Smelogs Playground

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Post-Match Result Screen

Hello everyone
So this is going to be a long one and I’m for sure missing things. This was weeks in the making.

Improving the post-match result screen, there were a lot of things not up to the quality standards.

So here is a breakdown of what we did.

New better UI

The design process was as with all UI iterations we did focused on making it clearer, more modern, and adding animations.

Some key changes players are sorted by Teams and we indicate the winning team.

We used the same Player widget which displays the player’s name, avatar, and other information in multiple places. This made the Widget Blueprint huge and more and more of a pain to work with UI and BP code-wise. So we separated sub-elements and created new Player widgets for specific screens and use cases.

More data

Static Data

Key data that is fast accessible for any player and team’s totals.

Periodic

For deep dives and analysis.

I love it, the insights it gives are so good. After playtesting sessions, you can catch me starring at them
Seeing a Final spell or a big battle leaving its mark in the graphs.

Specials

This data gives great insights into a player’s approach and execution of the match played.

Spell History

Here we have some room to improve the feature even more showing how efficiently each spell type was used. Already in this state it is very nice to have and makes it easy for players to understand how things evolved without going through the replay analyzing the match.

Initial Base Layout

This is especially good for short matches where cheesy, greedy, or weird strategies get executed. We also allow players to copy the base layout of other players as a quality of live feature so they don’t have to manually trace it.

Better graphs

Bar graphs are not the best representation for all data so additionally to the Bar graph we already had we added a Line graph and even a Compare graph which allows the player to compare any 2 players with each other.
The Compare graph is a direct inspiration of the League of Legends compare graph.

Compare graphs also work during gameplay for Spectators.

There are a lot of little things we added and had to consider to get them properly displayed. Like negative values, horizontal and vertical indicators, hover information, etc.

Stored

Storing the Data in the match history so players can revisit it.
Doesn’t sound like much but it’s a must-have. How else am I able to stare at them after I close the screen?

Endnotes

Next couple of weeks we will spend a lot more time polishing and playtesting the game for an upcoming event

Let me know what you think and feedback is always welcome.

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Smooth Camera

Hello everyone
The camera received a small update with another iteration.

Smoother Movements

More fluid camera panning, rotation, and zoom.

Enhanced Zoom

Increased zoom capability, especially handy for spectators so they can zoom out so far that they can see the whole map at once.

Camera Intro

We also added a camera blend at the start of the match. We did this to solve the issue of players sometimes not immediately identifying which direction the center of the map is. The alternative would have been to add an arrow or another indicator. This solution is not only simpler it’s also a nice way to start a match.

Endnotes

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Gameplay Notifications

Hello, community!
Embark on a quick journey behind the scenes with us! Today, we’re unraveling the design magic that powers our gameplay notifications. Exciting stuff awaits, let’s dive in!

Objective

The primary goal of the gameplay notifications in Smelogs Playground is to enhance player communication and awareness by providing real-time updates on major gameplay events. The design aims to make these notifications visually engaging, easy to identify, and seamlessly integrated into the overall gaming experience.

Visual Hierarchy and Placement

The top-right corner was chosen for displaying notifications as it’s a non-intrusive location that allows players to stay focused on the main gameplay area. Placing notifications here ensures they are easily visible without obstructing crucial elements of the screen.

UI Animation

The use of UI animations serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it immediately draws the player’s attention to the notification, ensuring they don’t miss important events. Secondly, the animation provides a dynamic and engaging visual experience, making the game more immersive.

Player Color Identification

Color-coding notifications based on the player’s color serve as a quick and efficient way for players to identify who is involved in the event. This instant recognition is crucial for fast decision-making and strategic planning during gameplay.

Rich Text in Chat

Recording all gameplay notifications in the chat with rich text, including timestamps and colored names, serves as a comprehensive log of events. This feature not only helps players review past actions but also adds a layer of strategy as they can analyze the chronology of events during the game.

Pinging on UI Elements

Allowing players to ping on UI elements is a strategic addition to communication tools. This feature enables players to convey critical information, such as spell charge amounts or Molten Golem spawn times, directly to their teammates. This fosters better teamwork and coordination.

Design Consistency

Maintaining a consistent design language across all notifications ensures a cohesive and intuitive user experience. Whether it’s a capture point being taken over or a Molten Golem being defeated, players can quickly recognize the significance of each event through consistent design elements.

User-Friendly Communication

The combination of UI animations, player color identification, and chat logs with rich text contributes to a user-friendly communication system. Players can stay informed, strategize effectively, and communicate seamlessly with their teammates, ultimately enhancing the overall gameplay experience in Smelogs Playground.

Endnotes

Join our Discord to connect with fellow players and share your thoughts!
We’d love to hear what you think about these features and any ideas you might have.
Your feedback is crucial in shaping the future of Smelogs Playground!

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Quests

Hey
We’ve got an exciting behind-the-scenes update for you as we gear up for the game’s release!

Daily and Weekly Quests

Thrilled to announce the addition of Daily and Weekly Quests to bring more excitement to your Smelogs adventures. Dive into new challenges every day and week, earning valuable XP.

Quest Animations

Enjoy the satisfaction of completing quests with a dynamic progress animation. This animaiton is a nice touch to your achievements, making your journey even more engaging.

Room for Improvements

We’re actively exploring ways to make the quest system even more captivating. Your feedback is essential in this process, so please share your thoughts on how we can enhance your questing experience further.

Menu Flow (UX) Adjustment

To streamline your experience, we’ve adjusted the menu flow to prioritize quest progress post match before showing the Battle Pass XP progress.

Battle Pass Visuals

The Battle Pass is a central element of your Smelogs journey, and we want it to look as impressive as the rewards it offers. We’ve started working on visual improvements to make the Battle Pass interface more captivating and user-friendly.

Enhancements in Progress

While we’ve initiated improvements, we’re committed to going above and beyond. Expect more updates to the Battle Pass visuals in the upcoming patches. We value your opinions, so feel free to share any specific ideas or elements you’d like to see incorporated.

Endnotes

We can’t wait for you to get your hands on the game.
Get ready for an epic adventure - battling, questing, and having a blast!

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Happy Holidays

Here is our development recap for 2023.
It was a hectic year with lots of progress.

Reaction: Smelogs Playground with the cute kryptonite. UWU - Twitch
Unreal Feature: " Share your work #ScreenshotSaturday : @PlaySmelogs
Epic Games Store: Smelogs Playground Coming Soon - Epic Games Store
Website: Smelogs Playground on Steam (steampowered.com)

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

PLAYTEST on Steam

2 VS 2 Gameplay | Smelogs Playground | Uncut

(Uncut 2v2 gameplay video from the playtest)

Hello game devs
We are running an open playtest on Steam.
Give it a try and let us know what you think any feedback is much appreciated.
Also, if you need someone to play with or against join our Discord and post in the “looking-for-games” channel and someone from the community or the dev team will gladly join you for a couple of games.

Over the last month, we made some good progress and added some neat little things I will write more about soon.

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Report Player & Sanctions

Hello everyone,
It’s been a while since our last update, and I wouldn’t exactly call it “soon” either!

However, I wanted to briefly update you on an important development update.

We’ve implemented the Player Report and Sanctions feature, and it’s been up and running for a while now. We made sure that it’s seamlessly integrated into the game interface for easy access. Thanks to the EOS backend, managing reports and applying sanctions has become a straightforward task.

Players can select a category that fits best and add a short description to it.
Feedback is king that is why players will receive an Instant feedback report if a Sanction is applied to a reported player.

This addition has been significant for us, ensuring a smoother experience for all players and better management of misconduct. We’re committed to continuously improving our systems to enhance gameplay and foster a positive community environment.

Endnotes

If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to share them here.
Stay tuned for more updates, and happy gaming!

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Exciting News for Smelogs Playground!

Gear up for early access on Steam and Epic Games Store starting 18th of April! Dive into our colorful Aztec world and unique gameplay, and be part of the adventure from the beginning.
Don’t miss out mark your calendars!

Shares on any platform are much appreciated
Twitter / X

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

I created a How to Play Video for Smelogs Playground to get quicker and easier into the game.

How to Play - Smelogs Playground

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Making Bug Reporting Easy

Hello everyone
Before we launched Smelogs Playground into Early Access, we focused on making it as simple as possible for players to help improve the game. One major step was integrating the EOS Player Ticketing system, which allows players to report bugs and raise issues directly from within the game. This streamlined feedback process ensures we can quickly gather important information while keeping things convenient for players.

We’ve also set up a dedicated Bug Report and Feedback section on our Discord server, where we track known issues and share regular updates with every patch. The EOS system is a great tool, as it even allows us to respond directly to players when needed making feedback a two-way conversation.

Bug Report

To ensure precise responses and easy navigation, we created a Bug Report widget. Players can select a category and subcategory for their issue, then provide a short description to help us identify the problem quickly and efficiently. In the “Other” category players can enter their own if they think none of the listed ones fit. The same goes for the other Subcategory.

Technical Support

The Technical Support widget offers a straightforward way for players to get help. Players can enter a message, submit it, and track their active tickets. Plus, the system includes notification indicators when a response has been received, keeping communication clear and responsive.

Endnotes

By combining these systems, we’re able to gather and act on feedback faster, while maintaining clear communication with our player base. These tools have been crucial in allowing us to refine Smelogs Playground during Early Access and will continue to play a central role in our development process.
Something we can’t do at the moment is that players can add Replay files with the Bug report or files in general.

Want to check out Smelogs Playground for yourself the game is free to play on the Epic Games Store and Steam.
Have any questions or feedback, please feel free to share them here.

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Performance Boost

Optimizing performance has been a major priority for Smelogs Playground, and recent updates have introduced several key improvements to enhance efficiency and gameplay smoothness.

Performance Enhancements

• Reducing “Get All Actors/Widgets of Class”: We focused on removing as many “get all actors of class” and “get all widgets of class” calls as possible, significantly cutting down on unnecessary overhead.
• Efficient Enemy Detection: We switched to a grid-based enemy detection system in C++, improving how the game handles AI detection logic and making it more scalable. TPointHashGrid3d In GeometryCore | Epic Developer Community (epicgames.com)
• Widget Optimization: Instead of frequently creating and removing widgets, we now update existing widgets in place and only create new sub-widgets when absolutely necessary. This reduces memory overhead and improves performance.
• Overhead Widget Separation: Previously, the Overhead widget handled several elements (health bar, upgrade progress, production progress, and objective progress) all in one. We’ve now separated these into individual widgets, so only the relevant elements are updated during gameplay.
• Niagara System GPU Optimization: Wherever possible, we’ve ensured that Niagara particle systems now run on the GPU, shifting computations away from the CPU and improving overall performance.

Tools and Techniques

Unreal Insight was instrumental in pinpointing performance bottlenecks and guiding these optimizations.

Looking Forward

While these improvements have provided a noticeable performance boost, there are still many areas where we can continue to optimize.

Want to check out Smelogs Playground? The game is free to play on the Epic Games Store and Steam.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to share them here!

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

8 Player support

Smelogs Playground supports since a while 8 players in Custom Games! This feature also includes improved spawn locations for all game modes, which came with its own set of challenges and required performance enhancements to ensure smooth gameplay even with the increased player count.

Challenges and Solutions

Player Spawn Locations:

Accommodating 8 players required rethinking how spawn locations work, especially across different team sizes and modes like Free For All (FFA). This overhaul also enhanced the experience for smaller matches, such as 2v2, where players can now more easily defend and support each other.

1v1:

The spawn system remains mostly unchanged, with players starting opposite each other at random in Pool positions A, B, or C.

2v2:

Players now spawn side by side, improving team coordination. Pool B is always used, and the second player spawns randomly in Pool A or C for both teams.

3v3:

All spawn Pools (A, B, C) are used, with diagonal team spawns to promote balanced gameplay.

4v4:

Teams are split into 2v2 pairs, spawning either in adjacent corners or across the map, allowing for strategic positioning.

2v2v2v2 (or 2v2v2):

Teams are distributed evenly across the map, with each group taking a different position. If it’s 2v2v2, one spawn position remains empty.

FFA (up to 4 players):

Each player is assigned a random corner/position, but all use the same spawn Pool to ensure consistency.

Chaos Spawn:

For unconventional setups or mixed player/team configurations, we implemented Chaos Spawn, which selects spawn points at random for each player.

Performance Considerations

Before enabling 8-player matches, we optimized the game to maintain smooth performance even with hundreds of units on the field. Check out our previous post on performance improvements for more details.

UI Adjustments

To support 8 players, several UI elements required adjustments, including:

• Player list
• Menu and result screens
• Spectator view
• Custom game menus

These updates ensure that the interface scales properly for larger matches.

Endnotes

The new spawn system, particularly for 2v2, was a necessary change for balancing and significantly enhances team play. By spawning allies closer together, it’s easier to support each other and foster collaboration, making team games more dynamic and enjoyable.

With the addition of 8-player support, we’re pushing Smelogs Playground toward larger, more chaotic battles while maintaining smooth performance and balanced gameplay.
Want to try it out? Smelogs Playground is free to play on the Epic Games Store and Steam. Looking for Challengers
As always, we welcome your feedback and questions!

[lkav (NiftySimon)]

Spectator Drawing Tool

Hey everyone!
We realized we haven’t yet highlighted one of our favorite features in Smelogs Playground the paint/drawing tool available in the Spectator UI! While it’s been in the game for some time, we wanted to properly introduce it and share why we think it’s such a game-changer for analyzing matches.

What does it do?

• Works during live spectating and in replays: Perfect for breaking down strategies or analyzing key moments.
• Client-side only: Your drawings are currently visible only to you, but we’re considering an option to let others see them in the future.
• A full palette: Draw with any player color, plus white and black, for clear and versatile annotations.
• Easy cleanup: There’s a delete/clear all button to quickly reset your canvas.
• In-game and in 3D space: Unlike traditional tools that are limited to 2D overlays, our solution works directly in the 3D environment of the playground, giving you complete freedom to annotate the battlefield itself.

Why is this important?

Many commentators and analysts in other games rely on third-party tools to draw over a static screen, which can feel limiting. With Smelogs Playground, you’re not tied to a fixed perspective or external software. The entire playground becomes your canvas, allowing for deeper insights and more engaging explanations during both live matches and replays.

How did we do it?

We use a material with a render target texture, in a simple Blueprint we track the cursor’s position and draw lines based on the selected color on the texture. The texture/material on a plane in 3D space above the Playground ground.

• Line thickness: It’s currently fixed but could be made adjustable in the future.
• Room to grow: We’re exploring new features, like shared drawings, more tools, and enhanced customization options, based on community feedback.

Your Feedback Matters

We’re proud of how intuitive and useful this tool has become, but there’s always room to improve!

If you’ve used the drawing tool, we’d love to hear about your experience. What additional features would make it even better for you?

Let us know ! Your ideas will help us shape the future of Smelogs Playground.