Most boring update ever…
I’m sorry in advance for how dull this one’s going to be. I anticipated rolling full steam ahead and creating a few new levels for the game – I want to get a single player demo out and in folks’ hands in the next month.
I also anticipated putting out a whole bunch of updates about the SEGE Indie Game Circuit, linking to content from and interacting with some of the creators we met.
Yeah – none of that happened.
.
“Con Flu” is real.
I spent the first 2 weeks back from SEGE exhausted and sniffly. Despite the bottles of hand sanitizer and cleaning controllers religiously, I still got sick – the most likely cause was exhaustion: I spent far too many nights staying up late pushing the demo out, fixing bugs, and creating “patchwork” systems so Barn Brawl would run and hold up under pressure from ACTUAL gamers.
So what DID you work on? It’s been 2 weeks! I mean…the game is already playable!
Pulling back the “demo curtain”
In the future, I’m taking a lesson from the developer of HOVERDRIVE – he had a “kiosk mode” setting that took over his game’s architecture, putting up demo directions, adding a quick “Restart demo” option to the menu, and locking players into his carefully crafted demo experience…
And here’s the important part: without altering any of the core game architecture!! Genius.
I didn’t have that option with Barn Brawl. Before I applied for the event, the game was shapes on a test grid, fields displayed stats in text, and (the worst part)…everything ran only in my test environment ONE LEVEL AT A TIME. There was no loader, no menu, no game flow logic. I wrote all of that in the weeks leading up to the event. To be honest, I’m really proud of how much work I got done in just 2 months. I took a game from shapes and a demo field to a functional and (relatively) polished product.
However, that meant writing a lot of code that was messy, non-networked, and non-reusable. I’ve spent the last two weeks taking that code out and replacing it with production-grade code.
Barn Brawl is an on or offlie game. To accomplish this, all of the “offline” code is just “networked” code, but you’re connected to…yourself. It’s a great feature of Photon Fusion, and one of the big reasons I chose them for our multiplayer framework. You still have to be mindful and conscious of how data is handled when writing your code, though…and that takes time. Time wasn’t something I had as the SEGE show edged closer.
Yay Menus
They aren’t glamorous, and they aren’t fun…but they are necessary. In a demo, the game does one mode, only moves between pre-selected screen and a limited number of characters and stages. The system runs on rails. Those rails were fine for keeping the experience < 5 minutes so everyone who wanted to play could do so.
The real game needs to handle a wide variety of systems, screens, control setups, and a WHOLE LOT MORE CONTENT. So I’ve been building boring menus this week. And I fell into a trap: overcomplication.
I tried to design an addressable system that would let me bounce menu focus around and control everything via code. UI in unity is usually strug togeher in the inspector, making it notoriously hard to track and change. I like nice, neat, readable code so I can make things happpen in order and track / debug in one spot.
First, I created this awesome menu control system that integrates with Rewired, the input plugin that allows you to control the game with any controller on any platform. These worked flawlessly, and are drag and drop onto any menu anywhere. Swapping between them is a one line call; easy to track and troubleshoot. That part worked great!
The next creation was the problem child. I created boss scripts that ran each full menu screen (and all its functions). Worked fine until I started branching out into the settings menu. YIKES. I’ve since pulled that back and created several smaller scripts that hold only a specific menu screen’s functionality.
For example: the Title Screen needs:
- Local Start
- Online Start
- Shop (ulockables from currency earned via in-game play…no microtransactions!)
- Settings
- App Exit (for PCs)
Fine, right? One script can do that…Shop is a separate scene that loads, as it the character and game setup. But settings need to be changed BEFORE the game starts. Adding those functions in:
- Video Resolution
- Quality settings
- Sound Volume
- Controller / Keyboard button assignment
- Contact links
Each of those required its own animation tweens, focus scripting, multiple buttons, functions, and displays. Suddenly, the Title Screen boss script was this enormous, complicated state machine. I scrapped that and went back to what I used in the PUN version of Barn Brawl a few years ago: each menu (like my Menu Controller) can be “Opened” and “Closed.” Simple.
I also designed Menu Tween components that can be dragged and dropped onto a menu to control animation with a single call (which is already handled in “Open” and “Close”). Much simpler, scalable, and reusable throughout the game!
What’s next?
First, I have to finish the menus. All of the functions don’t need to be in there yet, but functional placeholders that can reliably be opened, closed, and navigated are in.
I also coded up a better Sound Manager to address some of the issues we had at the SEGE Demo.
I’ll jump back into animation fixes and get back to my original target of adding levels and minigames! I also have to get bots up and running. Their control interfaces are ready and functional, but players trying a single-player demo will want someone to play against.
I’m also working on doing these DevLogs as videos – text is awesome for archival purposes, but video updates will probably make players feel more confident about the game’s progress, and get more eyes on us.
Oh – and Discord! We’re almost ready to open that up to allow folks to talk directly with us about ideas, issues, or just say hello! The server is up, but we’re finalizing moderation and registration. Details SOON! You can already chat with us on the Steam Discussions for Barn Brawl.
SEGE Content?
Ummm…you promised more content about the SEGE Indie Game Circuit: where is that?
I’m a little lost on this, to be honest. It’s been 2 weeks since the show, and I’ve not seen anything from RealLifeFakeWizard, FakePortal, or anyone else from the show. I did see a glimpse of our booth in MachoNachoProductions’ SEGE video. He was more a fan of HOVERDRIVE (who was shown a few times in the video!) – you can see us at 6:52. He didn’t play our game, but he’s probably my favorite console modder on YouTube – to even be in one of his videos was a really cool moment for me!
Cool, but didn’t RealLifeFakeWizard sponsor the whole show?
He did, and he was an absolutely amazing dude! His whole team really seemed passionate about everything – from selecting the attendees to giving awards and encouraging folks to play our games…they were with us all weekend working tirelessly.
That being said, there’s been no content so far. I’m hoping it’s in the works – it’s only been 2 weeks, and I know the team also traveled to Raleigh for a Comicon-style event. Wizard gets his views from commenting on pop-culture, including movies / tv/ games…and there have been several tent-pole releases during and since SEGE: the latest Spider Man movie, a new Halo remake, and a couple of TV series he’s been covering concluding their seasons. Creating quality content takes time, and he’s got to focus on what keeps the lights on first and foremost.
I’ve reached out to the publicly available email he has, and will reach out to the SEGE folks today. We didn’t get many pictures from the event since we were demoing, so I’d love to get more pics and video from the event. Using his influence and audience to help us isn’t something he’s obligated to do by any means…he and his team already invested heavily into planning, traveling to, and running the Indie Game Circuit for us.
Even if there’s no content or a marketing bump for us, Ashley and I are still incredibly grateful to be chosen to participate! We felt so validated watching everyone play the game and laugh, trash talk, and enjoy the experience we worked so hard to create. Having one of my favorite YouTubers play my game (still can’t believe I didn’t recognize him out of costume) was inspiring and the perfect jolt of encouragement I needed to get Barn Brawl to the finish line.
I’m sure there will be some content on the showcase at some point. As soon as I see it, I’ll share here!
