We are now a month past GDEX 2019, and an update is many times overdue.
Dehoarder 2 once again showed very well at GDEX. Much new content was shown, as the house is pretty much fully populated now. There was one highly-requested feature in particular that was added in time for the expo that stood out above the rest: The ability to pick up and move junk items.
I’ve always planned to have this feature from the start. There were some logistical and balance challenges to it, but the result has been well worth it. One important reason to allow picking up items is so that players can enjoy the full range of humor that exists in the game. Many of the game’s jokes are embedded in the textures of the junk items, encouraging examination of each unique item.
In addition to picking up and placing junk items, you can also THROW junk items. Throwing power is related to character level; at first you can only throw items a matter of inches. However, by the time you reach the end-game “Divine” level (level 20), you can easily huck tires, bicycles, and just about anything else over the house.Aside from being really fun, the ability to throw items opens up some new, exciting gameplay opportunities.
With these new abilities also come opportunities for some emergent gameplay moments. One GDEX player decided to take advantage of the array of deck chairs in the back yard to arrange a screening of “Pluto Nash” in 3D for a captive audience of rubber ducks. This is the exact type of moment I hoped to create with this mechanic.
I decided not to worry too much about some of the less-realistic effects caused by these new features. For example, the game world doesn’t really have more than the terrain collider defined for any area outside of Harry’s property. For this reason, thrown objects will just bounce off of an invisible barrier at the edge of Harry’s domain. The upside to this is you can take out some frustration by throwing things at Eastman’s face without fear of repercussion. Also the engine is fairly strict about not letting items overlap when placed.
All feedback received from the expo has already been incorporated into the game, and development is continuing apace. There was a round of substantial performance improvements incorporated for the expo, many new events have been scripted, and existing events tweaked. I did not quite meet my goal of being able to take beta signups at the expo, but am hopeful that I can wrap this project up in the coming year.
Back Catalog Updates
One task not directly related to Dehoarder 2 that had been on my list for a while was to start winding down my presence on Kongregate. Kongregate served its purpose well for the first years of my game development career, however, with the death of Unity Web Player a few years ago, and my subsequent change in focus to PC-based games, all I really have left on Kongregate is the stale presence of my freshman and sophomore games from yesteryear, and because of the dependency on Unity Web Player, they only work on decrepit browsers today.
When I launch Dehoarder 2, I want to be putting my best foot forward, so that means dehoarding, sharpening, and focusing my presence. At the same time, I think it is important to preserve access to my back catalog, as my games are the ultimate documentation of my journey.
For most of my games that were only available as Unity Web Player games on Kongregate, I have always had corresponding Windows builds available, that I would use for purposes such as running in my expo kiosk. This includes EARL’s Warehouse, Chroma Invader, and Thrust or Bust. As of today I have released the Windows builds of all three of these games for free download.
Also as of today I am ending support for all Unity Web Player versions of all of my games. I have posted news updates on each of my games on Kongregate to that effect, including links to the downloadable versions. I have removed links to the Kongregate versions of these games, and replaced those with links to the downloadable versions where appropriate. These games will be de-listed from Kongregate in about six months.
The only game unfortunate enough to not have an existing Windows build is Snowflake. This is problematic from a release standpoint, as I am not even sure any more what version of Unity was even used to build Snowflake. It was something in the Unity 2.x or Unity 3.x line. I hope to be able to provide a downloadable version of Snowflake before it disappears entirely from Kongregate, however, since I rank it dead last among my games, it’s not really a top priority except from a completionist aspect.