Push 3D

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• Announcements·2 May 2025Official

  Dev Summary - End-Of-Apr 2025

  April was a month that once-again dragged me away from the computer and implementation time, but I've built on last month's success by moving forward nonetheless, by building the modes out, and making sure I haven't introduced any new mayhem! A new build is on the way, but I would prefer spending a bit more time on it, rather than just releasing as-is with issues I'm already aware of. Please bear with me! Computer Opponent Mode Flush from the initial success of training machine-learning agents, I pressed forward and started building out the other 99% of the implementation (a little dev joke there), which is integrating it as an opponent, building out a settings change for the lobby, and making sure that it plays quickly and naturally (i.e. like another player). When I release the patch, it will initially only be with the "Very Easy" mode unlocked, i.e. not much of a challenge, but it's fascinating to know that you are playing against a neural network rather than an algorithm! Further training for more complex opponents will take more time, and a lot of tweaking. In order to make it a real challenge, I'll be continuing to learn more about the foibles of training, and tweaks I need to make to see further success, and a more challenging opponent. Below is proof of life! New settings in the "Computer" Mode lobby will allow you to choose a difficulty before entering the game (and it will remember your preferred setting between games): {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45309444/2a46e260aabe22cb2384efacae2810db54079ac5.png And here is an example of me playing against the "Very Easy" opponent, which I got to by simply choosing the right mode, and going through the lobby to the game, as if it were an online opponent. As you can see, it was easy to trick it into a winnable position, but its an opponent nonetheless: Proper Steam Integration It's happening! A reviewer correctly pointed out that having a bespoke login system was a little suspicious (absolutely not my intention, more a technica...
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• Announcements·2 Apr 2025Official

  Dev Summary - End-Of-Mar 2025

  After last month, this month feels considerably more positive, despite many set-backs! Restructuring the Game By far and away the most difficult part of making Push a game that is capable of being used by ML-Agents ("AI Brains") for training, has been butting up against a lot of the core designs I made when creating the multi-player version. For example, the original intention when playing games is that you would start a game manually, enter a lobby with an opponent (where a lot of verification is done), then lock-step into the game world to play the game in sync. For ML-Agent training I needed to revisit ALL of the areas that prevented me from live-resetting the game inside the game world, which obviously resulted in a LOT of rewriting of some pretty fundamental code. What was once the "Game Controller", "Player Controller" and "Board Controller" for the whole environment, has now become it's own logical unit that can be created and destroyed anywhere, be reset or started at any time. This means the ML-Agents can take control of these units, and play on them, and we can spin up as many as feasible to accelerate the training (though I haven't quite gotten there yet). There were a lot of other issues, where previously we would expect a solid order-of-operations to occur (as we needed because we had to sync over the network), but now things can somewhat happen out-of-sync, and independently in any of these units. Things as simple as Undo-Redo were causing issues where resetting the game would result in actions from the last game being played out in the initial phases of the new games! It's like turning over an ancient rock, and all these bugs come scurrying out. The silver-lining here, is that these changes might actually cover a request that some have made, which is to stay in-game and replay the person you are already connected with. With this re-design, that may be possible now, and I will definitely explore it. Understanding Unity ML-Agents While I may understand ...
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• Announcements·2 Mar 2025Official

  Dev Summary - End-Of-Feb 2025

  I'm really feeling Captain Picard's quote this month, and as a solo-developer also working a full-time job, some months are just really difficult to find the time to dig into a really large problem in the tiny bites of free time one gets. Algorithmic Complexity I started out the month working on a Computer Opponent algorithm which fit more traditional algorithms that chess programs and the like use. However, while I got it working relatively quickly, getting it to be performant is hideously difficult. For example, in most chess algorithms, you can usually constrain the number of possible moves one can make down to something that results in an opponent putting up a good challenge by being able to "see" approximately 10 turns ahead, a number which is seen as equivalent to how a really good chess player could see developing strategies almost presciently. In Push, I could only get about 4 turns ahead before I couldn't generate a move within the typical minute-default time limit. The issue with Push is that almost the whole board is "free" for a decent chunk of the game, meaning the number of possibilities per turn is vast, as compared to chess where the initial moves are limited to pawn movement and the knights, followed by limited moving as those shift around. As much as I tried to optimize, traversing that possibility space was mind-bending. As the month drew on, and the code became more and more unreadable and indecipherable (akin to a text designed to summon some ancient unknowable mechanical god), I pushed my chair back, and decided to take a step away and re-assess the possibilities. This typical chess-style algorithm wasn't working. Machine Learning Agents In the back of my mind, I was passively aware of the recent trend in machine learning, and the successes one could find with it when "Training" it to perform specific tasks. Even more success can be found in environments where there are a known set of discrete actions one can take, much like this game. While I ...
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• Announcements·1 Feb 2025Official

  Dev Summary - End-Of-Jan 2025

  If December was a great month for addressing feedback and fixing bugs, January turned out to be a good month for pushing forward with one of the final major features: Game Modes! What are Game Modes? Since the start of Development, this game was always intended to be played online, between friends, from potentially any distance. In that regard, my full focus was always on online play, and that is the game that is up on Steam, right now (grab a friend, play it!). Are there a few remaining issues with Online play? Sure, but this mode has been essentially feature complete for some time now. It's just the details that need refining. The inevitable question came alongside player feedback, which was, what if I don't want to play online? Could I possibly practice by myself? Play with someone on the same computer? How about playing against the computer, i.e. single player mode? The January Progress The month started out with the development of game mode selection as a launch-pad scene for the game, and a bit of a clean-up of the transitions between the modes. After that, Hotseat mode quickly followed. In this mode, you simply take both turns on the same machine, no connection required. Play with someone in the same location, jumping in and out of the same seat (hence "hotseat'). Next, work began on "Vs Computer" mode, where you will play against a computer opponent, the intention being that you will be able to choose the difficulty of the opponent to give yourself as much (or as little) a challenge as you want. If you have ever played chess against a computer, it will be something like that. This is where I am at, working on the "Vs Computer" mode. Right now, I am able to play against the computer, but it's not very smart. It's definitely smarter than when I initially got it working, but I feel like it's still got a long way to go to be a real challenge to the veteran players. So there is more to be done? Absolutely, and as mentioned in the last update, I will not come out ...
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• Patch Notes·31 Dec 2024Official

  Update Notes for Dec 31st 2024 (EOY) - Bug Fixes and Extension of Early Access

  December has been a good month for addressing feedback, fixing long standing and recent bugs, and assessing the current state of the game and my ultimate goals. Let's start off with today's build, it's new features, and the bug fixes therein! Stick around till after to read about the extension to Early Access. Updates and New Features Changed the App Icon to something more appropriate for the title (rather than company logo). We now randomize which team starts the game by default. This behavior can be disabled in the Room Settings by the host, when in the game room lobby. Added basic app stats to the Matchmaking window. You can now see how many players are online, in matchmaking, and in games. Updates every 5 seconds on average. Added a warning for manual disconnection via the connection (lightning) icon. Now, accidentally clicking it is safer. Scene buttons like "Back" and "Leave Game" now made much clearer, availability-wise, with their own buttons. Bug Fixes Fixed issue where drop-downs and some other controls were being cut/masked and displaying incorrectly because of UI shadows. Fixed issue where Undo/End-Turn text on the UI buttons in-game were not appearing on wider monitors. Fixed some issues with games start up, we now ensure the order of operations. As a result, a "Game Starting" screen may now appear briefly as set-up is done. Fixed an issue where checking and unchecking time limits in the room settings would result in the optional settings remaining locked. Fixed an issue where Steam Achievements were being granted to both players, if either one achieved them. Fixed an issue where board tiles were selectable via undo operations, which was allowing players to flip slip tiles back to non-slip. Fixed tile highlighting in game, so that slip tiles no longer get highlighted on mouse-over (as they should not be interactable, once made slip). Fixed an issue where the game might auto-win/lose right at the start, by erroneously reporting a player could not make an...
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