TUG
Progress Update - 3/3/2017
Hey everybody! Cambo here and Happy Friday!
I’ll go ahead and update everyone since Ino is lost in the world of Zelda today. The team has been very busy the past month working on our engine tools and gameplay features, and core experiences. I will personally be working on having more frequent blog posts, dev updates, and videos when they are available. I am aiming for at least twice a month and video snippets from our demo Fridays. Importantly, I hope to shift our blog posts to our website in the future.
In the last blog, we mentioned that we would take note of the QA document that was compiled from the community. I got to work and nagged the team leads to answer them, nagging is what I do best. You can find the questions here. Thanks for organizing and bringing this to our attention @Rawr! The leads answered most of the questions but we will wrap up the rest over the next couple blog posts as we have more concrete answers. Get ready for the wall of text!
You can read the rest of the blog here as it's a bit difficult to format on Steam >> http://nerdkingdomofficial.tumblr.com/post/157959075733/progress-update-332017
Progress Update - 2/10/2017
Our adventure into gameplay prototyping has begun, with big steps towards making our development environment much more seamless and flexible. The benefits to having a small team of brilliant minds, is that we are constantly forced to looking at ways to make our lives, and the lives of our users, easier. We have to find ways of making things accessible, faster, and easier to understand, and while that can take more time than just smashing a system into an engine, the results are exponential, and keep everyone excited.
In the coming weeks, we will continue to take note of the QA document the community has been compiling, and aligning our internal leads to address them as appropriate. Without question, it will result in more and more questions, so we are discussing how best to address this. We get a lot of live feedback from everyone involved in our discord channel, and please know it's invaluable
As an update on our investor presentation, it went fantastic. Everyone is pleased, and excited about our progress. It's always been a chore, to focus on the idea that we ARE making a game, but not understanding how important all of the technology and tools are, in being sure we can make it, and the community everything it has the potential to be. The investors, and many new opportunities, are seeing what is now being accomplished and it's very exciting.
The members of the community that have been messing about with our current build of the engine, has been leading into a lot of interesting discussion, and strong insights into our approach. Much of the thinking has made it clear we are on the right track, which is an empowering sentiment when working on something this ambitious.
On that note, we will be clearing out mods from devotus from previous mod jams, to start prepping to get another version of the engine out in the coming months to a larger community, and start our own mod jams as a studio, with members of the community, to start focussing on more aspects of process and communication. Its understood that no dates creates a lot of frustration, but we have to put stability first, especially since we know there are a lot of high expectations, and locking down hard dates right now, have the potential to set everyone up for failure.
The QA will be a smart step forward, get everyone on the same page about what is happening, shed some light into general milestones, features, mythos, etc. And from all the pieces missing in the QA, we will have an opportunity to define the angles that we need to work to communicate better.
As always, thank you for all the support, your near endless patience, and confidence in what we are doing. Not one decision gets made for us, that doesn't have us asking “what would the community think”, or “how would our community use this”. And this thinking is producing some really neat solutions, that are exciting enough to keep us working hard.
Expect another update from us in a couple of weeks, as next week is a big rush for us on dev goals, where we can lock down a schedule for the QA session, share some video, and get out some general milestones and feature lists for our first public release of TUGv2.
@Ino
Procedural Maze Prototype
TUG Discord Channel
Nerd Kingdom Forums
TUG Twitter
Progress Update - 1/13/2017
Ahoy! Just wanted to give you guys a quick update on what has been going on this month, and some things to expect coming into next month.
We have a big investor milestone meeting coming up on the 19th, and all of our time has been focussed on getting all the systems we shared with you, via youtube, stable and clean. Of course, those systems are not fully fleshed out game features just yet, but it's a strong foundation built on the engine that is allowing us to expand out on things with gusto.
Into the coming months, we will be focussing on what is defined as a “minimally viable product”, that is to say, “what does this game experience feel like, with polish, for a short play session”. So while it may not be perfectly balanced, we need to demonstrate polished animations, some competency with enemy AI, and strong visuals (particle effects, graphics, etc). This also means a grasp on what the actual UX is in a 3d space, which revolves around the process a person gets from a keystroke, or series of keystroke, from a selection to an action.
Working through these things over the next few months gives us an opportunity to start being more open, again, with some of our thinking, and intentions, with design. While we do not expect EVERYONE to approve of all our choices, the product is too early on to allow for any design by committee. We will be responsible for creating the foundation of what the experience is, and leave opportunities for systems to be modified and expanded upon. And this is much of the reason we are so focussed on tools and our own development pipeline. The more clean and streamlined that is, the easier it would be for any of you to do, as well.
Some of you in the community have brought up the possibility of a QA, and that is a pretty solid idea. We love getting a chance to talk to all of you, and answer questions. If nothing else, we can always say that we pride ourselves on transparency, even on topics that are taboo and perpetuate chaos and confusion… (web based cookie clicker FTP clone, anyone?) But first, we are gonna get the current build into the hands of a few of you, and have some footing to get both technical, and experience driven question from all of you. So expect us to start taking in questions in a couple weeks time.
That is pretty much it for the time being, but if you have any questions, you are alwle to reach out to any of us, and you will hear back from us.
*high five*
ino
@inoritewtf
TUGv2 Progress Update
After a long period of development with TUGv2, under the new engine, internally dubbed “eternus”, we are proud to share the progress we have made so far. Please do keep in mind, that we are building everything from the ground up on our own, to facilitate a lot of unique future goals, so not all systems have been complete. In order to hit our goals for this month, we had to be sure we focussed on systems that made the most sense, to share something today. So be aware that what you see is incomplete, the systems are not final, and we still have a long way to go until it's “complete” and polished.
As for advancements:
Art: we have FINALLY been able to define visual consistency to work hand in hand with graphics development. And while we are still lacking some general systems like Particle Effects, and proper animation support, to facilitate polish, the general look of the game has really started to define itself.
Technology: Our team is broken into 3.5 major technology groups internally. Core engine has pushed forward our eternus engine, and lowered the bar to entry for hardware requirements, how much that bar has dropped, is still subject to some negotiation with art and design, but it's still at least lower than the Dx11 spec as it stands. There is a lot to be said about what the engine does, and can do, but i'll let Josh speak more to that in an update early next year.
The tools team is a massive change for us from the first iteration of the engine with TUGv1. Not only do they create tools that allow for our own team to develop content faster, but also allow for modders to change parameters within the game with relative ease, and even develop their own tools from an extensible framework. This is also another topic to expect being spoken of early next year.
On infrastructure, the ability to create accounts, upload and distribute mods, and be able to house a growing community of players and creators, we have come a long way. While I KNOW Nathan is going to love digging deep into share the emotional themes behind proper documentation and planning of systems, we will be sure he tones it down so as to not over excite himself (does sarcasm read well in blog form?)
And about half of the gameplay team is building systems that sit somewhere between gameplay, and core engine team. Little bits that give the game a great quality of life, that people may not fully get the implications of, until it's revealed to them. Stuff like persistence of “simulated” data (what happens when off screen”, logic and power stuff, and even object datas and interactions.
On design and the other half of gameplay, it's been all about making sure tools, and engine are supported so we can accomplish various goals. For now, lots of SYSTEMS are working, and we now have a chance to play and iterate to make the game “fun”. Lots of work still goes into narrative and mythos consistency, defining the “laws of nature” within the world, and the general approach to learning of complex systems is also a thing, but at this point it comes with a great deal more focus.
On the topic of communication, both recent, and going forward, I accept full personal responsibility for how things have been handled to date. The process of game development, and more so, software development, is a difficult enough thing to maintain internally as a group, and a great deal more consideration should have been taken from migration of our v1 to v2 work. We will ALSO communicate the plan for coms moving forward, early next year, so you know what to expect, and we can be held accountable to it.
While we have been active and responsive to community on various channels (Discord chat, email, NK forums), we have neglected a few outlets for various reasons. However regret does come from lack of communication on our Kickstarter page. It was not considered a community to this point, simply a blog outlet channel, one of MANY, and no proper path was given to alter that outlets means of connecting with the project. This mistake, across a slew of others, were opportunities for us to learn and set a plan of action for communication into the new year. We have a lot of progress to share from this point forward, which will be more consistent.
As for “when the game is going out” to the community, some of you guys are going to be getting it sent to you soon, hopefully by end of week. HOWEVER, it's not going to everyone, just yet. The first hands on have to be with some of the developers we have in the community, to help us catch some bits, so we can do a better job on supporting our own developers getting the game done. We will roll out launches to various groups within the community, and likely put out some kind of sign up in the next couple of months, to start phasing people in.
On the note of “our future”, we have determined that “paid mods” is not the right thing to do, if for nothing else cultural reasons. However, this doesn't mean that modders will not be rewarded or compensated, it just means it will be coming from NK. The actual final cost of the game, is a bit up in the air, though do know that we are leaning AWAY from the idea of FTP.
Expect us to make more mistakes moving forward, it's a process of our getting better, if nothing else, we can at least promise to be transparent with everything (no matter how taboo), and hold ourselves accountable for the decisions we make, and learn from them swiftly. (no, nobody is paying a penny more for V2 of tug)
xoxo, ino, who still lives in his car.
https://youtu.be/uZ-NWzMERIs
Discussion Update - 2/8/201
We will share details of these things over the course of our development, and we are only a few months away from being able to show progress, which we will do as regularly as possible.
Help us improve TUG
Just install our VakariMod and play on our dedicated server. Server info is in step #3 just in case you miss it. http://devotus.github.io/TUG-VakariMod/.
TUG AMA Today @ 2:00PM - 4:00 PM CST
AMA today at 2-4CST, for everyone and anyone who has any questions about what's going on with TUG, where it's at, and where it's going. We will be doing it at /r/tug https://www.reddit.com/r/tug
Lots of current discussion about no longer charging for access to TUG in the future. Some general outlines of this thinking in ino’s vlogs below… same game, no gimmicks, just free for everyone to try, with a few aesthetic bits to let people choose to support what we are doing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDOr8EtGSvg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMPS4XApXNo
TUG Update Alpha 0.8.9 - 12/15/2015
Also, in an effort to knock out some of the smaller bugs and annoyances, we have added in an option in the video settings that allow you to adjust your gamma correction! No more dark nights! (and days!)
Big thanks to one of our newest members on the gameplay team, Viridian, for that little change. Give a shout out to him @nerdkingdom and give us a follow if you haven’t yet.
If you want to know about future updates and release builds, follow us @theuntiltledgame.
Modding Improvements
- Added more advanced NKParseFile (NKCreateParser)
- Removed Index variable from crafting files
- Added a way to override crafting recipes
- Added warnings to crafting files parser
- Separated submesh definitions from Human Seed.txt to /Data/Gear/3P/
- Separated submesh definitions from Player Hand.txt to /Data/Gear/FP/
- All files in "Data/Generators/" will now be used to load World Generators
- Fixed a problem with multiple biome definition files breaking biome ids
- Added client connection as 2nd argument to client->server events
- Added Invalid Object Access warning to native classes (prevents most crashes)
- Fixed items rendering as empty slot in the inventory instead of NoIcon
- Added mod initialize files (ModInitialize, ModPreinitialize, ModPostinitialize)
Updates
- Added gamma correction into video options
- Added wood armor pieces
- Updated crafting journal to fix a missing recipe
- Lowered the requirements to discover the Leaf Canopy recipe
- Fixed a potential crash when breaking down a tool or weapon you had crafted within the same game session
New Known Issues
-
Picking coconut or glow corn directly off the plant and into its own stack of items will allow you to right click plant it anywhere.
more details here
http://forum.nerdkingdom.com/discussion/2784/tug-alpha-0-8-9-patch-notes?new=1
Alpha Patch 0.8.8 [HOTFIX]
Updates
- Updated z-placement so that holding the place key (default right mouse button) will place a full stack of whatever is in your hand.
- Fixed a save corruption if the client closed (or crashed) the game while interacting with any type of container
- Fixed an issue with containers being unloaded improperly
- Fixed an issue with players leaving when holding an item that isn’t visible
- Fixed a crash with players looking at invalid objects
TUG Update Alpha 0.8.7 - 11/4/2015
Another big update for TUG! Let’s get right into it! There are two big changes to look for with this update the first being the loot system. We are always on the lookout for areas where we can save on performance and help out the player.
In past versions of the game, drops from items and characters were physics enabled which meant they could get lost in the terrain, slide or bounce all over the place and otherwise be a nuisance to deal with on the server as well as for players. Now loot objects are much easier to see, interact with, and much more friendly on performance. Along with this change we have also separated how you pickup and place objects. Loot can be picked up using the F key and holding the key down will attempt to pick up all loot objects near the player. To quickly drop items out of your hand, use the Q key and holding this key will drop every item in a stack. So what does this mean for placing items? We have cleaned up the placement logic too. Using the Z key will take you into placement mode and you can rotate any item and place it in any position you want in this mode. But there’s more! Items you place are now locked into place! That means no more accidentally picking up the workbench you were just crafting on! To pick up one of these new locked items, simply press and hold the F key until the item is collected.
Our other big feature is the crafting journal. This is ideal for looking up recipes and discovering new crafts you never knew existed! Now we know some of you like to be surprised so we’ve kept the journal as a feature you can use or ignore. But if you’re ever curious, pressing the J key will open up the journal screen where you can see your progress on crafting recipes.
You’ll find lots of other very nice feature updates in this update, so have a look over the detailed notes below to find out more!
Follow us @nerdkingdom to keep up with our progress and announcements.
Also, make sure to let us know if you run into any bugs or other issues, and if you have trouble running the game, check out our Steam forums for more details.
Check out some live streaming from our lead coder @GhostfromTexas
If you want to know when indev and release builds arrive, follow @theuntiltledgame
Check out the full patch notes here
http://forum.nerdkingdom.com/discussion/2680/tug-alpha-0-8-7-patch-notes?new=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gxT9IzQ9g4