Psyche Soldier VR
Official Release!!
Below is a list of the additions, improvements, and fixes in version 1.0.
Additions:
- Steam Trading Cards are in! Including 7 Cards, 6 Badges (including a Foil Badge), 5 Emoticons, and 5 Profile Backgrounds!
- Perfection shadow creatures and boss now have a new geometric particle effect
- Power Up now has a shock wave ripple and sound effect to give it a more potent feel
- Caster attacks now have a muzzle light flash or flicker
- Energy Collect channel now has a muzzle light flicker
Improvements:
- The dog in the menu area now wags its tail faster and looks at the player when petted
- Death Reaper art has been reworked
- Slightly increased the haptic feedback on Blaster Caster attacks
Fixes:
- Fixed an issue that was causing the laser pointer to appear on both hands on start up
- Minor performance tweaks
Excited to have brought this game from a figment of my imagination to a finished VR game. Enjoy!
MastaKwaa
Patch 0.8 - Oculus Touch Support, Endurance Unlocked, and Boss Nerfs!
There was also requests for Oculus Touch support, as well as direct access to Endurance mode. And I'm glad to say those have been added in this build!
Full list of additions and changes below.
Additions:
- Oculus Touch controls support
- Oculus Touch controllers are now in the Tutorial
- Oculus Touch controller images display on the Controls UI
Changes:
- Endurance mode is now available once the Tutorial has been completed
- Achievement, Upgrade, and Scoreboard tip panels now have an easier to read font
- Reduced boss health by 5%
- Increased boss health scaling in Easy difficulty by 5% (Easy boss health is essentially unchanged, this just counters the overall boss health reduction which was aimed at Normal difficulty and higher)
- Reduced boss health scaling in Mentalist difficulty by 5% and Psychonaut difficulty by 15%
- Reduced tough shadow creature health scaling in Psychonaut difficulty by 5%
- Shadow creature shoot delay in Psychonaut difficulty is now 10% longer
- Shadow creature beam delay in Psychonaut difficulty is now 15% longer
Everything planned is now in the game! Next patch will include polish and balance changes, so please share your thoughts!
MastaKwaa
Version 0.7 Patch Notes - Achievements, Leaderboard, and Secret Boss Fight!!
Additions:
- NEW Secret Boss Fight!! The mission jar for it is a hidden object in the menu area.. good luck!
- 60 Achievements! Some are straight forward, others offer interesting challenges ;)
- Endurance finally has a Leaderboard! How high can you rank? (existing Endurance scores will be set back to 0 since scoring has been modified in the past without a reset)
- Mission jars are now breakable!
- Boss fights now have health bars
- Endurance now has a trophy plaque similar to the other missions, except instead of showing the golden skull of the highest difficulty completed, it shows the high score ranking from the Leaderboard
- Tough enemies now have a dazed effect when they become vulnerable to Energy Collect Channel and begin glowing
- Created a pop up window on the Umbra Upgrades menu that shows upgrade details when the laser pointer is over the upgrade text. Hopefully this will help make your upgrade decisions more meaningful.
- Perfection Triangley beam hits now apply an aesthetic debuff to the player
- Saving is now through Steam Online Cloud Save files (Offline Mode currently not supported, and Cloud syncing must be enabled)
- When gaining or losing an Energy Container, a visual representation of your Energy Containers will fly out so your health level is more easily seen as a temporary UI element
- Regular mission spawns now have breather spaces between them that get longer further into the mission, and the breather spaces play shadow particle effects randomly around the area, but right before boss spawns, they are located only near where the boss will spawn
- The menu hint system now displays "Missions" and "Difficulties" text according to what needs to be placed in the cauldron
- There is now a gameplay relevant "Helpful Hint" panel on the side of the Subconscious Score panel
- EULA screen for first time users now has directions at the bottom
Improvements:
- Caster hit effects now display in amount according to the damage dealt, roughly one particle effect for one point of damage
- Largely replaced the existing UI text for a crisper and more performant text system that uses less memory and resources
- Psyche Soldier logo now has a subtle pulsing shadow
Changes:
- Removed some enemies leading up to the bosses to help the flow of regular missions, and increased the amount of XP and Score points that bosses give to compensate
- Reduced enemy health scaling for the first nine waves/rounds to help the flow of regular missions and to better ramp up in Endurance
- Regular mission spawns no longer have a timed spawning system, however, time does still factor into Score
- Increased Lucky Dog chance modifier during boss fights for Easy and Normal
- Reduced Easy difficulty enemy health by 5%, enemy toward speed by 5%, and enemy projectile speed by 7.5%, to make it easier
- Procrastination boss heal from eating skeleton bones now slowly tapers down after enrage, but retains a larger healing factor than pre-enrage
- Perfection Boss now takes double damage when protected by the front Triangley
- Slowed down Shame boss enraged shoot rate and Skeleton speed while enraged
- Menu name plates for missions and difficulties are now larger and the text is larger and darker so its more readable
- Moved the upgrade orb stand and achievement trophy stand closer to the shelf in the menu area so they are more easily seen, and moved the mushrooms to better fill in the space aesthetically
- Moved the Tutorial example controllers up and out some so they are more easily seen
- The final looping voice over in the Tutorial now spaces out further each time it's played so that it's less repetitive to players who are practicing
Fixes:
- Patched an issue where objects from the menu could persist into the game dome
- Fixed a critical issue where the game would get stuck in the splash screen area if the player had hit the system button while the controllers were being initialized
- Hitting the system button while the game is loading should no longer set audio volumes to 0
- Laser Charge Shot Caster, Energy Grenade Caster, and Energy Lightning Caster now have hit fx when they only hit the dome or floor
- Caster hit fx now show when hitting the Stress boss's shield
- Agency boss will now correctly do the vulnerable head hang phase when his beam is shielded at the last moment
- First time players who hit pause before clicking the question mark will no longer experience dominate hand swapping while paused
- Tutorial now always starts at Energy Level Yellow for consistency
- Button click sounds associated with quitting the game are now in place
- Cleaned up a graphics artifact at the back of the game dome
- Fixed a rare issue where the controls panel failed to swap images when switching dominate hand
- The Insight glossary no longer pops up inappropriately during the Subconscious Score panel
- Subconscious Score "Continue" button now properly plays a clicking sound
Tons of effort went into all of these additions, changes, improvements, and fixes. The game is really starting to shape up well. Next up is Oculus Touch support and the addition of Steam Trading Cards! Feedback always welcome. Have fun!
MastaKwaa
0.6 Patch Notes - Tutorial and improvements
There are also a few minor additions to help improve the graphics and feel of the game, as well as several other improvements, changes, and bug fixes. Details below.
Additions:
- NEW Game play Tutorial mission, click the giant red question mark in the menu area to play (existing players will need to complete the game play tutorial in order to move the question mark off the shelf).
- There is now a dynamic light in the subconscious realm, that mirrors breathing and originates at the heart
- Added a color blend object where the game dome meets the floor.
- In-game mission text and Subconscious Score's pop out text now have sound effects.
- Added haptic feedback to the Caster Select Wheel when rotating to a new caster and upon selection.
- Energy Blaster Caster, Energy Burst Caster, and Energy Grenade Caster now have muzzle flashes.
- Added quit game confirmation to prevent accidental clicks.
Improvements:
- Significantly modified the XP curve so Points are very easily earned in the beginning levels and somewhat easier in the middle levels, this way players can get some decent upgrades relatively quickly and continue to upgrade at a steady pace.
- Reduced Fear Nervine and Perfection Cubey health by roughly 10%
- Modified the mission loading process in order to reduce some memory usage during game play.
- Updated Insight glossary Watch panel to include info about the red digits.
- Energy Burst Caster sound effect is now shorter and slightly smoother so it sounds better back-to-back.
- Subconscious Score's New High Score sound effect has been replaced and the sequence duration shortened a little bit.
- Menu Trophies color is now more golden.
- Energy Baubles flight arc is now higher than Health Baubles so the two will always have separate paths.
- Difficulty name plates text on the bottom shelf in the menu area are now larger so they're easier to read.
- Reduced most tough enemy health scaling with difficulty by 5% and lowered Energy Collect health thresholds (when they start glowing/pulsing), exceptions are:
- Shriekers as they are intended to be tanky "damage sponges" hence their slow movement speed.
- Stress BrainyEyes as their beam attack and eye split depend on pre-glowing health amounts.
- Perfection Triangley that's in front of the boss Triangley since the fight feels balanced at its current Energy Collect threshold.
Changes:
- Swapped Energy Lightning Caster with Laser Charge Shot Caster on the Caster Select Wheel and Insight glossary.
- Stress boss now also spawns a Shrieker when respawning its eyes (this is so player can gain an Energy Container which is almost necessary if player was hit by the boss beam on Psychonaut difficulty).
- Shame boss enrage damage resistance now scales according to difficulty.
- Attachment boss giant Blob now quickly jumps at player instead of walking up to the player before jumping, which will hopefully better communicate that the giant Blob's attack is unavoidable (it only debuffs, it does not damage).
- Moved menu cauldron closer to accommodate smaller play spaces.
- Helper arrow now points to the upgrade orb for the first three upgrade purchases instead of just one.
- The ambient light at the start of game play is now slightly brighter.
- Increased the heart whisper voice over volume.
- Heart Whisper voice over no longer moves around the player, but instead is positioned lower and to the left so its a more fitting location for the heart.
- Mission enemy spawn rounds now blend together smoother, and are also faster further into each mission. This does make the missions slightly more difficult but the Energy Collect threshold improvement partially offsets the difference, both resulting in the missions feeling more fluid and fun. Note that Easy difficulty is largely unaffected by this change and is essentially the same, so it is actually easier now.
Fixes:
- Adjusted a quality setting to resolve an issue that was causing distorted hand animations and bizarre lighting issues.
- Energy Burst Caster now works during the Shame boss fight.
- Created a workaround for a Unity bug that causes the UI Laser Pointer to malfunction if the mouse was clicked outside of the game window.
- Energy Grenades should now explode when colliding with an enemy at close range.
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause multiple Shriekers to spawn during the Attachment boss fight.
- Enemy debuff visual effects should no longer activate if player is Power Up shielded or is between waves in Endurance mode.
- Fixed an issue with Shame Skeleton spawn locations.
- Fixed an underlying technical issue in the menu area that may have caused unexpected issues.
- Offhand Watch should no longer occassionally be invisible on game load on some machines.
- Completing a mission now properly brightens the lighting again.
- Fixed a graphical issue with enemy beam attacks so the beam no longer twists near the end.
- Procrastination Skeleton collapse animation and sound effect should now always line up properly.
- Controls UI panel in the subconscious game play area will now alternate between showing Slow and Heckler under the off hand Spotlight.
- Shrieker attack animation now smoothly transitions back to idle animation.
As you can see, I am still very hard at work on this game, making it the best game that it can be!
The plan for the next update is Achievements, more improvements, and depending on time line, the Leaderboard for Endurance mode. And there will be something secret... shhh ;)
MastaKwaa
0.5 Patch Notes - BOSS FIGHTS!!!!!!!
The game would greatly benefit from a game play tutorial, which is going to be the meat and potatoes of the next patch. Spotlight slowing, caster shooting and swapping, energy collect "draining", and powering up... all while strafing, ducking, and dodging. It's kind of a lot to figure out just through the Controls image and Insight glossary images. I'll fix that.
Also, I'm going to be making and putting up a new Boss Fight Trailer video in the next day or two, as the previous "Early Access Trailer" is 6 months old and doesn't really reflect the current state of the game. (It's leaps and bounds better now)
MastaKwaa
0.4 Patch Notes - NEW Enemy "Heckler", Sound Effects, Slow Mo, and More!!
The game feels much more alive now that sound effects are in :)
And there's a bunch of cool new stuff, like Psychic Slow-Mo, a new a "mini-map" Wrist Watch, a glossary, hit reactions, hand animations, and a new enemy Heckler, and more! And as always, there's some improvements, changes, and bug fixes. Details below.
Coming soon in the next patch: 7 Boss Fights!!
Additions:
- NEW Enemy, Heckler, who sneaks in partially phased from the darkness of the shadow realm, he's hidden except for his glowing eyes and snickering laughter, with hopes of snacking on your health and energy. Shine the Spotlight on this nuisance to pop him out of the shadow realm and send him back to where he came! (he cannot be hit by player Caster attacks, only the Spotlight can take him out)
- NEW Psychic Slow-Mo event that triggers when enemy projectiles are dangerously close, which makes you feel like Neo in the Matrix dodging bullets! (there is a cool down afterwards that is shorter in easier difficulties and longer in tougher difficulties)
- NEW Wrist Watch that serves as a "mini map" during game play, pointing the hour and minute hands to the far left and far right enemy locations, as well as pointing the seconds hand to a hidden Heckler enemy if there currently is one. It also shows the current count of enemies (or enemies remaining in a Wave in Endurance mode). Outside of game play and during pause, the Watch tells real time.
- NEW "Insight" glossary that contains relevant details on everything from health and energy to abilities and enemies, and it is conveniently to the right side of the Pause menu. Learn about each enemy to optimize your strategy!
- All enemies now have sound effects associated with their attacks and/or threatening presence
- Enemy hit reaction animations
- Heartbeat sound effect when low health (within one hit from death)
- Player hands are now animated
- Upgrade purchased particle and sound effect sequence
- Controls Menu now cycles between showing Spotlight Slow and Spotlight Heckler image
- Save Icon now appears while game is saving (do not shut off during icon)
- Voice Overs added to all of the missions' tougher enemies as well as the corresponding positive voice overs
- Load Tunnel sound effects
- Death sound effect
- UI sound effects
- Menu objects sound effects and ambient sounds
- Menu Dog now also sniffs the ground periodically
Changes:
- Replaced the Easy difficulty mushroom with a smaller skull, so it's more consistent with the other difficulty skulls
- Increased the difficulty scaling in Endurance mode to favor shorter play sessions
- Music volume now functions the same as sound and voice volumes
Improvements:
- Increased the base level Caster and Power Caster stats!
- Caster Select Wheel is now less touchy and more user friendly
- Changed enemy color dark/lightness tied to health (enemies start dark and shadowy, then lighten as their health lowers) to only update every 10% so the change is more noticeable
- Stress Brain and Perfection Triangle beam attacks now merge three beams into one
- Touched up the death reaper art
- Attachment Shiva enemy has new hand models and animations
- Fear Spider enemy Axon Spit projectile now more voluminous
- Changed UI close "X" and "Continue" buttons text to have black and green shadows to better direct player input
Fixes:
- Fixed a blocking bug that would occur if the cement column bases in the menu area were clicked
- Energy Bauble orbits now correctly rotate on subsequent spawns
- Menu Dog scratch-to-idle animation fix
With the multitude of new additions, my favorite is the Psychic Slow-Mo, which really has to be experienced to see how cool it is! And sound effects... such a world of difference! Oh, and the new enemy is a nice addition as well... and the Insight glossary... and Watch... and...
Quite a bit of content in this patch, and I think the next patch is going to be even more exciting... Boss Fights!!
Enjoy!
MastaKwaa
Version 0.3 Patch Notes - NEW Player Abilities!
The sound effects have not made it in yet, they're slotted to be next up in Version 0.4! xD
Here's a list of the 4 NEW attacks (hold and release the Grip Button to select abilities):
Energy Lightning Caster - strong and versatile electric energy strike, that chains to multiple nearby targets during Power Up.
Energy Burst Caster - very strong cone attack that's effective at close range.
Energy Grenade Caster - very strong physics based two-step timing based attack; aim and pull the trigger to launch, then time the explosion by pulling the trigger again. It's effective at all ranges, and is best in class at mid-range.
Laser Charge Shot Caster - targeting laser that grows a spherical area of effect widespread attack that is effective at all ranges, is best in class at far ranges.
The existing player ability, Energy Blaster Caster, has been reworked and received some significant buffs! (details below)
I also added 5 NEW Enemy Attack Player Debuffs:
Procrastination Fat Demon burp attack - hits now apply a temporary slime debuff that resets the Passive Energy Regen timer and reduces Energy Bauble Chance
Attachment Blob jump attack - hit now applies a Caster Rate debuff, players can remove the debuff earlier by shaking it off (shake the main hand controller)
Agency Flying Skull bite attack - hit now applies a Spotlight Slow debuff, players can remove the debuff earlier by shaking it off (shake the off hand controller)
Agency Devil beam attack - hit applies a temporary darkness (purely aesthetic) effect
Fear Spider spit attack - hits apply a temporary, stacking dark nerve (purely aesthetic) effect
And below is the full list of additions, changes, improvements, and fixes :)
Additions:
- added the 4 totally new player abilities as promised: Energy Lightning Caster attack ability with Power Up chaining, Energy Burst Caster cone attack ability, Energy Grenade Caster area of effect attack ability, and Energy Laser Charge Shot Caster area of effect attack ability
- added Caster "weapon" selector to the main hand grip button (hold in the grip button, rotate controller to highlight, then release grip button to select)
- updated Pause Menu Controls image to show "Select Caster" via Grip Button
- added 5 totally new enemy attack debuffs: Procrastination Fat Demon burp attack, Attachment Blob jump attack, Agency Flying Skull bite attack, Agency Devil beam attack, and Fear Spider spit attack
- added shadow fx where the Spotlight hits enemies to illustrate the slowing effect
Changes:
- Attachment Blob enemy is now green instead of purple
- enemy beam attack rate slightly quicker
- replaced combo score system with a time based score system (time based scores are not applied to Endurance mode)
- replaced "Combo Timer" upgrade with "Caster Area Damage" upgrade, which increases the damage at the edges of an area of effect attack (area of effect attacks still do more damage at the center, less at the edges)
Improvements:
- player Blaster Caster and Power Caster energy attack fx now more energetic looking, baseline size and scaling now significantly larger, increased player Caster and Power Caster damage, and massively increased Caster Speed and Power Caster Speed
- Energy Collect "drain" ability baseline and upgrades now quicker (baseline significantly quicker)
- decreased enemy health and adjusted scaling, and increased enemy difficulty scaling to compensate
- the loading tunnel is now more tunnel-like
- Energy Baubles now face the player as they move, and Health Baubles rotate as they move
- Mission icon inside mission orb now flashes
- "Subconscious Score" scoreboard now quicker
- Stress Brain eye shot fx now have shadow centers
- Agency Devil, Stress Brain, and Perfection Triangle, enemy beam attacks fx and charge "tell" fx now have shadow centers
Fixes:
- there was an issue preventing the final Upgrade Point from being granted, which is now fixed and all Upgrade Points can now be granted
- fixed Energy Collect ability rumble
As you can see, I've been very hard at work making this game better! And it's going to get even better! Next up is sound fx, followed by a "mini map" of sorts, a new enemy, and mission boss fights!! Check it out, I'd love to hear your feedback :)
MastaKwaa
Version 0.2 Patch Notes
I've been hard at work replacing the framework for the game, which is a necessary step to add more player abilities and reduces lag spikes during long play sessions. The framework change was unexpected and took a bulk of this release's time and is largely not player facing, so although from a technical standpoint this is a huge change, for players this is a minor update. This change pushed out the new player abilities until next release, which will be the first major early access release! Here's what all has changed in version 0.2:
Additions:
- Power Up ability now also amplifies the slowing effect of the Spotlight!
- certain enemy animations now slow down when effected by the spotlight (they've always physically slowed down, now the animations match)
- can now shoot the Shame Skeleton bombs so they blow up quicker, which is useful if the shield is about to expire and you want it to blow up before it expires
- added shadow forming spawn fx so enemies enter more smoothly
- added hint system to menu objects that highlights after a period of time to remind players how to fill the cauldron to play a mission
- pause menu now shows the controls image panel to the side, and the main hand and off hand images swap when the main hand is toggled between right/left handed
Improvements:
- spawning framework completely rewritten to reduce long play session lag spikes and to make way for new player abilities
- Lucky Dog graphics reworked to be more energetic and ethereal
- Attachment enemy hands now can be knocked back and the shield properly shows impact fx
- Health and Energy Baubles now fly toward the player in a swooping arc so they feel less threatening and more rewarding
- replaced standard enemy death fx with a more shadow-like version
- improved some enemy projectiles and projectile fx to look cooler and be easier to see
- Endurance hourglass liquid is now more realistic
- higher level Endurance waves are now more challenging
Bug Fixes:
- enemies will no longer occasionally be partially immune to damage (oops!)
- can no longer die between Endurance waves
- Endurance wave enemy amounts at wave 60 and above are now correctly spawning
- Spotlight properly enables/disables between Endurance waves
- mission jar liquid now more appropriate at various angles
- can no longer force mission jars/skulls through the floor
Hope you enjoy the new release version! And if you find any bugs or have any ideas for improvements, please let me know in the comments/forums, thanks :)
MastaKwaa
First Update!
I'm glad to be releasing this first update to Psyche Soldier VR. It is a minor update, containing some much needed balance changes and a lot of bug fixes. The shield artwork has been completely reworked, the background art polished, and there have been some improvements to the menu area such as liquid in the jars to indicate mission progress based on difficulty completed. The menu tutorial has also been altered to be more helpful and clear. The dog "fetch" pathing is significantly improved... yes, you can play fetch with a dog in the menu area :) There have also been some small additions to various UI screens to provide more information, for example, the controls screen now shows that the Spotlight ability slows down enemies. Lots of these things will continue to be improved and refined.
Aside from the bug fixes and the dog pathing, these changes are all in response to the feedback that I received. I also took to heart the review that the first early access release version of this game received. I appreciate constructive criticism, and as a direct result of the review feedback, I have created plans to add 4 new player abilities which were not originally slated. And as said above, the menu tutorial has been made more clear. I also have a gameplay tutorial planned, which will be its own playable mission, although, logistically, that tutorial will be several releases down the road.
And just to be clear about who Single Step Games is currently...
I am a sole developer and this is my first independent game on Steam. It's just me. I am not some massive company that's out to steal your money and run. I am a gamer who loves making games for people to enjoy, and I will finish this game. I am diligently working to fix, improve, and expand this game as much as possible. I hope my position, drive, and the road map for this game are clear. Any questions, thoughts, constructive criticism, or suggestions, I'd love to hear them and will respond as transparently as possible. Again, this release is just the first minor update. There are tons of additions and improvements still to come!
Mastakwaa