Hi and welcome to the 27th development blog post for Unleash!
As expected, the last two weeks have been largely focused on the TD Scenario Editor, which is now being internally tested; the 3v3 game mode, which is soon ready for internal testing; and a range of graphical upgrades, including the spawn portal area and new monster graphics. Additionally, mark the date: 24th of June, 2018 - as this is the date that we are planning to run the first Unleash tournament ever! Come be a part of this event, all are welcome! Finally, the Steam Store Page is now available in a total of five languages, thanks to our awesome community.
TD Scenario Editor: Now Testing
The TD Scenario Editor, for creating shareable custom TD scenarios, has reached the testing phase. We are now testing it internally for bugs and usability in preparation for its version 1 release. The functionality is done, the UI is ready and implemented, and the Steam Workshop integration is working.
(The TD Scenario Editor has reached the internal testing phase, which means that it’s almost ready for its version 1 public release!)
I have already written about the TD Scenario Editor at least in the previous two development blogs, so I won’t write much about it this time. It marks the first step towards user contributed content, or “modding”, in Unleash. It also marks the first major feature release since the Early Access release of Unleash, and a major point on our current proposed roadmap, which can be viewed on our Steam Store page and subreddit.
3v3 Game Mode: Sneak Peek
The upcoming 3v3 game mode, inspired by Warcraft 3’s “Wintermaul Wars” and “Tropical Tower Wars”, has also seen substantial progression. A first version for the map has been used for testing, and the steering (movement/navigation) of all monsters has been rewritten to varying extents, in order for them to work on this new map. The major revelation came when we realized that we could generate a special type of vector field, based on lines where monsters need to turn.
(The 3v3 game mode is progressing, a first version for the map is up for testing and the steering for monsters has been done)
While it is not quite ready yet for internal testing, the remaining tasks are not major: State synchronization for the teams (at least the maximum creatures count allowed on the lane), menus, and in-game UI. We are definitely getting closer, and I am SO excited for this first co-op game mode! Stay tuned for a poll on the Discord server in regards to the naming of this game mode.
First Unleash Tournament 24th of June!
As announced everywhere we could, including on our subreddit, we are running the first Unleash Tournament on the 24th of June! This will mark the first really competitive event in Unleash, and we are hoping that a lot of players will want to show up to prove that they are the best among the Unleash players right now.
(The first Unleash Tournament will take place on the 24th of June, starting at 18:00 (CEST) - Join us for the chance to win a free Unleash key and the glory and fame of being the first winner ever in a competitive Unleash tournament!)
This first tournament is in some ways an experiment for us. Since we haven’t run tournaments in Unleash before, we have many questions in regards to what is the right format, how big is the interest, how do we run it logistically and so on. This first tournament will give us some experience and further our ideas of how to run tournaments for Unleash. As always, we’re hoping for loads of feedback from our players as well!
Spawn Portal Area: Now with makeup
As mentioned in the previous development blog post, the art team had drawn up some concept art for the spawn portal area and the life gate area. The spawn portal area has now seen that concept art realized to a large extent. Not all of the concept art was implemented, some of it didn’t really work when seen in-game, some just hasn’t been done yet.
(The new spawn portal area VFX in action)
Steam Store Speaks 5 Languages
Thanks largely to our wonderful community, the Unleash Steam Store Page is now available in 5 languages: English, Russian, Chinese, German and French. We really appreciate the efforts of our community helping us by translating the text on the Steam Store Page, making it more accessible for non-English speakers. Naturally, we are hoping for even more languages as time progresses, but these certainly mark an awesome start for multilingual Unleash.
(The Steam Store page for Unleash is now available in five languages, largely thanks to our super awesome community)
Cracklecloud No More - Welcome Bilebreath!
The Cracklecloud has always been different visually and technically from all other monsters, in that it did not have a 3D model - it was just a particle system essentially resembling a cloud. Thus, it was not susceptible to visual status effects and other things that relied on a 3D model with a mesh. Therefore, it was a priority for the art team to rework the concept and implementation for the Cracklecloud.
(The new Cracklecloud monster - Now called ‘Bilebreath’, based on a community poll - with its animations and visual effects)
That work is almost done now, and we asked the community what they thought we should name the monster, now that it no longer looks like a cloud. Based on a poll on our Discord server, our community chose between five suggestions we came up with, and ultimately decided on the name ‘Bilebreath’ for the new visualization of the formerly-named Cracklecloud monster. It’s functional behaviour has not changed, but it has received a new textured and animated 3D model, along with new visual effects for its ‘disable structure’ ability.
Splittercritter Rework In Progress
The Splittercritter is another monster identified by the art team as needing a rework. Thus, the art guys came up with awesome concept art for a new monster and now the work has begun on implementing it as a functional 3D model with animations. It is still relatively early for that monster, so it will take some time before you get to see it in-game, but now it’s under way.
(The new Splittercritter 3D model is being made based on a detailed concept art and a functional ‘doodle’)
Closing Remarks
The TD Scenario Editor has now reached a state where we are testing it for bugs and usability, thus it will very soon be released so that our community can start making and sharing custom TD Scenarios! The 3v3 game mode is progressing nicely, a map is being tested and the movement for monsters has been implemented. Join us as we celebrate Unleash in the First Unleash Tournament on the 24th of June! All are welcome in this first competitive event for Unleash. Additionally, the art team is cranking out new visuals, among them are new visual effects for the spawn portal area, a new textured and animated model for the formerly-named Cracklecloud (now Bilebreath) monster, and a Splittercritter monster visual rework in progress.
Get in contact with us through Discord, Reddit, or any of our other social media channels. You can find all of them through our website. Also, you can watch our internal gameplay sessions over at Twitch.
And remember… Monsters never come alone.
Update :: 0.2.2905.221
Changes:
Skyhook tower has completely new 3D model, animations and VFX.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed a bug where the Grumperjumper level 4 would quickly result in maximum creature spawn count being reached and it could not spawn.
Dev Blog 26
(Showcase of the current state of the game)
Dev Blog 26 :: June 1st, 2018
Hi and welcome to the 26th development blog post for Unleash!
The TD Scenario Editor has now reached the technical implementation phase, but there is still a ways to go. Work on the 3v3 game mode has gradually started, but it’s still very early days for that. New concept art has arrived by Monster-Mail from the art team, rethinking the spawn portal area and the life gate. The Skyhook no longer has a hook, after a visual level-up. Finally, we are gearing up for the first Unleash competitive event!
TD Scenario Editor: Mission Report June 1, 2018
The TD Scenario Editor is underway, as also mentioned in the previous development blog post. It is now in the process of actually being implemented in code, based on the previously shown concept art. While there is still much more work to be done, we’re aiming for a version 1 release before the Steam Summer Sale begins.
(The current work in progress state of the TD Scenario Editor)
As explained before, the TD Scenario Editor will enable players to design and share their own TD scenarios - thus virtually enabling the community to get involved with the first steps for Unleash in a ‘modding’ direction. We’re hoping that our community will provide us with plenty of feedback when they get their hands on the editor, and that a myriad of wonderful, quirky, fun and challenging scenarios will arise on Steam Workshop.
3v3 Game Mode: The Work has Begun
Currently, Unleash features two game modes supporting multiplayer: Tower Defense and Line Tower Wars. We have now begun working on a third, inspired by the classic “Wintermaul Wars” in Warcraft 3 (WC3). The new 3v3, 2v2 or 1v1 game mode will be the first game mode in Unleash to include teamplay (co-op). Two teams can fight each other, it can also be used for one versus one, or one player can fight a team of two or three. The map that this will take place on will also be different, somewhat resembling the classic one from the WC3 days.
We are very far from done with it, and even after the implementation itself has reached a certain state, there will most likely be a lengthy testing phase. Currently, we are estimating that the first release with the 3v3 game mode may happen within two months from now - but don’t spawn monsters at us if it ends up taking longer! We are committed to delivering a stable game mode that is fully playable, rather than a half-broken one that hasn’t been tested sufficiently.
We are super excited for this new phase in the competitive play options within Unleash, and we can’t wait to see how our players will come up with new ways to play Unleash on this new map and in this new game mode. Stay tuned for more news on this in the coming weeks!
Monster Birth and Death - But Prettier!
For new players starting up with Unleash, it can be confusing what the spawn portal (at the top of the lane) and the life gate (at the bottom) mean. We have heard a few times from first-time players that they do not know what direction monsters will move in, before they actually spawn and move. While the tutorials do show and explain this, many players seem to opt for going straight into a real game - skipping the tutorial completely.
(The new spawn portal area concept art features more or less the same portal as today, but with new visuals around it making it more clear that this is where monsters will appear)
Therefore, the art team have been working hard on making it more intuitively clear where monsters will appear and move to. This has resulted in new concept art for the spawn area and the life gate. The concept art displays several ideas, staying in theme with the overall graphical style, while deepening the level of detail.
(The new life gate concept art shows a humanoid - maybe a ‘Dreamer’ - in an energy bubble, and the gate itself looks more alive - with tentacles tying it together)
Skyhook - Rehooked
The Skyhook tower is no more - R.I.P. All hail the new… Yeah, we don’t actually have a new name for it yet. The art team has completely reworked the look of the (previously named) Skyhook Tower. Instead of shooting a hook or harpoon, which felt a bit too analogue and old-school, it is now much more sci-fi - shooting an “energy bola” at flying monsters, temporarily tying them down.
(The (previously named) Skyhook Tower has seen a considerable upgrade of its visual representation)
While its functionality is more or less the same as previously, this completely new look feels more in-theme with the rest of the game and the other towers. Additionally, its cooldown can be seen visually on the tower through a “charging up” particle system on its top plate.
First Competitive Event: For Glory and Fame!
We have long thought of Unleash as a competitive Tower Wars game - with the potential to become an esports game in the future. Thus, we want to start a tradition and culture surrounding tournaments, competitions and other competitive events. To that end, we have been discussing how the first tournament could run.
Since we are a small indie team, our resources are very limited - this means that if we wait for an actual technical implementation to support a ‘real’ tournament, it may take a while, since we are tied down to other tasks (such as the above mentioned). Instead of postponing the possibility to run a tournament, we want to start up softly with low-tech simple tournaments.
To this end, we are running a poll on our Discord server and on our Subreddit. You can let us know what type of tournament you think we should run and you can share any relevant feedback on the topic with us there!
Closing Remarks
The two major topics for the coming weeks are the TD Scenario Editor and the 3v3 Game mode. However, the art team is also busy (and not just feeding our Monsters), so new concept art has been made for the spawn portal area and the life gate and the no-longer-so-called Skyhook Tower has seen a considerable rework of its visuals. Furthermore, the first competitive event in Unleash is currently the topic of a poll on Discord and Reddit.
Get in contact with us through Discord, Reddit, or any of our other social media channels. You can find all of them through our website. Also, you can watch our gameplay sessions over at Twitch.
And remember… Monsters never come alone.
Update :: 0.2.2905.220
Additions:
Added three possible Unleash Rules for TD, which govern how the Unleash button works.
On scoreboards, a 'maximum page' button has been added.
A new prop decal on the ground marks the monster spawn area around the spawn portal.
A progressbar on description cards show progress when upgrading and researching monsters and structures.
Changes:
The portal color in TD scenarios is now red, instead of grey.
A new VFX for structures being destroyed has been implemented.
New status effect VFX for Freezer's slow creature, and Diesel Tower's diesel/oil drenched & burn over time.
The lobby player dropdown is hidden when changes occur in the lobby, in order to avoid unexpected situations.
A few more of the map props will be pulsating visually.
Bug Fixes:
A few minor UI bug fixes, tooltips and such.
Chat will not load old messages in-game.
Chat timestamps should always be displayed in local time.
Cursor should stay locked to game window if the setting is enabled.
Lobby lane color is the same color as the player color now (UI color).
Chat input & output should not resize text.
Adjusted lane and map props collider sizes.
Healthbar on Razorlegs level 4 follows the monster as it climbs up and down structures.
A few remaining unlocalized texts were identified.
Fixed a few achievements that did not show proper progress.
Fixed a minor bug where the scoreboards' next button would show up, even if there were no entries on the next page.
Impact of Freezer & Diesel towers hits ground always.
Fixed a bug where joining a room through Discord while already in another room would fail.
Fixed a number of achievements that were not possible to unlock ever.
Fixed animated buttons not looping perfectly.
Lane collider size adjusted again.
Guardhorns and Boombellys occasionally destroyed the base without a good reason.
Adjusted the radius on a number of monsters for better steering visually.
Dev Blog 25 :: May 18th, 2018
(Showcase of the current state of the game)
Unleash has been released for 10 days - at the point of writing this. Thus, we are still in the very early days, and every day is exciting and brings its own new challenges and joys. The Unleash community is growing every single day, new players are always arriving and we are receiving tons of incredible feedback from our players. You are all awesome!
In order to communicate to our players where we think Unleash should be heading, we have released a proposed roadmap with the major topic points for the next months of development of Unleash. One of the next points on the roadmap is the TD Scenario Editor, which we have begun working on. Another point is localization, which our awesome community is helping us with. We are very grateful for that! Based on feedback from the community, we are introducing some different rules regarding the ‘Unleash’ button for the TD game mode, and we have improved some aspects of the TD UI. Additionally, the game should now run for players experiencing a high ping. Finally, to avoid fragmenting the player base when we release a new game update, the game will now prompt the player to update when relevant.
The Road(Map) Ahead
In the name of open communication with our community we have released a proposed roadmap for the major development points of Unleash moving forward. The roadmap does not cover every small detail, but it mentions the larger topics that we are planning to look into as things stand right now.
(The first public proposed roadmap for the development of Unleash)
The purpose of sharing this roadmap publically is to start a discussion about which features you - the community - want to see in Unleash. We are developing this game for and with our community. By sharing the roadmap, anyone can see what we have currently planned and bring us their feedback on which points they agree with or disagree with, which may ultimately shape the next version of the roadmap.
So bring your feedback to the Steam community forums, Discord and our Subreddit and let’s have a discussion about where Unleash is heading!
TD Scenario Editor … Coming soon(ish)
As has been mentioned multiple times across our Internet presences - as well as in the abovementioned proposed roadmap - we have a ‘TD Scenario Editor’ planned for Unleash. The purpose of the editor is to enable players to create their own Tower Defense scenarios, which may then be shared globally through Steam Workshop. By releasing this in-game tool for TD Scenario creation, we are hoping that the creative minds of our players will come up with new fantastic, challenging, clever TD scenarios which in turn may add to the replayability of Unleash.
(A work in progress screenshot for the UI design of the upcoming ‘TD Scenario Editor’)
We have scoped the first version of the editor and work has begun on the UI design for it. We have not started the actual implementation yet though, so there is still time to provide us ideas and feedback for the implementation of it. Even if we cannot include some suggestions or ideas for the first version of it, there will undoubtedly be updates to it later as well (assuming it is actually being utilized). Thus, this constitutes the first real steps towards (limited) moddability for Unleash!
TD ‘Unleash’ Democratized
In the Tower Defense game mode, there is an option for players to ‘Unleash’ the next wave - in multiplayer, this meant that anyone could ask for the next wave to be unleashed - against everyone! While we think this is fun and potentially very challenging for experienced players, we realize now that it can completely overwhelm new players. Therefore, we have decided to introduce a few different ‘Unleash modes’ for a more democratic approach. Internally, we call these ‘Expedite Rules’.
(The three different ‘TD Expedite Rules’ - different rules for what happens when ‘Unleash’ is pressed in the Tower Defense game mode)
We have identified three different expedite rules, which the game creator can choose between. The new default is ‘Unanimous Vote’ - meaning that all players still alive must click ‘Unleash’ before the wave is actually spawned. This should make it easier for new players to get started, even in multiplayer TD, as they are not overwhelmed through quick unleashing, unless they participate in it themselves. The second mode ‘Majority Vote’ just means that if the majority of players have chosen to Unleash, the wave spawns. The final mode ‘Wild West’ is basically what has been the only option up until now - Any player clicking ‘Unleash’ will spawn the wave. Obviously, these modes only have an impact on multiplayer TD.
The TD wave display UI has also been updated to what we hope will be more intuitive and clear to players. Instead of only showing a counter in seconds, a progressbar is shown to fill up before a wave spawns after pressing ‘Unleash’. Additionally, the UI boxes move smoothly downwards - making it more aesthetically pleasing and hopefully also making it more noticeable than before.
(The UI rework features smoothly animated UI elements and a nifty progressbar)
A final note in regards to the TD game mode is that we are now enforcing a monster cap per lane. The Line Tower Wars game mode has always had a monster cap at 200 monsters per lane, but this was not actually enforced in the TD game mode, which resulted in some unexpected errors occurring - and even if they were handled, it could potentially crash the players’ PC due to too many monsters moving and animating at the same time.
No English? No problem
As can also be seen from the abovementioned proposed roadmap, we had a plan to provide Unleash in localized (translated) versions, at least for the major languages in the world. Thanks to our wonderful community, a number of our players have stepped up to the task of translating the Steam Store page and the game itself into a number of languages.
This means that the work has begun on translating to: German, Russian, French, Spanish, Polish, Turkish, Dutch, Czech and Indonesian! We are still looking for more players to help us with translating into more languages, or assisting on some of the above languages. We are currently especially interested in Asian languages, such as Chinese (Simplified), Hindu, Japanese and Korean, as these are languages that have not seen any translation yet.
The only restriction is that currently the game can only support left-to-right written languages, so e.g. Arabic and Traditional Chinese would be problematic for us technically.
(The language can be selected in the options menu. Currently, we have English, Turkish and the hardcore-mode “Groot” languages available - no copyright infringement intended!)
The first fully translated language, Turkish, is already available in-game. Thanks to ‘Umut’ for providing it! Players can choose their preferred language in the options, and the game should automatically attempt to follow the system language when set, unless another language has explicitly been set in the options.
Slow Internet is Okay… Probably
We have received feedback from some of our players that playing with a high ping (above 200-250ms approximately) would make it more or less impossible to play the game. We have listened, and then discussed how to support higher pings.
First, the reason for why a high ping can effectively prevent playing is due to the network architecture that Unleash is based on. The game runs deterministically on each client’s machine with the lock-step model, which requires all players to be at the same relative point in time in-game. Thus, if one player is too slow to keep up, the player’s input is unfortunately dropped. This results in “rollbacks” being executed - so placed towers never turn from the green silhouette outline to the actual, real structure that other players can see. Obviously, this is only an issue for multiplayer.
The solution we have now introduced is a so-called ‘Dynamic Sync-Window’. At the start of each multiplayer game, the player with the worst ping dictates how far behind the simulation is, which should provide the lowest-ping player with the possibility to keep up. Thus, we are expecting that it should be possible with pings up to 500ms now.
We will soon start experimenting with a slightly different solution technically, although the same conceptually, so it may be that we can improve upon this solution in the near-future.
Game Updates Up-To-Date
Whenever we send out a game update to Unleash, the players already in-game were not notified in-game that there was a new game version ready. Since we don’t allow players to play with each other in multiplayer cross different versions of the game, this could result in fragmenting the player base across two or potentially more versions of the game (e.g. in cases where we need to do a quick hotfix after an update, there could be three versions of the game played simultaneously).
(A version check prompts the player to update the game when a new version of the game is released)
Since Steam does not automatically handle this scenario in any way that we could find, we have chosen to implement our own relatively simple version check in-game so that players receive an in-game notification for the new game version, prompting them to restart and update. This happens when entering the game, not while playing a match, to minimize the intrusion to players.
Closing Remarks
Over the past two weeks we have released a proposed roadmap, which includes the major planned features for development, including the TD Scenario editor and localizations of the game. Several improvements have been implemented for the TD game mode, especially in multiplayer. The game should be better at supporting high ping due to slow internet, and finally the game will automatically check for a new version and prompt the player to update when relevant.
Get in contact with us through Discord, or any of our other social media channels. You can find all of them through our website. Also, you can watch our internal gameplay sessions over at Twitch.
And remember… Monsters never come alone.
Game Update :: 0.2.1705.211 :: Patch build
Additions:
Better visualization of wave progression in Tower Defense mode.
Restart button on in-game menu.
The latency threshold is now dynamic (within reason), allowing for players with pings up to approximately 500ms to still play the game in multiplayer.
Turkish translation v1 added, thanks to player Umut.
Changes:
All buttons now use the 'Noto' font.
Splittercritter Level 4 has reduced Health Points.
Magmaback and Snowripper Level 4 have increased Health Points.
Improved spawn logic to avoid 'On Cooldown' situations due to network catch-up mechanics.
Bug Fixes:
The chat will now automatically reconnect in cases of disconnection, and it will show 'Offline Mode' if that is the case. Other small bug fixes to the chat as well.
Scoreboard previous and next buttons can no longer be spam clicked.
Pressing 'ESC' (default mapping) while showing the chat log will hide the chat log.
Overview screens in Tower Defense mode now actually show the correct numbers.
Game Update :: 0.2.1005.203 :: Patch build
Changes:
New players will have the 'Starter' loadout preselected in the lobby.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed issues with the Line Wars Tutorial occuring if players get creative and skip steps.
Fixed Tutorial lane positioning bug.
If all players are defeated in a Tower Defense Scenario, the play next scenario button is no longer disabled for the master client.
Fixed a number of potential causes for exceptions.
Fixed a few minor visual bugs.
Quick-fix to ensure that TD scenarios respect the monster cap at 200 - a solution with proper feedback will be released later.
Game Update :: 0.2.0805.201 :: Patch build
Additions:
A new option for locking the mouse cursor to the game window has been added - it will default to locking the cursor.
Version check in menus to ensure the players have the latest version. Particularly useful during Early Access where game updates may be frequent.
Changes:
People with empty names get a generic name.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed an issue with Lobby panels showing for the wrong game mode.
Game Update :: 0.2.0805.200 :: Patch build
Changes:
Remapped a few camera keybinds to avoid having players press them by accident.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed a bug with scenario selection and play after finishing a scenario.
Menu tooltips now actually show.
Game Update :: 0.2.0805.197 :: RELEASE BUILD
Additions:
Newly available structures in Tower Defense scenarios will 'float' over to the structure menu, making it more clear.
Changes:
Player Color is no longer affected by Randomize Positions, i.e. if you choose a color you will keep that color.
Region widget is now visible in all menus, although still only changable on the main menu.
Armor has now been removed from the game. Tower damage and monster health has been adjusted accordingly.
Play Now has been changed to skip the creation step and go directly to the lobby with default settings.
Game Overview has had an overhaul. Particularly the end game screen in Tower Defense mode.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed an issue with Upgrade double clicking (in Toggle Mode)
Final score in TD Overview is now correct (Time factor has been applied)
Reduced the chat spamming.
Fixed an issue where a bot would be present in the chat commands dropdown.
Another attempt at fixing the chat scroll bug fix.
Only the global chat can potentially show [unknown] for player names, since loading names from Steam can take time.
Fixed a Camera bug in singleplayer while the in-game menu was open.
Scenario monster entries now show the level indicator.
Fixed a crash bug when opening settings in the main menu.
A number fo handlers for disconnects at various times have been implemented.
