At this point in development, the game is nearly feature-complete, and we're adding in the last few details and polish while the final art assets are completed. As this is an ambitious project with a small team of people, this is still going to take some time. Here's what we've been working on.
Combat Finishers
By getting an enemy slowed down with gum and low on health, you can set them up for a Finisher. This is a quick and easy way to instantly incapacitate an enemy, but the setup can be dangerous if you're surrounded.
Environment
Here's a preview of the interior of the local pizza place, used for a very special side mission.
We also recently finished the redesign of the city's central capitol building. A huge improvement over the crappy model I made myself back in the original prototype.
Costumes
If you're looking to switch up your style, there are many unlockable color palettes for Gumball's costume. They are mostly inspired by famous candies or superheroes.
Art Styles
If you want to experience the game in a whole new way, you'll be able to change the entire style of the game. In this example, it's a style based on the style of Frank Miller's famous graphic novel, Sin City. Art styles are also unlockable, so you'll have to work for them.
That's all for now, but as development finishes, I'd like to share more videos of the game as there will be more finished environment assets going forward. Until next time!
Development Update - 3/5/2021
Like most people, 2020 was not kind to me. Not only did development slow down, but our animator actually got COVID too (and recovered!) The reason for the slow development was because I haven't been able to find a dedicated programmer for the project, so I've had to continue on my own. That said, things are finally looking up as the content for the new demo is nearly complete. You can swing, you can fight, and there are activities to complete, it's all down to polish and art now.
Downsized City
The city size we were going for was big. Really big. Like, that's how big it's gonna be in the actual game big. So, to save on time, make things easier, and to better focus, we've significantly scaled down the map size to be just a little bigger than the original VR demo's map. Even though there's less space to move around in, there also won't be nearly as much repetition in the environment, and more importantly, hundreds and hundreds fewer city blocks to make.
Cutscenes and NPC Dialogue
We've decided to add in a short story mission to act as a tutorial. This means there are cutscenes and the ability to talk to specific NPCs. You'll do some swinging, some fighting, and then a special activity that you'll just have to see for yourself. The cutscenes haven't been animated yet, so maybe I'll show a preview next time.
Combat
The combat system has been completed, though you'll only get the full experience in third-person. There are multiple types of enemies with different behaviors, and multiple ways to take them down. You can use melee attacks, throw things at people, throw people at people, and cover them in gum so they can't get away.
Third-person gameplay gets all the fancy animations, but is functionally the same in VR as well. You just can't kick people, or do dodge rolls and stuff like that.
I had to figure out enemy AI and this whole combat system on my own, and I think it turned out pretty well, but of course, we're still working on it. There are three gadgets available to use, as well as different flavors of chewing gum that have different effects on gameplay. However, not all of it quite finished enough to show off here, so hopefully I can show more in the next update. There are lots of new things we've added into the game, but these were the most important ones that happened. Here's a little slice of swinging gameplay to close out this update:
Development Update - 2/7/20
Apologies for going 9 months without an update, but there wasn't really anything major to say until now. Our animator got a job at Treyarch, which set us back a little bit. However, the replacement has been doing a great job so far. So, here's what's been going on lately:
New Gumball Model
I know you never actually got to play with the old model, but now we have new one! She's slightly redesigned, has a much better face, and she's prepared for all kinds of animation.
Gumline Wrapping
Gumlines can now physically and visibly wrap around buildings and other objects. Not only that, but you can swing back around and unwrap it back to how it started as well.
Races
Finally, some real content! You can now race from checkpoint to checkpoint and score a medal for your best time on various courses throughout the city. If you're really good, you can get the Gumball medal for beating my own personal best time.
Enemy AI
We've finally begun work on enemy AI! It's still early days, but eventually combat will be good, I swear.
With races done and combat making its way to completion, so too is the overhauled demo itself. After combat, the last thing to do is finish modeling the city, which takes time. While that's going on, we'll be adding in some extra content to make it more worthwhile to play.
And don't worry, we're not abandoning VR:
Until next time! Hopefully not another 9 months...
Development Update - 5/17/19
It's been a long time since you've been updated on the state of Gumball, so let's fix that! A lot of work has gone into animating Gumball herself to make the game have a real quality feel to it. We've also been constantly tweaking the gameplay, coming up with new ideas, and preparing lots of stuff.
Improved Animation
We now have animations for swinging, zipping, jumping, wall-running, diving, gliding, and more. In this gif, you can also see a new feature that allows you to hold the glide button to inflate your bubbles more, and they will make you float higher.
Spring-Sprinting
Gumball now has a unique sprint of her own, powered by her spring shoes! Using the shoes to rapidly jump forward, you can swing or zip out of this easily as well.
Slow-Motion Aiming
By clicking the right stick in third-person mode, you can slow down time to focus on where you want to shoot your gum projectiles, or even manually control where you swing from or zip to.
Pedestrians
We finally have people walking around on the sidewalk! ...But, they're kinda finnicky and aren't animated, so it's just a picture of them for now.
Music
I thought I'd throw in a sample of some new music, which you can listen to here. This is ambient music that plays when you're on the ground, not doing anything special.
That's all for now. Work has begun on combat and enemy AI, so that should be in the next update. Hopefully it won't take too long this time!
Development Update - 2/15/19
Hello all, exciting things are on the horizon! More people have joined the team, meaning that development can continue even faster. Specifically, 3D art and animation are now in the works! Let's look at what we've been working on:
The Comic Book Menu™
Gumball now features an innovative new menu in the form of an interactive 3D comic book. Using a cursor or VR controllers, point and click on different panels to move between pages, change settings, or go into the game (or comic?). Only a few pages have been made, and there's still plenty of work to do, but it'll be worth the effort in the end.
Animation and Art
Gumball can actually run and swing around now! It's not much for now, and we're working on more advanced animation as well as aerial tricks and other fun stuff. Many animations work in VR as well!
We also now have a concept artist creating dozens of city block layouts and building designs, and someone to model it all in 3D. The roads finally have markings on them, and things are starting to look pretty good.
That's all for now, but more is on the way! The next update might have NPCs walking around on the street. As soon as the menu has more functionality and more city blocks are created, you will be able to swing around in this new city and be a part of this game's development. Until then, we'll be hard at work.
Development Update - 12/29/18
Hello everyone! Long time no see. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the original release of the Gumball demo on itch.io, and what better way to celebrate than share what's been going on recently? I've been hard at work putting together a team of people who will help me make Gumball into the best game it can possibly be. What was once a one-man effort (with some help from two others) has grown into a six-person project, with more on the way. The team now includes the talent of a 3D character artist, a programmer, and a best-selling author, in addition to a composer, a concept artist, and myself. So without further ado, here's what we've been doing.
A Bigger, Better Map
A lot of work has gone into redesigning the city that is your playground. It has gone through many iterations, with this being the design we settled on. It's going to be a while before all the buildings are modeled, so it's monochrome for now. It's still a demo of course, so it's pretty small, but still a step up from the old map:
Gumball's 3D Model
Gumball finally has a 3D model! It's still a work-in-progress, but it looks great. Unfortunately it isn't animated yet, but we're working on it. Having a 3D model like this also gives the game a new feature: Seeing your whole body in VR!
This is something that I actually had working while I was prototyping the game, but I couldn't release the demo with a retextured Zero Suit Samus, so that model had to go. This new model wasn't created so you could see yourself in VR. It was created so the game could have...
Third-Person Gameplay
This is it. Gumball can now be played by anybody, not just those with a VR headset. The game is being made in such a way that VR and third-person can coexist harmoniously, with everything you can do in one mode being possible in the other. This also goes for the game's HUD and menus, being designed to be compatible with both, so there is no need to do extra work. Making third-person swinging feel good also helps improve the swinging experience for VR. VR users can now shoot a gumline almost anywhere and get a good, satisfying swing. Not only that, but you can even switch between these two modes any time you want!
And that's all I have for now. Soon, you will be able to play this on the beta branch of the demo, so you too can help us make the game. Until then, I'll be posting more regular updates on how everything is going. See you next time!
Demo Update 1.6
This is a small update, as most work being done on the game is for major new features and overhauls, like traditional third-person gameplay, a new menu replacement, and a larger map to play in.
Here are the few changes that have been made:
Precision Gum-Zipping
Yanking a gumline will now more easily send you directly towards where it's going, and more reliably, at the same speed every time.
When in the air, you can now zip at attached enemies for an easy KO.
Note: The gumline must be taught to be able to zip, so try to pull on the line as soon as it connects for maximum effectiveness.
Low FPS Support
At a small performance cost, the game will no longer slow down when the framerate drops, making it entirely playable at 45fps on low-spec hardware.
Miscellaneous
Added a new "whoosh" sound effect when your hand moves really fast, like when punching or zipping.
Added a trail effect behind your hand when it moves fast
Changed the FoV-limiting vignette to a stylized comic book border that's always on
Changed "Vignette Intensity" to "Field of View" with the options Full, Limited, and Narrow.
Gumlines are now completely straight when taught, and no longer jitter when swinging
Enemies no longer take damage when you walk into them
The distance you can shoot gumlines has been increased
Fixed infrequent crash at startup
In other news, Gumball now finally has a real programmer! It's no longer essentially a one-man effort, so expect future updates to release more frequently.
Demo Update 1.5
It's about time the content of this update has made it into the game. The game's visual style has been almost fully realized, and it's easier to play than ever before.
Here's what's new:
Comic Book Visuals
Glass and water are now fully cartoon and no longer realistic compared to everything else. The streaks on the windows even point towards the sun/moon.
The line art post process is now more accurate, and has been altered to allow more control over where line are and aren't. Notice that the colored sections of buildings are outlined, and there are more lines in general.
Aim Assist/Auto Aim
Gumlines and gumballs will automatically be launched directly at whatever is closest to where you are aiming.
To make sure it works as it should, it is now impossible to miss a gumline.
Improved Controls
The default and only control scheme for controlling gumlines has been altered to the following:
Oculus: Pull the trigger to reel, and depress the grip button to let it out.
Vive: Pull the trigger to reel or let out, using the swap button (down) to toggle between them.
Running on the ground is now much more responsive
The settings "Reeling Method", "Automatic Reeling", and "Reeling Direction" have been removed.
The highly-requested option to disable rotation has been added as a Rotation Mode.
Smooth rotation speed has been increased by 50% for Oculus.
Difference in speed from walking sideways or backwards works better than before.
Walking up and down inclines actually works now.
Smooth Gumline Intersections
When a gumline is intersected by a building or other object, physics will smoothly move to the new swing point, rather than being instant and possibly pulling on you and messing up the sweet swing arc you had going.
Many of these changes come out of necessity from developing traditional non-VR support. What wasn't much of a problem in first person may be problematic in third-person, but these fixes benefit both greatly.
I'm currently working on a big 2.0 overhaul of the demo that will have a bigger, redesigned city, new and meaningful challenges like races and time trials, cars and people on the ground, real enemies, and third-person non-VR support. If you would like to help out in this effort, send an email to theunbreakablegumball@gmail.com.
