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Why we’re closing www.ProjectTilt.com and slowly moving away from the web version

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Holodrive has now been on Steam for over a month, and this is a new big era for us in BitCake Studio! We’re enjoying it a lot, hope you guys are as well 🙂

Steam has always been our goal and a dream, and the web was an AWESOME way of getting there and building a community at the same time. With the web version we gathered more than 800k player accounts, LOTS of player feedback, made the game change so much for the better, and made lots of friends. The best about developing a game in the open like that was that we could see people’s reactions to what we were building, and it actually mattered for some of them. That’s the best thing ever!

That being said, we always loved having the game on the web – even though there’s a LOT of prejudice around it – and we would keep it there for as long as possible if we could. But circumstances aren’t always what we want, and the events of the past year have made it pretty unpractical for us to keep the web version going.

First, Google Chrome blocked some plugins, including the Unity Webplayer.

If you started playing Project Tilt a while ago, you probably remember that around April last year, it started getting really hard to play the game on Chrome. Until in September it wasn’t possible anymore.  A lot of our players moved to Firefox and loyally kept playing, but that stroke us pretty hard. Even so, we took our time and launched on Steam only when we were ready, and I believe it was the right choice.

Unity offers a solution, and that is porting the game to WebGL, a new technology that runs on a browser without the needs of a plugin. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t work for us.

WebGL has been around for a while and it got a LOT better in the next few versions. Still, from what we tested so far it’s still not enough to run Holodrive. The development process is not so smooth, the build sizes are much bigger, and overall the technology still has some limitations that we can’t overcome right now. Maybe in the future we will be able to make a WebGL build and publish it, but for now it’s not possible, and the tendency is actually that Holodrive will become more and more complex with time – we’re adding more art with modern graphics, more game modes, etc – and it might not be possible at all.

Lastly, Unity has announced that it won’t support the Unity WebPlayer anymore, starting on its next update.

So, if we want to keep using the most updated Unity version, we can’t export to the web. That’s a big blow, too. We would love to keep publishing to the web, but giving up updates on the software we use is very hard – we use a lot of features in Unity and every new version brings fixes and improvements to the tools we use daily. In the short-term it’s not a big problem, but in the long-run, for a game that is still in development, and in Early Access, it’s terrible.

So, after a lot of thought, we decided we’ll have to step away from the web sometime soon.

We’re doing it slowly, though, and we’re gonna wait until the game is bigger on Steam before we do that. A lot of people are still getting the Steam version through the waitlist and we’re working on some major changes for the future. A lot is still to come!

Our first step will be to close the www.ProjectTilt.com website, and this will happen in about two weeks, on June 14. A lot less people play on Projecttilt.com  than on the facebook version, and even the name of the game is not right on this website anymore. Closing the site will also make it easier for the team to release newer versions, since making builds for many different websites + Steam takes a lot of time. The Facebook version will still be live and updated for a while, at least until we have made the game bigger on Steam.

We hope you guys understand the change and why it’s important for the future of the game, and don’t be mad at us. As always, we just want to make Holodrive bigger and better, and we’re working hard for that. The Steam version is where the real action is happening right now, and we want all of you there, together with us <3

P.S.: Don’t forget:  if you still don’t have a Steam Key, you can subscribe to get one here or you can buy the Supporter Pack here.

With love,

The BitCake Studio Team

See you guys in game!

Faz mais de um mĂȘs que o Holodrive foi lançado no Steam e a BitCake entrou numa nova era! Estamos curtindo muito, esperamos que vocĂȘs tambĂ©m 🙂

Lançar no Steam sempre foi nosso objetivo e nosso sonhos mas a web foi uma INCRÍVEL plataforma para criar a nossa comunidade do zero. Enquanto estivemos na web nĂłs tivemos mais de 800 MIL contas criadas. Por causa dos vĂĄrios feedbacks de vocĂȘs nĂłs tornamos o Holodrive cada vez melhor e fizemos vĂĄrios amigos. A melhor coisa de desenvolver um jogo de maneira aberta como fizemos foi ver a reação de vocĂȘs com cada mudança e cada melhoria e ver que tudo o que fazĂ­amos realmente era importante pra vocĂȘs. Essa Ă© a melhor coisa de todas!

Tendo dito isso, nĂłs sempre amamos ter o jogo disponĂ­vel na web – mesmo que exista muito preconceito ao redor da plataforma – e nĂłs a manterĂ­amos viva para sempre se pudĂ©ssemos. Mas as circunstĂąncias atuais nĂŁo sĂŁo das mais favorĂĄveis e, por causa de eventos que aconteceram ao longo do ano passado, estĂĄ cada vez mais difĂ­cil manter a versĂŁo de web funcionando.

Google Chrome começou a bloquear plugins, incluindo o Unity Webplayer.

Se vocĂȘ jogava Project Tilt a um tempo atrĂĄs, provavelmente lembra que por volta de Abril do ano passado ficou muito difĂ­cil jogar no Chrome. Em Setembro ficou realmente impossĂ­vel depois do banimento dos plugins. Muitos de nossos jogadores migraram para o Firefox e bravamente continuaram jogando, mas isso afetou demais a gente e o crescimento do jogo. Mesmo assim, nĂłs continuamos firmes e fortes atĂ© estarmos prontos para lançar no Steam, e acreditamos que foi a decisĂŁo certa.

Unity oferece uma solução: fazer o jogo em WebGL, uma tecnologia nova que funciona nos browsers mais novos. Mas infelizmente não funciona pra gente.

WebGL estĂĄ aĂ­ faz um tempinho e andou melhorando MUITO nas Ășltimas versĂ”es. PorĂ©m, pelo que testamos, estĂĄ muito longe de aguentar o Holodrive. O processo de desenvolvimento Ă© cheio de problemas e o tamanho dos arquivos Ă© muito maior, alĂ©m do mais a tecnologia atual tem vĂĄrias limitaçÔes que nĂŁo temos como fugir por enquanto. Talvez no futuro nĂłs possamos voltar a estudar a possibilidade de criar uma versĂŁo em WebGL e publicĂĄ-la, mas por enquanto nĂŁo Ă© possĂ­vel. Na verdade a tendĂȘncia Ă© que o jogo se torne mais e mais complexo com o tempo – estamos adicionando mais arte voltada para grĂĄficos mais modernos, mais modos de jogo, etc – e talvez seja completamente impossĂ­vel criar uma versĂŁo em WebGL por conta disso.

Por Ășltimo, a Unity anunciou que vai parar o suporte do WebPlayer a partir da prĂłxima versĂŁo.

Se nĂłs quisermos nos manter atualizados na Ășltima versĂŁo do motor do jogo, nĂŁo poderemos nunca mais exportar para a web. Isso Ă© um dos maiores problemas. NĂłs adorarĂ­amos publicar para a web, mas se nĂŁo pudermos mais atualizar o programa que usamos para criar o jogo vai ser muito difĂ­cil continuar o desenvolvimento – nĂłs usamos muitas ferramentas da Unity e cada atualização vem com melhorias e consertos de bugs! A curto prazo nĂŁo Ă© algo que iria influenciar muito, mas a longo prazo, principalmente prum jogo que estĂĄ em acesso antecipado e em desenvolvimento constante, isso Ă© horrĂ­vel.

EntĂŁo, depois de pensarmos muito nĂłs decidimos nos afastar um pouco da web em breve.

Vamos fazer isso aos poucos, e vamos esperar o jogo crescer um pouco no Steam antes de fecharmos a web de vez. Muitos jogadores ainda estĂŁo esperando sua vez de pegar uma Key no Steam e ainda estamos trabalhando em muitas coisas para o futuro. Ainda tem muito por vir!

Nosso primeiro passo vai ser fechar o www.ProjectTilt.com, e faremos isso daqui a duas semanas, no dia 14 de Junho. Poucas pessoas ainda jogam no ProjectTilt.com se comparado à versão de Facebook, e até mesmo o nome do jogo estå errado nesse site. Fechar o site também vai facilitar o lançamento de novas atualizaçÔes, jå que fazer uma build para cada website + Steam demora bastante (fora os bugs e problemas que podem surgir numa versão que não tem outra)! A versão de Facebook ainda ficarå no ar e ainda serå atualizada por um tempo, pelo menos até o jogo crescer no Steam..

Esperamos que vocĂȘs entendam o porque isso Ă© importante para o futuro do jogo, e nĂŁo fiquem chateados com a gente. Como sempre, nĂłs queremos fazer o Holodrive crescer e ficar cada vez melhor, e estamos trabalhando muito para isso. A versĂŁo de Steam Ă© onde as coisas mais importantes estĂŁo acontecendo agora e queremos todos vocĂȘs lĂĄ com a gente! 😀

PS: NĂŁo esqueça, se vocĂȘ ainda nĂŁo tem uma chave de Steam vocĂȘ pode se inscrever em: PlayHolodrive.com ou vocĂȘ pode comprar nosso Pacote de Apoiador do Acesso Antecipado na nossa pĂĄgina do Steam!

Com amor,

Time da BitCake Studio

Nos vemos no jogo!

“Project Tilt” 2.0: A new beginning!

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It’s been a while since our last post, and some news are long overdue. In the past few months we’ve been on working on a lot of improvements in the game, and we’d like to tell us a bit about that, and also announce a few major changes that we’re very happy to see coming to fruition!

As we’ve already said many times in our Facebook discussion group and in social media in general, we’re focusing hard on our Steam version. We got greenlit in 2014, and our Steam launch depends only on ourselves, and this year we’ve made it our top priority to prepare the game to get there. We’re going to launch on Steam Early Access first, in a probably-soon date that we still haven’t decided – but, when we do, you’ll be the first to know!
Unity 5

About the changes: First, Unity 5

Probably the biggest reason we’ve been so quiet in the last months is that we decided to update the game’s engine from Unity 4 to Unity 5.

We thought that it wouldn’t be such a big deal at first, since the compatibility between both engines is very big, but that ended up taking a few months of development. We had to change all of our shaders, materials, lightmaps, etc, and also do a lot of bugfixing. But other than that, the biggest thing is that we took the opportunity to optimize the game A LOT.
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Graphics optimization a long time needed

In the last updates we introduced a lot of new features and didn’t have the time to properly  optimize everything, so a lot of stuff needed some re-checking. Unity 5 also comes with some cool new features that help optimization, so we worked hard to make the game run on 60 fps on Unity 5 on most PCs. We’re still gonna have to test that with some people before launch, but we sure have come a long way.

So, if you haven’t been able to play for a while because the game was running too slow on your PC, don’t worry: we know what you mean and we are working on it.
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Game interface in full HD

I don’t know if any of you noticed, but our current main menu UI is full HD (1080p) while the in-game one isn’t. The in-game interface is also not localized, being always on english. On top of that, we discovered that the user interface was a big bottleneck in the optimization, so it was the best time to fix all  of those problems for once.

In the next update we’ll release a new UI (which looks a lot like the old one except for a few changes) but that is much lighter, in Full HD and using a new technology, now ready to be translated to other languages. Yay!
Disarm Effect

Lots of new visual effects!

New engine and new shaders means that we also had to remake a lot of the particle effects in the game….So, as you can imagine, we also took the time to change a lot of them! Some of the effects were really old and could look better, and we’re gonna be on Steam soon, so we gotta step up!
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New environment art: BigRigs

This one we already spoiled a bit on social media, but the BigRigs collectors map got a big overhaul. It is the first of the maps to get environment art in the new style we’re working on, and it is a major improvement from the other ones.

For those interested in more technical aspects, on the Steam version we will have some features that make the game look much better and “next-gen”: real-time lighting, normal maps, occlusion maps, SSAO, etc.

An important thing about the new environment art is that we made it with a lot of future improvements in mind. The fact that we never got to fully determine a background story for the game was always holding us back in terms of art. So, in the process of making this map, we decided it was time to take a few steps back. This is not only the beginning of a new art style we’re developing, but also the start of a lore, coming to life inside the game.

The tutorial map will be the next one to get a facelift. We think it is super important that the first time players join the game leaves a good impression, so we’re starting from there. As soon as we finish it, we will start with another map.  Maybe you guys can tell us your favorite? Tell us in the comments!
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So yes, we now have a BACKGROUND STORY for the game, and we’re starting to add it little by little.

Yes! That’s right. It was a feedback from many many players that they missed some kind of plot behind the robots fighting, and that they wanted to know what was the background story behind the game. Who created Dummy, the bot? Why do they fight? Why is there a chicken robot? Who’s the damned scientist?!

We finally took the time and sought help to fix this problem. We brought to our rescue someone who understands a lot more about narrative and stories than ourselves, and asked them to help us organize our ideas. Turns out we already had a lot of good ideas, a lot of things more or less decided, but we needed help putting them together and connecting the dots. We finally did it, and we hope we can share it with you guys soon!
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The first thing you’re gonna see: Team identities!

The first thing that we’re gonna introduce are the team’s names and logos. Until now, when playing a team game mode (Team Deathmatch and Collectors Mode) the players would be assigned to the teams Electrify and Overclock. This was just a placeholder we created using the power-ups names loooong ago, and we thought it was lame but also a bit funny.

Now, our Dummies will fight on either Team Matrix or Vertex4, the two potencies battling for supremacy in the dummy-arenas-universe. The teams are sponsored by two rival super-corporations that are trying to take control of all things Dummy-related. I won’t give a lot of details just yet, you will discover more in time!
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And the biggest change of all, coming with the Steam version: we’re gonna change the name of the game.

That’s exactly what you heard. In Steam, Project Tilt won’t be called “Project Tilt” anymore. We’re gonna give it a new name, that we have finally decided after a LONG, VERY LONG time, and we’re very happy about.

We know this may come as a surprise for many of you, and that some will certainly be disappointed to see the game they like and have been playing for a while change names all of a sudden. It’s not ideal to change a game’s name after we’ve built a community around it, but we feel it’s needed.

Project Tilt was called that way as a “project” name – a placeholder to be used during the development. But, since we wanted to release it early and have people playing it from the start, we used that name until we got the final one. It took us two years to decide on a new name, and now is the perfect opportunity to change it.

 

A new beginning!

Project Tilt was always meant to come to Steam, and we also have plans for Playstation 4. We’re gonna enter a new phase now that we’re getting close to our goal, and we wanna do that with a new name, new logo, new art, and a background story to link it all together. Actually, the reason we were able to find a final name is because we could bring all the pieces together like this. For us, this is like a rebirth for Project Tilt and we’re gonna make it a lot better. 

So stay tuned, we will announce the new name and show some more cool stuff soon!

And don’t worry, if you don’t like anything we’re doing (not just the name, anything) feel free to tell us. We accept criticism and feedback, we love to read it and we reply to everything.

To end this all, we’d like to thank you for being with us in this journey! Seeing the players reaction to our game is our biggest accomplishment and is what keeps us moving forward. You guys are the best!

SEE YOU IN-GAME!

JĂĄ faz algum tempo desde o nosso Ășltimo post, e jĂĄ estĂĄ mais do que na hora de darmos algumas notĂ­cias da nossa parte!  Nos Ășltimos meses ficamos mais quietinhos, mas trabalhando em muitas melhorias para o jogo, e querĂ­amos contar para vocĂȘs um pouco sobre o que fizemos. AlĂ©m disso, e super importante, precisamos anunciar algumas mudanças grandes que vĂŁo acontecer no jogo em breve e que estamos SUPER FELIZES de ver virarem realidade!

Como jĂĄ dissemos muitas vezes no nosos grupo de facebook e nas mĂ­dias sociais em geral: estivemos super focados na nova versĂŁo de Steam. NĂłs passamos no Steam Greenlight em 2014, e o lançamento nessa nova plataforma depende somente de nĂłs. Por isso, esse ano nĂłs fizemos disso a nossa prioridade nĂșmero 1: preparar o jogo para lançar lĂĄ. Primeiro nĂłs vamos para o Steam Early Access (Acesso Antecipado), em uma data provavelmente-prĂłxima que ainda nĂŁo decidimos – mas que vocĂȘs vĂŁo ser os primeiros a saber!

Unity 5

Sobre as mudanças: Primeiro, Unity 5

Provavelmente, o maior motivo pelo qual ficamos tĂŁo calados e sem novidades nos Ășltimos meses Ă© porque decidimos atualizar a engine do jogo, da Unity4 para a Unity5.

NĂłs achamos que essa seria uma mudança fĂĄcil, rapidinha, jĂĄ que a compatibilidade entre as engines Ă© realmente muito grande, mas uma coisa leva a outra e acabamos refazendo muito mais coisa do que imaginĂĄvamos – e lĂĄ se foram alguns meses de desenvolvimento. NĂłs tivemos que mudar todos os materiais, shaders, lightmaps e etc do jogo, alĂ©m de fazer muito bugfixing. Mas a questĂŁo Ă© que toda essa mudança nos deu a oportunidade de melhorar o jogo de maneiras que nĂŁo podĂ­amos antes. Por isso, aproveitamos para trabalhar MUITO na otimização grĂĄfica do jogo.

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Otimização gråfica, jå não era sem tempo!

Nos Ășltimos updates que fizemos, adicionamos uma sĂ©rie de features sem ter muito tempo para otimizar tudo. EntĂŁo, um monte de coisa precisava ser checada para descobrir o que estava deixando o jogo mais pesado. Uma boa notĂ­cia Ă© que a Unity5 veio com algumas features muito boas para otimização, entĂŁo trabalhamos duro para fazer o jogo rodar em 60 fps em um grande nĂșmero de PCs. Obviamente ainda precisamos testar isso com outros jogadores antes de lançar, mas com certeza jĂĄ melhoramos  muito.

EntĂŁo, basicamente, se vocĂȘ nĂŁo tem conseguido jogar porque o jogo estĂĄ muito lento no seu PC, nĂŁo se preocupe: nĂłs sabemos o que vocĂȘ quer dizer e jĂĄ estamos trabalhando nisso!

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Interface do jogo em full HD

NĂŁo sei se algum de vocĂȘs jĂĄ reparou nisso, mas atualmente a interface no main menu Ă© em HD (1080p), enquanto a dentro do jogo nĂŁo Ă© (Ă© sĂł 720p). A interface in-game tambĂ©m nĂŁo Ă© localizada, ou seja, Ă© sempre em inglĂȘs nĂŁo importa sua configuração de lĂ­nguas, e alĂ©m disso descobrimos que ela era um super gargalo na otimização do jogo. EntĂŁo, a melhor opção era resolver todos esses problemas de uma vez.

No próximo update (para a versão de web, ainda) nós vamos lançar uma nova interface, que se parece muito com a atual exceto por algumas pequenas mudanças, mas que é muito mais leve, em full HD, e usando uma tecnologia nova. Ela ainda não vai estar localizada, mas vai ser pronta para ser traduzida para outras línguas no futuro. Yay!!

Disarm Effect

Um monte de novos efeitos!!

Nova engine e novos shaders significa que nĂłs tambĂ©m tivemos que refazer uma penca de efeitos e partĂ­culas no jogo… EntĂŁo, como vocĂȘ pode imaginar, nĂłs tambĂ©m aproveitamos para deixar eles bem melhores. Alguns eram muito antigos e poderiam ter uma cara melhor, e agora estamos indo para o Steam: temos que fazer bonito! Esse do GIF Ă© o novo efeito de Disarm, sĂł um exemplo. No prĂłximo update vocĂȘs vĂŁo ver mais!

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Nova arte de cenĂĄrio: BigRigs

Esse aqui nós jå andamos dando alguns spoilers nas nossas mídias sociais. O mapa BigRigs recebeu uma super reforma. Ele foi o primeiro mapa que escolhemos para fazer a arte, nesse novo estilo em que estamos trabalhando, e é uma graaaande diferença para os outros mapas.

Para quem se interessa por aspectos mais tĂ©cnicos, na versĂŁo de Steam nĂłs vamos ter algumas coisas extras que vĂŁo deixar o jogo mais bonito e com mais cara de “next-gen”: real-time lighting, normal maps, occlusion maps, SSAO, etc.

Uma coisa importante também sobre esse novo cenårio é que o fizemos jå pensando em uma série de melhorias futuras. O fato de nós nunca termos conseguido definir uma história para o jogo sempre foi uma pedra no nosso sapato, sempre nos segurando quando precisåvamos criar arte nova. Então, para criar esse aqui, resolvemos dar alguns passos para trås antes de andar para a frente. Esse mapa é o começo não só de um novo estilo artístico que estamos desenvolvendo, mas também o começo de uma história sendo inserida pouco a pouco e ganhando vida dentro do jogo.

O prĂłximo mapa em que vamos trabalhar Ă© o Tutorial. Para nĂłs, a primeira experiĂȘncia que o jogador tem ao entrar no jogo Ă© SUPER importante, e queremos causar uma boa impressĂŁo. Por isso, vamos começar com esse, e assim que terminarmos vamos escolher um outro para trabalhar. Quem sabe vocĂȘs nĂŁo nos ajudam a decidir esse prĂłximo mapa? Qual o preferido de vocĂȘs? Digam nos comentĂĄrios!

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SIM, agora temos uma HISTÓRIA para o jogo, e vamos adicionar elementos dela pouco a pouco.

Isso mesmo! Esse foi um comentĂĄrio que recebemos muitas vezes, de que os jogadores sentem falta de algum tipo de histĂłria por trĂĄs da luta entre os robĂŽs, e de que eles queriam entender o porquĂȘ do jogo ser assim. Quem criou os Dummies, os robĂŽs?! Por que eles lutam? Por que tem uma galinha robĂŽ? Quem raios Ă© o tal do cientista?!

Finalmente tiramos um tempo e procuramos ajuda para resolver esse problema. Trouxemos a bordo o Arthur ProtĂĄsio, um cara que entende muito mais de histĂłrias e narrativas do que nĂłs, e pedimos para ele conversar conosco para ajudar a organizar nossas ideias. Acabou que nĂłs jĂĄ tĂ­nhamos um monte de boas ideias, e muita coisa jĂĄ mais ou menos definidas, mas nĂłs precisĂĄvamos de uma ajuda para juntar tudo e ligar os pontos. Finalmente nĂłs conseguimos, e estamos muito felizes de poder começar a mostrar isso tudo para vocĂȘs!

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A primeira coisa que vocĂȘs vĂŁo ver: Logos dos Times!

A primeira coisa relacionada Ă  histĂłria que vamos adicionar sĂŁo os nomes e logos dos times. AtĂ© agora, quando vocĂȘ jogava um modo de times (Team Deathmatch ou Collectors), or jogadores eram colocados nos times Electrify ou Overclock. Esses, como vocĂȘs sabem, sĂŁo sĂł nomes de dois powerups que por acaso eram azul/vermelho, hahahaha… Esse foi sĂł um teste que fizemos hĂĄ muito tempo, e que achĂĄvamos tosquinho, mas  engraçadinho tambĂ©m.

Mas agora Ă© hora de mudar, e os Dummies vĂŁo lutar no Team Matrix ou no Vertex4, duas potĂȘncias que lutam pela supremacia no mundo das arenas de dummies. Os times sĂŁo patrocinados por duas super corporaçÔes rivais, que tentam controlar tudo que Ă© relacionado Ă s batalhas nas arenas. NĂŁo vou dar muitos detalhes ainda, mas vocĂȘs vĂŁo descobrir a tempo!

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E a maior mudança de todas, chegando com a versão de Steam: nós vamos mudar o nome do jogo.

Isso, exatamente o que vocĂȘ ouviu. Em breve, com o lançamento no Steam, Project Tilt nĂŁo vai mais se chamar “Project Tilt”. NĂłs vamos dar um novo nome ao jogo, que nĂłs finalmente decidimos depois de MUITO, MUITO tempo. E estamos MUITO FELIZES com o resultado!

Eu sei que isso vai ser uma grande surpresa para muitos vocĂȘs, e alguns podem ficar decepcionados de ver o jogo que eles gostam e que tĂȘm jogado hĂĄ muito tempo, de repente mudar de nome. NĂŁo Ă© o ideal trocar o nome de um jogo depois que jĂĄ se tem uma comunidade de jogadores, mas nĂłs sentimos que isso Ă© necessĂĄrio.

Project Tilt sempre se chamou desse jeito como um “nome de projeto” – ou seja, um nome temporĂĄrio para ser usado durante o desenvolvimento pela equipe no projeto. Mas, como nĂłs deixamos ele disponĂ­vel na web desde muito cedo, nĂłs tivemos que usar esse nome enquanto nĂŁo tĂ­nhamos o final. Demorou mais de dois anos para decidirmos o nome novo, e para termos uma boa oportunidade de mudar, mas agora a hora chegou.

 

É um novo mundo de aventuras, e o perigo Ă© bem maior

Nosso objetivo sempre foi levar o Project Tilt ao Steam, e também temos planos futuros para Playstation4, e finalmente estamos chegando lå depois uma loooonga jornada. Nós vamos começar uma nova fase agora em que estamos chegando mais e mais perto do nosso objetivo, e vamos começar essa fase com um novo nome, novo logo, nova arte, e uma história que conecta tudo isso. Na verdade, a razão pela qual nós conseguimos chegar a um nome final é justamente porque conseguimos dar um sentido a tudo e juntar todas as peças do quebra-cabeça desse jeito!  Para nós, isso é como um renascimento do Project Tilt, em que ele vai mudar muito, PARA MUITO MELHOR

Então fique de olho, porque vamos mostrar muito mais detalhes de todas as coisas que andamos fazendo, e também anunciar o novo nome, em breve!!

Ah, e nĂŁo se preocupe, se vocĂȘ nĂŁo gostar do que estamos fazendo (nĂŁo sĂł da troca de nome, qualquer coisa) sinta-se livre para nos falar. NĂłs aceitamos crĂ­ticas e feedbacks, amamos ler o que vocĂȘs escrevem e tentamos responder tudo.

Para terminar, queria agradecer a todos vocĂȘs por estarem nos acompanhando e jogando o jogo! Ver a reação dos jogadores e saber que eles se importam com o jogo Ă© nosso maior feito e Ă© o que nos mantĂ©m seguindo em frente, vocĂȘs sĂŁo os melhores!

Nos vemos in-game!

New Customization Available! The Swift-shot Archer

By | Art | No Comments

Hey everyone!

This post comes a bit delayed,  I’m really sorry about that. But we released a new update with a new customization set for the Season 01 collection. The Swift-shot Archer is a cute archer girl, and comes with an awesome new weapon: the Arcane Bow!

This is not only the first Project Tilt customization that is visibly a woman (even though many of the other ones are not explicitly male or female), but also the first in a few other things:

  • This set has 2 options for Hat. You can wear the long haired version, or the hood! Since we really liked both, we decided to add both to the collection and you can choose which one you’d like to wear.
  • This set is the first ever to have a SKIN slot! This means you can customize the texture of the robot, changing the body and eye color!
  • It’s also the first set to be inspired by medieval fantasy stuff!

We’re super excited about it, and hope you guys like it too!

The initial concept art sketch:

For those who are interested, I made this drawing live on our Twitch channel. We usually stream our process, and it might be interesting if you want to know more about how the game is made, or meet the team behind Project Tilt! 🙂  You can follow the channel and watch us at http://twitch.tv/bitcake

Concept_Customization_Archer_02

 

A teaser we published on our facebook page!

150428_ARCHER_SET_TEASER_SILHUETA_02

And this is what the set looks like:

150428_ARCHER_SET_TEASER

This is how it looks like with the hood hat equipped, instead of the long hair hat:

Archer_Jumping_07

Which one do you like the most?

 

And the Foil version:

Archer_Jumping_01_Foil

And, last, a close-up on the Skin textures:

Since this is a robot imbued with arcane power, it has runes all over its body. And the eye color is different too, so if you always wanted a red-eyed bot to fight with, now is your chance 😉 (and this is just the first set of skin textures we made. We plan on making many more!)

Archer skin

Normal Skin

Archer Skin Foil

Foil Skin

 

Tell us what you think about it!OlĂĄ pessoal!

Esse post demorou um pouco para sair, desculpas por isso! Mas nos Ășltimos dias nĂłs lançamos uma nova customização no jogo, a Arqueira Tiro-RĂĄpido. Ela Ă© uma menina arqueira muito fofa, que vem com uma nova arma: O Arco Arcano!

Ela não é somente a primeira customização realmente feminina do jogo (apesar de vårias outras não serem explicitamente femininas ou masculinas), mas também é a primeira em vårios  aspectos:

  • Essa customização tem duas opçÔes diferentes de chapĂ©u! VocĂȘ pode usar o cabelo comprido, ou a capuz. Como nĂłs gostamos muito das duas versĂ”es, resolvemos incluir ambas na coleção, e vocĂȘs podem usar a que mais gostarem! 🙂
  • Esse Ă© o primeirĂ­ssimo set a ter customização de SKIN! Ou seja, de textura de “Pele” do personagem. Isso significa que vocĂȘ pode mudar a textura do robĂŽ, trocando toda a cor e pintura do corpo e dos olhos.
  • AlĂ©m disso, Ă© o primeiro set a ser inspirado em fantasia medieval. E nĂłs adoramos fantasia medieval, entĂŁo… isso Ă© importante 😀

NĂłs ficamos super felizes com o resultado, e esperamos que vocĂȘs gostem tambĂ©m! AĂ­ vai:

 

Concept Art inicial:

Para quem se interessar, eu fiz esse desenho ao vivo no nosso streaming no Twitch. VocĂȘs podem nos seguir e assistir em:  http://twitch.tv/bitcake. É uma oportunidade de conhecer mais como fazemos o jogo, e tambĂ©m conhecer a equipe por trĂĄs dele 🙂 E nĂłs tambĂ©m damos uns spoilers do que ainda vai ser lançado!

Concept_Customization_Archer_02

 

Um teaser de como ficou o modelo:

150428_ARCHER_SET_TEASER_SILHUETA_02

 

E aqui o modelo final em uma composição para divulgação:

150428_ARCHER_SET_TEASER

 

Essa é a versão com o item alternativo de Chapéu, o Capuz:

Archer_Jumping_07

 

E a versĂŁo Foil (hologrĂĄfica):

Archer_Jumping_01_Foil

E por Ășltimo as  texturas de Skin!

JĂĄ que esse Ă© um robĂŽ imbuĂ­do com energias arcanas, ele tem runas pelo corpo. 🙂 A cor dos olhos tambĂ©m muda, entĂŁo muita gente deve ficar feliz de poder jogar com um robĂŽzinho com olhos vermelhos, haha. Mas essa Ă© sĂł a primeira Skin que fizemos, pretendemos lançar muito mais!

Archer_Skin_03

Skin Normal

 

Archer_Skin_03_Foil

Skin Foil

 

E aí, o que acharam?! 🙂

New Customization Set: The Gangster! (+ new weapon, the Intimidator!)

By | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

New set available: the Gangster!

The whole collection is available right now, alongside its new gun: The Intimidator!

And check out this video we made showcasing it and showing all the item thumbnails and also the foil version:

150409_Gangster_Set_ENUS

Nova coleção disponível: Malandro!

A coleção inteira jå estå disponível junto da sua arma nova: A Intimidadora!

E dĂȘem uma olhada nesse vĂ­deo que fizemos mostrando o set de todos os Ăąngulos, alĂ©m da sua versĂŁo foil:

150409_Gangster_Set_PTBR

NEW UPDATE: Bullet FX & Account Creation Changes

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 A new update has been released!

We just updated the game with some cool stuff, specially for those who have not won their 50 Bits for verifying your e-mail!

Here’s the changelog:

Changes to the account creation process

– You can now freely change the e-mail you used to start playing Project Tilt BEFORE you verify it. (After verification your e-mail won’t be changeable anymore!)
– You can now request to change your password from withing the settings menu after verifying your e-mail.
– You don’t need to create an account before playing the game anymore if you’re playing on Facebook! (just accept the app and create a nickname) Later, you will be prompted to upgrade your account – this is an optional step in which you insert email address and password. With this “BitCake Account” you can play Project Tilt in any other platform (Facebook,ProjectTilt.com and others in the near future)

Game

– Changed the whole Tutorial ending screen. Now we explain the rewards the player gets when he/she finishes the tutorial.
– Changed all bullet sizes and shader effects (Normal bullets and Double Damage bullets)
– Small visual adjustments on Floorophobic so it reflects its collider better
– Small adjustment on BigRigs post-game so when you hop on a ramp you’ll fall on the vote capsule.

– Many many many bugfixes and improvements to the game Emoticon smile

Come play the game!
https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/

Atualizamos o jogo!

Acabamos de atualizar o jogo com algumas coisas bem legais, especialmente para aqueles que ainda não pegaram seus 50 Bits de verificação de e-mail!

Aqui vai a lista de mudanças:

Mudanças no processo de criação de conta

– Agora vocĂȘ pode mudar o seu e-mail que usou para cadastrar no Tilt. Isso vai ajudar aqueles que se inscreveram com um e-mail “fake” e depois nĂŁo conseguiram verificar o email. Emoticon smile Mas atenção: depois de verificĂĄ-lo, nĂŁo dĂĄ mais para trocar.
– Agora Ă© possĂ­vel pedir para trocar a senha do jogo de dentro do menu de configuraçÔes depois de verificar seu e-mail.
– Para quem criar contas novas NO FACEBOOK a partir de hoje, nĂŁo serĂĄ necessĂĄrio inserir e-mail e senha em um primeiro momento (Ă© sĂł aceitar o app e escolher um nick), a conta serĂĄ linkada diretamente com sua conta no face. Depois, o jogador pode fazer um “upgrade da conta”, onde ele cadastra e-mail e senha. SĂł assim serĂĄ possĂ­vel carregar seu progresso no Tilt para outras plataformas (Projecttilt.com, Facebook, e outros no futuro)

Jogo

– Nova tela final do Tutorial, agora explicando as recompensas que o jogador ganha ao terminĂĄ-lo
– Modificadas todas as balas e os efeitos de balas de todas as armas (normal e com power-up de dano duplo)
– Pequenas mudanças visuais no Floorophobic para melhor refletir suas colisĂ”es de cenĂĄrio.
– Pequena modificação no pĂłs jogo do BigRigs – se vocĂȘ subir numa rampa de pulo agora vocĂȘ deve cair em cima da capsula de votação.

– Muitos muitos muitos consertos de bugs e melhorias em geral Emoticon smile

https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/

It’s Easter in Tilt!

By | General | No Comments

Hey guys, we’d like to wish you a HAPPY EASTER!
And to celebrate we’re doing a huge sale! Check it out:

150402_Easter_Sale_BunnyEars

A FREE GIFT FOR EVERYONE

Log in to the game at anytime from now to April 8 to get a free Bunny Ears hat!

150402_Easter_Sale

DOUBLE BITS IN EVERY PURCHASE

Everyone who buys bits now – and all the way to April 8 – will get double the number of bits they would usually get!

150402_Easter_Sale_BoxBunny

EXCLUSIVE BOX BUNNY SET

We’re also making our first exclusive sale set! For only a limited time, you will be able to buy a special pack that comes with the full Box Bunny set, and also a few holopacks and legacypacks!

Here is another image of our new set:

Box Bunny Set

Our first season-exclusive promotional set! What do you think about it? 🙂

And here is a short making of we made of the process of creating this set:

Box Bunny Making of

Box Bunny Making of

Olå galera, nós gostaríamos de desejar uma FELIZ PÁSCOA PARA TODOS!
E para celebrar essa ocasiĂŁo, nĂłs preparamos uma super promoção! DĂȘem uma boa olhada, porque nĂŁo queremos que ninguĂ©m perca:

150402_Easter_Sale_BunnyEars

ORELHINHAS DE COELHO DE PRESENTE PARA TODOS

Todo mundo que entrar no jogo de hoje até o dia 8 de Abril vai ganhar, de graça, um chapéu de orelhinhas de coelho! Use junto com seu cabelo preferido!

150402_Easter_Sale

BITS DOBRADOS EM TODAS AS COMPRAS

Todos que comprarem, também de hoje até dia 8 de abril, vão ganhar o dobro dos bits que normalmente ganhariam! Isso mesmo, agora vale duas vezes mais a pena comprar bits!

150402_Easter_Sale_BoxBunny

COLEÇÃO EXCLUSIVA DO “TOELHO BOXEADOR”

Estamos fazendo nosso primeiro set de customização exclusivo! Somente por um tempo limitado, vocĂȘs podem comprar um pacote que vem com a roupa completa do Toelho Boxeador, e vĂĄrios holopacks e legacypacks incluĂ­dos.

E aqui outra imagem do nosso set novo:

Toelho Boxeador

Nosso primeiro set promocional exclusivo por um período de tempo! 🙂 Só na páscoa.

E aqui vai outra coisa que fizemos, uma breve demonstração do nosso “making of” do set. O que achou? Se quiser ver mais coisas desse tipo, avise para a gente. 🙂

Box Bunny Making of

Box Bunny Making of

Weapon Balancing Update

By | Uncategorized | No Comments

Hey everyone!
We made some adjustments to how some weapons work!

Here’s a changelog:

Minigun:
– Damage reduced to 10 from 12
– Spin decay time reduce to 0.75 from 2
– Fire rate reduced to 16 from 18

Bazooka:
– Fire rate reduced to 0.6 from 0.7
– Initial ammo reduced to 2 from 3
– Total ammo reduced to 4 from 6

Phantomzooka:
– Fire rate reduced to 0.5 from 0.7

Tell us what you think in the comments!

Try out the new balancing!
https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/Atenção jogadores!
NĂłs modificamos a maneira como algumas armas se comportam!

Aqui estão as mudanças detalhadas:

Minigun:
– Dano diminuĂ­do pra 10 de 12
– DiminuĂ­do o tempo da arma esfriar para 0.75 de 2
– CadĂȘncia de tiro diminuĂ­da para 16 de 18

Bazooka:
– CadĂȘncia diminuĂ­da para 0.6 de 0.7
– Balas iniciais diminuĂ­da para 2 de 3
– Balas totais diminuĂ­das para 4 de 6

Phantomzooka:
– CadĂȘncia diminuĂ­da para 0.5 de 0.7

Nos diga o que achou nos comentĂĄrios!

Vem testar o balanceamento novo:
https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/

It’s Carnival in Tilt! – Update and Sale!

By | Uncategorized | One Comment

Hey everyone! We decided it’s a good idea to start posting our changelogs in our blog. I’m trying to revive it for a very long time, and changelogs are always there and maybe useful for some people to see in a specific link. So here it is, our first one 🙂

 

FEBRUARY 14, 2015 – CARNIVAL UPDATE

It’s Carnival here in Brazil, so in the spirit of that we are giving you a surprise!

– Everyone will get a Speacial Giftpack with a Carnival Mask headgear
– Special SALE! If you buy Bits on the store you’ll get DOUBLE the Bits!

Also here’s a changelog of the updates:

– Lobby news are now clickable and contextual! (If you click on a Weapons rotation news it’ll take you to the loadout screen for instance)
– Free Weapon Rotation is now AUTOMATIC and will happen every 3 days! (thank god, says [Dev]Ashkental)
– You can now use the chat if you’re spectating a game! (If you join a match while people are on the Post-Game Screen)
– Improved loading screen between matches
– Fixed opening empty holopack bugs
– Added a pretty new loading before some important server calls
– Added some cool new art to popup menus!
– Moved the AUDIO/VIDEO options to its own sub-menu
– Added option to disable Music in the In-Game options menu!
– Fixed Background music playing on the Post-Game Screen even if you had disabled it before
– Added and remade a bunch of localization stuf Emoticon smile
– Fixed some other bugs! Emoticon grin

So GO PLAY!
https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/E aĂ­ galera! Resolvemos que Ă© uma boa ideia começar a usar nosso blog para postar as mudanças de cada atualização no Tilt. Nosso blog estĂĄ super morto e eu ando tentando revivĂȘ-lo hĂĄ algum tempo, entĂŁo changelogs parecem uma boa opção! EstĂŁo sempre aĂ­ e pode ser Ăștil para algumas pessoas ter um link direto para eles. 🙂 EntĂŁo aĂ­ vai, nosso primeirĂ­ssimo!

 

14 de Fevereiro de 2015 – CARNIVAL UPDATE

Como vocĂȘs sabem, Ă© Carnaval aqui no Brasil, entĂŁo resolvemos comemorar em alto estilo!

– Todo mundo vai ganhar um Giftpack especial com uma mĂĄscara maneira para combinar com seus vĂĄrios chapĂ©us!
– PROMOÇÃO de Carnaval! Se vocĂȘ comprar Bits durante essa promoção vocĂȘ vai ganhar O DOBRO de Bits!

E não para por aí! Aqui vai a lista de mudanças e atualizaçÔes:

– As notĂ­cias da Lobby agora sĂŁo clicĂĄveis e contextuais! (Se voc&e clicar numa notĂ­cia de rotação de arma ela vai te levar para o menu de armamentos por exemplo)
– As RotaçÔes de Armas agora acontecem AUTOMATICAMENTE e Ă  cada 3 dias! (Grazadeus, disse [Dev] Ashkental)
– VocĂȘ agora pode usar o chat se estiver espectando uma partida! (Se vocĂȘ entrar enquanto o jogo estiver na tela de PĂłs-Jogo)
– Melhoramos a loading screen entre partidas
– Consertamos o bug de abrir holopacks vazios
– Adicionamos um loading bonitinho antes de algumas chamadas importantes ao servidor
– Adicionamos algumas artes bonitinhas para os menus de popup!
– Movemos as opçÔes de AUDIO/VIDEO para seu prĂłprio sub-menu
– Adicionamos opção de tirar ou diminuir o som da mĂșsica de dentro de uma partida
– Consertamos o bug do som da mĂșsica voltar durante a tela de PĂłs-Jogo mesmo quando ele havia sido desabilitado
– Adicionado e refeito vĂĄrias coisas de localização Emoticon smile
– Consertamos alguns outros bugs! 🙂

Agora VÃO JOGAR!
http://www.ProjectTilt.com/
http://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt

Crossroads Part I: Character Design for Project Tilt, or How Project Tilt was Once About Paper Craft

By | Uncategorized | 4 Comments

So, the story behind Project Tilt’s main character is a very winding one. Project Tilt was, for a long time, a game without any art, without any idea of theme, and without a character. It was a long process that is, actually, still happening, and we all learned a lot. I’m going to make a series of posts about it, and I hope you guys enjoy it and comment back with your opinions! 🙂

Early Investigation

When I joined the Project Tilt team around May last year, the project was going on for about five months but we had nothing more than a big pile of sketches and no idea of what to do with them. So we started an investigation of what we wanted out of our game in terms of language, to start building the beginning of our art direction.

Early sketches

Early sketches

All we knew was that we wanted the game to be fast and crazy, with a kind of explosive humour, but not explicitly violent. Just cartoon-ish explosive fun. Like Team Fortress or Smash Bros, with a bit of nonsensey-ness from cartoons, like Invader Zim, Dexter’s Laboratory or Adventure Time (who doesn’t like that?).

Comical, Crazy and Charismatic

Comical, Crazy and Charismatic

So we made the graph below, comparing the humor and tone that we wanted out of Project Tilt with other similar games. This might seem weird, but it was useful to put everyone in the team in the same place: sometimes each person in the team is thinking something different and we can only find that out in the worst way. That’s why this kind of investigation is useful, and since I was new in the team, I wanted to align my ideas with the rest of the team’s, and also to see if they were all aligned between themselves and if our ideas made sense.     Btw, the app I used to make that graph is a very cool web app called Mural.ly. It’s a great way to creat moodboards and communicate visual ideas to a team 🙂

A Starting Point: The Character!

We needed a character to begin with. The character was central to the game’s concept, since the idea behind Project Tilt has always been that every player starts the same: we have no grinding and your level doesn’t change your power in the gameplay. Our character had to be cool enough for the player to like him and want to play with it, but also had to be customizable so players could differentiate themselves and show how much they played by the items they have, and how their character looks. So, we looked first at the requirements of our project:

  • The character had to be highly customizable;
  • It had to look charismatic on its own, but even cooler when customized;
  • The customizations would be other 3D models on top of the character, like in Little Big Planet or Modnation Racers (this is a decision we made early on before starting the design process, since it also involved technical things about the 3D modelling and the way the game would be programmed);
  • Our customizations would include garments and hats of any kind, even if very different from the theme of the game (Ex: Pirate hat in a robot character);
  • The character had to hold a big and visible weapon – for gameplay reasons, since the weapon had to be readily recognizable;
  • The head of the character also had to be pretty big, so hats would be easily seen and become important to the experience.
Proportions - at the same time we were studying the proportions to fit our game

Proportions – at the same time we were studying the proportions to fit our game

With this in mind, we took a look at some real-world references that could be useful, like Lego toys, Toy Arts, and Paper Craft. We studied games that used those kind of references and tried to decide which ones we liked the most and fitted our game more.

Nailing Down to One Theme

Then, we chose some options that we liked and started brainstorming and making sketches. From those sketches, I decided to make a presentation to the team. The theme of the game is something that everyone should be excited about, and a short presentation is a nice way to make everyone informed about everything at once, expose your arguments, and make a decision from there.

Toy Art Sketches

Toy Art Sketches

Paper Craft Sketches

Paper Craft Sketches

Cartoony Robot Sketches

Cartoony Robot Sketches

All the three ideas were loved by the team, the robot one because it was actually the original theme of the game from the beginning, the toy art looked cute, and the paper craft looked very different from what other games were doing. And we wanted to try something different so we got really excited about the Paper Craft theme.  And on top of that, we were thinking we could name the game “Paper Crash”and it would sound awesome! And it would! So we decided to take that route, and the characters would be robots made of paper, being made in large quantities in a crazy lab and studied by awkward scientists. All the game could have a low-poly papery look. And so we began a long road of paper-robot drawings!

Pirate Paper Robot Science - Paper robots have a heart too :{

Pirate Paper Robot Science – Paper robots have a heart too :{

Some references that we used:

Retro3D by ~ABELOroz on deviantART

Retro3D by ~ABELOroz on deviantARTMonster Life mobile game characters

Monster Life mobile game characters

 And here is a link for a project with a paper aesthetic that looks really cool: https://www.behance.net/gallery/Power-Giants-lowpoly-paperworld/7890183

The Paper Craft Path

The drawings were going well and during that time our 3D modeller, Daniel, joined the team, and we had him modelling everything we could so we could test as early as possible!

Papelez - One of our concepts for the PaperBot

Papelez – One of our concepts for the PaperBot

The PaperBot - One of the first concepts

The PaperBot – One of the first concepts

But the problem came when we actually transported the drawings to 3D models and put them in the game. We made simple textures and rigged the 3D models of the new ideas and used Unity 4’s Mechanim to transport all the animations from the old placeholder robot character to the news ones. Then we could rapidly make early tests by playing with the new models. And the result was
 Well, not so cool. We tried lots of things, with lots of silhouettes and shapes, but it looked like the pointy corners of a Paper Craft models didn’t really fit into the game. They didn’t look good in the camera, and we weren’t really happy. Of course a lot could change with lighting, shader and more texture work, but it looked like no matter how we tried changing the shape and working a bit more in the texture, it didn’t look the way we wanted.

The Turning Point!

So, we had to make a rational decision to make things work. We decided to make a test in the same way we’ve been doing, but with one of our robot ideas. We all loved the first concepts and would like to see it back anyway, and it would probably work out. So I started drawing some robots and our 3D artist modelled them and we made some in-game tests. And it looked A LOT better from the start. We learned a few things from that too: – First, the rounded corners looked a lot better than the pointy paper ones. Our character is really small in the game, so his shape has to be simple and easy to understand from a distance. The paper pointy corners were not easily readable. – A more rounded head was also much clearer to see in the side-scrolling camera view. Our robot shape right now is actually still not so round, but it is a bit, and it allows some of the character’s face to show even if we are seeing it completely sideways (a pretty common thing in a side-scroller game). We were really happy with the result and started working in the design of our robot non-stop! The only down-side was losing the opportunity to use that name we liked so much — but we can save that for a next game. 🙂 It was still a lot of work to get to the version that is in game now, and even that one is still not done.

After that…

In the next part of the post I will be explaining how our design came to life and what we learned with it! Also, if you are insterested in seeing creative process in character design, here are a few links! Sackboy is one of our favorite characters of all time, and our biggest reference in terms of customization. In this link from Media Molecule’s blog, they explain the process behind the creation of this awesome character: http://www.mediamolecule.com/blog/article/from_yellowhead_to_sackboy/ And this is their Flickr with lots of pics from the process: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mediamolecule/sets/72157625338372788/ If you want to see more, this is a video from the Modnation Racers team talking about character customization and how they made it unique in their game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfx0xCHNC70 If you have any questions, tips, feedback, feel free to comment below! 🙂 We are happy to discuss anything with other developers or people who just appreciate Project Tilt and what we are doing. See you in the next post, and in-game!So, the story behind Project Tilt’s main character is a very winding one. Project Tilt was, for a long time, a game without any art, without any idea of theme, and without a character. It was a long process that is, actually, still happening, and we all learned a lot. I’m going to make a series of posts about it, and I hope you guys enjoy it and comment back with your opinions! 🙂

Early Investigation

When I joined the Project Tilt team around May last year, the project was going on for about five months but we had nothing more than a big pile of sketches and no idea of what to do with them. So we started an investigation of what we wanted out of our game in terms of language, to start building the beginning of our art direction.

Early sketches

Early sketches

All we knew was that we wanted the game to be fast and crazy, with a kind of explosive humour, but not explicitly violent. Just cartoon-ish explosive fun. Like Team Fortress or Smash Bros, with a bit of nonsensey-ness from cartoons, like Invader Zim, Dexter’s Laboratory or Adventure Time (who doesn’t like that?).

Comical, Crazy and Charismatic

Comical, Crazy and Charismatic

So we made the graph below, comparing the humor and tone that we wanted out of Project Tilt with other similar games. This might seem weird, but it was useful to put everyone in the team in the same place: sometimes each person in the team is thinking something different and we can only find that out in the worst way. That’s why this kind of investigation is useful, and since I was new in the team, I wanted to align my ideas with the rest of the team’s, and also to see if they were all aligned between themselves and if our ideas made sense.     Btw, the app I used to make that graph is a very cool web app called Mural.ly. It’s a great way to creat moodboards and communicate visual ideas to a team 🙂

A Starting Point: The Character!

We needed a character to begin with. The character was central to the game’s concept, since the idea behind Project Tilt has always been that every player starts the same: we have no grinding and your level doesn’t change your power in the gameplay. Our character had to be cool enough for the player to like him and want to play with it, but also had to be customizable so players could differentiate themselves and show how much they played by the items they have, and how their character looks. So, we looked first at the requirements of our project:

  • The character had to be highly customizable;
  • It had to look charismatic on its own, but even cooler when customized;
  • The customizations would be other 3D models on top of the character, like in Little Big Planet or Modnation Racers (this is a decision we made early on before starting the design process, since it also involved technical things about the 3D modelling and the way the game would be programmed);
  • Our customizations would include garments and hats of any kind, even if very different from the theme of the game (Ex: Pirate hat in a robot character);
  • The character had to hold a big and visible weapon – for gameplay reasons, since the weapon had to be readily recognizable;
  • The head of the character also had to be pretty big, so hats would be easily seen and become important to the experience.

 

Proportions - at the same time we were studying the proportions to fit our game

Proportions – at the same time we were studying the proportions to fit our game

With this in mind, we took a look at some real-world references that could be useful, like Lego toys, Toy Arts, and Paper Craft. We studied games that used those kind of references and tried to decide which ones we liked the most and fitted our game more.

Nailing Down to One Theme

Then, we chose some options that we liked and started brainstorming and making sketches. From those sketches, I decided to make a presentation to the team. The theme of the game is something that everyone should be excited about, and a short presentation is a nice way to make everyone informed about everything at once, expose your arguments, and make a decision from there.

Toy Art Sketches

Toy Art Sketches

 

Paper Craft Sketches

Paper Craft Sketches

 

Cartoony Robot Sketches

Cartoony Robot Sketches

All the three ideas were loved by the team, the robot one because it was actually the original theme of the game from the beginning, the toy art looked cute, and the paper craft looked very different from what other games were doing. And we wanted to try something different so we got really excited about the Paper Craft theme.  And on top of that, we were thinking we could name the game “Paper Crash”and it would sound awesome! And it would! So we decided to take that route, and the characters would be robots made of paper, being made in large quantities in a crazy lab and studied by awkward scientists. All the game could have a low-poly papery look. And so we began a long road of paper-robot drawings!

Pirate Paper Robot Science - Paper robots have a heart too :{

Pirate Paper Robot Science – Paper robots have a heart too :{

Some references that we used:

Retro3D by ~ABELOroz on deviantART

Retro3D by ~ABELOroz on deviantARTMonster Life mobile game characters

Monster Life mobile game characters

 And here is a link for a project with a paper aesthetic that looks really cool: https://www.behance.net/gallery/Power-Giants-lowpoly-paperworld/7890183

The Paper Craft Path

The drawings were going well and during that time our 3D modeller, Daniel, joined the team, and we had him modelling everything we could so we could test as early as possible!

Papelez - One of our concepts for the PaperBot

Papelez – One of our concepts for the PaperBot

The PaperBot - One of the first concepts

The PaperBot – One of the first concepts

But the problem came when we actually transported the drawings to 3D models and put them in the game. We made simple textures and rigged the 3D models of the new ideas and used Unity 4’s Mechanim to transport all the animations from the old placeholder robot character to the news ones. Then we could rapidly make early tests by playing with the new models. And the result was
 Well, not so cool. We tried lots of things, with lots of silhouettes and shapes, but it looked like the pointy corners of a Paper Craft models didn’t really fit into the game. They didn’t look good in the camera, and we weren’t really happy. Of course a lot could change with lighting, shader and more texture work, but it looked like no matter how we tried changing the shape and working a bit more in the texture, it didn’t look the way we wanted.

The Turning Point!

So, we had to make a rational decision to make things work. We decided to make a test in the same way we’ve been doing, but with one of our robot ideas. We all loved the first concepts and would like to see it back anyway, and it would probably work out. So I started drawing some robots and our 3D artist modelled them and we made some in-game tests. And it looked A LOT better from the start. We learned a few things from that too: – First, the rounded corners looked a lot better than the pointy paper ones. Our character is really small in the game, so his shape has to be simple and easy to understand from a distance. The paper pointy corners were not easily readable. – A more rounded head was also much clearer to see in the side-scrolling camera view. Our robot shape right now is actually still not so round, but it is a bit, and it allows some of the character’s face to show even if we are seeing it completely sideways (a pretty common thing in a side-scroller game). We were really happy with the result and started working in the design of our robot non-stop! The only down-side was losing the opportunity to use that name we liked so much — but we can save that for a next game. 🙂 It was still a lot of work to get to the version that is in game now, and even that one is still not done.

After that…

In the next part of the post I will be explaining how our design came to life and what we learned with it! Also, if you are insterested in seeing creative process in character design, here are a few links! Sackboy is one of our favorite characters of all time, and our biggest reference in terms of customization. In this link from Media Molecule’s blog, they explain the process behind the creation of this awesome character: http://www.mediamolecule.com/blog/article/from_yellowhead_to_sackboy/ And this is their Flickr with lots of pics from the process: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mediamolecule/sets/72157625338372788/ If you want to see more, this is a video from the Modnation Racers team talking about character customization and how they made it unique in their game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfx0xCHNC70 If you have any questions, tips, feedback, feel free to comment below! 🙂 We are happy to discuss anything with other developers or people who just appreciate Project Tilt and what we are doing. See you in the next post, and in-game!

Testes da Vida – a histĂłria do nosso health HUD atĂ© aqui

By | Art | 8 Comments

OlĂĄ pessoal, eu sou Camilla Slotfeldt, a artista 2D do projeto Tilt! 🙂 Estamos começando com nossos posts contando o desenvolvimento do projeto, e vocĂȘs devem estar se perguntando: “… artista 2D? Mas nĂŁo tem nada de arte nesse jogo ainda!”. Pois Ă©. Eu entrei no projeto bem mais tarde que os outros membros da equipe (e agora recentemente recebemos um novo modelador 3D, o Daniel, para nos ajudar), e com a saĂ­da de alguns membros anteriores, acabei sendo a Ășnica pessoa de arte por algum tempo! Mas a primeira coisa que eu fiz no jogo quando entrei foi trabalhar na interface de vida (health) do jogador e da barra de uso do jetpack. A equipe jĂĄ tinha vĂĄrias ideias para essa parte da interface, que na Ă©poca consistia em  barras no canto inferior da tela. (Na imagem abaixo hĂĄ tambĂ©m uma terceira barra, de munição da arma).

screenshot tilt

A questĂŁo Ă© que a posição dessas barras na tela nĂŁo estava funcionando muito bem. Olhar para esquerda/baixo para ver o health do seu jogador era um pouco demorado, especialmente em um jogo onde vocĂȘ pode morrer com 1 tiro. Por isso, começamos a experimentar novas opçÔes e testĂĄ-las semanalmente com nosso grupo de teste, o que foi uma oportunidade bem interessante, que nem todo projeto consegue ter.

Teste da vida na retĂ­cula

A primeira opção que testamos foi uma ideia bem diferente, que sabĂ­amos que tinha uma grande chance de nĂŁo funcionar: colocar o health e o jetpack na mira (a retĂ­cula, ou a “setinha do mouse”, onde fica a mira para o tiro do jogador). Essa seria uma interface nĂŁo-usual, mas que poderia ficar interessante graficamente e ser um diferencial se funcionasse. AlĂ©m disso, Ă­amos testar a hipĂłtese de que o jogador olha bastante para a mira, mais do que para os cantos ou atĂ© para o prĂłprio personagem no centro da tela.

Screenreticula     Interfacereticula01

Aproveitamos a forma circular da retĂ­cula e a dividimos em dois semi-cĂ­rculos: um na esquerda para a vida e outro na direita para o jetpack. NĂłs querĂ­amos que o health fosse dividido em pedaços bem marcados, como “quadradinhos”, para que as linhas entre eles servissem de marcação e ajudassem o jogador a saber melhor com quanto de vida ele estĂĄ no momento. O personagem tem 100 de vida, entĂŁo dividimos o semi-cĂ­rculo em 10 partes, e acreditamos que assim ficava mais fĂĄcil saber se o jogador tem no momento 50 ou 70% de vida, por exemplo, vendo pelo nĂșmero de partes. O resultado desse teste foi bem interessante! Diferente do que achĂĄvamos, as pessoas do grupo, que jogaram conosco usando a interface nova, nĂŁo fizeram tantas queixas nem falaram ter achado estranho. Muito poucas pessoas deram algum feedback negativo sobre o novo HUD e o teste atĂ© fluiu normalmente. PorĂ©m, nossos testes sĂŁo online e muitas vezes as pessoas nĂŁo se expressam tanto, e a nossa prĂłpria opiniĂŁo sobre o jogo tambem Ă© muito importante para nĂłs. E por uma avaliação da equipe, percebemos que nĂŁo olhamos tanto assim para a mira quando jogamos, e, apesar das pessoas nĂŁo terem falado muito, o gameplay ficou sim um pouco prejudicado.

Vida em volta do player

Resolvemos entĂŁo partir para um prĂłximo teste! Dessa vez, a hipĂłtese era de que olhamos mais para o nosso personagem do que para a vida ou para os cantos. Essa hipĂłtese faz bastante sentido se formos ver outros jogos parecidos com os nossos, que usam o health embaixo do personagem com uma pequena barra, por exemplo. Como nĂłs precisamos de duas barras, a de vida e a do jetpack, resolvemos experimentar uma ideia mais diferente mais uma vez e fazer o HUD circular, em volta do personagem. Uma das referĂȘncias que usamos na Ă©poca foi o Ice HUD, uma modificação de Word of Warcraft:   3a7e39cabb7a40eb5e46fb8b35e412a8

O nosso resultado foi o seguinte:

Screenshot---Health-HUD-em-volta-do-player

Mais uma vez testamos a interface nova e a aceitação dessa foi melhor. A equipe tambem ficou bem mais satisfeita com o resultado, e resolvemos manter essa forma por enquanto. Ao mesmo tempo, nós  também trabalhamos em outra parte importante da interface do jogo, o radar, que ficou muito interessante em conjunto com o health HUD. O radar reconhece jogadores que estejam lutando (atirando) e possam representar perigo, ou que estejam usando o jetpack  nas redondezas, e mostra setas em volta do personagem, indicando a direção da ameaça. Quando refizemos o radar, colocamos as setas para girar em volta do HUD, e a forma circula dos dois combinou muito bem!

Screenshot health hud + radar

ConclusÔes! Porque esses testes foram bons?

Aprendemos algumas coisas interessantes com os testes, tirando conclusÔes tanto de ver como ficam opçÔes diferentes de interface (experimentar coisas que ninguem te aconselharia a fazer é muito legal tambem), quanto de avaliaçÔes nossas para o que queremos ver no nosso jogo, e de feedbacks de usuårios. Algumas coisas que percebemos:

  • O usuĂĄrio olha bastante para o player e isso faz mais sentido para ele
  • O jogador nĂŁo olha tanto para mira quanto se poderia imaginar, ou pelo menos nĂŁo com um intuito diferente de atirar
  • Quanto de vida o jogador tem no momento nĂŁo faz TANTA diferença no nosso jogo, porque Ă© muito dinĂąmico. Algumas armas matam com apenas um tiro, e o jogador pode preferir olhar para a vida somente quando jĂĄ tomou dano, para saber se ainda pode aguentar lutar ou deve correr para procurar um health pick-up (item de recuperar vida) no cenĂĄrio
  • Mais interessante ainda que o health HUD  para o nosso jogo Ă© dar um bom feedback de dano, tanto visual quanto sonoro. Para isso adicionamos bordas vermelhas na tela quando o jogador toma dano, baseado na conclusĂŁo dos testes

Por mais que algumas conclusĂ”es sejam Ăłbvias, ou nĂŁo, tivemos a oportunidade de testar sem nos apoiar em concepçÔes prĂ©-estabelecidas e decidir o que era melhor para o nosso jogo, e acho que Ă© assim que pretendemos continuar trabalhando daqui pra frente 🙂  Ainda queremos fazer novos testes, mas agora estamos focando em outros pontos. Provavelmente vamos fazer uma reavaliação do health HUD quando finalizarmos a arte do personagem, e aĂ­ vamos ver como ela se comporta. É isso! Espero que tenham gostado e que esse tipo de post possa ser Ăștil e/ou interessante para outras pessoas desenvolvendo jogos no futuro! Qualquer coisa, dexem um comentĂĄrio, quero muito conversar com outras pessoas e ver o que vocĂȘs tem a dizer sobre o que estamos fazendo!

É isso aĂ­ galera, se vocĂȘ estĂĄ interessado em participar do jogo e ver de perto nosso processo de desenvolvimento Ă© sĂł pedir sua inscrição no nosso grupo de Facebook: www.projecttilt.com/bitcakestudio/testers, depois de aceitos vocĂȘs ganham acesso do jogo atravĂ©s do link: www.projecttilt.com/bitcakestudio/tilt ou pelo seus APPs do Facebook. Bom Teste!