September 2024 Dev Update

Hey everyone, we’re back again for the Dev Update!

:tv: DEV STREAM

In our last Dev Update, we mentioned plans for a Dev Stream! This got derailed due to illness on the team. But, we still plan on doing one!

We’ll make an announcement for the stream on Discord and Steam once we’ve ironed out the details!

:fuelpump: Zombie Massacre + Map Maker

We’ve been wrapping up work on the Zombie Massacre Map Maker! Since we’ve been developing that part of the game, we’ve also made some improvements to ZM in general.

These include some animation fixes, an award for killing all zombies before the helicopter lands, a timer on events to prevent soft-locking, ghost projectile and animation fixes, a new boss, and more!

For the map maker, progress has been made on the sub-objectives system, items, and customizable escapes which will also be featured later on in normal ZM gameplay!

You can look over the ZM Map Maker guide for the feature to get an idea of how it all works here!

:checkered_flag: Ball Race Map Maker

Work has also been wrapping up on the Ball Race Map Maker! Some additions for this new feature include built-in Ball Race music support, leaderboard support, and more level design and editing features!

Like ZM, there were also fixes to Ball Race in general, such as fixes for the customization menu, attractors and repulsors, draw distance issues, various map and timing issues, and various visual bugs. Maps that were specifically touched include Woodlands, Memories, Nimbus, Eruption, and Khromidro.

You can check out the Ball Race Map Maker guide here.

:sunflower: Accessibility: Arachnophobia Setting

It’s been requested for a long time, and we’ve finally added an arachnophobia setting. This will change any spiders in-game to blobs, which will allow more players to enjoy the game!

:houses: Co-op Condo Fixes

Co-op Condos have received some much-needed love in this update! We’ve made fixes for Canvas issues, IO timer issues, NPC/dialogue editing issues, and Damage Volume setting issues for those who try to edit the hosts Condo!

:joystick: Arcade

Progress was made on the arcade, namely Pluck-A-Pal! Pluck-A-Pal has been one of the more finicky games, but some physics changes to the crane and prongs will help fix the majority of the issues with the game!

The clipping issues and wacky movements of this machine will be a thing of the past, and pals will no longer need to be inside of orbs!

:hammer_and_wrench: Workshop Rig 3.0 Progress

As of writing this, one more test needs to be done for the Workshop rig, and then it will be ready to go! Lots of work was done this month fixing up some last minute bugs and fixing some regressions.

Some features we wanted to highlight for this new rig include an error log now in the Workshop editor and bounds drawing to see if your object is in bounds!

:mag_right: Quality of Life Changes

There have been many changes to improve the quality of gameplay in general, so here are those areas that included changes:

:fountain: Plaza - various Plaza changes, restart notification is more noticable, removed a teleporter on the beach

:dart: Minigames - combo time adjustment, weapon changes

:globe_with_meridians: Game World Ports - fixes to scenery and collision, change to the height of screens for legibility

:golf: Minigolf - added camera collision to flag camera, fixes to issues on holes 10, 12, 15, and 17 of Kingdom

:wrench: Minigolf Map Maker - key prompt for leaving, respawn feature

:syringe: Virus: Horde Mode - non-collision item avoidance, push/damage heal volume fixes, horde mode flame effects fixes, players no longer infect on touch in horde mode

:computer_mouse: General Bug Fixes

:fountain: Plaza - hole fixes, fixed duplicated media screens, z-fighting, lilypads, optimizations

:golf: Minigolf: Collision Mutator - Emission fix, collision is now disabled when you pocket

:wrench: Minigolf Map Maker - fixes to water volume hazards, canvas images clearing on walls, par networking issues, cannon issues, 1x1-dipped missing textures, base height settings, non-global sky volumes, no OOB in tubes

:syringe: Virus - Catzek collision fixes, horde AI spawning, horde movement & interaction fixes

:goggles: VR

VR has had a lot of development as well!

VR Menus - menu now draws through the 3D world and no longer gets blocked by objects, new floating HUD for VR to allow toggling voice, menu for Plazas now show all active Plazas

VR Interactions - basic pickup support (you can pickup and throw items, but it’s currently just tap) , basic weapon support ,basic libretro lightgun support, improved use beam

VR Fixes - left hand trace no longer overrides right hand trace on menus, VR menu no longer displays a black screen, fixed loading menus not working well in VR

VR Animations - hand IK is now setup and starting development

:couch_and_lamp: New Items!

If all that wasn’t enough, various new items are in progress!

3D Text - Floating 3D Text!

Physics-al Media Shelf - Organize and store Physics-al Media and Libretro cartridges on a shelf

Mirror - Reflects the world and players using the mirror settings in your graphics settings!

Explosive Barrel - An exploding barrel with respawn features!

New Items for Rob’s Import’s: Destructible Crate, Destructible Crate Long, Destructible Pot, Military Crate

New Items for Seasons: Lilypads, Ceiba Tree

:jack_o_lantern: Halloween Events

Halloween is right around the corner, so keep an eye out for the usual events, ghoul coins, and some new items next month!

:calendar: September Calendar


Here is the calendar for September events! If you want notifications, we have the events set up on our Discord here. If you would like to make a suggestion for events, do so here.

That’s gonna do it for this Dev Update! Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time.

<3 PixelTail Games

22 Likes

Haven’t checked on TU in a while, but it seems like you guys are hard at work with a lot of improvements to the game. Excellent work as always, and I hope you’re all doing well!

12 Likes

how does camera io interact with zombie massacre? for example, recreating a Resident Evil game and utilizing their fixed cameras to truly replicate it

Camera IO will work, but the aiming won’t update for it. I’d have to change how aiming works for that kind of interaction.

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