📰 The PixelCount Post - Issue #1

 

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ISSUE #1                         THE VALE, QUILL                         6 OCT 2017                         ONE BRASS
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A Note from the Editor
 
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Welcome to the very first edition of The PixelCount Post! I'm Matt Allen, your not-so-humble editor. Starting today, we'll be releasing a new issue of this fine periodical regularly here on our illustrious forums. In it, you'll find personally written updates from some of your favorite PixelCount developers in which they'll recount any recent development adventures from the week. Thank you for spending your hard-earned brass on this issue of The PixelCount Post. We hope you find it an enjoyable read.

The World Is Our Starfish
 
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The Vale's regions are now fully linked so you can run around it all! The world is our starfish! Or is it clam? I started roughing out missing regions and making some edits to others. Also worked on some 'Proverbs and Customs' design documents for the Prologue. Additionally, I made a bunch of silver birch trees in our combosprite editor and also provided lots of art and music feedback. Lastly, and most excitingly, I kept to my diet...

Fun Little Distractions
 
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We have some waterfalls that can be built up from pieces to suit the space available so I added animated components to combosprites and the ability to snap align them. I also looked at improving a few parts of the editor, in particular the sprite picker (we've got 20+ categories for sprites now so it made sense to add a dropdown to choose from rather than clicking through them!) as well as the prefab picker (this was a long list of all prefabs that can be placed and hovering each one would show the sprite - now there's a second view mode that displays all the sprites arranged by size making it easier to pick at a glance). Pig racing is now in-game which is a fun little distraction, though currently it's quite tough to pick the winner. The bartering minigame has had a very small pass on it which has upped its playability a lot. Finally, I've been working on the UI being editable in-game, which lets us take the beautiful bits Jenny has made and try them in-game at different scales to determine an appropriate one. More to come next week!

No Composer Is an Island
 
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For the last few weeks, the music department has been all about environments. The Vale is chopped up into regions, each requiring their own tracks. To make these, first I talk with the team about what the region will be like, then I make musical sketches until I get it right. Many times the team will even use existing music as a frame of reference. After each musical 'sketch', there's then another round of feedback. And even when the right vibe has been found for a track, constant feedback continues right up until the final version. I'm a strong proponent of constant feedback from others, as it continues to make the product better. No man is an island, and composers are no different. Ultimately, I want the environmental music to be diverse, yet still unmistakably 'Kynseed' in sound. And that's a tightrope balancing act. For instance, acoustic guitar is an important part of the Kynseed sound, but if you use it in every track it starts to feel overdone. I still have many tracks to go though, so I better keep the pace up! Let's see how much progress was made by the next issue.

Piggy Backers and Task Trackers
 
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Things have been busy here at Chateau Matt. For starters, I've been working on something that I'm cheekily referring to as a Piggy Backer (credit to the village squire, Carbunkel, for coining this term). As some of you may have noticed in recent weeks, I've been skirting around mentioning any specifics about what the 'Piggy Backer' is, but I'm sure most of you have put it together by now. In short, if you missed your chance to back Kynseed and get access to the Dev Pub (among other rewards), then you'll be very interested in the Piggy Backer. In other news, I've completely reorganized the game's entire project file system which is about as unexciting as it sounds but is incredibly necessary. I also rolled out a few small changes to the PixelCount Discord with many more changes to come. Additionally, I put this ever-so-lovely thread together which I'll now be releasing every Friday, presumably until the end of time. I cheekily decided to call it The PixelCount Post, which is a reference to old British newspapers as well as the fact that it's a literal forum post. Get it? You get it. Lastly, as we get more helping hands and as the complexities of this game's development rise (and boy is it getting complex), it's becoming increasingly important that we have effective ways to keep track of our small army of tasks and deadlines. So this last week I've been doing some internal revamping of how the team keeps track of such things - this'll be rolled out internally next week. Other work conducted this week includes the new UI thread in the Dev Pub, tons of internal discussions on design and art, progress with the music department on some new tracks, and a bit of time in Photoshop getting character art and concept art ready for public release (sometime Soon™). Next week will be a busy week indeed, so check back soon for the next issue of The PixelCount Post!

When we first wrote about a changelog on this forum I expected a bland, boring, systematical one.
Oh how wrong I was, you guys really surpass ones expectations every time!
I really love this style and it was very fun to read, I'm definitely looking forward to the next one on Friday!

This style is pretty good and it should make it's way into the game in some form. When will we be able to hop on the piggy backer train?

We might 'Quill' the next one up a bit :-)
We didn't realise Matt's plans for it til he surprised us with it!

That's quillicious! Neat idea to keep the (none-) backers up to date.
Maybe you could add some little monochrome images next time, just to make it more newspaper-ish? :)

As for the Piggy Backer thing, when quill this happen most probably? No, I don't wanna push you, I see that there's a long list of things which have to be done.
I just wanna get rid of my money, unfortunately there is no "put your cash in here "-slot... Or is there?
No, that's DVD drive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by God

When we first wrote about a changelog on this forum I expected a bland, boring, systematical one.
Oh how wrong I was, you guys really surpass ones expectations every time!
I really love this style and it was very fun to read, I'm definitely looking forward to the next one on Friday!

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Cheers! Might get a few 'guest writers' in every now and again such as the character artist or what have you. My goal is to keep these as quick light reads but still fun and semi-interesting. Looking forward to seeing these updates organically grow and evolve over time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inudemon

This style is pretty good and it should make it's way into the game in some form. When will we be able to hop on the piggy backer train?

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I've got the core bits of the piggy backer integrated into the website (hidden for now, of course). So the next step is figuring out when it'd be a good time to open it up for everyone, which I think I'll be doing with the team this upcoming Monday or Tuesday. Details to come henceforth!

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Originally Posted by Charlie

We might 'Quill' the next one up a bit :-)
We didn't realise Matt's plans for it til he surprised us with it!

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Heh, yeah. I sat down to just copy/paste some update paragraphs from the team but I thought, "Why be boring?" Next thing I know I'm making a newspaper logo in Photoshop and programming in new functionality for the forum software (cause it doesn't support justified text by default). So, in other news, there's now a hidden forum feature for justified text anytime you put text inside a [JUSTIFY] tag. :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Forgetaboutme

That's quillicious! Neat idea to keep the (none-) backers up to date.
Maybe you could add some little monochrome images next time, just to make it more newspaper-ish? :)

As for the Piggy Backer thing, when quill this happen most probably? No, I don't wanna push you, I see that there's a long list of things which have to be done.
I just wanna get rid of my money, unfortunately there is no "put your cash in here "-slot... Or is there?
No, that's DVD drive.

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Yeah, B&W images are a must! And I don't mean these kind. Oh, and as mentioned above, the Piggy Backer thing will be opening up very soon. Details incoming. ;)

Rejoice, Issue #2 of The PixelCount Post is hot off the presses!

Click here to get your copy for just one brass.