Going Away for December

I just thought I should let everyone know that I won't be available to fix bugs or release any new packages during December, however if you happened to stumble across any please do not hesitate to email me (garthofhearts[AT]gmail[DOT]com) or leave a post on any of the Unity Forum threads for the project in question and I will try to get back to you on what course of action you should take.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

INISystem Update 1.11 - Bug Fix

I decided to push the bug fix release of INISystem before the new release has even been approved. This version has a couple breaking features in it.

Such as the classes are no longer under the CSS namespace instead they are under CorruptedSmileStudio.INI namespace. This change was made to ensure that there should never be any clashes with other classes with similar names. The main class is also compiled as a DLL, this is just to ensure if there are any bugs that get reported I will know that it is not as a result of my code being changed. The INIHelper class however is not in the DLL but free, this allows a programmer to add their own parsers to the class as they see fit.

I hope this won't cause too much disruption and updating your code to reflect these changes shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes or less.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

An Update on The Website

As you may recall, I have been hard at work on our website trying to get everything set up and ensuring everything works correctly together. Sadly, the site will only be able to go live next year but these things happen.

This site will make it easier to see what tools we have released and what games we have released. It will also help with support for these tools and games. So this is pretty exciting for our future, this doesn't mean that we will no longer update this blog but more than there will be more than just this blog to be able to identify us on the web.

We hope you are as excited as we are, on this matter.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

INISystem Update: Version 1.1

I have posted an update to INISystem, to the Unity Asset Store, it is currently awaiting approval. This version brings some parsers for both reading and writing some of Unity's data-types and some basic data-types.

There is a new static class that helps with Unity data-types and the basic data-types are included in the base class.

Unity Data-Types:

• Vector2
• Vector3
• Color
• Quaternion

Basic Data-Types:

• Float
• Integer
• Bool
• String (which was already included)

Also Get has been depreciated in favour of GetString, this just brings the system together because there are now various parser methods available. So in order to get any of the previous mentioned types it would be as simple as GetFloat, GetInt, GetBool.

However with the new Unity specific data-types you have to access it through INIHelper.GetVector2/Vector3/Color/Quaternion. With these methods, you will have to pass a reference to an INISystem class that you have created in order to be able to read /edit values.

This version also completely removed the Add methods in favour of using Change which is more robust and developed than Add was.

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

INISystem - Intro Tutorial

Here's a very simple introduction tutorial for INISystem (Available on Unity's Asset Store Now).

You will need to purchase and download INISystem from http://u3d.as/content/corrupted-smile-studio/inisystem. Once downloaded you will have a new folder called INISystem within your project. this contains all the required files (one in total), an example scene, an example HUD script and a Readme PDF.

The INISystem main class is contained with the CSS namespace. This means that you will need to add using CSS; to the top of the file creating the INISystem class.

You will then need to create an instance of the INISystem class.

INISystem ini = new INISystem();

To load a file it is as easy as calling ini.LoadFile(PathToFile); which returns a boolean based on whether the file was loaded or not. Then you can read strings from the file via ini.GetString("elementName", "SectionName", "Optional Default Value");


To change a value and then save the file you can make use of ini.Change("elementName", "NewValue", "SectionName"); which will either change a current value or add it if it doesn't exist. To save to file use ini.Save(pathToFile);


I hope this short intro tutorial will help you understand how easy this system is to use.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

INISystem: V1 Released

Version 1 of INISystem has been approved on the Unity Asset Store. Head over there now to get file based settings enabled in your game.

Asset Store Link

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

INISystem - Awaiting Approval

While working on Canyon Project we developed a system which allows easy reading, editing and creating of ini files (simple config type files). It works with sections, which allows there to be multiple "variables" with the same name under different sections.

A basic ini layout will be similar to the following:

[general]
startLevel=1
language=En

[graphics]
width=1920
height=1080
anti-aliasing=8x

The system simplifies the processing of these files to allow you to access elements within each section regardless of whether there are elements with the same name under different sections.

INISystem will only work correctly with standalone builds as it makes use of System.IO for reading and saving.
It has only been tested on a Windows 7 (x64) pc but should work with Mac and other Windows versions.

It has currently been uploaded to Unity's Asset Store where it will be available soon, hopefully, for $10.

Name: INISystem
Source: C#
Price: $10
Asset Store Link

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Canyon Project - Screenshot Update

Just wanted to show a little update on Canyon Project, that has happened over the last couple of days. A video was put up on our Youtube page that shows the new audio that has been placed within the game. Below is a new picture that was taken this morning of Canyon Project, where more shadows were added to really bring the visuals together.

Move out

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Canyon Project - Gameplay Video 2

I have just recorded a new Canyon Project game play video that shows off the new visuals and the recently added audio, enjoy.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising: Version 2.6 Has Landed

You can now find the latest version of Localising on Unity's Asset Store for $20.
http://u3d.as/content/corrupted-smile-studio/localising/

Enjoy,
Garth (Lead)

Localising: 2.6 Update Approaching

Just finished updating Localising to version 2.6, it is now awaiting review by Unity's Asset Store Staff.
This update brings a bunch of bug fixes and hopefully some performance improvement (cannot verify).

Updates:

• Editor bug fixes
• Runtime bug fixes
• Removed various unneeded variables and tried to compact everything else.
• Added a new IChange interface that makes TextureChanger, AudioChanger and the new basic TextChanger components easier to use and interface with the Local class.

The new TextChanger class is merely a view of what is possible to achieve with the new IChange interface.

This update brings with it a small price increase to $ 20.

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

Game Ads - Version 1.0 Released

I just pushed version 1.0 of Game Ads out of the door and onto Unity's Asset Store (it is currently still awaiting review is now LIVE). This version brings with it text, text and image and the standard image based adverts. Along with a change to the file format to accommodate the changes.

The system now uses an XML format file:

<ads>
  <ad>
    <title></title>
    <link></link>
    <format></format>
    <image></image>
    <text></text>
  </ad>
</ads>

This greatly increases the options of how your advert can be displayed. This update also brings with it a price increase of $3 to bring the price to $5.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

FeedMe: Feed Reader for Unity

Almost a year ago, I independently releases a free simple feed reader that only could read a custom feed format and while that was all good and well I decided that I should put in some extra effort and get it working with RSS 2.0 and ATOM format feeds.

This I have done, you can read more in a blog post on my personal blog. The system is nearly done, in terms of how it works. It can currently load RSS, ATOM and the custom format of the previous versions.
However it currently only loads the following from each entry:

• Title
• PubDate/Updated
• Description/Content
• Link

These are the basic essentials of what is within each entry in a feed. However we will work on getting more entities extracted. This system is fairly lightweight as it does not use System.XML to load or parse the feed. It uses the freely available TinyXmlReader from the Unity Wiki.

Language: C#

Price: $ 20

Unity Version: 3.4.1
Asset Store: http://u3d.as/content/corrupted-smile-studio/feed-me

Although it is done in C#, you can simply move the FeedMe folder into the Standard Assets folder in order to access the scripts from UnityScript.

I shall leave you with a demo of FeedMe.
(Edit: Submitted to Unity's Asset Store: Awaiting approval Has been approved)

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

Corrupted Smile Studio - Website on the Way

Yesterday I began working on a basic layout and model for a website that is going to eventually going to become the Corrupted Smile Studio's website. With that being said I have managed to make quite some progress since yesterday.

It's gone from a basic layout to a fairly complete home page (there will be more than just a home page when the site is complete), fully database driven. We are hoping for a complete site by the end of November, early December. The site is aimed at providing a better look at our games, tools and updates. That doesn't mean that this blog will seize to exist or become out-dated but rather the two will live alongside each other and compliment each other to better reach out audience.

A look at the current front page.

We hope this gives you a better insight into what we have been putting our efforts into lately.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Canyon Project: Now on Wooglie

Yesterday I worked on getting Canyon project ready for Wooglie, a Unity game portal. Canyon Project is still only in development but is coming together quite nicely. There is an added new level to showcase coming vehicles and awesomeness.

You can check out the game on Wooglie.

Enjoy,
Garth (Lead)

Localising: Stats (17 Oct 2011)

I thought I would share some fairly useless statistical information regarding Localising.

Just the essentials
Comment lines: 592
Files: 10
Blank lines: 99
Code lines: 1565

With the example
Comment lines: 633
Files: 11
Blank Lines: 105
Code: 1612

So there is a fair amount of coding that has gone into making this system the best it can be.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising: Update 2.51

Version 2.5 hasn't even hit the Asset Store yet and I've already tackled a few bugs that I have discovered over the last day. So I decided that we need to push out a version 2.51 update to correct these bugs.

Bug Fixes:

• The way it was set up for texture and audio loading via Unity's Resources it used the PathToResources property which means it would work fine when using the LocalResources sub-class however if you used any of the others it would break. Now it is hard-coded to use a specific resources folder. This folder is created by default when setting up the audio or texture folders (check Unity's Console for location).
• An error was found in the way it clears the list of translations. This was called when reloading files in a new language, it actually deleted the list of files to load. Fixed it by adding a new method ClearCurrentFiles() that clears the file list and removing the call to clear it from the previous ClearLists().
• isLoaded() is now simply isLoaded

Additions:

• Added a new debug mode through a #define LOCAL_DEBUG added at the top of Local.cs. This will print to the console every encountered missing identity, audio file or texture only once. If you build a StandAlone it will print these to a file in the data folder called Identities.txt, this will allow you to send a debug version of your game to your testers and have them send the file if it is created, to see what you are missing. Disabled by default.
• Small edits to the internal documentation.

We hope this update will be a welcome update. Will update when 2.51 becomes available.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising: Version 2.5 Uploaded

After spending a couple hours writing new documentation and three tutorials for Localising, as well as testing in a clean project (in order to make sure everything is A okay), we have released version 2.5 of Localising. it is currently awaiting validation by Unity, but it should be up in a couple days.

For this release we redid most of the ReadMe PDF, to include three tutorials, one for each method of localisation offered by this system. Text, texture and audio. Scarily this is actually the first time I have ever written an in-depth tutorial, so there might be some spelling, grammar and unclear things within the tutorial but they are pretty straight forward.

We have managed to get everything we wanted into the release along with a bunch of bug fixes found while creating the tutorials. So now the editor should be slightly improved with regards to bugs and the runtime should be more smooth. So in a couple days version 2.5 of Localising should be live on the Asset Store.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Game Ads: Update - Version 0.9

We just pushed an update to Game Ads to Unity's Asset Store, we are now awaiting their approval of it. (Edit 14-Oct-2011) Version 0.91 has been released and it also includes documentation.

We made a few small changes to ensure the system works to the best of its ability and that the users will be pleased with the results.

We removed the parameter-less DisplayAds() and instead used the DisplayAds(index) to display random ads by passing in a variable initialised to -1, we then return the random generated index, therefore allowing multiple random ads without messing up the calls.

We decided to add in a callback overloaded method of displaying ads as well, thus allowing users to implement their own method of displaying ads and simply using one of our methods with the passed in callback will call the method with the ad details. Thus if users don't use/like Unity's GUI they can still make use of the system.

All methods/variables are XML documented for visual niceness in Visual Studio.

I'll update once version 0.9 has been approved.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Game Ads: Spread the Word

With a little bit of downtime in the last few days I thought I could make a very simple Unity addon which will allow a form of in game ads. This will be useful for developers with multiple games and wanting a dynamic means of displaying ads in their games.

It works via the web and allows a developer to have a text file (set up in a certain way) with links to their games and a link to an image for the game. It comes with various amount of methods for getting which ad to display. Currently it uses UnityGUI to display the ads as buttons.

Advert File Editor Window

It will be sold on the Asset Store for $2, currently it is not on the Asset Store yet but I will update when it is available. (Edit) : Asset Store Link

(Edit)I almost forgot to add the WebPlayer demo and also check it out in game in Canyon Project (Facebook App).

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising V2.5: Feature List

I've been working on version 2.5 of Localising for the last two to three days and so far I am pretty impressed with the results I'm getting and the features I'm adding.

Updates:

• New built in Save/Load methods for languages via PlayerPrefs
• Added a delegate method that will allow you to connect your own saving method into the system
• New save on language change, passed as a parameter (default is off)

New Features:

• Texture changing for current material or a specified material (basically changes all objects with that material to the new texture, so you can put the TextureChanger component on a single object and affect all materials)
• Audio changing with settings for auto-play, one shot play (only used if auto-play is enabled).
• If textures/audio aren't found for the language, looks for an English one, if none is found returns null (so in the event that a localised texture/audio clip gets deleted for a language, chances are that you will still be able to display/play something)
• Ability to remove AudioChangers/TextureChangers from the update list, so if you play a sound in the beginning of a level and the player will never need to return to that location or hear the sound, you can disable it from being updated, so if the player changes the language it won't load a new localised version.

Editor Updates:

• New menu item for ensuring that localised audio clips are available in all languages
• New menu item for ensuring that localised textures are available in all languages.

And the pre-alpha WebPlayer link.

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

Canyon Project: New Pre-Alpha Screenshots

We decided to do some new screen shots to show off the new, in progress, interface look and the new textures.

The new interface and textures

The new unit recruit box

Moving a character is still pretty much the same

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

First Level Pre-Alpha Demo of Canyon Project

About two days ago we released a pre-alpha first level demo of Canyon Project on Facebook, with many elements subject to change throughout development in such nothing is set in stone.

The main target for this game is not Facebook but rather a Windows standalone release. We have been hard at work improving the interface and optimising where we can, in hopes for an early 2012 release but we aren't setting anything in stone.

The Facebook app. There will be an insecure content warning that will show up, you will have to allow it as it is the game. We still fighting with where to host it.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising V 2.1 Released and Future Developments

Earlier today we submitted version 2.1 of Localising to Unity's Asset store and while we await their validation (Edit: Now validated) I thought I would go over the changes and current development plans and progress.

Changes:

• Some bug fixes with the web class to ensure that localising worked between scene changes and so on.
• Loading via Resources.
• Saving and Loading the current language via PlayerPrefs internally but not enforced so saving and loading can be done via your own methods still.
• Various other small changes and fixes.

Current and Future development plans:

• Working on loading localised audio via Resources.
• Working on loading localised textures via Resources.
• Fixing any bugs that may arise and to make it as fast as possible.

You can check out the current progress of texture and audio changing in this pre-alpha web player.

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

Canyon Project: Update 2 - Start Screen

First iteration of the new start screen.

I spent about an hour earlier working on the first iteration of the new start screen/main menu screen. It is a very rough work up but I do think it has potential to be pretty awesome looking and attract users into wanting to play it a bit more.

In case you were wondering the logo (signboard) "sways in the wind" via a pretty simply animation that I threw together "quickly" in Blender along with the signboard. You have to excuse the art since I am not really a 3D artist nor an animator and here I'm trying to do both the things I am not good at.

I hope you guys enjoy the little eye candy.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Canyon Project: Update 1 - Back on Track

I guess this goes to show that not everything stays dead. A while ago I told you how we had shelved Canyon Project in search of bigger and greater horizons. Well today I am back to tell you that we picked up Canyon Project again to try push on to the end this time.

Just this evening I finished up the basics of a nice RTS style unit recruit system in place of the previous, all available units are already on the battlefield, way. This clears up the map from units, which will make it easier for players to be able to tell which unit they own (I'll give you a hint: all that you can see).

The new looking interface layout

What I did keep in was the choice of whether to buy a unit or not, since accidents happen. I might look into an option of whether you want it on or off.

Starting to look like quite a hybrid

The new layout is very much RTS inspired with the menu option in the right-top corner, your money in the left, along with your radar/map (still in planning) and recruitment panel at the bottom.

Can no longer recruit marines

The new recruitment system will show all possible recruits and how many are allowed per level. This will take sometime to balance but those are future worries.

I hope you feel as excited as us about these latest updates, as it means the project is moving along and we should have a demo out, in a couple weeks to a month, of the first level.

Regards,

Garth de Wet (Lead)

Brigade Development Pictures 1

The concept art and current in game view of the world map.

Concept Art: World Map 1

In Game: World Map Iteration 1

In Game: World Map Iteration 2

In Game: World Map Iteration 3

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Work Started: Brigade: The First March

Recently we started basic development and concept work on our next game, planned to be our flagship game. I thought it was time that we should announce it here and perhaps give a basic overview of what we have in mind.

Brigade: The First March is planned to be an open world MMO (or at least MO). It is a cross breed of various genres such as RPG, FPS and Third Person Shooter. With a focus on squad based combat and team work in order to succeed.


We have currently started working on the world, we have a basic layout and are starting to focus on more individual sections of the map to give life to it. We also started working on basic layouts for capital cities.

There will be two sides/teams/countries fighting over a single landmass, each side will have a capital city where players are spawned on login (if they haven't made camp elsewhere) and a military camp. There is also going to be various smaller rebel villages located within each side's territory that are hostile to them.

We have set up a Facebook page for Corrupted Smile Studio, where we will be posting updates about development alongside this blog.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising V2.0

Yesterday we released an update to Localising, we felt that without web support and proper optimisation it simply would not be good enough. So we went back to the metals and worked hard at improving both the editor and the runtime module.


Editor:

• Autosave function for those that sometimes forget to save the file before closing the editor.
• Slight modification that doesn't show empty identities that are found in files because of a strange error with the web module.
• Slight layout adjustment to help ensure users don't accidentally re-setup a language and lose all their translations.
• Newline character support through \n or {n} which allows newlines at runtime.

Runtime:

• File parsing is now split into two threads to improve speed.
• Web based localisation (Non System.IO) is now possible through the LocalWeb class.
• Local has become an abstract class to allow other means of localisation loading through sub classes.
• Various small improvements and changes which should improve speed and reliability.
• Added params[] to GetText and GetGui to allow variable number of variables.

This release caused some headaches for a while but that was overcome.

Warning: has only been tested on a Windows 7 (64x) pc but was designed to work with Mac paths so there should be no issues there.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising

While we were working on Operation: Canyon Project we started developing a localisation system that allows text translation. Because of our needs for funds we extracted the system and started to work on it independent of the game.

Yesterday we submitted version 1.1 of Localising to the Unity Asset store and it was accepted EDIT:(Asset Store Link). I will be posting a link to it ASAP, however in the mean time you can access it via the Asset Store by searching for Localising. We are selling it for a steal at $15.
If you use Unity and need a localising system take a look at localising.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Update On Operation: Canyon Project

Up until quite recently we had been hard at work on Operation: Canyon Project but with the lack of money it has currently been put on halt as we try to gather some money so we can continue the project and bring it to an acceptable level of polish and flair.

So we're not cancelling it just we have shelved it as we try to get some cash flow.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Canyon Project: Gameplay Video

Below you will find a game play video which is alpha build quality so don't read too much into poor quality parts and lack of certain polish. We got a friend in a band to help us out with the sound track to the video.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Canyon Project: Screen Shots #1

Below you can catch a glimpse of some screen shots of Canyon Project.

Update: Upcoming Game

Lots of work has been going on behind the scenes to get this game up to polish, it doesn't currently have a title but there are a few ideas floating around.

A game play video was recorded yesterday but that is going to be postponed until next week while we get the polish up on the game.

Things look very good for a beta release at the end of August. Ideas are still being thrown around about pricing and deployment platform but those are the small details.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Welcome

Hello and welcome to Corrupted Smile Studio's blog.

We are a very new and very small game development studio based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We are currently working on an unannounced project that we hope to finish by the end of August. Within the next two weeks or so we hope to start promoting it and getting some videos of gameplay out into the wild.

We plan on targeting web games and standalones with thoughts of moving onto mobile devices if we can.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)