Restitched: Recapped! | February 2022

This is a trixel+ early access post that will be posted on the Trixel Creative website later!

Hello, and welcome back to Restitched: Recapped! Did you miss us? We're back with a bang to update you on some of the exciting things we got up to in February! We know that this month's Recapped! was supposed to be scrapped, but our lovely team had an amazingly productive month so we felt like we had to share.

So, with that said, let's dive in and see what team Trixel got up to in February 2022!

Commits to the Code

This month, a whopping 91+ new commits were made to the code for Restitched by Halston, Sjoerd, Michael, Harry, DeRose, and Jamie. These code changes include bug fixes (such as in the last Recapped! where Stuffy's eyes seemed to have vanished! 👀) and some other exciting stuff that we'll dive into in this very post!

Flippin 'Ell!

As seen in the picture below, one of our developers, Michael (aklnthndr) coded the flipping feature for props, materials, ornaments, etc. The flipping feature brought a slew of new bugs to tackle, but with Michael on the case, they were squashed before they could crawl! Is it a coincidence the flipping feature was done in time for Pancake Day? We think not. 🥞

A Fond Farewell

Sadly, our friends Matt and Michael (AlpineShowTime) had to depart from the team for now, with Michael sending a farewell message including a bittersweet Stuffy sketch. Matt was able to secure a games industry contract after Restitched, congrats! We wish both of these lovely developers all the best with their future endeavors.

Material Progress - Now with Added Materials!

In February, Halston worked on implementing even more materials into Restitched, including twenty new stone-based materials! This all hugely contributes towards our goal of implementing 200+ materials this year alone!

Bloomin' Brilliant Backgrounds!

This month, Ozy worked on adding post-processing to backgrounds so that they use bloom and ACES tone mapping (as outlined in the previous Recapped!). Bloom is an effect that creates a 'fringe' of glowing light that extends from the brighter elements you'll encounter in Restitched, helping create vibrant and eye-catching backgrounds with a sense of realism!

Ozy has also been busy implementing  'Azure Skies', which is the new skybox/cloud/lighting system that was first adapted into the Celtic Harbour background. This is not yet finished, but enjoy the sneak-peek below!

A Great Big Thank You

Restitched's public presence on Steam launched on September 27th, 2021, and we are incredibly grateful every time anyone interacts with the page or adds the game to their wishlist! In fact, as of February 25, Restitched has been wishlisted on Steam an amazing 4,155 times! To those of you who've been following the development of Restitched, and those who just somehow stumbled across Stuffy on Steam, thank you from everyone at Trixel Creative! 🧸🧶

Prop Custom Collision

This month, Jamie made improvements to the Prop 'custom collision' developer feature, allowing custom prop hitboxes to now get serialized (saved) properly. 

Prop collision is a fancy name for what most gamers know as a 'hitbox'. This is the invisible forcefield around models that prevent the player from walking through it or it falling through the floor! Jamie has ensured that our custom developer tools to add this invisible barrier is now saving properly, so no more ghost Props!

Stylish Stuffy!

This month, Sjoerd and Raphaël worked on the base system for Cosmetic preview icons in the Craftbook, allowing you to browse Stuffy's paw-some fashions with ease! This is still just the base work for the cosmetics system, so please hold for further updates before drawin' any conclusions!

New Models!!

This month, Cade textured a Vintage Lamp and Dresser Lamp - they're both on the same UV sheet so that they are more optimised, taking up less file space. We're always making adjustments like these in order to keep Restitched running as smoothly as possible.

Kyran also worked on a Spun Thread model, along with various other things for a story theme's background. 

Enrollin' in Stuffy School + Automation Systems Part II: Electric Boogaloo

This month, Halston worked on concepts for UI prompts used to introduce new concepts to players such as Layer Traversal (as can be seen below). These prompts will contain vital information to support Stuffy on their journey, so pay attention!

Halston also created more concepts for the aforementioned Automation System that we've touched on in previous Recapped! posts

Cpt. Stuffy Progress

As always, this month's page of Cpt. Stuffy was written by Billy and George and sketched by the amazing Ari Muños Marín! Below is a behind-the-scenes sketch from the making of the latest page! Remember, you can always access all of the fully finished pages of The Grandiose Tales of Captain Stuffy by signing up to trixel+!

...and that's everything for February!

We hope you've enjoyed this super special surprise edition of Restitched: Recapped! As always, thank you for following the development of Restitched and supporting us along the way, we hope you're having a fantastic March and we'll be back soon to update you again on what we've been up to!