Stick Nodes: Treasure Trove Collab – Winners Announced!

By Ralph (Developer) 30 Comments

Watch the full collab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPddJ8YUgME

Watch behind-the-scenes torture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3C4SnD64SA

Ah yes, the beach is truly a wonderful sight to behold. And also stacks of money. Just as wonderful to behold.

And with that segue, let’s get into who won the summer collab!

“Best Animated” winners

“Most Entertaining” winners

Winners will be contacted soon!

Honorable mentions

Many of the entries were absolutely great and all are worth mentioning. Thank you to all who entered, even if your entry was denied. The quality threshold was very high, hopefully you can take away some ideas after having seen the final product, and with some practice come back for the next collab!

Picking winners was very tough. It was a good idea to separate “best animated” as to give more people a chance to win, but the “most entertaining” category became somewhat of a blur between entertainment and uniqueness – which should be its own category for entries which really think outside the box. Similarly, maybe some awards for character design should be considered next time as well.

Once again, shouts out to the Stick Nodes collab team, they really went above and beyond.

Okay, gonna go procrastinate with the Stick Nodes sprite update some more. Byeee!

Summer Collab Announcement – Stick Nodes: Treasure Trove

By Ralph (Developer) 70 Comments

Edit June 26th: The collab is live (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPddJ8YUgME). An official post will be made here today or tomorrow announcing the winners!

Edit June 15th: It is the last day, entries are closed! Thanks to all who participated. The collab will release on June 25th or so.

Remember the Christmas collab? Well this is like that but for Summer.

TL;DR just watch the announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7btHSDTYpY

The rules, prizes, submission methods, and download links for everything are included in this Google doc, read it carefully.

The Plot

Ralph seems to have found a mysterious-yet-incredibly-durable chest on the beachside during his “vacation”! As he tries through many different “hurdles” to break it, it gains the attention of the other citizens on the beach – all of whom want to see what’s inside as well! Who will be able to successfully break open the chest, and gain the loot for themselves?

Prizes

No merch, I know you’re sad. Only money. Prizes are simple, there are two categories:

  1. Best Animated ($100 first prize, $50 for two runner-ups)
  2. Most Entertaining ($100 first prize, $50 for two runner ups)

Payments will be made via Paypal (preferably, or some other payment processor). If not, some sort of gift card can be arranged.

Winners will be decided by me with some input from the collab organizers. Speaking of which, shouts out to them:

All entries must be submitted by June 10th. Again, read the rules document here.

New Version (3.3.0 – 3.3.4) – The “Happy Pi Day” Update

By Ralph (Developer) 151 Comments

April 15th: Version 3.3.4 is uploaded. Fun fact, 3.3.2 and 3.3.3 for Amazon Pro users has never had the chance to go live lmao.

April 13th: Version 3.3.3 is live on Google Play and the App Store. Amazon seems to take 4-5 days to approve because they [redacted].

April 11th: Version 3.3.2 has now been uploaded, of course typical delays with the App Store and Amazon, will be live any hour/day now.

March 24th: Version 3.3.1 has been uploaded to Google Play, App Store, and Amazon’s App Store. If it’s not live now it will be in the coming hours. See changelog below.

Before I begin, props to Twitter account @stick_update for going strong for 286 days of no new Stick Nodes update.

But yes, let’s just get into it. This should be live on both Google Play and the App Store as of right now, if not in a couple hours depending on your location.

Changelog 3.3.4

  • Bug fix: Import lists were blank if opening an existing project (until editing the list or importing a new figure, then it would correct).
    For real this time.
  • Bug fix: Free users opening a Pro project that had a movieclip with drop shadow applied would have a bad time.

Changelog 3.3.3

  • Bug fix: Import lists were blank if opening an existing project (until editing the list or importing a new figure, then it would correct).

Changelog 3.3.2

  • Import lists (stickfigures, movieclips, and sounds) now have a filter on the dropdown select box for easier finding of imported files.
  • Nodes are hidden if the stickfigure is locked, regardless if joined or not.
  • Bug fix: Quick Resize Tools would appear/disappear at wrong times during Creation Mode.
  • Bug fix: 0-length segment with smart-stretch resulting in wrong behavior.
  • Bug fix: Neighbor nodes didn’t show for static nodes in Creation Mode.

Changelog 3.3.1

  • Tweening can now be turned on and set to 0. This essentially is a non-tweened animation, but now you can use the “Slow Motion” setting to add some tweening on a per-frame basis.
  • Bug fix: Drop shadow disabled properly for Free version (sorry).
  • Bug fix: Breaking apart a movieclip with locked nodes would result in odd behavior.
  • Bug fix: Animating with 1fps in Movieclip Creation Mode would result in weird tweening.
  • Bug fix: Many joined figures would lag if panned or the main node moved from root stickfigure.
  • Bug fix (?): PNG export at 4k with “better blur” would result in glitches for some scenes/devices, the intensity of the blur has been reduced in order to relieve the processing required,

Changelog 3.3.0

  • Frame node limit per frame can be doubled, enable this in the App Settings window.
  • You can set a series of frames to repeat for X amount of times. Good for looping a scene a few times. Look under Frame Tools.
  • New filter, drop shadow (can also be used as a sort of edge glow).
  • Quick Resize Tools remembers if it should be enabled or disabled upon startup.
  • When exporting, an option for “better quality blur” is available. This is experimental, but should result in (slightly) better-looking blurs and glows (when exporting).
  • When creating a stickfigure, it will be auto-saved every 5 minutes. You can access a history of auto-saved stickfigures from the Creation Mode Tools. This can be disabled in the App Settings window.
  • When the app encounters lag during playback, it will now skip frames to try to keep the correct pace. This results in better timing for sounds and music and is more natural behavior.
  • Default movieclips have been added, similar to default stickfigures.
  • The Magnifier can now be locked in place.
  • PNGs can export in 4k resolution.
  • Added new sound effects, search for “330” in the Import Sound window.

What took so long? Well, in August I moved cross-country. Took a while to get settled. Acquired a puppy, which didn’t help my free-time situation. Had the update ready to go in October, but iOS issues weren’t playing nice and it delayed the update into November – the month when Google enacted new Android storage rules. This forced me to implement the new storage structure for Stick Nodes earlier than I wanted, thus pushing back the update for a few months because of the amount of work it took, as well as the holidays eating up my time. And now we’re here. In March. Sorry.

Android Storage Change

As of November 2021, Android requires apps to store files/data in the proper designated app folder. Stick Nodes was storing its files in the /Stick Nodes/ folder on the main storage as many of you are familiar with. This is no longer supported. As a result, upon first startup of Stick Nodes, the app will prompt you to run a file-transfer session where it will move all of your files from the old location to the new location.

This results in a few changes:

  1. Stick Nodes Free and Stick Nodes Pro no longer share the same files, there are separate in their respective folders:
    /Android/data/org.fortheloss.sticknodes/files/
    /Android/data/org.fortheloss.sticknodespro/files/
    Note that only certain “file-explorer” apps have access to these special Android folders, I recommend Explorer
  2. Because of the new storage structure, when you uninstall Stick Nodes (Free/Pro) it will possibly delete all of your files as well. The system is supposed to prompt you if you want to “save all app data” when uninstalling, but it is completely up to your specific device/operating system if this prompt is shown. Back up your files often, regardless.
  3. Exports are no longer in the /exports/ folder, the are saved in the main storage /Pictures/ and /Movies/ folders.

What’s Next?

Simply put, sprites (images that can be imported and moved around like stickfigures). I promised this early last year, but the latter-half of 2021 had me preoccupied with other things. I will get the next major update (3.4.0) out much quicker than the 286 days this update took. There may be small minor updates out for fixes between now and then, but keep checking in for updates!