the new year has hardly begun and here's the next reason to celebrate: Rainbow Reactor is one year old now! It went on sale on January 15th, 2019 in its Early Access version. I have to say these 12 months went by pretty fast, with all the updates and endless news posts we did for the game :P
Also, it's pretty wild that this "new wave" of VR really only began in 2016 (there were only 7 "VR-Only" releases on Steam in 2015), so that means Rainbow Reactor has been part of this journey for a quarter of its duration already ;D
This is a good opportunity to share some statistics – We've sold 1014 copies of the game so far, minus 77 refunds. On top of that, 124 promotional codes were redeemed, so there is a total of 1138 copies out there. Worlwide, most purchases were made by the USA (41%), followed by Germany (16%), the UK (8%), Canada (3%) and Australia (3%). Looks like VR is really big in English-speaking countries!
When it comes to cold hard cash, we racked up a gross of $ 5628. Minus taxes, refunds, Steam's take and other fees we've currently made back two thirds of our 5000 € investment into the game. So we better keep this ball rolling to break even sometime later this year – After all, there are 3 new VR games on Steam on average every day - there's no time to get lazy now. That's why we'll release the game's OST soon, so you can listen to the nice Synthwave tracks even when not playing. Actually, we've already uploaded everything to Steam's simplified music store, but it wasn't exactly as simple as I hoped, so let's see when they will greenlight our tunes :P
Also, we finished everything we need for Trading Cards, but again, Steam is holding us back a little … apparently, Rainbow Reactor is not as big of a title yet to be allowed to have Trading Cards. But who knows, maybe we'll sell enough copies in our current Birthday Sale, where people can pick up the game at 80% discounted, to cross that magical and unknown threshhold that will allow the Trading Cards to go live!
As far as updates concerned, we recently added a little feature in case your head height in-game is off for some reason. The proper way is of course to re-calibrate your playing space, but as a quick fix, you can now rise or lower your virtual head by pressing "Page UP/DOWN" on your keyboard, or DEL to reset cam height to default. Make sure the game window is in focus to use this feature.
Next up are some unlockables for the Museum Tour which will probably be ready in the next two to three weeks – and then our next step is to approach the Oculus Store and ultimately make a Quest version of the game. But in the meantime, keep that feedback coming and if you like, help us out by spreading the word about the game :D
Lastly, there is one more reason to celebrate - We have our first Production Baby! Little Baby Leo joined our team in early January. Congratulations & cheers all around :D
- The Rainbow Reactor Team
1000 Games Sold & A Happy New Year!
Hello Everyone,
this is really good timing – on December 31st of 2019, we reached the magic milestone of having sold a 1000 copies of Rainbow Reactor! While this is a nice, round number, it's not really THAT much, but as a small team without a publisher, we're still quite happy about this achievement ːlunar2019smilingpigː
If I'd be really nit-picky, I could also mention that 77 players refunded the game and that most units were sold during sales. But still, the bottom line is that we have now made back about two thirds of the money we had to invest to get the game out, so there's a small chance we'll break even next year – especially since the general interest in VR has risen lately with the arrival of the Oculus Quest and the announcement of Half-Life:Alyx ːvegaː
The development of Rainbow Reactor is also 95% complete now, we'll soon add some more unlockables for the Museum Tour, and once that's done we'll work on porting the game to other platforms and bring it to the Oculus and Vive stores. A Quest port is also very high on our list, but first, Oculus have to give us a permission for that. Of course versions for PSVR and WMR would also be great, but this would be complicated and also costly, so we'll have to see about it. Still, if we get the game to a couple more stores, we can hopefully make it known to some more people and sell a couple more units, so we can hopefully start developing another game soon ːlunar2019coolpigː
Also, we'll be releasing the Original Sound Track of Rainbow Reactor as Steam DLC soon, so if you really like the game, you could support us even further that way ːquidː
In any case, we're now approaching the finish line for 2019 fast, and the whole team of Rainbow Reactor wants to thank each and every one of our supporters and all VR enthusiasts in general – we hope, 2020 will become THE year for VR and we wish everyone a fantastic new year full of fun gaming experiences ːlunar2019grinningpigː
finally, Rainbow Reactor receives a big new feature: The Museum Tour! Dilligent Loader Bots will now be able to sightsee around the Rainbow Factory and read the information on various museum boards equipped with Rainbow HoverTec. What you will find there ranges from interesting facts to nonsensical trivia, but at any rate, every board also contains a playing tip.
Taking the tour is a privilege though – for each level you beat, you will unlock a number of new teleport points that will lead you to a new information board. And speaking of unlocking things: In order to boost Loader Bot motivation, the management has decided to LOCK all work shifts as well! From now on, you can only try levels you have unlocked first. Your current state of progress will be based on the achievements you've already won, so if you're a veteran of the game, you won't have to start from zero.
To make things a bit easier, levels you reach in Single Shift or Party Mode count as unlocked as well, so you can use Modifiers to make life a bit easier, or invite a bunch of friends over so you can unlock levels together. In the future, we'll make the museum even more interesting by adding new exhibits which will also serve up some hidden features.
Also, the teleport points take you on a wild route to almost inaccessible points in the factory and on the way, you can find some more easter eggs in shape of graffitis featuring the names of our favourite YouTubers! Take a look if you can find all seven of those :D
So, we hope you like the new opportunities that await in the Rainbow Reactor. Once again let us remind you that depending on the controllers you use, you now have to press two buttons (one on each hand) to reset the camera, and 90° snap-turning is also assigned to buttons. Of course you can re-configure those using Steam's Controller Mapping Tool! If you want to assign grabbing the balls to another button, use the function "Interact with UI".
Have fun and let us know how you like the Museum Tour, The Rainbow Reactor Team
The Italian Job
Hello Everyone,
with the help of the great community at VR-Italia.org and the talent of Elisabetta "Betty" Magnani, we finally have Italian voice over for our most beloved robot boss, Dottie.
Recently, we've talked openly about the fact that 10 months after the release of Rainbow Reactor, we've still not made back our initial investment through selling the game on Steam. Still we kept on improving the game continuously – after all, all of us love VR and you have to keep in mind that the user base is still very small. Still we had to cut some corners and especially with voice recordings, some fantastic people helped us out. VR Italia are the latest to step into this great show of support that was started by Dutch Youtubers Cas&Chary VR.
Speaking of them, you might notice the other big part of this update – we have again improved the visuals of the Rainbow Factory as well as Rain City, bringing them to their final state for the coming release of the "Museum Tour", which is our next scheduled update. If you look around a bit, you may be able to catch a glimpse of graffitis with Youtuber names we hid around the factory – soon, you'll be able to teleport around and find them all!
On another note, we're still experimenting with the default controller settings which behave a bit funny since a SteamVR update that was introduced a while back. If you're unhappy with the controls, please use the Controller Settings in SteamVR which can be accessed in the Steam virtual menu by selecting "Settings" in the bottom right corner and then "Controller Settings". There you can for example set the grab function to the grip button by assigning the grip button to the function "Interact with UI". You can also assign camera snap turning to thumbsticks if you like or choose one of the displayed presets from Steam Workshop.
We're really sorry about this, normally this should all work automatically but we have yet to figure it out!
By the way, if you want to reset the camera, you have to press two buttons at the same time now, so you don't do it accidentally.
Also, don't forget if you want to enter a player's name in "Party Mode", that the Rainbow Reactor Window has to be "in focus" - if it doesn't work, press the Windows key on the keyboard and then click on the Window tab with that shows the Unity logo and/or says "Rainbow Reactor". Please let us know if you have any better idea how this could be approached :D
Greetings from the entire Rainbow Reactor Team, Have fun playing!
The Halloween Special is Coming!
Hello Everyone,
we have a new update lined up which will automatically download on monday, 28th of October. And it will be spooky! You have probably noticed that our HoverBots have a bit of a "strong personality" and there seems to be even more depth to it. Deep in the bowels of the A.I. Core there is a hidden glitch, a split personality that will only appear during that special time of year. And then, Dottie will turn into her evil twin Pumpitty McDotkin – so beware and play at your own risk!
Starting with this coming update, the Rainbow Reactor will now be haunted every year on and around Halloween ːsteamhappyː
But that's not all there is to this new update. We have also cleaned up the menus a bit to make them more accessible and allow players to get back into the game a bit faster. Also, the Colorblind Mode is finally here – even if you have "normal" color vision, you might want to have a look at this new color palette to give the game a new twist – more on that in our last news post.
For now, we hope you'll like our fun little Halloween Special, stay tuned for more on monday!
Cheers,
the Rainbow Reactor Team ːorbiː
Colorblind Mode is Coming!
Granted, it really took us longer than it should have, but finally, a Colorblind Mode is coming! As you know, we already had a lot on our plate to develop Rainbow Reactor in the way we envisioned it. Being a small team and having to earn money to pay for rent and food makes it hard to do everything at once. Also, a quick look into the matter revealed to us that it's not as easy as it sounds … but recently, our developer Hannu had the chance to enjoy a seminar about color blindness in gaming at #XmasJKL 2019, a Finnish game developer event. After that, we finally understood all the complications and have now designed a colour palette that should make the game playable for the most of color vision deficiencies, namely protanopia and protanomaly, deuteranopia and deuteranomaly, as well as tritanopia and tritanomaly.
Here's a demo of these new colors and two simulations of the way they may be perceived:
And don't worry about the color mixing if you're affected – true, you will have to kind of stubbornly memorize which two colours will have which result, but believe me - for people with "normal" color vision, that is also the case. This is because Rainbow Reactor's color mixing is based on the real physics of the color wheel, which is different from the particle-based paint mixing you may know from kindergarten. So unless you're a web designer or printing professional, you'd have to memorize those mixing results anyway.
So we hope this update, which is planned to roll out near the end of this month along with some menu improvements, will make Rainbow Reactor enjoyable by even more people. And as we found out, it's a nice break from playing with the old batch of highly saturated chroma balls anyway!
If you are affected by some type of color vision deficiency, please let us know what you think of our color palette – we're looking to improve the result based on your feedback, in case it doesn't work as well as we're hoping!
Cheers, The Rainbow Reactor Team
A fresh splash of paint!
Hello everyone,
it's been a while since the last post and even longer since we released the last update – the reason for this is that the "Museum Tour Update" we're currently working on takes us longer than expected. One upside is that one important step was to optimize the graphics again and get them ready for the reactor building to be explored from all angles. Since this step is done now, we're releasing it as our latest update, named "Build 57". Once the update is installed, you will notice that there are now lots of paint splats in the room, which gets the game's environment even closer to our concept artworks and lends an even more arcade-game like flair to the game.
While giving the reactor room a makeover, we improved geometries and textures as well, so you should get even better performance and less aliasing now. At the same time we fixed some bugs, one of which even had the potential to keep the game from starting in very rare instances – so if you had any trouble of that kind, please feel free to try again :-)
And to further shorten the wait for the "Muesum Tour" a bit, we've recently put together a video that delivers a glimpse of the new feature, still decked out with placeholder museum boards: https://youtu.be/wEDY_vpIWb0
To get some more people on board the Rainbow Train, we've started another weeklong discount where the game will be available for 60% less – tell your friends so they can also start grooving to the Rainbow Synthwave Soundtrack and throw some of those tasty-looking chroma balls :D
[edit:] in the meantime, we have upgraded the game to Build 58, another little shader update :-)
Back in Action!
Hello Everyone,
after the Steam Summer Sale, most of our team went on vacation and it seems all of the internet did, as there really wasn't that much going on. But now we declare the summer slump officially over and get back to work with a bang, putting Rainbow Reactor on a discount for the entire week :lunar2019coolpig:
When we were not roasting in the sun or running through game shops in Normandy hunting for that special retro gem, we kept working on the Rainbow Reactor Museum Tour.
This feature is now really taking shape and it will help with a number of issues we got feedback on. It will add motivating unlockables to the game, as shift by shift, you'll be able to explore new teleport points and have a closer look at the factory, so we also get more freedom of movement and an opportunity to experience the surroundings, which are also getting further texture improvements at the moment. Another improvement it will bring is that the game mechanics will be explained better on the museum boards and you'll get some additional playing tips.
So this feature will be released sometime later this year. Other than that, we're currently working on optimising the menu system which has gotten a bit clumsy through the Valve Index and Oculus Touch controller support. Also, we're doing some research how we could bring a "colour blind mode" to the game, as some people have understandably requested. Watch this space for more updates!
we managed to wrap up the new update in a timely fashion and now it is available and will download automatically.
A feature that probably stands out, being a hot topic, is the Index Controller Support. Finger tracking is available and you can also grab and throw the balls by opening and closing your hands - but make sure the controllers are securely attached to your hands, as we won't cover damages from flying controllers! Go easy on them as we hear the straps are a bit fragile :lunar2019coolpig:
For Ouclus Touch users, hand gestures are now also active so if you like, you can give Dottie the thumbs-up or point that "finger gun" at her :lunar2019grinningpig:
Even more importantly, all those weird bugs that were exclusive to Oculus and not really reproductible for us should be gone now.
Some requests from the community which we implemented were tactile feedback upon grabbing a ball, and the possibility to grab by using the grip buttons. This is now enabled by default, but other button assignments can now easily be done by using the custom SteamVR controller bindings. Just right-click onto the SteamVR window, select "Devices -> Controller Configuration" and create your own favourite control scheme :lunar2019grinningpig:
Another thing players requested was the ability to teleport around the main platform, which is now possible. Much more freedom to explore the Rainbow Factory will be added in the "Museum Tour Update" which we're also working on - see the last post for details.
Last but not least, a big addition to the game is the appearance of two new HoverBot AI Cores – we now have Robeto from Latin America and Verne from France who add more spoken language support to the game.
So here's the patch notes:
- Added Valve Index Controller Support
- Added Oculus Touch Hand Gestures
- Fixed Controller Bugs for Oculus Touch
- Enabled SteamVR Custom Controller Bindings
- Tactile Feedback when grabbing Chroma Balls
- Ability to teleport on the platform
- Spoken language support for French
- Spoken language support for Latin-American Spanish
- Performance improvements
That's it from us for now, enjoy the rest of the Summer Sale and see you soon ːsteamhappyː
[Update for the Update:] it seems that grabbing with the Knuckles still doesn't work for some people. In that case, please go to the Controller Bindings Menu as described above and set "grip click" to the function "Interact with UI". Sorry for the inconvenience, we are currently looking into it!
SUMMER SALE and UPDATES
Hello Everyone,
the Steam Summer Sale is here and Rainbow Reactor got a 60% discount! Good opportunity to put the game in your library, as we're constantly working to make it even better. A big step we've now taken is to update SteamVR to the latest version. This is a typical step game developers hate, as updates like these break everything first of all :lunar2019shockedpig:
This was no different with this SteamVR and Unity update, but it will be worth all the work, as this will fix a lot of issues for Oculus players, we'll be able to support Oculus touch gestures (thumbs-up, finger point etc) for the first time and this already works well. And of course this is also a necessary preparation for Valve Index Controller support, which we'll approach soon :lunar2019coolpig:
Of course this is not all we're doing; we've also recorded new voice-over in Spanish and French which is due to be released soon. Also we're including some requests from the community while we're hard at work with the Rainbow Factory Tour™ – more on that soon!
But for now, have a great Summer Sale, happy hunting and see you soon!
