Games [ DevLog ] Sushi Slammers

Unity | DevLog 01 | Sushi Slammers

Sushi Slammers! What's old is new again! Introducing my latest project, which was one of my first projects, going to update to the latest version of Unity and release on Steam for Mac and Windows Desktops. Sushi Slammers was originally created so I could learn C# in Unity and produce an full game from start to completion. Gameplay is very simple and easy to pick up and play. Using a 'flick' or 'drag and release' mechanic, you fire your character off into other octopodes who are invading your pool, and you must clear your arena before time runs out. Only colliding octopodes of the same colour can be removed.

SYNOPSIS

SUSHI SLAMMERS

You play a red Octopus, enjoying life in your very own inflatable pool. Unfortunately for you, Octopus invaders have infiltrated your peaceful serenity. To remove them, you can slam into the offending rascals, simply hold down the mouse on your player, aim and drag to build up power, then release the mouse to 'slam' ! Only Octopodes of the same colour will disappear when they collide. The aim of the game is to reclaim your territory, clear all the enemies from your arena before the time runs out. Obstacles and environments change as you progress through the levels, watch out for scatter bombs and teleports, sometimes they can help, other times they can be hindrance. The game is a mouse controlled single player arcade experience, vibrant and easy to pick up and play, harder to master, flicking fun for all the family !

 

Unity | DevLog 02 | Sushi Slammers

Sushi Slammers is currently being upgraded to the latest version of Unity, at the time of writing, that is Unity 2019.3.5. I have started from a clean project, allowing me to implement the game from scratch using the previous assets and codebase, and upgrade as I develop and implement. Typical upgrade paths include lighting, scene management, audio, artwork, ui placement and optimisations, consolidation and upgrading of script work done previously. In this video, I also talk about some of the art upgrades being made, the texture work within Illustrator, and some of the techniques that I have utilised whilst developing this game. The main title screen has been fully implemented, shaders have been updated, and scripts have been worked upon and optimised since their original creation, beyond that, the level selection system / scene layout has also been upgraded, and as I go forward, I will begin the implementation of the beach levels and main game play elements.

 

Very cute! Looks fun

 

Thanks, @alexanderameye

Strange that I should get a reply from you, I was just looking into your Stylized Water solution for a future project !

Regards

 

Unity | DevLog 03 | Sushi Slammers

Sushi Slammers has just been upgraded again to the latest version of Unity, at the time of writing, that is Unity 2019.3.6. And with that, it has broken a few features, as I also decided to upgrade the project rendering pipeline to the Universal Rendering Pipeline, or URP. The unity update broke my dynamic water and my dynamic bone system, and the URP upgrade basically broke 'all' my previous custom shaders. Over the last week, I have been learning the fulls intricacies of the shader graph and how all the nodes work, so that I can upgrade all my previous shaders, and so far, I have fixed the dynamic bone problem, but, I have not yet been able to fix the dynamic water problem, although I have been looking at alternative solutions. The flow from Title Screen, into the Level Select screen, and then into Level 1 of the game is full working and implemented and a lot of the gameplay logic has been updated and added to the main game. The drag and release script has been updated for the main character, and a line renderer is now being used for the 'force' visual feedback. I will carry on working on the shaders and game logic implementation so that I can finish the base level gameplay logic and make sure everything is working 100 % before creating new levels and the further environments.

 

At around 34:55 you are moving the scene view camera to 'update' the shader view but I just wanted to mention you can also turn on 'animated' materials so it 'updates' always in scene view. Maybe a bit easier than always entering play mode. You can toggle this on the scene view toolbar, the button with an icon of 2 layers on top of each other and a little star.

Nice that you did the upgrade to 2019.3, hope it's worth it in the end!

 

@alexanderameye

Ah, wow, thanks for that tip, that's super useful !

I hope so too ! It needed to be done, it was just a shame it broke some things along the way, but onwards and upwards as they say.

 

Unity | DevLog 04 | Sushi Slammers

Sheesh, I really, really tried to make a shorter video ...
Anyhow, the progress on the water shaders is primarily discussed here, hopefully informative to those interested in developing their own, as I try to go into detail and showcase as much information as I can about the water shader development. I'm hoping to finish up the water shaders for both the pool and the beach water very soon ( at least to a level that will fit into the game world nicely ), and then I can get back on with the actual game integration, scripting and logic and whatever else needs upgrading / updating.

 

Lots of testing I see! Made great progress.

 

Thanks @alexanderameye

Your tutorial was super helpful and instrumental in the development !

 

Ah nice, the 'stylized water shader' tutorial? Glad it helped

 

Yes, that's the one, it helped me with the understanding of the depth and refraction setup.

 

Unity | DevLog 05 | Sushi Slammers

Water, water, everywhere... So, I got stuck on the development of the 'interactive' water this week, in the previous version of the game I used a plugin called Dynamic Water to to simulate ripples and waves within the pool water when the characters moved about. Subsequent updates to Unity meant this plugin no longer worked as expected, so I've been spent the last week researching and developing an alternative solution. I've scoured online tutorials, YouTube, similar GitHub projects, snow simulations ( deformation ), etc, but so far, have been unable to come up with a decent workable solution. However, as of today, I have been able to come up with decent workable script of my own for the Dynamic Water plugin that allows me to register the ripple dynamics correctly once more, I need to work this new solution into the main game, so watch out for that in the future. Other than that, I now have the vast majority of the coding completed, some smaller stuff to update as I create new levels, for instance, when I introduce the teleports and bombs, etc, but I will talk about that further when I showcase those levels in later devlogs. After time lost developing water physics, things should pick up at a much quicker pace now, so, fingers crossed, not long before the next update !

 

Unity | DevLog 06 | Sushi Slammers

Bug fixes.. Updated the indicator component on the DragRelease script so that it now correctly detects when the Player characters velocity has reached 0, and is therefore, available to be 'flung' again. The dynamic bones were fixed, so that the Players volume ( or body ) doesn't collapse so much when the adding a lot of direct force. The 'jelly' effect was still maintained. The Dynamic water / ripples have been fully implemented and are now working within the level, with both the Player / Opponents having the ability to affect the water dynamically around them.

 

Unity | DevLog 07 | Sushi Slammers

The first 25 levels have been completed, and the integration of the scatter bombs have been added, the bombs have a new feature upgrade in that they now show the scatter radius, shown as a sphere with a fresnel effect, so the action can still been seen within the level. The desert levels will be implemented next, with an upgrade to the visual look for those levels ( possibility of shifting sands, or heat distortion ). The desert levels will also introduce the teleports and I will cover that, probably in the next devlog update. Further research is ongoing with the characters visual look and appeal, with the possibility of 'glitter' or 'sparkle' being added to skin shaders.

 

Unity | DevLog 08 | Sushi Slammers

Fixed a sound issue with the obstacles in the game, added some 'splash' particles to the bombs when they disappear after being hit in a level. Mainly, the desert level has been introduced and upgraded accordingly, I now have wind turbulence on my grassy vegetation in the scene, and I have also implemented a rolling sand effect, although subtle in it's appearance, this was purposely done because of the nature of the environment itself, but it does add some extra nuance to overall level design and appeal. Moving forward, I will continue to implement the rest of the desert levels, and implementation of the teleports which are featured for the first time within the desert. Thanks for watching !

 

Unity | DevLog 09 | Sushi Slammers

Updated the particle effects for when an enemy octopode disappears from a level, previously, the octopode would disappear with a sound effect, this has now been updated, so that the octopode also has a color specific particle splash effect now. The bomb explosion particle effect has been upgraded significantly also, adding a much needed visual upgrade. The teleport system has been implemented and any number of teleports can be added to a level. 40 Levels completed, 10 more to finish the desert levels, then I will be moving onto the 'Scottish Meadows' environment.

 

Unity | DevLog 10 | Sushi Slammers

Hello, it's been a while since my last update, I got called away onto some other projects that needed my attention, as well as mundane daily duties, gardening, etc. Anyhow, back to Sushi Slammers, so I've recreated the Scottish Meadow level look, layout and design, scaled back the colours a little, and added more 'movement' via shaders developed with Shadergraph, more information in the video, hopefully not too long before the next update, which should be when I'm starting the 'martian' landscape levels.

 

Unity | DevLog 11 | Sushi Slammers

Quick update on my current progress for Sushi Slammers. I've completed all of the outstanding Scottish Meadow levels, and I'm about to start on the planetary themed levels, I will be recreating the level design for these levels, because the current version is static and uninteresting, so I'd like to work on the whole visual look and design before I commit to creating the levels. I also talk a little bit about the research I'm putting in for a new Shadergraph tutorial I'm working on for a snowy environment. Thanks for watching !