We'd like to celebrate the release of our latest update, which involves a series of fixes and refinements:
We've ported the entire input system to the new Unity Input System, so now controllers should be fully supported with no bug. That means no more sprint bugs!
Lower mouse sensitivity as the waiter. No more dizzying gameplay.
Brand new menu screen to suit the game more
Lots of UI refinements, i.e font's and coloring
Plenty of optimizations! On our system, GPU headroom increased from 20% before to 80%
We're also excited to announce further progress on the Zombie mode. While it is not finished yet, many of the visuals and animations have been created, and you will be able to check it out if you please(but the gameplay is very broken at the moment.) More news and videos of the gameplay will be posted next week.
We have also ported the entire game to a different VR SDK, for it to support the Quest, as we are planning to bring the game there in the future. However, this means the game may not work anymore for some headsets, so please let us know.
Also, expect some spooky little changes to suit the season.
Best, Pizza Master Team
A sneak peak of the Zombie Mode
Hey Pizza Masters!
We're excited to announce the changes leading to the next Steam Update.
Small changes:
Rewriting various shaders for the Universal Render Pipeline, such as the outline shader, and particle effects
Restoring some post processing effects
Remaking the outside environment of the levels to be better optimized
Rewriting the various manager scripts
Zombie Mode:
The biggest and most exciting thing we've been working on is the Zombie Mode. It's October, nearing the spooky date, and there has similarly been a spooky twist in the Pizza Master world. In this new game mode, the customers have gone rabid throughout the lockdown as they are desperate for pizza. They've started exhibiting zombie-like behavior and appearance, and if you don't offer them your pizza in time, they will not differ between eating pizza or chef. The Pizza Master is making his last stand at a abandoned metro station, where he thought he'd be safe, but that is far from the truth.
Metro Design:
Hungry customers will emerge from the escalators, corridors and corners so you have to watch out. The train will even arrive to drop off customers periodically, as the customers are so desperate to eat pizza they'd travel by train.
WIP zombie model:
Here is a quick look of the work-in-progress zombie model. This will be one of four different zombies types, more details next week!
Kitchen Redesign:
The Pizza Master has redesigned his kitchen to be more portable and suitable for the insatiable customers. For example, the microwave is an addition to your toolbelt, where you can cook cakes to slow down the customer onslaught.
These environments are not final, and we'd love to hear your feedback on them. Our plan is to add train station signs, posters and lights to bring the place to life. We plan to release this new update on - you guessed it, October 31st.
Next week we'll upload some gameplay videos and have a deeper look at the different types of "zombie" customers. We'll also share more details about the game mode, and continue working on fixes and refinement. Keep an eye out for our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as well, for more development info. Also please check out our new company website as well. See you in the next post!
Kind Regards, Pizza Master VR Team
Pizza Master VR in 2021
Hey Pizza Masters!
It's been a while since our last announcement or update on the game, and we are really sorry about that. We had a huge issue with burnout as a team and weren't able to continue updating the game. With lockdown happening and only having access to one VR headset to work with, as well as personal circumstances, it made it difficult to work.
However, the long awaited and long due time has come, and we wanted to let you know that the Pizza Master VR dev team is back and more motivated than ever to deliver the game to full release.
So what have we been working on?
Performance. We know the game never performed the best, so we have been profiling and using analytics to figure out the bottlenecks, and have been working heavily on this.
Port to the Universal Render Pipeline. While we had to redo most of the materials and shaders, there is now a huge increase in performance, and minimal impact on visual quality. Do you notice any difference?
Remaster of almost every model in the game. Some of these you will not notice the difference, as some are just remade for performance(e.g lower poly's, less materials). But you will notice some of the models will have some extra detail or higher resolution texture, but with no additional performance overhead.
Restructuring of the Pizza Master code base. A good code base is essential for being able to easily extend and refine the game, so a lot of work is being done on that.
What about the features?
We have been working on the Zombie mode. In this mode you have to make pizzas in time and throw them to infected customers to eat, before they come eat you. Here is a little preview of the food stand you will be fighting from.
Potentially a new online multiplayer mode called Clash of the Pizza Chefs. Do a cook off battle with a friend, more news will come regarding that.
New ingredients. We'll have polls on social media to decide what to add.
Yes, the accursed controller/sprint bug... that will be addressed.
Oculus Release
A lot of these updates are also to prepare for the Oculus Store release, for both the Rift S and Quest platforms. We are determined to optimize the game to a degree that it runs on the Quest natively, while having minimal compromise on visuals. While these updates have not been released yet, we are working to have at least 60% of what was listed to get released as an update before October 10th.
We have also been working on our social media more, so please follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and check out our swanky new website too :) We also have Facebook, Twitter, and a website for our studio too, please follow to support us!
We're grateful for the messages you've all been sending us, and we really want to thank you for your patience and understanding. We want to bring this to full release as much as you guys, stay tuned for more updates!
