The long-awaited Progress Update 17 of Baldi's Fun New School Ultimate has been published! You can read it here, and see what's been worked on recently for the project.
16 days ago (+1)
thanks for finally releasing it. i know most people were angry with constant delays, but i knew the wait was worth it. remember, dont worry about criticism, take your time, and good luck on the rest of Beta 1. i hope the project is be an even bigger success. have a good day.
so far, the progress update evolved even more on quality and quantity of the amount of the game,s features. thanks for spending all that time on the project, i believe in you that will be a good success.
(although i do think the progress update was a little bit more boring and less stuff than previous, maybe progress update #18 will be a second part of progress update #17,s Long awaited additions)
Well, I've been working on getting the foundation right for Beta 1 before all of the other game work and "fun stuff" is finished and goes on top of that for the under development Beta 1 update. Still though, I think it discussed a good amount of content, as some things like the Floor Maker (previously known as Floor Builder) overhaul only had work start on them recently (like within the last few days/weeks as I was re-doing things to make them better for the upcoming update, such as from a performance perspective), and there should be more to share by the time Progress Update 18 is released.
15 days ago(+1)
Yeah, I know. By the time of Progress Update 18 in July, the work might be complete enough by then to show some Beta 1 gameplay as the foundation work is nearing completion, though if not, then by Progress Update 19, which might come in August on the date of the 4th anniversary for BFNS Remastered, which would be August 5th, 2025, since BFNSR2 at this point is definitely not going to be done until after BFNSU's 1.0 release either later this year or in 2026, and as BFNSR2 is going to use a lot of the improved systems developed for Beta 1 and later of BFNSU (the BFNSR1 1.4.8 update might use those as well), it makes sense to complete BFNSU first before continuing development on BFNSR2 and the likely final update for BFNSR1, as they will rely on the improvements made in BFNSU for some aspects as a part of making them better.
Since Progress Update 17, more progress has been made on the Floor Maker as well, so before the end of May, I might upload a dev footage video to the BFNS Series Central YT channel showing a more complete though still WIP look at it compared to what was shown in the 17th progress update.
Well, it's now at 59% as you can see on the Beta Progress Checker screen that I just updated.
Also, even though external mod support is no longer planned for BFNS Ultimate, it's at 100% now, since that functionality is now planned to be achieved by the multiple selectable floor designs when making custom floors in the under development Floor Maker for Beta 1 (with each floor design with maybe a few original exceptions planned to be based around/inspired by a certain Baldi's Basics game/mod/fangame with what objects and areas you'll have available to place while building your custom floor), and also due to the modular way they are being set up, it will make it easier for me to add more floor designs that are selectable in future updates after Beta 1, including potentially even player suggested ones, which should end up being a better solution overall and encourage players to really experiment with creating floors in the different designs.
In addition to that change, the Beta 1 preview is now planned to be released when the overall progress is close to 80%, not 50% as originally planned, since it makes more sense for most of the core mechanics and gameplay to be finished for Beta 1 before releasing the preview version. Given the current rate of development, that means the Beta 1 preview may now come out in a few months from now, although longer development times or delays could still occur, but with the foundation work going well, I'm feeling more confident now that a Beta 1 preview might be able to finally be released during that upcoming time period. I really don't want to rush anything and have been taking my time to make sure the new additions and content work as expected and have good performance, which should lead to a better final Beta 1 release update experience overall.
Another thing that I've started work on since Progress Update 17, is creating an environment around the grid where you'll be building custom floors, because since it's now in a first person editing perspective, it means I can do more with it than was possible with the top down perspective used in Alpha 6 and earlier versions. Here's a teaser of that work, and a setup room is also planned for the Floor Maker, which is where you'll enter the grid from, and be able to change settings for custom floors like the skybox (replicating that functionality from Alpha 6's Floor Builder), as well as switch floor designs and save/load custom floors.
You're welcome! Also, that development footage video I was thinking about releasing at the end of May is now out on the BFNS Series Central YT channel, with even more progress made since the development screenshots I shared above, such as the start of work on the catalog UI for one of the planned floor design themes, specifically the Baldi's Basics Classic one!
8 days ago (+1)
It looks so cool! Also, I’m wondering if there’s a way to make the build area bigger because the one shown in the video is quite small. Other than that, the Floor Maker is going to make the building process way faster than the Alpha 6 Floor Builder! Can't wait to see the finished look!
14 days ago(+1)
I hope you put the Floor Customizer in "BFNS Development Tester Builds" once it's 100% complete, So us testers can try it out before it releases to the public. Overall you did a great job! Keep up the good work!