DevBlog #25 - Community Poll Results & Weekly Developer Activity

It's Friday! The weekend is here and that means we've got another DevBlog for you to read.

Over the last couple of weeks you may have noticed that we've being doing a lot of bug fixing with Atom Universe. While this bug fixing process seems like it has slowed down the flow of information for new features getting added into Atom Universe. This work and effort by the development team has been extremely beneficial and progressive for Atom Universe and we'll be going to more detail about this within a future DevBlog.

Community Poll Results

Earlier this week, we asked the question to the community. What type of Private Space you would like to see us work on next. You had the choice of three places to choose from: 

• Medieval Tavern to banter with your friends
• Tree Top House located in the heart of a Jungle 
• Space Station, looking down on plant earth 

Well, the results are now in...(drum roll, please) You've decided that the next Private Space Atom Republic will work on is...The Tree Top House! 

We'll be keeping everyone in the loop as this new Private Space progresses through the development phase. 

And before we end this week's DevBlog, remember that 'top secret' project the art team was working on? Here's a first look:

Weekly Developer Activity

Art;

• Regressing bugs.
• Finished off the layout to our 'top secret' project.

Design;

• Various bug fixing.
• Improvements to the UI messaging.

Programming;

• Server scalability testing. 
• Regressing and fixing various bugs. 

Community;

• Creating new video content for our YouTube Channel.
• Selected music for the next playlist to added into the Arcade Plaza.

DevBlog #24 - The Atom Republic Block Party & Stress Testing

Atom Universe Block Party

This week, we'll be hosting our biggest in-game community event to date. All Early Access players are invited to come and join in on the fun. 

This Saturday, we'll be playing 'The Numbers Game'  and as usual there will be goodies to win! If you're one the lucky Early Access members you'll be able to join us the Hub from 12PM CST /10AM PST / 1PM EST / 6PM GMT. 

To play, you must pick a number between 1 and 100 and send your choice to 'Atom Universe CM' in-game on Saturday, please also provide information of which territory you're based in (EU, or NA). 

First prize is a 3 month trial of PlayStation Plus, one lucky North American player and lucky European player will be eligible for this prize. 

If you happen to choose the same number as another person, you'll be asked to pick another number in order to avoid any duplicate entries. 

We'll be announcing the winners on our social media channels (Facebook/Twitter) and codes will be sent to the winners account on PlayStation 4 after the Block Party.

We need your help! 

As we continue through the development of Atom Universe, we need to put our server under a tremendous among of stress, that means we need players in-game to help us achieve this condition. For you chance to get access to the Early Access of Atom Universe on PlayStation 4, please sign-up to our newsletter. 

We wish you luck and hope to see the lucky members in-game on Saturday! 

Weekly Developer Activity

Art;

• Creating new accessories for the Avatars.
• Started work on a new "Top Secret" project. 

Design;

• Adding new messages to the UI for various warnings (connection time out etc). 
• Various bug fixing. 

Programming;

• Various bug fixes.
• Working on the initial set-up for the Mirage House.

Community;

• Created a newsletter promotion for Atom Universe. 
• Gathering feedback on the Woodlands House. 

DevBlog #23 - New PlayStation4 & Steam Update and Avatar Customisation

Greetings,

Welcome to this week’s DevBlog, brought to you by the friendly people at Atom Republic.

Patch v0.3.2.4112

With yesterday patch we saw, v0.3.2.4.112 get added to the King Branch for Steam players in the in morning. However, we also had another surprise patch for the PlayStation 4 and Steam players later in the afternoon.

Players were finally able to explore our first private space and better yet, you could invite up to 15 friends to join you.

Video by Your PS Home

Now that said, we’re still in Early Access and we’re still testing the server scalability. For some players loading times between public and privates may vary in length, some taking longer than others.

Avatar Customisation

If there is one thing we know, it’s that you want Avatar customisation. So far we’ve seen a wealth of accessories get implemented into Atom Universe, but you want more. Physical changes for your avatar, different clothing items and hairstyles, the list goes on.

While this is possible for us to continually add more accessories to the avatars head, hands and back via sockets (this allows the art team to add items without altering the Atom Universe’s code).  Allowing you to alter your avatar physical appearance (size, build and features), or your avatars clothing (tops, pants, shoes etc) it would require a massive change within Atom Universe’s code.

We’re very excited to start work on the avatar customisation. However, we’re not at that point in the development cycle just yet. The main focus right now is to get the servers working correctly allowing everyone to enjoy Atom Universe without any connection troubles and of course, we’re working on the PlayStation 4 build so everyone can join in on the fun.

Weekly Developer Activity

Art

• Starting to integrate the Mirage House.
• Added an additional 25 accessories.

Design

• Even more bug fixing.

Programming

• Bug fixing.
• Testing server scalability.
• Configuring in-game commerce.

Community

• Reporting community bugs to the development team.
• Discussing possible content ideas for future distribution.

Patch Notes v 0.3.2.4112 now available on PlayStation 4 and Steam

Greetings,


Good evening,  we've got more good news for you. The Woodlands House is now available to explore on PlayStation 4 and Steam.

If you downloaded the King Pin patch on Steam earlier, you might want to transfer back over to the main branch to enjoy the cross-play between PlayStation 4 and Steam player. To transfer back to the main perform the following steps:

• Open your Steam Client
• Right Click on Atom Universe
• Go to Properties
• Head over the 'BETAS' Tab
• Click on the drop-down menu
• Select 'NONE - Opt out of all beta programs'

Patch Notes:

• Woodland House now available for subscribers. Invite up to 15 friends to join you in your new private space. 
• Interact with new furniture within the Woodlands House. 
• New Navigation Menu now available via the in-game player menu. Fast travel between public and private spaces. 
• Server Scalability to allow arbitrary number of players to create servers for public and private spaces. 
• Interactive dance floor in the Arcade Plaza 
• Added sounds effects in the Player Menu UI 
• Welcome screen in Front-End

DevBlog #22 – Weekly Update & Developer Activity

Why hello there, thank you for taking the time out to have a little read over this week’s DevBlog. Previously, we were talking about bringing the Woodlands House into Atom Universe and a couple of tasks the developers faced in doing so.


This week, we've made some more advancements in bringing this new private space to fruition. Avatars can now explore the environment freely and interact with certain pieces of furniture. However, now that this is possible: how does the avatar travel to and from the Woodlands House?

The development team have been working on two ways that can allow you travel to the Woodlands House, the Hub and the Arcade Plaza. Firstly, you can do it the old fashioned way: select your desired destination via the main menu. That’s OK if you’ve just started the game, but what if you’re already in-game?


Normally, in the Hub or the Arcade Plaza you could easily travel there by walking to the entrance, but it would be a bit different. The Woodland House is outside, it’s in the open, it’s peaceful and it’s away from the noise of the theme park. Having a doorway within the theme park itself, would break away from the immersion of the park and maybe even seem out of place.

Instead of forcing you back to the main menu and making you exist the game, the development team have now implemented the ability to fast travel between zones. Allowing to easily travel between Woodlands House, the Hub and the Arcade Plaza.

While we’re getting closer to releasing this to everyone on Early Access, the main focus has now turned to bug hunting, although there isn’t a time frame as to when this update will be ready. We’re getting pretty close…

Weekly Development Activity:

Art;

• Playtesting and fixing new bugs
• Making more assets for Atom Universe

Design;

• Playtesting and squishing bugs (pretty much all week long)

Programming;

• Finding bugs
• Squishing bugs
• Seeing if the bugs come back
• Squishing more bugs

Community;

• Playtesting (you guessed it) for bugs
• Sending the development team bug reports

Community Corner - May 2016

Greetings,

Welcome to our second Community Corner. In this post we'll be taking the time out to look over what's been happening within the Atom Universe community. This month, the community (that's you) have shared a whole wealth of creations.

Let's take a look at some of the things we've enjoyed the most!

Forums: Community member, FlammableAce has been hard at work envisioning how the in-game menus should look. His work has not only caught the eyes of the Community and Atom Universe Community team, but also the eyes of the Development team as well! You'll be able to find FlammableAce's work within this thread.

Blog: Community member and J.F.C & The Virtual Community Editor TrishaBaby, recently took the time out to interview Game Mechanic's very own John Ardussi. Trisha, interview with John is very thorough and must read for all PS Home lovers! You'll be able to read the full interview here.

Facebook: Mid May, we hosted a competition on our Facebook channel, the task was to create a head gear accessory for Adam or Eve. One lucky winner had the possibility to see their accessory get implemented into Atom Universe and the runner ups won access keys to Atom Universe's PS4 Early Access. ICYMI, you'll be able to find the winners of the competition here.

Overall, it's was a very exciting experience seeing everyone's submission and we'd like to say thank you to everyone that took part in the contest. Down below are a couple more pictures from the contests that we wanted to give a little shout out to.  

Joe Murray's Googly Eyed Glasses.

Sam Eeckelaers' Crown of Atom Universe. Fit for a Queen (or a King)

Robery Ernst's Call-A-Dapter, a must have accessory for the secret agents of today.

Twitch: Avid GTA V Streamer and long term PS Home Fan Devil00Angel, recently got her crew together in GTA V and in a pure art attack moment, recreated the Atom Republic logo by using red cars! You'll be able to see Devil00Angel's work come together in this stream.

:

YouTube: Community member and YouTuber Fanblade, has been play-testing and logging each version of Atom Universe on his channel. If you're interested in seeing what's new in Atom Universe or you'd like to see Atom Universe evolve over time, Fanblade's YouTube channel is definitely worth subscribing to.

   

DevBlog #21 - Getting the Woodland House ready

Greetings and welcome to this week's DevBlog.

This week we'll be taking a closer look at the Woodland house. Created by Atom Republic Artist, Paul Rance. The Woodland House is a spectacular private space which is located deep inside the forest, overlooking a peaceful lake.

By now, you've all seen the private spaces video on our YouTube Channel. Now it's time to start bringing them into Atom Universe (starting with the Woodland House), but before we can that do we've got make sure a few things work first.

Firstly and probably the most important thing, setting up the collision barrier. By doing this the avatar is free to walk around and isn't going to fall through the floor or wander through the walls. It can be quite a time consuming task as you've not only got the wall and floors to consideration. You've also got to take various pieces of furniture and design features to consider as well. 

Next we've got to the avatar interacting with the environment, as personal space your avatar is going to be living here. They have to be able to sit down and relax, or maybe even sleep in a bed. Afterwards, we've got to into bug fixing mode and need to ensure that there are no game breaking bugs that are going to affect the player experience.

Weekly Developer Activity:

Art;

• Woodland House integration into Atom Universe.
• New Interactions: recline in a deck-chair or lay down in a bed.
• Designing new accessories.

Design;

• Started work on a new travel hub, allowing you to fast travel between areas.
• Squashing various bugs.

Programming; 

• Integrating the Woodland House into Atom Universe.
• Bug fixing.

Community; 

• Drafting up various documents and analysing data.
• Reading up on new trends.
• Discussing future events with the development team.