Yikes, it’s been a while! Keeping up with development on Pinbrawl has been tricky, let alone trying to keep this blog updated. Where to start? On December 29th, my wife and I welcomed our son Ezra into the world, and things have not been the same around the Pfitzer household. Needless to say, I did not do a lot of work on Pinbrawl for the first couple months of this year.
How am I ever going to get anything done ever again? 👶🍼👌 pic.twitter.com/6NDu7OKBOs
— Jason Pfitzer (@JasonPfitzer) January 1, 2017
However, once the craziness started subsiding a bit and I got better at being a dad, I had some serious doubts about Pinbrawl and whether or not it was worth continuing to develop. I thought about how niche of a market local multiplayer is, and the fact that it’s taking longer to finish than I’d imagined, and just had a lot of negative energy toward the project in general. Despite my best efforts, I felt like it wasn’t fun to play anymore and I couldn’t figure out why. I even told a couple developer friends at GlitchCon that I just wanted to sell what we had for like $5 on Itch.io and be done with the project.
However, a week or two later, I suddenly got the urge to just wipe the slate clean by making a new level. I had been staring at the same grassy stage for the entirety of Pinbrawl’s development, and was ready for a change of scenery. This was exactly the kind of “pick-me-up” the project needed. I had a blast producing this stage, experimenting with new visual effects (sparks, flame, breeze lines) and improving my 3D modeling and texturing skills.
Introducing the main feature of Pinbrawl's new Airship stage: the Flamespitter Turret! 🔥 #Pinbrawl #indiedevhour #madewithunity pic.twitter.com/WIR9UP7TGW
— Jason Pfitzer (@JasonPfitzer) May 10, 2017
Changed render order of the flames from "By Distance" to "Youngest First", and the front-facing ones look 10x better now! #Pinbrawl #unity3d pic.twitter.com/QvUCWetKSf
— Jason Pfitzer (@JasonPfitzer) May 16, 2017
After a little over a year in development, #Pinbrawl is finally getting a second stage! Just needs some finishing touches #gamedev #unity3d pic.twitter.com/5hZVtcHqu5
— Jason Pfitzer (@JasonPfitzer) May 12, 2017
After a little physics balancing and playtesting, Pinbrawl officially has a new Airship stage, with more to follow soon. Things are back on track again, and we’re hoping for a full release on Steam this holiday season.
We are aiming to show off the new and vastly improved Pinbrawl in August at 2017’s 2D Con, aiming to have:
- 4 stages
- 4 new characters
- Working stage select
- Gameplay tutorial
- Game options (life count, sudden death, etc.)
Additionally, we will be launching an official Early Access on Itch.io’s Refinery sometime shortly after.
After 4 exhausting months of being a new dad, I'm excited to finally be working with these guys again 😆 #Pinbrawl pic.twitter.com/JcFG2jDo4j
— Jason Pfitzer (@JasonPfitzer) May 11, 2017
