March General Progress Update

March 25, 2023March 25, 2023 by Jonathanin Game Development, UpdateLeave a Comment

March General Progress Update

So its been about a month since my last update. So its about time I updated y’all on where things are at.

Save Manager

The main progress has been on the save manager, with the code base now being pretty close to being production ready. I’m currently working out some bugs on builds which are been a bit annoying. The editor side of the asset is ready though, with just a few stress tests to do to make sure it works.

I have a few feature changes to the asset, mostly due the amount of work for the amount of use it will get. So the create tab has been removed as the creation of save data is a more modular in this version and should be easy enough to follow without a tool. I may add it again in a future update if its requested or really needed, but for the initial release making data manually will be fine with documentation and videos to aid with that.

Speaking of documentation, I’ve been looking into solutions for that. Annoying there isn’t really any solution I’m 100% happy with, most either are paid which I can’t afford given everything I release is free or doesn’t quite do everything I need it to. I’ve ended up trialling an idea using a website builder & either GitHub pages or similar to host the site on. An example below that I trailed using the Multi Scene docs

I’ve also changed up the path remapping in the asset to be different dependant on the target platform. You can define the path still but using some pre-defined strings rather than selecting the path yourself. There are some caveats such as having the update the path for each platform if you want it to be different etc. But it should work out fine for the first version. You can also press a button to open the directory where the save will be if targeting a standalone platform (PC/Mac/Linux).

I think I’m still good for the April release, but things may crop up that interfere with that, well see.

Audio Manager

The advantage of not doing the Audio Manager before the Save Manager is that I can use what I learn from it in the new version. I’ve recently been testing the early versions for bugs (which there are many) and researching some ideas. This week I was able to make a method chain solution that will change up most of the API I’ve written so far. Currently the setup is similar to 2.x with loads of methods for each use case which gets very hard to maintain. If I went about the chaining solution which I’m planning to now it works, I’d be able to reduce that and make the asset much easier to manage from my end without compromising on features. If you’ve used Linq, String methods or some tween libraries then you’ll know the syntax. An example below of what I’m thinking of doing and what it’ll do:

// Example
AudioManager.Play(Clip.Click01).SetVolume(.5f).SetDelay(.1f);

// What it does:
// Your normal play this clip, clip being the struct system I already have in place.
AudioManager.Play(Clip.Click01) 

// Sets the volume of the clip to play at .5f volume (range 0-1)
.SetVolume(.5f)

// Sets the clip to play with a delay of .1f
.SetDelay(.1f);

Now this is still quite a while off as I’ve only just got my head around how to make this work. I also won’t be working on the Audio Manger 3.x until I’ve finished & published Save Manager 2.x. But this will certainly give me a lot to work on. I do still plan to keep a modular method for the more traditional calls should people wish to use that syntax over this setup.

Personal Project

While I’m working on Carter Games stuff, I’m also taking on a personal project at the same time to give me some variety. Mostly to avoid burnout on one project which I’ve had in the past. In this case I’m making a passion/portfolio project where I attempt to replicate the Person 5 Royal (P5R) combat system & to an extent the look as well. I played the game over the Christmas break and really enjoyed it. So decided to make a project out of it.

The end goal is to at-least have a small custom boss battle which a full party of 4 vs something. With the user being able to use a mini velvet room system to make a persona with the skills available to then use in the fight. I don’t plan on replicating the AI or anything for the players party so it will be direct commands for all party members. The party members will also be custom and not related to the actual P5R ones. At the end of the day I’d like to make a mini-experience out of it, but it will always just be for portfolio, I obviously cannot release it commercially due to copyright etc.

Below is a little video below of how that’s going so far on the UI side, but its still very early days:

If you want to see more on the project then you can see the full project page on my portfolio here:

Persona 5 Royal Combat Project Page

Its a long project so I’m posting update posts which you can view on that page. The up side of doing a project like this is that I learn even more doing it. I’ve now got a custom UI shape system as well as a basic Google sheets downloader working as well will come in handy in future projects.

That’s about it for this update, I’ll see you in the next one.

Monthly Update | Feb 2022

March 2, 2022September 21, 2022 by Jonathanin Archive, UpdateLeave a Comment

Welcome back to the monthly update, where you can find a summary of all the last months activities. So, here’s what happened this month

Project Tilly

More progress has been made on Project Tilly this month, being my main focus at the moment. As always you can see the latest from this project either on the upcoming channel in our discord server (hidden under the games role), or here: https://carter-games.itch.io/project-tilly/devlog

The main progress this month was on the computer system in the game. getting the laptop to function like a day to day laptop would. So far this has gone well, but there is still a fair bit to do before it is ready. On top of this have been several bug fixes and backend changes along with some improvements to the multi-scene system.

Asset Store Product Source Code

During this month a little side project was going on. As all our asset store products are free it made sense to allow the source code to be public on Github. This has now been done and will be updated when I push changes to the store versions code. This will likely be the most up to date version of each asset as there is no review time and I may even release experimental assets or smaller bits of code on there as well, so it’s worth following if you are not already: https://github.com/CarterGames

Audio Manager 3.x.x?

So looking at the source for 2.x.x recently I’ve found some areas that could be improved and some features that I would like to add. Due to this I feel a 3.x.x version coming. Now currently I’m only working on this in the around an hour I get before work on the weekdays and only on the weekdays so its taking some time to develop. I’ve also had to cut a feature I wanted due to not knowing a way of making it work, that being method chaining when calling to play a clip. The update will add more of a static approach to the backend for ease of use for beginners, less setup to make it easier to get going and automatic audio file scanning 2.0 which will update when you add or remove files from your project. A little sneak peak of the asset settings so far below:

Closing

That’s about all for this months update, obviously being the shortest month less got done. But lots to come, see you next month!

Monthly Update | Jan 2022

February 6, 2022September 21, 2022 by Jonathanin Archive, UpdateLeave a Comment

Here is the first monthly update for 2022. This will be a monthly update news post going over the main highlights of what I have been working on in the past month.

Website Updates

Recently I’ve updated the website with a new section for packages, these are smaller assets/tools that are not on the unity asset store. These are normally experimental or niece systems that are not 100% complete yet but are public if anyone wants to use them.

I’ve also added a section in our products on the home page for Project Tilly, which has been the main focus for the month.

Project Tilly

Project Tilly is our first major game project prototype. The game follows a week in the life of Isabelle, a student living alone in a small studio flat. Experience her struggle as she tries to go from day to day, suffering from several mental health issues such as anxiety, loneliness & depression. The project is planned for a end of Q2 demo build, where I will gauge if the project is going to go anywhere & either move on to another project or continue with it to the next build.

Current progress is good, though a little messy. I the next moth I will be focusing on this project more and trying to get a playable build ready with some minor story elements & main mechanics in.

You can see our weekly updates either on the upcoming channel in our discord server (hidden under the games role), or here: https://carter-games.itch.io/project-tilly/devlog

Audio Manager

I’ve made a minor patch to the Audio Manager, which updates the debug log’s to provide more information about the problems they report. As of writing it is still pending and will be a silent update, so we will post when the update is live to ley you know as and when this happens.

Discord Server Changes

At the end of year year, I made some changes to the discord server. These changes mean new members to the server don’t see the whole server and need to react with an emoji in the server info rules channel to gain access to other parts of the server. I made this change partly to help the new user experience and partly to reduce the amount of incorrect channel usage. So far this has worked well, with roles for asset support, games & community along with an option notification role that gets mentioned with all announcement posts.

That’s all for this post, we’ll be back in the first week of March with the February update!