The fun starts now

Oh, not for you, for me. Duh.

You get another boring version, I get to work on the awesome stuff.

So yeah, this is what’s coming up for Gamma:

  • Bots – that’s right, if you don’t have friends you will able to play alone
  • New GUI – have you heard of Unity’s new GUI? Well, it’s getting into Gamma with all it’s beauty
  • Mobile – Android, and hopefully iOS. Maybe Ubuntu Phone
  • Physics based shaders – they came with Unity 5, and look wonderful. I didn’t have time to get them into Beta, but I surely will for Gamma
  • Allow playing while hosting the server – to play on your own server right now you have to open a new instance, which isn’t exactly fun. Hopefully I’ll be able to get this working for Gamma

Sounds interesting? It is. I am so glad I got Beta 1 out so I can work on this. It’s just so cool.

I already started laying out foundations for the new AI on a local branch, but I doubt I’ll be able to get to it again until the school year ends, which should be in about two weeks.

Also, if you’ve got ANY sort of screenshots of Tunnelers somewhere, anywhere, chuck them here. It’ll be great help while making the GUI. Thanks.

And again, if you’re not already subscribed to the mailing list, please do. You would not believe how hard it is to reach all you.

 

I told you I wouldn’t leave Tunnelers alone.

Tunnelers Beta 1 released to little fanfare

This is a bug-fix release, and I hate bug-fixing. Argh. There were like a ton of them. But they are gone. Well, mostly.

If you want, you can play or download it on itch.io. Or you will, when I upload the packages. I’ve been delaying this for three weeks now, and I don’t want to delay it anymore by not having time to build packages (EDIT: all done and uploaded).

Just to be clear, this is a MINOR RELEASE. I won’t even bother doing a gameplay session, since the most visible change is probably the main menu tweaking.

I know, I know, half a year from the open-sourcing of Tunnelers, and I give you this, and say it’s almost no different.

But actually it is different, but most of the changes are internal. For example the tank controller is completely new, and the syncing is much more reliable. The code is cleaner. I’ve started to implement interfaces for better modularity. I started commenting the code, so it’s easier to understand. The whole project is ported to Unity 5. A whole bunch of GUI bugs were fixed, and settings were introduced. Also, the main menu was redesigned a little.

And don’t forget that I was doing this all through school, so I had limited time for it.

But don’t worry. The next release will be much more interesting. Details in the next post.

You might have noticed I changed the site theme. Hope it looks nice. Font is a bit too big, but meh. It’s cleaner than the last one.

Also, itch.io added support for paying with Bitcoins. So, if you have some microbitcoins to spare and you have no idea what to do with them, chuck them this way, it’ll be really appreciated. Cheers.

Tunnelers: Unified has turned open-source

Tried to keep it quiet so the it would be a big BOOM.

OK, so with the important stuff first: have a look at the source code HERE.

People new to code, feel free to browse it with awe.
Pro’s, feel free to look at that crap jibberish some noob wrote up, and give him a lesson.

If your somewhat familiarized with Git and Github, feel free to fork it, just make a pull request when you think that you made some good change.

Reasons

  1. The school year started. That’s right. And you know what’s even worse? I’m on a new school (I don’t know how you call it in English. High school? Probably. Gymnasium to be accurate). That means: less time to code. Open-sourcing Tunnelers prevents it from dying out.
    NOTE: This does NOT mean I’m leaving Tunnelers alone!
  2. I love open-source. I would probably open-source it even if I wasn’t going to school.
  3. I like the Github interface much more than Bitbucket’s, but Github doesn’t host private repos for free.
  4. I was tired working on it alone. Now people can at least see that I’m actually doing something on it, file issues, create pull-requests, etc.

Pretty good reasons, huh? If you don’t like them, well, bad luck. There’s no way back.

Want to help? Sure! Just mail me, we’ll have a chat.

Now to the other things:

Newsletter

Please please please subscribe to the newsletter you see on the left, if you want to continue getting news on Tunnelers. I never ever use those emails for something different than sending mails when there’s a new announcement, and, as you see, that doesn’t happen often. The process of sending the newsletter is automated, so you will always get the news first.

Chances are you’re reading this only because I’ve personally told you. Please do subscribe.

Thanks.

Roadmap
Beta:

  • fix bugs
  • add mute button
  • optimize network usage and client-side prediction
  • make a little graphics (but only a little)
  • bots. AIs. Call them what you want, but you will be able to play and have fun playing alone when they will be.

Gamma:

  • Mobile ports. Android and iOS. Maybe Ubuntu phone with some tinkering.
  • fix bugs
  • maybe add some tanks

Delta:

  • public vote on what future roadmap. This is where all the fun starts. Just to be quick, you will be able to choose from: digging, new tanks, new game modes, new maps, better graphics, new GUI (see note), text and voice chat, controller support, new platforms and so on.

Note: I will completely recreate the GUI when the new GUI system arrives in Unity, and that will probably be later this year.

The gaming session

Thanks to everyone who was there. If you captured a video or something, mail me. Hope everyone had fun. I sure did. See you next time!

And a very important thing for the end:

Thanks

To everyone who made this happen:

  • Shadowcrush, for the music and coding support, and for being cool.
  • @damagefilter, or Chris, or whatever you want to call him, for the excellent Unity networking tutorials. Without it, I don’t know how I would code all of it. You can still see snaps of his code in the source.
  • and, of course, everyone else, who I am not going to name because I’m not going to risk I will forget somebody. I you ever asked when will Tunnelers be released, played it with me, criticized me or chat with me about it, you should be here. Great thanks. You make this happen. And to those thinking I should write you all down, I don’t think it would fit here.

Thanks again. You helped Tunnelers: Unified be a reality, if only a fable one.

Tunnelers Alpha 2.0 is out.

As promised, the new version is out. With ROCKETS.

Go get it here.

Main changes:

  • ROCKETS!
  • optimized digging system for better FPS
  • outer walls of the map

Full changelog.

From now on, I’m working on getting Tunnelers MULTI-PLAYER. Wish me good luck.

I’m open to any bug reports.

PS: This is probably one of the last versions with the current digging system, cause I caught a glimpse of run-time terrain modification. If I get it running, get ready for digging with smooth edges.