Month: March 2018

Yes, it is very apparent that this game is taking longer than expected.  Before I ever attempted to develop a game I knew the difficulty many triple-A studios have with shipping a game on time. Why should I ever think I could deliver my FIRST game on time?  Well, I don’t really, but if I don’t set some deadlines then this thing will NEVER get finished. I can keep coming up with new ideas and implementing new game mechanics that lead to more development time, but at its core, the game will probably not ever change.  It’s a piece of software that evolves over time as we improve and innovate.  Therefore, I do plan on pushing this game live in some capacity by the Summer of 2018.  Fighting scope creep is real!

Another thing on my mind this morning is a live video that was streamed by @Pete_Alport through Instagram.  This was my very first time ever tuning into Pete live and I thought to see a cool snow shoot or a dope scene as depicted in his photos.  As the stream came into focus and the sound kicked in I could hear a very disturbed Pete that said some really heartfelt words about the importance of drinking responsibly.  It made me take a look at myself and question why I do the things I do with alcohol when at the mountain.  Granted I don’t drink and drive to or from the mountain, but yeah I do enjoy a brew or two in the parking lot before I go snowboarding.  Usually, it’s one, but I can say I have had more on occasion.  Pete kind of upset me because he said that constitutes me being a piece of shit. Well, I don’t agree, but for various reasons.

I go to Mount Bachelor to relax and chill out on the slopes.   I started riding when I was 26 years old and TRUST, I have fear when I’m on the slopes.  I’m not trying to set any speed records. I’m not trying to hit all the jumps and jibs while wowing people on the get-backs. I’m just there to float on the pow and ride through the trees on deep days.  This is not necessarily a sport for me.  I like to watch the sports part of it. I extremely enjoy watching the half-pipe and boardercross events, and I hope none of those guys are drinking beer, but for me that ain’t happening.

If you were to ask me why I drink beer when I ride… well, I enjoy craft beer.  I enjoy the process that goes into making a craft beer.  I truly enjoy the art that is put on a bottle or can of craft beer.  I don’t sit and drink beer all day while working, so when I go to the mountain to relax and chill I also take some of that free time to enjoy a craft beer.  If I have one beer I can casually burn that off with a few nonchalant runs. Beer and burn just bring joy to my heart.  It’s much like a beer yoga or beer race event.  You get to enjoy all the calories and burn that shit off too! Good stuff!

Now, if you see me at the mountain with multiple bombers in tow or on the river trail with a backpack full of beer please know that unfortunately I don’t get to drink all the beer I promote through my game or merch.  Well, I don’t get to enjoy them at THAT particular time.  I may have one, but the others are for pics and other promo material.

With all that said I am still taking a long hard look at myself.  I do not want to ever put anybody through the pain of losing someone due to drunk/buzzed driving.  There are just some risks that are not worth it on any level.  So yeah, I agree with Pete on many things and will take in his words deeply.  It’s good knowing that people care and that we are going to push others to clean up and be responsible.  Because, yes I do see the things we promote and do as influencers.  We just need to make sure we are promoting and doing these things responsibly.  If you are over the limit then obey the law!  Please realize that it’s not about you… it’s about a family of five in the other lane trying to get home safely after a beautiful day of skiing at Mt. Bachelor.

Alright, alright, alright… back to some good game dev bits for this week.  I’ve used the past week to put some more polish on the game.  There are now score effects when beers are cheered.  Every time BEER CHEER is scored it is now easier to tell because the score animates when increasing.  There is now a “Win” message at the end of a completed scene that gives some stats on how you did that round.  In respect there is also a game over screen that lets the player know why they failed with a polite message from the Beer Snob.  You should also notice the camera shake added for many many things such as bottle breaks, bottle explosions, bottle infections, bad bottle crosses, and game overs.  In order to achieve this effect the camera had to be mounted to another game object. This threw off all my cameras for every scene which I had to manually correct. Ugh… Hey, this is game dev right?!?!?

This week I should be working on some more polish, and a few more scenes.  Maybe… just maybe a new game mechanic.  But that may push the release out a few months. 

Cheers!

Auzzzy

Hey guys and gals and welcome to week 10 of this barrel system! I hope you all have settled back down after chasing rainbows and are now cuddling a delicious ale while counting your gold.  If you didn’t find any, don’t fret because that lightning strike missed me too!  I did, however, have a great time with my family over the weekend which is something no pot of gold could ever replace.

I also could not replace the cup that was used for Deschutes Brewery’s Mirror Pond that I purchased at the Traxxas monster truck event last Friday.  I manned up and threw it down like I was at a Monster Truck event!  I also had to man up and buy the kid the obligatory monster truck toy that every toddler in the building seemed to have their hands on.  Hey, anything to keep him there til the end while Dad watches multiple trucks destroy themselves through competition.  MERICA!

And what would we do here in America without the Irish blood that flows through our veins?  In search of something green, I hit up Boneyard Beer for a dope trucker hat at a decent discount.  Plus they had their milk stout on tap and Incredible Pulp, which is all the green I really needed.  The only other thing I need is for their new pub to open!

Speaking of pubs, we hit up Sunriver Brewing for lunch this past week to get a break from the desk.  The pub was packed, and we were able to get the last table without waiting.  I ordered the beef sliders and a Sunny D.  Both were incredible. The sliders were a little raw which she told me to expect.  They were cooked just as described, but I think I will keep mine on a little longer next time.  The Sunny D was much hazier than I thought but went down as smoothly as any other IPA I’ve had.

Well, as you all know in between sips I do a little game development here and there.  This week was no exception, and I am excited to announce that the Google Play Games saves are now working much much better! I will never say perfect, but a lot of progress was made.  Saving high scores is now working again, and clearing up some errors also fixed some seemingly unrelated issues too!  Big shout out to Bill for once again stepping through that code with me as we walk each other through Unity and C#.

Another big advancement was the addition of bottle replicators.  These handy devices are used to replicate a bottle continuously through the line. Players can use them to create more Cheers bonuses and fill six-packs faster.  They are also great for fulfilling Bottle Card requirements.  When a beer is placed in a replicator the beer is shown on the replicator’s screen and the production line will then start brewing that beer.

I’ll be making some major changes to scene difficulties this week as many of the scenes are now unbalanced due to major changes from the previous weeks.  I may also take a break and work on a new design idea I’ve been pondering.  Until next time my fellow sud sippers.

Cheers!

Auzzzy

Over the past week, there have been many great gains on the game front!  A ton of new bottle art has been added to the game, and I have streamlined the process of adding new bottles. It’s not a very lengthy process, but nonetheless… The core bottles in the game are currently all based on art provided by www.Vecteezy.com.  Many of these vectors I had to manipulate or redraw in order to create the bottle animations, but Vecteezy has been a great place to start.  The files I am using are approved for commercial use as long as I give credit, which is no problem considering the time it saved on the initial prototyping.

I encourage people starting out to use any free assets that you can. At some point, I may have to redraw all the art, but it has been great to just get things working and figure that out later.  As well as vector art and sprites many of the particles were purchased from the Unity Asset Store.  Being able to pull together assets has been tremendously effective with development.  This is definitely a golden era of game-making.  Unity, Unreal, and the game dev community, in general, are in a pretty ripe stage.  If you have an idea for a game and want to learn to create then the time is now!

Last week’s art additions were also accompanied by some good hop additions!  The week started with a dose of Hazy Expectations by Matchless Brewing on the slopes of Mt. Bachelor.  It was a beautiful day that felt more like being at the beach than at the mountain.  I grabbed our kid’s wooden sled and a can to keep me warm while the little one made snow castles.  I ended up stripping us both down a few layers as the Spring… I mean Winter sun exceeded ALL expectations whether hazy or not! After coming down from the mountain high I headed over to my wife’s inaugural showing of Wedventure LIVE at Spoken Moto where Deschutes Brewing provided Fresh Squeezed to the cast and crew.  The night was pretty amazing and I learned a ton about live production just by being in the building.  I also learned that Oblivion Brewing had beer on tap…hmmm…

Later in the week, I checked out the Bend Unity Meetup where upon meeting some really cool guys into making games, plus one guy who is already an amazing game developer! The coordinator, Roger Miller, was more than helpful by answering some good questions and giving me a few minutes to demo BEER CHEER.  The meet-up is geared towards Unity beginners, but I just love that I can go somewhere in town and be around people making games… all while drinking an awesome Oregon-brewed beer.  We all split a bottle of Level Brewing’s Let’s Play while discussing Unity character animation.  Pretty much the stuff of dreams for this beer nerd!

In the coming week, I will be adding yet another game mechanic, and refining those I’ve already added previously.  I’m getting to the point where I need to decide what is necessary for launch or not.  The scope creep is real!

Well, as usual, it’s on to more lines (code) and hopefully a few more beers in between because that’s the only way I will read them probably.

Cheers!

Auzzzy

This is week 8 of the dev blog log jog.  I am currently trying to stay focused on making this happen in 2018, but as everyone knows drinking beer and making games is not a fast process. Well, drinking beer can be, but I like to savor the hop gold in every pint.   I chugged a few beers in my day, but that was usually because the beer tasted awful.  Now that I’m off that funky fresh rocky mountain water I tend to slow the pace and intake the full body of my beers.

Speaking of beers! This week’s craft coding choices had me writing “for loops” and “if statements” like a pro!  One of the first craft beers I ever had upon arriving in Oregon was Dead Guy Ale.  Recently, Rogue Brewing started canning this little treat and it’s a nice malty escape for sure.  Next up was the Coffee Porter by Anchor Brewing. I’m usually not a morning beer type of person so I had this one in the evening while working on scene 10.  Now, I’m trying to decide if I should be a morning beer type of person.  I finished off last week’s coding sessions with the Galactica IPA by Clown Shoes.  I was totally taken off guard by goodness in this can! I have always been a comic-reading beer nerd so can art like this will probably be the norm around here.  I love it when breweries use these marketing routes and the beer actually taste good too.

So, in between sips, I was able to get some game development done.  In preparation for release we of course would like the game to be on the iOS platform.  Well, last week I was able to get the game running on my wife’s iPhone and plan on getting it into the Test Flight Apple Developer Program here soon.  That was a big step as a major part of the smartphone market is on iPhone despite my detest…  . I’m such a hypocrite as 95% of the game has been developed on my MacBook at this point.  Laptops and phones are two different beasts, though… I am just thankful I was able to export from Unity and build from Xcode with a few bumps.  It took a good bit of time to massage the code and settings so that finally it built.  Plus a lot of Google searches. Good week indeed!

That wraps it up for this stretch. See ya soon!

Cheers!

Auz