#narball — Public Fediverse posts

Narwhals are great, so more narwhals must be better. #Narball

I just pushed v0.093 of #Narball that reduces CPU usage and improves control responsiveness. Narball at 60fps with 200 balls now uses less CPU than the task manager. #gamedev #optimization

Spent a few hours trying to debug #Narball running in #Proton on #Steamdeck with no luck. It seems like Proton is hitting a nullptr exception before my app even starts, and I'm not getting any hint as to what it is. I think my time would be better spent trying to make a native linux build of the #worldfabric engine. I got Visual Studio code installed on my Steamdeck, but it's nontrivial to convert my visual studio project to be build-able here. Not looking forward to fighting with the compiler for a week, but probably for the best long-term?

Whatever is causing the crash on close in #Narball doesn't happen if the debugger is open, is not detectable by memory sanitization tools, is not detectable by Vulkan validation, and is not on any objects I have a destructor written for. I really hate this bug. #gamedev #debugging

Pushed an update to #Narball that fixes desyncs when running with Proton. Linux users should be able to play with Windows players now. Game still doesn't launch on Steamdeck though. This fix doesn't address crashes on start-up in Linux, only online desyncs for players who could already open the game.

Spotted 3 randoms in my #narball server and managed to get some friends in to play 3v3 with them. It was awesome. We mostly lost. How are they so good already?

I'm getting people popping in to #Narball, but it's always one at a time. I've tried to make this game more accessible than my last one, but there's still one requirement to play: friends.

I made a #tiktok account to promote #Narball. I find the format of an infinite scroll of random short videos very unpleasant, but supposedly that's where I have the best chance of being seen. https://www.tiktok.com/@worldfabric5/video/7637212604280098062

Them (in my head) : #Narball is a silly game with no skill.
Me: *Wins 1v3* . #indiegame

I started a FAQ for #Narball . It's releasing on #Steam in just two days! https://steamcommunity.com/app/4404880/discussions/1/837249543665991444/

Now that #Narball has an official #Steam release date approaching I'm getting hella #phishing emails. Would I like free help getting the word out? Absolutely. Do I trust anything that comes through any of the official contact info available on Steam? Nope. I can tell the links don't go where they say they go. Not sure who thought it was a good idea to put subdomains at the front. If any of these emails are real, I'll never know because this state of things is too depressing for me to check them all.

Two weeks until the release of #Narball. I thought about doing some pre-release influencer marketing, but I don't think I will. They'd just be playing with each other if they could find games at all. Exclusivity is kind of against the ethos of #WorldFabric anyway. I think I'm just gonna stealth drop it and see what happens. I can do streamer outreach after its out, and then they'd be able to play with their fans. I designed a whole new asynchronous event architecture to make sure weak PCs on crappy connections would get the same quality experience as the best hardware, prioritizing elites for release would be incongruous. #indieDev

There's like 6 different ways to join a game through Steam. I've got most of them working for #Narball, but joining a dedicated server through a rich presence link off of a friend while the game is closed always fails even though the connect command appears to be the exact same as the one I generate when joining from a server list request API call, which almost always works. It works sometimes if the game is already open. It's the same command! #Steamworks

#Narball playtest went well. Dedicated server and quickplay are still not quite behaving, but everyone got in, no crashes, no desyncs, and the physics updates went over really well. Narball is feature complete now, just need to tidy up a few rough edges before release.

Time for more #Narball playtest rounds starting in a little over an hour (8PM ET). This week I'm testing the feel of physics changes, so I need opinions. Come be a narwhal and hit balls! I'll be giving out Steam keys on Discord. https://discord.gg/2nqMDRZ4xn #indiegame #playtestersWanted

I have added matchmaking to #Narball. #WorldFabric is decentralized by design, so I'm not running any servers myself, but Steam has a built-in server browser. The game accesses the Steam server list and then scores the available matches client-side to select one. The game includes a DedicatedServer exe in the folder that anyone can run. If you open the port for the Steam server browser, then people who click quick play might join your server. #decentralization #indieDev

I'm hoping people will play #Narball, wonder how it works so well, and that will lead them down the rabbit hole to watching my videos about the technology behind it. I am the rabbit in the rabbit hole. #WorldFabric

#Narball is now approved for release on Steam. I'm still working to get dedicated servers and matchmaking working, but it could release without that. There's certainly more quality of life upgrades possible, but right now it is playable with friends, quite fun, runs well, and no one is crashing or de-syncing anymore.

I've added a new mechanic to #Narball : tail kick. If you bump the wall with your tail you will get a boost in the direction you are facing. You can also hit other players with your tail to knock them back.

Time for another Narball playtest in about 30 minutes. I'll be giving out Steam keys and hosting matches in Discord shortly. Anyone is welcome. https://discord.gg/2nqMDRZ4xn #indieGame #videogames #playtest #playtestersWanted #narball

Narball Playtest today at 8PM EDT. Nothing going on tonight? Come play #Narball with us!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4404880/Narball/

https://discord.gg/2nqMDRZ4xn

#indiegame #videogames

#Narball playtest went alright. Steam networking seems pretty smooth, much less friction to get in and anyone can host. Unfortunately, there's seems to be a memory leak and it gets slower the longer you have the game open.

I'll be hosting a #Narball playtest in 2 hours (8PM eastern US) on Discord to test out the new Steam P2P networking. Anyone is welcome. It's usually a good time. https://discord.gg/2nqMDRZ4xn #indiegame #Steam #playtesting

New World Fabric devlog goes over the interface and rules for the system that automatically networks running C++ code with real examples from Narball. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVlNlhh-mT8

#gamedev #devlog #WorldFabric #Narball #networkprogramming

How does #WorldFabric keep players synchronized over the internet with so many moving objects? Trick question: it doesn't! World Fabric only maintains local causal consistency. The further apart players are, the weaker the causal link, and the more wibbly wobbly timey whimey it gets. #Narball #networkprogramming #doctorWho

Tonight's #Narball playtest went really well. One player with ~150 ping characterized the game as "smooth as f%*^". On top of several intense matches I can use for the new trailer, we also hit a new stability/performance record of 7 online players with 2,000 balls. https://youtu.be/HijMP7mSQVE #indieDev

Open Narball playtest test in 3 hours. I'm trying to make this one a stress test. I want see how many players I can get in a single match, so I need all the Narwhals I can get. https://discord.gg/2nqMDRZ4xn #Narball #indiegame #playtest #boostsAreAppreciated

I fixed all of the bugs that came up in the last play-test of #Narball and am feeling really good about the current build. Too good. Nobody has crashed or desynced all week. It's unnerving...definitely time for another open play-test. Maybe Sunday? #indieGame

I tried creating a match of #Narball with 100,000 balls just to see what would happen, and to my surprise, though everyone else dropped, I as the host was able to get in and take a screenshot. It was moving even slower than my 15 fps would suggest.

I think I finally fixed the #narball crash that would happen for some people in the menus. I don't entirely understand why it happens, but I moved all of the #Vulkan calls out of every thread except the Vulkan thread, and that seems to have done the trick.