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A Maintenance patch
While working on Games, sometimes things need a little love. Recently with Amazing Frog? 2 it had become a major priority to go through a bunch of the systems and make a bunch of fixes.
We thought it would be in the best interest of ongoing development to spend some time agressively fixing as many bugs and broken systems as we could and indeed make some system improvements.
Yes, when you shoot another player with balloon they should be able to fly, if you have played the last few versions of Amazing Frog? 2 we have been pushing it through a transition stage.
Unfortunaley, not all game development is just adding new content, Often mainterance updates like this one are critical. But at least Its Valentines! And our main focus has been the Frog Life around town and general physics stability.
While Amazing Frog? QMMT (Quest for the Magical Mystery Toilet) is about to leave Early Access after 10 years, Amazing Frog? 2 which we feel has so much more scope for the future is, lets face it just getting started.
Hey everyone, it's Hal again with an update on what I've been working on for the next release of
Amazing Frog? 2.
Lately, my focus has been on finalising a more streamlined and stable version of the Swindonshire
world. This involves implementing new technology and pipelines from QMMT to handle plant and
grass placement and rendering, along with resolving some lingering issueslike fixing sunlight
leaking into the rail tunnels.
As Ive mentioned before, many of these systems will now be powered by Houdini, allowing us to
place assets more intelligently and add new features faster. While building assets for AF2 takes
longer due to our goal of higher graphical fidelity, these new tools, alongside the engine
improvements Gaz is working on, should speed up content creation and variation in the long run.
This past week, Ive been refining the terrain under the town. Some areas needed to be lowered to
accommodate basement levels, while others had to align perfectly with roads and sidewalks.
Although the process seems straightforward, moving everything into Houdini for better control has
added some complexity. I sculpt the terrain in Unity, convert it into a mesh, and then use that
mesh like a stamp to transfer the details back into Houdinis heightfield. While more tedious, this
workflow ensures the world remains adaptable and saves time in the long run, especially when
making large-scale changes or adding new plant types.
Ive also been refining the trees and the tools Ive built to generate them. Ive developed a tool in
Houdini where I can design a tree and have it generate multiple variations (so that they dont all
look exactly the same). The system also generates all necessary LOD (Level of Detail) and
collision meshes for different viewing distances.
We now have four LOD stages for our trees:
The closest LOD uses a shader that distorts the surface by scaling the vertex positions. This
adds a "fluffy" appearance without relying on too much geometry, keeping rendering efficient.
The next two LODs are simplified versions of the trunk and foliage, using non-transparent
materials for better performance.
The farthest LOD is an "imposter"a flat quad that displays a baked image of the tree,
drastically reducing the cost of rendering forests, as distant trees are just billboards.
One of the perks of using Houdini for tree generation is the ability to add creative touches without
spending extra time. For example, I baked vertex colour noise into the foliage meshes and
projected it onto lower LODs. This allows the shaders to apply subtle colour variations to the
leaves, ensuring consistency across different LOD levels. Weve also implemented crossfading
between LODs, reducing the visual popping that often occurs when transitioning between levels
of detail.
Looking ahead to next week, Ill be tackling one of the more exciting tasks. Now that Gaz has
migrated the codebase from QMMT, we can better utilise physics zones and populate the world
with more frogs and content. Expect AF2 to feature more frogs than ever before, each with
distinct roles and purposes!
We have some exciting news for Amazing Frog? 2.
A Major Update, the Sandbox Update will be available soon.
Recently, we dropped "V3" from the name in favour of "Amazing Frog? 2". A bit of rebranding as we give Amazing Frog? 2 its independence. I actually wrote a few blog posts that I never posted attempting to explain this, but in the end I felt it was self explanatory.
So, if you bought Amazing Frog? or Amazing Frog? 2 before today nothing will change and you will continue own both apps in your library, but from today we will be selling Amazing Frog? and Amazing Frog? 2 separately ( or in a bundle, I guess).
Amazing Frog? 2 began its development with every intention to become an iterative "update" to Amazing Frog? Things change... the scope changed, software changed, possibilities changed and we ended up working on two projects moving in different directions.
We now have two games:
Amazing Frog? 2
and
Amazing Frog? (the Quest for the Magical Mystery Toilet)
I don't like "Road Maps" It makes me feel super uncomfortable to state what we are going to do as things change in development and we often need the flexibility to adapt. But I can outline a simple top line Road Map for both projects.
The All new Grapple Hook is now available in V3. Check out this video that we just made for info about the update.
[previewyoutube=52dW2Bu04kY;full][/previewyoutube]
The Easter challenge has been extended too (...take a gun with you)
(Little Dev note : I really like these pamphlets. We made them initially to help promote tourism, but they help us distribute information about jobs and missions. They will someday be available from the job centre and other places to share other tasks and things to do. For now the seasonal event systems of easter, halloween, xmas etc have been really helpful in allowing us to share some of the mechanics that we have been working on for V3. For more of the mechanics to become available we still need to finalise the core systems some more. )
Oh Dev..
I won't lie, It's been a lot of work trying to keep on top of V2 and V3, but we are making progress. Really excited for the High Definition Render Pipeline ( HDRP ) version of V3, but also frustrating we cannot make it available yet. While it is looking encouraging for running better, unfortunately it's not quite ready yet. Sometimes you just have to roll with technology and we did not want to get left behind like we did with legacy. Remastered has also been moved to a newer Universal Rendering system ( hence its delay ) That will be ready soon. I would like to begin to call Remastered - Amazing Frog? (Definitive) and I would like to start officially calling V3 - "Amazing Frog? 2". We'll see...
For now Enjoy the Grapple hook.
I found some screenshots Hal put on the shared drive...(its 3am here)... I think he pinned all the purge frogs to the court...
And then killed them :: - bit dark...
but to be honest I was really shocked with the new grapple hook, it was a lot of fun.
Is Love in the air? Its up to you.
[ ....Video currently rendering.... ]
Valentines Content Available for a limited time - until the end of Feb ! We have upgraded the Valentines content from last year and we are aiming to solidify these timed events as permanent seasonal content for V3.
This Valentines update brings the balloon Gun to Amazing Frog? V3. Use special heart shaped balloons for this loved up Update.
During Valentines, take Love to the air in the sexy pink biplanes available in the Swindon play ground.
Don't Worry if flying planes is complicated we have made available a couple of dev test rooms that we use to refine and test our vehicles.
Also push your driving skills to the limit if out Car testing room.
Let us know if you like these Test Rooms.
And obviously during February there is loads of new gear to unlock for the Love/Hate Valentines challenge.
There are also other ongoing updates and fixes to the world. While this is not the major render pipeline update we have been working on its not far away and you can tell from the video we had a lot of fun playing around with the balloon guns.
V3 Gets another Update, but WARNING:: The Lunar New Year Content is timed...
So get geared up, Its Time to grab your 'Year of the Rabbit' themed Stuff..
We made some fixed to the festive rewards... If you did manage to put out all the light in Swindon, the cap should now be available in your wardrobe. However make sure you knock out at least one light before trying to put it on.
and a bunch of other fixes like to the festive onesie - the required bulbs is actually 500 not 100.
Its a Spooky Update for the Halloween Challenge
The Event will run in the game till into November
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1559680/view/3381666900837199149
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