Hey, it’s Josiah here! We have been working on setting up the foundations for multi-player and cross-platform play but we have also been working on some new additions and are happy to release our latest update.
Selfie Camera To help those who want to create gameplay videos from a different perspective or just take a funny selfie of T-10 making a mess, we added a selfie camera. It looks like a tablet and can be found in every level. It can be freely positioned anywhere, and has a button on top that will switch the game output on your monitor to the new camera for easy screen capture.
Leaderboard Display The local player’s score is now highlighted on the leaderboards to make it easier to see where you stand. We have also been re-writing and optimizing the leaderboard code in preparation for expanding the game to additional platforms. Most of this is invisible, but this quality-of-life item was part of it. We always meant to have it, but work with the core interaction system distracted the person who was supposed to put it in (it was me).
New Toy! Even though we’re supposed to only be slogging through the netcode for multiplayer (fun!), we want to make sure there’s a flow of at least some new content in the game proper. So, Brandon pulled me away from my precious code to have some fun getting an airplane put into the toy level. Give it a spin and let us know what you think!
Shadowmap resolution We increased the shadowmap resolution on the walls and other objects to give a more realistic appearance (aka smoother edges and curves) to shadows. Overall it gives the game a higher resolution appearance.
Thank you for tuning in and being apart of the development process. We are working hard behind the scenes and want to keep the community engaged throughout the process. Feel free to comment below with questions, ideas, or just to chat!
Josiah
Launch Week & Christmas Video
Launch week is over!
We have to admit, this last week has been one of the most nerve-wracking weeks of our lives! We have poured our hearts into this game for almost a year and to launch it out into the real world is pretty scary. Being an indie developer, we have relied a lot on the community to help us get our game to where it is today, so here’s a huge shout out to all of our beta testers - you guys rock! So far, we have received a great amount of positive feedback since launch (phew!).
Here are some things the curators have said:
“Nice puzzle game in which you are required to reaction speed. Good physics and several game modes.” - VR Goldgrabbers
“Very cool game with well-developed physics! If you think you have a good reaction, try to assemble a robot …” - The Best VR Games on PC
"Excellent graphics. Addictive gameplay." - Earth in the Porthole
"An experience you won't get anywhere else!"- Worldwide Reviews
"A fun and dynamic game." - Gaming Grandma
Josiah is working on some exciting updates and plans to have them done this week. We will be sure to let you know when they are live. We are also working on sharing some more details on our plans for future game modes and multi-player. So stay tuned!
But in the meantime, we put together this new promo video to get you all in the Christmas spirit. We’ll be deleting it after the holidays so see it on our home page while you can!
P.S. It may be juusssst a little cheesy ;)
Meet T-10
Conveyor VR launches tomorrow and we are still pinching ourselves that this day is almost here!
Conveyor VR is a virtual reality game set inside a factory that does everything from toy motorcycles to tablets to teddy bears. You get to be T-10, the robot who manages the factory and makes sure it is running properly. This is a great game to disconnect and challenge players to make it on the leaderboard.
We wanted to give you a little bit of a backstory on T-10 and how he came to be.
The name T-10 is inspired by one of my good friends, Thriston. Thriston and I have been buddies since we were in diapers and with him away serving in the Air Force, I miss him a lot! I thought what better way to honor him then to name the main character after him.
T-10 is a proud robot. He is the #1 employee (and only employee) but that doesn’t stop him from having fun. He is the forever “employee of the month” and works day in and day out to keep the factory up and running. One of his favorite things to do is dance in front of the mirror on his work breaks. Any other robot that would be placed in this factory would be boring and programmed to do so, but T-10 is unique.
We first created T-10 in March 2018. But he wasn’t our first robot. The first modeled robot was the toy robot that you assemble in the toy factory. When we built the toy robot, we were trying to get inspiration for our main character and we took a lot of the key features from the toy robot and brought them over to T-10. If you look closely at the toy robot the eyes and ears are quite similar to T-10’s, as well as the head and body, which both have rounded corners.
Once we finalized T-10, we haven’t changed much about him. The only main change we made was to his eye color. We started off with blue and moved over to a brown before deciding to move back to the bright blue.
Thanks for reading! Please comment below and let me know your thoughts on T-10 and Conveyor VR.
Until next time,
Brandon
Conveyor VR Beta Update
Hello world!
Updraft studios is making its big debut with its first ever virtual reality game, Conveyor VR. Experience life through the eyes of a robot. Your name is T–10 and it’s your job to take care of the factory. This job entails working on the conveyor line in several exciting high-energy game modes, and servicing the machines in our relay race repair mode.
Conveyor VR will be released on December 11, 2018 and we are happy to share that beta testing is going great. We wanted to release a game that is built on a good foundation. Our team of two has released a very stable and solid game. Over 10 months and 2,000 hours of development and you won’t believe how far we’ve come!
Here in Conveyor VR and we would like to remind you that “Robots don’t sweat, but you will!”
In Q1 of 2019 we will be releasing Conveyor VR to the PlayStation VR. With that release we will be bringing to the PlayStation and PC platforms multiplayer, new game modes (including cooperative gameplay), avatar customization, and more assembly items and features.
The assets, soundtracks, code, and everything else you experience are all created by Brandon and Josiah in this original virtual reality game. We wanted it to be a completely unique experience!
Conveyor VR is sure to get your heart pumping, and get you moving faster than before! It’s coming: 12.11.18
