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Development in a big team is always an issue in Unity when we are talking about a scene file.

Multiple people working on the same scene may experience problems when the time for merging parallel work arrives.

Some solutions have been developed to account for that, but more often than not, bumps are present during production stage of the game.

The solution found here at Black River Studios was custom built from ground up and from day 0 to fit development of multiple people on the same scene causing as little interference as possible and the results were quite pleasing.

Two rules were defined at the beginning of production:

• Game flow controlled by waypoint;
• No direct references shall exist in a scene;

By having the team following this two rules, the only possible scene conflict would only fall on the scene composition work.

If two or more artists would add and edit what the scene actually looks like, that could cause a conflict.

Luckily that did not happen during the whole production phase of the game, and rarely there was more than one developer working on the scene composition at the same time.

Waypoint System

A waypoint system was created, where the philosophy was that all the game flow of a current waypoint is controlled by it, and every waypoint is self contained.

That means that anyone could set any of the waypoints as the starting waypoint, and the game would work perfectly from that point on.

That meant that each waypoint would guarantee that all the systems it needed to run would exist, all actors were set correctly, and from that point on, the game flow could start flawlessly.

This architecture sped up the development process considerably, since we could focus test each waypoint, and bugs found during the execution of a waypoint would be contained to that execution, making it extremely easy to pinpoint them in matter of minutes.

Playmaker was chosen as the tool that would handle the game flow so game designers would have more control and less dependency of engineers to create their own waypoints, but this system can be adapted to use any type of flow management the team decides to use.

The SceneManager sends an event to the FSM called “Initialize”, and from that point on, the waypoint should do everything it needs to run correctly.

Spawning of enemies, start and end of battles, opening doors, setting traps, triggering big events should all be done by the waypoint, and actors only satisfies the condition of each node in the waypoint flow that triggers the next node to activate.

Ideally, a waypoint could start in any node and work correctly, but that level of encapsulation may hurt the flexibility of the system and is not required.

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Scene References

The second part of this system is the indirect scene references.

Only one GameObject on the scene holds references to anything that is inside the scene that might be needed by any script or FSM.

It is a singleton, and the references are mapped via string path, with a custom editor controlling said references.

References in the scene are divided by categories and references, making it easy to map the variables to any script or FSM.

Additionally, an automated FSM variable addition was created to reduce the overhead work for dealing with references this way instead of directly linking a GameObject to a script variable.

This allows the waypoints to be prefabs, and manipulate the scene just by programming using the empty references instead of the actual objects.

At the start of the game, all scripts and FSMs have access to the SceneManager in order to fill the empty references with actual scene objects, allowing the code in them to affect actors and objects in the scene during run time.

Conclusion

By building an indirect reference and encapsulated flow from ground up , the scene conflicts during development were practically nullified and stability and control over what is happening made bug hunting the easiest the studio has seen so far.

This system is flexible enough that most projects can at least adapt a version of it, allowing to reap the benefits of disconnecting direct references from development and controlling game flow.

The iOS App Store has started to shrink, with the number of apps on Apple’s mobile marketplace falling to 2.1 million in 2017 from 2.2 million in 2016.

As reported by analytics outfit AppFigures, that five percent decline was partly the result of Apple’s stricter enforcement of its review guidelines, as well as some technical changes that eliminated many older apps that didn’t support 64-bit architecture. 

Perhaps more notably, it was also caused by a lack of fresh software, with the number of new apps hitting the App Store falling by 29 percent year-over-year to 755,000 — the first drop since the App Store launched in 2008.

Both the App Store and Google Play store had been experiencing consistent growth until now, and while Apple’s marketplace took a hit, Google’s continued to surge upwards, growing by a rate of 30 percent to more than 3.6 million apps. 

The number of new apps hitting the Google Play store also rose in 2017, with Google Play developers launching 1.5 million new apps throughout the year — an increase of around 17 percent year-over-year.

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As you may well be aware, the upcoming Pokémon movie ‘Everyone’s Story’ is gearing up for imminent release in Japan; the film is scheduled to premiere in Japanese theatres on 13th July, and we are expected to receive some brand new footage of the film early next week.

According to Serebii, some new footage of the movie will air on Japanese Variety Show Oha Suta on Monday 9th April, and as intriguing as that may be on its own for Poké-fans, the more exciting news is that a new Pokémon is set to be revealed during the show. Who could it be?

Well, before you get too excited, it’s much more likely that this reveal will be an official announcement for Zeraora – an electric-type mythical Pokémon that was unveiled by datamines of Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon – rather than anything from the game(s) coming to Switch in the future. It might be quite some time until we see anything entirely new, but an official announcement for the (currently) last entry to the Pokédex will still be very welcome indeed.

Either way, it’s still fun to speculate over what may or may not appear, and we’ll make sure to keep an eye out for the announcement. Are you desperately waiting for news on the future of the Pokémon series on Switch? Let us know what you’d like to see in the comments.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is Now Available on Steam!

A true, full-length open-world game for VR has arrived from Bethesda Game Studios. Skyrim VR reimagines the complete epic fantasy masterpiece with an unparalleled sense of scale, depth, and immersion. Skyrim VR also includes all official add-ons.

Happy snapshot day everybody! We’ve mostly recovered from GDC and are now back to work, full steam ahead!

A full changelog for the Snapshot can be found on Minecraft.net.

• New item: Phantom Membrane
• New potion: Potion of Slow Falling
• Added 4 new advancements
• New Kelp textures
• Changed generation rules for kelp and seagrass
• New Riptide behaviours for tridents
• Optimized cloud rendering some more

PHANTOM MEMBRANE

Very spooky.

• Elytra now requires Phantom Membrane to be repaired
• Phantoms now drop Phantom Membrane instead of leather
• Can be crafted into a super spooky Slow Falling potion

ADVANCEMENTS

We’re making progress!

• Fishy Business: Catch a fish
• Tactical fishing: Catch a fish… without a fishing rod!
• A Throwaway Joke: Throw a trident at something. Note: throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.
• Very Very Frightening: Strike a Villager with lightning
• More to come!

RIPTIDE

Whooosh!

• No longer compatible with Loyalty or Channeling
• If riptide won’t work (such as being on land, nice and dry) you can’t attack with the trident at all
• Riptide will not throw the trident, but instead launch you forwards with the trident
• Looks neat!

To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).

Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.

Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 1.13 will have a lot of experimental snapshots that may break everything and smell funny. This may be one of those snapshots. This is what happens when Mojang are changing all the things! 

Share your thoughts on how 1.13 is shaping up in the comments below!

This week at Bungie, there was a bit of Mayhem in our studio.

In a ritual as old as the Crucible, a bounty was placed on the heads of a Bungie Fireteam – this time, in the Mayhem playlist. If the community managed to defeat us, they would earn the Sign of Mutual Combat emblem. Somehow, we didn’t do that bad!

Bungie Wins: 9

Losses: 5

The air was supercharged for the duration of our two-hour stream. I learned how to play a Warlock and Cozmo did his Hunter thing. Twenty of you earned your prize. As for the rest, better luck next time.

Queue and Answer

Josh: We know this is one of the big items the community would like to see. We’re already coming at it from a few different angles. With Update 1.1.4, we wanted Guardians to feel more powerful and to get more chances to showcase that power. These changes included making weapons more lethal. The next big Sandbox update comes with Season 3 as we buff a good chunk of the Exotic weapons. These changes will be a direct response to “Exotics don’t feel Exotic enough.” Some of these weapons are getting damage buffs that can have a direct impact on the average TTK of an encounter.

Josh: While we will continue to adjust the Sandbox, we are not planning an outright nerf to Vigilance Wing at this time. We don’t believe slowing Vigilance Wing’s TTK in a world where our players are asking for a faster TTK is the right call. Instead, we should be adjusting more weapons up to a level where they can compete. I believe you’ll find a few retuned Exotics that can do that in the Season 3 Exotic update.

DeeJ: We will be back on stream later this month to talk about the next content updates for Destiny 2. We’ll show you where you’re going next, who you’ll meet when you get there, how you’ll share new activities with your friends, and what you’ll be able to chase in the Crucible to prove your prowess.

Kevin: With Seasonal Crucible Ranks, we’re looking to serve many goals. Most important to players like me, something to chase or something to set goals for every season. There is a reason to play, and there is a reason to perform in the Crucible. You’ll earn unique rewards for things like time commitment or performance. I’ll be back on a future stream to talk more about the ranking system, Valor, and Glory.

Josh: We know that you want more control over your loadouts. You can expect weapon slot changes in the future of Destiny 2. We are actively working on a new system right now and we will have more to show and tell this summer.

Josh: At any given moment, we are working on numerous Sandbox updates that follow the same pipeline. First, we set goals for what we want to accomplish with any given update. For example, the purpose of 1.1.4 was to directly affect the pace of combat and to allow for more powerful and heroic moments. In Season 3, we’ll be delivering a round of Exotic weapon tuning intended to make them feel more exotic. With our goals defined, we make the changes, playtest, and iterate for as long as we can. Destiny is a huge game with tons of different areas that may be affected in different ways (positive or negative) from any given change we may make. Our test team also plays them with us and helps us hunt for anything that we may have broken. Finally, those changes have to get packaged up into an update and certify those builds with each of our platforms before they finally roll out to you. 

Kevin: It’s all priority. We have many releases, but we have a finite number of people on the team. For us, it’s all about prioritizing what we can get done and when we can get it done. So, in some cases (like weapon slots) – that’s going to take a long time. The bigger the change, the more focus and people are required to get it shipped.

DeeJ: On the community team, we are always looking for new ways to get designers socializing with players. Moments like the Bungie Bounty are a good chance to swap some chatter. You can expect to see them quoted on the blog whenever their work is in a place where they can go on record. Last week, we sat Josh down to talk to us about his motivations for Update 1.1.4. We also help you find them online so you can follow their dialogue about their day to day.

Josh: You’ve been seeing a hearing from me a good bit lately. I hope that my candor helps show that we are serious about our commitment to communicate more clearly and more often with you. If you need EVEN more, look for me on Twitter @Josh_Hamrick or Kevin at @Tocom11.

Kevin: We’ve heard the feedback that the community wants more involvement, or at least more of a conversation. We’re actively looking at ways to do that, with this stream, and even in game. We know there is a big desire for testing builds early, and that’s something we’re thinking more about.

Josh: I’m no Investment Designer but I can tell you that we, as a team, know that you want more reasons to play. We know you want to be excited about the possibility of any given drop again. We know you want to look forward to hopping on night after night for a shot at something you want to get your hands on and that you look forward to the adrenaline rush when it finally happens. We are actively working to get there, together. We’ll talk more about our plans when they are in a playable state that we think is stable.

Josh: Yes, to some of these. From my desk, right now, I can look around and see new hotness on several people’s screens. We’ll be showing off a lot of this stuff in the months to come.

Kevin: The biggest driver of that conversation was trying to improve matchmaking times and connection quality. Additionally, it allows us to better supply certain moods. As you’ve seen with 1.1.4, we’ve reinforced those moods. Quickplay is now delivering the 4v4 low intensity that we intended for that playlist. Competitive is now driving further the 4v4 high intensity. The biggest driver is connection quality and connection times. More people in the pool means more good connections.

In May, Private Matches are coming. At any point when you want to get a game of Control together, you can do that. In terms of players asking to “make Rumble permanent,” we’ve absolutely heard that feedback. To be more specific, we’ve heard that, we understand that, and we’ve been having conversations every day since the launch of 1.1.4 about that. Hopefully we’ll have more to say soon.

Josh: Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 are two unique and helpful data points. Neither game is perfect. Both have plenty of room for improvement. It’s hugely helpful to be able to directly compare and contrast the two and see what worked and what didn’t. Ultimately the goal is just to make Destiny 2 be the best Destiny we’ve ever made.

Josh: Our goal with 1.1.4 was to get back to more of the Destiny 1 style of movement, especially the movement you’re working with mid combat. Sprint speeds weren’t changed for D2 and therefore it wasn’t crazy high priority to hit those. That being said, we called it the “Go Fast” update for a reason and it was absolutely one of the potential changes to test with on our list. As we dug into making changes to it we ran into some technical challenges that kept it from being possible to get up in time to test with. It’s something we will continue to consider in the future though. What I can tell you is we buffed standard movement quite a bit.  

Fun Fact: Any Mobility value over 5, after 1.1.4, is faster than max Mobility base speed values in D1.

We also returned (increased) Air Acceleration back to its D1 values, as well.

We thank all who took the time to send questions in. This won’t be the last Bungie Bounty, not by a long shot. Cozmo and I are putting our heads together to figure out a time, place, and topic for our next bout. We’ll be in touch. Catch us if you can.

1.1.4 Retrospective: Weekly Crucible Playlists

Last week, Update 1.1.4 introduced the Weekly Crucible Playlist. For the first game type, Rumble served up some 8-player free-for-all combat where players had to watch their own backs, because no one else would. Monitoring feedback throughout the week, we noted quite a few players reporting that the mode felt a bit crowded. We tracked down PvP Design Lead Derek Carroll to give us some details on the goals of the Weekly Crucible Playlist, and what we can expect moving forward.

Derek: With a week’s worth of Update 1.1.4 in the wild, the PvP team can take a step back and see how we did.

One thing we like about the new rotating weekly playlist is that it gives us the ability to add things and make changes without shaking up the core of the Crucible. We’ll be using that playlist to try out new modes and events in the future.

Rumble came to Destiny 2 in a big way, and depending on your tastes, you may have found it too big. We tend to agree, so the next time Rumble rolls around, you’ll find a bit more room to breathe. We’re lowering the player-count to 6, and altering the spawning policy behind the scenes in an attempt to keep players more evenly spaced out. These changes are the first steps towards an even better player experience that we expect to drop when Season 3 begins.

Iron Banner’s next appearance is an exciting one for us. In conjunction with the Sandbox tweaks, we made changes to the version of Control you’ve been playing in Destiny 2 to increase intensity and give players more choices during gameplay. Right off the bat, you’ll see that there are no zones held by either team at match-start. With six players on each team, you’ll have more flexibility to decide your opening moves. Once you’re capturing, you’ll notice that the more players you have (up to 3) in a zone, the faster it switches sides. There’s risk/reward here, as Supers are more prevalent in version 1.1.4, and you don’t want to be caught with all your eggs in one basket. If you participate in a capture, you’ll get more Super energy yourself, so grabbing zones is a great way to power up for your next big play.

Until the Banner is lit next week, please enjoy the utter chaos of Mayhem, now with 25% more Super-powered insanity.

Feedback collection doesn’t stop here. As you play your way through Mayhem, continue to give us your thoughts! Cozmo and I are on the front lines, translating your feedback to the development team as it comes in. We’ll be at the ready to collect more of your thoughts and feedback next week, when Iron Banner 6v6 goes live.

Speaking Of…

With Update 1.1.4, Iron Banner now features 6v6 action. All Season 2 Iron Banner weapons will be available from Lord Saladin through either Reward Packages, or direct purchase using Iron Banner Tokens.

Begins: Tuesday, April 10

Ends: Tuesday, April 17

The game is Control!

With 6 enemies to choose from, you may find more opportunities to earn progress towards your Season 2 ornaments. Good luck out there.

Rare Air

If you follow the conversation that ricochets between the leaders of the Destiny community (and why wouldn’t you?) you may have heard that we invited some of them to visit our studio. Later on this month, we’re hosting a Community Summit, right here at Bungie. Now that our guests have had a chance to break the story, we want to let you know what this moment means to us.

DeeJ: Our goals for this gathering are to get people from the community more involved in the way we make games, and to do that sooner in the creative process. We’ll be previewing some of the things we’re working on to gather feedback before they’re locked. Our guests will also play some things that you’ll get your hands on in the coming weeks. We’ve hosted community ambassadors before to see and capture new content, but this ain’t DRE (the Destiny Reveal Event). This gathering is more intimate and more tactical.

It must be said that it would be absolutely impossible to invite every single person in our community who is insightful or influential. The guest list is not a measure of who is important or who is relevant. For this gathering, we tried to select a good cross-section to represent all kinds of Guardians. Some of them are familiar faces. Others are new voices that we want to know better. Some of them are leaders with large constituencies. Others are solo players we have come to know with strong opinions. We’ve targeted the hardcore elite who have mastered every challenge and the average players with a deep love for the game. We’ve invited cooperative raiders, competitive warriors, lore lovers, and a high-school principal to make sure they all get along.

This is a new step we’re taking to be more collaborative, more transparent, and a little less worried about keeping secrets. This is not the first time we’ve welcomed players to see where we work and meet the people who make our games. It won’t be the last.

We’ll Do it Live

With Update 1.1.4 safely landed, Destiny Player Support has been on watch to identify trending issues reported by the community. Here’s a roundup of what’s surfaced in the last week and a half:

1.1.4 Known Issues

• At the release of Destiny Update 1.1.4, we encountered reports from players stating that Mercury Challenges were not appearing properly when players were loading into the destination. We are continuing to investigate these reports, but some players have noted that Challenges began to appear after the daily reset.
• Similar to Destiny Update 1.1.3, we also encountered reports that modifiers were not appearing correctly for Heroic Mercury adventures. This seems to have been resolved after the daily reset as well, but we are still investigating the root cause of this issue.
• We are monitoring player reports of an issue impacting some players where the Emissary does not grant a reward package upon winning games in Trials of the Nine. Please post in #Help if you experience this issue, as we are attempting to identify more accounts that have entered this state for investigation purposes.

Hotfix 1.1.4.1: Maintenance and Downtime

On Tuesday, April 10, Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.1.4.1 will be deployed to address Tower and Raid blackscreen issues. Additionally, Rumble player count will be reduced to 6 total players.

• 9 AM PDT (1600 UTC)
• • Destiny 2 server maintenance is scheduled to begin
  • Players may no longer sign in to Destiny 2 services
• 10 AM PDT (1700 UTC)
• • Players still in Destiny 2 activities will be returned to the title screen
• 11 AM PDT (1800 UTC)
• • Destiny 2 server maintenance is scheduled to conclude
  • Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.1.4.1 will be available to download and install
  • Iron Banner will begin as soon as maintenance concludes

If you encounter any issues once the maintenance period has completed, please post a report to the #Help forum detailing your experience.

The Perfect Shot(s)

This week, we’re putting the spotlight on someone who’s taken it upon themselves to not only apply a massive handicap during a Prestige Nightfall, but also opted to take the whole thing on by themselves. If you’ve been wondering “how does the Arcstrider feel after Update 1.1.4?” – tune in to find out:

Winner: Solo Brakion

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Honorable Mention: Boop

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Honorable Mention: Hellfire

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Next week, we’ll be updating the Developer Roadmap to address some of the topics discussed during the bounty stream. Our forecast will be extended into the summer (and beyond) to give an idea of what is to be expected as we continue to evolve the Destiny 2 experience.

Before we go, a quick shout out to the top-scoring players from last week’s Nightfall. We’re watching the scores climb higher and higher while players hit Lost Sectors during their activity – but this strategy will only last until 1.2.0. Ge those points while they’re hot!

As always, thanks for playing, and we’ll see you next week.

Cheers,

-Dmg04