Status Update #4 - 2018 Wrap Up
over 5 years ago – Fri, Jan 04, 2019 at 10:58:20 PM

Thank you for an incredible 2018!

Well, 2018 is over, and looking back I'm overwhelmed with how incredible it was for me. When the year began I never would have expected any of this to happen. I was just a guy who hoped that maybe, someday, I'd be able to make games for a living. Fast forward to March when I heard about the Meta Game Jam and thought "Hey, that would probably be fun to do!" And it was! I had a blast making Baldi's Basics! After the Meta Game Jam ended, I figured everything would go back to the way they were for me, but they didn't. For reasons I'll never understand, the game took off. At times when I thought the game had peaked, it would keep climbing. When I launched this Kickstarter, I honestly had no idea if it would be successful or not, but it was more than successful!

All of this is thanks to you! Thanks to everyone who played the game. To everyone who gave me feedback. To all the YouTubers and streamers who uploaded videos about the game. To the fans discussing the game and sharing fan art. To the people who backed this Kickstarter and pre-ordered the game on BackerKit. To the people who modded the game. To the people who simply talked about the game or just watched videos of it. Even to the people who spammed my Twitter with that .gif of Baldi doing a Fortnite dance... Thank you. It's humbling looking back through the year and realizing just how many people played a part in this, and how I wouldn't be here without them (Well, I mean, I'd *still* be here, but I'd also still be working a part time job and doing college, with little time to work on a game. :P). Ultimately, I'm also extremely thankful to God for giving me this opportunity, especially since I don't deserve it. He didn't have to put me here, but He did, and knowing that encourages me even more to put my all into this project!

To sum up, the year started out with me and some friends watching Star Wars Episode 3, timed so that Anakin said "This is where the fun begins." the moment 2018 began... And wow, he wasn't kidding! Who knew prequel memes could predict the future?! :P Here's to an amazing 2019!

Baldi's Basics 1.4.1 just released!

To start 2019 off, I've released the 1.4.1 update to the original Baldi's Basics. As always, you can download it here. This includes some bug fixes, small improvements, and optimizations. More importantly however, is that it's also practically ready for mobile! I know a lot of you have been patiently waiting for the mobile release, and I wish I could give out a solid release date now, but I'm still not ready to do that yet. I still want to get some significant testing done to make sure the launch is as smooth as possible, and to do so I may end up working with a 3rd party. This means that this final step is somewhat out of my control, at least for the time being, and since it's an area I'm unfamiliar with I really don't have a good idea of how long it will take. Still, be rest assured that when it's ready, I'll release it ASAP!

The other good news is that I can finally put all my focus on the full game, and no longer have to worry about the original version. I'll always love the original game, but like I've said before, it's a huge pain to work with due to it being made under such a short time frame. I'm glad to be able to move on.

Speaking of the full game, I really don't have much to share regarding it for this update. Since the last status update, most of my time has been spent getting the original game 100% mobile friendly (I severely underestimated how much work would need to go into getting it fully playable and user friendly on mobile). I also spent a considerable amount of time trying some crazy idea I had to optimize the original game even more (As it struggles to run a bit on older devices), which unfortunately failed miserably. On the bright side, I learned a pretty important lesson, which is to always test things out on a small scale before implementing them on a large scale. I definitely won't be making a mistake like that again!

What to look forward to in 2019!

Progress, progress, and more progress! While I think it's safe to say the game won't hit the originally estimated release date of December 2019 (Which I'll admit was a bit of a stretch, and an oversight on my part - I set those dates well before I launched the Kickstarter and forgot to extend them when I did. My apologies for that. This is why I've generally been telling people that the game will probably release in late 2019 or early 2020. The early 2020 estimate is the most likely scenario.), there's still stuff to look forward to this year. The Kickstarter exclusive demo will likely release some time this year, and I'm also considering releasing other, smaller demos, though I haven't made any final decisions regarding that yet. Mostly though, I'll be posting updates here with game progress. This year the game will really start taking shape, and I don't think it will be too much longer before it's actually in a playable state! I'm fairly happy with the progress made since the Kickstarter completed, but going into 2019 I plan to pick up the pace!

This year I also want to get more involved with the fan community. I still intend to launch a Discord server, and I'm considering making some other official places for fans to gather as well. A lot of this kind of stuff is fairly new to me (I've never been super active on the internet in the first place), but I want to get better at it for sure! I'll share more on this once that stuff is ready.

Well, I think that about covers everything for now! Again, thank you all for everything! Now, I'm going to get back to work on the full game!

Status Update #3 - Randomly generated levels!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 09:13:15 PM

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Today I'm happy to show the progress that I've made so far on the random level generator. The basics are in place, and besides a few small tweaks that will need to be made, I'm really happy with how it's working so far! Here's a short video of a level being generated in real time:

Besides the few quirks that will need worked out (Like the room in the bottom right that has no access) this system has been working great! It creates layouts very similar to the one found in the original game. The best part is that it is very flexible, and can be easily customized on a per-level basis to give different levels different feels. For example, I can have a level generate with a somewhat simple layout as seen in the video, or I can make a level with a more confusing layout like this:

 As you can see, besides creating rooms and hallways, it also connects everything together with doors (Doors which are programmed a hundred times better than the ones found in the original Baldi's Basics, might I add!). With all these things set up, all that's left to do at this point with the level generator is fill the levels with stuff like furniture, items, notebooks, etc. I'll also have to get textures loading in (which should be a piece of cake), as well as some extra tweaks to the current system to create slightly more interesting level designs.

Oh, one extra thing to mention is that I've also added a map to the game! As of now this map begins filled out, but in the finished version the map will begin blank and fill out as you explore, which will allow you to more easily traverse areas you've already been to.

Merch!

In case you haven't heard yet, some official Baldi's Basics merch has become available! Things have started off with some tees, pins, and stickers, with more planned to come in the coming months. Let me know what you guys think of the current selection!

Baldi's Basics Classic 1.4.1

Like I announced in the previous update, I released version 1.4 of the original Baldi's Basics a few weeks ago. I currently have a 1.4.1 version in the works with bug fixes. Once I get that released, I'll continue working towards the mobile release. Again, apologies for the wait, and thanks for your patience!

Anyways, that's about all I have to show for now. As usual, a lot of stuff I'm doing at this point of development is behind the scenes stuff that can't really be shown. Still, I'm hoping to get a lot more done this month than I did last month. Between losing power, a family member ending up in the hospital (He's fine now!), and a family get-together for Thanksgiving, I lost more time than I would have liked. I'm going to work harder this month and try to make up for that! As always, thanks for the support, and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Original Baldi's Basics 1.4 update is out now!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 10:19:02 PM

Hello everyone!

This is just a quick update to let you all know that I have released the 1.4 update to the original Baldi's Basics! As mentioned, this update is mostly just bug fixes and big improvements, as well as a few small tweaks here and there. It's the best version of the original game by far, and I hope you all enjoy playing while I develop the full game!

As always, you can download it here: https://mystman12.itch.io/baldis-basics

The mobile version is still in the works. I have it mostly up and running, but I want to look into a few more things and do some more testing before launching that. I'll keep you guys posted!

Anyways, thanks for your patience, and I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

Status Update #2 - Building a Foundation
over 5 years ago – Fri, Nov 02, 2018 at 11:00:49 PM

Hello all! I hope everyone's been doing well!

It's been a month since the last update, so it's time for another. This past month I've been working on a lot of the foundational, core programming that the game will be built around. It's important to get this correct now, making sure it's built to properly support all of the game's planned features, and I'm also trying my best to make things flexible so that future changes/additions are easier to make, even if I'm not necessarily planning for them now. This is one of the main problems with the original Baldi's Basics. Since that game was made under the tiny limit of two weeks, I didn't have time to ensure I did things right, and the result was a tangled mess of code. It functioned, but making even the smallest change in certain areas could break lots of other things. I'm doing my best to avoid this sort of poor programming for the full game, and so far I feel confident that things are going smoothly in that regard!

Since a lot of what I've been doing is core programming, I don't have a ton to show, but here's a list of some of the major things I've accomplished (Also, note that like, every single asset shown is a placeholder. None of these graphics are planned to be in the final game): 

• Save system that allows you to enter your name, a staple of edutainment games!

• Proper saving functionality (Without going into too much detail, the original Baldi's Basics saved settings and the endless mode high score using Unity's Player Prefs system, which is honestly not great. This game will use a much better method of saving)
• All player functions from the original Baldi's Basics have been added in, being reprogrammed from scratch and improved in a lot of ways.
• The UI has also mostly been implemented, again with many improvements over the UI from the original Baldi's Basics.
• I've implemented subtitles, and the ability to select different language settings for them! The subtitles rotate around the screen and change in size depending on which direction they're coming from and how far they are, since knowing where sounds are coming from is an important part of Baldi's Basics. I'm glad I took the time to get this working since I'm sure it will help a lot of people be able to better enjoy the game! Since recording this video, I've also added the ability to have different audio clips play based on language settings as well. Getting translations recorded isn't nearly as likely as getting subtitle translations, but I wanted to be prepared for it in case the opportunity comes up (Note that this video was recorded before the UI was finished).

• I've begun making preparations for the random level generation. The first step has been to create tiles that the levels will be built out of. These tiles are designed to be easily modifiable via script, so for example the level generator will be able to load in the desired textures and then add things like posters or windows on top of those textures very easily. You can see me doing that manually below (Ignore the weird lines showing up all over the wall. Kickstarter seems to have added those when I uploaded the .gif for some reason):

Those are the biggest, most showable features that I've completed up to this point. There are plenty of other smaller, more under-the-hood type things I've done, however. Right now there just isn't a ton to show because, like I mentioned earlier, this stage of development is about preparing for content, not necessarily adding it!

Baldi's Basics Classic 1.4 Update

Just a quick update on the status of the 1.4 update for the original game, since a lot of people have been asking about it. It's still planned! I just haven't done much work on it since I've been mostly working on the full game. Apologies for how long it's been. I'm honestly not good at juggling two projects at once (Which is why I was hoping to get 1.4 complete before starting on the full game), and I feel that the full game should be my main priority as, after all, that's what this Kickstarter was for! I'll try to take a day or two some time soon and put the finishing touches on 1.4, however. I'm thinking that once I do finish up 1.4, I'll first release it for PC users, then Android, and finally iOS. As this will be my first time releasing anything on an mobile app store, I'm not sure how long it will take to complete the submission process, but hopefully it won't be long after the PC release!

Thank you!

I want to thank you all again for the support you've all shown me. I do want to apologize for my occasional lack of communication, however. I know sometimes I go through quiet periods, and I want to try to lessen that. You guys deserve to always know what's going on. I want to stay honest with you guys at all times, as it encourages me to work even harder, and again, you guys deserve it!

I hope you all look forward to the next update!

Status Update #1 - Getting started!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Oct 01, 2018 at 12:26:35 AM

Hello everyone!

The past month has been pretty busy for me. I finished up my final two weeks at my old job, wrapped up a bunch of Kickstarter related stuff, and over the past couple weeks I've been working on the 1.4 update to the original game.

I know earlier I said that I would be working on 1.4 alongside development of the full game, but after some consideration I figured it would be best for me to get 1.4 mostly out of the way first so that I could put all of my focus on the full game once I begin developing it. With that said, I have completed most of the heavy lifting in 1.4 and I will officially begin developing the full game tomorrow! I definitely think this decision did turn out for the best, as some of the improvements I made to the original version in 1.4 will be making their way to the full game now that I've seen how good they are. I'm glad to finally be able to dive in and start on this. I've been spending a lot of time planning the best possible way to build the game and thinking up new ideas. I can't wait to be able to start sharing progress with you guys!

Back to 1.4 of the original version of the game though. While it won't contain any significant new content, it will contain a lot of big improvements, including:

Mobile support

Yep, Baldi's Basics Classic 1.4 will be the first version with mobile support! Thankfully Unity makes this a fairly simple process. I've added a touch scheme that works pretty well. Both the mobile and PC versions will also have controller support, which is great for players who prefer controllers over touch controls.

Redesigned You Can Think Pad

To accommodate touch screens, the YCTP has received a slight redesign. It now has a new numpad attachment which makes punching in answers a breeze.

 Improved collision

The previous versions of Baldi's Basics had some horrible collision problems due to an oversight on my part. That has now been fixed and in 1.4 you'll glide along the sides of objects like butter! Here's a before and after comparison:

 Better performance

I've added occlusion culling to the game, a feature which basically prevents unnecessary objects from rendering and wasting resources. As you can see below, the game now pretty much only renders objects which you can see, whereas before it would render everything in the direction you were looking. It might look weird watching it in action from above, but in the game you wouldn't have any idea that it was going on. Now performance is better and more consistent than before!

So when will 1.4 release?

That's something I'm not entirely sure about yet. While most of the major stuff I wanted to do has been completed, there's still a little more to do. More optimizations (I want to get this running well on older mobile devices if possible), thorough bug testing, and of course getting approval for release on mobile app stores are a few of the things that need to be completed first. I'll keep you guys updated once I have a good idea of when 1.4 will be ready. Hopefully it won't be too long!

Well, that's what's been going on for this first month. I know this isn't a huge update, but now that I'm getting into the swing of things I'm expecting to get a lot accomplished in October! By the next update I should have a lot of the basic stuff up and running! Thanks again for the support everyone!