Welcome back to The High Life!

This week, we're bouncing between the technical and the theatrical. On the dev side, we break down how colliders turn gorgeous 3D models into environments you can actually interact with (and reveal a new secret vantage point in the Lobby). Then, we flip to the lore with Jaxx Bonanza, the Robotannical Battledome's fallen champion turned announcer, whose story is equal parts glory, tragedy, and reinvention.

Solid walls. Shattered legacies. Let's get into it. ⬇️

When a 3D model gets imported into Unity, it looks great, but the engine has no idea what to do with it. Can players walk through it? Stand on it? Pick it up? Unity doesn't know until we tell it. That's where colliders come in. These invisible shapes wrap around objects and define how players interact with them. A wall becomes solid. A rock becomes something you can jump on. Without colliders, you'd phase right through everything like a ghost.

The team has been busy adding colliders throughout the Lobby to make the space feel alive and explorable. Trees and walls now block your path the way they should. Surfaces that look climbable actually are. It's the kind of polish that transforms a pretty environment into a space you can actually play in, where running, jumping, and bumping into things works exactly like you'd expect.

Here's the fun part: some of these newly interactive surfaces open up traversal paths you couldn't access before. There's now a highest point in the Lobby that gives you a completely unique view of the space, and it's only reachable by exploring these new interactions. You'll be able to experience all of this when Highstreet: Calamity launches.

Be prepared to conquer your fear of heights!

Excerpt from The Gardener, 109 AFC spring/summer issue

Most first-timers in the Robotannical Battledome dispatch their first wave of interdimensional enemies with ease. Adventurers swing their crude beginner swords. Apprentices cast basic spells. Adepts fire off a few arrows that hit home. There isn't much to it. But that's all just a warm-up. Wave two gets a little harder. Wave three puts most S.I.M.U.s out of commission.

There are rare exceptions. Mere months ago—eons in the gladiatorial timescale—one storied fighter stepped into the ring, then proceeded to bash bots, trump truffles, and altogether eliminate the evilest enemies. Every blow she dealt was charged with energy drawn from a bottomless well of rage. This was more than sport for her. It was true purpose.

No one in Highstreet City is a stranger to the name Jaxx Bonanza, the former fighter who quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the Battledome's first champions. But seeing her mete out damage in person is a spiritual experience. Few walk away from the event unchanged after witnessing raw violence contained in the highest grace, a demonstration of fluency in the language of brutal damage.

Bonanza never lost a fight—until one fateful day. In a strange turn of events that remain unexplained by the Battledome's administrators, the champ was billed to duel against Charlie Chafe, a newcomer who had only landed in Highstreet City five days prior. It was Chafe's first major bout, and Bonanza's camp issued no protest.

Still, the Jaxx Pack—Bonanza's fans, as they called themselves—filled the stands, eager to see their favored fighter take down another foe. There was little doubt that Bonanza would win by total knockout. It was just a question of whether it would be in the first few seconds of the match or after she toyed with her prey.

Except that isn't how things went. At the ring of the starting bell, Chafe fired off a triplet of broadhead arrows, designed to penetrate deeply and cut vital organs for a quick kill. He might have been new to the game, but he knew that the only way to notch a win was to take out Bonanza with no mercy—the faster and cleaner the better.

Bonanza raised her shield. All three arrows found home, piercing the gold-plated panel that was fit for a champion. A clean swipe of her sword snapped the arrows' shafts, and the champ charged toward her opponent, deflecting projectiles each step of the way, each one meant to cripple her or, worse yet, sever crucial circuitry.

What came next shocked everyone who was watching. Perhaps Bonanza mistimed a step, perhaps her attention wandered—the champ's right foot landed squarely in a trap, and she found herself in a cloud of toxic gas. Choking for air, Chafe zipped into striking range and drew his dagger in three graceful movements, slicing deep into Bonanza's hamstrings and abdomen before planting the blade mid-chest.

Shock. Awe. Silence. Then a thunderous rumble in protest of the match's upset. But Chafe's victory was achieved with thousands in attendance. It was real—the Battledome's favorite sword fighter had fallen. Her S.I.M.U. would cost a minor fortune to repair.

Bonanza's downfall continued with a gambling addiction and broken marriage. She'd draw heckles whenever she made appearances in Highstreet City's nightlife locales. There were rumors that Bonanza took the fall for a payoff. In any case, the result was public humiliation, anger, depression, and a downward spiral.

But who better to be the voice of the Battledome? Bonanza found a new life as the arena's favorite announcer and commentator. Clutching her custom microphone, its steel tube a replica of the former champ's signature short sword's grip, Bonanza's voice has thundered through the arena countless times: ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE!?!?

That second life, however, mirrored Bonanza's career as a fighter in the Battledome. It was equally short-lived. Between upgrades to S.I.M.U.s to include S.A.L.I. and other former fighters finding second lives as announcers, Bonanza's cachet waned with spectators. But every fighter that The Gardener spoke to says she is the most humble, empathetic figure in the tight-knit circle of those who have bled in the arena's sands.

Someday, perhaps she'll tell her side of the story—what she felt as she faced off against Chafe, and where it all went wrong.

That's all for this issue of The High Life.

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