Big Booty Adventures
Development Update
Simply put, we haven't been working on it. For over a year..... Not news you want to hear and news we hate to give because we really want to make a full and complete game. We see so many early access games just "die off" with no explanation and no signs from the devs, even ones that were highly rated! We aren't those devs.
The short story is this: There are two of us that work on this project and in late 2022 we both had some major lifestyle changes that quite literally tore us from development. We both decided to take a break to focus on those for a bit and well, that break lasted a very very long time.
That being said, this isn't an announcement that we are picking up development again. But nor is it an announcement of us throwing in the towel. Steam and Early Access have put us in a unique position where we could theoretically continue working on this project for life! Of course we doubt that will be the case. Since we started our early concepts in 2017 so much has changed in the VR and development world. It really probably is best if we start fresh either with a different game or a refresh of this game entirely. But honestly we don't know.
So here’s what we do know. People are still buying our game. Not many, but enough to know we did something right. We have more locomotion and accessibility options than many AAA games we've played. We have a bigger and more open world than most VR games. We have plenty of “wonk" going on but we do know there is fun to be had for certain players, ESPECIALLY when you bring a friend in. We’ve had a blast developing this game and often find we don't want to play new VR titles because we would rather be chasing Booty!
For now the game is going to continue living in early access until we get it together or, well, until we don't and we will provide that update then…. Ahhh the life of a small indie dev team. Anyways feel free to pop into our discord to chat if you want. We aren't dead after all, just a little lost! Thanks for listening and hopefully your understanding. Until the next update, take care!
Small Patch for Various Bugs
AI Characters no longer walk on exploded docks (navmesh wasnt updating for destructible meshes)
AI Can now be sliced with the sword again (no idea why this was broken)
Various inventory items werent spawning when grabbed (shovel, boats, spyglass)
Various other quality of life fixes
Known Issues:
Boats dont always spawn when thrown in the water
AI Stabbing Not working
HP Reverb pushing the trigger causes the game to become unfocused... have to click on the game with the mouse.... not sure if this is a reverb thing or whats going on.
Future Updates:
For anybody who reads these I'll make this brief. We are a team of 2 indie devs. Thats it. Recent life events have literally torn us from working on this as much as we would like. Its highly possible one of us is completely unavailable for developing indefinitely while another of us is solidifying a plan for future updates based on this. We may be finding a way to wrap up this title where it currently stands and moving onto something more manageable. Nothing is set in stone yet just wanted to throw some transparency out there. #indielife
Reverb G2 Hotfix - Controls Fixed
Our main developer headsets are now a G2 and a Quest 2 (previously Rift and Quest2). So you G2 users should see improvements down the pipeline now that this is a main headset for us.
Already fixed some gripping animations in this fix. The controllers vibrate while gripping and ungripping for some reason. A brief look did not show any faults in the code so maybe this is something in the windows mixed portal.
Also Fixed the character select table being disabled after a player climbs and lands in this update.
Water Upgrade and Bug Fixes
The material is considered a "mobile" level of quality so performance wont take too much of a hit. We left the old water in the game as the low settings in case you need to adjust for performance.
Check out these Before and After shots!
Calm Water Before
Calm Water After
Ocean Water Before
Ocean Water After
Settings
This is a fun update and although not a large one should add a lot of quality as you travel around the world.
In addition to the visuals we added/fixed various things. Lets start with fixes.
Fixed:
AI jittering up and down while waking around
AI feet wont hover in the air
Character Selection Table had a few bad mats for some of the skins
Music playing in the Lobby
Increased the ceiling height of the ship fort at home base (felt cramped)
Actors ticking that shouldnt be no longer tick
Various issues in general with AI interactivity etc
Yellow Course Start Button moved to the correct level
Added:
Ability to only unlock certain soldier colors at at time (previously shooting a blue coat unlocked all the coat colors)
Added the ability to fight Blue/Red Coats in the sandbox arena for extra coin.
New Mechanic - Death Counter
Repercussions Ahoy!
Death by enemies is now to be avoided at all costs. Die too many times and you will end up in a jail cell with a choice to make; Either pay a fee to port back to your previous location (clearing out your death counter) or, if you don't have the coin... you'll have to escape from the dungeons.
Enemies will have a small chance to drop black skulls which players can pick up to reduce their death count by one.
The Death Counter can be viewed in the scroll menu. Currently its 10 accumulated deaths in single player and 5 accumulated deaths in co-op (these amounts may change).
Falling in the water never counts as a "death" - You must be killed by an enemy AI for these to accumulate.
We hope this update adds some depth to the way you traverse through the world and fight enemies. Previously, you could land on an island and perpetually respawn until you complete your mission. Now if you find you are at 9/10 deaths it suddenly becomes quite a serious endeavor to complete your task without dying.. which we personally find invigorating (we love a good challenge).
Hopefully this is enjoyable but if not no worries! It is still a mechanic work-in-progress that we can flesh out as the game progresses. Enjoy!
Home Base Cosmetic Upgrade
So we took to some nice pleasant level design and re-imagined the center of the base to better match the aesthetics for the rest of the world. Here are some before and after screenshots. We hope you enjoy this small cosmetic update!
After
Before
After
Before
7/11/22 Update
Various Load/Save Bugs
Various Multiplayer Loading/Saving Bugs
Spawning Issues in certain areas.
Port to Home and Port to friend bugs
Ammo Spawn issues in Multiplayer
Enemies going into wall at tutorial area
New Game doesnt bring previous saves inventory with them
Added
Stats for the first mission area
Reworked
Quest Controllers now fire when pulled halfway instead of all the way (feels more responsive now)
Reworked first mission area so that following the smoke results in a proper reward at the end
7/1/2022
- Single player saves are back to loading correctly
- Ammo boxes give the proper amount of ammo to hosts and joined players
- Various other fixes regarding the saving / loading system
6/30/22 Update
- Multiplayer enemies fixed for the client
- Fixed a couple inventory problems in multiplayer
- Fixed various multiplayer replication issues
6/26/2022 Update
- Fixed an issue preventing mini ships to grow into big ships
- Added a mini ship representing the first available vessel available for players to add to their inventory