Hi guys,

Quite a bit has happened this week! A few Game Jolt related things which I will recap here, but also some cool development progress in the POPGOES series. Not too much I can show off (without spoiling) but at least a BIT. Let's start with the fanart:

by Himuhino - (Source)

by shadic749 - (Source)

by Lennoxui - (Source)

by MMillion_ - (Source)

POPGOES Evergreen:

A fair bit of progress here and there for Evergreen. Little chunks completed by multiple people, though not much that I can show off.

Though the rooms themselves are not quite finished due to a couple of missing textures (they'll need to be designed by hand, things like posters and diagrams etc), the Popgoes positions have been prepared for the Parts & Service room and Main Hall, on top of the list I gave in last week's dev log. We've also prepared the Server Room, though that's with Blake, not Popgoes. There aren't many light sources in the Parts & Service room, which makes the flashlight-off render kinda boring, so we're expeirmenting with the idea of having a monitor permanently turned on in that room. Maybe displaying a map of the pizzeria. I had an idea that this monitor actually changes slightly based on what room is currently shut down (if any). That'd be cool.

Of course the Parts & Service and Main Hall rooms haven't been revealed yet so I can't just drop a pic from them here. But you can take this render from the Party Room which is pretty neat:

I think the next room that we'll show off will probably be the Prize Room. It's really cool, stuffed with tiny props.

Anyway next thing, Alexis is almost finished with the bare endoskeleton model. Only the head is left, and based on what he's told me it'll be much more optimised from the current endo. Once the model is done, we'll see if it can be scaled to fit each of the animatronics (or maybe just one). A copy of the endo model will also be featured in the Parts & Service room (and elsewhere) so it'll be great to have that checked off.

Odium has also been working on the middle-stage for Mangle / False Mangle, and he's made it clear that it's VERY difficult. And I am not surprised. Both Mangle and False Mangle are pretty complicated designs. But here, you can see how a limb is evolved from one to the other:

Of course Alexis is given pretty much free reign on the False models, especially False Mangle. So Odium needs to improvise, to make the middle stages feel like a natural step between the original and False designs. It's tough! We're getting there though - it should be finished later this week.

Jayfer has also been working on a texture for us, and though he has struggled with it, it's almost done. I won't give context for what this is for, but you get a tiny cut of the current WIP:

Last thing for Evergreen - some major progress has happened for the first post-night room (yes we're still working on the FIRST one... it's very complex) and it looks fantastic. Gives me a lot of hope for the future rooms. NeeTroo was a perfect addition for this task and they've really impressed me with the work so far.

Can't show anything about this obviously. There's still some things to do here, mostly in terms of gameplay (things like overlays, animations... general interactive bits) but the room's base design is basically done. Very happy with it. I will say the post-night sections have a sort of POPGOES 2 vibe that I think older POPGOES fans may appreciate.

POPGOES Arcade:

More progress with the ports. Still lots to do, mostly in terms of UI elements, general button and touchscreen mapping, things like that. But the game is TECHNICALLY running.

Technically...

I mean, definitely more stuff working here than last week. We're getting there.

The mobile ports of Arcade will have a permanently zoomed-in screen. Well, it'll zoom out during those important cutscenes, but in gameplay you'll only see the gameplay screen - you won't see the joystick and buttons etc. This is mostly so the mobile screen's smaller form factor is fully taken advantage of, but also so that there's no confusion in regards to the controls of the game. We don't want people thinking you can actually use the in-game joystick to control the game. The placements for the buttons will, naturally, be in the bottom left and right corners of the screen. It'll be most comfortable that way.

If you guys have any specific questions or requests for the mobile ports, let us know!

Game Jolt:

Firstly, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for me and/or POPGOES Arcade for anything in the GJ Awards. Thanks to you, I managed to win FIVE awards for the 2022 selection:

That is CRAZY. I appreciate it a ton. And a huge congratulations to all of the other winners, but I'll give a special shoutout to @StupidButterfly for winning Fan Artist of the Year:

Unrelated to the GJ awards, but still Game Jolt in general... This past week I came up with some ideas for Game Jolt's website, and I mocked them up to the best of my ability. I initially made one post with 7 ideas and a poll, here:

https://gamejolt.com/p/hey-ideas-guy-here-i-have-some-ideas-for-atgamejolt-and-have-mocke-mav9hytu

With the Game Reviews idea being the fan-favourite:

Then after some feedback from you guys, I submitted 7 more suggestions and mockups, here:

https://gamejolt.com/p/hey-ideas-guy-again-i-have-come-up-with-another-7-ideas-for-atgame-9qufh6id

With a Game Completion Bar being the winner of the poll:

I'm in close contact with Thoro and some other Game Jolt team members, and they are paying attention to these posts! There's no guarantee that ANY of these suggestions will be added to the website, but it's totally possible. And if they do, it's likely they'll prioritise the features that people are more keen on. So make sure to vote and/or comment with your own ideas!

Other:

I've continued working with OverlordLettuce on Team Fortress Future, and sheesh... The character that he was working on previously is now finished. And, I'm not kidding, it's so good and so accurate to the original TF2 style that I'm 100% convinced I could create a fake leak with it by posting it anonymously online somewhere. It's THAT good. I wouldn't do that obviously, but wowee. Everyone who has seen it thinks it's amazing.

Still lots of work to do for TFF but it's fun to get major things like this finished.

I've also been in contact with Youtooz regarding ideas for future POPGOES products. The pins are still in development, though there has been a bit of a break in production due to Chinese New Year. I was wondering if maybe a Halloween set of pins for later in the year would be a good idea... what do you guys think?

Alrighty that's it! Thanks for reading.

- Kane