Jekyll2021-08-07T05:10:42+00:00https://lonepine.io/feed.xmlNewCityThe Regional CitybuilderFriday Facts #85: Icebergs & Labyrinths2021-08-06T07:00:00+00:002021-08-06T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/08/06/icebergs-and-labyrinths<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/85/85_skyline.png"><img src="/assets/images/85/85_skyline.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Swordless Mimetown:</p>
<p>Game design is an iceberg. Picture an image of a tipped glacier burgeoning above the water, with a gigantic mass underneath the surface. In a video game that is more reflex-focused, when a player jumps onto a moving platform, the unseen systems must react in a way that feels like natural movement. The player only has to tilt a stick and press A, but there is simulated gravity, acceleration, and movement control which must always be working behind the scenes, and in real-time.</p>
<p>When someone plays a game, the systems are rarely as forward-facing as they are in NewCity. In simulation-heavy games like ours, FTL, or RimWorld reflexes are wholly unnecessary (unless you refuse to use the pause function!). The player is constantly struggling with choices that provide obscured systemic overlap; the unintended consequences are engaging in a way that’s at odds with something like a platformer. If a road is torn down, how will that affect the value of the surrounding property? These consequences exist to destroy the player, and the mitigation is thrilling.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/85/85_prosperity.png"><img src="/assets/images/85/85_prosperity.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>So when we here at Lone Pine Games want to add something new like an improved stock market or a districting system or a new tutorial, we are trying our best to layer it in a way that is both challenging and welcoming. We want players to take time and fully digest as much of the iceberg as they can. And as it stands now, we have too many people bouncing off the game within the first few hours. We hope our updates are adding as much to the top of the iceberg as they are to the bottom.</p>
<hr />
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/85/85_oldcity.png"><img src="/assets/images/85/85_oldcity.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>supersoup:</p>
<p>Not only is game design an iceberg, the act of forging a playable experience from raw code and assets is as a labyrinth. It’s far easier to get lost than it is to find the exit. Occasionally, it helps to step back — or return to the summit outside the entrance — where you can view the whole of it at once. Take a breath, recognize the mistakes made along the way, and reenter with renewed purpose.</p>
<p>There has been some concern about our current update schedule. Allow me to reassure you: <em>NewCity</em> isn’t abandonware, nor are we done working on it. Far from it. That said, I completely understand the concern. Early Access is a crucible in which independent game developers are tested. Many have been found wanting. And in so doing, many have promptly abandoned their efforts once the challenges outweighed any potential benefits in their mind.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/85/85_newcity.png"><img src="/assets/images/85/85_newcity.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Not we. I wrote something on our Steam Discussion board which I’ll place here once more. For posterity:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You know, this is our fault. We set an unsustainable pace with the first year of development. While weekly or bi-weekly releases are nice for players, for a small team they often lead to cut corners, more bugs, and more time spent putting out fires than focusing on forward motion. Perhaps this is why many indie teams stick to longer cycles or “when it’s done” right out of the gate. But since this is our first game as a team we had to learn as we went.</p>
<p>I see your concern. But please understand that the game is not abandonware, nor have we given up in any sense. Future releases will generally be “when it’s done,” and as discussed here on the forums and on our Discord, not every release will have lots of front-facing content. Sometimes we need to spend a significant amount of time on backend systems. Sometimes we’ll need to set up additional updates in the future. And while we weren’t able to meaningfully or consistently do that with a weekly/bi-weekly release cycle, we’re taking the time we need to do so now.</p>
<p>The next release will offer “just” keybindings, sure. A necessary if not flashy feature. But the system underlying it will represent a more robust save file system and other possible improvements in the future. All with the focus of working toward v1.0 by year’s end and a more stable, playable NewCity. Thank you for your patience in the meantime.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We’re in this to the release out of Early Access. As with many, many games gone before, our version 1.0 will look a lot different than we anticipated at dawn’s first light on our adventure. Games become a bundle of concessions, ideas both good and bad, and are filled with an equal measure of missteps and victories. But each one — so long as they aren’t shovelware — represent something fundamental. A desire made manifest. They represent a void that a developer identified, and hopefully a solution that fills that selfsame void in the players.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/85/85_oldregion.png"><img src="/assets/images/85/85_oldregion.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>I reiterate: we aren’t done with <em>NewCity</em> yet. We have a bit to go before version One dot Zero. And, as with our update schedule, exact dates are subject to flex around as we work hard to offer our best. We’ll do our best to communicate those changes to you and the reasons why — perhaps better than we have in the past.</p>
<p>Thank you for sticking with us on this journey. And like I said in the post above, thank you for your patience. There may yet be a few surprises in store for all the mayors of NewCities.</p>
<p>As always, we look forward to seeing what you build.</p>
<hr />
<p>At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5</p>
<p>We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!</p>Swordless Mimetown: Game design is an iceberg. Picture an image of a tipped glacier burgeoning above the water, with a gigantic mass underneath the surface. In a video game that is more reflex-focused, when a player jumps onto a moving platform, the unseen systems must react in a way that feels like natural movement. The player only has to tilt a stick and press A, but there is simulated gravity, acceleration, and movement control which must always be working behind the scenes, and in real-time. When someone plays a game, the systems are rarely as forward-facing as they are in NewCity. In simulation-heavy games like ours, FTL, or RimWorld reflexes are wholly unnecessary (unless you refuse to use the pause function!). The player is constantly struggling with choices that provide obscured systemic overlap; the unintended consequences are engaging in a way that’s at odds with something like a platformer. If a road is torn down, how will that affect the value of the surrounding property? These consequences exist to destroy the player, and the mitigation is thrilling. So when we here at Lone Pine Games want to add something new like an improved stock market or a districting system or a new tutorial, we are trying our best to layer it in a way that is both challenging and welcoming. We want players to take time and fully digest as much of the iceberg as they can. And as it stands now, we have too many people bouncing off the game within the first few hours. We hope our updates are adding as much to the top of the iceberg as they are to the bottom. supersoup: Not only is game design an iceberg, the act of forging a playable experience from raw code and assets is as a labyrinth. It’s far easier to get lost than it is to find the exit. Occasionally, it helps to step back — or return to the summit outside the entrance — where you can view the whole of it at once. Take a breath, recognize the mistakes made along the way, and reenter with renewed purpose. There has been some concern about our current update schedule. Allow me to reassure you: NewCity isn’t abandonware, nor are we done working on it. Far from it. That said, I completely understand the concern. Early Access is a crucible in which independent game developers are tested. Many have been found wanting. And in so doing, many have promptly abandoned their efforts once the challenges outweighed any potential benefits in their mind. Not we. I wrote something on our Steam Discussion board which I’ll place here once more. For posterity: You know, this is our fault. We set an unsustainable pace with the first year of development. While weekly or bi-weekly releases are nice for players, for a small team they often lead to cut corners, more bugs, and more time spent putting out fires than focusing on forward motion. Perhaps this is why many indie teams stick to longer cycles or “when it’s done” right out of the gate. But since this is our first game as a team we had to learn as we went. I see your concern. But please understand that the game is not abandonware, nor have we given up in any sense. Future releases will generally be “when it’s done,” and as discussed here on the forums and on our Discord, not every release will have lots of front-facing content. Sometimes we need to spend a significant amount of time on backend systems. Sometimes we’ll need to set up additional updates in the future. And while we weren’t able to meaningfully or consistently do that with a weekly/bi-weekly release cycle, we’re taking the time we need to do so now. The next release will offer “just” keybindings, sure. A necessary if not flashy feature. But the system underlying it will represent a more robust save file system and other possible improvements in the future. All with the focus of working toward v1.0 by year’s end and a more stable, playable NewCity. Thank you for your patience in the meantime. We’re in this to the release out of Early Access. As with many, many games gone before, our version 1.0 will look a lot different than we anticipated at dawn’s first light on our adventure. Games become a bundle of concessions, ideas both good and bad, and are filled with an equal measure of missteps and victories. But each one — so long as they aren’t shovelware — represent something fundamental. A desire made manifest. They represent a void that a developer identified, and hopefully a solution that fills that selfsame void in the players. I reiterate: we aren’t done with NewCity yet. We have a bit to go before version One dot Zero. And, as with our update schedule, exact dates are subject to flex around as we work hard to offer our best. We’ll do our best to communicate those changes to you and the reasons why — perhaps better than we have in the past. Thank you for sticking with us on this journey. And like I said in the post above, thank you for your patience. There may yet be a few surprises in store for all the mayors of NewCities. As always, we look forward to seeing what you build. At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5 We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!Friday Facts #84: Key Boundaries2021-07-23T07:00:00+00:002021-07-23T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/07/23/key-boundaries<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/84/84_hero.png"><img src="/assets/images/84/84_hero.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Swordless Mimetown:</p>
<p>Our update next week will be the first test of our new keybinding features. It’s something that has been a hurdle for our team due to the nature of our custom engine. However, thanks to the stellar work of supersoup, we will have initial support for changing the hotkeys next week!</p>
<p>Rebinding hotkeys and other control customizations have been “en vogue” for years, but the demand has always existed. Accessibility has been, and continues to be, a dealbreaker for many people simply wanting to enjoy a video game. We want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy NewCity.</p>
<p>The latest leap in accessibility in games came from last year’s The Last of Us Part II. The level of customization exceeds any that came before it, with modifications available for both the difficulty and controls. In an action game, difficulty can be considered part of the core experience. Overcoming the challenge presented by controlling the player character is where the entertainment lies.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/84/84_city.png"><img src="/assets/images/84/84_city.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>But this is only one very limited way in which a video game can be enjoyed. NewCity has a lot of difficulty, but like other simulation games, it trades confrontation for confoundment. The interdependent systems eventually build up with errors, and the challenge is modified by simply changing numbers. The one thing that shouldn’t be a challenge to anyone is the ability to push the right buttons.</p>
<p>With the announcement of the Steam Deck last week, we are also looking at controller support. With native Linux support and high-end graphics support, NewCity is looking like a great contender for the device.</p>
<hr />
<p>At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5</p>
<p>We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!</p>Swordless Mimetown: Our update next week will be the first test of our new keybinding features. It’s something that has been a hurdle for our team due to the nature of our custom engine. However, thanks to the stellar work of supersoup, we will have initial support for changing the hotkeys next week! Rebinding hotkeys and other control customizations have been “en vogue” for years, but the demand has always existed. Accessibility has been, and continues to be, a dealbreaker for many people simply wanting to enjoy a video game. We want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy NewCity. The latest leap in accessibility in games came from last year’s The Last of Us Part II. The level of customization exceeds any that came before it, with modifications available for both the difficulty and controls. In an action game, difficulty can be considered part of the core experience. Overcoming the challenge presented by controlling the player character is where the entertainment lies. But this is only one very limited way in which a video game can be enjoyed. NewCity has a lot of difficulty, but like other simulation games, it trades confrontation for confoundment. The interdependent systems eventually build up with errors, and the challenge is modified by simply changing numbers. The one thing that shouldn’t be a challenge to anyone is the ability to push the right buttons. With the announcement of the Steam Deck last week, we are also looking at controller support. With native Linux support and high-end graphics support, NewCity is looking like a great contender for the device. At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5 We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!Friday Facts #83: Spectacular Summer2021-07-16T07:00:00+00:002021-07-16T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/07/16/spectacular-summer<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_hero.png"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_hero.png" alt="Thanks for celebrating with us!" /><figcaption>Thanks for celebrating with us!</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>supersoup:</p>
<p>The NewCity Summer Spectacular came to a close this past Tuesday, July 13th. But the spectacular summer days roll on!</p>
<p>We had a lot of awesome submissions covering everything from scenic skylines to aesthetic building designs. It’s been so enriching to see what you’ve dreamed up, dear NewCity community, and please understand we hold each entry in the NewCity Summer Spectacular near and dear to our hearts here at Lone Pine Games. It was incredibly tough to narrow down the entries to a select few. In the end, though, we’ve got to pick a few winners.</p>
<p>So away we go!</p>
<hr />
<p>First up, the honorable mentions:</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_cf01_h.png"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_cf01_h.png" alt="CF" /><figcaption>CF</figcaption></a></figure>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_gorr01_h.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_gorr01_h.jpg" alt="Gorr" /><figcaption>Gorr</figcaption></a></figure>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_jakewb01_h.png"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_jakewb01_h.png" alt="jakewb" /><figcaption>jakewb</figcaption></a></figure>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_okuu01_h.png"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_okuu01_h.png" alt="Okuu" /><figcaption>Okuu</figcaption></a></figure>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_smallhat01_h.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_smallhat01_h.jpg" alt="SmallHat" /><figcaption>SmallHat</figcaption></a></figure>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_tar01_h.png"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_tar01_h.png" alt="T-A-R" /><figcaption>T-A-R</figcaption></a></figure>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_undeadkilla01_h.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_undeadkilla01_h.jpg" alt="UndeadKilla" /><figcaption>UndeadKilla</figcaption></a></figure>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_utrain01_h.png"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_utrain01_h.png" alt="utrain" /><figcaption>utrain</figcaption></a></figure>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_utrain02_h.png"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_utrain02_h.png" alt="utrain" /><figcaption>utrain</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>There’s some beautiful cities and incredible designs in the honorable mentions. Like we said, it was incredibly tough to narrow it down. But narrow it down we did. We were looking for the content that we felt best exemplified the Summertime Spectacular motif. Among the Top 5 entries, you’ll find high quality work that pushes the Building Designer to its limits as well as majestic, towering, and tourist-friendly cityscapes.</p>
<p>Ready to get started?</p>
<hr />
<p>Our Top 5 Summer Spectacular Entries, as determined by a combination of community and team votes:</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_doctolad01_05.png"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_doctolad01_05.png" alt="5. DoctoLad" /><figcaption>5. DoctoLad</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>DoctoLad put together a lovely hotel you might find on the bayou or in the old town of any vacation destination. What it lacks in bright, shiny metal or glass, it makes up in old-fashioned charm and likely a haunted hotel room or two. That’s why he squeezed in at number 5 on our top 5 list — congratulations DoctoLad!</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_preciousdarlingboy01_04.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_preciousdarlingboy01_04.jpg" alt="4. Precious Darling Boy" /><figcaption>4. Precious Darling Boy</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>In keeping with the hotel theme, Precious Darling Boy put together a monolithic hotel that’s certain to grab your attention no matter where you’re at in the city. With beams of light advertising rooms with secluded balconies from which you can admire the scenery, this isn’t likely to be the cheapest hotel on the block, but it’s bound to be the best. Congrats on earning the number 4 spot, Precious Darling Boy!</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_tar02_03.png"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_tar02_03.png" alt="3. T-A-R" /><figcaption>3. T-A-R</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>Summer often means time spent at the waterfront. So T-A-R put together a city with a splendid little marina beside a cruise shop dock, with the seasonal rentals rolling away beyond. The perfect place to get away from it all and spend some time beneath sail and sun on the water. Congratulations T-A-R, you snagged the number 3 spot!</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_sargo01_02.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_sargo01_02.jpg" alt="2. Sargo" /><figcaption>2. Sargo</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>This building design made everyone on the team stop and gawk for a moment. This monstrous tower of steel and glass looks like it belongs in Dubai, and the skybridge is an excellent touch to an overall incredible piece of design work. Well done, Sargo — you reached number 2 with aplomb!</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/83/83_preciousdarlingboy02_01lp.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/83/83_preciousdarlingboy02_01lp.jpg" alt="1. Precious Darling Boy" /><figcaption>1. Precious Darling Boy</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>Some cities have it all. Beautiful beaches, an electric amusement park on a pier, and even a well timed sailboat in the bay beneath a clean skyline. There’s even a Central Park-esque preserve of trees and green in the midst of all those polished skyscrapers. It’s frankly a breathtaking screenshot — and that’s what earned Precious Darling Boy his second Top 5 entry and the number 1 entry overall. As an aside, this entry earned the coveted “Lone Pine’s Favorite” award. What exactly that means remains to be seen.</p>
<p>For those of you who placed in the Top 5, we’ll be reaching out with details on your prizes by the end of the month. But I simply can’t thank you all enough. Thank you to each and every community member who submitted their designs, cities, and shared this Summer Spectacular with us. We’re already looking forward to the next seasonal event, so be sure to keep an eye out for more Spectaculars to come!</p>
<hr />
<p>At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5</p>
<p>We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!</p>Thanks for celebrating with us! supersoup: The NewCity Summer Spectacular came to a close this past Tuesday, July 13th. But the spectacular summer days roll on! We had a lot of awesome submissions covering everything from scenic skylines to aesthetic building designs. It’s been so enriching to see what you’ve dreamed up, dear NewCity community, and please understand we hold each entry in the NewCity Summer Spectacular near and dear to our hearts here at Lone Pine Games. It was incredibly tough to narrow down the entries to a select few. In the end, though, we’ve got to pick a few winners. So away we go! First up, the honorable mentions: CF Gorr jakewb Okuu SmallHat T-A-R UndeadKilla utrain utrain There’s some beautiful cities and incredible designs in the honorable mentions. Like we said, it was incredibly tough to narrow it down. But narrow it down we did. We were looking for the content that we felt best exemplified the Summertime Spectacular motif. Among the Top 5 entries, you’ll find high quality work that pushes the Building Designer to its limits as well as majestic, towering, and tourist-friendly cityscapes. Ready to get started? Our Top 5 Summer Spectacular Entries, as determined by a combination of community and team votes: 5. DoctoLad DoctoLad put together a lovely hotel you might find on the bayou or in the old town of any vacation destination. What it lacks in bright, shiny metal or glass, it makes up in old-fashioned charm and likely a haunted hotel room or two. That’s why he squeezed in at number 5 on our top 5 list — congratulations DoctoLad! 4. Precious Darling Boy In keeping with the hotel theme, Precious Darling Boy put together a monolithic hotel that’s certain to grab your attention no matter where you’re at in the city. With beams of light advertising rooms with secluded balconies from which you can admire the scenery, this isn’t likely to be the cheapest hotel on the block, but it’s bound to be the best. Congrats on earning the number 4 spot, Precious Darling Boy! 3. T-A-R Summer often means time spent at the waterfront. So T-A-R put together a city with a splendid little marina beside a cruise shop dock, with the seasonal rentals rolling away beyond. The perfect place to get away from it all and spend some time beneath sail and sun on the water. Congratulations T-A-R, you snagged the number 3 spot! 2. Sargo This building design made everyone on the team stop and gawk for a moment. This monstrous tower of steel and glass looks like it belongs in Dubai, and the skybridge is an excellent touch to an overall incredible piece of design work. Well done, Sargo — you reached number 2 with aplomb! 1. Precious Darling Boy Some cities have it all. Beautiful beaches, an electric amusement park on a pier, and even a well timed sailboat in the bay beneath a clean skyline. There’s even a Central Park-esque preserve of trees and green in the midst of all those polished skyscrapers. It’s frankly a breathtaking screenshot — and that’s what earned Precious Darling Boy his second Top 5 entry and the number 1 entry overall. As an aside, this entry earned the coveted “Lone Pine’s Favorite” award. What exactly that means remains to be seen. For those of you who placed in the Top 5, we’ll be reaching out with details on your prizes by the end of the month. But I simply can’t thank you all enough. Thank you to each and every community member who submitted their designs, cities, and shared this Summer Spectacular with us. We’re already looking forward to the next seasonal event, so be sure to keep an eye out for more Spectaculars to come! At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5 We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!Friday Facts #82: New New Player Experience2021-07-09T07:00:00+00:002021-07-09T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/07/09/new-new-player-experience<p>NewCity is a complex game, and we’ve struggled to find a way to introduce new players and explain all the concepts. If you delete options.data and launch the current version of the game, you’ll see three different systems trying to teach you how to play, and neither of them do a good job.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/82/three-tutorials.png"><img src="/assets/images/82/three-tutorials.png" alt="What a mess" /><figcaption>What a mess</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>This week, I cut through this mess and created one, more complete, tutorial. Supersoup built a great tutorial system, and I added markdown support, allowing images, links and formatting. I even implemented a system to show a slideshow of images, allowing for a kind of “animated gif” (not actually GIF format) to demonstrate actions.</p>
<figure class="video caption-bottom">
<video autoplay="" loop="" muted="" playsinline="" poster="/assets/images/82/new-tutorial02.gif" controls="">
<source src="https://newcities-videos.s3.amazonaws.com/new-tutorial02.mp4" />
<source src="https://newcities-videos.s3.amazonaws.com/new-tutorial02.webm" />
</video><figcaption>"Animated GIFs" in tutorial</figcaption></figure>
<p>In my personal playtesting, I find that the tutorial really gets a new city started off right, and I feel like a lot more motivated to keep playing after the tutorial is done, even though obviously I don’t need the tutorial to play. This new “New Player Experience” will introduce players to the game in a way that is much less confusing. So if you’ve been confused playing the game, just be patient – the new tutorial will be out within a few weeks.</p>
<hr />
<p>supersoup:</p>
<p>There more than first meets the eye with regard to our tutorial system. It’s one thing to simply present information — but quite another to do so in an intelligent and appropriately reactive manner. In my experience, the best tutorials are the ones that initiate a sort of dance with the player, only stepping in response to the players’ actions, waltzing around the game’s mechanics until the player feels comfortable enough to set out on their own.</p>
<p>In order to accomplish this, I added a new output from our input system.</p>
<p>We use <a href="https://www.glfw.org/">GLFW</a> to handle things like window creation and input for NewCity. If you press a key, we store that key down state in an array for each frame that it’s pressed. Elsewhere in the code, we’ll look for that key down state to know that we should be responding to the input in some way, whether that’s moving the camera or zoning lots in your city.</p>
<p>It’s in this step that we want to capture and relay additional events that may pertain to the tutorial.</p>
<p>So let’s say that you zoom the camera in or out. Now, nestled within the zoomCamera function, there’s a few extra lines of code that check whether the zoom is a positive or negative value, then they relay that info via a unique update code to the tutorial state object.</p>
<p>Perhaps it would have been better to explain the state object first then delve into its functionality, yet here we are. Suffice it to say, there’s a unique struct that stores all the pertinent info related to the tutorial, including the active step, active actions, and timers for certain other events. When an update code arrives at the state object, it does a simple check to see if it matches one of the active actions — and if it does, it flags that action as complete. Complete all the active actions and a cooldown will initiate before offering you the opportunity to proceed to the next step.</p>
<figure class="video caption-bottom">
<video autoplay="" loop="" muted="" playsinline="" poster="/assets/images/82/new-tutorial03.png" controls="">
<source src="https://newcities-videos.s3.amazonaws.com/new-tutorial03.mp4" />
<source src="https://newcities-videos.s3.amazonaws.com/new-tutorial03.webm" />
</video><figcaption>Cooldown in tutorial</figcaption></figure>
<p>Why a cooldown? Speaking from experience, it’s quite easy to accidentally complete multiple steps just by messing around with keys and clicks before you’d even have time to read the corresponding tutorial text. Placing the next step behind a cooldown with a visual indicator that you completed the step as well as a button to progress gives you time to review the text and ensure you’re ready to proceed. Not to mention that some steps are simply waiting on a timer to complete. Everyone reads at different speeds, and it would be rough if the step jumped ahead while you were still reading.</p>
<p>And it was somewhat of a happy accident that I worked on the tutorial system just before keymapping. There will likely be a similar system of relaying captured input at the heart of binding keys to actions and sending those actions out to trigger events in turn. But that’s a blog post for another time.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/82/daily-daily.png"><img src="/assets/images/82/daily-daily.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<hr />
<p>At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5</p>
<p>We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!</p>NewCity is a complex game, and we’ve struggled to find a way to introduce new players and explain all the concepts. If you delete options.data and launch the current version of the game, you’ll see three different systems trying to teach you how to play, and neither of them do a good job. What a mess This week, I cut through this mess and created one, more complete, tutorial. Supersoup built a great tutorial system, and I added markdown support, allowing images, links and formatting. I even implemented a system to show a slideshow of images, allowing for a kind of “animated gif” (not actually GIF format) to demonstrate actions. "Animated GIFs" in tutorial In my personal playtesting, I find that the tutorial really gets a new city started off right, and I feel like a lot more motivated to keep playing after the tutorial is done, even though obviously I don’t need the tutorial to play. This new “New Player Experience” will introduce players to the game in a way that is much less confusing. So if you’ve been confused playing the game, just be patient – the new tutorial will be out within a few weeks. supersoup: There more than first meets the eye with regard to our tutorial system. It’s one thing to simply present information — but quite another to do so in an intelligent and appropriately reactive manner. In my experience, the best tutorials are the ones that initiate a sort of dance with the player, only stepping in response to the players’ actions, waltzing around the game’s mechanics until the player feels comfortable enough to set out on their own. In order to accomplish this, I added a new output from our input system. We use GLFW to handle things like window creation and input for NewCity. If you press a key, we store that key down state in an array for each frame that it’s pressed. Elsewhere in the code, we’ll look for that key down state to know that we should be responding to the input in some way, whether that’s moving the camera or zoning lots in your city. It’s in this step that we want to capture and relay additional events that may pertain to the tutorial. So let’s say that you zoom the camera in or out. Now, nestled within the zoomCamera function, there’s a few extra lines of code that check whether the zoom is a positive or negative value, then they relay that info via a unique update code to the tutorial state object. Perhaps it would have been better to explain the state object first then delve into its functionality, yet here we are. Suffice it to say, there’s a unique struct that stores all the pertinent info related to the tutorial, including the active step, active actions, and timers for certain other events. When an update code arrives at the state object, it does a simple check to see if it matches one of the active actions — and if it does, it flags that action as complete. Complete all the active actions and a cooldown will initiate before offering you the opportunity to proceed to the next step. Cooldown in tutorial Why a cooldown? Speaking from experience, it’s quite easy to accidentally complete multiple steps just by messing around with keys and clicks before you’d even have time to read the corresponding tutorial text. Placing the next step behind a cooldown with a visual indicator that you completed the step as well as a button to progress gives you time to review the text and ensure you’re ready to proceed. Not to mention that some steps are simply waiting on a timer to complete. Everyone reads at different speeds, and it would be rough if the step jumped ahead while you were still reading. And it was somewhat of a happy accident that I worked on the tutorial system just before keymapping. There will likely be a similar system of relaying captured input at the heart of binding keys to actions and sending those actions out to trigger events in turn. But that’s a blog post for another time. At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5 We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!Friday Facts #81: Architectural Developments2021-07-02T07:00:00+00:002021-07-02T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/07/02/architectural-developments<p><em>The #NewCitySummer Spectacular is still accepting entries until Monday, July 5th! <a href="/2021/06/25/summer-spectacular.html">See last week’s post for more info.</a></em></p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/81/81_poster.png"><img src="/assets/images/81/81_poster.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Gainos:</p>
<p>If you’ve been keeping up to date with the Discord Development News channel, you know that I’ve been posting some images there recently, in which I show some of the work I’m doing on the art side. Today, I’ll talk about the process of reworking the art in NewCity.</p>
<p>When I joined the team, my initial tasks were related to creating a few vehicle models and textures, in preparation for the update in which trains and buses would be released. At that time, the art style present in the game was very consistent, since Lone Pine had created most (if not all) the designs himself using very few tools. That made sure that they all looked like they belonged to the same game, as they should. Now, many months later, the issue of consistency in the art has been one of my biggest challenges.</p>
<p>There are multiple reasons why the art may feel inconsistent. I’d like to highlight two things that, in my opinion, contributed to that: feature additions and my own growing experience. I’ll explain those two points in detail soon. On the feature additions/changes and how that affected the art style, again, I don’t blame anyone (not even myself) for this. Had I been more experienced, I could have handled this better. Creating a video game is a journey and I do have the feeling that we are moving forward, which is the goal to me.</p>
<p>As far as features go, the game when I joined the team did not have support for art assets as it does now. For buildings, you could edit the textures and add new ones and then edit the building structures, saving them into designs. Shortly after I joined the team, support for modding vehicles was also added, using the .obj file format. But that was pretty much it. I could not add smaller details to designs even if I wanted to, since we didn’t have the support for any sort of custom mesh on the buildings. I tried to live through the limitations and do my best but soon more changes arrived.</p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/81/81_classic.png"><img src="/assets/images/81/81_classic.png" alt="Early version of NewCity" /><figcaption>Early version of NewCity</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>The architect update landed, allowing myself (and any modder) to add decorations to designs, using once again the .obj file format (which most if not all 3D softwares can export). This system had some limitations, mostly in the sense that you could not add an arbitrary texture to that decoration and instead you had to use the palette files, which also color things like the sky, the water, the in-game ground and so on. So that made a big change to the palette files, which eventually also received animation support, not using a traditional skeleton, but using the palette files with multiple frames. We added twelve frames of animation along with the four different seasons. With that we went from two palette files to almost a hundred.</p>
<p>I accepted the limitations of the decorations system, since I knew that they were a huge boost to what I could do and with that system, I was able to create so much more than before, and that system had been in use until recently. That is, until now. Two new features are being added: the four sided building textures and the possibility of using the building texture on decorations (custom models) as well.</p>
<p>With those recent changes, now I could work almost identically to the way I was trained in for the past few years. My training as a digital artist (mostly self-taught) was around creating a model of my choice, and then adding a texture of my choice to this model. Before these new features, I only had one really, with the decorations I couldn’t get exactly the texture I wanted and with the structures I couldn’t use my custom models. With all of that, I’m now able to create better art than ever for NewCity, since this specific way that I’m creating art now is the way I’m the most experienced at.</p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/81/81_blender.png"><img src="/assets/images/81/81_blender.png" alt="Screenshot of the models on Blender, not NewCity. The Designer Organizer was under maintenance." /><figcaption>Screenshot of the models on Blender, not NewCity. The Designer Organizer was under maintenance.</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>Which gets to the point of my own experience. Like I said, I could have handled the situation more, and planned out ahead how I would keep building upon the art in NewCity without having to tear the whole thing down and rebuild it. But I’m not gonna write a long section on this one. If I did, it would be a whole thing of self-doubt and at this point, I’m mostly over that.</p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/81/81_bad_texture.png"><img src="/assets/images/81/81_bad_texture.png" alt="Manifestation of Self Doubt" /><figcaption>Manifestation of Self Doubt</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>As a result of all of that, the art currently on the steam version of NewCity is quite inconsistent. You see buildings that simply had more time put into them than others and, unfortunately, that won’t change. We’re a small team and we do our best to make sure everyone who enjoys the game can have a beautiful city to play in. Brick by brick, I’m building a new vision of NewCity. A new vision that is the result of months of learning, interacting with the community and growing as an artist and as a person.</p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/81/81_end.png"><img src="/assets/images/81/81_end.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>See you next time,
Gainos out</p>
<hr />
<p>At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5</p>
<p>We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!</p>The #NewCitySummer Spectacular is still accepting entries until Monday, July 5th! See last week’s post for more info. Gainos: If you’ve been keeping up to date with the Discord Development News channel, you know that I’ve been posting some images there recently, in which I show some of the work I’m doing on the art side. Today, I’ll talk about the process of reworking the art in NewCity. When I joined the team, my initial tasks were related to creating a few vehicle models and textures, in preparation for the update in which trains and buses would be released. At that time, the art style present in the game was very consistent, since Lone Pine had created most (if not all) the designs himself using very few tools. That made sure that they all looked like they belonged to the same game, as they should. Now, many months later, the issue of consistency in the art has been one of my biggest challenges. There are multiple reasons why the art may feel inconsistent. I’d like to highlight two things that, in my opinion, contributed to that: feature additions and my own growing experience. I’ll explain those two points in detail soon. On the feature additions/changes and how that affected the art style, again, I don’t blame anyone (not even myself) for this. Had I been more experienced, I could have handled this better. Creating a video game is a journey and I do have the feeling that we are moving forward, which is the goal to me. As far as features go, the game when I joined the team did not have support for art assets as it does now. For buildings, you could edit the textures and add new ones and then edit the building structures, saving them into designs. Shortly after I joined the team, support for modding vehicles was also added, using the .obj file format. But that was pretty much it. I could not add smaller details to designs even if I wanted to, since we didn’t have the support for any sort of custom mesh on the buildings. I tried to live through the limitations and do my best but soon more changes arrived. Early version of NewCity The architect update landed, allowing myself (and any modder) to add decorations to designs, using once again the .obj file format (which most if not all 3D softwares can export). This system had some limitations, mostly in the sense that you could not add an arbitrary texture to that decoration and instead you had to use the palette files, which also color things like the sky, the water, the in-game ground and so on. So that made a big change to the palette files, which eventually also received animation support, not using a traditional skeleton, but using the palette files with multiple frames. We added twelve frames of animation along with the four different seasons. With that we went from two palette files to almost a hundred. I accepted the limitations of the decorations system, since I knew that they were a huge boost to what I could do and with that system, I was able to create so much more than before, and that system had been in use until recently. That is, until now. Two new features are being added: the four sided building textures and the possibility of using the building texture on decorations (custom models) as well. With those recent changes, now I could work almost identically to the way I was trained in for the past few years. My training as a digital artist (mostly self-taught) was around creating a model of my choice, and then adding a texture of my choice to this model. Before these new features, I only had one really, with the decorations I couldn’t get exactly the texture I wanted and with the structures I couldn’t use my custom models. With all of that, I’m now able to create better art than ever for NewCity, since this specific way that I’m creating art now is the way I’m the most experienced at. Screenshot of the models on Blender, not NewCity. The Designer Organizer was under maintenance. Which gets to the point of my own experience. Like I said, I could have handled the situation more, and planned out ahead how I would keep building upon the art in NewCity without having to tear the whole thing down and rebuild it. But I’m not gonna write a long section on this one. If I did, it would be a whole thing of self-doubt and at this point, I’m mostly over that. Manifestation of Self Doubt As a result of all of that, the art currently on the steam version of NewCity is quite inconsistent. You see buildings that simply had more time put into them than others and, unfortunately, that won’t change. We’re a small team and we do our best to make sure everyone who enjoys the game can have a beautiful city to play in. Brick by brick, I’m building a new vision of NewCity. A new vision that is the result of months of learning, interacting with the community and growing as an artist and as a person. See you next time, Gainos out At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5 We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!Friday Facts #80: Summer Spectacular2021-06-25T07:00:00+00:002021-06-25T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/06/25/summer-spectacular<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/80/80_poster.png"><img src="/assets/images/80/80_poster.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Get out your flip-flops and slather on the sunscreen, it’s summertime!</p>
<p>The NewCity Summer Spectacular kicked off June 23rd, and will run through July 5th. We’re running a contest with opportunities for you — yes, you! — to enter your very own slice of NewCity lime pie for a chance to win some prizes. Whether it’s a mod, a building design, or a picture of you playing NewCity (or creating something NewCity inspired) in the real-world, every Mayor will have the chance to celebrate the summer season right along with us.</p>
<h2 id="what-can-i-win">What can I win?</h2>
<p>The top prize will be Steam game keys for NewCity. We will also name in-game amenities, roads and citizens after prize winners. We will also celebrate winners on social media, including direct links to your website or social media account. The best building designs and mod content will be put into the game – with your consent of course. All that, plus a few surprise prizes besides!</p>
<h2 id="what-kind-of-content">What kind of content?</h2>
<p>We’re looking for anything NewCity related! It could be a photo of you playing NewCity, such as team member Swordless Mimetown playing on a Hawaii beach:</p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/80/80_hawaii.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/80/80_hawaii.jpg" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Or it could be an edited picture, music, or video – what the kids are calling “memes”. You can also submit a building design, or an entire mod. Or, share a screenshot of your biggest city from it’s best angle. There’s really no limit but your imagination. And human decency.</p>
<h2 id="how-do-i-enter">How do I enter?</h2>
<p>Submit your content via Discord, Twitter or Reddit. For Twitter, use #NewCitySummer and @lone_pine_games. For Discord, post in the #summer-spectacular channel. For Reddit, include #NewCitySummer in the post title. You don’t have to post on /r/NewCity, but make sure the team knows about the post. Entries will be accepted from June 22nd to July 5th.</p>
<hr />
<p>At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5</p>
<p>We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!</p>Get out your flip-flops and slather on the sunscreen, it’s summertime! The NewCity Summer Spectacular kicked off June 23rd, and will run through July 5th. We’re running a contest with opportunities for you — yes, you! — to enter your very own slice of NewCity lime pie for a chance to win some prizes. Whether it’s a mod, a building design, or a picture of you playing NewCity (or creating something NewCity inspired) in the real-world, every Mayor will have the chance to celebrate the summer season right along with us. What can I win? The top prize will be Steam game keys for NewCity. We will also name in-game amenities, roads and citizens after prize winners. We will also celebrate winners on social media, including direct links to your website or social media account. The best building designs and mod content will be put into the game – with your consent of course. All that, plus a few surprise prizes besides! What kind of content? We’re looking for anything NewCity related! It could be a photo of you playing NewCity, such as team member Swordless Mimetown playing on a Hawaii beach: Or it could be an edited picture, music, or video – what the kids are calling “memes”. You can also submit a building design, or an entire mod. Or, share a screenshot of your biggest city from it’s best angle. There’s really no limit but your imagination. And human decency. How do I enter? Submit your content via Discord, Twitter or Reddit. For Twitter, use #NewCitySummer and @lone_pine_games. For Discord, post in the #summer-spectacular channel. For Reddit, include #NewCitySummer in the post title. You don’t have to post on /r/NewCity, but make sure the team knows about the post. Entries will be accepted from June 22nd to July 5th. At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5 We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!Friday Facts #79: Golden Source2021-06-18T07:00:00+00:002021-06-18T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/06/18/golden-source<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/79/79_hero.png"><img src="/assets/images/79/79_hero.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>supersoup:</p>
<p>It’s become a bit of a joke behind the scenes. Anytime our discussions turn toward game systems and mechanics, I invariably begin my contribution with “Well in GoldSrc, they did it like this…”</p>
<p>As a refresher, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldSrc" target="_blank">GoldSrc</a> was Valve’s first proprietary engine, with the heart of the Quake engine still beating deep within. Engines are functionally a bundle of decisions; preconstructed systems, covering everything from rendering to sound and often networking as well. Whoever built the engine — here starting with the team behind Quake and layering Valve’s work on top — tailored it to meet certain demands and purposes as dictated by their game design. And perhaps to satisfy requirements for games yet to come as well. Engines are most valuable when they can be reused, after all.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/79/79_beach.png"><img src="/assets/images/79/79_beach.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>I played Half-Life at far too young an age. Then I replayed it over and over until I had committed the maps, dialog, and animations to memory. It wouldn’t be far off to say I know Black Mesa like the back of my own hand. I was browsing <a href="https://www.moddb.com/" target="_blank">ModDB</a> and downloading mods like Sven-Coop and They Hunger before Steam was even a twinkle in Gabe Newell’s eye. I found Worldcraft on the Half-Life retail disc and started charting a mysterious and exciting new world as I tinkered with level design. I learned a bit about how GoldSrc worked by reverse engineering, feeling out the edges of entities, console commands, and WAD files without digging into the code. Programming wasn’t quite on my horizon yet, but it was here that the spark began.</p>
<p>Why am I telling you all this? Well, I’m responsible for a few key systems in NewCity: the console, the Steam Workshop integration, and now our upcoming keymap system. And as these systems have taken root and grown across the codebase, I keep coming back to one key question: “How would they do this in GoldSrc?”</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/79/79_waterfront.png"><img src="/assets/images/79/79_waterfront.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Perhaps I simply lack imagination. I’m no tenth-level technomancer and herald of the coming robot apocalypse <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQKSzRbfxQI" target="_blank">John Carmack</a>. But where I excel is in figuring out how things were done, and then doing them my own way to the extent that I am able. I don’t simply “play games” anymore, I study them. I’m constantly feeling out the edges of the engine whether I’m playing Call of Duty of the Elder Scrolls. Studying how their movement systems work, how NPCs interact with the player and the world, trying to determine whether they’re using behavior trees or finite state machines. Frankly I’m not always able to derive a clean and tidy answer by observation alone. But once you start digging into this realm, you can make some educated guesses. Where it might ruin the magic for most people to see the man behind the curtain of their favorite games, I find myself endlessly fascinated instead.</p>
<p>Our console isn’t exactly a clone of the Quake/GoldSrc console — but it’s heavily inspired by it. Our keymapping won’t be a one-to-one copy, but I’m spending time studying Half-Life’s config files and how Valve uses them to both store and load important settings including binding keys to actions. No matter what your field is or what you’re interested in, it never hurts to study and emulate the greats.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/79/79_downtown.png"><img src="/assets/images/79/79_downtown.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>So if you want a glimpse into the future of NewCity — and any other games I contribute to the codebase of — look to the past. It’s foolhardy to try and reinvent the wheel when there’s a perfectly good one staring you in the face. And I still have a lot to learn from the teams behind the games that captured my imagination as a young and impressionable supersoup.</p>
<p>Thanks, John, for teaching me how to build a console. I look forward to many more years of following in your footsteps.</p>
<hr />
<p>At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: <a href="http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5">http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5</a></p>
<p>We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!</p>supersoup: It’s become a bit of a joke behind the scenes. Anytime our discussions turn toward game systems and mechanics, I invariably begin my contribution with “Well in GoldSrc, they did it like this…” As a refresher, GoldSrc was Valve’s first proprietary engine, with the heart of the Quake engine still beating deep within. Engines are functionally a bundle of decisions; preconstructed systems, covering everything from rendering to sound and often networking as well. Whoever built the engine — here starting with the team behind Quake and layering Valve’s work on top — tailored it to meet certain demands and purposes as dictated by their game design. And perhaps to satisfy requirements for games yet to come as well. Engines are most valuable when they can be reused, after all. I played Half-Life at far too young an age. Then I replayed it over and over until I had committed the maps, dialog, and animations to memory. It wouldn’t be far off to say I know Black Mesa like the back of my own hand. I was browsing ModDB and downloading mods like Sven-Coop and They Hunger before Steam was even a twinkle in Gabe Newell’s eye. I found Worldcraft on the Half-Life retail disc and started charting a mysterious and exciting new world as I tinkered with level design. I learned a bit about how GoldSrc worked by reverse engineering, feeling out the edges of entities, console commands, and WAD files without digging into the code. Programming wasn’t quite on my horizon yet, but it was here that the spark began. Why am I telling you all this? Well, I’m responsible for a few key systems in NewCity: the console, the Steam Workshop integration, and now our upcoming keymap system. And as these systems have taken root and grown across the codebase, I keep coming back to one key question: “How would they do this in GoldSrc?” Perhaps I simply lack imagination. I’m no tenth-level technomancer and herald of the coming robot apocalypse John Carmack. But where I excel is in figuring out how things were done, and then doing them my own way to the extent that I am able. I don’t simply “play games” anymore, I study them. I’m constantly feeling out the edges of the engine whether I’m playing Call of Duty of the Elder Scrolls. Studying how their movement systems work, how NPCs interact with the player and the world, trying to determine whether they’re using behavior trees or finite state machines. Frankly I’m not always able to derive a clean and tidy answer by observation alone. But once you start digging into this realm, you can make some educated guesses. Where it might ruin the magic for most people to see the man behind the curtain of their favorite games, I find myself endlessly fascinated instead. Our console isn’t exactly a clone of the Quake/GoldSrc console — but it’s heavily inspired by it. Our keymapping won’t be a one-to-one copy, but I’m spending time studying Half-Life’s config files and how Valve uses them to both store and load important settings including binding keys to actions. No matter what your field is or what you’re interested in, it never hurts to study and emulate the greats. So if you want a glimpse into the future of NewCity — and any other games I contribute to the codebase of — look to the past. It’s foolhardy to try and reinvent the wheel when there’s a perfectly good one staring you in the face. And I still have a lot to learn from the teams behind the games that captured my imagination as a young and impressionable supersoup. Thanks, John, for teaching me how to build a console. I look forward to many more years of following in your footsteps. At Lone Pine Games we are always looking for feedback to improve our game! The best way to provide it is through our community Discord, which can be found here: http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5 We are thankful to have such a lively and dedicated group of Mayors participating in discussions regarding new features, city planning strategy, development news, and just about anything else. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Steam Reviews are always appreciated as well!Friday Facts #78: The Circus of Value2021-06-11T07:00:00+00:002021-06-11T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/06/11/the-circus-of-value<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/78/78_wide.png"><img src="/assets/images/78/78_wide.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Swordless Mimetown:</p>
<p>There is no better value when it comes to video games as a form of entertainment. Most modern Americans have access to the most commercially successful video games of all time in their pockets; Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite. Two of those games have no barrier to entry, and only Minecraft has the typical upfront purchase video games had until DLC.</p>
<p>NewCity began with the phrase, “$19.93, no DLC!”. It had been inflexible for a while in dedication to the SimCity reference. But times change, and value is subjective.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/78/78_threemil.png"><img src="/assets/images/78/78_threemil.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p><em>Redditor u/SLO93401’s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity/comments/nvl4k8/gothams_streets_echo_at_3_million/" target="_blank">three million population city</a>!</em></p>
<p>There are a near-infinite number of games on Steam, and some of the best ones are free. The average cost of a Steam game in 2020 was $11.59, and that is only factoring in MSRP; a savvy consumer, of which there are many in the city simulation subgenre, will wait until they get the best value for their video game purchase. After all, there are few game genres better at a purchase to hours played ratio than simulators.</p>
<p>Also, side note: Our game has DLC, we just do not charge for it. Downloadable content for video games goes farther back than Doom freeware levels, and it’s only become synonymous with purchasing extra content for full-priced AAA experiences.</p>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/78/78_zoomed.png"><img src="/assets/images/78/78_zoomed.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Last weekend, our game had the deepest sale ever. It was a successful sale, one we hope to replicate later this summer. Above all, we want to respect our community and all of the contributions they have made to our game in the form of bug reports, mods, and guides. We are considering our options and will be excited to announce something later on in the season.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On occasion, smaller developers have asked for my input, and you know what the most consistent piece of advice I give? Do not be too quick to discount your game and do not discount it too deeply. Once you discount it, that’s the price forever. And dear god don’t bundle it!
— <a href="https://twitter.com/CaseyExplosion/status/1374600474293338113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">The Lady Weird Sloth Cow</a> @CaseyExplosion, March 24, 2021</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/78/78_graphs.png"><img src="/assets/images/78/78_graphs.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>One thing I want NewCity to avoid is being devalued and resold on the grey market for less than a quarter of the MSRP, none of which helps fund our development costs. Putting your video game in a bundle or doing some sort of mass giveaway can succeed, but can also backfire. Indies like CrossCode have been erroneously put into a bundle early into their Early Access cycle for less than 25% of the price, which had an immeasurable impact on their sales.</p>
<p>In summation, our goal this year is to do right by our beloved mayors, and bring new mayors into the NewCity community. If you’re interested in this goal too, please leave us a Steam Review, it would mean a lot this month!</p>
<hr />
<p>Questions? Comments? Feedback on the game? Sound off on our <a href="http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5" target="_blank">Discord</a>.</p>
<p>As always, we’re incredibly thankful for our great community across the web. We love seeing the hard work and attention to detail you pour into your cities, and it inspires us every day to keep building. Thank you again for your support.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Give us a follow if you haven’t, and we’ll keep you up to date on what’s new with NewCity!</p>Swordless Mimetown: There is no better value when it comes to video games as a form of entertainment. Most modern Americans have access to the most commercially successful video games of all time in their pockets; Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite. Two of those games have no barrier to entry, and only Minecraft has the typical upfront purchase video games had until DLC. NewCity began with the phrase, “$19.93, no DLC!”. It had been inflexible for a while in dedication to the SimCity reference. But times change, and value is subjective. Redditor u/SLO93401’s three million population city! There are a near-infinite number of games on Steam, and some of the best ones are free. The average cost of a Steam game in 2020 was $11.59, and that is only factoring in MSRP; a savvy consumer, of which there are many in the city simulation subgenre, will wait until they get the best value for their video game purchase. After all, there are few game genres better at a purchase to hours played ratio than simulators. Also, side note: Our game has DLC, we just do not charge for it. Downloadable content for video games goes farther back than Doom freeware levels, and it’s only become synonymous with purchasing extra content for full-priced AAA experiences. Last weekend, our game had the deepest sale ever. It was a successful sale, one we hope to replicate later this summer. Above all, we want to respect our community and all of the contributions they have made to our game in the form of bug reports, mods, and guides. We are considering our options and will be excited to announce something later on in the season. On occasion, smaller developers have asked for my input, and you know what the most consistent piece of advice I give? Do not be too quick to discount your game and do not discount it too deeply. Once you discount it, that’s the price forever. And dear god don’t bundle it! — The Lady Weird Sloth Cow @CaseyExplosion, March 24, 2021 One thing I want NewCity to avoid is being devalued and resold on the grey market for less than a quarter of the MSRP, none of which helps fund our development costs. Putting your video game in a bundle or doing some sort of mass giveaway can succeed, but can also backfire. Indies like CrossCode have been erroneously put into a bundle early into their Early Access cycle for less than 25% of the price, which had an immeasurable impact on their sales. In summation, our goal this year is to do right by our beloved mayors, and bring new mayors into the NewCity community. If you’re interested in this goal too, please leave us a Steam Review, it would mean a lot this month! Questions? Comments? Feedback on the game? Sound off on our Discord. As always, we’re incredibly thankful for our great community across the web. We love seeing the hard work and attention to detail you pour into your cities, and it inspires us every day to keep building. Thank you again for your support. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Give us a follow if you haven’t, and we’ll keep you up to date on what’s new with NewCity!Friday Facts #77: Designer Workflow2021-06-04T07:00:00+00:002021-06-04T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/06/04/designer-workflow<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/77/77_hero.png"><img src="/assets/images/77/77_hero.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Gainos:</p>
<p>For the past few weeks, I’ve been using a new workflow for textures. This new workflow allows me to work a little bit faster after the initial setup is finished, get more variations for textures done, and also produce much higher quality building and illumination textures as well.</p>
<p>All of this is possible using a software called Substance Designer. For quite some time I’ve stayed away from it, but at this point the pros greatly outweigh the cons. Being able to work faster is not the only benefit. Using an industry standard tool means that for whatever situation I can think of, there is a node (or combination of nodes) to do exactly what I need.</p>
<p>Previously, all of my texture work was done in a pixel art software. That software was initially used by Lonepine to make building and road textures, and when I joined the team, I chose to keep it going with the same set of tools, mostly because I didn’t know of anything “better”.</p>
<p>One of the problems of working with such a tool for NewCity however, is that many things would benefit from a more automated workflow, such as the window setup. In the previous workflow, each window (on one side of the building) was drawn and then symmetrized. I could not get too many different window setups done since those would just take way too much time. And don’t even get me started on illumination.</p>
<p>With the new workflow I can use nodes to help define shapes that will be tilling over the texture, using other nodes to mask which areas will receive those tilling shapes. The windows are the primary example. Now, instead of drawing every window, I define one (or more) window shapes and then the Tile Sampler node will allow me to quickly fill sections of the texture with shapes exactly like that. I can also use this to add smaller details repeated underneath each window, or only on some of them, using mask variations.</p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/77/77_substance.png"><img src="/assets/images/77/77_substance.png" alt="WIP Designer Substance" /><figcaption>WIP Designer Substance</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>One of the challenges I have with creating textures for NewCity is that the game only supports a base color texture (also called albedo, diffuse and honestly whatever you want). Most of the work I’ve done outside of NewCity has been color only, since I do enjoy most games that focus on a nicely painted base color. With Designer, I try to add some extra depth to the textures by combining (to some degree) the Ambient Occlusion and Curvature, along with the “Light” node into the base color.</p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/77/77_tower2.png"><img src="/assets/images/77/77_tower2.png" alt="Illumination on Designer" /><figcaption>Illumination on Designer</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>Probably the biggest benefit of this new workflow is how easy it is to create variations. I can very rapidly put together several unique illumination textures, wall colors and many other things by changing some parameters. If I’ve set up the substance well that is.</p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/77/77_polygon.png"><img src="/assets/images/77/77_polygon.png" alt="The polygon node, the beginning of most Substances" /><figcaption>The polygon node, the beginning of most Substances</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>What does that change for the players, you ask? Well, probably not that much. You can still create the textures in whatever software you want, in case you are into modding. If you’re not, then you’ll simply have better textures for the game. The illumination textures in particular will get a significant glow-up. I’ve been working for a while now doing research, getting started on substances, and just overall learning how to make NewCity look better.</p>
<figure class="image caption-below"><a href="/assets/images/77/77_tower1.png"><img src="/assets/images/77/77_tower1.png" alt="On the left an old texture and on the right, my attempt to re-create it on the new workflow" /><figcaption>On the left an old texture and on the right, my attempt to re-create it on the new workflow</figcaption></a></figure>
<p>So yes, I’ve been a bit quiet for a while, but I promise you’ll soon see much more in terms of art for NewCity. If you want to discuss this, and more, tune in on one of our streams! This week I’ve done my first stream on the channel, and while I’ve mostly played Fall Guys (spoiler alert: I’ve lost over and over again), next time I want to talk about modding, art for NewCity, and just art in general. So if you are into any of that, keep an eye out for our weekly streams (usually on Thursdays).</p>
<p>Keep creating, and until next time!</p>
<hr />
<p>Questions? Comments? Feedback on the game? Sound off on our <a href="http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5" target="_blank">Discord</a>.</p>
<p>As always, we’re incredibly thankful for our great community across the web. We love seeing the hard work and attention to detail you pour into your cities, and it inspires us every day to keep building. Thank you again for your support.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Give us a follow if you haven’t, and we’ll keep you up to date on what’s new with NewCity!</p>Gainos: For the past few weeks, I’ve been using a new workflow for textures. This new workflow allows me to work a little bit faster after the initial setup is finished, get more variations for textures done, and also produce much higher quality building and illumination textures as well. All of this is possible using a software called Substance Designer. For quite some time I’ve stayed away from it, but at this point the pros greatly outweigh the cons. Being able to work faster is not the only benefit. Using an industry standard tool means that for whatever situation I can think of, there is a node (or combination of nodes) to do exactly what I need. Previously, all of my texture work was done in a pixel art software. That software was initially used by Lonepine to make building and road textures, and when I joined the team, I chose to keep it going with the same set of tools, mostly because I didn’t know of anything “better”. One of the problems of working with such a tool for NewCity however, is that many things would benefit from a more automated workflow, such as the window setup. In the previous workflow, each window (on one side of the building) was drawn and then symmetrized. I could not get too many different window setups done since those would just take way too much time. And don’t even get me started on illumination. With the new workflow I can use nodes to help define shapes that will be tilling over the texture, using other nodes to mask which areas will receive those tilling shapes. The windows are the primary example. Now, instead of drawing every window, I define one (or more) window shapes and then the Tile Sampler node will allow me to quickly fill sections of the texture with shapes exactly like that. I can also use this to add smaller details repeated underneath each window, or only on some of them, using mask variations. WIP Designer Substance One of the challenges I have with creating textures for NewCity is that the game only supports a base color texture (also called albedo, diffuse and honestly whatever you want). Most of the work I’ve done outside of NewCity has been color only, since I do enjoy most games that focus on a nicely painted base color. With Designer, I try to add some extra depth to the textures by combining (to some degree) the Ambient Occlusion and Curvature, along with the “Light” node into the base color. Illumination on Designer Probably the biggest benefit of this new workflow is how easy it is to create variations. I can very rapidly put together several unique illumination textures, wall colors and many other things by changing some parameters. If I’ve set up the substance well that is. The polygon node, the beginning of most Substances What does that change for the players, you ask? Well, probably not that much. You can still create the textures in whatever software you want, in case you are into modding. If you’re not, then you’ll simply have better textures for the game. The illumination textures in particular will get a significant glow-up. I’ve been working for a while now doing research, getting started on substances, and just overall learning how to make NewCity look better. On the left an old texture and on the right, my attempt to re-create it on the new workflow So yes, I’ve been a bit quiet for a while, but I promise you’ll soon see much more in terms of art for NewCity. If you want to discuss this, and more, tune in on one of our streams! This week I’ve done my first stream on the channel, and while I’ve mostly played Fall Guys (spoiler alert: I’ve lost over and over again), next time I want to talk about modding, art for NewCity, and just art in general. So if you are into any of that, keep an eye out for our weekly streams (usually on Thursdays). Keep creating, and until next time! Questions? Comments? Feedback on the game? Sound off on our Discord. As always, we’re incredibly thankful for our great community across the web. We love seeing the hard work and attention to detail you pour into your cities, and it inspires us every day to keep building. Thank you again for your support. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Give us a follow if you haven’t, and we’ll keep you up to date on what’s new with NewCity!Friday Facts #76: Atomic Coding2021-05-28T07:00:00+00:002021-05-28T07:00:00+00:00https://lonepine.io/2021/05/28/atomic-coding<figure class="image caption-bottom"><a href="/assets/images/76/76_hero.png"><img src="/assets/images/76/76_hero.png" alt="" /></a></figure>
<p>Lone Pine:</p>
<p>As game development on NewCity progressed, I introduced multithreading in many different places. Multithreading is hard, particularly around making sure that two threads don’t try to write or access the same memory at the same time. Over the decades, many strategies have been proposed for how to do multithreading, and in NewCity I ended up experimenting with just about every one of them. I learned many things, and now it’s time to consolidate to a multithreading approach that we know works.</p>
<p>My first approach was to use mutexes. A mutex is essentially a lock, where one thread locks part of memory and prevents other threads from using it. I do not recommend this approach. It’s brittle, complicated, and leads to pauses in execution while waiting for a mutex to unlock.</p>
<p>A much, much better approach is atomic variables. This is a special CPU feature, essentially just an ordinary number, but the CPU guarantees that all operations on it will happen in a sensible way without multiple threads stepping on each other’s toes. We only need to use a few of these atomics to coordinate work between threads, and the performance is great. It’s also super easy to use, since atomic variables can be modified just like regular variables (with some limitations).</p>
<p>In version 58, I implemented a task system, which divides up the work of simulating the game and rendering the frame into fine-grained tasks. These tasks are still run in a single thread, one after the other, but can be run out of order. The task manager only does the tasks that it can do within a single frame, which is typically 16 milliseconds for a 60 FPS experience.</p>
<p>There are some tasks which take more than 16 milliseconds to complete. (And of course this varies from machine to machine.) I can optimize these tasks and break them into smaller pieces, but it would also be convenient if the frame didn’t have to wait for a background task.</p>
<p>Therefore, the next phase is to allow multiple tasks to run simultaneously in separate threads. In version 59, the game will determine how many CPU cores you have and it will spawn that number of “executor” threads. The task manager will assign tasks to executors, making sure that they don’t conflict with each other and prioritizing the frame deadline for a smooth, fast framerate.</p>
<p>These changes do have an impact on stability. That is, the game crashes more often. This can be fixed given enough time, but we want to deliver a stable game to players. Taking more time between releases will allow us to make each release better, and allow us to sprint harder in between releases. Therefore, we are switching to a monthly release cycle.</p>
<p>We will not have a release on June 3rd. (Wow, it’s almost June already?) The next planned release will likely be June 17th. We’ll keep you posted. And of course, if there is any pressing issue we will be quick to release a hotfix.</p>
<hr />
<p>Questions? Comments? Feedback on the game? Sound off on our <a href="http://discord.gg/cz6t4J5" target="_blank">Discord</a>.</p>
<p>As always, we’re incredibly thankful for our great community across the web. We love seeing the hard work and attention to detail you pour into your cities, and it inspires us every day to keep building. Thank you again for your support.</p>
<p>If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067860/NewCity/" target="_blank">Steam page</a>. We’re also on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NewCity" target="_blank">Reddit</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/lone_pine_games" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Give us a follow if you haven’t, and we’ll keep you up to date on what’s new with NewCity!</p>Lone Pine: As game development on NewCity progressed, I introduced multithreading in many different places. Multithreading is hard, particularly around making sure that two threads don’t try to write or access the same memory at the same time. Over the decades, many strategies have been proposed for how to do multithreading, and in NewCity I ended up experimenting with just about every one of them. I learned many things, and now it’s time to consolidate to a multithreading approach that we know works. My first approach was to use mutexes. A mutex is essentially a lock, where one thread locks part of memory and prevents other threads from using it. I do not recommend this approach. It’s brittle, complicated, and leads to pauses in execution while waiting for a mutex to unlock. A much, much better approach is atomic variables. This is a special CPU feature, essentially just an ordinary number, but the CPU guarantees that all operations on it will happen in a sensible way without multiple threads stepping on each other’s toes. We only need to use a few of these atomics to coordinate work between threads, and the performance is great. It’s also super easy to use, since atomic variables can be modified just like regular variables (with some limitations). In version 58, I implemented a task system, which divides up the work of simulating the game and rendering the frame into fine-grained tasks. These tasks are still run in a single thread, one after the other, but can be run out of order. The task manager only does the tasks that it can do within a single frame, which is typically 16 milliseconds for a 60 FPS experience. There are some tasks which take more than 16 milliseconds to complete. (And of course this varies from machine to machine.) I can optimize these tasks and break them into smaller pieces, but it would also be convenient if the frame didn’t have to wait for a background task. Therefore, the next phase is to allow multiple tasks to run simultaneously in separate threads. In version 59, the game will determine how many CPU cores you have and it will spawn that number of “executor” threads. The task manager will assign tasks to executors, making sure that they don’t conflict with each other and prioritizing the frame deadline for a smooth, fast framerate. These changes do have an impact on stability. That is, the game crashes more often. This can be fixed given enough time, but we want to deliver a stable game to players. Taking more time between releases will allow us to make each release better, and allow us to sprint harder in between releases. Therefore, we are switching to a monthly release cycle. We will not have a release on June 3rd. (Wow, it’s almost June already?) The next planned release will likely be June 17th. We’ll keep you posted. And of course, if there is any pressing issue we will be quick to release a hotfix. Questions? Comments? Feedback on the game? Sound off on our Discord. As always, we’re incredibly thankful for our great community across the web. We love seeing the hard work and attention to detail you pour into your cities, and it inspires us every day to keep building. Thank you again for your support. If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Give us a follow if you haven’t, and we’ll keep you up to date on what’s new with NewCity!