Spent ridicilous amount of time, mashing code like a madman, for my new program SolOTility this weekend. I did make some good progress though! I’ve begun some more intense testing of the program today and I think that I’ll have a functional build released next weekend. I’m going to resume work on Demox this week aswell though, and I still got my day-time job so I’ll make no promises! 😉

Mindmap Node Editor

The user can now create and edit mindmaps with the built-in Node Editor.

Start Screen

Created a Start Screen for the application. At this time the user can chose to either create a new project or load an existing from this screen, In the future I’ll add Template Projects that the user can use as a solution setup for a new project aswell as some Tutorials and documentation.

Widgets

I’ve created widget control objects that the user can add/remove to the solution’s dashboard for a more personal work flow.
Currently there’s only three types of widgets but I intend to add more as need be.

“Search Widget” that allow the user to search for items with matching date keys or tags.
“Item Chart Widget” to give the user a better overview of the project.
“(Advanced)Item Filtering” that allow the user to only load items with matching states or types.

Solution History Log

Added options to allow the user to save more item-change log messages, the full history log can be read by clicking the “History” button in the Dashboard screen.
( Previously only saved 3 change-log messages for display on the Dashboard, now the user can select to save everything between 3 messages to up to 500 )

I’ve had a break from working on my primary project “Demox” the last two weeks in order to work on a side-project that I call “SolOTility” (or Solution Organizer Utility).

I’ve wanted to try create a non-game application for quite some time but haven’t really made the effort to actually start, or decide what the program’s purpose should be either for that matter, until now, that is!

So what can SolOTility do and what are my goals with the project?

It’s basicly a program to maintain order for my personal projects and my (and anyone who find interest in it aswell, for that matter.) game design documents along with concepts, ideas, issues and tasks. My goal is to make it easy to use and with a fast workflow. There already exist a whole lot of great programs and web applications that serve the same and/or similar purpose though, so to double back, my main purpose with this program is to code something else than a game- in case anyone would find use for my application aswell that’s a bonus!

Solution Catalog Tree
The project/solutions are structured with tree-node lists, the user has full control of catalog management.

Work Item Editor
A text editor for managing and creating work items. The user can add tags to the text to format or colorize encapsulated parts of the text with customizable controls. The editor also include a dialog to link related work items for quick access from within the editor dialog.

Work Item List
The list that display all items placed within the selected catalog. Work items are color-coded depending on the type of item and the item icons also display what state/progress the work item is in. (eg. Inactive, Prioritized, Completed etc.) The user can also filter items by item type(s) and item state(s)

Work Items
So what are these work items actually? There are currently two primary types of work items- text files and mind maps.
The text file work similar to regular text files, you enter text into the “Content Writer” panel- the text can also be colorized by certain special characters. The text-type work items are split into four sub-types aswell, “Bug“, “Feature“, “Task” and “Note“. While the editor does not handle these types any different from one another, the sub-type help identify the item in lists by changing icon of the file.

Mindmap items are node-based objects that allow the user to draw mind maps! (… who could’ve guessed? -__-)
The editor will allow the user to drag and drop shapes into the editor panel, add some descriptive text to them, and connect them with one another.

I’m soon done with everything that I’ve intended to implement for v0.0.1, and will implement the tool into my workflow for “Demox“. A beta version will be available to download when I feel that the program work good enough! I’ll also create a page here on my website dedicated to this program soon, for further updates aswell as more in-depth information regarding the program’s features etc.

Until then, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!

Hello again everyone! I’m glad to say that I finally managed to fix the weird UI behaviour for LBKR, and with that said it’s time to publish the 2.32 update!

The issue I had with the Unity Engine’s UI system not properly rendering scroll panels was relatively easy to work around after all, I used to adjust the size of the content elements through code earlier, and I initially believed that this caused the Unity UI to skip some sort of Refresh-call. I therefore removed all such code and added Unity’s built-in auto-layout components that properly position and resize content that is added dynamically.

I got the feeling that the UI is now behaving more consistently, and above all layout is more accurate (and I could strip away a whole lot of code.) but the problem still remained, atleast for more than half of the scroll panels. After some further testing I noticed that the game (seemingly random) would resize the content elements of the scroll panels to a size of 0px. I ended up with forcing those content elements to stretch out and fill the entire scroll panel through code, which seem to have fixed the problem. I just feel that it was a quirky and unnecessarily weird way to have to solve it.

Anyway, let’s dive into the v2.32 and it’s new features!

– Input –

The default attack-button has been changed to the left mouse button, simply because it is a more common button for this action,
Opening the Game Menu during a session will now pause the game
If the player is attacked while teleporting to a safe-zone the teleporting will now be cancelled
Dashing/Dodging now cost 10% of the player’s max energy value
Improved Camera zoom behaviour, including auto-zoom settings.

– Gameplay –

Added 6 new side-missions, 8 new achievments, 3 new void rifts, 1 new map sub-section, 1 new secret map, 6 new unique monster encounters and 1 new unique weapon

– UI –

Changed large parts of the UI, all UI is now better adapted for various screen resolutions aswell. Fixed alot of issues and bugs that the UI suffered from previously.
Improved and optimized Message Box and Log Manager behaviour

– Other –

Improved map loading procedure, and slightly more feedback for the user while a map is loaded

And on and on… I’ll spare those of you who aren’t interested in every little detail the pain of reading through the entire Update Log, but in case you wish to know it all you can find the full log over at the LBKR website!

Don’t forget to download the LBKR v2.32 full game, completely free to play with no in-game transactions and you’re welcome to follow me on Twitter if you’re interested in updates regarding my other projects or possibly future updates for LBKR if needed or desired!

Last but not least, thanks for showing interest in LBKR!

Hello again! I thought I was one with all necessary coding for the upcoming update 2.32 for LBKR about two weeks ago, so had put it aside, spending the last two weeks with adding more missions, enemies, a few new items and implemented maps that were intended for the cut DLC “Alamo”.

So with that said, a lot of new content has been mashed into the game, but as I’m game-testing it in a stand-alone build I notice some of the UI screens are still behaving in a weird fashion. Can’t quite wrap my head around what the issue could be since it works fine in the editor, but only in the compiled version of the game many of the UI scroll panels end up with weird size and offset adjustments that prevent the user from seeing the content of those previously mentioned scroll panels. And I’ve still ensured that all UI elements are scaled properly to fit all available screen resolutions…

So with that said I’ll be spending the coming week(s) with trying to solve this issue, or if in worst case scenario I’ld fail with this, I’ll have to tweak the UI layouts and find a work-around. But as I said earlier, atleast all the content I intended to publish with the upcoming update is done and implemented and is working as it’s supposed to so it’s not all bad news.

As of this time I’m expecting to be able to release v2.32 in early April. So stay tuned!

Also, follow me on Twitter for more frequent updates aswell as random previews of other projects and prototypes I’m working on!