Thank you :) I am not going to give up on it. The reason that sometimes slows down the development is the same reason that keeps me going - my family. Although my daughters will have to grow up a bit to play it. Once I've shown Tea For God to my eldest daughter. Just an empty test level. She was terrified when she noticed that her own hands look differently in the game. She thought that they are witch's hands.
I have been thinking about suggesting this for a while now. Could you please implement that the game tracks the rotation count during room generation with a sumcount (+1 to the right -1 to the left) so that the game tries to keep the amount of turns on 1 side in balance?
Idk how to explain this better or if it's possible at all but I feel like it would heavily improve the gameplay for wired users.
It would work only with linear levels (currently "experience mode"). For more open levels it won't help, and currently they are still linear with mazes at some bits, while I plan to have levels with really much more open structure.
Generating level and keeping turn counts is not that trivial thing. But there is one much simplier approach: 1. count rotations done by a player so far. 2. generate level in usual way and count rotations needed to finish level (even for open levels we can just assume the shortest path). 3. if we would be rotating further away from zero, just... mirror the whole level. Then all right rotations will be left and vice versa.
I see what you mean with challenge mode yeah. I was showing the game to a friend and he played experience on bigger mode and 2 times he had the situation where the rotation was 9+ (we use the rotation counter on the wrist). Nonetheless it's not that bad to just turn around in place to unwind the cable but it does make you a bit dizzy.
So this is a killer game, it's really something that is truly designed around VR as a platform. You were clearly in the right headspace to develop this, and I think more VR devs need to really design with the platform rather than for the platform. This could be a proper system seller, one day. I played it on WMR, and it worked great *except* the lift controls seem to actually only be active while the lift is moving, and disabled when it's stopped, as opposed to the opposite. Which made it incredibly hard to actually get anywhere, because I had to hit the buttons as the lift was moving, which took several minutes for each lift.
Thanks :) I'll check the lift controls. Haven't changed them for a long time.
When the lift is stopped, one button should light up (red) to indicate the direction of movement. When it moves, other button lights up to show that you can go back. Although it could be something else, maybe something very specific to the generated level. If the lifts don't work for you as described, if you could send me a log file (in _logs folder, output<date-time>.log) at contact@voidroom.com, please.
But you're right, currently the way they die is cheap. That is going to change but now in the very near future. It is partially related to the lore, although I am not that attached to it and it evolves slowly.
Will do :) unless I completely change the way they die. But even then, this sound could stay there more or less modified.
I'd like to keep that sound (or anything else) immediately when you shoot them so you know that they die (this is not currently happening with the big guy or the bigger flying robots) and I'd like to add some animations when they stumble, fall down etc. Current idea for death is that they start to disolve but they don't do that immediately as it is now, but instead, there is this immediate burst and jets here and there and then after a few seconds they completely vanish. But as I said, this is left for the future.
I didn't have it in plans as both Oculus and SteamVR were focused on rectangular spaces. My current plan is to only support rectangular ones and add a support for different ones later. Most probably that might be post release, as an update. I have a clear idea how to do that, I just don't want to fall victim to a feature creep.
I noticed that after I published #179. Since #178, I haven't changed anything related to projectiles although there was an important change related to when particular things happen. I will be fixing that after I get the game compile using Clang (there's quite a lot work involved to get it running on Quest, step by step, gonna get there). Next update will be really small. Just few bug fixes and maybe one zone variation.
I just played your new update and its amazing. I started with the option to only play with new zones and well, starting off with a lift HELL HOLE and massive turrets that i have to hide from but cant kill and the lack of any source of power end then the level ends. I go again and slowly the reactor ticks down and my health depletes until i die. i'm not saying it's a bad zone it's great. but by itself repeating over and over is a nightmare. I also had the pleasure of noticing that if i was 7 seconds late to the exit door i would have been a goner. I would like to suggest a new zone. A space zone but its not just for the looks but a new gameplay element. in space there could be lifts that could rotate you sideways or upside down. i think this would be even better paired with the massive turrets.
"Only new" is just to check out new zones and if there's just one, it repeats over and over :) If the reactor reaches zero, you don't die immediately, your health goes down a bit every second.
Your idea for the level is already on my list. A tube in which you go to sides, effectively going upside down after a few lifts. It may require a stronger VR stomach, so I'm on edge here. But I am going to try it. I haven't thought about having turrets there but it really makes sense. It's a good idea, thanks :) I have a few other lift based level ideas written down. Cylindrical one with enemies in the centre or/and around. On a wall, where you go sideways and up/down only with huge spiders crawling on that wall you're climbing. A shooting range where you have to get the rythm of shots and fit between. And using the bridge, there is more you can do. One of the things I really want to have is a ship dock in which you are going under a ship getting a maintenance and you could control some of its turrets. A level in which some of the platforms are enclosed and every, say three minutes, there is something that can kill anyone in the level (it can be ironworks with molten iron being purred over platforms, a huge reactor or some more exotic stuff, like "evolution chamber" in which there are cycles, there are lots of inanimate objects that slowyl evolve into attacking enemies and at the end of each cycle there is a purge that kills anything not inside safe rooms.
that is alot of really cool ideas that i cant wait to see. I would not have any problem with any gravity zones you wish to throw at me as i can take almost any confusing or nauseating experiences just fine, but for others you might need to add an option to disable these zones.
Currently while I test the builds, I notice bugs but most of them I put onto "todo list", some of them I miss. I allow myself doing so right now, but soon I will have to change this and spend more time testing and fixing bugs before releasing a build. Even if that means that builds will be less often (now I try to stay within 2 weeks between each build, so expect a new one coming this weekend probably).
I can't get it to work on my Rift S, sadly. The logo splash screen at the beginning does appear and I can see my hand when I look down, but not move it. Then everything just glitches out and the screen turns off shortly, then turns on again but is all-black. I can't even go to Oculus Home and have to disconnect the headset. The game does show up on my pc screen.
I haven't got an oppprtunity to try it on Rift S. Although it should work the same. Could you send me a log file (from _logs subfolder a file called "output <date time>.log") to contact@voidroom.com, please? I will check it and see if I need to add a specific case for Rift S or maybe something else happened.
I am aware of a few problems, the most popular one is related to two graphic cards and the game running on the integrated one. I will probably add a way to detect that problem and inform about a player about it and how to solve it.
I don't think a lot of people realise what a bitch it must be to code a game like this. Carying the audio through from behind "portals" that connect the non-euclidean spaces is one thing I can't get my head around. The way you generate the mazes in challenge mode is awesome too. I'm also really impressed by the fact that you can keep the player safe all the time. I really trust the game by now and I haven't bumped into walls yet. You are awesome ~
Edit: some people asked me what the recommended play space for the game is but I can't seem to find the answer. Could you tell me please?
Audio - I will add it to the list of things to put on the devlog. Here is a short description, how it works. I build a sound scene by checking each portal and portal beyond portal and so on. This way, for each sound source that should be heard, I have a list of portals that are required to get to the source. Then I just string pull a sound source location while calculating the distance and I end up with a apparent sound source (dir + distance). There are few more things that are calculated on the way (eg. occlusion). And there come also messages for AI, so they know if player hits something, shoots, etc.
There's a post on devlog about level generation (https://void-room.itch.io/tea-for-god/devlog/76304/procedural-level-generation-using-impossible-spaces). I explained there how the level is generated at the top level (regions, rooms inside regions, how do they connect) and how everything is placed within a playarea. I think that there is nothing about moving platforms - the basic idea behind that is that you stay in the same place in your playarea, but in the game you move somewhere else. But if you travel between two locations this way, both locations share the same playarea anchor.
It's not a speculation. I mentioned it in a couple of places.
Actually, after playing a while with Oculus Quest, I want to give the port a go in following weeks. This will push gameplay systems further away, but I'd like to get the game to Quest anyway. And I'd prefer to check how does it work on Quest through the development. To not get carried away with some things that could not work well on Quest (performance wise).
I expect that it will take more than a few days, especially that I created just one android app very long time ago. And I was using a library designed to handle mobiles. Currently it won't be just switching from PC to Quest but actually having both versions work all the time. Good thing is that I actually have low level stuff finalised - there shouldn't be anything more coming. Just the actual game. That's why it is safe to port it to Quest now.
Thank you very much for the info! You can add this to the description above for all of us. Can't wait to test the first Alpha on a parking lot and then get hit by a car. :-D
Hope the porting works well and painlessly. Those who created their games with Unity or Unreal have it a bit easier...
I am almost sure that there will be problems. There will be patches of code that might require a bit of a rework. Not just change lib/functions but more fundamental ones.
And I do expect a performance hit. There are just 3 cores available on Quest. Probably I will try first modifying multithreading on PC to check how does it work with 3 cores. And I might have stick to smaller levels only. For graphics, I will probably disable some stuff and simplify meshes by having less subdivisions. Then, I will be also adding foveated rendering, which will also help. I am more concerned about CPU but there's nothing that can't be solved :)
I wonder if it is possible to feed camera into background. I actually like walking with Quest on seeing what cameras see ;)
Do you the boundary setup for your Oculus? Tea For God is a roomscale experience and requires boundary to be setup.
If it is properly configured, could you send me a log file (in subfolder _logs, there should be a file called "output-<date-time>.log") to contact@voidroom.com?
What happen? I love the game. I was playing 15 minutes worth. Then the game just randomly quit. I go to restart the game and my Vive display slowly turns grey as if it's not tracking. My computer starts to freeze. SteamVr encounters an issue and has to be restarted. And once all of my displayed just turned off (both monitors) as if my computer went into sleep mode. had to hard reset the computer. I deleted the game and reinstalled it. Still nothing. This game is awesome and I want to keep playing an show it off to friends but I can't get it to work again. Any suggestions?
Edit: I can play other steam and non steam games just fine..
Could send me log files, please? (there are "output-(date+time).log" files in _logs subfolder). My e-mail address is contact@voidroom.com I'll check what's going on.
You deleted the game and reinstalled, so it's not dependent on in-game settings (there was an issue related to MSAA settings but it was fixed in the latest build, but still, if you deleted, this should not be an issue). I also don't think that there is an option in Steam VR that disables the game. Quick few questions that may also help finding, what's going on:
1. Does a window appear when you start the game?
2. If you move your headset, is the movement visible in that window?
3. What happens when you are in the game, you see everything gray and you press System button?
I will send log file tomorrow morning .I am at work at the moment. To answer your questions.
1. Yes. The game window does appear on both windows and in the HMD. I get the intro then then "loading screen". That's when then head set seems to stop tracking (htc Vive 1st Gen btw) and slowly fades to grey.
2. The movement is visible at first then when the headset turns grey the windows display of the game also freezes. No movement seen when moving headset.
3. When I press the system button nothing happens. No menu, no Vive, no wands, no display. It's very odd. A rare bug with my configuration maybe. (Ryzen 1700x, GTX 1070, 16gb ddr4 ram)
It seems that it is completely shut down. Game logs may not be enough, but with steam logs they may point at something. In the folder you installed Steam, there is a subfolder called "logs". Inside you should have such files:
vrclient_tea.txt vrserver.txt vrmonitor.txt
There might be some info inside them that would help finding an issue. I was looking for some info about similar cases and they were related to drivers, input emulators and such stuff. But that should result in all applications behaving like that. I assume that there is a specific call in my game that causes a crash or some other unexpected behaviour. Oh, one more question, when you take the headset off, is SteamVR windows visible (one with icons what is connected and turned on), what is there?
I sent log files of Game and Steam. When I take the headset off the SteamVR window is open and shows everything green. But encounters an error and restart in "SafeMode"
I think this game needs more variation in guns. right now your right wrist gun is a pistol, your left wrist gun a shotgun and the rest are pretty much smgs with different fire rates and damage. I think maybe a rail gun that you have to press a button on it to reload would be cool. Maybe even a ricochet gun.
I'd rather have a lightsaber. The Turok 2 cerebral bore wouldn't be bad, of course, only the processors and coolant would come out. Due to the narrow spaces, some types of weapons are rather unsuitable. Arrows and bows for example, or large machine-guns.
Yes, there are just two main weapons and a variation of SMGs. And actually all of them are just a one kind of gun with different parameters. Laser gun (athough technically it's not a laser).
Currently I have plans for 5 more different types. Plus synergies. But that has to wait a bit, I am now adding a reactor (plus other features related to it) and testing a new zone variation. New build should be available within days.
Then I plan to work on extension modules (on the forearms) and then on weapons.
Don't you worry! If I consider that you do everything yourself and don't use Unreal or Unity, you are really super fast in expanding your project. A one-man army doesn't develop a complete game from scratch in a few weeks. A lightsaber would still be nice for later versions. I love swords in VR. And don't forget the work on the Oculus Quest version, mine should arrive Thursday. I am already quite excited.
Mine too! :) I am tempted to switch it to a developer mode and to port the game to it ;)
I haven't mentioned the light saber. I first want to try fist fight, hitting with guns and then I will consider adding a light saber (which means that probably this is going to happen). There were a few game design decisions that prevented me from adding such things but now there's a clear path for things that do damage but don't use energy or use it a bit only.
So that you don't always have to draw an additional weapon when using a light saber for distant shooting enemies, the light saber could throw back the laser/gun pellets at the same angle to the enemy. Be a Jedi for once! My quest has arrived today! Have you already downloaded the C++ Quest SDK? ;-D If you're interested, a cool tech demo for the quest to use the space:
love the new update. those purple orbs always confused me and your explanation cleared it up. When i would see them i would get flashbacks to other runs ended by them so i would try for minutes to find a way around those devastating spheres. An item to deal with them would be much appreciated, like a jar you could contain them in and off load it into a power station.
:D I have a few ideas already on my todo list: 1. devices that would allow grabbing them without the health drain (or making it much smaller). 2. weapons that could be used to turn purple orbs into blue ones (these weapons would also have other uses). 3. devices that would let you control such an orb and push it into an enemy (or just away from you). 4. robots that you could pick up that when held, would suck purple orb in and you could either use a station or consume it directly from the robot.
Holy shit. This game is a masterpiece. I felt like I had walked a mile but I hadn't left the confines of my room. Is there any way we can stay more up-to-date with development? Maybe a discord or something?
Thanks :) There is a discord https://discord.gg/FFwyf4n I try to put new builds on itch.io every week or two, I also do a devlog at itch,io and voidroom.com. Currently it is more technical (and a few words about new builds) but I'll be posting more game related stuff too.
Generally yes and I will have to do that. Currently, there are only arms and they stretch a bit - this is mostly because you can't move your shoulders, ie. the game can't detect shoulder movement and I could estimate how they do move a little bit but it wouldn't be too reliable and stretching arms work anyway. What I mean by "stretching" is that not the mesh is stretched (as it is done in other games) but there are actuators inside arms that make them longer. But this fails when a person is much taller or much shorter. And when the torso comes, it will be even more important. The most probable solution at the moment is scaling the whole character depending on a mix of the height and arm's length. This way also hands will be scaled. There is a certain range of size that objects you take may have. I will have to check extremes to make sure you can pick up all objects - I don't want to limit player's actions depending on their height. I just added adjusting door/room/corridor height and I am considering going a bit more crazy about it with the scale of the enemies. Although I don't know if that won't be too much.
I think the more customizable the better, personally being able change the ceiling level could make the game feel bigger or more claustrophobic. Changing enemy sizes would be cool to experiment with too. Plus I didn't know the arms had actuators until now.
I would love to have just a pure skeleton and to allow people to add armor and stuff on top of it. Or change some parameters to have a different look for various parts (hands!) or at least have some variations. I don't know how much possible it would be and it is not top priority. Enemy size could be fun too and I will be investigating that. The actuators in the arms are only to make arms longer. There are also rails on which the arm moves. Arm without any armor plates looks weird but you see everything inside moving (stretching, twisting, rotating). ATM there are lots of things hardcoded but I always start with a hardcoded stuff for meshes and then I replace magic numbers with parameters.
Just tried this last night. It really is special. Got the longest periods of presence yet in a game. Felt like really being in virtual reality more than anything I've played yet. Also this is such a natural fit for Quest , visually and physically. Had a cool idea too : One of my favourite things in the game is being able to peer out of the "windows". Got me wondering : how cool would it be to have static avatars in the distant windows of other structures . To travel to these you could simply walk into their local "mirror" copy in the room where you currently are. ( really really hard to describe!) As well as opening up many gameplay possibilities, it might be refreshing to feel that you'd really "moved" a great distance and to see the complex you'd previously been in from an outside POV. Hope that makes some sort of sense! Anyway, really great work, look forward to diving in again later today.
I think that I don't understand that part about walking "into their local "mirror" copy". On the other hand, I have in plans seeing places you are going to visit and those you've already been to. The windows, vistas in open space sections are going to be used for that. At the moment there is just that enormous tower in the distance that is the only point of reference (and the destination of your adventure).
BTW I loved Nodes of Yesod (zx), from a bit similar titles, I also liked Underwurlde. I can't imagine myself playing them now. Although I do still enjoy Tau Ceti, probably my favourite from the era.
How about some crawling passages? So small narrow and winding passages (ventilation shafts) at ground level? For people who are even fatter than me, you could do this optionally or adjust the height: So 40 cm/crawl on all four or 100 cm simply crouching movement. Without controller movement this is certainly very immersive, exhausting and funny :-)
By the way: I'm still of the opinion that your game lacks a little challenging gameplay. So I do tasks like looking for keys or something like that. Otherwise I find the progress so far really good. Keep up the good work!
You know what, we should try it! I will add a crouching section and see if people like it. I will add an option to switch it off.
As for the challenge, please give me some time ;) Earlier I wanted to add a very unique puzzle to each section but the game evolved into more open world. Though, I still want to add some puzzles and challenges. Keys are something pretty standard but I think that there is always some place to have them in game.
Nice of you to consider the idea of crawling. I'm looking forward to it, if it works! Had there still more stupid ideas: Small holes or ditches or holes with acid over which you really have to jump. Or movable laser barriers on the ground that you have to jump over. For this the game would have to calibrate the average HMD height while playing. What I also like very much is the maze with the many movable elevators above the gorge. One could also do such a part with independently movable platforms without railings. If you don't timed the crossing to the next platform correctly, you fall into the canyon and die. An idea for the key search: You could discover random numbers on walls or ceilings in the level. Somewhere there is a door with a code lock where you have to enter all numbers in unimportant order to get to the next area. For this you wouldn't even need an inventory system.
The jumping wouldn't be that easy to do. I mean it could work in maybe 90% of cases but if it wouldn't be detected, it could be frustrating. Especially when you were low on health. If I would make it less likely to treat something as a jump, you could stand on your tip toes and pretend you're flying all the time ;) This could be a bit fun, though. But still, these ideas can be done, but just turned around. Instead of jumping over them, duck below them. I actually want to have small holes in the walls with tentacles (or something like this) trying to grab you. So you have to stick to the other wall or try to shoot the thing.
Jumping from a platform to a platform could bring a bunch of new problems. To keep things calibrated to the play area, when platform moves, I disallow switching platform you're standing on - you can move around freely but for the game, you're anchored to the platform. The problem would be that you jumped, you think you landed, but the other platform already started to move and the game prevented you from landing. You would fall through the floor of platform that started to move. I wanted to avoid falling down but I will reconsider it. Detecting whether someone is leaning over or standing beyond the edge is possible. I would just need to tweak it to make it more likely to consider that the player is leaning. To allow standing on the edge etc.
There is one thing that I like about that key thing. Memorisation. Although because you have to choose from a fine set - numbers to be precise - it can be solved with a brute force approach. But this could be done in a different manner. You have to find some strange, alien like characters, icons, signs, something like that. In the level, just as you described. Then, at some point you have a board with all those characters, and others. If you press the right one, it just lights up. If you press the wrong one, you are damaged. This way you could scale the difficulty of the puzzle. Not only by having a different number of signs, but you may also have a larger board of signs to choose from. (or I could just add alphabet to the numbers, at least for the prototype). So, yeah, I like the idea and I will add that to the list :) Thanks :)
You're probably right about jumping, you could certainly cheat by standing on your toes. I just tried that, though: When I jump, I get about 15 cm higher than I would do with tiptoes. Of course it's exhausting! The normal HMD height would of course have to be calibrated quite accurately (automatically or manually). Ducking would of course be much easier to realize, we know this from a lot of VR games where you have to avoid some traps.
The problem with the platforms is almost too complicated for me, I can't think of anything. You know your engine better and know what is possible and what is not. Just by the way: I didn't mean jumping from platform to platform, but just walking or jumping slightly. Just like you do with elevator platforms. You can also fix a kind of pole in the middle of the platform in the ground (about 1 m high) to which you have to hold on, otherwise you are not anchored and the platform continues without you with an unsightly result for you.
The idea with the alien letters is not bad, but I know from experience that you can remember something like this only badly because it is too abstract. Letters would be better, maybe just a short anagram. What would work as well would be alien symbols and a virtual notepad where you can note down the symbols. I have already seen something like this in some VR puzzle game. If you could build such a Stargate with a dial, it would fit well into the concept of impossible corridors. :-D
But if you run and jump, the head does not move so high. I don't know if there is a 100% reliable way to detect jumping by tracing just head and arms. But the traps requiring ducking are on the list.
The jumping/going between platforms... I will have to think about it. I still have some other issues to solve, for example walking through walls. On a similar note there is walking over the edges. Falling down will be an uncomfortable experience. Having it in game, could add tension. Although people get nervous in higher places anyway.
I don't want to have completely abstract symbols that would be hard to remember. But having circles, triangles, combinations of them, reinforced by colour, should be easy to remember. I'd rather avoid letters (mostly because of the lore).
1) After reading a Reddit post about the game - "Eh, it sounds cool".
2) Went to the download page and saw screenshots of the game - "Really, this looks like shit".
3) Less than 20 seconds after pressing play - "Get outta here...This Is Awesome!"
I was giggling the entire time. This would definitely be a great game to demo on the Quest. Hell, now I want one myself. By no means am I knocking the game but imagine a game created by a larger studio with the same concept and better graphics! I did enjoy the simplistic art style though as it allowed me to SS at 2.0 set my AA quite high.
Note: It felt a bit weird and made me uneasy for a few minutes but turning off your guardian boundary fully immerses you. After a while, I found myself running through the corridors while playing the challenge mode. I bet I looked stupid as hell in front of my window but I was enjoying myself far too much to even care.
Now imagine that something similar happens to me :) I work on many separate parts of the game, I put them together and from time to time I just play the game and sometimes I giggle. Of course, there are moments when something doesn't feel right, but that's when I can modify it, throw it out or add something to it.
As for the graphics, there are certain things that I would love to change and improve but I don't want to be driven away from the gameplay itself. There is also one important thing to mention here. Every single mesh you see in the game is procedurally generated. This is really important when it comes to the level as it adjusts to the play area. For enemies it allows me making them different. Each one slightly different than another. Right now the differences are not that great but the more elements there will be available to add/alter, the more enemies should differ... while staying recongisable.
While working on the game, I want to share as much knowledge and experience as possible. Because I would also like to see more but coming from other people :) And as for Tea For God, there is a lot of stuff coming. Foremost, the gameplay! But also the lore and the story (which I don't want to focus too much at the moment but it slowly evolves)
weird question. i heard some horn song thing in endless mode, and it sounded really close too. I died fighting a tank robot that was blocking the way before i could reach it. anyone heard this too?
I want to focus first on a single player roguelite. Initially I considered adding multiplayer or at least trying it out but it feels almost as a separate game and I don't want to work on two different things.
what if there where small portable portal windows that you could hold or stick on walls. like hold one end and stick the other around a corner to poke you gun out. i could see that in some PVP game mode
Sounds interesting. I would have to modify or hack a few things to allow for putting portals anywhere (portals do not like to cross with other portals ;) ). I wonder how it would actually work in a PvP mode. It could be fun when doing so but annoying when being shot at. With all those hands appearing on different surfaces and shooting at you. It would have to be carefully designed and well playtested to make sure it is fun. For now I don't plan a PvP mode, but I will write down that idea.
I wanted to have small enemies appear through portals on walls but these would just function as holes, not as something that appears and disappears. Still, could build something around that idea.
No. At the moment, there is no need for that :) There are reasons that for I consider running a kickstarter, but that's quite some time into the future.
find the experience mode is less an experience than challenge mode. In experience mode you cant die and there is no risk, but in challenge every thing can kill you in an instant. I remember pressing the button on one of those electric dog things so it was on my side only to have it walk on a bomb and set me back at square one. Btw. love the art and set pieces. I could go on and on about all the cool thing you packed into this pre alpha demo. good job on the game and id love to buy it when it comes out. ps, don't put it on the epic games store.
Thanks :) there will be more things coming in following months and they will be published here. The robots that you turn to be on your side - you will be able to control them. A bit. If you want to. I should add that in few months time (with other ideas).
While I understand why Epic wants so many exclusives in their shop, I am not a big fan of the idea of exclusives. Unless there is a very good reason for them (technical limitations?). I expect that at some point in time, the situation will change but before we get there, we should expect some games to be available at EGS for a limited time. If Tea For God appears one day in Epic Games Store, it won't be the only shop that the game would be available at.
I also have a recommendation. Don't add a tutorial, having the player figure every thing out is way better. like the feeling of figuring out that the big electric tank robot has a panel on its back you can open and shoot. That was cool.
I want to have some tutorials. Although everything could be figured out by some people eventually, I'd still want to present some basic concepts. Energy management, crafting etc. Enemies and anything you may encounter inside? That's for the players to figure out :) The way I add new NPCs is that each one has to have something unique to it. And some of them may have quite peculiar features. An example: the shield mushroom you can find, can be used as a shield of course. But also it can be used as a medkit to replenish your health when it goes low. And you can refill it.
I don't know why but I can't seem to move. I tried all of the ways I know to move in VR games. Is it broken or is it just simple and I'm missing something?
The game is fully 100% roomscale. You walk in the game by walking in real life. The map shapeshifts to fit within the space of your room (assuming it meets the minimum VR space, which is something like 2m by 2m)
My 8 year old son also loves this game, he got along with it immediately. He now has a few hours playing time behind him and even manages the challenge. He is also "special", so don't wonder about the noises he makes:
BTW: When will the next beta be released? Would be ready to take the heavy burden of a beta tester on me, if necessary ;-)
If it hasn't been mentioned yet: The game would definitely be a big seller on the Oculus Quest. The automatic room measurement of the quest makes it perfect for this.
Yeah, he's having a great time. Since he has big problems with his fine motor skills, the operation of an analog stick is very difficult for him. The game is a pleasure for him because it offers a natural way of moving. Even if he sometimes runs against the walls, but children are very soft, thank God :-)
Quite soon I am switching to full-time development (from almost none-time) and I plan to keep it this way. Releases should happen then every few weeks and I should be posting some other info on the devblog.
I'd love to work on Oculus Quest version but I'd have to wait for it to be released first, continuing development on PC and BTW, I really like the setup you have :) I was wondering whether to buy tpcast for vive or for oculus and ended up getting vive but... oculus touch controllers feel so good in hands. Well, I do most of the development using Oculus :)
Yes, the touch controllers are god! I once played Serious Sam 3 BFE VR with Vive a year ago, what a crap! The Vive wands are a garbage compared to the Touch. I'd like to buy the Pimax 5k+, but not before there are some nice controllers (knuckles) on the market and there's a wireless solution for the unit. There is no return to the cable after 1.2 years of playing wireless. :-)
I'm already looking forward to the next version. I wish you continued success!
I have WMR which is like if the vive wands and touch controllers did an off brand fusion dance. their ok but i have tried oculus and agree with you that touch controllers are the best on the market
Literally signed up just to leave you a comment. Me and my kids love what you've done here. I have a special needs 13 yo who doesn't really do video game , but when he jumped into this room scale game with very intuitive play he's had a blast literally shooting every robot. Keep up the good work and please leave an Experience Mode in all your versions if you can for those who just love to go from point A to B shooting the "robot bad guys".
As for real game-play if your taking input... I personally hope you add targets/switches/enemies/reasons to duck or evade things out the corridor windows. Maybe make longer bay windows with energy pulses passing through or surveillance or something. I often find myself staring out the windows in game and even leaning over a bit too far only to end up outside the portal and having to jump back in occasionally. Again keep up the good work. I just wish I didn't feel so bad killing the scared little cowering spider-bots for energy.
I am for sure keeping experience mode. I want to allow players to modify lots of things with few presets already in. And personally even though I do like challenge when I play a game, I sometimes wish that games would allow me to just go straight through the gameplay sections to allow me to learn the story. Or to allow me to enjoy some bits of the gameplay without worrying that I will have to start from last checkpoint if I do something wrong.
And good suggestions. I already have similair things planned to add - I will be going full time with it very soon and then there should be some updates coming with new stuff. New levels, mechanics and new enemies. That "feeling bad about killing those little guys" is one of the things I wanted to have and that will be part of the gameplay and story. So that's actually good that you feel bad about that :)
Finally getting the hang of doing speedruns in this, longer challenge mode in 3 minutes. Not completed challenge mode in my normal cautious manner, keep running out of bullets and getting worn down in health by the electro balls and un-noticed attackers but the decision not to get out my guns and to dive past dangers in the passages instead grants me some quite easy victories haha.
The thing is that I kind of expect speedrunners to make want to do runs and therefore I am considering a special mode for speedrunning (fixed seed and size) but also I want to allow people to speedrun in normal mode. And it should work as in any other roguelite in which you can speedrun (or even are encouraged to do so, check Dead Cells) but with each level it gets harder and harder up to a point when one hit kills you. Having pieces in which you have to fight enemies (for any reason, make it standard arena "kill all to proceed" that I'd rather avoid, or train sections that may last for a while and you are attacked) and you will have to get prepared for them.
I like your thinking! Hmm, in "Sir You Are Being Hunted" the seed is displayed in the settings so you can copy it down to input it another time yourself or share with others, a super simple option I guess, but very practical, fun when its something I played with friends a lot like that. That said suppose copying text into a chat or text document is less convenient in vr than with keyboard and mouse...
I don't know yet how to make it convenient in VR. My current thinking leads to me have "store of nice seeds" where you can store whatever you like and want to share. And also put things from friends there to check them in game. Access to that would be from VR with just "start"/"store" and outside VR there you would have a table with values to copy, etc.
One thing that might be problematic is that everyone may have different playarea. Currently I round up playarea size a bit to make it more probable that people will share same size. But if you have 2x2 and your friend has 3x3, they may check your seed but if you try their seed out, you may end up hitting a wall.
This is so obvious and elegant solution. I wanted to add size to the seed thingy separately but making it part of it, makes more sense. Thanks :)
But still, it should be allowed to play seed with different size too, as the general layout of the level will be the same, just the details will be different. But taht would be an option and if it confuses people, I should drop it.
Been playing on and off since I seen it posted on Reddit. Just tried today after getting a 3rd Oculus sensor for 360 tracking - Wow! No shake in the back corners, just a seamless experience.
Is there anywhere where we can see if you’ve posted a new version/update? A version number/release date/etc?
I will be posting info here and at the main blog (and probably via tweeter). The reason there is no udpate yet is that I have pretty busy time right now with other things. Good news is that in few weeks I should move full time to work on Tea For God.
Awesome :) I do like tracker music . I still haven't decided on style of the music for Tea For God, though. One of the ideas is to go into synths (I love what's going on in Prelude!)
Just rambling, but I've always had this idea to have dynamic tracker-driven music in a game where the music is rendered live and the in-game action can affect the music, like jumping patterns, mute/unmute channels, change instruments, etc, to give a truly dynamic music experience rather than using layered pre-recorded tracks. It would probably be a huge undertaking to link the music and the programming that tightly, but it would be soooo cool, haha! Definitely an idea unique to live-rendered formats like tracker music.
I had a similiar idea. But to do it in opposite manner. To synchronise visuals to the music. Of course music would be generated on the fly, tracker way, this would give the most control over particular sounds. And when you posted this message, I started to think, how it would fit into elevators. Imagine all (at least all empty) elevators moving in sync with music.
Very cool idea, like many games that sync to the music but a step further. There are definitely a LOT of interesting doors that can open using tracker-based music. For the record, the video above was running OpenMPT with a bunch of VST plugins, while recording in OBS, and still hitting 90fps on my 6-year-old Core i7... trust me, it struggles with a lot of games, so the fact that it could do all that without a hitch is a testament to your design... very efficient! I could easily rework the music to ditch the VST plugins for compatibility with general IT playback plugins, which would even further reduce CPU overhead to negligible.
Now there's an idea. A section with platforms, so you can see a lot where enemies dance in sync and they shoot in sync with the beat. I have no idea if I will have time to do that, but I will have to try it out. For time being I plan to work on pure gameplay features alone to get to proper vertical slice. Then I might work on music system a bit.
The game is using multithreading a lot. Because of that it can hit 90fps. The bigger the level, the more workload there is - all NPCs moving around, etc, but there is a lot of cheap optimisations, ticking some stuff every second or third frame etc. With 90 fps some enemies have logic running at 30fps. Which is what is happening for some of the normal games ;)
Hi Void Room, I've very much enjoyed the game and am excited to see future updates! Additionally I want to help/say thanks, please change the page settings to "Name your own price" I intend to donate. I'm a student/ VR dev myself so no big sum, however if you would allow me to give some of what others have given me on this platform I would be very happy :)
If you happen to be after a hand with any modeling / animation let me know, I'm more frequently a soft edge kindof guy can show you some of my recent hard edge though if you ever get curious.
I read your rating and I really like the idea of running from the doom. Recently I was thinking about adding hunter robots that would be impossible/very hard to kill but maybe something different would feel better. A ticking bomb is too simple but something between these two could work nicely (very small robots that alter/rearrange the environment foot by foot going after the player and then disassembling your body? stuff like that). And sound desing will be changed. While some of the sounds I plan to keep (robots, turrets etc), some will be thrown out and everything will have to be modified to set proper sound levels because that's just messed up.
Modeling/animation is something I plan to keep doing myself. The biggest reason is that all models and animations are procedurally generated and I develop systems for that all the time. For sure I am planning to release source files for the assets eventually and add some documentation - because I am sure, that if enough people would be playing this game, there will be modders that will add new characters and environments - and whole game is created around that thought - to allow to add stuff easily.
For time being I am arranging my stuff to start working full time on this.
Interesting, yeah I like your attitude for modding / customisability, the system has scope for adaption to so many game types I think so that will be great!
How complicated would it be to implement local multiplayer with someone on the pc? I've found this is something easy to set up in unity but near impossible in Unreal so curious about how this would be in your engine? Since the magority of the time I spend with vr is socially with friends any vr game that integrates multiplayer is often my automatic favourite, 'Carly and the Reaperman' for example. I can imagine this working in the context of this game with the pc player either being a small assistant like the electro dogs, after you've poked their watsit haha, or maybe multiple pc players in splitscrean playing as different robots competing to be the one to kill you so they can take your place in vr. Final idea being that they play it like some kind of RTS/tower defence, placing the hazards you face etc. - probibally all a bit of a side track from your vision, if it happened to be something not too complex to implement with the way your engine works though maybe that's something I try do mod in myself one day haha.
For now I only plan allowing to mod content, add new stuff, modify existing, not game types or creating completely different mechanics. Although reading recently, how some developers work with limitations (Earthworm Jim's flying washing machines due to lack of scripting, etc) I still could get surprised.
As for local multiplayer - I was thinking about it, as in general, it seems to be easy thing to add (at least for prototyping). But with impossible spaces it gets trickier. I was thinking more about being out of the action, seeing map, hacking things, releasing enemies etc. I don't know why I haven't thought about direct control of other characters (sidekicks! and imagine that I play Kirby StarAllies with my kids). For sure it won't be top down as it is in other games and what allows for multiple players to compete or help. If it would be added, it more likely will be FPP.
It's not on the main list of things to do but I do consider it as something that may happen later. For sure I'd like to explore this in future.
Same goes for normal multiplayer. Both coop and pvp could work pretty well.
I see cool! Glad to hear that about local, and Gosh I had discounted the idea of normal multiplayer as sheer madness, randomly walking round a corner into someone else with equally startled flailing arms would be quite an experience if you didn't know it was coming!
I absolutely see what people mean by having an adjustable buffer within the guardian boundaries... I just redid my room for better size and coverage and walked into a wall! Here's a video explaining and showing the issue:
Adjustable buffer and calibration are going to happen but that should only be used to add that extra buffer if you don't want to get closer to wall in case you have mirrors, windows, displays, tv, china there.
But this is a bug. This should never happen, corridor should never, I mean NEVER, be this far and make player hit the wall. There is a narrow buffer that allows a corridor or a room to violate this rule, but only up to 1cm. And what you encountered is a dangerous bug.
I assume that it happened to you once? If so and you remember when, could you send me a log file (they are in _logs). I store info about seed, play space etc to allow me to reproduce such bugs and fix them.
From your previous video I noticed that you have Oculus, right? Other person also repeated similair bug with Oculus and I might have something not correct when reading play space size. When I looked into it, it was just using single method to get the size, but maybe it gets the maximum size. Luckily I have Oculus as well, so I'm going to do some weirdly shaped play spaces to test it.
Awesome! Glad to hear you'll be addressing this with some options. As far as this happening, it's been consistently close to the edges, but I had just rearranged my living room to increase my play area (specifically for your game, haha!), and I guess I pushed the boundaries really right up to the edge.
For Oculus, there seems to be two play areas; one is the actual area you map out, irregularities and all, and the other is the largest rectangular area that the system can fit inside the irregular shape. The floor inside your main menu maps to the rectangular "sub-area" it seems. I made manual adjustments using Guardian Boundary Editor, and I may have moved the rectangular area too close to the actual guardian boundary. So I wouldn't blame your game entirely for the mishap as I may need to make more adjustments, but you can definitely see the overlap in the video is a bit too much regardless.
Even if you pushed the boundaries right to the wall, the game should not make a corridor embedded this far. As I said, it should be max 1cm. I'll be adding some automatic tests to validate room generation to make sure that all accessible areas are placed within play area.
If it is possible to send a log for when it happened, it would make it easier to fix it.
Thanks for confirming it is actual safe area being used, I was getting a little bit paranoid that it may sometimes read larger one.
Just a stupid idea: Could it be that it has something to do with the Guardian Boundary Editor? We both use that tool and have the same problems. I have often had it that the field surface went beyond the blue borders, mostly with the elevators.
I will try it out but it sould not matter. In the Richard's video you can see how far beyond guardian boundaries does the corridor reach. And he said that the area in menu is the same as safe area (which is also guardian boundary).
That said, manipulating guardian boundary with GBE may still make it easier to repro.
It was the most important reason why I decided on my own engine. Fast portals rendering, sounds, navigation, AI, object interaction, physics (although physics is most problematic as I decided to do it quite experimentally with soft collisions).
I've seen people doing portals with both Unity and Unreal but I heard that it slows down significantly. Not mentioning about other things. I think that it might be possible to do it with existing engines although you would have to heavily modify bits of it. This of course means that every bigger update could induce chaos.
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This is by far one of the most innovative experiences you could ever try on VR. Don't pass on this precious gem.
Thank you :) I am not going to give up on it. The reason that sometimes slows down the development is the same reason that keeps me going - my family. Although my daughters will have to grow up a bit to play it. Once I've shown Tea For God to my eldest daughter. Just an empty test level. She was terrified when she noticed that her own hands look differently in the game. She thought that they are witch's hands.
I have been thinking about suggesting this for a while now. Could you please implement that the game tracks the rotation count during room generation with a sumcount (+1 to the right -1 to the left) so that the game tries to keep the amount of turns on 1 side in balance?
Idk how to explain this better or if it's possible at all but I feel like it would heavily improve the gameplay for wired users.
Thx
It would work only with linear levels (currently "experience mode"). For more open levels it won't help, and currently they are still linear with mazes at some bits, while I plan to have levels with really much more open structure.
Generating level and keeping turn counts is not that trivial thing. But there is one much simplier approach:
1. count rotations done by a player so far.
2. generate level in usual way and count rotations needed to finish level (even for open levels we can just assume the shortest path).
3. if we would be rotating further away from zero, just... mirror the whole level. Then all right rotations will be left and vice versa.
I see what you mean with challenge mode yeah. I was showing the game to a friend and he played experience on bigger mode and 2 times he had the situation where the rotation was 9+ (we use the rotation counter on the wrist). Nonetheless it's not that bad to just turn around in place to unwind the cable but it does make you a bit dizzy.
What happens when you try to run it?
It should be on Steam in a few months (Early Access).
So this is a killer game, it's really something that is truly designed around VR as a platform. You were clearly in the right headspace to develop this, and I think more VR devs need to really design with the platform rather than for the platform. This could be a proper system seller, one day. I played it on WMR, and it worked great *except* the lift controls seem to actually only be active while the lift is moving, and disabled when it's stopped, as opposed to the opposite. Which made it incredibly hard to actually get anywhere, because I had to hit the buttons as the lift was moving, which took several minutes for each lift.
Thanks :) I'll check the lift controls. Haven't changed them for a long time.
When the lift is stopped, one button should light up (red) to indicate the direction of movement. When it moves, other button lights up to show that you can go back. Although it could be something else, maybe something very specific to the generated level. If the lifts don't work for you as described, if you could send me a log file (in _logs folder, output<date-time>.log) at contact@voidroom.com, please.
What about robot death animations? Every thing that dies just turns to smoke and disappears.
Not everything. Some robots just blow up ;)
But you're right, currently the way they die is cheap. That is going to change but now in the very near future. It is partially related to the lore, although I am not that attached to it and it evolves slowly.
please keep the death sound effect though. It's pretty satisfying.
Will do :) unless I completely change the way they die. But even then, this sound could stay there more or less modified.
I'd like to keep that sound (or anything else) immediately when you shoot them so you know that they die (this is not currently happening with the big guy or the bigger flying robots) and I'd like to add some animations when they stumble, fall down etc. Current idea for death is that they start to disolve but they don't do that immediately as it is now, but instead, there is this immediate burst and jets here and there and then after a few seconds they completely vanish. But as I said, this is left for the future.
I used ALVR to cast this to my Quest and used my entire basement as my play space. Y'all are going to have a blast once it's ported!
Will you support non-rectangular play spaces? Because then people can use L-shaped rooms, or several rooms.
Awesome :)
I didn't have it in plans as both Oculus and SteamVR were focused on rectangular spaces. My current plan is to only support rectangular ones and add a support for different ones later. Most probably that might be post release, as an update. I have a clear idea how to do that, I just don't want to fall victim to a feature creep.
new bug, the red robots lasers just stay still in mid air
but turrets and my guns are fine
I noticed that after I published #179. Since #178, I haven't changed anything related to projectiles although there was an important change related to when particular things happen. I will be fixing that after I get the game compile using Clang (there's quite a lot work involved to get it running on Quest, step by step, gonna get there). Next update will be really small. Just few bug fixes and maybe one zone variation.
Any update and bug fix is great even if its small. Also if there's a new zone I wouldn't call it a small update.
I just played your new update and its amazing. I started with the option to only play with new zones and well, starting off with a lift HELL HOLE and massive turrets that i have to hide from but cant kill and the lack of any source of power end then the level ends. I go again and slowly the reactor ticks down and my health depletes until i die. i'm not saying it's a bad zone it's great. but by itself repeating over and over is a nightmare. I also had the pleasure of noticing that if i was 7 seconds late to the exit door i would have been a goner. I would like to suggest a new zone. A space zone but its not just for the looks but a new gameplay element. in space there could be lifts that could rotate you sideways or upside down. i think this would be even better paired with the massive turrets.
"Only new" is just to check out new zones and if there's just one, it repeats over and over :) If the reactor reaches zero, you don't die immediately, your health goes down a bit every second.
Your idea for the level is already on my list. A tube in which you go to sides, effectively going upside down after a few lifts. It may require a stronger VR stomach, so I'm on edge here. But I am going to try it. I haven't thought about having turrets there but it really makes sense. It's a good idea, thanks :) I have a few other lift based level ideas written down. Cylindrical one with enemies in the centre or/and around. On a wall, where you go sideways and up/down only with huge spiders crawling on that wall you're climbing. A shooting range where you have to get the rythm of shots and fit between. And using the bridge, there is more you can do. One of the things I really want to have is a ship dock in which you are going under a ship getting a maintenance and you could control some of its turrets. A level in which some of the platforms are enclosed and every, say three minutes, there is something that can kill anyone in the level (it can be ironworks with molten iron being purred over platforms, a huge reactor or some more exotic stuff, like "evolution chamber" in which there are cycles, there are lots of inanimate objects that slowyl evolve into attacking enemies and at the end of each cycle there is a purge that kills anything not inside safe rooms.
that is alot of really cool ideas that i cant wait to see. I would not have any problem with any gravity zones you wish to throw at me as i can take almost any confusing or nauseating experiences just fine, but for others you might need to add an option to disable these zones.
There's already an option for zones that require crouching, stronger VR stomach zones are no brainer then :)
One of the ideas that do not add anything to the gameplay but keep coming back to me, are pendulum lifts.
Hi, how to report Bugs? I have a crash and some Logs
Hi, please send them to contact@voidroom.com
Hey buddy just a heads up the last version has some bugs in it.
1) I can't change anything in settings - the game locks up and I need to restart.
2) The game crashes when I try to play 2 (one level, bigger game) on challenge mode after each other.
Using rift S btw.
Also: are the big turrets supposed to be invulnerable and do you just dodge their bullets?
Hi
1) Do you have build #178 or #179? I published today updated v.0.3.7 (#179) which fixes the options.
2) Could you send me a log file with a crash (in _logs, file fault<date-time>.log).
The big turrets can be killed although it requires lots of energy. It's better to consider them invulnerable and just hide from them.
Yes the newer version fixed everything!
Awesome :) Thanks for the info :)
Currently while I test the builds, I notice bugs but most of them I put onto "todo list", some of them I miss. I allow myself doing so right now, but soon I will have to change this and spend more time testing and fixing bugs before releasing a build. Even if that means that builds will be less often (now I try to stay within 2 weeks between each build, so expect a new one coming this weekend probably).
I can't get it to work on my Rift S, sadly. The logo splash screen at the beginning does appear and I can see my hand when I look down, but not move it. Then everything just glitches out and the screen turns off shortly, then turns on again but is all-black. I can't even go to Oculus Home and have to disconnect the headset. The game does show up on my pc screen.
I haven't got an oppprtunity to try it on Rift S. Although it should work the same. Could you send me a log file (from _logs subfolder a file called "output <date time>.log") to contact@voidroom.com, please? I will check it and see if I need to add a specific case for Rift S or maybe something else happened.
I have the rift S and it works fine for me. Just a heads up.
Thanks for the info :)
I am aware of a few problems, the most popular one is related to two graphic cards and the game running on the integrated one. I will probably add a way to detect that problem and inform about a player about it and how to solve it.
I don't think a lot of people realise what a bitch it must be to code a game like this. Carying the audio through from behind "portals" that connect the non-euclidean spaces is one thing I can't get my head around. The way you generate the mazes in challenge mode is awesome too. I'm also really impressed by the fact that you can keep the player safe all the time. I really trust the game by now and I haven't bumped into walls yet. You are awesome ~
Edit: some people asked me what the recommended play space for the game is but I can't seem to find the answer. Could you tell me please?
Thank you :)
Audio - I will add it to the list of things to put on the devlog. Here is a short description, how it works. I build a sound scene by checking each portal and portal beyond portal and so on. This way, for each sound source that should be heard, I have a list of portals that are required to get to the source. Then I just string pull a sound source location while calculating the distance and I end up with a apparent sound source (dir + distance). There are few more things that are calculated on the way (eg. occlusion). And there come also messages for AI, so they know if player hits something, shoots, etc.
There's a post on devlog about level generation (https://void-room.itch.io/tea-for-god/devlog/76304/procedural-level-generation-using-impossible-spaces). I explained there how the level is generated at the top level (regions, rooms inside regions, how do they connect) and how everything is placed within a playarea. I think that there is nothing about moving platforms - the basic idea behind that is that you stay in the same place in your playarea, but in the game you move somewhere else. But if you travel between two locations this way, both locations share the same playarea anchor.
You are on the list for upcoming Quest Games:
https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/bsmw6k/all_released_upcoming_hinte...
Are they just speculating or did you make an announcement somewhere?
It's not a speculation. I mentioned it in a couple of places.
Actually, after playing a while with Oculus Quest, I want to give the port a go in following weeks. This will push gameplay systems further away, but I'd like to get the game to Quest anyway. And I'd prefer to check how does it work on Quest through the development. To not get carried away with some things that could not work well on Quest (performance wise).
I expect that it will take more than a few days, especially that I created just one android app very long time ago. And I was using a library designed to handle mobiles. Currently it won't be just switching from PC to Quest but actually having both versions work all the time. Good thing is that I actually have low level stuff finalised - there shouldn't be anything more coming. Just the actual game. That's why it is safe to port it to Quest now.
I literally just came here to see if this is true as well. I cant wait to try this on quest! I assume you'll be releasing apk for sideloading?
Yes, that's exactly what's going to happen. APK for sideloading :)
Thank you very much for the info! You can add this to the description above for all of us. Can't wait to test the first Alpha on a parking lot and then get hit by a car. :-D
Hope the porting works well and painlessly. Those who created their games with Unity or Unreal have it a bit easier...
I am almost sure that there will be problems. There will be patches of code that might require a bit of a rework. Not just change lib/functions but more fundamental ones.
And I do expect a performance hit. There are just 3 cores available on Quest. Probably I will try first modifying multithreading on PC to check how does it work with 3 cores. And I might have stick to smaller levels only. For graphics, I will probably disable some stuff and simplify meshes by having less subdivisions. Then, I will be also adding foveated rendering, which will also help. I am more concerned about CPU but there's nothing that can't be solved :)
I wonder if it is possible to feed camera into background. I actually like walking with Quest on seeing what cameras see ;)
The game wont start for me, it says that it "could not get boundery dimentions"
Do you the boundary setup for your Oculus? Tea For God is a roomscale experience and requires boundary to be setup.
If it is properly configured, could you send me a log file (in subfolder _logs, there should be a file called "output-<date-time>.log") to contact@voidroom.com?
What happen? I love the game. I was playing 15 minutes worth. Then the game just randomly quit. I go to restart the game and my Vive display slowly turns grey as if it's not tracking. My computer starts to freeze. SteamVr encounters an issue and has to be restarted. And once all of my displayed just turned off (both monitors) as if my computer went into sleep mode. had to hard reset the computer. I deleted the game and reinstalled it. Still nothing. This game is awesome and I want to keep playing an show it off to friends but I can't get it to work again. Any suggestions?
Edit: I can play other steam and non steam games just fine..
Could send me log files, please? (there are "output-(date+time).log" files in _logs subfolder). My e-mail address is contact@voidroom.com I'll check what's going on.
You deleted the game and reinstalled, so it's not dependent on in-game settings (there was an issue related to MSAA settings but it was fixed in the latest build, but still, if you deleted, this should not be an issue). I also don't think that there is an option in Steam VR that disables the game. Quick few questions that may also help finding, what's going on:
1. Does a window appear when you start the game?
2. If you move your headset, is the movement visible in that window?
3. What happens when you are in the game, you see everything gray and you press System button?
I will send log file tomorrow morning .I am at work at the moment. To answer your questions.
1. Yes. The game window does appear on both windows and in the HMD. I get the intro then then "loading screen". That's when then head set seems to stop tracking (htc Vive 1st Gen btw) and slowly fades to grey.
2. The movement is visible at first then when the headset turns grey the windows display of the game also freezes. No movement seen when moving headset.
3. When I press the system button nothing happens. No menu, no Vive, no wands, no display. It's very odd. A rare bug with my configuration maybe. (Ryzen 1700x, GTX 1070, 16gb ddr4 ram)
It seems that it is completely shut down. Game logs may not be enough, but with steam logs they may point at something. In the folder you installed Steam, there is a subfolder called "logs". Inside you should have such files:
vrclient_tea.txt
vrserver.txt
vrmonitor.txt
There might be some info inside them that would help finding an issue. I was looking for some info about similar cases and they were related to drivers, input emulators and such stuff. But that should result in all applications behaving like that. I assume that there is a specific call in my game that causes a crash or some other unexpected behaviour. Oh, one more question, when you take the headset off, is SteamVR windows visible (one with icons what is connected and turned on), what is there?
I sent log files of Game and Steam. When I take the headset off the SteamVR window is open and shows everything green. But encounters an error and restart in "SafeMode"
Thanks for the log files. I'll continue with e-mails, ok?
I think this game needs more variation in guns. right now your right wrist gun is a pistol, your left wrist gun a shotgun and the rest are pretty much smgs with different fire rates and damage. I think maybe a rail gun that you have to press a button on it to reload would be cool. Maybe even a ricochet gun.
I'd rather have a lightsaber. The Turok 2 cerebral bore wouldn't be bad, of course, only the processors and coolant would come out. Due to the narrow spaces, some types of weapons are rather unsuitable. Arrows and bows for example, or large machine-guns.
Yes, there are just two main weapons and a variation of SMGs. And actually all of them are just a one kind of gun with different parameters. Laser gun (athough technically it's not a laser).
Currently I have plans for 5 more different types. Plus synergies. But that has to wait a bit, I am now adding a reactor (plus other features related to it) and testing a new zone variation. New build should be available within days.
Then I plan to work on extension modules (on the forearms) and then on weapons.
Step by step.
Don't you worry! If I consider that you do everything yourself and don't use Unreal or Unity, you are really super fast in expanding your project. A one-man army doesn't develop a complete game from scratch in a few weeks. A lightsaber would still be nice for later versions. I love swords in VR. And don't forget the work on the Oculus Quest version, mine should arrive Thursday. I am already quite excited.
Mine too! :) I am tempted to switch it to a developer mode and to port the game to it ;)
I haven't mentioned the light saber. I first want to try fist fight, hitting with guns and then I will consider adding a light saber (which means that probably this is going to happen). There were a few game design decisions that prevented me from adding such things but now there's a clear path for things that do damage but don't use energy or use it a bit only.
So that you don't always have to draw an additional weapon when using a light saber for distant shooting enemies, the light saber could throw back the laser/gun pellets at the same angle to the enemy. Be a Jedi for once!
My quest has arrived today! Have you already downloaded the C++ Quest SDK? ;-D
If you're interested, a cool tech demo for the quest to use the space:
love the new update. those purple orbs always confused me and your explanation cleared it up. When i would see them i would get flashbacks to other runs ended by them so i would try for minutes to find a way around those devastating spheres. An item to deal with them would be much appreciated, like a jar you could contain them in and off load it into a power station.
:D I have a few ideas already on my todo list:
1. devices that would allow grabbing them without the health drain (or making it much smaller).
2. weapons that could be used to turn purple orbs into blue ones (these weapons would also have other uses).
3. devices that would let you control such an orb and push it into an enemy (or just away from you).
4. robots that you could pick up that when held, would suck purple orb in and you could either use a station or consume it directly from the robot.
Holy shit. This game is a masterpiece. I felt like I had walked a mile but I hadn't left the confines of my room. Is there any way we can stay more up-to-date with development? Maybe a discord or something?
Thanks :) There is a discord https://discord.gg/FFwyf4n I try to put new builds on itch.io every week or two, I also do a devlog at itch,io and voidroom.com. Currently it is more technical (and a few words about new builds) but I'll be posting more game related stuff too.
would it be possible to calibrate your arm length?
Generally yes and I will have to do that. Currently, there are only arms and they stretch a bit - this is mostly because you can't move your shoulders, ie. the game can't detect shoulder movement and I could estimate how they do move a little bit but it wouldn't be too reliable and stretching arms work anyway. What I mean by "stretching" is that not the mesh is stretched (as it is done in other games) but there are actuators inside arms that make them longer.
But this fails when a person is much taller or much shorter. And when the torso comes, it will be even more important.
The most probable solution at the moment is scaling the whole character depending on a mix of the height and arm's length. This way also hands will be scaled. There is a certain range of size that objects you take may have. I will have to check extremes to make sure you can pick up all objects - I don't want to limit player's actions depending on their height.
I just added adjusting door/room/corridor height and I am considering going a bit more crazy about it with the scale of the enemies. Although I don't know if that won't be too much.
I think the more customizable the better, personally being able change the ceiling level could make the game feel bigger or more claustrophobic. Changing enemy sizes would be cool to experiment with too. Plus I didn't know the arms had actuators until now.
I would love to have just a pure skeleton and to allow people to add armor and stuff on top of it. Or change some parameters to have a different look for various parts (hands!) or at least have some variations. I don't know how much possible it would be and it is not top priority. Enemy size could be fun too and I will be investigating that.
The actuators in the arms are only to make arms longer. There are also rails on which the arm moves. Arm without any armor plates looks weird but you see everything inside moving (stretching, twisting, rotating). ATM there are lots of things hardcoded but I always start with a hardcoded stuff for meshes and then I replace magic numbers with parameters.
Just tried this last night. It really is special. Got the longest periods of presence yet in a game. Felt like really being in virtual reality more than anything I've played yet. Also this is such a natural fit for Quest , visually and physically. Had a cool idea too : One of my favourite things in the game is being able to peer out of the "windows". Got me wondering : how cool would it be to have static avatars in the distant windows of other structures . To travel to these you could simply walk into their local "mirror" copy in the room where you currently are. ( really really hard to describe!) As well as opening up many gameplay possibilities, it might be refreshing to feel that you'd really "moved" a great distance and to see the complex you'd previously been in from an outside POV. Hope that makes some sort of sense! Anyway, really great work, look forward to diving in again later today.
Thanks :)
I think that I don't understand that part about walking "into their local "mirror" copy". On the other hand, I have in plans seeing places you are going to visit and those you've already been to. The windows, vistas in open space sections are going to be used for that. At the moment there is just that enormous tower in the distance that is the only point of reference (and the destination of your adventure).
BTW I loved Nodes of Yesod (zx), from a bit similar titles, I also liked Underwurlde. I can't imagine myself playing them now. Although I do still enjoy Tau Ceti, probably my favourite from the era.
This is absolutely fantastic. I can't wait to see what the future holds for this project.
How about some crawling passages? So small narrow and winding passages (ventilation shafts) at ground level? For people who are even fatter than me, you could do this optionally or adjust the height: So 40 cm/crawl on all four or 100 cm simply crouching movement. Without controller movement this is certainly very immersive, exhausting and funny :-)
By the way: I'm still of the opinion that your game lacks a little challenging gameplay. So I do tasks like looking for keys or something like that. Otherwise I find the progress so far really good. Keep up the good work!
You know what, we should try it! I will add a crouching section and see if people like it. I will add an option to switch it off.
As for the challenge, please give me some time ;) Earlier I wanted to add a very unique puzzle to each section but the game evolved into more open world. Though, I still want to add some puzzles and challenges. Keys are something pretty standard but I think that there is always some place to have them in game.
Nice of you to consider the idea of crawling. I'm looking forward to it, if it works! Had there still more stupid ideas: Small holes or ditches or holes with acid over which you really have to jump. Or movable laser barriers on the ground that you have to jump over. For this the game would have to calibrate the average HMD height while playing. What I also like very much is the maze with the many movable elevators above the gorge. One could also do such a part with independently movable platforms without railings. If you don't timed the crossing to the next platform correctly, you fall into the canyon and die. An idea for the key search: You could discover random numbers on walls or ceilings in the level. Somewhere there is a door with a code lock where you have to enter all numbers in unimportant order to get to the next area. For this you wouldn't even need an inventory system.
The jumping wouldn't be that easy to do. I mean it could work in maybe 90% of cases but if it wouldn't be detected, it could be frustrating. Especially when you were low on health. If I would make it less likely to treat something as a jump, you could stand on your tip toes and pretend you're flying all the time ;) This could be a bit fun, though. But still, these ideas can be done, but just turned around. Instead of jumping over them, duck below them. I actually want to have small holes in the walls with tentacles (or something like this) trying to grab you. So you have to stick to the other wall or try to shoot the thing.
Jumping from a platform to a platform could bring a bunch of new problems. To keep things calibrated to the play area, when platform moves, I disallow switching platform you're standing on - you can move around freely but for the game, you're anchored to the platform. The problem would be that you jumped, you think you landed, but the other platform already started to move and the game prevented you from landing. You would fall through the floor of platform that started to move. I wanted to avoid falling down but I will reconsider it. Detecting whether someone is leaning over or standing beyond the edge is possible. I would just need to tweak it to make it more likely to consider that the player is leaning. To allow standing on the edge etc.
There is one thing that I like about that key thing. Memorisation. Although because you have to choose from a fine set - numbers to be precise - it can be solved with a brute force approach. But this could be done in a different manner. You have to find some strange, alien like characters, icons, signs, something like that. In the level, just as you described. Then, at some point you have a board with all those characters, and others. If you press the right one, it just lights up. If you press the wrong one, you are damaged. This way you could scale the difficulty of the puzzle. Not only by having a different number of signs, but you may also have a larger board of signs to choose from. (or I could just add alphabet to the numbers, at least for the prototype). So, yeah, I like the idea and I will add that to the list :) Thanks :)
You're probably right about jumping, you could certainly cheat by standing on your toes. I just tried that, though: When I jump, I get about 15 cm higher than I would do with tiptoes. Of course it's exhausting! The normal HMD height would of course have to be calibrated quite accurately (automatically or manually). Ducking would of course be much easier to realize, we know this from a lot of VR games where you have to avoid some traps.
The problem with the platforms is almost too complicated for me, I can't think of anything. You know your engine better and know what is possible and what is not. Just by the way: I didn't mean jumping from platform to platform, but just walking or jumping slightly. Just like you do with elevator platforms. You can also fix a kind of pole in the middle of the platform in the ground (about 1 m high) to which you have to hold on, otherwise you are not anchored and the platform continues without you with an unsightly result for you.
The idea with the alien letters is not bad, but I know from experience that you can remember something like this only badly because it is too abstract. Letters would be better, maybe just a short anagram. What would work as well would be alien symbols and a virtual notepad where you can note down the symbols. I have already seen something like this in some VR puzzle game. If you could build such a Stargate with a dial, it would fit well into the concept of impossible corridors. :-D
But if you run and jump, the head does not move so high. I don't know if there is a 100% reliable way to detect jumping by tracing just head and arms. But the traps requiring ducking are on the list.
The jumping/going between platforms... I will have to think about it. I still have some other issues to solve, for example walking through walls. On a similar note there is walking over the edges. Falling down will be an uncomfortable experience. Having it in game, could add tension. Although people get nervous in higher places anyway.
I don't want to have completely abstract symbols that would be hard to remember. But having circles, triangles, combinations of them, reinforced by colour, should be easy to remember. I'd rather avoid letters (mostly because of the lore).
1) After reading a Reddit post about the game - "Eh, it sounds cool".
2) Went to the download page and saw screenshots of the game - "Really, this looks like shit".
3) Less than 20 seconds after pressing play - "Get outta here...This Is Awesome!"
I was giggling the entire time. This would definitely be a great game to demo on the Quest. Hell, now I want one myself. By no means am I knocking the game but imagine a game created by a larger studio with the same concept and better graphics! I did enjoy the simplistic art style though as it allowed me to SS at 2.0 set my AA quite high.
Note: It felt a bit weird and made me uneasy for a few minutes but turning off your guardian boundary fully immerses you. After a while, I found myself running through the corridors while playing the challenge mode. I bet I looked stupid as hell in front of my window but I was enjoying myself far too much to even care.
Now imagine that something similar happens to me :) I work on many separate parts of the game, I put them together and from time to time I just play the game and sometimes I giggle. Of course, there are moments when something doesn't feel right, but that's when I can modify it, throw it out or add something to it.
As for the graphics, there are certain things that I would love to change and improve but I don't want to be driven away from the gameplay itself. There is also one important thing to mention here. Every single mesh you see in the game is procedurally generated. This is really important when it comes to the level as it adjusts to the play area. For enemies it allows me making them different. Each one slightly different than another. Right now the differences are not that great but the more elements there will be available to add/alter, the more enemies should differ... while staying recongisable.
Whoa! Amazing work! The technical wizardry is brilliant, and I really like the art direction, too. Can't wait to see more!
While working on the game, I want to share as much knowledge and experience as possible. Because I would also like to see more but coming from other people :) And as for Tea For God, there is a lot of stuff coming. Foremost, the gameplay! But also the lore and the story (which I don't want to focus too much at the moment but it slowly evolves)
This game is excellent! Tons of potential.
Thank you. There is still a lot to add and I have lots of ideas what to have here and things should connect to each other :)
Wow that was great. Keep up the good work.
Thanks :) That's the plan ;)
weird question. i heard some horn song thing in endless mode, and it sounded really close too. I died fighting a tank robot that was blocking the way before i could reach it. anyone heard this too?
multiplayer?
I want to focus first on a single player roguelite. Initially I considered adding multiplayer or at least trying it out but it feels almost as a separate game and I don't want to work on two different things.
what if there where small portable portal windows that you could hold or stick on walls. like hold one end and stick the other around a corner to poke you gun out. i could see that in some PVP game mode
Sounds interesting. I would have to modify or hack a few things to allow for putting portals anywhere (portals do not like to cross with other portals ;) ). I wonder how it would actually work in a PvP mode. It could be fun when doing so but annoying when being shot at. With all those hands appearing on different surfaces and shooting at you. It would have to be carefully designed and well playtested to make sure it is fun. For now I don't plan a PvP mode, but I will write down that idea.
I wanted to have small enemies appear through portals on walls but these would just function as holes, not as something that appears and disappears. Still, could build something around that idea.
I could see why that could be a tough thing to code in, especially culling out half of your arm and duplicating it at the other side
This shouldn't be a problem. In worst case I would just put the arm into a separate actor. It's worth trying, even for SP.
do you have a kickstarter?
No. At the moment, there is no need for that :) There are reasons that for I consider running a kickstarter, but that's quite some time into the future.
For now, I prefer to have free builds :)
find the experience mode is less an experience than challenge mode. In experience mode you cant die and there is no risk, but in challenge every thing can kill you in an instant. I remember pressing the button on one of those electric dog things so it was on my side only to have it walk on a bomb and set me back at square one. Btw. love the art and set pieces. I could go on and on about all the cool thing you packed into this pre alpha demo. good job on the game and id love to buy it when it comes out. ps, don't put it on the epic games store.
Thanks :) there will be more things coming in following months and they will be published here. The robots that you turn to be on your side - you will be able to control them. A bit. If you want to. I should add that in few months time (with other ideas).
While I understand why Epic wants so many exclusives in their shop, I am not a big fan of the idea of exclusives. Unless there is a very good reason for them (technical limitations?). I expect that at some point in time, the situation will change but before we get there, we should expect some games to be available at EGS for a limited time. If Tea For God appears one day in Epic Games Store, it won't be the only shop that the game would be available at.
I also have a recommendation. Don't add a tutorial, having the player figure every thing out is way better. like the feeling of figuring out that the big electric tank robot has a panel on its back you can open and shoot. That was cool.
I want to have some tutorials. Although everything could be figured out by some people eventually, I'd still want to present some basic concepts. Energy management, crafting etc. Enemies and anything you may encounter inside? That's for the players to figure out :) The way I add new NPCs is that each one has to have something unique to it. And some of them may have quite peculiar features. An example: the shield mushroom you can find, can be used as a shield of course. But also it can be used as a medkit to replenish your health when it goes low. And you can refill it.
I don't know why but I can't seem to move. I tried all of the ways I know to move in VR games. Is it broken or is it just simple and I'm missing something?
The game is fully 100% roomscale. You walk in the game by walking in real life. The map shapeshifts to fit within the space of your room (assuming it meets the minimum VR space, which is something like 2m by 2m)
My 8 year old son also loves this game, he got along with it immediately. He now has a few hours playing time behind him and even manages the challenge. He is also "special", so don't wonder about the noises he makes:
BTW: When will the next beta be released? Would be ready to take the heavy burden of a beta tester on me, if necessary ;-)
If it hasn't been mentioned yet: The game would definitely be a big seller on the Oculus Quest. The automatic room measurement of the quest makes it perfect for this.
You can tell he's having fun. Isn't it awesome when they connect with things like this.
Yeah, he's having a great time. Since he has big problems with his fine motor skills, the operation of an analog stick is very difficult for him. The game is a pleasure for him because it offers a natural way of moving. Even if he sometimes runs against the walls, but children are very soft, thank God :-)
:D Wish I remembered more from my german classes.
Quite soon I am switching to full-time development (from almost none-time) and I plan to keep it this way. Releases should happen then every few weeks and I should be posting some other info on the devblog.
I'd love to work on Oculus Quest version but I'd have to wait for it to be released first, continuing development on PC and BTW, I really like the setup you have :) I was wondering whether to buy tpcast for vive or for oculus and ended up getting vive but... oculus touch controllers feel so good in hands. Well, I do most of the development using Oculus :)
Yes, the touch controllers are god! I once played Serious Sam 3 BFE VR with Vive a year ago, what a crap! The Vive wands are a garbage compared to the Touch. I'd like to buy the Pimax 5k+, but not before there are some nice controllers (knuckles) on the market and there's a wireless solution for the unit. There is no return to the cable after 1.2 years of playing wireless. :-)
I'm already looking forward to the next version. I wish you continued success!
I have WMR which is like if the vive wands and touch controllers did an off brand fusion dance. their ok but i have tried oculus and agree with you that touch controllers are the best on the market
Literally signed up just to leave you a comment. Me and my kids love what you've done here. I have a special needs 13 yo who doesn't really do video game , but when he jumped into this room scale game with very intuitive play he's had a blast literally shooting every robot. Keep up the good work and please leave an Experience Mode in all your versions if you can for those who just love to go from point A to B shooting the "robot bad guys".
As for real game-play if your taking input... I personally hope you add targets/switches/enemies/reasons to duck or evade things out the corridor windows. Maybe make longer bay windows with energy pulses passing through or surveillance or something. I often find myself staring out the windows in game and even leaning over a bit too far only to end up outside the portal and having to jump back in occasionally. Again keep up the good work. I just wish I didn't feel so bad killing the scared little cowering spider-bots for energy.
Hey thanks! :)
I am for sure keeping experience mode. I want to allow players to modify lots of things with few presets already in. And personally even though I do like challenge when I play a game, I sometimes wish that games would allow me to just go straight through the gameplay sections to allow me to learn the story. Or to allow me to enjoy some bits of the gameplay without worrying that I will have to start from last checkpoint if I do something wrong.
And good suggestions. I already have similair things planned to add - I will be going full time with it very soon and then there should be some updates coming with new stuff. New levels, mechanics and new enemies. That "feeling bad about killing those little guys" is one of the things I wanted to have and that will be part of the gameplay and story. So that's actually good that you feel bad about that :)
Finally getting the hang of doing speedruns in this, longer challenge mode in 3 minutes. Not completed challenge mode in my normal cautious manner, keep running out of bullets and getting worn down in health by the electro balls and un-noticed attackers but the decision not to get out my guns and to dive past dangers in the passages instead grants me some quite easy victories haha.
Ha! That's quite impressive :)
The thing is that I kind of expect speedrunners to make want to do runs and therefore I am considering a special mode for speedrunning (fixed seed and size) but also I want to allow people to speedrun in normal mode. And it should work as in any other roguelite in which you can speedrun (or even are encouraged to do so, check Dead Cells) but with each level it gets harder and harder up to a point when one hit kills you. Having pieces in which you have to fight enemies (for any reason, make it standard arena "kill all to proceed" that I'd rather avoid, or train sections that may last for a while and you are attacked) and you will have to get prepared for them.
I like your thinking! Hmm, in "Sir You Are Being Hunted" the seed is displayed in the settings so you can copy it down to input it another time yourself or share with others, a super simple option I guess, but very practical, fun when its something I played with friends a lot like that. That said suppose copying text into a chat or text document is less convenient in vr than with keyboard and mouse...
I don't know yet how to make it convenient in VR. My current thinking leads to me have "store of nice seeds" where you can store whatever you like and want to share. And also put things from friends there to check them in game. Access to that would be from VR with just "start"/"store" and outside VR there you would have a table with values to copy, etc.
One thing that might be problematic is that everyone may have different playarea. Currently I round up playarea size a bit to make it more probable that people will share same size. But if you have 2x2 and your friend has 3x3, they may check your seed but if you try their seed out, you may end up hitting a wall.
You could create seed files with embeded metadata on playarea size and not allow loading seeds that were created in larger playspaces.
This is so obvious and elegant solution. I wanted to add size to the seed thingy separately but making it part of it, makes more sense. Thanks :)
But still, it should be allowed to play seed with different size too, as the general layout of the level will be the same, just the details will be different. But taht would be an option and if it confuses people, I should drop it.
Been playing on and off since I seen it posted on Reddit. Just tried today after getting a 3rd Oculus sensor for 360 tracking - Wow! No shake in the back corners, just a seamless experience.
Is there anywhere where we can see if you’ve posted a new version/update? A version number/release date/etc?
I will be posting info here and at the main blog (and probably via tweeter). The reason there is no udpate yet is that I have pretty busy time right now with other things. Good news is that in few weeks I should move full time to work on Tea For God.
This game really needs music....
So I made some...
https://soundcloud.com/rchrdcrg/tea-for-god
Seriously, I'd be glad to rework this into a game soundtrack!
Very cool track! :>
Awesome :) I do like tracker music . I still haven't decided on style of the music for Tea For God, though. One of the ideas is to go into synths (I love what's going on in Prelude!)
Well if you care to check it out, I've done some more work on the music... got a main theme, lead-in/waiting room, and gameplay theme!
You can see I'm pretty serious about the idea, lmao! But regardless, I'm just having fun making new music... thanks for the inspiration!Just rambling, but I've always had this idea to have dynamic tracker-driven music in a game where the music is rendered live and the in-game action can affect the music, like jumping patterns, mute/unmute channels, change instruments, etc, to give a truly dynamic music experience rather than using layered pre-recorded tracks. It would probably be a huge undertaking to link the music and the programming that tightly, but it would be soooo cool, haha! Definitely an idea unique to live-rendered formats like tracker music.
I had a similiar idea. But to do it in opposite manner. To synchronise visuals to the music. Of course music would be generated on the fly, tracker way, this would give the most control over particular sounds. And when you posted this message, I started to think, how it would fit into elevators. Imagine all (at least all empty) elevators moving in sync with music.
Very cool idea, like many games that sync to the music but a step further. There are definitely a LOT of interesting doors that can open using tracker-based music. For the record, the video above was running OpenMPT with a bunch of VST plugins, while recording in OBS, and still hitting 90fps on my 6-year-old Core i7... trust me, it struggles with a lot of games, so the fact that it could do all that without a hitch is a testament to your design... very efficient! I could easily rework the music to ditch the VST plugins for compatibility with general IT playback plugins, which would even further reduce CPU overhead to negligible.
Now there's an idea. A section with platforms, so you can see a lot where enemies dance in sync and they shoot in sync with the beat. I have no idea if I will have time to do that, but I will have to try it out. For time being I plan to work on pure gameplay features alone to get to proper vertical slice. Then I might work on music system a bit.
The game is using multithreading a lot. Because of that it can hit 90fps. The bigger the level, the more workload there is - all NPCs moving around, etc, but there is a lot of cheap optimisations, ticking some stuff every second or third frame etc. With 90 fps some enemies have logic running at 30fps. Which is what is happening for some of the normal games ;)
Hi Void Room, I've very much enjoyed the game and am excited to see future updates! Additionally I want to help/say thanks, please change the page settings to "Name your own price" I intend to donate. I'm a student/ VR dev myself so no big sum, however if you would allow me to give some of what others have given me on this platform I would be very happy :)
If you happen to be after a hand with any modeling / animation let me know, I'm more frequently a soft edge kindof guy can show you some of my recent hard edge though if you ever get curious.
Good luck!
Hi Jazz Cousins and thanks :)
I read your rating and I really like the idea of running from the doom. Recently I was thinking about adding hunter robots that would be impossible/very hard to kill but maybe something different would feel better. A ticking bomb is too simple but something between these two could work nicely (very small robots that alter/rearrange the environment foot by foot going after the player and then disassembling your body? stuff like that). And sound desing will be changed. While some of the sounds I plan to keep (robots, turrets etc), some will be thrown out and everything will have to be modified to set proper sound levels because that's just messed up.
Modeling/animation is something I plan to keep doing myself. The biggest reason is that all models and animations are procedurally generated and I develop systems for that all the time. For sure I am planning to release source files for the assets eventually and add some documentation - because I am sure, that if enough people would be playing this game, there will be modders that will add new characters and environments - and whole game is created around that thought - to allow to add stuff easily.
For time being I am arranging my stuff to start working full time on this.
Interesting, yeah I like your attitude for modding / customisability, the system has scope for adaption to so many game types I think so that will be great!
How complicated would it be to implement local multiplayer with someone on the pc? I've found this is something easy to set up in unity but near impossible in Unreal so curious about how this would be in your engine? Since the magority of the time I spend with vr is socially with friends any vr game that integrates multiplayer is often my automatic favourite, 'Carly and the Reaperman' for example. I can imagine this working in the context of this game with the pc player either being a small assistant like the electro dogs, after you've poked their watsit haha, or maybe multiple pc players in splitscrean playing as different robots competing to be the one to kill you so they can take your place in vr. Final idea being that they play it like some kind of RTS/tower defence, placing the hazards you face etc. - probibally all a bit of a side track from your vision, if it happened to be something not too complex to implement with the way your engine works though maybe that's something I try do mod in myself one day haha.
For now I only plan allowing to mod content, add new stuff, modify existing, not game types or creating completely different mechanics. Although reading recently, how some developers work with limitations (Earthworm Jim's flying washing machines due to lack of scripting, etc) I still could get surprised.
As for local multiplayer - I was thinking about it, as in general, it seems to be easy thing to add (at least for prototyping). But with impossible spaces it gets trickier. I was thinking more about being out of the action, seeing map, hacking things, releasing enemies etc. I don't know why I haven't thought about direct control of other characters (sidekicks! and imagine that I play Kirby StarAllies with my kids). For sure it won't be top down as it is in other games and what allows for multiple players to compete or help. If it would be added, it more likely will be FPP.
It's not on the main list of things to do but I do consider it as something that may happen later. For sure I'd like to explore this in future.
Same goes for normal multiplayer. Both coop and pvp could work pretty well.
I see cool! Glad to hear that about local, and Gosh I had discounted the idea of normal multiplayer as sheer madness, randomly walking round a corner into someone else with equally startled flailing arms would be quite an experience if you didn't know it was coming!
I absolutely see what people mean by having an adjustable buffer within the guardian boundaries... I just redid my room for better size and coverage and walked into a wall! Here's a video explaining and showing the issue:
Adjustable buffer and calibration are going to happen but that should only be used to add that extra buffer if you don't want to get closer to wall in case you have mirrors, windows, displays, tv, china there.
But this is a bug. This should never happen, corridor should never, I mean NEVER, be this far and make player hit the wall. There is a narrow buffer that allows a corridor or a room to violate this rule, but only up to 1cm. And what you encountered is a dangerous bug.
I assume that it happened to you once? If so and you remember when, could you send me a log file (they are in _logs). I store info about seed, play space etc to allow me to reproduce such bugs and fix them.
From your previous video I noticed that you have Oculus, right? Other person also repeated similair bug with Oculus and I might have something not correct when reading play space size. When I looked into it, it was just using single method to get the size, but maybe it gets the maximum size. Luckily I have Oculus as well, so I'm going to do some weirdly shaped play spaces to test it.
Awesome! Glad to hear you'll be addressing this with some options. As far as this happening, it's been consistently close to the edges, but I had just rearranged my living room to increase my play area (specifically for your game, haha!), and I guess I pushed the boundaries really right up to the edge.
For Oculus, there seems to be two play areas; one is the actual area you map out, irregularities and all, and the other is the largest rectangular area that the system can fit inside the irregular shape. The floor inside your main menu maps to the rectangular "sub-area" it seems. I made manual adjustments using Guardian Boundary Editor, and I may have moved the rectangular area too close to the actual guardian boundary. So I wouldn't blame your game entirely for the mishap as I may need to make more adjustments, but you can definitely see the overlap in the video is a bit too much regardless.
Even if you pushed the boundaries right to the wall, the game should not make a corridor embedded this far. As I said, it should be max 1cm. I'll be adding some automatic tests to validate room generation to make sure that all accessible areas are placed within play area.
If it is possible to send a log for when it happened, it would make it easier to fix it.
Thanks for confirming it is actual safe area being used, I was getting a little bit paranoid that it may sometimes read larger one.
Just a stupid idea: Could it be that it has something to do with the Guardian Boundary Editor? We both use that tool and have the same problems. I have often had it that the field surface went beyond the blue borders, mostly with the elevators.
I will try it out but it sould not matter. In the Richard's video you can see how far beyond guardian boundaries does the corridor reach. And he said that the area in menu is the same as safe area (which is also guardian boundary).
That said, manipulating guardian boundary with GBE may still make it easier to repro.
I was wondering how you did the portals so seamlessly and perfectly even with sound and stuff working... Building your own engine explains it.
It was the most important reason why I decided on my own engine. Fast portals rendering, sounds, navigation, AI, object interaction, physics (although physics is most problematic as I decided to do it quite experimentally with soft collisions).
I've seen people doing portals with both Unity and Unreal but I heard that it slows down significantly. Not mentioning about other things. I think that it might be possible to do it with existing engines although you would have to heavily modify bits of it. This of course means that every bigger update could induce chaos.