Greetings Bone Junkers, been a while, today we bring you a hover ship and a desert sandbox level to fly it in. As we work towards expanding our mechanics for future games, an important aspect to hone is the relationship between the player and vehicles, and what better way to start than to circle back to the first vehicle we ever built for VR; The Hover Junker's Wasp!
SANDBOX: Junk Desert Chamber
VEHICLE: Hover Junker ship
GUN: Stapler handgun
PHYSICS TOOL: Gravity Welder
New Achievements
SANDBOX: JUNK DESERT
The Junk Desert is a big open sandbox map made specifically for flying the Junk Ship in. This map was built with original assets from our first VR game Hover Junkers! Large scale open map designed for vehicle flight testing of the Junk ship and some exploration.
Originally roughed out as a level for the main Boneworks campaign, as we refined the narrative it was no longer part of the story. Rather than cut it we shelved it for this update since it still had a mechanical purpose outside of it's narrative purpose.
This update comes as a sort of design exercise for us. We wanted to adapt an aesthetic that wasn't envisioned to be fully interactable in the way that Boneworks is to identify potential pain points in recommending Boneworks level of interaction to VR more broadly.
hint: Find and unlock the Hover Junker module in our offices in Streets!
NEW ITEMS
Wasp ship - The original Hover Junkers wasp ship is now an unlockable / spawnable item in the game. There was already one in the Tower level although flight times were questionable. You can now bring this flying machine into any level you want.
Gravity Welder - This classic multi-tool design was our original concept for interacting with virtual environments. Long before we were confident in our plan for full physics interaction we determined that a "do everything" multi-tool would be the most convenient way for players to interact with virtual environments. The Welder has been updated to function similarly to the DevManipulator however it functions more like a weapon in that you can quickly grab and fire items without treating it similar to a slingshot.
Stapler handgun - While we work on updating our core interaction, we decided to try bringing over a weapon designed for an older generation of VR. This process helps inform the future of updating weapons from older to newer versions of VR mechanics for us!
JUNK SHIP: WASP
Flying - Full physics operation of the ship allows the vehicle to fly similarly to a low power plane, this may be challenging to fly at first but very rewarding once you take flight! You can try bringing the ship into different scenes and sandboxes, go nuts.
Original Design - The overall design for the game Hover Junkers came from our thought process of room scale VR pre-2016 VR mainstream release! During this time our solution for locomotion in VR was to locomote the player's room space rather than the players bodies, this lead to our concept of the hover ships (turn the player's room into a ship!). The Wasp ship seen here is the very first, original hover ship that we created to test our idea out. Now in 2020 we're able to bring that original concept into the fully interactable world of Boneworks!
VR Vehicles - The Wasp features standing operation. This is a good first step for vehicles because it allows us to test the core tech at higher speeds, ironing out bugs that only become apparent at speed. Also it forces us to support moving platforms more fully. It was important to first take this step before venturing into the world of seated cockpits and rotating the player with the vehicle. More on that in '21...
Patch Notes - Update 1.6
NEW - Flying Junk Ship
NEW - Gravity Welder
NEW - Stapler handgun
UPDATED - Achievements
UPDATED - Various scene collider fixes
UPDATED - Various scene performance
UPDATED - Main Menu boards
UPDATED - Preparations for future updates
We feel like it's more important now than ever to give you all things to look forward to in VR. For months our internal goal has been to reveal what we have planned for Boneworks as well as new upcoming titles that we've been hard at work on throughout 2020. We still need more time, but assure you it will be worth the wait, thank you for being supportive of Stress Level Zero and the exuberance that you all exhibit! We can't wait to share the latest info, until then enjoy 1.6! - Stress Level Zero
Update 1.6 is coming Dec 29th!
BONEWORKS 1.6 - Hover Junkers is coming Dec 29, next week!
Happy Holidays! As we've been hard at work on the core and future titles, it seems prudent to take a look back at where we started. Whereas in 2016 we introduced artificial locomotion via piloting your ship with tracked locomotion moving you on the deck, with Boneworks we synergized tracked, artificial, and physics locomotion. Highlighting this evolution with a Hover Junkers sandbox featuring the first Junker we built satisfies us with the progress that has been made, but ultimately excites and energizes us to keep pushing VR into the future that we all know is possible!
Enjoy this update in 4 days and look forward to '21, the future is bright for physics VR. - Stress Level Zero
Finally reclaim and spawn the flyable Hover Junker ship!
Desert sandbox flight map!
New Hover Junker physics tool and handgun!
Better VR in '21
[previewyoutube="WPdB4vQFByk;full"]
BONEWORKS Update 1.5
[previewyoutube="f2Vwf5kzPlw;full"]
Overview
Today we have a completely new Arena with Update 1.5: Zombie Warehouse. This new level provides a variety of challenges with five modes, multiple difficulty options, experimental enemy AI, a new defensive physics tool, difficulty options, and various weapon loadouts. Additionally we have included further improvements to the player character physics and performance, improving core systems even more.
Zombie Warehouse Arena
Multiple Challenge Modes for the Zombie Warehouse to complete
Player Physics / Locomotion Optimizations
New Physics Tool - The Boardgun
New Achievements
New Music
Adjustments, Bug Fixes, Performance increases
Zombie Warehouse Arena
hint: Find and unlock in the main menu environment
Five Challenge Modes: There are Five different challenge modes available in the Zombie Warehouse arena for a variety of fun combat experiences, along with multiple difficulty levels to add increased intensity to each mode.
Boardgun Defense: To aid in the defensive focused Zombie Warehouse challenges, we are introducing the Boardgun physics tool. Build basic wooden fortifications, get creative.
Experimental Enemy AI: Expanded enemy AI provides some experimental new mechanics allowing them to climb, drop off ledges, jump through windows, and ride ziplines in the environment to reach you.
Experimental Health: Tied directly to challenge difficulty level, experimental health features range from slowed healing to the more difficult no health recovery; requiring players to kill enemies for health pickups.
The Boardgun
The new physics tool called the Boardgun allows you to create destructible planks of wood from two points like a roll of tape. Get creative by connecting two points together, create defensive structures or board up areas, bypass obstacles, etc.
Unlock the Boardgun for use throughout the rest of the game and other sandboxes by earning the Zombie Warehouse achievements and opening the hidden reclamation bin.
Character Improvements
Jump rework: Leg lift is now matched to jump apex by calculating time of flight from launch velocity.
Foot ball contracts and expands to clear the lip and stomp the landing.
Mantling improvement: Legs now automatically lift when body weight is supported by hands and hands are extended down. Stick input still overrides the leg height.
Tighter controls: One frame of input latency eliminated, body slots positions corrected to not lag when moving at high speed.
Hand Pop-through: Hands will now "pop through" an environment piece if they become lodged on the other side and are not holding any objects (Example: if your hand becomes stuck on the other side of a shut door, they will now pop back through if you are not holding anything on the other side of the door when tugged).
Additional Update Information
Unlock weapons arena: Some unlockable weapons were previously missing from the Fantasy Arena are now available for the various modes.
Destructible shelves: Shelving that could fall over and trap players on accident are now destructible to prevent this.
Experimental muzzle flash lighting: An option in the menu to enable muzzle flashes to cast real time light.
Main menu: Main menu has been slightly reorganized to place all unlockable levels and sandboxes on the module board.
Patch Notes - Update 1.5
NEW - Zombie Warehouse Arena
NEW - Boardgun tool
NEW - Music
NEW - Achievements
CHARACTER - Jumping reworked
CHARACTER - Performance improvements
CHARACTER - Input latency reduced by 1 frame
CHARACTER - Body slots position updated pre-hover query
CHARACTER - Hand pop-through environment
CHARACTER - Automatic leg lift
UPDATED - Unlocked weapons in Fantasy Arena
UPDATED - Destructible Shelves
UPDATED - Experimental Muzzle flash lighting
UPDATED - Various scene collider fixes
UPDATED - Various scene performance
UPDATED - Main Menu boards
UPDATED - Preparations for future updates
Have fun, we'll see you next time!
Update 1.5 is coming June 18th
1.5 Zombie Warehouse is coming June 18th, one week from today!
Zombie mode where the enemies will climb, drop, go through windows, and zipline to get to you!
Defend your position with the Boardgun.
Tighter player mechanics as we've continued to improve the Boneworks core!
[previewyoutube="pE4bX8-qzmc;full"]
BONEWORKS Update 1.4 - [REDACTED]
BoneWick - Expertly rendered by Tabloid & Laik.
Overview
Welcome to [REDACTED] life, today we've got an update straight from quarantine. For the past month we have been adjusting to work-from-home life while plugging away at Boneworks update 1.4, the [REDACTED] Update. To get started: new players will find the [redacted] level module in the museum by the reclamation bin, players who have claimed the museum sandbox already will have it already plugged in in the main menu.
Greatly Improved Hand Physics (Punching, Climbing, Swinging)
New Sandbox Environments
New Minigame - Time Trial course
New Spawnable Gachapons
New Firearm - p350 Handgun
Adjustments, Bug Fixes, Performance increases
Physics Improvements
Significant improvements have been made to the hand's physical forces solve. By more efficiently using the allocated forces for accelerating and breaking we've improved stability (good) without simply making the player stronger (cheating). Stopping distance is now solved in 2D instead of one, one parallel to gravity and the other perpendicular. Also, the systems sensors have been improved to better know if you're lifting your body weight improving climbing greatly. Attention was given to wrist torque implementing a system that simulates stabilizing muscle groups providing tighter handling of items and more satisfying punching/melee.
New Sandbox Scenes
NEW SANDBOX - [REDACTED] Chamber - Originally Test Chamber 04, this was an early experimental physics testing environment for BONEWORKS prototyping. You may be familiar with this environment from videos early on in development.
NEW SANDBOX - HandgunBox - This new environment was built to showcase the new handgun balance features. You can find a CQB time trial course hidden in the depths of this dank MythOS chemical basement.
NEW SANDBOX - Tuscany - Return to Tuscany Italy! A nostalgia trip for early VR enthusiasts, this environment pays tribute to the very first Oculus DK1 VR environment. Relax and enjoy the air, or spawn in sandbox objects and create chaos.
Handgun Time Trial
Put your tactical skills to the test with a close quarter combat time trial, hidden inside the new HandgunBox Sandbox environment. This timed course takes you through a close quarters training warehouse stocked with omnimen in every corner. Choose your handgun load out and chase your best or previous time.
REMEMBER - the clock runs in real time and slowmo will not slow down the clock.
New Handgun - p350 Handgun
We have slowly been introducing slight handgun balance changes over the past several updates. Today we are introducing a new handgun to fill in the middle ground. The edder handgun has lower damage but higher capacity mags, and the 1911 has higher damage with lower capacity mags, the p350 sits right in the middle with a balanced ammo capacity and damage output.
These changes come as an effort to begin spreading out flexibility and balance adjustments in our expanding range of firearms.
Music - Three new songs
Three all new original music tracks have been written for this update including "Little Tuscany", "Creeping", and "Tactical Trial". These tracks will be added for download to the OST on Steam soon, along with the high quality audio version of the entire soundtrack.
Patch Notes - Update 1.4
-UPDATE NOTES-
IMPROVED: Physics - Hands
IMPROVED: Physics - Climbing Physics
IMPROVED: Physics - Melee Combat / Punching
ADDED: WEAPON - p350 (Handgun)
ADDED: LEVEL - REDACTED CHAMBER
ADDED: LEVEL - TUSCANY
ADDED: LEVEL - HANDGUN RANGE
ADDED: Spawnable - Giant dice set
ADDED: Spawnable - Pallet jack
ADDED: Spawnable - Omniway
ADDED: Spawnable - Foam castle blocks
ADDED: Music - Little Tuscany
ADDED: Music - Tactical Trial
ADDED: Music - Creeping
ADDED: Machine - Jukebox for Sandbox
ADDED: Time Trial test (Handgun Range)
ADDED: Sandbox enemy spawn holograms
FIXED: Physics - Projectile influence
FIXED: Physics - Magazine angular velocity
FIXED: Encounter - Runoff zombie encounter
FIXED: Art - Nimbus art
FIXED: Art - Various minor errors
FIXED: Bug - Gachapon not staying in inventory
FIXED: Bug - Haptic bug (Oculus)
FIXED: Bug - Physics step bug (Oculus)
FIXED: Bug - Gravity plate can no longer grab the hand that's holding it
ADJUSTED: Performance - Tower Improvements
ADJUSTED: Performance - Core Player code optimized for slight boost
ADJUSTED: Physics - Full hand physics pass
ADJUSTED: Physics - Wrist (Oculus)
ADJUSTED: UX - Level Unlock system
ADJUSTED: Art - Various Level Lightbakes
ADJUSTED: Puzzles - Various Level Climb puzzles
ADJUSTED: Puzzles - Various Level Encounters
ADJUSTED: Art - [REDACTED]
ADJUSTED: Art - Various preparations for [REDACTED]
We hope you guys have fun with this update and we would love to see your coolest clips posted of the Handgun Time Trial.
Update 1.4 is coming April 9th
With the new update just 6 days away, we take a look at the [redacted] chambers place in the projects development. Enjoy the [redacted] Chamber yourself alongside Tuscany and a handgun course when 1.4 drops April 9th. [previewyoutube="6IXJ5eii09U;full"]
BONEWORKS SAVE-SPOTS UPDATE
[previewyoutube="wU40ZT2DyhY;full"] Deja vu... Expertly rendered by TechnoPrizm.
Overview
Welcome to the first major update of 2020! We've been working hard to simultaneously add new content, improve the existing experience of the campaign, and strengthen the core tech for you to enjoy in this and future SLZ titles! Today we bring you:
New Content
Save spots
Brawl mode
Improved climbing stability
Improved hand responsiveness to quick actions
Sandbox Gachapons
Blankbox, performance light sandbox
Adjustments and fixes
Save Spots
Savespots can now be found throughout each level. They will save any items in your player inventory as well save-able items placed in the savespot bins. To save your game, hold both triggers while grabbing the save point handles and wait for the save bar to fill up. The next time you start the game, the continue button in the main menu will bring you back to this spot. NOTE: If you complete a level, that counts as a savespot.
NEW Brawl Mode
Customized brawl battle in arena mode. Choose types and quantities of enemy waves to fight with and against in the end-game arena. We don't want to spoil too much, so have at it.
NEW Sandbox items to find
Additional gachapons can be found hidden throughout the game. When capsules are reclaimed, you can unlock a variety of fun objects to spawn. Try building some giant foam castles.
NEW Sandbox + sandbox machines
The Museum Basement sandbox has seen some changes and will continue to see adjustments in future updates. Starting with an ammo spawn machine, a health setting machine, and a few others; the Museum sandbox will continue to improve over time. Museum sandbox is now easier to find in the museum and in it's old place is a completely new sandbox: BlankBox.
The BlankBox environment provides a completely open sandbox with minimal environment pieces for maximum performance. If you want to benchmark your computer and see just how many enemies you can spawn, use the BlankBox.
Unlock Display Case
A new display case can now be found in the main menu and sandbox that displays the items you have unlocked. This will be updated with any items added to the collectible items list in future updates.
Patch Notes - Update 0.1.3
-UPDATE NOTES-
ADDED: Save Spots
ADDED: Save Spot information in museum
ADDED: Collectibles Display Case!
ADDED: Additional Reclamation Bins to some levels
ADDED: Ammo Dispenser Machine
ADDED: Health Machine
ADDED: Experimental Texture res for low vram GPUs
ADDED: Additional claimable gachapons to most levels
ADDED: Nullrat claimable gachapon
ADDED: Note for stuck on height select
ADDED: Main Menu Exit
ADDED: Custom magazine for 1911
ADDED: New melee weapon, Pickaxe
ADDED: New melee weapon, Katar
ADDED SANDBOX: BlankBox for high performance fun
ADJUSTED: Ladder rung colliders
ADJUSTED: Climbing
ADJUSTED: Minor text adjustments
ADJUSTED: Complex crate
ADJUSTED: Ammo display in main menu shows total
ADJUSTED: Main Menu UI
ADJUSTED: Gachapon glow
ADJUSTED: Nerfed 9mm damage (affects Eder22, all MP5 variants, UZI)
ADJUSTED: 1911 bullets changed from 9mm to .45 (still uses light ammo)
ADJUSTED: Various checkpoint locations
ADJUSTED: Savespot text
FIXED: Crate in tower
FIXED: Vivewand forever haptics
FIXED: Several Static objects
FIXED: Barrels no longer spawn weapons outside of the Arena level
FIXED: Text Errors
FIXED: Additional minor bugs
- PRIMARY BUILD CHANGES -
add pick up the place to OST
add monomat theme to OST
OST changed from DLC to Soundtrack
We're going to be doing more frequent videos in between updates. What would you like to see / hear about?
Post Launch Update
Screenshot by Jolly Joey's inspired eye.
Overview
Thank you to everyone for making the launch of Boneworks the biggest in VR's young history! Over 100k people played in the first week! The entire SLZ team has been overwhelmed by the reaction, we're so happy that you all share our enthusiasm for this passion project. Over the past 2+ years of development we learned physics, trig, linear algebra, quaternions, anatomy, and more. Now we're going to learn how to best curate Boneworks for your longterm enjoyment.
The majority of the past 12 days was spent debugging issues that we either didn't encounter until we had player scale testing or issues introduced in the sleep deprived haze that we'll remember as '2019'. Highlights include: WMR grip friction parity with other controllers, a couple of flying bugs eliminated, a rare NaN in the physics hands leading to a one way trip to NaN land (hand stopped updating), a Monomat related bug that would cause you to launch out of the level, and many more minor ones. We also improved the quality of life for some of our left handed players by adding a joystick flip option and added a haptic intensity setting for players who have semi broken controllers that haptic with far too much enthusiasm.
Also, we have heard you and agree, we're working on a checkpoint save system to add mid-level checkpoint saves to the larger levels that should be ready mid to late January to allow you to take on the campaign in shorter play sessions. We'll always hear you but won't always agree, so enjoy this one :)
New Content
While we didn't plan on anything other than bug fixes pre-January, we wanted to at least leave you with a couple of easy ones to enjoy in Sandbox over the holiday.
Controller Interactions
Today we have an example of the same Boneworks interaction performed with the Index controllers, Touch controllers, and Vive wands. The game is fully playable with any SteamVR compatible VR headset and tracked controllers.
Index Controllers:
Touch Controllers:
Vive Wands:
In a future update we will showcase additional input parity between controllers.
