With Ugly Baby still in the developmental pipeline, we're exploring our options to see if we can bring its magic to Mac and PC users, much like our recent release of Aaaaa! for the Awesome on Unity. The 3D engine has provided several upgrades to our 2009 BASE jumping series, introducing the game to Mac users for the first time and serving as a great starting point for iOS development.
While transitioning Ugly Baby would then seem ideal, there isn't an easy drag-and-drop solution. The process has at least 10 steps, according to Ichiro, that must be followed in this order, if we want to try for a Unity-based Ugly Baby prototype:
Before starting, we're going to do what she's doing, because exercise is healthy
10 Steps to a Unity Prototype
0. Try an Ugly Baby level within Unity and see if it works at all. Then, lay out the full, detailed Ugly Baby plan.
1. Turn the level selection screen into something appropriate for Ugly Baby.
2. Create file selectors for which Python script to run (i.e. which city to play) and, GOD WILLING, finally a file selector for which song to play(!)
3. Figure out how to call out to Python to have it actually create the level.
4. Offload MP3 spectral analysis to Python. Right now, it's in 3DGS, which means that we'd need to re-code it. Best to have it live in Python proper.
5. Routines to properly play the MP3 in Unity while synching that to the action.
6. Implement an end-of-level that displays Ugly Baby stats, rather than Awesome stats.
7. Steam integration.
8. Create new graphical assets for the Unity build. Logos, icons, and all those things.
9. Unity deployment. We've never created an executable package in Unity, so that'll be a learning experience.
10. Testing, testing, testing.
Ichiro says this list is the minimum we need to do before anyone can play a Unity prototype. If this works, a step 4b will be to create another city in Python, which may make it into the existing 3DGS build, to deploy early. With PAX East coming in April, that gives us about four months to improve Ugly Baby before its big public debut. We'll definitely keep you updated on our progress leading up to this event!
