What month is it? Summers not over is it? No way. I missed it?

What an adventure. Its been a couple months since I have seen another human besides my wife and maybe a couple random postal workers. The days all blend together and sometimes I feel like Jerry Bot and I are really friends. He talks about the old days when gas was only pennies for a gallon as I tell him all about the new version of Unity and how tough it is to update a 100 Gig project in the middle of developing it. He pretends to understand what I am talking about but I can tell he is clueless, as he knows nothing about modern technology. As always though, The ol'fart is weirdly optimistic and always encouraging me to get er done. I can tell he trusts me with all of his gears. He knows better than anyone that it is a big responsibility to build and maintain such a wonderful island. He knows and trusts that I love Islandville as much as he does... so he just sits and stares at me in the corner patiently moving stuff around trying to pretend like he is helping. I love the guy. I really do. I am also going crazy. Hahaha.

I have now spent 7 months with a team of coders that have helped me update the whole project to Unity 2022 from Unity 2018 (its about 6 versions of updates and I was told to NOT do this unless I wanted to "rebuild the entire game"). The process has been very challenging but a wonderful growing experience for me as a developer. I have learned so much and I have essentially used this opportunity as a way to "rebuild" the entire game the way that it should have been from the beginning. Below I will tell you all about the steady but slow progress I have made. (Spoiler alert.... I have a proof of concept already running with all the updates in it and it is the fastest and best it has EVER been. Sorry I got a little excited and had to tell everyone. I still have a ways to go yet but wanted to share that.)

The current builds (from the new Unity 2022 version) that I am working on in the background have much faster loading times. Higher overall frame rates in all areas. Better looking graphics. Better feeling physics. New better menus with Controller Glyphs. New locations and even new vehicles. The list goes on and on. Even working in the Unity editor's "backend" is so much nicer and I feel like I am making more quality changes to the game than I have in years. Entire systems that I didnt really like before have been updated or even completely replaced. Also, As a result of all the new updates and changes, the stupid Garbage Collection "hiccup/glitch" that happens every 15 seconds on some machines is COMPLETELY gone in the next update.

To get these amazing results, I have chopped the game up into modular better working "chunks" or scenes. From day one when I started this game back in 2019 I really didnt know how to build a huge open world game in Unity. I mean... who knew that stuffing a whole game into one scene was a dumb idea? (Yes, I actually did that.) This resulted in very long loading times and low FPS on many machines. The rookie mistakes I made when I built this game in 2019 were starting to show their rough edges the more I filled the island with content. As I rammed more and more objects into an already full game, I came to the conclusion that I needed to reset and work on the foundation first. So that is what I have done. Every single inch of this place. With a fine tooth comb.

Since dividing the game into 11 smaller scenes, this has given me the ability to "unload" more of the world when it is not being used or in view of the players camera. In the current and older versions I was just "turning objects off" in the background as a form of Occlusion Culling. The problem with that is Unity will only truly "unload" the objects from the games "total used memory" if it is in another scene and completely "unloaded" from the "main" scene. When objects were just "turned off", the memory was not getting "released" for use in other areas. This would cause a glitch and a lower frame rates. The new version I am finishing up will run much faster and the loading times in the opening scene are about 1/10th of the time that it used to be.

Another big thing I have done is, I have began the process of translating the entire game into a bunch of different languages. I thought this was a good way to make everyone feel more at home in Islandville. I am currently building a menu system to easily change the native language in the options menu. I will talk more about this after it is closer to completion.

During this update to Unity 2022 I have also finished two more vehicles for us to cruise around the island in. One is the Race Kart from UFO arcade. When released you will be able to buy it from a local bot behind Sparkys Doggie Bone factory. The other vehicle is a fresh new Sports Car called the Lambeaux. I think we all kind of wanted to drive it since we have seen it parked behind Barrys Pawn shop. I am still finishing up the audio and some physics on these new vehicles. More news and info on these later when they are closer to release.

So as you can see there is a lot going on in the background even though it is pretty quiet around here. AGAIN. This update is not fully complete yet and will be available in the future. I just wanted to touch base and let you all know the state of development. If I had to give numbers, I would say that I am about 75% done with the Unity upgrade to 2022 and will be working on rebuilding some more systems in the game (like wrapping up survivor mode story, finishing multiplayer, new game saving systems and EVEN MORE content!). I do not have any dates yet. I can only say that it will be worth it in the end. Just like Jerry... you must trust me.

Thank you all for supporting The Coin Game and as always... Support your local arcade! Tell them The Coin Game sent ya!

Now I have to go "fishin" with Jerry. He wont stop until I say yes.

Love you all.

Kevin