Communication 04 - Menu Reworks

We bring premade presets along with the ability to save different game configurations yourself. The striker has also had a significant weight reduction from 15 to 11 grams. Physics across the board have been tweaked to be more forgiving and realistic.

Change log for Carrom Slam! v2.4

• Can now save game settings configurations to multiple files
• Added presets for different board and game configurations
• Striker power formula adjusted
• Exposed striker max power, striker bounce, piece bounce, wall bounce, and board bounce in game settings options
• Physics Changes
  • Default striker weight changed from 15grams to 11grams
  • Changed default bounce for walls, pieces to 98%
  • Changed default bounce for board to 10%
  • Changed default friction for board to 0.6
  • Other
• Bot Changes
  • Now make generally better decisions
  • Will prioritize the queen if reasonable shot

We're proud to present the best iteration of physics yet alongside a major overhaul to the in game environment. This version removes snagging around pockets and implements a full 3D environment around the carrom board.

Change log for Carrom Slam! v2.3

• Visual Changes
  • Removed grey walls
  • Added apartment living room style layout
  • Added assorted decor to room
  • Changed stool style seat to pillow style seat
  • Added textures for table, pillows, carpet, board walls, and board paint
  • Changed textures for board surface and carrom pieces
  • Limited zoom out from 100 to 40
• Physics Changes
  • Changed to patch friction (improved friction)
  • Changed to discrete collision detection (removes improper normal calculations causing 'snagging' around certain sides of the pockets)
• Bug Fixes
  • Removed version check from joining other servers. This fixes the bug where you are joining a server that is the same version but still won't let you in for some reason citing this as an issue. Will probably be reimplemented once we figure out a solution.

This version is significant mostly because of the effect of the physics differences from the previous version. We feel this version gives much better touch in addition to virtually removing abnormal behaviors.

Change log for Carrom Slam! v2.2

• Changed engine version from Unity 2023 to Unity 6 (fps increase, bug fixes for us in general)
• Added power bar to right side of screen
• Added more information to the turn information screen
• Removed back of pockets to be more accurate
• Made black, blacker
• Physics Changes
  • Changed contact offset from 0.015 to 0.001 (fixes exploding pieces bug)
  • Restricted the fixed updates to not happen any less often than 0.01 times per second (ensures better determinism)
  • Decreased height and threshold of one of the pieces internal colliders (decreases abnormal flip chance)
  • Increased max power of striker by a little
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed bug replacing piece in the wrong spot when a single piece was covering the middle spot
  • Fixed bug not letting you spawn pieces in sandbox after you had already played another game
  • Fixed a piece not spawning when you fouled in disc pool

Carrom Slam! v2.1 - Sandbox Mode Update

• New Game Mode - Sandbox
  • Allows players to remove all pieces from the board (see controls menu for tertiary and quaternary actions)
  • Allows players to place a single piece wherever they are pointing on the board
  • When no pieces are on the board, players may spawn the default starting break
  • No rounds, no points, no scoring
• Rounded pockets a little more
• Add zoom sensitivity option
• Physics (things will feel a little different)
  • Walls bounciness changed from 0.9 to 1.0 (more accurate)
  • Carrom piece bounciness changed from 0.9 to 1.0 (more accurate)
  • Floor bounciness changed from 0.5 to 0.35 (increases forgiveness on pocketing)
  • Changed striker power from impulse force to velocity (consistency)
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed race condition where striker or piece was size of zero (fixes practice no striker bug)
  • Fixed kicking player not deleting their pointer (also fps improvement)
  • Fixed striker tails viewing the camera instead of the y axis
  • Fixed being able to shoot harder than tail implied
• Performance improvements
• Definitely probably some other stuff

Communication 03 - Polish

It's here! Version 2.0 officially brings a new dimension to Carrom Slam! We've been working to squash bug after bug after bug and it's finally time to share all of our hard work. The change log we've provided goes over the biggest changes we've made to the game, but there's certainly more details packed into the game itself. Our quarterly communication will also be coming out soonish, focusing on the near future of development. Of course, thanks to everyone who has provided feedback on the game so far, you are invaluable to our work. Carrom Slam! v2.0 Change Log General:

• Game is now 3D
• Camera is now adjustable, closer to board by default (user suggestion)
• Controls can be rebound
• Controller is now fully supported
• Full menu layout rework
• Now supports up to 10 teams and lots of players
• Bot difficulty can be toggled per bot
• Pieces that are owed and pieces that leave the board are now properly placed in the center of the board in the closest available location
• Customize the board layout! Make baselines further from the corner. Make pockets bigger! Make the board hexagonal?
• Highly customizable striker options. Mix and match designs, textures, and colors to create your striker look.
• Scoreboard now displays player specific stats separately from the team score.
• Scoreboard now reflects what color the round was played as (user suggestion)
• Added interactive tutorial

• Blitz
  • Striker returns to placement mode after it comes to a complete stop or leaves the board
• Training
  • Make it, take it (when valid pieces remain on the board)
  • 6 crafted stages for practicing different shot types
• Points
  • Can now specify how many of each color piece should appear
  • Order of pieces is random ish, with smaller counts typically appearing closer to the center

Hello! We are in the process of putting the last pieces into place for our next update. The game is pretty feature complete, so if our testing rounds go well we'll see the update in the next couple of weeks. You know how bugs can be sometimes though... Today we'd really like to show off some of the additional features not yet talked about or showcased for this update. This update started off as an experimental, "What would Carrom Slam! look like in 3D?" Admittably, it would have been the easier path to create a 3D model for the board and used that for the game, but where is the fun in that? Instead, I painstakingly created a geometry library to help build all of the pieces we would need dynamically. So now, instead of just being able to build a normal, single size carrom board, you can build just about any custom carrom board imaginable! I spend so long on Youtube watching carrom videos, I'm always very intrigued by custom carrom boards. Some of these are bigger, supporting 8 player games, how jealous am I right? Not anymore! Now it is possible to edit board size, pocket size, board shape, baseline distance, and more! This will allow us to build boards for beginner friendly, professional, and wacky custom ideas. In addition to this, you can have more than four players together at the same table. This doesn't require creating a board with more than four sides either, as more chairs will simply appear to accommodate more players when the table is full. The standard board:
You can effectively make the game easier or harder by adjusting the pocket and board sizes:

Embrace the endless possibilities afforded by virtual luxuries:


Striker customization is also better than ever! You will be able to mix and match with colors, skins, and textures to create your own unique striker look. We think this is much more intuitive than the previous iteration's menu option for players. Check out some of the possibilities below!
We can't wait to share the whole change log with you when the day finally comes. Thank you to everyone who has submitted feedback over this last year, we have taken everything we can into careful consideration for this. That's everything we have for this summer update. We hope to see you all soon, maybe even in 3D! See our previous communication here

Hello all slammers! We have some exciting news about the next update and were introducing a new regular communication. Since we dont adhere to a regular update schedule, we've decided to keep you in the loop regarding our progress and plans. This should allow for early feedback as well as keep you informed about our upcoming communications. Expect similar posts around the start or end of yearly quarters.

Communication 01: One year later, version two, three dimensions

Hello fellow slam chasers, We are excited to bring an update to you! It's been a while, and while I'll get to excuses later, we hope to continue to build our game and our surrounding community throughout 2024. While we don't exactly have a roadmap, we have a couple of features that we've kicked around prototypes for leading up to this update. But I'm sure you're very interested in the features coming out now! Thank you to everyone who has shared feedback on the game thus far, you help motivate and shape the future of the game. Below you'll find v1.2's change log.

Carrom Slam! v1.2

Lobby Options

Striker size is now adjustable Board friction or "powder" is now adjustable Added shot variation toggle Bot difficulty is now adjustable

Bot Improvements

Now with 4 unique difficulties Adjusts better to unique game options New internal shot planning mechanism, allowing for combinations and wall rebounds

Other

Added 6 new striker colors/images

Bugs & Fixes

Rotated the starting position to be in line with the pocket (Thanks @CharlsBarkly!) Fixed striker image offset

The robots are here! And they'd enjoy a game of carrom if you'd be so kind to have them. That's right, we now have the means to fill the holes in your social circle robotically. [previewyoutube=WQpJshJE82o;full][/previewyoutube] We're really excited to bring this as our first update to Carrom Slam! This was not our initial planned first update for the game, but still felt something was missing after release day. Thanks to all who left feedback! I've got a good feeling about this update because.. well... I've been playing carrom against the bots all week while justifying a 20 minute game as 'debugging'. I think you'll find yourself enjoying their test in each game mode as well. This also includes a few bug fixes as well, but you can review our patch notes below. Carrom Slam! v1.1 Features -Server owner can add bots to the pregame lobby -Server owner can change the bot's team -Server owner can kick bots/players at any time -Added arrows to the board that were missing Bugs -Fixed forward-only option for players 3 & 4 -Fixed scoring for odd-numbered rounds in disc pool and blitz game modes -Fixed practice game mode deleting some strikers occasionally -Fixed lobbies not working right after finishing game -Fixed some lobby options that were not properly assigned to their values Other -Major rewiring of internal functions to support multiple local bots -Multiplayer enforces version matching

We're so excited the day is here! We've been detail-oriented in our lead-up to this release, and our game is now even better. That's right, we've included more carrom in the carrom we already promised we'd provide you! Wow. We mentioned it in our release date announcement post, but we're excited to continue developing the game further. Not just bugs and quality-of-life fixes but actual feature-packed updates! I'll get right to working on these new features as soon as I'm done having to write this fine piece of reading material. You can expect to get regular updates about the progress of the game in about the same place you found this one. Enough about how much we do for you. As indie developers, we rely on the community to help spread the word about and further refine our product. You can do the first by just yelling the title of our game "Carrom Slam!" until one of your neighbors snaps and looks it up out of curiosity, reviewing the game on our Steam page, or even by sharing it with your friends. As for the product refinement, we would gladly welcome you to our discord to share your feedback, suggestions, and any bugs you find. You'll also find others looking to play a game of carrom too. Carrom Slam! Official Discord Hope to see you in a game of Carrom Slam! :) neonchickens

After months of work, Carrom Slam! will finally be playable starting June 13th 9:00AM MDT. We're really excited to share the game of carrom with new friends from around the world. Why now? The game has all of the initial features we wanted. We enjoy the game of carrom outside of the virtual world, but the virtual options available failed to thrill us. We wanted more game modes, more customizing, more satisfying physics, more players, and a more authentic experience. Our game is now the desirable experience we sought many months ago. We enjoy playing it here with our team and family, and we think you will too. Roadmap First and foremost, we want to ensure our launch goes as well as possible. We've dedicated some time to fighting day zero issues, which will be our first priority before any additional content is worked on. As far as additional content, we have some free updates planned for our short-term future. Work has already been done behind the scenes to provide more flexibility, meaning we've been thinking and preparing for these things for a while. We're excited for them too.