The Quantum Update is here and it's free for existing players!
Great news everyone!
Thanks to Film Victoria funding announced in December last year, I've been able to recruit a small team to expand the game, improve the player experience, and support more VR headsets.
Today, the great work of that team has been unveiled.
Titled the Quantum update, this collection of improved and additional content includes:
New activities to engage in and objects to investigate and collect.
A greatly improved interface to make interacting with the world easier.
An overhauled dialogue system that adds to the richness of this virtual world.
Robot hands for the player so they can properly get in character.
Many other improvements, including Steam achievements, an enhanced world, improved player controls, and more.
This update is free for all existing owners of Officebots: Reality Bytes. First-time players can on-board by purchasing the expanded Quantum edition. It's available for a super low celebratory launch price. A 60% discount off it's already adjusted lower price. That's cheaper than Daisy's coffee costs!
This new update officially supports both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift so grab your preferred reality viewer and enjoy this greatly improved alternate reality experience for yourself.
If you love what you see then please share it with your friends, family, and followers. Remember to follow @PraneeMcKinlay and @FutureStateMach on Twitter to stay updated with future announcements.
Thanks for reading!
love
Pranee <3
Quantum Update will be released on 6th June 2018.
Memo from management:
Greetings employees!
Those of you with Oculus Rift headsets will be very pleased to hear that the management subcommittee overseeing hardware assimilation has announced that even better Rift support will be coming... [checks clipboard] ... on the 6th of June 2018.
This is part of the giant quantum update that a big portion of our core team has been secretly working away on. I have been authorised by upper management to tell you it will be a major content update including… [checks clipboard] ...lots of stuff.
The complete list of features is still under wraps, but the word around the water cooler is that it will include big improvements to office workflow, new activities to engage in, and… [checks clipboard] ... Steam achievements. I’m not sure what that is. Something the young folks like, I think.
All of this was made possible by support from Film Victoria, and upper management have officially declared that Film Victoria are… [checks clipboard] ...awesome.
So there we have it. To stay up to date with our upcoming announcements, you should follow the official FutureStateMachine Twitter account. But, you know, on your lunch break, because you shouldn’t be using Twitter during work hours.
Okay, time to get back to work!
OfficeBotsVR Patch Update 1.0.0
You know how Santa Claus always listens to what the dreamers want? As a small developer, I try to do that as well. Now I'm not saying that I'm Santa Claus. I could never be that. He's way too old and white and male to be anything like me but I refuse to let that stop me listening and caring about all the people that bought my game or found it interesting enough to follow.
Of course, I can't get you that dream car or robot (oh, wait on...) that you always wanted. I can try to improve the game, whenever possible. Remember though, I am a solo developer trying to share a quirky heartfelt experience with the world. There's only so much I can do at once! Meeeep, Meow!
In the original iterations of this game, the Robot HUD interface (viewer) was always present in the game. I received feedback from several players who found this Robot HUD interface annoying and obstructing to their view and enjoyment. I have changed it so that it now only appears when you are either talking to a robot or within talking range of a robot that you can chat to. If you are out of range, it is now invisible. I think this is a great improvement and thank my loyal players for their valuable input.
I also tweaked the navigation paths for the roving robots. There is now much less chance for conversations to annoyingly overlap or interrupt each other.
I hope you enjoy the changes and thank-you for supporting a small solo developer making quirky interactive experiences for the world to enjoy.
See you on the other side,
Pranee
Introducing...
Thank you for your interest in my byte-sized, heartfelt adventure game for HTC Vive.
With only a few hours left before this ship leaves the port, I thought I'd tell you a wee bit about myself and this project.
This has pretty much been a solo project of mine that I've developed part-time throughout this year. In saying that, I've poured an incredible amount of hours into creating this game. As a solo developer, I have to do everything and, as you can imagine, that's a heck of a lot! I created a lot of custom assets to give OfficeBots: Reality Bytes VR it's unique quirkiness. I also wrote, designed, programmed, and marketed this game. Most studios have a team to help do all of these things. I did it all alone, with occasional programming help from Murray Lorden whenever I hit a wall in my coding problem solving that I couldn't climb alone. I am incredibly grateful to him for that.
To make things a bit easier on myself, I used a few free Unity plugins including Sysdia Solutions Ltd's VRTK - Virtual Reality Toolkit (https://www.sysdia.com), and Christian Henderson's VIDE Dialogues (http://involutionsaga.com/portafolio.html). I also created the robots using MagicaVoxel by @ephtracy (https://voxel.codeplex.com) and animated most of them with the help of Mixamo by Adobe (https://www.mixamo.com). All the music has been created by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com). A full list of attributions is in the Game Manual which can be downloaded from the OfficeBotsVR store page here on Steam.
I am extremely appreciative and grateful to all the authors and creators of the assets that I used in this game. I couldn't have done this as quickly without them.
OfficeBots: Reality Bytes VR is quite a niche game genre but I felt it was a worthwhile experience to create. I hope you agree with me. This is the main reason why I decided to go "Full Release" instead of "Early Access". In the future, I hope to extend the game, adding more robots, quests, improved animations, interactions, reactions, future bug fixing, etc... Your help and support will really help me to do this.
I hope that players enjoy this short but heartfelt experience that I've created. I also hope that it will encourage players to not only think about their own personal dreams and goals, but to also be more empathetic to others in real life. One can only hope!
A big shout out to all my friends, supporters, and loved ones who have helped me to get this far. You know who you are and I am deeply thankful.
Thanks for travelling on this journey with me.
love
Pranee
11 days left until launch and counting...
If you're a journalist or simply keen to find out more about this heartfelt little adventure game, then why not head on over to FutureStateMachine's website to have a wee squizz at the official online press kit.
http://www.futurestatemachine.com/presskit/
If you love the look of what I'm trying to do, then your help signal boosting the launch would really help! I've set up a Thunderclap campaign and I'd love it if you joined in to help spread the word. I'm a solo developer so your support and help is incredibly appreciated.
Not long now! I can't wait to share this passion project with you! Don't forget to add it to your wishlist and tell all your friends and family about it!
Thanks a million,
love
Pranee
ːsteamhappyː
Official Release Date Announced
FutureStateMachine is excited to announce the Official Release Date for OfficeBots: Reality Bytes [VR]. You'll be able to buy it on SteamVR for HTC Vive on 22.08.2017. Make sure you tell all your friends and add it to your WISHLIST now!
It's been a really fun game to make & we hope players get something good out of playing it.
