Deployment Pipeline

I've been spending the past couple weeks doing performing arduous task of setting up a deployment pipeline for the game.  It is really the only way to quickly iterate and release changes based on feedback and discovered bugs.  But alas, we're finally here.

Game source code is checked into Azure DevOps which then kicks off a build on a self-hosted Linux VM agent running Unity to perform the game builds.  Afterwards build artifacts are published, the game client uploaded to Itch.io and the server is published to PlayFab.

It has taken a long time to get here.  And I'm trying to do it without paying a ton of money to PlayFab and Azure for VM costs.  So in the future I'll be trying to do things to bring those numbers down while still hopefully having a way for people to play the game with relative frequency during common hours.

Release 88

We're going to officially give it a number.  This is version 88 of the game with the following changes

• Implemented build/deploy pipeline
• Added preliminary grenade weapon (particle damage still to come)
• Upgraded PlayFab SDK for improved matchmaking
• Fixed mini-map marker display
• Auto return player to launch bay upon disconnecting from the game
• Various UI improvements

So what all this means is that very soon (within a few days I believe), we'll be able to have more than a few people download the game via Itch.io, create an account, and start playing.  Of course there's only one map right now, but that will be changing very soon as well.