tgednathan
Devlog #6 | Squashing the nasties! (No, I am not talking about my keyboard :P).
Published: April 23rd 2025, 6:19:21 pm
Heya everyone!
Don't be scared, it is just me! Your favourite blonde bombshell, Alice. Brought to you in the flesh by Nathan himself!
The posing of this picture was a bit awkward to do. with my tits on the keyboard. BUUUUT Nathan wanted them in full view. So please have a look 😛
This devlog will be a bit shorter for several reasons.
1. We are picking up development again after a break for my university classes.
2. I am preparing the game for it's first test build!
YEAH THAT IS RIGHT. In the coming few months you lovely patrons may be able to play the first test build!
Nathan and I do not know WHEN exactly this is going to happen and we will not be giving any dates just yet. But when the first build releases, it shall show up in Nathan's monthly content update.
Additionally, my lovely boss, Nathan, has a Discord server where I have my own channel, where you can ask me questions.
Simply ping me and I will respond as soon as possible.
Now with all that out of the way. You lovely little perverts have voted for a devlog about "Hunting the nasties," Which of course means bug hunting. Like any good programmer, there are a few steps I go through when doing this.
1 Acquiring the target
During development, both Nathan and I regularly play through the scenes we are making and special dev testing rooms to try and find the bugs. Whenever we find one, we make a bug report of it and how to recreate it.
The bug we shall be following report made by yours truly!
"Miles' sprite-changing code does not work in the entrance scene.
Recreate: open the entrance scene and walk around.
Not found in other scenes."
1.a Cursing
After the initial report I usually curse a bit. Thinking I already fixed that system. The next question I ask is 'is this the latest build' and if it is. You know it. MORE CURSING.
My thought process in this moment:
"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT! well it looks like i am going back to try and fix that... Again... FOR THE FIFTH FUCKING TIME!"
Side note. As a programmer, I recommend having something you can punch close by. For me, it is the wall.
2 Preparing the hunt
Bugs often hide in small, hidden corners. Little behaviors you are not expecting or typos that may cause issues.
To make myself most effective for the bug hunting, I usually prepare a few of my favourite tools.
- debug from unity. Specifically the debug.log(), debug.error() and debug.warning() functions. These are always highly recommended
- Drawgizmos also from unity. To see where an object/target location is
- A clean testing environment.
- unit tests. Where you can test a singular feature or line of code.
Isolation chambers (Controlled environment)
The first step in bug hunting I always undertake is to get all the assets and code involved and place them in a clean scene with nothing but that object, a floor, and the player. Simply trying to walk around and look closely to see if any unwanted behavior is happening, and WHEN exactly this is happening.
When I have a rough idea, I start placing debug.logs() in the code with strategic names (at first, at the end it always devolves into 'test #')
If it does not trigger at first, I slowly start adding more and more elements in the original scene until eventually it does.
The problem here was... well, it was not triggering in my controlled testing environment. So that was useless. It only triggered in the original scene.
Curiously enough... i did find something else out when replaying the full scene. Whenever we play an animation using an animation controller, afterwards the sprite stops updating.
3 Spot the difference!
... no really that is what i did. I took several screenshots of the Miles objects in different scenes and compared them side by side. Looking closely at everything. Trying to see if anything is off... AHA!
THE ANIMATOR IN THE SCENE IS TURNED ON! That must be it!
4 KILLING THE BUG!
NATHAN! GET THE NEWSPAPER! I FOUND A BUG! I AM GOING TO SQUASH IT! **SLAM**... nasty bug. ALRIGHT, back to the code bug!
I will shorten this part for a few reasons.
1. it is boring and tedious. I kid you not, but I spent hours placing logs in the code, testing everything, researching things, and cursing.
This is pretty normal for me tbh.
2. It is hard for me to be funny about this or keep your attention if i get into the real nitty gritty of this.... Unless i take my shirt off and get my tits out off course~
NATHAN: ALICE NO! I am not drawing you topless after I drew you fully clothed.
Welp, that ain't allowed, it seems.
Turns out in this case, my code is working perfectly as intended. It updates and changes everything properly and on time. The problem is Unity. Specifically, it's animation controller and poor documentation.
For you see, dear reader. When Unity animator controllers see a property in their animations, they seize control of it for as long as the animator is active even if it is not in the current animation.
The way to solve this? well all i had to do was to add a few lines of code that say 'when there is no active animation. The controller will turn off..' and VOILA! It works!
The way i would WANT it to work and seems intuitive is as follows. When a property is not used in the current animation. THE ANIMATOR SHOULD NOT FUCKING CONTROL IT!
Closing the report
When we finally fix a bug, we spend a few more minutes doing tests to see if it actually works. Then we close the report. We make a commit to our GitHub and move on to the next thing! Gosh, I cannot wait to finish this cutscene!
I see it
Blinking a few times
... you know. Jumping out of my window seems like a good idea.
[Warning: TGedNathan Games does not condone suicide. Alice said this as a joke. She is currently working on another bug. Maybe looking at the window a bit too much]
Well guys! I hope you enjoyed this devlog! It was lovely to see y'all! I will see you again on the first of next month as we try to resume your regularly scheduled monthly dose of chaos gremlin!
PS: ... looks back huh... not that short after all...