Fireworks Mania
[EXPERIMENTAL] v2023.3.1
- Added new languages: Lithuanian, Finnish, Swedish & Portuguese. If you want to help translate or find a translation bug, please let me and the community know on my Discord: https://discord.gg/SzZD77p
- Added feature to allowing game to be freely resized if "Fullscreen" is turned of
### Changed
- Upgraded to Unity version 2021.3.20
- Upgraded QC Console
- Upgraded Master Audio
### Fixed
- Fixed bug where custom sounds from mods won't work if mod was updated while game was running
YouTube | Twitter | Discord
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
Faster map reloads and internal changes
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/3645138266824812386
DISCLAIMER: I'm doing what I can to add multiplayer, but its not a feature I can promise will be in the game, just so we all are aware of that :)
v2023.2.1 brings a lot of internal changes, due to the potential future multiplayer feature, however as they are some internal technical things you shouldn't really experience a difference.
Some of the changes however do have an direct impact on things that you will see and experience.
One of these things are how sounds are handled. On first map load there will be no real difference on the load time, but on all subsequent map reloads you should see faster load times compared to previously.
Thats all for now, here I bring you the more technical change log to the ones that are interested.
Have a nice weekend.
Change log
Added
- Added a few new loading backgrounds showing of more Workshop map mods
Changed
- Upgraded MasterAudio asset pack to 1.0.4
- Changed how MasterAudio and sounds in general work in the game. This should result in slightly faster loading times of maps and less MasterAudio related errors in the log
- Changed how the player is spawned at map start (changes to help support multiplayer later on)
Fixed
- Fixed bug where PlayerSpawnLocationPrefabs rotation wasn't taken into account when the player was spawned
YouTube | Twitter | Discord
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
[EXPERIMENTAL] v2023.2.1
- Added a few new loading backgrounds showing of more Workshop map mods
### Changed
- Upgraded MasterAudio asset pack to 1.0.4
- Changed how MasterAudio and sounds in general work in the game. This should result in slightly faster loading times of maps and less MasterAudio related errors in the log
- Changed how the player is spawned at map start (changes to help support multiplayer later on)
### Fixed
- Fixed bug where PlayerSpawnLocationPrefabs rotation wasn't taken into account when the player was spawned
YouTube | Twitter | Discord
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
Developer News - Feb. 2023
Another month has past and its time for a tiny update.
As mentioned in the end of the last Developer News I would slowly start on multiplayer.
I did actually do that and had two great live streams where I started on multiplayer.
I did end up having two "beans" running around - so it was a great success and a great start.
So does that mean multiplayer is done next week - no of cause not.
The disclaimer I use to put here still applies - Multiplayer is a HUGE task and I therefore cannot promise it will ever be a thing.
When that said, I just got started so I'm not even close to giving up - so I'll just continue :)
In terms of February, there hasn't been too much more happening since the live streams as I have been on 1 week vacation and then got home to being sick for 1 entire week too!
I'm slowly coming back to a vertical state and is around 87,93% well now, so still a little way to go.
YouTube | Twitter | Discord
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
Faster map listing and auto update mods
Much faster map listing
I have improved the way custom maps are listed in the main menu so much that it's not even comparable to the old version. The more map mods you have installed the bigger the difference will be.
So what took like 5 min. to list before, now takes like 5-10 sec. So it's really a game changer!
Auto update of mods
You would think that mods you subscribed to was automatically updated, right? Well, so did I, but it turned out that wasn't the case due to various technical reasons.
However, as a "side effects" of the optimized map listing, we now also have much more reliable mod updates.
This is also a big clean and a game changer, as a lot of help requests on the Discord, often comes down players not having the latest version of a mod - and I can't blame them - as the game should update the mods automatically. It does now and it is a really nice feature.
As shown in the gif above, once you click the "Start" button in the MainMenu, the game quickly checks updates for all subscribed mods that are enabled.
That's all for now - hope you will have fun.
YouTube | Twitter | Discord
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
[EXPERIMENTAL] v2023.1.6
- Added a new console command 'fm-open-data-folder'. It opens the root data folder that contains player.log, blueprints folder, mods folder etc. So players can use this to get to the player.log easier when they need help
### Changed
- Updated localization. Still missing Spanish, Polish and Czech, so the two new texts shows up as English in game
YouTube | Twitter | Discord
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
[EXPERIMENTAL] v2023.1.5
- Added localization of new mod updating texts. Still missing Spanish, Polish and Czech
YouTube | Twitter | Discord
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
Developer News - Jan. 2023
As I mentioned in the last Developer News post, I wasn't happy with the initial version of the custom map listing and loading.
It used unnecessary amounts of memory and it listed the maps way to slow.
Improved map listing
Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on this issue, I even livestreamed twice.
As always, really cozy and chill livestreams, so thanks to the ones that had time to join :)
I got the map listing working much better now by using the meta about the custom mod maps from mod.io instead of the mod file. I'll spare you the technical details, you will have to watch the livestreams if you wanna know more.
The short version is - it lists maps a lot faster now!
Automatic mod updating
Automatic updates of mods should really have been a thing from when I added the workshop initially - or so I thought. Turned out it only worked when you were logged into mod.io in the workshop.
However, while fixing the above listing of maps, I was dancing around in the mod.io v1 SDK and found some methods I could use to actually look for and update mods that the player have installed.
This means mods are now checked for updates and they are downloaded if any is found.
This should be the end of having to "resub" to mods to get the latest version - really nice!
When can I get this?
As of writing (2023-01-22) v2023.1.4 that contain these changes are pushed to the Experimental beta of the game for players to test out.
The testing is going really great, so I hope to be able to push this version to everyone over the coming days - unless some unforeseen issues shows up.
Optimizing the workshop UI
I also mentioned in the last Developer News, that I wanted to optimize and update the workshop UI, however I will have to put that part on pause.
The reason is, that before I found the before mentioned methods to update mods automatically, I was under the impression that I needed to upgrade to the mod.io v2 SDK to get that fixed, which would also update the workshop UI and a lot of other things under the hood.
However, as automatic update now works, I have decided we can live with the workshop UI for a while anyway, as that free time for me to look at other and more important things - like multiplayer!
Status on multiplayer
As always when talking about multiplayer and Fireworks Mania - lets start with a disclaimer.
Adding multiplayer to Fireworks Mania is a very requested feature and something I really want to add to the game. However, multiplayer is a very complex task all by itself. On top of that, I have to add it to an existing single player game that support mods. If its even possible it can easily be a 1-2 years project!
Therefore, I'm always making it clear that multiplayer is something I want to add, but I cannot promise it will ever be a thing.
With the disclaimer out of the way - I plan to start on it very soon and do some initial tests etc.
I hope to be able to give a bit more insight in next Developer News post sometimes late February 2023.
Fingers crossed :)
YouTube | Twitter | Discord
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
[EXPERIMENTAL] v2023.1.4
### Added
- Added progress bar to the automatically mod update UI
### Fixed
- Fixed a problem where mods sometimes couldn't be loaded right after they were updated
Want to follow the development closer, have an issue, suggest or just want to chat with other Fireworks Mania player, consider joining my Discord.
Want to see dev logs, live streams, other dev stuff, consider subscribing to my YouTube channel @Laumania.
For instance I fixed the progress bar in this livestream:
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
[EXPERIMENTAL] v2023.1.3
This update is actually a really big deal as it contains much faster map listing and auto updates of mods.
### Changed
- Changed how maps are listed to increase the speed - a lot faster now!
- Change the way mod maps are loaded so it's now much more efficient if you have more than one map installed
- Upgraded localization (changes to Norwegian)
### Fixed
- As a side effect of the above we now also have working automatically updates of subbed mods. This is something that have annoyed me (and players) for a long time, but I thought I wouldn't be able to fix it until I upgraded to the new mod.io v2 SDK - however I found a way. It's not the most elegant, but it seems to work good enough until I redo the entire workshops UI later on
Want to follow the development closer, have an issue, suggest or just want to chat with other Fireworks Mania player, consider joining my Discord.
Want to see dev logs, live streams, other dev stuff, consider subscribing to my YouTube channel @Laumania.
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/