With a new year comes a new Piggy Payback! With all new features and mechanics!
We've been taking some time to revamp the project and really nail down the fundamentals in the most efficient way possible. It was largely a rework, and we are very happy with how the project is turning out now. We still have to redo a lot of things, but we're also adding new things as we go.
We started work on the pinball style physics spinning gates again.
We created the model for the physics gate I'm Blender. We used a Flattened cube, beveled the corners and added some cylinders for the legs. We then created the textures for the two types of gates.
We setup the gate Blueprints with physics constraints as hinges after turning on physics of the gate mesh. We then set it up so every time it rotates, a piece of the gate overlaps a piece of the legs which causes it to trigger the following code. For the “Points Gate”, this code gets and updates the current score in the level.
We then setup the “Key” Gate, which unlocks a golden egg in a cage, or something else once the gate rotates 10 or 20 times. We put a still collision box in the gate blueprint, as well as one attached to part of the rotating gate part (Not the legs). So the two collision boxes overlap every time it rotates. We then made the gate count it’s rotations. Once it rotates x amount of times, it fires off the logic to unlock the cage.
We’ve also been setting up the cannon upgrade system. We’re currently using all placeholder art for the cannon upgrade menu, and we coded the buttons to set variables as true for each of the possible cannon upgrades once the player selects them and confirms. With the base cannon upgrades code complete, we first started to work on the actual upgrade for the laser sight.
For the laser, we made a mesh in blender as the laser pointer object. We then created a laser beam particle system and attached it to the socket we added to the mesh. So once you unlock this upgrade, the laser sight will appear on your cannon and spawn the laser beam out of it. This will give you a huge advantage as it shows you exactly where the cannon is aiming.
We created another power-up! This one is called “Slow-Mo” since, once collected, it slows down time for 5 seconds, allowing the player to more easily react to the quick movements in the game. All this required was a “Set Global Time Dilation” node set to “0.5” called off of the overlap node on the power-up blueprint.
We’re also expanding on the menu system. We set up a new button on the main menu called “Explore” and then linked that to a brand new menu page. We have buttons for shop, customize (Pigs), cannon upgrades, pet mode (Where you interact with your pet pig), and the Pinko level we discussed before. Our next steps are to code the basics of these buttons and create each new menu page so that we can later finish the rest of the code when all the assets are in place.
Another exciting update is that we have now begun work on the currency systems. The game will have Piggy Points, which are earned by playing the game and can be used on power-ups, piggy ability upgrades, cannon upgrades, extra pigs and other similar items. And Boar Bucks, which are the premium currency in Piggy Payback!, and can be used to purchase all of the cosmetic items you can get in the game. These include different hats, glasses/sunglasses, capes, jewelry and more.
We added more functionality to the cannon upgrades system. We added new graphics for such things as when you purchase an upgrade, or when you try to purchase one but don’t have enough Piggy Points. We also added animations to the buttons and other elements of the menu. As well as some cool and funny SFX in the cannon upgrades menu when you press certain buttons.
Important Note:
We're beginning work on our Kickstarter campaign. We hope to launch as early as April, and we would be incredibly grateful if you'd be so kind as to comment on the campaign and donate any amount of money. This funding will propel the game forward and bring you the best Piggy Payback! possible.
We want to thank all of you who have supported us throughout this amazing journey. You mean everything to us.
That's everything for this week, everybody. We hope you enjoyed getting informed on the progress of Piggy Payback! and we will keep bringing you more updates as time goes on!
Discord: https://discord.gg/heZcBD9Y
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Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PiggyPayback/