Hello all,
Thanks for checking out our fifth devblog! The 0.8 fortification update is nearly ready for our experimental branch. We're hoping to have an experimental build next Friday. We are taking on new interns today! Marko and Rik arrived safely and mostly intact this morning. They’ll be getting settled over the weekend before being sized for intern cages..I mean starting with us Monday morning. This could put a kink in our experimental release but we think all should be fine. There will be an update to inform you regardless.
Some of you have asked about our workflow in the past. It's been something we speak about on Discord but never really did an update on. We’d like to talk a bit about that now. The community has provided us with a lot of bug reports over the last 10 months. This is how the process is currently working for us. Remember, nearly everything we do we’re doing for the first time. This is the current iteration of our workflow which is ever improving and expanding.
Workflow - Fixing those Pesky Bugs
When a player or one of us finds an issue a ticket is created. Player created tickets come from our bug tracker. Internally the team uses Trello to report issues. We also use Trello to report the player created tickets. There are 7 steps to getting a bug 'fixed' with our current workflow.
1. The Report - The bug is reported via our issue tracker.
Created for example (old tickets are destroyed on tracker)
2. Replication and Ticket Creation - If needed the team will attempt to replicate the issue typically only needed for obscure issues or badly written bug reports. Either way, we will create an internal ticket on Trello. This is done so the team isn't overloaded with ticket repeats and bad tickets. Trello is also integrated with concept and feature adding.
The internal ticket is created on Trello. More detail may be added here, concepts, ideas and the entire team has access.
3. Branch! A branch of the game is created and development on a fix begins. Survive the Nights is developed like most games in branches. All branching from a master branch (the project you play).
4. Pull Request! Once the developer thinks he has a fix ready he then creates a pull request. Other team members can then check the fix in Unity and ensure all is well. At least two of us MUST test any fix. Once there are at least two approvals on the branch then the next step begins.
We've begun adding in world harvest machines. The player can harvest worn planks and nails from these. This will allow you to begin fortification without needing to fell a tree, it will also work great for quick repairs.
The player can gather word wooden planks and nails from wooden objects like tables, fences and junk piles.
AI
We’re smoothing out new rigs and animations in preparation for 0.8. Zombies are now attacking, damaging and destroying planks in game. The gif below is solely to show the mechanic. We’ll tweak board strength along with other fortification materials together. Zombies will not ‘stack’ on windows or doorways. If there’s already a zombie attacking one window the next zombie will try and find another entrance or exit. You will have to defend all points of entry.
We're Hiring!
We're looking for help! If you are or know any programmers/unity developers looking for work in the UK please let us know. We're looking for like minded devs, the project is near and dear to us. The team is very small and being a team player is very important to us. If you'd like to send a CV to [email protected] please do so :)
As a reminder before we go, we'll be getting these devblogs out weekly. You can check our next set of goals and 0.8 progress whenever you'd like via the changelog. Thanks for checking in and the continued support!
Links
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Forum: https://community.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net