April and May were full of progress from our small team of hobbyists, and we're excited to show you the highlights from what we've been up to!
Read on to see how we're shaping Stuffy's world...
Design Tool Featurette
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdUyQp2Pds0
The Restitched "Design Tool" is a powerful, essential feature for artists (both in the level editor and wardrobe!) Use it to easily recolor nearly any asset! In some cases, you can also set a 'secondary color' and switch between preset texture swatches.
Restitched: Wardrobe Demo - Out Now!
https://www.trixelcreative.com/post/restitched-wardrobe-demo
We're so excited to announce the release of our first-ever public demo! This small but mighty game mode offers tons of customization fun, and serves as a taste of what's to come in the full game... but the best part? You can play it right now!
Style your own Stuffy with a selection of mix-and-match cosmetics
Decorate with Stamps to create unique looks
Explore community creations via the in-game Workshop menus
Free Steam Demo for Windows PC
Achievements
We've added more working achievements, including one for killing Stuffy 100 times!
Joints Progress
Loads of improvements and fixes have been added to the Joints feature. They are now a lot more stable to place and use, and feel more intuitive overall. There's still some QoL work to be done here, along with further bug fixes. However, Joints as a feature is now mostly finished!
Multiplayer Development
While we don't have anything to show here yet, we've onboarded a new coder: Alexander (Zander). They'll be working on multiplayer integration and more! Our goal was to focus on this area of development in the latter half of the year, but now we can hopefully kickstart it a bit sooner and allow ourselves extra time to get it up and running.
Camera Follow on Depth Change
When you select an object and scroll it through layers or change its depth, the layer change camera will now follow it as it moves.
Smoother Camera Zoom
Instead of snapping between zoom points rigidly, the camera will now smoothly zoom. This matches the behavior seen in the Wardrobe's camera controls.
Design Tool (Level Editor)
The Design Tool is now working in the level editor and supports full recoloring for almost every asset type (Building Material, Prop, Hardware).
You can access the design panel by clicking any valid object with the Design Tool active, or you can open the full settings page and choose the 'Appearance' subpage.
Some assets will also support a secondary recolor, just like in the Wardrobe:
You can also multi-select and edit color values on different object types at once:
Props Photography Tool
A new developer tool has been added. This new photography scene allows us to capture all the Prop and Hardware objects as icons within seconds! This ensures consistent lighting, resolution, and auto-fits it into a 1:1 square ratio for us. This saves loads of time and ultimately looks better than doing it by hand.
Hiding Objects in Level Editor
You can now press H over any object in the level editor to hide it. The new hiding effect works by replacing the full mesh and its materials with a red tint.
Previously, we tried to make it slightly transparent, but not all shaders supported that. By replacing the entire material with a general red tint, we can ensure all objects get this effect.
Player Ornaments Prototyping
A highly requested Wardrobe feature is now in early prototyping stages. We can't yet confirm this will be stable enough to launch with, but it's definitely our intention to try!
There are still loads of issues and missing support surrounding this, but we've managed to make a new Craftbook chapter and dataset with Ornaments for the Wardrobe. We've also got placement logic working on Stuffy, but it could use improvement.
Ornaments don't yet save to the player properly. There's also no cursor tool to pick them up once placed. They also don't appear on Stuffy outside of the wardrobe scene yet.
We do hear you! We also want this feature, and think it's really important to have at some point. We can only hope it works out in due time!
Stamp Symmetry Toggle
A new and requested "Mirror Mode" hotkey was added while stamping Stuffy in the wardrobe. This mirrors the Stamp on the opposite side of the character or cosmetic.
Audio Effects on Zoom
When zooming the camera in the wardrobe, the music will now use a high/low-pass distortion effect to dampen and suppress the audio a bit. This creates a subtle 'focused' effect.
Hair Clipping Tech Exploration
A major issue with hat + hair combinations is the endless possibility for clipping. This is because hats come in so many shapes and sizes, and so does the hair underneath it! We already use several shapekeys per hairstyle to let it flatten and bend underneath some head items. Sadly, it's a lot of work and doesn't create the best results.
We'll keep using hair shapekeys to help, but we've also been looking into an extra step that could help: a custom hair shader that supports invisible zones.
The idea is to support a couple of clipping zone shapes in the hair shader itself. Anything inside those boundaries would not be rendered. Then, hats can come with ~2 invisible clipping zones. The hat would communicate with the hair automatically to say, "Hey, don't render the hair inside these areas."
This is only a visual fix, though. It doesn't prevent Stamps from being placed on the hidden areas yet. The hidden hair areas still get detected by the Stamp Cursor and Design Tool as well.
We've mostly proved that this approach can work, but a lot more time and effort need to be invested into it. Hat + Hair clipping is very useful to address, but not essential for a completed game. So, we may revisit this after launch if there's no spare time before then.
Update Workshop Listings
In the Wardrobe, it's now possible to update existing Workshop outfits. You'll be asked to create a new listing or update an existing one when choosing to publish!
Cosmetics + Outfit Progress
Several new cosmetics were imported or updated. A couple of new full outfit sets were conceptualized, and began the modeling phase. This includes a Fox and Sea Critter outfit.
You'll spot some of these in the new Wardrobe Demo on Steam!
Gameplay Objects
Gift Boxes
We've updated the Gift Box model. It's mostly the same as before, but now it looks a bit more refined!
Default Bombs
We've added a default bomb model, which explodes on impact or when slashed.
Arid Desert
We've made a new level background for the first time in a while! This new environment is based on a dry desert with canyons, cacti, and beautiful blue skies.
With the level editor's granular lighting controls, you can create some stunning scenes. A sunset peeking between the rocks, a harsh sunny day, a cool desert night, and more.
Music Icons
Our artist, Carter, has been working on more thumbnail designs for our growing library of music tracks! These are simple illustrations to represent each music asset.
Improved Loading Screen Timing
We've improved when and how the loading screens appear. The game can now better mask the loading and stutter effect by showing the loading screen animation earlier than the actual load effect, and by only making it disappear when things are in order behind it.
Before this small tweak, even the loading screen could stutter and show up too fast or too late.
Cursors Update
In addition to updating tool cursor designs (and adding extras that might be useful some day), we've also added a feature to show a preview of the Building Material when choosing to swap them in a scene.
Joint Indicators
Linus has added indicator UI to Joints. This shows the speed, current angle, and rotation area while a Joint is selected and its Settings Panel is open.
The visuals of this are a placeholder, and we'll be working to improve them at a later time.
Shape Tool Nodes Effect
When creating and selecting nodes with the Shape Tool, they will now highlight as the player's secondary color and grow in size.
Workshop Menu Updates
The Workshop menu now shows more, like a profile picture of the creator. It also shows more stats, has a highlighted primary button, and shows special tags (downloaded, favorited, featured).
Rotating While Swinging
As part of our Stuffy movement refactoring, we've also supported body rotation while swinging. This helps the player feel less stiff and upright at all times.
However, this does need some more fixes! We should only activate the rotation when reaching a certain speed, angle, or combination of the two.
Thread Bending Effect
To help the needle's thread feel less stiff while swinging, we've added an 'air resistance' effect when swinging. This adds a bit of bend to the thread line, helping things look more fluid and realistic.
Lethal Death Effects
We now support an overlay effect on Stuffy themself when touching a lethal. We've cleaned up the developer-facing tools for setting up lethals, so it's now a bit easier and more robust.
When touching different lethal types, a more refined effect will now play. We've also fixed some bugs surrounding death and ensured the camera follows Stuffy throughout the whole death process.
For a punchier feel, Stuffy now spawns more (and different) particles on impact + death, and the camera will shake accordingly:
Here's a closer look at electric death at half gameplay speed (slow-mo):
Stuffy Movement Progress
As mentioned in previous Recapped posts, we've been on a months-long journey to refactor and improve Stuffy's gameplay and movement feel. This is an effort led by coder/lead artist DeRose! Feedback from Linus and Halston is also playing a big role in shaping the new movement.
Because this is so important to the overall game, we'll eventually be looking at ways to get the community's feedback on it too.
Slipping + Surface Safeguards
In the new movement, we've restored an old feature that prevents Stuffy from sliding off the front or back edge of a surface. We've also supported less friction on slippery surfaces, like glass.
Slipping and Slopes
Wall Jumping Fixes
Now, wall jumping is supported in our new movement system.
Layer Magnetism Prototype
This is a big one. Not in progress, but with game-changing potential!
Making a 2.5D game with depth movement is a challenge for any developer. In Little Nightmares, you can move around in 3D, but the level design is made specifically to prevent issues with depth judgment.
In LittleBigPlanet, they swap between lanes ("layers"), so it plays like a 2D game inside each layer, but with the option to hop between different ones. In other games with fixed cameras, like The Plucky Squire, they rely on camera tilt and drop shadows.
Restitched has a unique challenge. We have to redefine what it means to play in 2.5D, but without level design choices fully solving the issue, and with 3D movement. Because levels can come in many shapes and sizes, we have to address the issue at its root. Maybe a creator doesn't want to use a tilted camera all the time.
We've been grappling with this challenge since the start of the project, but we've taken many steps to improve it since. Our goal: remove player frustration. How? By introducing grace and correcting the margin of error.
Because jumping from a thin platform to another thin platform behind you can be tricky for some people, we've already done a few things to help:
tilted cam by default, showing more depth from above
deeper field of view, making things less 'flat' looking, so you can sense depth better
a drop shadow under stuffy that hits the closest surface, showing where you'll land
movement tuning so air steering feels a little snappier, and you can overpower momentum to land where you like
made a single layer deeper/thicker by default, ensuring you can land jumps without needing to be ultra precise
Now, we need to do more. Our goal for a while has been to try out a 'layer magnetism' approach. This would be a somewhat intelligent surface detection that pulls you onto the closest surface. It tries to predict where you intend to land, and avoids you overshooting surfaces by accident. If you jump backward and begin to land near a surface, it'll cast downward and find the closest landing spot. Then, it'll draw you closer to that spot with increasing strength as you fall toward it.
You can still overpower it by continuing to hold the movement input while not being too close to the surface. This doesn't affect movement left/right, but does affect it in/out of the scene's depth.
What this does: Reduces player frustration due to depth misjudgement. It makes platforming feel intentional and relies less on guesswork. It requires less precision to land on a surface, so platforming can feel more fun than difficult.
This is only a prototype, and hasn't been explored further yet. We think this could be a unique feature of Restitched and a first for the 2.5D genre! It's a hybrid system that still allows 3D movement, but blends more into the 'laned' approach. Think of it as a gentle nudge, but not rigid layer hopping.
In the video below, you can see the surface detection in action, and the ability to overpower it by continuing to move backward while landing:
This has its quirks. But we can continue to experiment and iron out edge case issues, so hopefully this will be a sturdy method of movement in the final game!
New Music Track: "Is It Ever Enough?"
Sound Effects Updated
We've adjusted a few UI-related sounds in the game, including the layer change and thickness adjustment sounds.
Enemy Concepts
Nihon Hytes is a cyberpunk-inspired story world. Our idea is to use either custom creature models, or we may also lean more toward logic-based assembled contraptions, too.
Here's an artist's interpretation of the idea, with a few ideas for floating enemy types in a tech theme!
Mouth Cosmetics Concepts
Gabriel (Daniel) has made a concept sheet showing ideas for possible tongue and teeth mouth items!
UV Projection on Building Materials
We've improved the way procedural material geometry gets UV wrapped when generated. This means a more accurate texture when brushing thick surfaces.
Crawling Out of Bounds
Oops! You could crawl out of bounds. We've fixed that!
Rotation Bugs (Swinging)
Stuffy isn't behaving when swinging around on the newer movement system. We'll have to patch that up!
Thanks for joining us as we look back on recent development highlights! There's still a lot we weren't able to fit into the post, like various fixes and changes, feature discussions, and so forth.
We hope you've enjoyed another glimpse into development! See you next time!
Don't forget to join our Discord server! It's where all things Restitched are happening!