Leaderboard Manager (2.1.0)

Leaderboard Manager (2.1.0)

While it is a little delayed, the new rather long awaited Leaderboard Manager update is here. So whatā€™s new?

Summary of changes

Mechanically the asset is pretty much the same as the earlier 2.0.x versions of the asset but with some updated backend logic for future updates. A full rundown of the behind the scenes changes:

  • New saving system similar to the Save Managerā€™s setup with a JSON save setup instead of the legacy binary save file setup.
  • Updated the structure of leaderboards to allow each entry to have its own unique identifier so you can reference an entry easier.

There is a porting tool to update old saves to the new structure. More on this in a moment.

  • New settings structure to match the rest of the assets released recently with per user settings and a settings provider flow.
  • Offline documentation is now complete instead of a simpler version. The online docs are also updated to match the rest of the assets using Notion as a host (easier to maintain in a pinch and has search built in).

There are also a new editor to allow to viewing of existing leaderboards as well as a setup to port older saves to this new version, both in the editor and at runtime.

Editor

With the editor tab you can view all leaderboards currently in the save file. You canā€™t make new ones here as the API isnā€™t designed to have boards made in the editor, instead having them made at runtime. You can however delete board should you need to test the setup and view the entries to make sure they appear as expected which should help with debugging.

Porting data to 2.1.x from 2.0.x

As mentioned the new structure means any old data from the previous version will need updating. A full rundown is in the documentation for the asset. But basically if you used the old setup to save the score as time by saving the score in seconds etc. As you can now save score as into a time class instead. There isnā€™t any major work you need to do to achieve this, just define the board ids and the type to convert them to and the asset should take care of the rest.

Note: you will need to convert boards even if they were just a score field.

An example below of a board called ā€œArcadeā€ being converted to a score board in the new version.

Whatā€™s next?

With this update done, Iā€™m mainly focusing on support and getting back into my main side project for the year as Iā€™ve had to take some time off of it to get this out. I do have a few game ideaā€™s that I may prototype at some point or at-least write out some ideas for next year to work on proper. More on these when I have something to share.

Audio Manager 3.x Release!

Audio Manager 3.x Release!

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A post annoucing the release of Audio Manager 3.x & an update to the Save Manager as well.


Audio Manager 3.x

Its been a long time coming, but today the new Audio Manager version is released. Unlike previous releases I’m going to stagger this one to release on the Unity Asset Store next year. This is mostly due to the asset’s stability not being great and the high likelyness of bugs from the total re-write. The new version has a lot of new features that have been teased before, but a quick rundown of some of the features:

  • Automatic scanning of audio clips in the project without any user input needed.
  • Dynamic start time for each clip to start where it starts playing audable audio, cutting out deadspace on clips and saves editing out of Unity.
  • Flexiable API for playing audio clips or groups of clips. The setup is more modular than before for easy debugging and fixing.
  • Editor to manage the library, assign groups of clips together and music track lists. Saves workarounds that were needed in the 2.x version of the asset.
  • No setup needed, just import and go. Before you needed to setup the inspector the use it.
  • Entirely static API, no scene references needed. As the static instance was the more common setup, this change makes it way easier to access the API without needing lots of scene references.
  • Music playing setup. Still a simple setup, but plans to make it better with further updates.
  • Inspector players for quick prototyping without needing to write any code. Like the old audio player class, but allowing for edits to be applied in the editor at will instead of needing a messy inspector with all options avalible.

So as of this post the asset is avalible from its Github repository and the Itch page. With the asset store coming early next year, partly for stabilty fixes, partly due to the review process which will likely take longer around this time of year as is. Links before:

Github: https://github.com/CarterGames/AudioManager

Itch: https://carter-games.itch.io/audio-manager

Save Manager 2.0.15

Along with the Audio Manager release, there is a small update to the Save Manager also coming out at the same time, more or less. This update will go live to all stores and mostly fixes some editor stuff that I worked out in Audio Manager 3.x this week as well as some issues with the save editor not refreshing to the latest data.

Links can be found here: https://carter.games/savemanager/

Thatā€™s all for now xD

~ J,

Audio Manager Progress Update

Audio Manager Progress Update

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Hi all. Been a little while so I thought Iā€™d just update yā€™all on where Audio Manager 3 is at and when to expect it at this point.


Is it nearly done? yes. The code is like 90-95% done. As normal the last 5% takes most of the time xD. I found a few bugs which took me a week or so to work out in the spare time I had recently. I think Iā€™ve got them at this point. I also had to add in a new system for an inspector player for audio. Something I couldnā€™t really leave out of the initial release. A little sneak peak above (right). Its more flexible than the 2.x solution with the option to use mode edit modules from the inspector and choose as few or as many as youā€™d like to use.

Iā€™ve got one more script to write for a music player inspector, but after that is done it is just a matter of sorting a few small demo projects, testing & finishing the documentation. The docs I have already started writing. Iā€™m hoping itā€™ll be ready before 2024, but Iā€™m annoyingly busy at the moment on the weekends where I can get the most done. So weā€™ll see if that happensā€¦.

Also new logo! All the assets have a new logo design as of this weekend. I’m slowly updating them everywhere as I get the time to do so and I’m not in a coding mood…. Audio Manager’s logo below:

Thatā€™s all for now xD

~ J,

March General Progress Update

March General Progress Update

So its been about a month since my last update. So its about time I updated yā€™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. Iā€™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, Iā€™ve been looking into solutions for that. Annoying there isnā€™t really any solution Iā€™m 100% happy with, most either are paid which I canā€™t afford given everything I release is free or doesnā€™t quite do everything I need it to. Iā€™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

Iā€™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 Iā€™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. Iā€™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 Iā€™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 Iā€™m planning to now it works, Iā€™d be able to reduce that and make the asset much easier to manage from my end without compromising on features. If youā€™ve used Linq, String methods or some tween libraries then youā€™ll know the syntax. An example below of what Iā€™m thinking of doing and what itā€™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 Iā€™ve only just got my head around how to make this work. I also wonā€™t be working on the Audio Manger 3.x until Iā€™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 Iā€™m working on Carter Games stuff, Iā€™m also taking on a personal project at the same time to give me some variety. Mostly to avoid burnout on one project which Iā€™ve had in the past. In this case Iā€™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 donā€™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 Iā€™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 thatā€™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 Iā€™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. Iā€™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.

Thatā€™s about it for this update, Iā€™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!