Blog

It’s been quite a while since my last post, so there’s a couple things to cover.  A lot has changed on the site in the past month or so, as well as some updates to U2DEX.

For starters, the newest version of U2DEX (v1.20) is officially on the Asset Store!  It includes quite a bit of reworking and new features, so it should make your 2D editing experience even more awesome than before!  You can check it out on its store page, or read up about it on its product page.  You can read the full changelog in the v1.20 forum thread.

This post also marks the unveiling of the new forums.  I wasn’t pleased with the direction the old forum software was taking (not to mention the near-constant updates and custom changes that I had to apply just to make it “functional”) so I’ve scrapped it entirely in favor of the very, very nice XenForo.  It’s a much nicer forum platform, both to work with as well as use.

In addition to that I’ve also redone some of the site to make it a bit more visually appealing.  The styling between the various areas of the site should also be more consistent, as well as being fully responsive, so it should look pretty snazzy even on smaller-screened devices (phones, mini tablets, etc.).  You might also have noticed that I’ve updated the logo a bit, and you’d be correct.  It was a little…ugly once I’d done the rest of the site changes, so it got a redo as well.

There you have it.  Lots of small things that add up to a fresher site, as well as a fresher U2DEX.

Until next time!

Been a while, eh?  With Xbox Live Indie Games slowly being pulled off life-support, it was time I moved on to something else — turns out that something else is the Unity game engine.

Which brings me to the topic of the day: U2DEX — my first foray into making plugins for Unity.

From its asset store page:

U2DEX streamlines areas of the Unity Editor for 2D development, further turbocharging your 2D workflow.

By stripping away 3D values, or presenting them in a way that makes sense for 2D space, U2DEX rounds out and polishes some of the Unity Editor’s sharp, 3D corners, while still maintaining the Unity look-and-feel you know and love.

Essentially, U2DEX makes creating in Unity even more awesome for 2D games.  Here’s a run down of some features:

• Grid tool – Aligning objects has never been easier!
• Snap tool – Snap objects to numerical units, or to a Grid component’s Grid if you have one enabled!
• Applicable class editor – Apply the 2D Transform Inspector to virtually any class with a name!
• 2D Toolkit support!
• Orthello support!
• Enhanced Size and Scale – Use the underlying object’s scale, if possible. Preserve your dynamic batching with no extra work!
• Enhanced Rotation – Use Degrees, or Radians, and watch as U2DEX converts between the two in real time!
• Compatible with Unity Free and Pro
• FULL source code access!

There’s more in-depth info on it’s product page.
In addition, you can now talk about stuff on our forum!

By the way, U2DEX is only $10, which makes it super cheap.
You can buy it here!  (I’ll love you forever!)

That’s it for today.  Hopefully some people get some use out of U2DEX — I had fun making it, so I'm hoping you have fun using it!

A patch for Space Crüesader has been in the works for the past week and a half or so that should address a lot of issues (and non-issues that’ll make the game more user-friendly).  Here’s a short list of some of the changes you can expect:

– A new option to disable backgrounds completely!
– Two more options under “Flashes” that will allow you to lessen the flashes and fireworks,
without completely removing them.
– The ability to always upload scores, even if you have flashes off and backgrounds off.
(New icons will be placed next to entries, so players can tell if that entry was made with
those options off)
– The highscore table will now update every minute if you’re viewing scores.  This should
help if you’re hanging out waiting for a score sync to happen.

This patch should be coming soon, and I’ll post the full change log when it hits the Marketplace.  I’m currently hung up on two things, but once those are cleared up (either for better or for worse) the patch should be out pronto!  Here’s the things I’m currently working on getting sorted:

#1 I’m trying to get the umlaut removed from the ‘ü’ in the Marketplace title so dimwitted Bing can find it (seriously, who would have thought that Bing couldn’t connect the dots? — no pun intended).

#2 I’ve been very diligent about trying to make all old saves compatible with the new format.

At the end of the day, this patch should address a lot of the issues I’ve seen reported.  I know that this is a bit light on the info, but once I’ve got some more info to share, I’ll do so.