March General Progress Update

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:

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.

End of November Update

End of November Update

Its been a few weeks since the last update, but we do have a bit of news to share so here goes.

Build Versions

Build versions, our latest asset, is finally out on the Unity Asset Store after a really long review time, which was around 45 days give or take. The first few days of the asset being live have been great though xD, We’ve had record page views & asset claims which has made it worth the wait. I recently filmed a short overview video for the asset which I’m still working on the captions for as I write this. You can see the video on the store listing or on our YouTube channel. I plan film more of these for our other assets soon so each one has at-least 1 video explaining how to use it xD

Drop Tables

What happened with Drop Tables? yea, I’m still undecided on what the use case this asset is for and how it should be setup to allow it to work with multiple games. Because of this, I’m postponing the asset for now until I get the time to sort this fully xD

Audio Manager Version 3

We’ve notice a few issues with Audio Manager 2.5.4, which we are working on a patch for presently. However we also have a major overhaul coming soon! Its Version 3 baby! Backend wise some of the stuff is getting moved around and the way the asset is used is changed from inspector based to scriptable object based. Mostly this means the asset will be more flexible and hopefully more performant with less laggy inspectors, improved auto scanning, manual scanning options & more! This may or may not come out this year, we’ll see how it goes.

Leaderboard Manager

The backend for the new leaderboard manager changes are ready, we just need to test it & do all the front end stuff xD This is on track, though I’d expect it to be coming out early 2022 as most of the development time will be during and after Christmas and the asset store review team will probably be off until new year by then xD

Games in 2022

We really want to make a game xD With the asset changes currently planned, we should have all of our assets at a decent point where supporting and updating them shouldn’t take too much of our time. So our main goal for next year is to release or make significant progress on a game title. We don’t know what yet, but its our main goal for next year!

Build Versions Itch.io Release

Build Versions Itch Release

Due to on-going delays to the Unity Asset Store release of the asset, we took the decision this week to publish that asset on Itch.io ahead of the asset store. This was mostly so people could actually use the asset before the end of the year. Currently the asset is #1106 in the queue as of writing, it has been going down a decent chunk in the last few days. But its still the longest we’ve had to wait for a new asset to get reviewed. So as of this post the asset is avalible on our Itch.io page, which you can see here: https://carter-games.itch.io/build-versions

Other Asset Updates

Some of our other assets got their new versions approved during the week.

Audio Manager | 2.5.4

This update just patches an issue where the auto-scanning feature was not working. This was just a misake on our part as we removed bits of the scanning strings for directories that broke that element of the scanning process, leaving out any files that were not in the root directory.

Transform Colours | 1.2.0

The transform colours asset has its colour select feature update live. This adds a feature that we had suggested in the reviews of the asset as the default colours were not as ideal on the light theme as they work on the dark theme. So this update lets uses change the colours to something more suitable for their needs.

That is all the news this week, our next news post will be in a fortnight.

Build Versions Under Review!

Build Versions Under Review!

We recently annouced a new asset that was going to be released this month, well here it is! Build Versions is an automation tool that is like out other asset totally Free. This tool automatically updates a build number along with some other useful information that you can display in your project.

The asset by default will automatically update the following information in a scriptable object for you to implement if you wish:

  • A unique build number, that starts at 1 and goes up each build you make in your project.
  • The date that the build was made up.

You can also have the asset update the Major/Minor/Patch systematic version number that is commonly used in software development version numbers. Change when the build information updates and whether or not the asset updates the build information.

You can view the documentation here if you are interested and want to get a sneak peak. We will make another post as and when the asset is officially live.

More Asset Store Updates!

More Asset Store Updates!

As of this morning both our Audio Manager & Transform Colours asset updates went live. Both these updates included the improved visual style that we also used for the recent Save Manager update. This just leave the Leaderboard Manager as the last asset that we have yet to update to the new style, which we anticipate will be around by the end of the month.

Whats changed?

Audio Manager 2.5.2

This update added some requested features as well as fixed up some known bugs with the previous version. we also improved some elements of the code base and also added some additional options to play audio that we have found useful while working on our own projects. Below are the official changes:

Store Listing Changes
  • Updated some of the store listing graphics with the new style.
  • Updated store listing description with to better explain the asset.
Asset Changes
  • Re-written the Music Player script to ensure that it works as intended.
  • Added Audio Events to allow users to get when a clip has ended.
  • Added new PlayRange methods to allow users to play ca random clip with a collection of requests.
  • Added a custom inspector for the Audio Manager File scriptable object.
  • Added ability to change the base scan directory so the user can store their audio files in a folder other than Assets/Audio
  • Re-written documentaion to better explain the asset and how to use it.
  • Added basic demo scene, explaining how examples of some of the scripts can’t be provided due to the asset setup, though the music player has an example.
Bug Fixes
  • Fixed issues with the music player coroutines not properly working.
Transform Colours 1.1.6

Updates the Transform Colours are mostly cosmetic with some future proofing with the new changes coming in Unity 2021.2. We even got a new 5-star review on the day the update went live which just made it even better.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Good for newbies like me!
If you’re still confused which axis color is which this asset is awesome, just download it, put it into your project and it’s done. You now have a valuable visual hint to help you remember the axis colors.

Below are the official changes to this asset:

Store Listing Changes
  • Updated the store description to better explain the asset and its usage.
  • Updated the store graphics to fit the new style we have made for our assets.
Asset Changes
  • Added support for the 2021.2 scale constrain toggle with a scripting define.
  • Made some minor changes to the asset backend.
  • Updated documentation & changelog to match the new style.

Thats all for this update, more updates soon!