Just throw the dang puck at ’em: Shuffle Breaker Dev Blog

So I’ve been doing more work on Shuffle Breaker, slowly but surely. I recently fixed my nGUI implementation up a bit so that stuff is scaling a lot nicer and the anchors are behaving a lot better. Most of the previous issues were due to my unfamiliarity with newer versions of nGUI but most of that is gone now. I’m also working on a new Main Menu with a slightly more unified theme, a preview of which you can see below:

As you can see I’m attempting to more fully embrace the chalkboard aesthetic. Not sure if I’ll include the sliding panels still, I might just have the menus pop in and out, or maybe apply a fade effect if i can swing that, we’ll see.

The other aspect I was working on was still trying to find a good place to put the pucks when they need to be dropped both to start the game and to restart the game. The end result being the pucks being flung into the rink from the corner, like so.

This works pretty well, though not always, especially in later parts of the game, like this:

I’m thinking I might give it a random angle so that it might go in a few different directions. Anyway that’s all for me for now, I swear I’m going to get more regular at making updates, even if it’s not specifically about game dev. Maybe some reviews or random thoughts, I dunno.

Break ALL the UI: Shuffle Breaker Dev Blog

So a friend gave me an idea to get around my issue of not being sure if or how to make new and interseting block layouts for Shuffle Breaker. The solution, of course, was random generation. Which has given me stuff like this:

Pretty cool, if a bit constrained. I was also working on changing the object of the game to be reaching a point limit instead of having the most points after all blocks are broken. That’s where things got difficult. I was using an older version of nGUI (something like 2.3 I think) and the UIInput(saved) methods weren’t working (though this may have been my fault for not setting it up right). So I updated it to the latest version (3.4 I think?). The end result being that because of messing a few things up I ended up losing my sprite atlas, breaking all the fonts, and utterly destroying my UI. Also because I didn’t set up source control (because one-man project) I couldn’t revert. So…whoops!

Fortunately I’m working on rebuilding the UI and it’s coming out well, possibly even better in some respects. But expect very few screenshots or GIFs until I have all that resolved.

Sliding into 2014, Shuffle Breaker Dev Blog

So 2013 is at an end, and I’m still working on Shuffle Breaker. This is good because it’s probably the longest I’ve stuck with one of my little game projects, having tinkered with it over the last six months, but bad because I was hoping I’d be a bit further along than I was before. Anyway, here are a couple screenshots, now showing off the new floor for the “environment” complete with some normal mapping.

See you all next year, hopefully with this little project growing by leaps and bounds.

Still at it – Shuffle Breaker Dev Blog

So yeah I’m still alive and still working on this. Black Friday/Holiday work at my retail job has made it difficult to find time to work on the game but I’m still doing so at a decent enough pace. I decided to revamp the UI a little bit, going for more of a chalkboard motif as you can see here:

There’s also a bigger version here at a better aspect ratio, which also shows off the logo/icon I’ve made for the game a bit. (click for full size)

 

I’m also working on making more of a background/environment for the game stage, which is still in a very rough state but here’s an in-engine screenshot of it just for kicks:

Hopefully i’ll have some substantial preview footage up before the year is out, until then, back to the digital grindstone.

I need an update schedule: Shuffle Break Dev Blog

So it’s been about a month since I last updated, which isn’t all that good. What is good is that my option selections in Shuffle Break now save not only when players return to the main menu but also when they exit the game entirely and come back. Turns out NGUI actually has a built-in system for passing selections in menus and checkboxes to Unity’s PlayerPrefs. Further cementing NGUI as both awesome and a good investment.

I also updated Unity to version 4.3, which isn’t a big deal now but whenever I get back to doing stuff of a 2D nature it’ll definitely be a big deal.

Insomnia: Shuffle Breaker Dev Blog

I can’t sleep so now is as good a time as any to put up some more screenshots. I had rather stupidly said in my last post about Shuffle Breaker that it was hard to convey “I have a two-player mode” in screenshots. Well I think it gets across a bit better when you have a New Camera Angle!

 

Ok maybe it’s not that impressive but still. Also implemented is the option to switch control methods via the options menu

Still pretty minimal-looking but I do plan to expand on it once I have more of the core functionality down (and option permanence). Keep watching this space for more updates!

Observe how nGUI it is: Shuffle Breaker Dev Blog

Ok so I know it’s been almost 3 months since I posted, and that’s pretty bad. I’ve just been busy with life stuff while working on my game things one little bit at a time. That said, I have made some progress.

First off, nGUI has been implemented into the game.

Beforehand it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

 

As you can see I’ve also implemented new table styles as well, and changed how the paddles look. The AI has also been improved along with that. In addition to having an nGUI scoreboard, I now also have an nGUI-backed main menu.

The options menu for now is just in control of selecting the table styles, but I love how well it’s working out.

As for what’s next, I’ll be working on implementing a 2-player local mode, as well as making a few more tweaks, including adding vertical movement to the paddles for some more challenging play.