Fly High Runners TV Launch Party
After several failed attempts of getting a TV broadcasting license in Vibe City, a super popular delivery club in the city (WHO?) goes rogue and starts a pirate TV station. We don't know where the signal is coming from, but for sure we are happy to see it on air.
Build 0.6.2.2
finished Last Minute Pawn Shop, art, lights, logic and balance
added Fly High Runners TV
update controller detection and added some flags we can use later on to display different tooltips (and TV slides)
UI updates, mainly main menu and lobby
Fly High Runners TV
In our playtests, new players would often delay going into settings -> tutorial/controls, even if there were graffiti CTAs on the lobby walls. While discovering the game can be fun, there was a need to deliver bite-sized chunks of information to the players in a more organic way, and we hope this is a step in the right direction.
The "TV station" has a few types of content (intro, tutorial, tips and tricks, runner of the night) and the content loops. For now, the only TV screen is in the lobby, but we plan to broadcast it around the city too, on some billboards and screens.
2D Lighting System
When we started building FHR demo, the focus was on getting the multiplayer and main game loop in place asap, while slowly adding art, sounds, music, UI, effects and other little details that makes for a more immersive experience. Then our attention went into playtesting, stability and performance while pitching the alpha build around.
We started with Universal Rendering Pipeline and handled lighting using sprites (lots of!) and custom shaders. In hindsight, we should have gone URP 2D from the start and make use of the 2D Lighting system and lit materials.
A more seasoned team wouldn't have had these issues but then again, this is how we learn and grow! I'm happy we are at this stage where everything is stable and we can approach topics like this, even if it means doing a bit of refactoring. This update won't change anything logic related and we're still working on other new systems (like the toast notification area).
Needless to say, I'm super excited for what this update can bring to the game, fingers crossed it won't take a lot of time.
A blast form the past
This is one of the oldest sketches of the game. I was doodling, writing a GDD and researching possible tech for the game, between a browser game where I had some experience, tinkering with websockets + JavaScript or going with some actual game engines.
Ended up trying out some game engines and went for 2 parallel experiments - one in GameMaker + GX Games, another one in Unity + Photon Fusion.
I'd like to think this sketch still represents our game, even if it evolved in so many ways. The 1st alpha was done using an asset pack for multiplayer, (hi BTO and thanks), then RustyStorm hopped in and started creating some artwork, then MrPhilipJoel joined the team as Unity dev with experience and we ended rebuilding the game from scratch.
And then we had our 2nd 1st Alpha! From here on, we kept adding in all directions, when time allowed. I will try to go into more details in future "blast from the past" episodes. I guess we blogging now!
Thank you and cya next time!