For what is the switch on the terraces good (output / status). Turn off the satellite antenna? What for? BTW: I have about 30 long sessions behind me now. Very often I do not get any further and move in a circle (come back to the same place after 5 minutes). Am I in a dead end and have previously gone somewhere wrong?And sometimes I walk through a snow-white labyrinth and find a very small blue square room without an exit. On the left is a kind of shutter/blinds. Once I saw how it had closed before I could enter the room.
One more question: If I had a playspace of 4.5 x 4.5 m, would the corridors be wider and longer? I'm just about to expand my cellar and that would be quite a motivation, i am sometimes a little lazy :-) Oh, and still no crashes experienced. Everything is running smoothly. Congratulations to your engine!
That switch is used to turn off solar panels (that's what they are). It was rather proof of concept but that will be used in a modified form in final game. With explanation. In demo it is only useful in challenge mode - it is required to turn off at least one panel to open the door. During night door is open but flying robots are more aggressive.
In case you'rd lost, there are arrows on hand displays that help to navigate.
Yes, corridors will be longer and probably wider. I have to tune tile size automatically adjusted and expose few options.
Thanks for the info about the crashes :) there are few and I have some logs to go through and to fix bugs :)
I'm seriously impressed with what you've done here. As it is I'll probably get several hours of gameplay, and it's going to the top of my list for games to show off to friends on my Rift.
Things I love:
Well-modeled arms help immensely with immersion
Automatically detecting my playspace from the Guardian System
Super smooth performance
Doesn't feel like I'm playing in my little office space
Possible improvements I noticed, many of which you're likely already aware of:
Oculus Touch controllers let you model much more complex hand motions, like pointing and sticking your thumb out. Implementing that hand modeling to the fullest really helps with immersion
There needs to be a pause menu of some kind. The first time I opened challenge mode something never loaded and I couldn't press the button to open the door. The only way to fix this was to quit the game completely, since I couldn't pause and restart or quit to the main menu
As others have mentioned, explaining the way the HUD elements and holsters work would go a long way to improving the initial experience. Also explaining the different types of enemies
I don't think the default guns should automatically retreat, or not so fast. It's really annoying trying to shoot someone as the gun slides away. Maybe detecting when the index finger is still on the trigger could work when using Touch Controllers if you want it to be automatic
A graphics menu would be nice, if only to turn on supersampling. Without a menu in-game I'll have to use Oculus Tray Tool to adjust it manually.
Don't drop guns behind bars, or not so far that I can't reach through. It pulled me out of the game when I leaned forward to grab a gun just out of reach and had the guardian system pop up to warn me I was at the edge of my playspace
1. Oculus touch controllers and hand gestures - that is definitely going to happen. Both for immersion and for pushing buttons and stuff.
2. Pause/menu is going to be added, I will only have to get controls for that properly. The thing with not being able to open doors might be related to bugs in level generation. If you could send me logs you have (if you encountered it, stop the game and send me a log) I could check what's going on.
3. I will add tutorial :) but at this point of development, lots of things may still change and lots will be added. I will have to find a way to simply explain what is there already though. To be able to get proper feedback.
4. ATM guns won't retract if you hold grip button. That might be not clear BUUUUT I am still going to test few things with controls so this may change and if I won't be sure which one is better, I will choose the most liked solution as default and other will be available through options. System to auto detect prefered approach would be great - if I get time and idea how to do it properly, this is going to be added.
5. There are some options in xml file, super sampling is not there, yet. But yes, graphics menu will be there. When menu is added :)
6. Guns behind bars is bug/feature-not-yet-final. I have no system yet to handle loot properly and that's why items that could be picked up are spawned in unreachable places. This will be addressed properly. In general, you should not try to reach places that you can't move to. There is other problem with that, bars I mean. When I was showcasing my game, few people moved their head beyond bars and one kid, when he saw long empty corridor, he started to run. I stopped him when I noticed what he is planning to do. I will be adding something that prevents going through walls/bars.
Thanks for the detailed reply! I hadn't realized I could use the grip to hold the default gun in place. I'll definitely be using that. The level failing to load has only happened once so far, but if it happens again where are the logs being stored so I can grab them?
Played a couple times - very impressed! I'm not usually one to comment, but you need to know, this is so unique and has *something* 80% of other VR games don't have. You've got something really great in progress here - keep going! (I know it's very early, so I'm sure you know, but players could use some tutorial/explanation for the ammo/energy and control stations/levers.)
Watching a video while writing this that said you wrote the engine from scratch, or didn't use Unity/etc. 100+ more impressed points for you!
Really, really cool! Thanks for putting it out there - and again, keep going!
The tutorial will be there for sure as there is quite few things to explain. I want to keep systems simple but having them all at once thrown at you is quite overwhelming. Introducing them one by one would help to understand. ATM with experience mode players should not worry about these but in challenge (which hints how "normal" difficulty level), it might be crucial to use them.
It's currently more of a prototype / proof of concept. I plan to put it on Steam as early access but when there will be more content and more gameplay systems. For a while I plan to keep it free.
Just played it 40 minutes, one of my best VR experiences so far in 2 years Oculus. Despite my little playspace, it worked almost 100%. The game is really fun and actually playable. No crashes or similar. Have already paid a lot of money for VR games that were worse in the development stage.
I have two improvements there:
- My playspace is not completely square (and small). Would be cool if you have a calibration function.
- Make the demo endless, it is always sad when I'm done :-)
That calibration function sounds good. What would you prefer to have? Game handles rectangular spaces but may handle them not efficently and calibration function would be useful there. I will think about it.
The next update will add option to make it endless :) Or it will be endless with a possibility to exit/stop.
The problem with the playspace is that you use the blue walls as a base and not the green playspace. The blue walls are exactly on the real walls, which makes it easy to run against the walls which is very uncomfortable. For this the Guardiansystem is not thought or suitable. It is also the first game where I turn off the Guardian system, because you are always so close to the walls and that bothers a lot when it is displayed. Incidentally, i have had games that temporarily disable or fade in the Guardiansystem permanently. I can think of several options for calibrating: 1. A slider which reduces the entire playspace by xx percent (easy to implement) 2. Run through the playspace with a controller as in the oculus setup or press the trigger once in each corner. 3. You blend in the playspace on the ground and you change the size with the help of some points as in an image editing program when inserting a graphic.
Do not make the game endless, but more difficult with each level. With permadeath and a high score at the end which is stored in a highscorelist. That should give enough motivation to continue playing. How about incidentally with selectable settings? For example, the current sci-fi setting with robots and laser weapons and a second setting with swords or knives in a dungeon. A space station would also be possible, since you only have to change the background with stars. Just an idea for the future... If there is interest, I could translate the English texts into German, if at some point there is a bit more text or a tutorial (necessary, I still have not understood many things).
I will have to check how I get play area size. What you said means that I get it using min and max of Guardian Boundary corners which makes it bigger than it should.
1. Sliding is easy.
2. That would be doubling what there already is for both Oculus and SteamVR.
3. This one is interesting. To display boundary, play area that is read from settings and play area calibrated by the player. Slider from point 1 could be here as one of the tools. I added that to my list.
I am thinking about at least two endless modes. One would be purely endless, to explore and travel through the world. But still it would be possible to end it (that's related to the story and I don't want to get too much into details right now). The second one would either force player to move towards the end (think of FTL where it pushes you to the last level) but you can just make it longer if you want. Or as you said, to push the difficulty level.
The settings for sci-fi, medieval etc. would kill me ;) I like the idea but I won't be able to handle it. Not yet. What I'd like to do is to focus on this game, create few other ones that happen in different settings and then work on a Inception-like game reusing stuff from other games - then I could use all that settings.
I have localisation system in place and I will be grateful for your help with translation :) but that should come when there will be more game in this game :) Thanks :)
I would love to be able to fine tune the play space the way you can in Beat Saber. My play space is set up so you can face the back wall without a problem, but if you try to put your back to it you'll be pulling against the cable, so I'd want to be able to shrink the playspace so it doesn't extend so far in that direction for this game.
I plan to add a way to calibrate play area :) I haven't thought about such cases and wanted just really simple "grow/shrink" but few people already suggested that, so it is on my todo list :)
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For what is the switch on the terraces good (output / status). Turn off the satellite antenna? What for?
BTW: I have about 30 long sessions behind me now. Very often I do not get any further and move in a circle (come back to the same place after 5 minutes). Am I in a dead end and have previously gone somewhere wrong?
And sometimes I walk through a snow-white labyrinth and find a very small blue square room without an exit. On the left is a kind of shutter/blinds. Once I saw how it had closed before I could enter the room.One more question: If I had a playspace of 4.5 x 4.5 m, would the corridors be wider and longer? I'm just about to expand my cellar and that would be quite a motivation, i am sometimes a little lazy :-)
Oh, and still no crashes experienced. Everything is running smoothly. Congratulations to your engine!
Thanks and regards!
That switch is used to turn off solar panels (that's what they are). It was rather proof of concept but that will be used in a modified form in final game. With explanation. In demo it is only useful in challenge mode - it is required to turn off at least one panel to open the door. During night door is open but flying robots are more aggressive.
In case you'rd lost, there are arrows on hand displays that help to navigate.
Yes, corridors will be longer and probably wider. I have to tune tile size automatically adjusted and expose few options.
Thanks for the info about the crashes :) there are few and I have some logs to go through and to fix bugs :)
I'm seriously impressed with what you've done here. As it is I'll probably get several hours of gameplay, and it's going to the top of my list for games to show off to friends on my Rift.
Things I love:
Possible improvements I noticed, many of which you're likely already aware of:
Thanks :)
1. Oculus touch controllers and hand gestures - that is definitely going to happen. Both for immersion and for pushing buttons and stuff.
2. Pause/menu is going to be added, I will only have to get controls for that properly. The thing with not being able to open doors might be related to bugs in level generation. If you could send me logs you have (if you encountered it, stop the game and send me a log) I could check what's going on.
3. I will add tutorial :) but at this point of development, lots of things may still change and lots will be added. I will have to find a way to simply explain what is there already though. To be able to get proper feedback.
4. ATM guns won't retract if you hold grip button. That might be not clear BUUUUT I am still going to test few things with controls so this may change and if I won't be sure which one is better, I will choose the most liked solution as default and other will be available through options. System to auto detect prefered approach would be great - if I get time and idea how to do it properly, this is going to be added.
5. There are some options in xml file, super sampling is not there, yet. But yes, graphics menu will be there. When menu is added :)
6. Guns behind bars is bug/feature-not-yet-final. I have no system yet to handle loot properly and that's why items that could be picked up are spawned in unreachable places. This will be addressed properly. In general, you should not try to reach places that you can't move to. There is other problem with that, bars I mean. When I was showcasing my game, few people moved their head beyond bars and one kid, when he saw long empty corridor, he started to run. I stopped him when I noticed what he is planning to do. I will be adding something that prevents going through walls/bars.
Thanks for the detailed reply! I hadn't realized I could use the grip to hold the default gun in place. I'll definitely be using that. The level failing to load has only happened once so far, but if it happens again where are the logs being stored so I can grab them?
They're in _logs sub directory :)
I suspect one thing but having log file from you I'd have a good repro to fix the bug.
I think these are the logs you're looking for
https://gist.github.com/smiller171/00e0991f658effa8ecea904aefe8ecd7
These are the logs I'm looking for.
Thanks :) I will be sorting crashes soon and then onto new stuff :)
Played a couple times - very impressed! I'm not usually one to comment, but you need to know, this is so unique and has *something* 80% of other VR games don't have. You've got something really great in progress here - keep going! (I know it's very early, so I'm sure you know, but players could use some tutorial/explanation for the ammo/energy and control stations/levers.)
Watching a video while writing this that said you wrote the engine from scratch, or didn't use Unity/etc. 100+ more impressed points for you!
Really, really cool! Thanks for putting it out there - and again, keep going!
Thanks :)
The tutorial will be there for sure as there is quite few things to explain. I want to keep systems simple but having them all at once thrown at you is quite overwhelming. Introducing them one by one would help to understand. ATM with experience mode players should not worry about these but in challenge (which hints how "normal" difficulty level), it might be crucial to use them.
Oh, and I shall write a blog post about decision behind writing my own engine.
This is a really great and immersive idea. Make early access and put it on Steam. I would pay something for it. Good luck!
Thanks :)
It's currently more of a prototype / proof of concept. I plan to put it on Steam as early access but when there will be more content and more gameplay systems. For a while I plan to keep it free.
Just played it 40 minutes, one of my best VR experiences so far in 2 years Oculus. Despite my little playspace, it worked almost 100%. The game is really fun and actually playable. No crashes or similar. Have already paid a lot of money for VR games that were worse in the development stage.
I have two improvements there:
- My playspace is not completely square (and small). Would be cool if you have a calibration function.
- Make the demo endless, it is always sad when I'm done :-)
That calibration function sounds good. What would you prefer to have? Game handles rectangular spaces but may handle them not efficently and calibration function would be useful there. I will think about it.
The next update will add option to make it endless :) Or it will be endless with a possibility to exit/stop.
Here is my Oculus playspace with the Guardian Boundary Editor:
https://imgur.com/a/Rsd74It
The problem with the playspace is that you use the blue walls as a base and not the green playspace. The blue walls are exactly on the real walls, which makes it easy to run against the walls which is very uncomfortable. For this the Guardiansystem is not thought or suitable. It is also the first game where I turn off the Guardian system, because you are always so close to the walls and that bothers a lot when it is displayed. Incidentally, i have had games that temporarily disable or fade in the Guardiansystem permanently.
I can think of several options for calibrating:
1. A slider which reduces the entire playspace by xx percent (easy to implement)
2. Run through the playspace with a controller as in the oculus setup or press the trigger once in each corner.
3. You blend in the playspace on the ground and you change the size with the help of some points as in an image editing program when inserting a graphic.
Do not make the game endless, but more difficult with each level. With permadeath and a high score at the end which is stored in a highscorelist. That should give enough motivation to continue playing.
How about incidentally with selectable settings? For example, the current sci-fi setting with robots and laser weapons and a second setting with swords or knives in a dungeon. A space station would also be possible, since you only have to change the background with stars. Just an idea for the future...
If there is interest, I could translate the English texts into German, if at some point there is a bit more text or a tutorial (necessary, I still have not understood many things).
I will have to check how I get play area size. What you said means that I get it using min and max of Guardian Boundary corners which makes it bigger than it should.
1. Sliding is easy.
2. That would be doubling what there already is for both Oculus and SteamVR.
3. This one is interesting. To display boundary, play area that is read from settings and play area calibrated by the player. Slider from point 1 could be here as one of the tools. I added that to my list.
I am thinking about at least two endless modes. One would be purely endless, to explore and travel through the world. But still it would be possible to end it (that's related to the story and I don't want to get too much into details right now). The second one would either force player to move towards the end (think of FTL where it pushes you to the last level) but you can just make it longer if you want. Or as you said, to push the difficulty level.
The settings for sci-fi, medieval etc. would kill me ;) I like the idea but I won't be able to handle it. Not yet. What I'd like to do is to focus on this game, create few other ones that happen in different settings and then work on a Inception-like game reusing stuff from other games - then I could use all that settings.
I have localisation system in place and I will be grateful for your help with translation :) but that should come when there will be more game in this game :) Thanks :)
I would love to be able to fine tune the play space the way you can in Beat Saber. My play space is set up so you can face the back wall without a problem, but if you try to put your back to it you'll be pulling against the cable, so I'd want to be able to shrink the playspace so it doesn't extend so far in that direction for this game.
I plan to add a way to calibrate play area :) I haven't thought about such cases and wanted just really simple "grow/shrink" but few people already suggested that, so it is on my todo list :)