Plushie Paradise | Devlog

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

JUMP TO LATEST LOG - Plushie Paradise | Devlog - #30 by astraIboy

Hello, welcome to the official devlog for Plushie Paradise!

Plushie Paradise is a sandbox custom building tycoon game centered around collecting unique plushies while creating a unique paradise to attract them, as you progress you’ll be able to build higher quality attractors that will attract even rarer plushies! Plushies give you money and also are added to your plushie collection!

I have finished the prototype for this idea a few days ago, and got some positive feedback from testers, so I decided to continue it’s development into early alpha!
(The prototype is closed as I’m working on the early alpha right now)

Here is my very first post (PROTOTYPE): Plushie Playground | Early Prototype (Feedback/Testing Wanted)

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/16/2023

So yesterday after getting some positive feedback on the prototype I decided that I would try to get the game out there a little bit so I decided to create some youtube shorts, that I think didn’t do too bad and they even got me some members onto the game’s discord server!

Shortly after this I started thinking about expanding the prototype and turning it into an actually multiplayer playable alpha because the current state of the prototype had the main mechanics that I wanted in the game but it was only able to be played by 1 player and there was currently only 1 plot so I had to change that!

So I decided for now that the game will have a max of 4 players per server, so I created a plot claiming system and created 4 different playground plots! The map is um very empty but that’ll surely change in the future for sure, the plot claiming system is looking great!

After I got plot claiming working the next logical step in this game development was the building mode because player’s would be doing that alot, so I then created the building mode UI!

I took some inspiration for the UI from some games, from the likes of Resturant Tycoon 2 and also a game called Skyven!

And I also made a hotbar type of thing that’ll you’ll cliick to enter the building mode

That was pretty much all I did for this day, thanks for reading!

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/17/2023

After getting the UI finally setup yesterday, today I started actually scripting it!
So I got the hotbar button to open the building mode UI now(only if you’ve claimed a playground plot), and an exit button inside of the building mode UI that will close it and I added some cool looking springy animations to it!

[TomskiKiller]

I think the GUI looks great and is incredibly clean!!!

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/18/2023

Finally created the very first playground equipment for the game, which is just a basic wooden swing, I’m thinking having maybe 3 tiers for each equipment and adjust their prices accordingly for a nice smooth linear progression, will udpate when I create more swings!

For the second tier of the wooden swing I went with a double set but it still uses basic ropes and a sort of blocky woody frame

Alright finally got the next two tiers of swings which are smoother and of a metal structure and instead using ropes to hang the seat it uses chain links, so it’s a bit of a visual and physical upgrade from the last two

Alright started scripting the building mode UI again! I got the options for choosing which category you want working (visually), I still need to actually show the equipment for that category they click on!

Finally imported the images and was doing scripting for handling which button was clicked so I could show the data that needed to be shown! What I’m thinking of doing next is probably when you hover over an ImageButton it’ll like tell you the name of that equipment, right now I’ve only created swings so that’s the only category I could show!

Alright so hovering over the buttons now displays the names of the equipment and I also decided to add a white background to them as I think it looks a bit cleaner than just the transparent one

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/19/23

Hey, a new day lets do this!
Okay so yesterday I finished up getting the imagebuttons working when you clicked a category and now I’ve made a new UI that’ll come up when a player presses a playground equipment button!

Also I made the UI Springness for everything feel a bit more stable and fluid!

Next up is going to be getting the building system up and running so that placing works, cya then!

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/20/2023

Hooray another day of developing!

So today I’ve gotten the Selection Frame to work when you press cancel and also when you press E, this is good for support for mobile aswell as just makes it more efficient for PC players to stop building without having to mouse their mouse ALLLL the way to the cancel button!

I also got the building system from the prototype finally ported over and just had to change up some stuff and it’s working AMAZING, probably will tune around with the smooth when you move around building pieces though, next up is placing!

[TomskiKiller]

you’re making amazing progress!!! I can’t imagine possibly doing all of this in a week, let alone such a small time frame!!! best of luck to you and your game!!! it’s very inspiring to see your development progress!!

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/20/2023 Continued…!

Yay! I finally got the placing code to work and it’s working great yeah I know the um colors aren’t there and uh placing them right now looks a bit bland so im going to add an animation to it so it just like kinda pops out it’s gonna look super cool!

Since I got placing to work like I said im gonna work on the animating of when you place an equipment piece down and THEN the next logical step would be creating some plushies and equipment interactions!

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/21/2023

AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, alright so I got a pretty cool animation thing going when you place down equipment now so it gives a visual appealing kinda thing, may make it faster though

YES THEY STILL DONT HAVE COLOR BE PATIENT MY YOUNG PADAWANS

Alright now which is going to be the creative fun part where I actually start creating the very first plushies that will be in the game!, so of course I’m going to have to use Blender for that! I think I may start getting the equipment handler setup aswell but yeah we’ll see!

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/21/2023 Continued…

I’m EXCITED to introduce the very first plushie that’ll be inside of Plushie Playground!

An apple!

Front View

Side View

I decided to keep the design simple but just enough detail to give it that just nice cute look!

I’ve decided that in the game there will be different collections of plushies so the first one im going to introduct is Fruits because they aren’t too difficult to model and it’s just nice and simple!

So I haven’t thought of every single collection that will be in the game but gets me thinking about having collections that will be avaiable during certain times of the year like for example halloween, christmas and thanksgiving!

[PuggleyCake (Juno)]

I can’t wait to play this when it comes out! Keep up the good work!

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/21/2023 Continued…

Look’s like a new plushie has arrived on the playground…
THE PEAR!

The pear is the 2nd plushie I’ve created for plushie playground! I’m thinking the fruits collection may be the most common of plushies for collection but then of course having different rarities within those collections aswell…

Front View

Side View

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/22/2023

A bit late but school started recently but that wont stop me though!

Alright so I got hte building and placement done and working flawless but then a problem arose where it didn’t feel quite responsive if you were on higher ping, so I had to basically create a system where the building piece would basically be instantly placed for you so it looks smooth and respnsive, and after some failrues I finally got it to work!

Then I also got the plushie spawning to work aswell AND created a rarity system and when equipment is spawned they can be associated with either one or many different plushie collections and spawn plushies from those collections, it’s super cool annd how I imagined it!

I didn’t get the apple imported yet but I did get the pear imported though, take a look! Yeah… uh I haven’t gotten around to coloring the equipment yet…

Next up is probably making the plushies class and then basically setting up the interactions so you can actually collect them and earn money, ALSO the collections UI is something i’ll need to start working on aswell as unlocking and all that good stuff!

[progamers246810 (Fahoowey)]

Cool that you’re taking inspo from skyven, it’s a really underrated game that is amazing. Only thing that is bothering me is the same elastic tween on all the building ui. At least try to do some tweens that just smooth in.

[BasicButterBoy]

That is epic!!! I wish i could script as well as you!

[MesmerizingMongoose]

Interesting project, keeping an eye on this for sure!

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/25/2023

Wow, crazy it’s been 2 days since the last devlog HAHA!

Alright so I got the collecting of plushies working, but not the actual collection storage though that will be coming very soon! So now when you collect a plushie it does a sort of animation but it goes a bit fast because I’m trying to focus on user experience so I basically destroy the plushie on the server and also the client so that it just feels more responsive, one of the most important things I’m going for!

Also, finally added in the apple so you’ll see that spawning now, and added a collect sound that I may probably change later but everything is on the right track!

What’s next is going to be actually adding cash to the player when they collect a plushie and I’m going to work out the amount a certain plushie will give and all that fun balancing things! Also after a certain period of time plushies should despawn so i’m going to have to get that setup and after that of course actually keeping track of the plushies you’ve collected so far, so that means making a new ui button and gui for the plushies you’ve collected in each collection!

It’s been super fun, see you on the next one!
`
ONE FINAL THING… i know the playground equipment still isn’t colored…

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

8/27/2023

Finally got the despawning working, and now collecting plushies will also give you cash now yay! There’s a slight animation when despawning the similiar to the one where you collect them, there was this one bug with the despawning but I seriously just can’t remember what exactly it was though…

Also on the prompts I decided to add the amount you’ll get for collecting that plushies but now that I’m thinkin about it maybe the name would be better

What’s next? Well now that I finally got the actual BASIC mechanics out of they like placing, plushie spawning, plushie despawning, claiming a playground, selecting categories for certain equipment AND MORE, the next logical step would be creating the actual collection UI like I brushed on in the last devlog! So basically i’m thinking next to the build hotbar ui there will be another button in which you’ll be able to open it up and it’ll bring up all the collections of plushies in the game and just like in the building mode i’ll probably categories at the top, and each one will have a list of all the plushies in that collection!

I’m thinking of having the outlins of the plushies be a UM SILHOUETTE cause that looks super clean, something like this (not the layout but the silhouettes)

And im thinking of maybe displaying the rarity, and of course the name, maybe where it can be found too? We’ll have too see!

Next devlog coming soon!

[astraIboy (The Batman)]

9/1/2023

It’s been a BIT since the last devlog pretty much a week but I’ve just um let’s say just havent been as focused and like other stuff got in the way but that’s fine though, just since I’m doing everything myself and like when there is something that doesnt work how i want it to or doesnt look how I want i will spend lots off time on it until i get it pretty much close to perfect which is a problem I’ll admit I have but, moving forward is all that matters!

ALRIGHT RECAP, so since the last devlog the player is now able to build equipment, the equipment is able to spawn plushies from a variety of plushie collections and the player is able to collect them and earn some money, by collect I meant just like the act of collecting not the actual mechanic for this current devlog hahaA

So, since then I have created another button to the UI toolbar next to the build button for opening the collections UI

I decided to make the icon a box so you know when you collect stuff you’d put it inside of some type of storage thing so I picked a box!

Next is the most painful part which was making the main UI for the collections in the game,

So I had a super hard time at first trying to think of how I wanted to lay it out because I just am a perfectionist but I went with a frame to the very left which will be a scrollingframe containing all the plushie collection categories and then the frame to the right is for the actual plushie silouhette images/unlocked, and at the top is of course the close button and then the title and the ??? is for which collection is currently in view!

Also another painful part about creating this UI was for the frame on the right it was super hard deciding if I wanted to use a UIGridLayout or a UIListLayout and ultimately I went with a UIGridLayout BUT of course I had problems with sizing and it was a headache and I got distracted but we’re on course again though!

Then shortly after that I started scripting the actual collection of plushies where I store them into the player’s data and update the UI and all that good stuff and it’s working flawlessly!

So when you dont have a plushie collected it’ll just be a silhouette

Once you have at least one it’ll show you the amount you collected and also a colorful version of the silhouette!

This is EXACTLY how I envisioned it so I’m super happy with how it’s looking and works right now!

Here is a video showing it alll!!!

Whats next?

Hm, honestly now that I’ve gotten all the basic mechanics working how I want them too I’d say the game is in like early alpha right now but it’s to the point its playable but there is definitely some stuff that needs some revisiting, but as for mechanics wise the game in it’s current state is actually pretty fleshed out in that sense, of course there is still equipment to be made and also plushies but the game is on IT’S WAY!