Suzy Cube Update: March 30, 2018 My first week back from GDC has been spent not breaking anything! Instead, I've gone ahead and tackled something I've been on the fence about for quite some time: Decorative critters! The implementation on these is super simple! They simply play an idle loop until Suzy hits their trigger volume at which point they play their "run away" animation. The bunny and hamster will also return to their idle loops if Suzy gives them some space. Since the snow and sand mounds of the bunny and hamster use baked lighting to better blend in with the environment, I had to re-bake the lighting on all levels which now include them. This meant I had a lot of time yesterday to doodle while watching progress bars. Even though Noodlecake will be handling the production of the cute little scenes which will be shown between worlds, I thought I would go ahead and doodle up some concepts for them. Finally, after watching a friend struggle with Level 3-2, I've decided I'm going to have to dive into more robust state saving on certain levels. This late in the project, I have no intention of overhauling the game's checkpoint system, but it's shortcomings just can't be ignored. There are two levels in the game in which some light puzzle elements gate the player's progress. In both (Level 3-2 being one of them), two switches need to be hit in order to open the path forward. In both levels, these switches are accessed by guiding Suzy through some challenges. The frustrating thing is, since checkpoints in the game are only set up to save Suzy's position and which stars she's collected, the state of the progress gating switches isn't saved. In Level 3-2, this means I wasn't able to use checkpoints at all since only saving Suzy's position wouldn't get around the issue of having to backtrack and hit switches you had already hit before dying. All this to say, if I don't want to scrap these levels, I'm going to have to come up with a safe and effective way of saving the state of the switches on these levels so I can put in some propper checkpoints. Well, there you have it! The lesson here is... I don't know... Don't design levels which don't jive with your save system? Don't move forward with an inadequate save system? Maybe both!? See you folks next week!
Suzy Cube Update: April 6, 2018 Sorry for the late update! OK! First, I solved my checkpoint issue with a simple band-aid solution. Levels which need it now contain a new object which can, simply, receive trigger messages, save them as booleans, then send out messages on level load. It's not really how I would set things up if I had more than two levels which need it, but it does the trick! My week was mostly spent playing through all the game's levels over and over and over using the Double Jump and Ground Pound power-ups. The first pass of this was to try and break the levels and get out of bounds and stuff. I added some colliders here and there or made other adjustments where needed. The second pass was all about giving Suzy more opportunities to use the power-ups. I did things like adding ground-poundable rock blocks to levels which hadn't much use for the power-up otherwise and also added hidden rewards to hard-to-reach spots which only deft users of the Double Jump will be able to find. Additionally, I was having fun scaring off my newly added critters, when it dawned on me that they would be even more fun to scare off if it awarded you a coin sometimes! So I added a low probability of earning a coin from scaring off a critter! Somehow it's made them even cuter! Finally, I, only now, found out that it was not possible to deflect the Bone Thrower projectiles using the ground pound! What!? Well, a quick little dive into the deflection code rectified that little issue! Oh, and over at Noodlecake, they've been hard at work on the UI rework, which I hope to show you next week. On that, I bid you all happy weekend and I will see you next week!
Suzy Cube Update: April 13, 2018 Sorry, folks, tiny update this week as it's my wife's birthday today and we are throwing a big party. I've, thus, been running around a lot this week gathering supplies and have to get back to prepping the house and the food and the drinks and myself, etc. So, on that note, what have I got!? Simply put, this week has been an extension of last week's work to make better use of power-ups throughout the game. The big difference this week has been the focus on the Invincibility and Magnet power-ups. Unlike the power-up hats, which stick with you as long as you don't get hit, these other two power-ups are temporary. Because of this, they require situations to be set up to maximize their use. In some cases, I adapted bits of levels which already worked well for this and in others I had to add new, often secret, areas to showcase them. Which brings us to the other thing I did this week. As I've been going through the game's levels, I've been taking the opportunity to add more secret areas to discover. Some are as simple as hidden balconies off the back sides of platforms while others are whole secret rooms! I hope players will have a good time discovering these! Okey dokey! I've rambled long enough! I've got to get back to prepping for the party! Thanks for checking in and see you all next week.
I was just wondering if this game has a story to it? Can you talk to characters to complete quests etc? Thanks
I don't know how familiar you are with the 3D Mario games, but this game is definitely more in the 3D Land, 3D World vein of games rather than the more open ended games like 64 or Sunshine. So, light on story and level based rather than quest/mission based. I just felt the straightforward nature of advancing from stage to stage simply fit the mobile platform better.
Suzy Cube Update: April 20, 2018 Sorry for the late update, folks. I wrote my blog post about three hours ago but then found myself diving back into some work before publishing it... Anywho, here we are! Let's see... First an update on the UI. I had a lot of back-and-forth with Noodlecake, throwing some mockups at each other this week. Since things are more in flux than I had previously thought, I want to continue to hold off before showing off their progress. Stay tuned, though! I promise!... Eventually... Otherwise... I spent the week making the very last edits to levels before locking that sh*t down! As we discussed dates this week, I committed to no longer touching the levels for the sake of it after today. From today onward, any changes made to levels will be done specifically to address bugs found in playtesting! So, what has this entailed? Well, a few last minute secret coin caches, of course! Especially in the Secret World stages (yes, I'm calling it the Secret World now to better differentiate it from the Special Stages) Also, I spent the bulk of the last couple days fixing up the falling waterfall logs on Level 3-4. Changing the setup was deceptively complicated but it was my last chance to fix the only issue I had with the stage. It's one of my favourite stages from a visual point of view and it really bugged me that, depending on the timing with which players arrived at the waterfall climbing sections, they could be stuck waiting for several seconds for a platform to drift by. Not to mention the old patterns could even leave players stranded if they took the "wrong" platform up. Well, no more! And, while I was at it, I also fixed a bug in Unity's CharacterMotor so Suzy doesn't teleport along with a moving platform if its position jumps a large distance! Hurray for waterfalls!! Finally, I continue to work on bug fixes and addressing polish issues I've had in the hopper for months (or sometimes years). For example, I changed up how the buzzing sounds of the bees are handled so they are more consistent and less grating! Well, that about does it for this week! From now on, I'm all bug fixes and Noodlecake support! I see a light folks! A LIGHT!!!
Suzy Cube Update: April 27, 2018 I'll try not to be too verbose this week cuz I've got some important stuff to get to... Since Noodlecake is swamped with the UI redesign and multi-platform support, I'll be handling the end-of-world interstitials myself after all. Here's what that's gonna look like. The cork-board background idea came to me based on... You know what? I think I'll let you guys find that out when you play the game! So, given this development, I've been drawing a lot this week. UI wise, I think I've been holding out on you guys long enough! HA HA... It still needs a lot of visual lovin' but I think it's already a step up from what I had ^_^ Here's one fo the latest mockups to show you where things are headed, visually. It's a pretty big paradygm shift from the old grid-based layout, but I think it's a good direction. The biggest advantage is that extra level information, like the level description, best completion time etc. can now be displayed right on the panel instead of having to show it in a pop-up. This saves the player a click when hoping into gameplay! Yay! I think I kept that pretty brief! Okey dokey! More drawings and UI next week! See you then and thanks for checking in!
Suzy Cube Update: May 4, 2018 Happy Star Wars Day everybody! No real update this week as I've got to get some important stuff done before the weekend. See you in the next one! If you're still reading, I guessI owe you, at least, a small update ^_~ So, as you can tell from the image , I've been continuing to work on interstitial illustrations. Related to this, I've also set up the logic for presenting them in game and set up dummy scenes for all the interstitials using placeholder text to tell them apart. I've also been working on presenting the tutorial graphics over gameplay rather than in a separate scene before loading the first level. I'll have to make adjustments to the graphics and their placement, but I think it was a really good call on Noodlecake's part to suggest this. Ok, that's really it for now! We've got milestones to hit and I've got to get back to work! Thanks for checking in and until next time!
Suzy Cube Update: May 18, 2018 Hey, everybody! First of all, sorry about skipping out on all of you last week, but I was busy climbing South America's highest tepui (flat top mountain) It was a 6 day trek up and down and took us across a variety of terrains. A true adventure. Ok, back in civilization, though, it's been a heck of a week for Suzy Cube as we've been in a mad dash to cross T's and dot I's. An unfortunate mishap with our graphic designer over at Noodlecake put me in charge of helping out with some asset gathering including taking screenshots for the various digital storefronts. Over at Noodlecake, they suggested I send them clean, HUD free screens which they could then resize for the various formats. Instead of doing the old 4 finger salute on my Mac in order to grab the shots, I did a bit of digging and found Unity's "CaptureScreenshot()" function. Not only was I able to build a small utility which would allow be to save screenshots straight to disk with the press of a controller button, but I was also able to save them at 4x resolution on each axis! Plenty of breathing room for cropping and resizing! Full Size: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FOYg0HVvpzs/Wv7eXeMG6vI/AAAAAAAAC1E/VRUw-d_gdPwk7V-X8LpII9DMddj4KiZpwCLcBGAs/s1600/Suzy_Screenshot_Boss_Large.png Once I got them a pile of screenshots to choose from, they got to work adding a facsimile HUD and cropping to the right dimensions. Good stuff! I also went through all the game's level's to create little representative diorama style shots of each one for use in the Level Select menu. And, as you can see, the menu is lookin' pretty darn slick and is only a few bug fixes away from being done! Finally, I've been continuing work on the interstitial images. Unfortunately, the guy who got hurt was the one who was spearheading the whole animated intro/ending initiative. With no word yet on when he'll be available again, we may have to fall back on more of my artwork for these too. We shall see. On top of all this, it's been bug hunting, bug fixing, hair pulling and teeth gnashing! Things are building up to... something... And we are all really excited and terrified! Next week will, likely, be more of the same as we continue our push to wrap things up! See you then!
So, whats the deal on this game? Its been upcoming for at least 3 years so far! When is it going to be finally released, if ever? Seems like you are competing with Fugl for the longest time to be released ever! #
Ha ha same here. Every game i really want on ios seems to take forever ! Instant purchase when this is out though
Aw man! Looks like the forum changes nuked last week's update!.. Well here's this week's "Update" instead. What a week!! We are continuing to work hard to wrap things up in time for *redacted*. Not really going to do an update this week since the real update is that we are in the final stretch! That's right, aside from bugs, I think I'm only waiting for one implementation change from Noodlecake to call this "release candidate 1"! That being the case, almost every aspect of the game has gotten some love this week, from the most subtle of visual tweaks to the fixing of long standing bugs. I'm currently working through the very last bits of my task list while Noodlecake are hard at work building on all platforms, working on the story animations (which are looking great, btw) and putting together promo materials! Thanks for sticking with me so far, I hope to have a more concrete announcement for all of you next week!
SUZY CUBE RELEASE DATE! JUNE 19, 2018 Any of you who have been following along with the game's development know how much time and energy has gone into making it which is why I'm thrilled to announce the game will be available on June 19, 2018. It will be releasing, as planned, on iOS, Apple TV, Android and Steam for Mac and Windows. You can help out RIGHT NOW by heading over to the Google Play and Steam pages to pre-register and wish-list the game, which can greatly help our chances at being featured. www.suzycube.com Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/780500 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noodlecake.suzycube So, spread the word and keep checking in. We are almost there, folks! Oh, and while we're at it, how about a new trailer!?
I don't have much more for all of you that wasn't, already, been covered in the release date news in my previous post. I invite you all to scroll up and check it out! We are continuing to work to put the finishing touches on the game and ensure it runs great on all the platforms in time for launch. We are really excited to finally be sharing the game with the world... Soon anyway ^_^ Finally, I'll be going into it a bit more next week, but if folks are in the Ottawa (Canada) area or willing to travel, I'll be flying out to give a talk at the Canadian Gaming Expo on the weekend of the 22nd. You can check out more info on their website: http://cgexpo.ca/ Ok! Back to it! See you all next week for Suzy's LAST UPDATE BEFORE RELEASE!!!!
That's a fair question. Noodlecake have had some experience with pre-orders on iOS and, as far as they can tell, it only hurts a game's standings in the charts at launch as the pre-launch sales do not factor into the post-launch numbers.
Actually, Louard, I would look further into that. There’s nothing in the App Store Connect pre-order info that suggests that the sales don’t factor in the post-launch numbers; more important, customers are not charged until after launch, so it make no sense for the sales to go uncounted. I would try to connect with the folks at 10ton — they had a very good experience with their pre-orders for Jydge. Also, I doubt that a paid game like Suzy Cube is going to benefit from making it into the top lists anyway; that’s not how the premium market works these days. It’s all about generating buzz and word of mouth, getting coverage, and landing a feature spot in the App Store. I have feeling that pre-orders will help with all that. Of course, Noodlecake has been doing this for a while, and I’m sure they know better than me. Just thought it’s worth a second look.
Shorty short one this week! As it's the LAST UPDATE BEFORE RELEASE!!!! Also I need to keep prepping for my talk at the Canadian Gaming Expo in Ottawa next week. http://cgexpo.ca/ In light of this, I invite you all to check out this week's post on my blog for the low down on what I'll be up to during the release and at the expo as well as a tidbit on what to expect from me in the future. https://louardongames.blogspot.com/2018/06/suzy-cube-update-june-15-2018.html If all you want is to get your hands on the game as soon as it's out, don't forget to add to your Steam Wishlist, pre-register on Google Play and if iOS or Apple TV are your bag, follow me and/or Noodlecake Studios on Twitter. https://store.steampowered.com/app/780500 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noodlecake.suzycube https://twitter.com/LouardOnGames https://twitter.com/NoodlecakeGames
IT'S HERE!! Suzy Cube is officially released!! Here's a handy dandy link that'll take you right to the appropriate storefront! http://tosto.re/suzycube I've got a lot of stuff to juggle today, as you might imagine, so I invite you all to read a special thank you message I posted on my blog... Somewhat prematurely for about half an hour this morning... https://louardongames.blogspot.com/2018/06/suzy-cube-available-now_19.html I should have a short update for you all on Friday as well. OMG!!!
