Restitched: Recapped! | January 2024 (Patreon)

Hello there, and welcome back to yet another exciting Restitched: Recapped! post! This is our first recap of 2024, and we're already starting strong with a very productive and promising month. Strap in for one of the largest and most visual posts we've ever made!

Let's jump right in and see what all we got up to, shall we?
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Trixel's 2023, Recapped!

On the 3rd of January, we published an official 2023 year-in-review post. This post recaps some of our accomplishments, milestones, and news from throughout the past year. If you're interested in what we've been up to or just need a refresher, check it out!

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Trixel Creative Changes

Since its incorporation, Trixel Creative has always operated with two company Directors - Halston Stephenson and Billy Anderson. As we closed out the year, Billy decided that 2023 would be his last as a Director. 

Billy also held a creative role within Restitched as Lead Writer. With the game's story being completely outlined and The Grandiose Tales of Cpt. Stuffy comic fully written, Billy will be taking time away from the project until any revisions are needed.

Everything we currently do at Trixel Creative is out of passion and as a hobby - including its management. We certainly respect the decision to put personal matters first and are extremely grateful for the years of dedication Billy has given. Without him, we wouldn't be where we are today!

Going forward, we're maintaining the years-long structure of Trixel Creative, which is why we've announced the return of a former Director, Hunter, who originally took a break from the position in August 2022. We're excited to welcome him back and continue this journey together!

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Code Curators

As usual, we made quite a lot of Git commits as we worked to wrap up our months-long detour into a separate 3D physics branch! We'll get more into that soon...

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Wrapping Up 3D Physics

In case you've somehow missed the news, we've been working on a separate 'Experimental 3D Physics' branch for a few months now. This was meant to be a quick and dirty experiment. We wanted to see how the game would hold up if we switched from 2D Physics to 3D Physics. How much would break? What problems could it solve? Is it worth the setback to make the game and development better?

Originally, Restitched was a 2D-coded game presenting with 3D models. However, this made it increasingly difficult and limiting. Our code was getting messier, and we were doing extra work to make new features and mechanics. We were also limited from expanding the range of playable depth - something we knew we needed from the start if we wanted Stuffy's in-depth moveset to be worthwhile.

After some big changes, we loved how the game looked and felt in this new branch! It was visually more interesting with extra depth and even better to play.  However, it also broke quite a lot... and we do mean a lot! Things like the Needle 'n Thread mechanic, gravity, Stuffy's movement code, and all physical objects in the game (including materials) were affected in some way.

Fast forward through a bazillion bug fixes, months of work, and lots of head-scratching... We're finally out of the woods. Our experimental branch is finished! This means we now have fifteen playable layers, better physics, better performance, and improved movement. We've also given a much-needed update to some of our level editing tools to get them working again - some better than before.

Our next goal will be to patch up the final broken bits caused by this change. Currently, we're improving the Needle 'n Thread mechanic to use more realistic rope physics. We're also fixing some final Stuffy movement bugs and replacing our Stamp system with better tech!

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Stitching Up Stamps

Somewhere along the way in fixing other features, our Stamps broke! Nothing was showing up when placing the graphics on surfaces, so we had our programmer Lewis take a look:

"turns out convex colliders dont work with RigidBody.texCoord, so i just convert the hit point to local position and use that. the only thing i know doesnt work right now is placing stamps fully on the side"

Now they're working again... sort of! As mentioned, our Stamps tech is soon to be replaced with an even better version. We're here to chew gum and fix bugs... and we're all out of gum!

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Generating Colliders

We generate 3D colliders for all physical objects in a level. However, our Props retained some code for the 2D colliders we used before. To fix this, we now take the hand-drawn colliders from our custom Collision Editor tool and extend that on the Z-Axis until it's 3D. 

We hooked this  2D to 3D generation up, so it happens automatically behind the scenes whenever we import the entire Props dataset. This heavily streamlines our process for getting Props working in the game!

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Cleaning Our Brushes

In a sense, our Building Material brushes are your digital paintbrush. This month, Halston and Michael worked to clean them up a bit by reducing the number of vertices on the circle shape. The visual difference is very minor, but the performance cost was heavy! So, we halved the number and now smeared shapes are a lot smoother and easier to edit.

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Decimating Meshes

Brushing Building Materials freely in Restitched can quickly make a complicated shape. We know people will want to go wild and squiggle lines around the screen (we do too... it's fun!), so we had to think of a way to stop performance from tanking and keep the vertices clean enough for the Shape Tool to edit them.

We discovered a leftover "decimate" option in the code that allows shapes to get cleaned up as they're brushed - clearly, something we forgot we were trying earlier on! The problem is that we were calling this at the wrong spot in the code. Our Lead Programmer Michael changed the order in which shapes get cleaned via code, and now we have real-time decimation when brushing things. However, this needs more work for the best results!

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Throughout the month, our 2D Artist Carter made a few Stamps for the game, with one of them meant to be included as art in an upcoming level background!

Carter also shared an interesting photo with us on January 26th. This is a collection of Stamps they put together, stating:

Had a little fun with some of the stamps I made recently....

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Token Tinkering

Thanks to Halston and Carter, we've finally gotten around to giving our in-game point pickups a proper model and art. At this time, the default currency is planned to be a Token similar to what you'd find in an arcade. We feel this stands out enough to be instantly recognized as a pickup item, and not just another Prop.

Below you can see some of Carter's concepts for different currency types, as well as an exploration of the token idea and its design:

We are still experimenting and refining nearly all ideas and designs, so the option to have multiple visual styles of a points pickup is an idea we're exploring. We may also change this from a Token completely, though at this time it makes the most sense visually.

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Props Galore

With the collision system now patched up and behaving properly, Halston spent the latter half of the month going through our backlog of Props and imported a few new ones to be used in-game. These models are from our talented 3D Artists, including assets from Cade, Santiago, and Evan.

Traditional Alarm Clock:

Toy Letter Block:

Fun fact: The "Toy Letter Block" Prop can have its appearance changed with our "Swatch Tool". This means you can cycle between different texture styles, as shown below!

Antique Radio:

Mushroom 1, Mushroom 2, and Mushroom 3:

Mounted Garden Hose:

Last but not least, a batch containing a Wooden Bucket, Coiled Rope, Stone Brick, and Oval Metal Bucket - all pictured in the Haddock Harbour environment.

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Polishing Paint

The "Paint Bucket" model was originally made for the Attic environment, purely as a background item, but we loved it so much that we decided to convert it into a Prop! Because this model was only meant to be seen from a distance, the maximum texture size we had for it was a 512x512px texture. That's a very low resolution, as most of our Props use 1024x1024px or higher.

Halston, our graphic designer and project lead, went in and redesigned the texture. While it's still faithful to the original, it now uses a fictional paint brand logo and a sharper image. It also comes in various swatches so you can change the paint color.

This is only one example of the many assets and features we regularly go back and polish throughout development!

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Widdling at the Wardrobe

Stuffy's Cosmetic ensemble has been steadily growing lately, and all thanks to the efforts of our 3D Artists Cade and Santiago! Check out some of the assets they've been working on this month! 

(Do note that some of these are due to be polished during import or in later stages of development.)

On January 10th, Santiago shared an update on Whiskers, a Monocle, Pig Nose, and more:

Cade started the month off with a Hawaiian/Resort Shirt, Angel Wings, and a first pass at High Heels:

On January 14th, Cade shared a progress update on his texture for a few eyes, including Beady Stitched, Cross-Stitched, and Tired Eyes.

A few days later, on January 20th, Cade shared a few more pieces of his work. This included the model for Fairy Wings, Happy Eyes, and Neutral Eyes.

A day later, some of the team chimed in with feedback. We already have default beady eyes that match the Neutral Eyes, so we suggested inverting the Happy Eyes for a more neutral expression.

Ozy also gave some feedback on the first texture (not pictured) of the Fairy Wings, which Cade then quickly adjusted and shared an update of:

Cade finished out the month with a few torso items for Stuffy's wardrobe! These included a couple of formal shirts and a flannel:

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This month we had a hefty amount of bugs to fix up when it came to Stuffy. Fortunately, Project Lead Ozy was well-versed in this area thanks to his interest and experience with physics and code!

Extermination Station

There were loads of fixes to Stuffy this month, including the return of input deadzones, collider adjustments, speed tweaks, animation fixes, physics interactions with bouncy and slippery surfaces, climbing fixes, and much more.

As we work through ideas and  issues in the game, we track them all on a team Trello card:

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Testing Chambers

To help Ozy sort out these pesky gameplay bugs, Halston created (and updated) a couple of level saves that would put our plush pal to the test as they platform through obstacles using movement and physics.

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Catastrophic Climber

One of the first things Ozy fixed was climbing. After our switch to 3D Physics, the raycast for when a surface is detected wasn't working anymore. Ozy adjusted this and restored the feature, so now Stuffy can shimmy and vault again!

Despite a few clipping issues at the time of recording, climbing has been restored. In the future, we plan to polish this by moving Stuffy's hitbox rather than teleporting it at the end of the action. We hope to touch this up much more in the coming months before our next trailer can be recorded!

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Slip 'n Slide

Another thing Ozy tackled later in the month was the ability to slide down steep slopes at an increasing velocity. This was already the case for our levelobjects like Props and Materials, but now Stuffy can join in on the fun too!

This goes hand-in-hand with other physics changes this month, such as Stuffy's ability to bounce on select surfaces. Having this sandbox physics aspect is super important to us!

Above and Beyond

As mentioned, the player being able to react to different surfaces is an important feature we've restored. Not only is Stuffy able to slide down steep slopes (especially slippery ones like glass), but you can now bounce around too!

When we first tested this, Stuffy's code and physics were fighting us a bit. Whereas other objects would react normally, Stuffy was a bit dampened and rigid - not allowing our physics system to do its work. So, we released Stuffy from the shackles of this pesky code.

Now they're happy to be bouncing around and reaching even higher places!

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Exclusive Movement Update

On January 13th, we shared an update on Stuffy's gameplay changes in an exclusive trixel+ post. This is the first piece of proper game footage we've released since our first trailer back in July of 2022! In the footage, we can see several mechanics in action, like drag-and-drop Stuffy, bouncing, platforming, sliding, 3D layer movement, crawling, and more.

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BREAKING News! No, really... It's broken.

We're not shy to bugs in the world of Restitched. In fact, we're pretty sure Stuffy is half cockroach. Not only because they're hard to kill, but because they love getting into places they shouldn't.

But this month Stuffy isn't a bug we're after. Instead, we've been tackling numerous issues ranging from new to old. Below are a few of the bigger ones!

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Mismatched Material Collision

One of the bugs introduced this month was the result of fixing another (that's usually how it goes, right?). The bug in question was a simple one to identify. All Building Materials had their colliders mismatched with the visuals. So, at a glance, everything looks fine... until Stuffy walks right through the front of something that should be solid!

Michael promptly fixed this up for us, tracing it back to a recent change meant to optimize the game. Stuffy was a bit bummed that his favorite new hiding spot was taken away, but the show must go on...

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Buggy Brushing & Curious Cutting

A bug we were beginning to wonder if we could ever solve was finally addressed! Complex colliders on brushed Building Materials were telling the game to not let us cut through it once it was placed. We tinkered and toyed with fixes until we chiseled it down to a smaller problem.

Now that cutting from inside a material works, we had to find out why it was broken if you started the cut operation from outside of it first. Long story short, our Lead Exterminator... err, we mean programmer, got things back into tip-top shape so that brushing and cutting is now more reliable.

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Broken Photography

We use multiple custom photography tools in-engine to capture icons for some of the assets that appear in the Craftbook UI. These include things like Outfits, Cosmetics, and Building Materials. Somewhere and somehow this stopped working, but we didn't notice it because we only generate icons when a significant number of new assets are added.

Embarrassingly, we realized after weeks of wonder that the camera was just capturing blank icons all because of a setting that reverted itself. Oops! As we dug deeper, we noticed that Stuffy was veering off out of the photo for each frame it captured. We traced this down to some bad code and leftover 2D colliders. Once that was sorted, Cosmetic icons were restored.

Building Materials were a bit more challenging. A very strange visual effect was stacking with each icon that was photographed. We were able to reproduce it, but couldn't find out why it suddenly started. To fix it, Ozy swapped the custom shaders we were using on most of our Building Materials, then coded in a fallback for materials that were missing a main texture - something that tripped up the system as it was actively looking for a slot that doesn't always exist.

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Our mega-talented animation duo, Luke and Brennan, were also busy this month! Working toward a full animatic sequence in recent months, they're getting close to wrapping things up. 

You'll be able to see the fruits of their labor in the next Restitched trailer. Until then, we'll just share a little work-in-progress teaser:

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In a recent update, we announced that we are shifting directions for The Grandiose Tales of Cpt. Stuffy. Originally, we had pages written well into the year, after which we would have finished in a third issue. After discussing this with our comic artists, we decided to finish sooner so that we'd have more hands involved with the development of the game. 

This comic is near and dear to our hearts, which is why we've reached out to the original writer, Billy Anderson, to help wrap things up sooner with a few revised pages.

We always had an idea of how the comic would end and how it might connect to Restitched. So, we're excited to see that idea come to life over the coming months as we roll out the final pages of Cpt. Stuffy's adventure!

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Beautiful Ballerina
by: Halston

Sky High

by: Halston

World Peace

by: Carter

Attic Adventures

by: Halston

Forest Stroll

by: Halston

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That'll do it for this one! We hope you've enjoyed the many exciting things we got up to during the first month of the year... See you in the next Recapped!

Which section of this Recapped was your favorite? Let us know in the comments!