As you may infer from the title, unfortunately I was not successful in my venture to port Mythlink to Oculus Quest. It's not that it couldn't be done, but the timing is not quite right. Long story short, there is a nifty API that helps allow for the development of multiple VR ecosystems all in one. However, Valve is a bit behind on implementing their end into the system. It's still possible, mind you, but it would mean losing the nice input features that I recently upgraded to. I could have still done it, but that would mean maintaining a separate build, only to have to then later re-do it yet again once Valve finishes their implementation. I don't think the effort is worth it really, especially since the Quest version won't have online play. This will have to wait.
Luckily, I did discover all of this relatively early in my development research and had the remainder of the month to work on other things. In fact, I had enough time to develop the first speed training exercise! Bare with me on the name here, it's a little lame but I'm going with it. Formerly called "dodgeball", now available in the latest Steam update is "Baller Dodge".
Let's get into the patch notes:
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New Features
Training Room
The first speed game is available- Baller Dodge. The goal of this game is pretty simple, last as long as you can. Various balls will be thrown at you at varying speeds and directions. There is nothing you can do but keep out of their way. Be fast on your feet and dodge as many as you can!
Battle Room
The fireworks effect for winning has been improved.
Bug Fixes
Greatly enhanced Pile Up performance once again. Full disclosure on this one, there was a ton of debug code that I had accidentally left in. Things have been entirely cleaned up and now the performance should be as one would expect.
Fixed a problem where the demo Mythlink wouldn't spawn in some cases
Fixed a bug where high scores could be manipulated.
Fixed a problem where grabbing the height adjustment handles while pressing buttons would cause strange behavior.
------------------------------------------- And there you have it! Next month I'll be working on the second speed game. Whether or not it will finished in time for an update is unknown, but it should for sure be in there by September. Have fun!
It's a Tiny Tiny World
Whelp, we did it gang. Online multiplayer for Mythlink is available NOW on the latest Steam update!
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's rewind a bit with some bad news. My primary tester has still not returned from his obligation! I grow increasingly nervous about the overall polish/stability of the game as it stands, but as I've stated previously I can only think of so many different ways to debug. This problem goes double for online play. Adding networking features is no joke and making them work smoothly is even more of a challenge, so I must yet again apologize in advance. I really wanted to get this networking build available so that, for the first time ever, people could play Mythlink and actually battle each other online. I just hope it works as well for others as it does through my endless testing.
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New Features
Battle Room
Online play is now available! From the battle room you now have the option to select playing an unranked match against an online opponent. For now, all players are limited to using the demo loadout. The details of the loadout can be found in the April update post.
Custom Battle Colors- A color menu can be accessed from the battle room. The color menu you allows to customize the appearance of both the player and the opponents. The lock on functionality will also be adjusted to the color you select
"Practice" battle modes have been renamed to "Offline".
Training Room
A new strength game is available- Punch Junction. In this game, players will try to get high scores and hard punches on a set of surrounding targets. Be careful! The units will occasionally shoot out flames. If you're in the way of the flames, you'll take damage. Keep your head on a swivel, keep your feet moving, and dish out some massive damage!
General Game Changes
In the never ending struggle to make things look better, light shaft effects have been added to the dorm and training rooms.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a problem where the colliders weren't matching up with the left hand accurately.
Fixed a problem with the battle arena's "Quit" button.
Fixed a number of small other bugs. -------------------------------------------
So, what's in store for next month? Well, I was fortunate enough to temporarily get my hands on an Oculus Quest and want to take advantage of the situation. This means that I will forego the majority of Steam Mythlink development and instead see what it will take to port Mythlink over to Oculus Quest. Of course, any major bugs found in the Steam version will take precedence over everything else.
This new project could go a few different ways...perhaps investigation will begin and I will quickly come to the realization that it's going to take far too much effort, in which case I will temporarily drop the idea and return to proper development. What I believe will happen is that it will take a modest amount of effort and can be achieved within the month, in which case I will do my best to create a port. Please note that even in the case of a successful Oculus Quest version, Mythlink will not have any online multiplayer on the platform for the foreseeable future.
It's a month of experimentation, so let's see where it goes!
A Deadly Intersection
It's the three year anniversary of Mythlink, do you know what that means?! Nothing really, except that this project has been in development for three years and that is a long time.
Alright, so this month is all about the new training game that will be available with the June update: "Punch Junction". Those with memories from the past 3 years of Mythlink may see the similarities from this game to the "Punch Dummies" from a previous version.
Let's break down this gif and explain exactly what is going on in this game. First, you'll notice the obvious red square on the large machine unit. These should be the main focus of your attacks while you play since defeating these grant bonus points and are your best bet to landing high scores. They don't disappear on their own, so as long as one is active, no new ones will spawn until the current ones are dealt with! You can track how much "life" they have left by the red effect as the size directly correlates with their remaining HP.
Next, you'll notice the flames that come shooting out from the side of the machine. Not every strength game can just be wildly punching at your targets, so this game adds a touch of finesse to the mix. Each of the machines comes equipped with 3 flame-throwing attachments on the left, right, and top of the unit. When dormant, these attachments will have a blue ping-pong effect enabled. When they become active, this effect changes from green, to yellow, and eventually to red, while also increasing in speed, indicating a pending attack. When the attack launches, flames will shoot out from the attachment and if you are within the area of attack you will take one damage. It is worthwhile to note that you only take damage if your main body is colliding with the flames. Those boxing gloves happen to have excellent flame resistance. As with "Engine Buster", you have 3 HP before the game ends. Punch Junction is all about being quick on your feet while landing devastating attacks!
Some of you may be saying to yourself "well, this seems exploitable", and perhaps it is in some way I haven't thought of, but I didn't make it easy. You may have noticed on the far left in the gif is a yellow wall. This wall marks the barrier of the zone of play for this game. If, at any point, you step outside the "arena" you'll be penalized by taking a very large hit to your current score. This penalty will continue to apply for every second you are outside of the zone. It is also worth noting that the Punch Junction arena does not scale with your current play area. Whether you have the minimum virtual reality play area or an entire warehouse, you'll find no advantage against these reckless machines! Still too easy for you? The gif example only shows battling against the minimum number of units (two), but players who are really looking for a challenge can fight as many as four units at once! Keep your head on a swivel and be ready for attacks from all sides!
And there you have it, a brief rundown of Punch Junction. It's probably my favorite strength game of the set even if I haven't quite cracked the code at how to be good at it. Practice makes perfect, but for now, it's on to some more battle developments so I can hopefully get some networking in for the June update. Until next time!
FIGHT!
Update day has arrived and it’s a big one! I’m going to do something a little different with the notes this time around. Instead of a jumbled preamble describing everything that has changed, I’m going to add notes on each line item where warranted.
With this patch, there is one bit of bad news. Unfortunately, my primary tester got pulled away from the project and will be gone until about June. I did my best to find any bugs while I was testing, but there is only so much one person can do when it comes to robust bug testing. Apologies in advance if there are any problems. They will be resolved as soon as possible either by a hotfix or through the next major update, which is currently looking like will be at the end of June.
Alright, let’s get into it.
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New Features
Battle Room
The Battle room is now accessible! Finally, for the first time ever, the Mythlink battle system is publicly available. All players are equipped with a default loadout for the Mythlink “Dino” and can try out the battle system against a stationary, unkillable dummy along with one stage over two variations. Each mythlink is equipped with 6 different abilities to give a brief showcase on what you can expect. Please refer to the individual SteamVR control scheme to see what ability is mapped to which button. Some basic mechanics are explained here:
Mythlink Movement: The arc shooting out from your fingertip shows where your mythlink will be moved to when the corresponding “Confirm movement” button is pressed. Lock On: Toggle On/Off. When toggled on, changes Mythlink movement so that your Mythlink always faces the opponent. This has several repercussions on movement that you’ll want to understand for future battles. Ability 1: Axe Swing- Press the button to initiate a melee attack that can only hit once. Ability 2: Fire Breath- Hold down the button to perform a breath attack. The longer you hold the button, the longer the cooldown will be (to a maximum). Ability 3: Sprint- Hold down the button to move more quickly. The longer you hold the button, the longer the cooldown will be (to a maximum). Ability 4: Energy Cannon- Press the button to charge up and a fire a high-damage ranged attack. Ability 5: Front Guard- Blocks any incoming attacks that would hit you from the front. Movement Ability: Jump- Press to make your Mythlink jump.
More details about battle mechanics will be discussed as time goes on. For now, just experiment and play around with the kit.
Training Room Game Changes
The training room has undergone a makeover to help spice up locale a little bit, especially compared to the Dorm room.
Games renamed. Per last month’s blog post. The following games have been renamed: Puzzle is now “Pile-Up” Bag is now “Bag Slugger” Board is now “Engine Buster”
A new score effect has been added. The last “bonus score” effect, such as when you cleared a layer of blocks in Pile-Up, was a bit cheesy. It has been replaced with a better effect.
Changed how Score/Multiplier’s are displayed to help clear confusion. Now the format follows this example- “10 x 2.0” would mean you gained 20 points. Previously, this would’ve been displayed like this “20 x 2.0”, which meant you received 20 points because of your 2.0 multiplier.
Menu placement adjustment has been changed. Previously, moving a game up/down and menus up/down to accommodate each player’s individual height was tied to the same button. This led to some awkward situations where things would be much higher than desired. Now, menu placements are controlled via a handle on each menu. Players can grab the handle and manually move the menu’s up and down as they would like. Adjusting the game’s vertically has not changed, and is still tied to the button.
Pile-Up Changes
Pile-Up now uses modern “Tetris” piece spawning rules. For those who do not know, Modern Tetris does not use random piece spawns and has not for a long time. Instead, an entire “set” of pieces is spawned before moving onto the next set. It makes the game far easier and more accessible, while avoiding some difficult strings of random-ness. Pile-Up follows this trend. No more getting 10 “A” pieces in a row!
Pile-Up has been rewritten almost from scratch. Pile-Up was not only the first part of Mythlink written, but basically the first thing I ever wrote using the current game engine. As one can imagine, this means there are several things I have learned over the years to help improve it. With the renames I decided now was the time to do so. The game should now scale magnitudes better (12×12 board size is still just as insane, but at least it’s doesn’t perform as poorly) and will hopefully facilitate things such as a release on weaker VR systems like the Oculus Quest. Coincidentally, this should also have solved several bugs that existed within Pile Up, while hopefully not reintroducing several more!
Bag Slugger
Put the bag on a diet and slimmed it up a bit to help with players who don’t have much space. About a 10% size reduction.
Dorm Room
The dorm room has had some effects added.
General Game Changes
Valve Index and Oculus Touch controller support has been added! HUUUUUGE disclaimer here…none of the controls for those two platforms has been tested, so I apologize if there are any issues. I know I said I wasn’t going to do this, but when I was creating the new inputs for this patch, I noticed that SteamVR has made it significantly easier to create controls for other platforms. To this end, I decided to say screw it, fortune favors the bold! Hope it works.
Lighting has been reworked across the entire game. Things should look a little nicer now.
Saving has been updated for several reasons, not the least of which to help streamline development. Unfortunately, this means all existing data will be lost. Sorry about that, hopefully this is the only time that happens.
Bug Fixes
The “sticky hands” bug in Pile Up should now be resolved (finally!) There was a problem with particle effects in odd board sizes in Pile Up that has been fixed.
Pile-Up performance should not as severally drop anymore when dealing with larger board sizes.
Along with the score/multiplier display update, there were some bugs where scores weren’t being calculated correctly. This has been fixed.
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And there you have it! Skipping a March patch was totally worth it right? I’m excited for the battle system to finally be available to the public, albeit in only it’s adolescent form right now. There will still be a blog update in May, but as mentioned before, don’t expect a game update until June. That patch will introduce the “Punch Junction” strength game and if I’m lucky…some peer to peer networking battles! Until then, have fun!.
What's In a Name?
Another productive month has passed! Although only the promised name changes are going to be covered, there is actually a laundry list of things which have been completed. Those will be reported on in April and (hopefully) accompanied by a Steam game update. Without further ado, here are the new training game names, along with a tidbit of "lore" surrounding the name and the training game itself. I use the word lore lightly as it's mostly just an excuse to talk about what is happening in the training game and doesn't really have any bearing on the world or mythos of Mythlink itself.
Puzzle
Now called "Pile-Up". The story here is that some oddly shaped trash has accumulated throughout the Mythlink facility. These pieces of garbage are odd, because they can only be burnt up and converted to energy when the form a complete layer on the furnace. Your job? Place the pieces so that they make complete layers and the energy converter can do it's thing. Be aware! The cleaning staff of the facility does not tolerate trash lying around. So if any of the garbage falls out of it's designated box, you're done! The naming here should be fairly obvious. What do you say when rubbish starts accumulating? Why, it's "piling up", of course! Then there is the meaning of how you "Pile-Up" the pieces into the game grid and finally, how the game pieces pile up from the crane delivery systems. So many interpretations! Ooooooh, ahhhhh.
Punching Bag
Now called "Bag Slugger". OK, so after a fairly creative start, this one is a bit of a lull. Really though, what are you going to do with a punching bag? It is what it is and making the name too superfluous would be vain. It's a bag (or...sausage?) You punch at it as hard as you can. Slugging something is a synonym to punching something. So yeah. Oh...and the lore behind the bag? Not much more interesting. Punching bags can be used to build strength. You know what? Let's just move on...
Punching Board
Now called "Engine Buster". This game was highlighted in February, so not much new information is going to be found here. The Mythlink facility uses a lot of hydraulics and those hydraulics have to be driven by something! Unfortunately, a slew of engines that help the facility run day to day have been found faulty and the lead service technician is less than creative. Use your muscle to break these engines and as a result...fix them? I told you the tech guy wasn't the greatest. He does however still manage to hold high standards so if you let three of the engines explode on you, it's time to call it a day. Do you really need the etymology of where this name came from? Onward!
Punching Dummies
Wait, what's punching dummies? That's not in the current Mythlink build! Correct! Time to preview the next training exercise (which may not actually be included in the April demo update in favor of something way better). Now named "Punch Junction", what was probably my personal favorite strength game from the "old" Mythlink is now being updated to the new style! I'm not going to go into much more detail than that, but I will say it functions similar to how it did in the original version. Here is a cryptic preview screenshot.
And there you have it, new names with many more to come as the other training exercises are recreated to the new style and fresh ideas are developed from scratch. As mentioned at the start, April will bring much more development updates and a game patch. Look forward to it!
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!
What a great few weeks! Right around January 15th things really picked up in the productivity department and haven't slowed down since. To that end, I'm happy to show the complete redesigned Punching Board! Those who are new or need a refresher on what the original punching board looked like can see here...
So what's changed this time around? Quite a bit, not just visually but also mechanically. Although one might say the "spirit" of the original is still present. First, a minor change you'll notice is a reduction in the number of rows. What was previously 3 rows (4 with the level bump) has now been modified to 2 rows (3 with the level bump). Long story short, the game should be strength focused and requiring people to stretch or move the board up and down with 3-4 rows was a bit excessive. Check out this screenshot of the new board. Wondering what the story behind this game is? Well, the Mythlink training room has had several faulty engines fall into your care. Naturally, the best way to deal with these is brute force! When an engine starts acting up whack it until it falls back into line!
Speaking of making the game more strength focused, let's get into the single biggest change to the board- the newly added "hit point" values of each block and the player. Previously, each button would take a single swing to press down. Once that punch was successful, you would move on to the next button until finally 4 buttons were active at the same time. Once that 4th button was active it was game over. This made the game far too focused on speed rather than strength. To remedy this, the engines each have hit point values that gradually increase as the game's level increases. This means it takes several strong swings to press down the engine successfully. If an engine gets too far out without being punched back, players will take a point of damage. Three points of damage taken and you're done! This modification has made the game far more strength focused and makes more sense in the context of the type it is categorized under. There are a couple other changes, such as "boss" engines which glow red and have even more HP than regular engines, but I'll leave those for players to discover.
Oh, and did I forget to mention? The punching board is available NOW as a free update on Steam! Here are the patch notes detailing what has all changed and which known issues are still outstanding:
What's New
Added a new strength game: The "Board"
Completely changed how scoring works for strength games, punches are now weighed far more heavily on the strength aspect more than the speed
Added Sound effects for lowering/raising of the punching bag
Adjusted volume on various sound effects and the background music
Added new text for description of the games modes
Changed some of the game descriptions text
Bug Fixes
Fixed a problem where multipliers weren't being correctly added in some situation in the strength games
Fixed a problem where the multiplier in strength games could sometimes go beyond the intended maximum value
Fixed a problem with the high score display
Fixed a problem where achieving high scores for strength games wasn't showing effects
Adjusted the brain games to allow expansion of more games (now falls in line with the standard set in strength games)
Outstanding Issues
There is a bug where sometimes when a player grabs a piece in the puzzle game it gets "stuck" in the hand and cannot be released. I've struggled and failed to recreate this bug or find any sort of cause. Will keep an eye on it and hopefully track it down eventually
Before I depart, I will bestow a brief preview of at least one change that will be coming to Mythlink in March (or sooner!) This change is...the naming of the training games. Probably long overdue, but the naming of the training exercises is far too bland. Puzzle? Bag? Board? Terribly boring names. Look forward to the new exciting names soon and until then, have fun!
Looking Forward and Looking Back, 2019-2020
Before we get into the annual review and goals update for Home Point Games, I need to deliver some sobering news. Last night, at approximately 5:20PM CST, a great asset of Home Point Games passed. Yes, a dear friend to us all...the big sausage has been reverted to nothing more but a memory of 1's and 0's. The "BS" as some called him, was not long for the Mythlink world, but he will be fondly remembered. Lucky for us his replacement was readily available to take his position permanently. Behold! The new punching bag!
Yes, yes, the butt of many jokes has been replaced. The funny thing is, is it's not like I didn't know it was goofy looking and should've been changed but for some reason I just...didn't. Part of the difficulty in developing a game that you spend hours and hours of time with I suppose. However, after the name "the big sausage" was tossed around by more than one person who didn't even have contact with each other, I knew it had to go. The Steam build was updated last night with this change. Also, a bug was fixed with the "pausing" feature of the puzzle game. Let's get onto the review!
2019
2019 was not a bad year for Home Point Games, although some may expect that I would be disappointed after so egregiously missing the goals I had set forth in the blog post at this time last year. Using a similar format as last year, let's review...
1) SteamVR Input Update (RESOLVED)
This is a pretty recent completion and was covered more thoroughly in the December 14th blog post. I'm not going to go into too much more detail (those interested can look at the January 2019 blog post) but with the addition of the "hands" update I am going to call this a success for 2019. Of course, the hand models themselves will eventually need to be updated in a more game-appropriate model, but I see no need to rush on that. Input works, it uses the new SteamVR input system, and can support multiple headsets and controller types. Which brings me to my next point...
2) Cross-headset support (IN PROGRESS)
Those with a keen eye may have noticed one somewhat major change in the steam page when the new demo was launched on New Years Eve. The HTC Vive is no longer listed as the only supported headset! With the new input system, it is now very easy to have Mythlink be supported on other headsets. In fact, I believe it could probably support any headset besides maybe the Oculus. However, I only had access to one other headset type so only one headset type was added to the compatibility. Mythlink is now fully functional on the Windows Mixed Reality platform! I'm actually extremely confident that I *could* enable support on the other headsets, but I never feel good about doing that without at least being able to test a little bit. Any volunteers who own a Vive Pro or a Valve Index?
3) Mythlink Game Changes (DEMO 1 RELEASED)
This is a big one. This involves all of the changes related to going from the prototype version of Mythlink to the production version. Progress has been pretty good here. As you may well know, the first production demo was released on Steam on December 31st and includes the overhauled puzzle and punching bag changes. Of course, there was much more included in the back-end. The new look, the input system, lighting, the list goes on. More on this in the upcoming 2020 section.
4) Game Engine Networking Changes (NOT STARTED)
Those who are more interested in this topic should look at the January blog post from last year. Essentially, my current peer to peer system will stop being supported in 2022 and that is not cool. The current game overhaul stages do not involve online play, so these changes will have to wait until the battle changes, which is the last thing I will be working on.
5) Tipsy Hamster Re-release (ON HOLD)
As mentioned in a previous blog post, I would eventually like to do this but today is not that day. Nor is tomorrow. Or the day after that. I doubt it will happen anytime in 2020, but you never know what could happen...
6) Website Update (IN PROGRESS, PHASE 1)
This is still happening! I was hoping for a new website in 2019 but that didn't happen. I've got some neat templates and formats that I like the look of. So things are progressing at a snails pace. Maybe 2020? That would be neat.
7) Mythlink Final Prototype Demo Release (CANCELLED)
Last year I mentioned I wanted to release the final prototype demo to the public so people could play online and see what the real action was going to be all about. This ended up not happening for a multitude of reasons and is now replaced with the production demo system which is rolling out now. The final prototype demo will forever remain a mystery, the only copy of which hosted on my computer, with only a select few people ever getting the opportunity to try it.
2020
Let's get into some goals this year. I'll try to be more conservative this time.
1) Consistent Demo Updates- Complete Training Room
I touched on this last month, but I want to start pushing out game updates as soon as they are cleared on my development side. I'm not going to commit to pushing out 2, 3 or 10 game demo updates, because what does that even mean? Technically, the patch I did last night would be considered a demo update, even though it did nothing meaningful. Let's go with this. This year the entire training room will be done. I think this is easily attainable. Things should go much more smoothly from now on and I wouldn't be surprised to have the next piece of the strength games out within the next month.
2) Website Update
That's right, I'm going for it. The website will (hopefully) be updated this year! New look to match the new updated Mythlink.
3) Audio Update
I have to spoil the surprise a little bit here, but I do have a music guy who has been working on some tracks for the game. I hope to feature the work in an upcoming blog post. Stay Tuned...
And that's all I have to say about that. Last year I shot for the moon and got about 5 feet off the ground. This year we're shooting for a hop and going to hope for a jump. There are some life changes which could take a significant amount of time in the coming months, but I'll only address delays in development as they come around. The roaring 20's begin now! Let's just hope Mythlink is part of that roaring and isn't reduced to the growl of the 30's...
Beta Demo Release 1
The year plus of radio silence on Steam ends today! The latest beta build of Mythlink is available now!
This also marks the first of the monthly cross-post updates from the website to Steam. In order to increase visibility of communication the monthly blog posts will also be posted to Steam under the community hub. January's blog post will be the first full blog post to follow this format.
Cheers!
Finally! A Steam Update!
After neglecting the Steam news page since the release of the original demo I’ve decided it’s finally time to put out an update so that players can see that this project is still quite active! In fact, those who want to follow the development more closely can find those tidbits at www.homepointgames.com/blog. I try to post there at least monthly with the latest developments and happenings related to Mythlink.
In the meantime, this post will detail a bit of roadmap, planning, and thoughts on this project. I hope you can use this (and perhaps provide feedback) to give you a better idea of what exactly is going on behind the scenes. Let’s first look at some past and future due dates.
ROADMAP
May 12, 2017: The first demo is released. This demo contains complete functionality for the “Puzzle” training room where you will play for a high score by clearing layers of square bricks. In the final version of the game, your score in the Puzzle room will be translated to intelligence experience points for your mythlink.
August 25, 2017: The first update for the demo is released. This update contains complete functionality for the “Gym” training room. This training room contains three different ways to play, each of which is designed to get you pumped up and moving. In the final version of the game, your scores in the Gym room will be translated to strength experience points for your mythlink.
December 2017/January 2018: The second update for the demo will be released. This update will contain complete functionality for the “Speed” training room. This training room will contain two to four different ways to play, each of which is designed to test your reflexes and speed. In the final version of the game, your scores in the Speed room will be translated to dexterity experience points for your mythlink.
Beginning of Q3 2018: The final update for the demo will be released. This update will contain a test mythlink that you can battle against a stationary dummy with. There will be no leveling up your mythlink and the customization options will be limited. As this is the single most important part of Mythlink, this stage (and, as a result, the following benchmarks) could be pushed back heavily to ensure the battle system is fun.
Q3 2018: Polish. Polish. Polish. I want to ensure that Mythlink provides a seamless and fun experience from beginning to end. I will spend as much time as necessary (3 months in my current time frame) doing nothing but polishing this game. This means anything from minor control quips, to improving sound design/graphics, and of course making the game as bug free as possible.
Q4 2018: Closed beta testing for the final version of Mythlink. This will test the network code of online battles and overall balance of the game. Note that this anticipated release date is heavily tentative and I will not hesitate to push back as needed in order to deliver a final product I am proud of.
Q1-2 2019: Full version release (1.0) of Mythlink. This will be a complete and final version of the game. Those who purchase the full version will be able to select one of three mythlinks, use the training rooms to enhance their mythlink, and battle online against other player’s mythlinks. Again, this release timeframe is heavily tentative and I will push back as needed to ensure quality.
Full release and beyond: Every game developer has a metric ton of ideas for their game that need to be trimmed out due to various reasons and I am no exception. If the game is successful, I would like to continue supporting it with additional features such as- increasing the number of mythlinks available, increasing the abilities available, adding mythlink customization, mythlink evolutions and more! I would also like to release all of this content for free and have no plans to do any paid DLC.
PLANNING
This section will cover some of my thoughts on the overall game design, style, and so on.
Gameplay:
Gameplay is king in Mythlink. I have already cut some parts of the game which were designed and upon implementation, found that they just weren’t very much fun. I want to hold this belief firm as the development of the game continues. I want Mythlink to stand as a pure virtual reality title that could not be experienced any other way. At the same time, I hope to avoid the “arcade/carnival” style games that are heavily trending in the virtual reality world. I know what you’re thinking “But, doesn’t the minigame room style you currently have lend itself to that?!” and you would be somewhat correct, but I believe the monster raising aspect adds a lot to distance Mythlink from that parlor game feel. I am also taking extra care to try and make each room unique and fully featured to the point where you could rip out each individual training room and make a brand new VR game using the basic game concepts already created as a base.
Virtual reality is still a young form of media. This means many of the current video game tropes and genres must be rethought and sometimes completely abandoned. Being unable to use traditional game design ideas makes the overall process more risky but I feel is important. Mythlink should offer a fun experience that is unlike any other virtual reality game, keeps players coming back and is accessible for all players. Afterall, at the end of the day Mythlink is all about the monster raising and battling…which would fall apart completely if there is nobody online for you to play against!
Sound Design:
One aspect of VR that sets it apart from other forms of media is the intense immersion factor. While this is a huge benefit of VR, it also presents a huge challenge. Every part of a VR title must be cohesive and unified be it controls, graphics, or sound. If even one small implementation falls behind or is lacking, the entire experience can be damped or ruined. That being said, I am very well aware that the sound is currently the weakest part of Mythlink. Unfortunately, the composer who was working with me had to step away from the project so I have been left to use commercial free sound effects and music.
Rest assured that I recognize the importance of good music and sound. This is something I will not hold back on and will be continuously worked until the full release of the game. I’m committed to holding back the games full release until the sound design has met my personal expectations (this includes finding a new composer and a minor overhaul to the current sound design).
Graphics
I am no artist. That much is evident from the screenshots and current design of the game. Much like I mentioned in the sound design section above, keeping a cohesive graphic style is important to immersion. I do fully intend to keep the “low-poly” style of the game (as it helps the game be more accessible to those with weaker hardware), but would like to make some tweaks so that everything flows together a bit better. That being said I do plan to hire a 3d modeler/animator who can help replace some of the models in game and will also be fully responsible for creating and animating the mythlink models. These are vital to the game- Mythlink would not be a very appropriate title of the mythlinks themselves were not well done!
Also, some may have noticed that the image quality dropped when updating to the current patch for the demo. Unfortunately, I had to remove the forward rendering for the time being so the game looks worse overall. I plan to keep the forward rendering out of the game until closer to release. I touch upon this a bit in the dev blog but the short version of the reason is this- Unity is undergoing a bit of a rendering pipleline upgrade which broke the lab renderer from Valve I used for the forward rendering. Rather than waste time fixing what could be broken in any number of future Unity upgrades, I will wait until closer to release in order to re-implement forward rendering (probably during the 3 months of polish time I have set aside). I do fully expect this feature to be included in the final version.
Last but not least is the lighting. Lighting is pretty poorly handled right now. This is something I would like to improve as development goes on and will be an ongoing battle. I doubt the lighting in the final version will be perfect (in order to keep specs and load times low), but it’s something I plan to tweak and work on continuously until full release.
The short of the graphics can be summarized to this: The low-poly style isn’t going anywhere, but the game should still look nice and keep a certain happy tone throughout.
Tutorials:
As with most small developers, tutorials and help documentation are one of the first things to go when starting a new project. I do realize that some of the rooms and the overall flow of the game may not be immediately intuitive on how exactly they work. This is something I would like to improve on and hope to include in the final version. At the very least I expect to have some brief instructions to help guide users through each activity. In the meantime, the rooms aren’t all too complicated, so have fun exploring and learning exactly how each part works!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Both virtual reality players and developers are in a unique situation where this amazing new tech has come forward and it is up to us to explore the best uses instead of copying ideas from past games or playing it too safe. It may be a bit of a dream, but I hope Mythlink can help show what designing a game from the ground up for virtual reality can create. Some of the ideas in Mythlink may fall flat and some may turn out stellar, but at the end of the day if people have fun playing then I have succeeded.
