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Row, row, row!

Surfing is the reason why we came in Bali! And if you are "lazy beachgoers", then you'd better stay at Thai or Goa. Yes, of course there are beautiful beaches, but surfing remains entrenched in our minds “Beach Bounty” from the TV is not for us. In Bali, it is rare you're unable to surf, it's amazing! We are surfing almost every day, in the morning or in the evening, depending on the forecast and tides, and with what strength we have.

Notice! We are not steep surfers. Because of our work we happened to go surfing at most twice per year, and it is "nothing." Especially surfing for two weeks is nothing. So now we must make up for lost chances! Because surfing is a disease that spreads by airborne droplets, and most of our tight group is infected.

We're still at the beginning of training, but we're already capable of developing and occasionally ride on the shorts. We've chosen an "easy" spot (Padang Padang). It's a good place for everybody who sees the ocean for the first time. As it happens, we do not have an instructor. In our team we have a beginner, who has studied in an accelerated program without the familiar for most stage  "foam." Definitely fun, not without sacrifice, but what else is.

On the first day we saw a sea cow floating near us. It is rumoured that there were sharks nearby, but for us a cow was. Huge, it was floating extremely close to us. The cow did not even turn around. When you've not known the animal yet, all that remains for you is to tuck feet on the board and watch.

We don't have boards yet, so we use the hire services. One hour is worth 50,000 rupiah, or $ 4, or about 145 rubles. If you were knead by the wave and a piece of board was tore off, then you'll likely need to pay another 100,000 rupiah ($8) for damages.

Well, for those who like to lie in the sun - two words about the beach. A small piece of sandy shore, where crowded enough since 11 am to 6 pm. The main population of the beach - Australians, groups of Chinese, Italians, Brazilians, Indonesians and, of course, Russians. Countrymen now in the minority, as far to go, and Turkey and Spain - at hand. And they are quite simple determined by glitter swimsuits and short shorts. On the line-up more chance to meet Russians, but there they are more like Australians and don't so obviously stand out.

We opted for Padang Padang, but the weather is changing, and we may soon have to shift a little bit along the coast in search of new Bukit waves. In any case, our home is located approximately equidistant from mostly popular surfing locations. We recommend to look for a house in Bukit for those who come here to surf. Unless you're a super-duper-ultra beginner - in this situation you should visit the tourist hell Kuta - in principle, all started here.

Photo by mirali6is 

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Hi everyone!Here is our first post from sunny Bukit!

Everyone wants to know why we chose Bali! Not so long ago our minds settled on the idea that you should work wherever you like. We would like to work at Bali. Some people fantasise about it all there lives and we’ve gone and done it right now! Because often our dreams stay only dreams but all you need to do is just go and try it! Сorny, but it is true

We decided to start our fees from Simferopol, the hometown for most members of the team. Certainly, we chose a very vague time for Crimea, but we’ve had the goal, which was to be implemented.

Thanks to all the friends and acquaintances who helped us to find all the answers to our questions about  visas, interesting places to visit and any household questions. And of course, moms, dads and grandparents!

Moscow became the point of departure and Bangkok was the transit point.

Why Thailand? Because that is where the Indonesian Embassy. So those who don’t want to go to Kiev for a visa (I mean Ukrainians) can quietly, and immediately, obtain the two months visas in Bangkok!

The process of getting the visas is quite painless: come to the embassy during it’s 12 hour business day with your passport, two photos, tickets, some hotels reservation, and give all to the embassy. You have to pay 1380 baht in local currency ($45). Through the afternoon (time to be indicated on the paper, which they give you in the same box) you will have a visa!

Most importantly! Check the days with public holidays (more than 200 per year) in other  case you have to wait for visas much more time.  For us it was an epic fail as one holiday we have provided, and the other have not! So we have had to carry tickets for one day ahead.

And while you wait for a visas you may have a cool time in Bangkok! Wonderful city, where there is simply everything! We’ll be back there again, definitely!

We arrived at Bali on the 29th of may and settled in a place called Orchid. Very pleasant place, advised by our friend Vika. Special thanks to her and Jess!

Catching up on sleep after an overnight flight and finally, the first surf at Padang Padang, we went to find our house. And so it happend that our house found us.

This day was a day of big ceremony in honor of Kuningan and no one did not work, even Russian. Staggering around the neighborhood Ungasan we suddenly met a man who just took us to our present place of dislocation. May 31 we were settled.

We live near the owners - mother, father and three children. House with two floors, two bedrooms, garden, gazebo, pond with fish, hot tub, pool, gekkon, mosquitoes and toad! All are very Indonesian.

We are at the adaptation stage now. We have a simple schedule - in the morning mainly surfing, as far as enough strength, then we pump our culinary skills, then - working. We plan to expand this schedule with the exploration of the island and visits to the friends who live here is not the first or even second year.

Now the weather in  Bali is very comfortable, even chilly evening and night’s intermittent rain. Winter time!

We work mainly in the fresh times of the day: in the morning and after 6pm. The house is full of cozy places for work. We can stay there both inside and outside, under conditioning and under a common table.. So we all work together or hide on their places.

The main problem of Bali is connection. It’s not that slow, sometimes not at all. It should be considered, especially for those who want to move here to work. Our provider Speedy, 1 megabit speed, and all would be good if it didn’t periodically drops the connection, because somewhere near the airport dropped the cable! So, if you do not take somewhere like Sri Lanka for example, then Thailand, even at the hotel has pleased us more with speed internet.

Comes to the rescue 3G - good coverage, cheap rates. 3 gigs cost about 180 Rupiah We use sim cards on Simpati. Simcards costs about 60 Rupiah. And generally $100 - it is currently about 1.15 million Rupiah.

Actually, what we’re doing?

Making the cartoon-style shooter game. As the engine we use Unity 3D, as it supports a variety of platforms. An unusual feature of our game is that it is made by a 3D engine in 2D style.

We wanted to get away from the usual style of games and make a cartoon in which the player can influence the plot. The main character - a boy researcher who travels across fantasy worlds and finds various adventures. We’ve come up with an unusual history of the universe, with it’s flora and fauna. We plan to make a game out of several parts. In the first part the hero is exploring space, notices the dying planet and descends to the surface to understand what is wrong.

At the moment, we have worked out all the possible mechanics, structure, game balance and level design. One last spurt to the end. That’s why we are on the other side of the world, to focus exclusively on the project.

Life on the island is very diverse and surprising, as we plan to tell you about it in your blog. Development of the game takes place in unusual conditions: very interesting to get acquainted with a new culture and unusual environment. Now we are the same researchers as our hero. Ready to share all our knowledge and would like to know what you would be interested to read in the blog. Maybe it’s surfing or the price of bread in the store, or how to develop the games on the ocean side.

Join our group on facebook, where you can find the latest information about the game.

Add us to Instagram, which often appear moments in the life of developers.

Subscribe on Twitter for the latest news. Photo by mirali6is

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Hello from Bangkok!

We're moving so that we can work together, concentrate on the game and remove all distractions. We'll be using this period as a chance to do daily videos and photo reports about life and work on the island.

Stay tuned for updates!

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We talk to people a lot, we love to meet and find like-minded people and hear from our fans.

The main secret to promoting your game is to be indie yourself. Talk to your fans, answer their emails and be part of the scene!

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Level design is created from inspiration. At first, draw the sketch, then make up the details.  Carefully planning and illustrating the game play helps to assess the amount of work needed to create the level.

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Colours are important to the design itself. 

To make the image easier to look at, we have unsaturated the colour.

This is necessary for landscapes with lots of small elements of various colours. It makes it easier to look over the picture and doesn't steal the player's attention.

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Simple sketch of the level. We've been experimenting and this option we like the most. 

The levels are arranged one on one, as the floors. The final version of the design will be more detailed. 

The hero has the hard way to get to the truth.

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Yellow Planet is one of the junction concepts. 

Lots of cool NPC. The main characters is radically different from it's predecessor. 

Chewing gum color of bushes and trees so yummy.

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The new cool NPC designs have finished.  These little guys are not the most dangerous, but there are a lot of them.  Very soon we'll show you how they look in the game!

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We don't waste a minute. Draw sketches for the game even on the airplane. Meet the new characters - worms in spacesuits. Dangerous enemies.. 

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Share with you one of the first concepts. 

The idea was to make level as space city, populated by different NPC.

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Changelog

 Everyday we add new features to the game. To help keep track and avoid confusion, we keep a changelog. Recently, this note appeared: The final build is done: - More suffering to the user! - More hardcore! - More pain!  - Because life is pain! Maybe we should chill and have a tequila party? 

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The weapon system architecture is realized with MVC in mind.  We have WeaponContorller, WeaponModel and View, which is on the responsibility of Unity. The controller is responsible for the fire, direction of bullet. It is used to display the shots and tells Unity what kind of animations should be displayed. Also, it instantiates pull of GameObjects for bullets during initialization.  All weapon variables for controller work is keep in WeaponModel. This approach is very convenient and flexible. If you need to change any property of weapons, it is enough to change in the model of the weapon. We can set the speed and the number of shots, their spread and many other parameters as needed. Each weapon is assembled in prefab and easy to change. You can specifying which weapon to use and change it in the character controller. It has been achieved with unified interface for controllers. At the begin, the character was armed only with a gun. If player holds a fire button, it sees the shooting. Then we have decided to diversify the available weapons and added to the arsenal the bazooka. Shooting out as a gun is an absurd. Therefore, when player holds the button, character on the screen is aiming and shot occurs on button release.  It took 10 minutes to make the bazooka from the gun. Due to the flexible architecture, one method in the controller was overloaded and appended 6 lines of the code. 

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Take a look how we design the level. More about it in fb  https://www.facebook.com/slashear

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News from the center of revolution. Yep, the real revolution in our country - government buildings have seized. In spite of that, our team stays cool and doesn't lose heart. We believe in a peaceful solution of this conflict.

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In developing we use the frame animation, gathered in sprite - so it turns faster, and  for designer is more convenient to provide assets in this form. 

Just before the release, in the phase of optimization, all the animation assets will be remade to skeletals. Estimated that it will facilitate the size of build at least for 40 percent. 

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this is a very important person. Guess who? 

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