg, wrench, keyboard etc were hitting you..while very AF?... it was still a bug
Added new keys to exit devices and pamphlets - C and middle Mouse to exit examine an object
also don't forget to check out the new trailer for The Smashing Egg Event.
[previewyoutube="eLKq6UYZwiw;full"]
Smashing Egg Update Amazing Frog? V3 Beta
[previewyoutube="eLKq6UYZwiw;full"]
Smashing Egg Update is a V3 Beta update.
The Egg hunt and the ability to get the Bunny outfit will be available only till the end of April. Find all the 9 Eggs scattered around Swindonshire, to get the bunny gear.
Use the new Maps to find them.
But its also an update to V3 with more content, fixes and probably more issues.
One main new feature is a new building that we have been meaning to add for some time. Explore the New Tourist Information centre to learn more about SwindonShire.
Also Easter is not just about Breakable chocolate eggs. There are also other smashable items available.
We have made improvement to many things, but there may also be some new issues. I will try and run some hot fixes asap and will keep my eyes on the forums.
Spread some love in Amazing Frog?
This is an update for Beta (V3) you need to be on the beta to get this update.
Spread a little love this February, with the lovely crossbow.
A limited time to improve your wardrobe
Have some fun, Play some games
Some old friends returned, they needed some attention since the Holiday season as they were not knocking other frogs over...They are a work in progress.
These are some Steam Remote Play screen shots. Steam Remote Play has been a great help to us over the past few years when we were often not able to share the same space. We will be using Steam Remote Play a lot especially with the upcoming Remastered (V2) update.
Also, we made some fixes and controls updates and Hal put up a whiteboard with some info on how to pilot the biplane. I wanted to say thanks, because in the last update we forgot to test the plane on mouse and keyboard which was majorly stupid. It happens. So thanks so much for pointing that we missed that. We are always grateful for all the feedback.
Note: This is a Beta (V3) update. You need to be on the beta to play. We came up with this style of banner to help demonstrate which version each announcement post relates to. I know I haven't really taken the time to explain what we have been doing with development as much as perhaps I used to over the years. Now is probably not the time to do so and it might serve better to write a separate development blog. Right now, we are in a stronger position to say what's coming up more so than we have been for years. The next update will be a major update to Remastered(V2) where we hope to push more of the original legacy content and new content after which another big update will come to Beta(V3).
LIMITED TIME ONLY - Tiger Update for V3 Beta?
This is an Update for V3 Beta - you need to be on the beta branch "V3 Beta (2022)"
Collect the 88 stickers
Get the 88 stickers dotted around, that have been put up in the buildings around Swindon to unlock tiger clothes.
We needed some new clothes for Lunar New Year.
These will only be available for a limited time !
It also has general V3 type progress... Things like crossbows, a new vehicle and a bunch of fixes (and probably some new issues) It may even save where you last were.
This Update is only for V3 Beta, but expect more very soon for both Beta and Remastered.
Holiday Patch
We had to run a few bug fixes for the Xmas Update for both remastered and beta.
The snowflake challenge in remastered should work... but you only have till the 6th of Jan to get the Tshirt.
The same applies to the onesies in the V3 beta... I forgot to hang them up in the hideout.
The Michael Bay bug where you could blow up everything by putting an NPC on an Xmas tree should has been fixed... sorry.
Thanks for all the feedback, and helping us catch these bugs. Enjoy the pigs, We'll be back very soon with some more updates.
Another Piggin' Holiday Update For Amazing Frog ?
A bit of a tradition for Amazing Frog? to drop an update on Xmas. ( Although, every year, we plan to put the Xmas update out at the beginning of December and it always comes on on 24th or 25th... ) But the dev surge generally helps push Amazing Frog? further.
It generally leaves us with few words to say. So I'll be brief.
I'll just show some images...
We really needed to restructure, so you it would be easier to know what build you are playing is less confusing.
These images above are from Remastered(V2).
V3 is now on the the beta branch only. This is because its 20GB and more demanding.
But we still added a Holiday update for V3, naturally and put the lights back in.
Also careful by the Sea, there is some experimental stuff going on there.
I am sorry I don't have much to say, I will come back after a bit of Xmassin' and do patches and fixes into the new year and will probably find more words to say then... Happy Holidays !
V3 Helium Cannisters Fixed
We have a much better pipeline now with V3, so moving forward it should be easier to submit fixes.
Thanks for catching this one and letting me know, balloons should now spawn from the Helium cannisters in V3. Unlike the balloon Jetpack they are limited by how many balloons they can inflate. Also, you can try sitting on some objects and spawning balloons too.
New Beta Available... Finally!
Thanks for your patience, the Updates start now, with something dark to take us into the winter months. Well, it might seem a little bit violent at points, but it was intended for a halloween special, we just got delayed and perhaps this was also how we responded to being officially rejected by Frog Con this year.
Having said that its been a lot of fun for us playing Amazing Frog? again. This is the first update to Amazing Frog? since the beginning of the year. It may seem like we had disappeared… this could not be further from the truth. We have been committed to building Amazing Frog? A better and more expandable Amazing Frog? This new version comes and will continue its development in two parts - The V3 Beta and V2 remastered.
To be clear - There are no Sharks in this update. V2 or V3...
This is not a misdirection. I know we have been guilty of misdirection in the past… but in this beta there are NO Sharks in V2 or V3…they are just not ready yet. Aquatic life will make its way back into Amazing Frog in due corse. This is one of the main reasons this update is currently only available on the public beta. If you came for sharks… come back in a week or so. If you like Frogs, balloons, guns, knives, baseball bats and dynamite and methane… then you are good to go :)
The V3 Update
Pop Pop, There are a bunch of new items available in this V3 update. We have begun to categorise them too, toys, weapons, sport equipment etc… this helps when we are organising F.A.P.S
F.A.P.S. has seen some significant improvements, you can now remove stuff as well as add stuff. Although in typical “Fayju" Style we forgot to put the instructions in for this… But when the Gizmo is red you can hit “reload” and it will remove items in the range of the gizmo that you have placed.
Among some of my favourite improvements in this update is the driving. The cars have been improved. Different cars drive differently. Also they are more stable. For journeys to Swindon On Sea or The Stone Clock the cars are much more reliable. I can actually stay on the roads and I’m not a particularly great driver. I don’t think there were mobility scooters in the last V3 update ? but they have also been improved and BMXs are back pack compatible.
As well as developing the vehicles, toys and instruments of death, we have also been continuing the refinement of Swindonshire. We began construction of a Dam in order to separate the fresh and salted water. More on this soon because as I said earlier… there are no sharks yet! But if you feel like sight seeing its a nice place to visit.
We hadn’t really tried much remote play in Amazing Frog? until recently and we were really pleased at how well it ran split screen over a network, so thanks Steam! This doesn’t mean we are not still working on online multiplayer, but remote play certainly helped Hal and I test the game remotely. Even if most of the time even if we set out to build something it always ends up with Hal sneaking up on me unaware with some weapon.
But then I can be a bit of a back seat driver when we are testing stuff out.
V2 Remastered
So what is V2 Remastered? - Good question, Gaz thanks! We have been working on V2 built from V3 and we call it "V2 Remastered". In a nutshell we are effectively rebuilding V2 in the V3 code base. As I mentioned before, to build V3 we had to literally start from scratch. In many ways we should have just started building Amazing Frog? 2, but since we never really finished V2 we never really thought that was fair on you guys and Originally our plan was to just update Amazing Frog? We never expected a divide to emerge between V3 and V2.
This remastered version of V2 does not have as many locations as the existing V2. We have put up information in the town planning centre, please check it out. We have seen some significant performance improvements. Since V2 remastered is build from the V3 code base that means what we add to v3 can also work in V2 remastered and as we recreate all the content from the original V2 this content can manifest in v3… Make sense? Its OK if it doesn’t. I started writing a Dev blogs multiple times this year trying to explain this… but always figured it would be best if it could just be played.
You will see many core features of V2 have been "taped off” while they are in development. As we begin to remove this tape we will put V2 Remastered and V3 onto the default branch instead of beta.
It is worth noting that not all things will return in the same way. Obviously, some things are a given, The Giant Toilet, The moon, grapple hooks, Sharks Ants etc But everything is being rebuilt always with improvement in mind.
This Update is a huge milestone for us. Genuinely. And I can’t tell you enough about how excited we are about the next steps. Thanks for keeping up with us this far. On the 22nd of November it will be 7 years we have been on Steam. We should probably take Amazing Frog? Out of early access.
Amazing Frog? V3 Update
Happy new year! Long time since I wrote one of these... Here is the short version:
On Xmas Day we put a new Amazing Frog? "V3" update out. This was a MASSIVE milestone for us and one that we wish we could have reached sooner. Also, just now, we put another update out with some more UI options better train and car impacts and a bunch of bug fixes.
Now the longer version..
It's taken much more time that we had hoped to get comfortable with "V3" - Or as I now like to call it "Amazing Frog?®" We had worked with V2 ( "Legacy" ) for many years and as some of you may know it was build in a very old version of Unity. We tried for many years to bring the Amazing Frog? Legacy version into newer technologies, alas we never felt we could recapture the essence of the Amazing Frog? gameplay. We came close last year with the "halloween V3 beta" but while preparing the next update for last New Year we just felt there were too many holes and neither Hal or I was comfortable with how it played. So throughout 2020 we started again. (When I say started again Its never really from scratch, but we rebuild and restructure)
We wanted to get the core systems more reliable and scalable and maybe I will talk about that in a future blog like the why of F.A.P.S. Our goal has always been for Amazing Frog? To be an online multiplayer game, but for this to happen the underlying structures of the game needed to support this. It will not be too evident yet how the new underlying systems work in this new version of Amazing Frog? , but it is going to help us massively in further development. The bottom line is that you will now begin to see much more frequent updates as we begin 2021. With more updates I expect I will find more time to write more Blogs (unlike now when it is about to strike midnight at the end of 2020 and I am putting this blog together on my Mac in the kitchen )
So rather than go into too much detail about the how and what of Amazing Frog? I'll just try and answer some of the questions that have come our way.
What about V2 content and save files?
We really had to think of them as separate, the beta last year shared save data with V2 and it just caused too many headaches and issues. These were mainly development problems, but ultimately the biggest reason why they will remain separate is because the saved data historically has been one of the most difficult obstacles to over come when adding new content or more specifically new systems. The way the "skins" work in V2 is not how frog customisation works in the new version where we have items of physical clothing. Also by retaining and supporting legacy saved data from 6 years ago it can impact progressive gameplay in a way that is extremely restrictive to how we can develop new gameplay systems in the future. This is one of the main reasons why they are separate.
What will be the frequency of Updates?
They should be more frequent now. If you have played the xmas update this year then you will know that although the world is newer many Amazing Frog? "Usuals" are not present yes, there are only the VROG cars no sharks or alligators, no guns. Basically many of the features we need to redesign, rebuild etc. I would say though, just because there are no sharks today doesn't mean they won't be there very soon. So watch out! We really wanted to put something out at Xmas and many things we held back as they require just a bit more work or need more consideration on how we integrate them to gameplay. I will try and announce updates better this year as now we have this first version we can be more organised about it. Sometimes we may just put a small update out, but there will be big updates like flight school or the sewers which I will try and make a song and dance about and other which will be just about items and expansions.
Are you still going to update V2?
Most likely, yes. We had a bunch of stuff we started for V2 last year and I would like to finish it off.We even had some new costumes but had not completely decided on how you could unlock them, But from this point forward V2 (or Legacy) will not be as high priority as the new version.
Whats the news of other platforms?
I am sorry that I have not made the Mac version yet. I will make one tomorrow and see if it's stable and upload it as soon as possible. After I do this blog hopefully I will be reacquainted with how the Steam Dev portal system works and find a way to post smaller announcements about updates. I haven't had the time yet. Its been annoying how Legacy has not been working on the new OSX software, but Steam Mac version is high on my list. IOS and Android. We get a lot of requests for Android and I did have a version from Legacy back in April, but I could only get it to run in 32bit which made if inferior to the iOS version. I am pretty certain I can pull a mobile device version from what we are working on now, but I need more time as my focus right now is to flood the Steam version with more content and updates. Consoles and whatever - yeah one day but it's a bit out of our reach at the moment as we are still actively developing.
Will There be multiplayer?
Yes Ok? Yes... but not before it's ready and its taking me a me quite some time. We also have lots of other things to implement. It's worth noting, that one of the main reasons for the complete code rewrite this past year was to facilitate Multiplayer at the core. I hate how long its taking me but there you go.
Where is the Day night cycle?
Honestly surprised no one found that.. was doubting we should put it in the game because the zombies were not ready yet.
Happy new year all. Thanks for being a part of Amazing Frog?
Amazing Frog? Frog Blog 033 - Developer Update
Hello again, I must apologise that I have not released any information for a while. As I have said before - I know how important developer blogs are to let you know what we are up to. In this case, I started writing this a few weeks back and then I end up showered in errors( of my own making) :( Mostly I just like to get on with stuff :) Beyond that, I have said it before … I find writing frustrating at best :P
So, after The Flight School update at Xmas with the Giant Alligator, we kind of threw things up in the air, purposefully of course! I know many of you were expecting a V3 beta update, it didn't happen ( YET! ) and I shall try to explain why in this post, also I hope to explain what we are working on so you can get an idea of what's happening next in the immediate future and what will follow.
I'll start with what we were going to do. We had intended to follow up the V2 Flight School update with a quick update primarily to help you physically move things around and new toilet overflow system for making unlocked activities like "Giant saddle on Alligator" or "Shark Blimp” or flying "Megladon" much easier to “reactivate” and then we were going to release another V3 beta in the new year. Well, it didn't go as planned and in typical Gaz and Hal style, we changed our minds and decided to smash both those updates into one action… I shall explain why but first:
A Few Definitions - V2 and V3
If you are reading this blog with no idea what V2 and V3 are… Welcome! To be honest I am not sure I know any more. They are terms we use to describe developments, but things have changed so much. So as I write this - this is how we think of V2 and V3 or to be more specific the version of Amazing Frog? that we are actively working on.
V2 describes for us the active version of Amazing Frog? this is defined by being on Steam and also the pocket mode available on IOS this version is built in Unity 4.7.2 and has the downside of being built in older tech but the benefit of having years of content added.
V3 describes the newer version of Amazing Frog? that we have been working on in the latest version of Unity it has a much higher resolution environment a day-night cycle is built on much better architecture and we are actively building online multiplayer for it (but have not released that yet)… the downside is it does not have as much content as V2
V is effectively short for “version”. Version 1 was the version on OUYA back when we started, Version 2 we released on Steam and Version 3 is the "future". But just to confuse things I may well change all that. As V2 is changing. The work we are doing on V2 should allow us to distribute it on more platforms meaning there will be multiple versions of V2 more so than just Steam and pocket mode. But I will talk about that in a bit first why has there not been a V3 Beta Holiday Update?
The V3 Beta Update that didn’t happen
So why didn't the V3 beta update happen in the new year? A lot of it comes down prioritising out time in line with an overall plan of action. Ultimately, we want to make Amazing Frog? available for more platforms and be able to keep updating it. Last year we made some big steps in this direction, but our methods were slightly flawed and needed change. Basically, in October our intension was for V3 to replace V2 so we would carry on just working on one project - V3. For some time we have felt that V2 was dying, left behind by progressing technology. Our solution to this dilemma was always V3 a new version and also a chance to erase our mistakes and build something cleaner and more professional. Perhaps blinded by pride and ambition we felt the best course of action was for V3 to replace V2. We converted what we felt we needed from V2 to augment what we had created for V3 and throughout 2019 were of the mindset that V3 would replace V2 and during this ongoing process, we spawned the V3 beta of Halloween 2019. Unfortunately, we started to see the error of our ways in that we had approached this process with the wrong mentality. We found ourselves saying things like - We don’t need X or Y feature from V2 as we can simply “recreate” feature X or Y as we continue V3 development. This process was going to force us to spend more of our time building and not leave us in a position to release much. One example of this is that I didn't take any of the weapons or pick up mechanics from V2 as I reprogrammed holding items to work with a new character system in V3 (honestly its much better in V3)
V3 started to feel like it should be a sequel and not a successor. In thinking of V3 as the successor to V2 it paled in comparison. It was like going back to the barren Amazing Frog? versions of 2015 before we had added sharks even, but with better models, nicer mechanics and real-time lighting. It was beginning to feel like we were taking leaps backwards for the sake of some more contemporary technology. Obviously, we are not going to stop Developing V3, we want a day-night cycle, we want frog fingers! we want online multiplayer and we want to make “F.A.P.S". a thing… but we are not ready to lose everything else that we have built up over the past few years in V2 and the dilemma is we couldn’t integrate what we have in V2 without rebuilding it all so we changed our philosophy.
Messing about with a Giant Alligator Opened my mind
I was not happy with how I was rushing V3 to replace V2 - As December 2019 approached, we wanted to deliver a “fun” V3 Beta Update. I found I was just taking things from V2 to make V3 better and started to feel uncomfortable with this approach. V3 needed more time and careful consideration to be as fun as V2. From a development point of view, for me as the programmer at least - there is a certain clarity and purity about V3. This is because it allows me to build more complex core systems, like Multiplayer, and integrate them from the ground up. Rushing content in was breaking the integrity of the project and not what V3 was supposed to be. Xmas is always a panic month for us, I no longer remember Xmas without an Amazing Frog? Update and honestly, I love it. Throughout 2019 we had planned to replace V2 with V3, but by the time November hit I realised how this was not a possibility in the short term. I distracted myself by making a Xmas V2 mobile version. I didn't think it was possible any more as Unity 4 was so out of date. Nonetheless, for a distraction, I thought I would give it a go and with some weird workarounds I found a way and put the Xmas content onto Apple and I found myself in V2 project again with Xmas knocking at the door for a Steam update...
So I made a giant Alligator, OK?
Initially, I was just experimenting, but after chatting with Hal we decided to go all out on the Flight school Update for a bit. We had kind of shelved Flight School in April or May after the Drone Update in favour of concentrating all our energy and resource on V3. Simply put - I couldn’t bear not having a “Holiday update” So we reactivated it, crunched and launched that at Xmas…
...Meanwhile
We had been prepping a V3 Beta update… Among other things, Hal made onesies for every outfit from v2 into an actual onesie in the V3 Beta that you can change into (if unlocked in V2)… We were pretty excited. We made the cars better and more of them, added a film studio, replaced the landscape with a higher detailed Landscape, fixed a bunch of the silly door bugs like when you enter the… Hal made a Xmas light generator… and we hung a few pictures in the Gallery.
Actually we did a bunch of stuff we are always making progress, but for now, we put a pin in V3.
You will get a V3 beta Update, but first, we wanted to try a different road
A Fresh Perspective.
In January Hal and I had a careful think about where we were with development. Subsequently, we took the difficult decision to convert EVERYTHING from the V2 flight school update to Unity 2019.3 (the software we build V3 in). Once we had come to terms with the inevitable fact that V3 was not ready to replace V2 there was only one road we could walk down and we have gone all out on that route.
A complete conversion of V2 with no content left behind opens many new doors too. It's a big change in direction, but one we are both pretty happy with. Some times you have to analyse your actions very critically and break a few things to make progress. Maybe not in a “Thanos” way… Disclaimer - We are not advocates of Thanos' philosophies, but more in and eggs and omelette kind of way.
There are still a few outstanding issues from me in the systems conversion, but this has given Hal plenty of time to go nuts on the V2 landscape. So much is now possible in V2 now the project is in 2019.3, trees, rocks, water landscape features would now be available in V2. Making the world feel much more as we originally intended but could not originally achieve. In some tests, it has run better on my older laptop than Flight school. Finally, V2 is taking advantage of newer processors and graphics cards.
More detail does make it easier to get lost in SwindonShire.
Its been a really productive few months and I think we are on the cusp of our best update ever. The oddest thing is its V2 update.. only it doesn’t feel like V2 any more.
I cannot lie converting the ENTIRE project from unity 4.7.2 to Unity 2019.3 has not been without its issues, but...
Grass…
I can’t tell you how long we wanted grass….and lawn.
trees...
and rocks...
rocks and trees...
did I mention trees?
cos we have trees now
and metal trees obviously
And better water… (with wildlife in it)
I hope the images explain what we are doing. I always feel there is so much more to say. I was going to talk about the pitfalls and problems we had with “game design” if you can call it that. Like how the balloon Jet pack, for example, has been a hindrance as much as an advantage in designing what features we add next to the game. Or how we feel about just being 2 developers and should we expand? Or that GDC got postponed, or like how we will make it easier to move big objects around and not take a day to get a saddle on a giant alligator or the Hat app or more practical things like building a Fayju account system so you can save data across platforms and not lose it, or that we will output Flight school to iOS and Android with split-screen, very soon.. Or what platforms we want to take Amazing Frog? to this year...There is so much to talk about and honestly, I never know where to begin or end with these posts...
but I will say this - Thanks for playing Amazing Frog? I can’t say it enough - we love working on it and are so grateful that we can.
