Snow Scout
Another Big Content Update Arrives
As I've already reported in last month's update, we've taken the plunge and spent some more money on our fantastic voice actress Kimberly, so she could record new lines for the game. The result is that we now have about thirty minutes of extra recordings, used in additional conversations the most avid Snow Scouts can have with their charming supervisor, Vreni. A bunch of smaller tidbits are splattered all across the game for your enjoyment.
Also, the very industrious streamer KroyVR, who recently showed off 300 VR titles on Twitch, was so nice to include Snow Scout in his selection and gave us some new ideas - for example, there now is the possibility to reduce the AR brackets in the game to half their components or turn them off entirely.
Another new feature is a "trash detector" app, that you will get after recycling half of the trash that is scattered around the ski resort. From that point on, audible pings will make finding the rest much easier.
Still, there was a bit of a hitch recently, as there was a major medical emergency in my family, which kept me off work for over a week. So this update is not as well-tested as normally. So in case you come across any issues, don't hesitate to contact me here or on our Discord. As always, let me remind you that I'll reward contributions to the game with free keys to other SteamVR games - the details are in the Tunermaxx Discord in this thread: https://discord.gg/qwpkpeAdXu
All the best,
Kalle from Tunermaxx
Now With Even More Voice Acting
We've had some recent player feedback that our skiing tutorial should be even more detailed, so we've finally taken the plunge and paid our wonderful actress Kimberly Krall again to record new voice lines. Of course, we haven't left it at the tutorial, but gave her another 10 pages of text, which should amount to roughly another half hour of recorded narration. In this update, we've included the revamped skiing tutorial as well as some other tidbits here and there, that round the existing narration off even better. In the next month, we'll focus on including the bulk of the new narrations, which are basically optional, "endgame-style" stories about our host Vreni herself. Once we're done including those, the PCVR version of Snow Scout will be done and we'll move towards porting the game to standalone VR systems and hopefully PSVR2.
Until then, have fun with the new narrations. Of course, implementing new features means implementing new bugs as well, so if you come across any issues, don't hesitate to contact us here or on our Discord. As always, let me remind you that we'll reward contributions to the game with free keys to other SteamVR games - the details are in our Discord in this thread: https://discord.gg/qwpkpeAdXu
Keep on skiing,
Kalle from Tunermaxx
Yet Another Update is Here!
We've been at it again and just released Build #139. Since we got some more feedback from the community, we implemented changes to clarify some things, like adding new signage to make clearer which skiing ground has which number, and also improved player guidance in some situations. Other than that, there are of course lots of graphical improvements like better interiors for the ski huts complete with new visual effects, new sounds and we even put in some new lines from Vreni which we hadn't used before.
So we hope you'll enjoy this new build. Aside from some little graphical tidbits, our to-do lists are almost done now. However, we've been told by players that the tutorial could even be more extensive to explain everything … but that would mean we'd have to record new lines from our wonderful actress Kimberly, which will cost money of course. But we'll see what we can do. Keep your eyes (and ears) peeled ;-)
All the best,
Kalle from Tunermaxx
Vive Wands are finally fully implemented, plus other improvements
Just a quick intermediate update - We got more feedback from the community regarding optimal button mappings for the trusty old Vive Wands. Also, it seems through a recent OpenXR update, the hand rotation was quite a bit off. Thanks to the help from our player Bob who sent us some pictures, everything works as it should again. On the Wands, you can now use the menu button to bring up the in-game tablet, and switching between skiing and walking is done by clicking both touchpads at the same time.
As you can see, changes like that can be done quickly if you help us out a bit. As small developers, we can't have every available piece of hardware here, so feedback on specific devices is highly appreciated. To put it into perspective for you; we did buy a Valve Index in order to make the "Grip Force" setting work as planned - and the device together with controllers and light houses cost more money than Snow Scout has made on Steam so far! And by "made" I do not mean profit, but just the money Valve paid us. So the game is still about a 150,000 dollars in the red.
If you like the game and would like to help us to change that, please spread the word - especially reviews here on Steam are a tremendous help :D
Since we're also continously working on improving the graphics, this update also got a bunch of new models and graphical details, most noticably on the biggest skiing ground, which looks even more sporty by now. Starting next week, our lead artist Michael is also back from vacation, so you can expect even more visual polish soon.
All the best,
Kalle from Tunermaxx
More Graphics for Less Money :D
Once again, we spent the week pushing pixels, adding a whole bunch of graphical improvements to Snow Scout, along with the usual dose of feature improvements, polishing and bug fixing.
And this week, there is also a really nice discount on the game, which is even more interesting for people who already own our game Rainbow Reactor on Steam - as our new "VR Bundle", which contains both games, is of the type "complete your collection". This means, if you already own one of the games, you'll get the full discount on the other one as well. That way, Snow Scout is available for just under a tenner for the very first time!
No matter if you are proud new owner of Snow Scout or a returning player, our offer still stands that if you help us out with bug reports or reviews, we have some keys for other SteamVR games to give away! Visit our Discord for details & the list of games we have currently available:
https://discord.gg/qwpkpeAdXu
Stay Frosty,
Kalle from Tunermaxx.
Another Big Update Arrives!
We've been hard at work again, and this new build took a bit longer because Unity decided to make an update to their newly acquired collaborative workflow software PlasticSCM, now known as Unity Version Control System - and it stopped us dead in our tracks. Despite support's best efforts, we couldn't continue for a couple of days and even lost a bit of work. Not to whine (too much), but these are things you have to keep up with as a small developer, on top of everything else, like nasty SteamVR updates for example, which also caused us quite a bit of trouble lately.
But anyway, let's get to the good news already! Of course we implemented lots of improvements across all areas of the game, be it graphics, sound, narration, bug fixing and even whole game systems. The most noticable upgrade in that regard is probably that we completely revamped the "snow cover testing" mini game. In our opinion, it's much more fun, and even more life-like now, as this technique is really used in the assessment of avalanche risks.
Another big thing is that we've introduced visual feedback to our communications system. People had complained that they keep forgetting if you have to press the speech button once or twice to say "yes" or "no" … and voila, now you get a reminder each time Vreni asks you something. But that is not all! To give you a bit of feedback whenever Vreni stores some information about you in her head, depending on your answers or actions, the game now tells you that
VRENI WILL REMEMBER THIS.
So in good old telltale tradition, this will keep you guessing if it was good or bad thing you said or did, hehhe.
We're hoping you'll have lots of fun with this version of the game. Overall, most of the important stuff on our to-do-list has been completed by now, so aside from the minor things still to do, there is mostly graphical work to be done to further round out the game. Of course, a dream of ours would be to add even more dialogue from Vreni, but since we'd have to pay our wonderful actress Kimberly for that, it's something we can't really do unless we finally make some money from the game. So if you like it, please recommend it to your friends.
And as always, our offer still stands that if you help us out with bug reports or reviews, we have some keys for other SteamVR games to give away! Visit our Discord for details & the list of games we have currently available:
https://discord.gg/qwpkpeAdXu
All the best,
Kalle from Tunermaxx
Comebacks And New Beginnings
This week brings another update for Snow Scout. Aside from the usual polishing and bugfixing, I am happy to report that our lead graphics artist Michael has decided to make a comeback and add more work to the game - unpaid I must add, so he deserves a lot of credit for it!
First thing on his agenda was to contribute a new version of the beginner's hill area which now gives players more space to complete the tutorial in an orderly fashion. In the coming weeks, he will continue to touch up all other areas of the game as well and add some new models here and there. So keep your eyes peeled and until then, have fun with the latest build #128
Another tip for fitness-friendly VR fans to get even more out of Snow Scout is to install the YUR.fit app for Steam. It measures your calorie usage when playing VR. After some extensive self-testing, I'm happy to report that according to my measurements, I was able to easily burn over 400 calories during a one-hour session of Snow Scout! It's not as much as dedicated VR fitness apps of course, but a very different experience in it's own right. So if you like, give it a spin :D
All the best,
Kalle from Tunermaxx
Huge "Snowy Summer" Update Has Arrived
We've been keeping up our recent sprint of updates and today, the biggest update in recent memory goes live. Most prominently, we have revamped the in-game tablet computer with a new, pixelly retro OS and it can do a lot of useful new things now. For example, there is pathfinding with position markers for the next goal, there is a to-do list to keep track of your daily duties, the Scoutpedia is a kind of mini-wiki on all topics that could be important for a budding snow scout, and there is also a Birdpedia that shows off your findings of your feathered friends, in hand-made pixel art.
Of course, in conjunction with the last 3 updates, all of this comes together in a big way to improve the game in all areas. In total, we have tackled a whopping 266 issues of all shapes and sizes to make the game look, sound and play better. Still, we recently struggled a bit with OpenXR, which took some trial & error, so the build number has now jumped up to 126. Since we don't have all headsets here in the office, please let us know if the hand positions for your system should be widely off, then we should be able to easily fix that. We also need some opinions from Index players about grip strength. So as always, keep the feedback coming here in the Steam discussions or in our Discord.
We wish you all a nice, but not-too-warm summer … in case things go wrong, turn up the AC and go on a virtual alpine vacation with the Snow Scouts :D
All the best,
Kalle from Tunermaxx
Wax On, Wax Off!
In this week's update, it's all about the polish! We didn't add any new features in the last couple of days, but rather spent improving what's there. So as usual, there are a lot of improvements in the visual and acoustic realms as well as smoother gameplay and tweaked controls. Among the more noticable changes are the ski lifts in the two biggest skiing grounds, which have more convenient drop-off points now and are more pleasant to use.
It's the variety of ingredients that make the stew, as they say in the virtual alps™, and in that vein, the Snow Scouts now even have two different types of canned stew on offer. Small details like that bring more spice to life, so we hope you enjoy all the little tidbits here and there.
Keep on scoutin',
Kalle from Tunermaxx
Puttin' on the HUD
It was another busy week here at the Tunermaxx office and we're happy to report that Build 112 has just gone live. This one introduces a lot of new features that make use of our "AR HUD": Now, there are tutorial animations, warnings for dangerous terrain, and while doing a ski race, you can keep track of your current time. Also, level exits are now marked through the magic of augmented reality and you're notified when the game progress has been saved.
Other than that, there are a bunch of audiovisual improvements, as usual. A bit more important is the introduction of "relaxed seated mode", which I snuck in early last week already, but it deserves to be mentioned in this news post as well. Once you've activated "stick pushoff" in the tablet computers' movement settings, you'll be able to move on skis by pressing the thumbsticks forward in an alternating rhythm. This makes playing much more relaxed, especially if you need to get uphill.
Players who are still using the Vive Wands or had trouble with WMR's stick clicking (or those who dislike clicking their sticks in general) will be happy about the new option to swap out the double stick-click with a double trigger-button press.
So have fun on the course, as Vreni would say, and let us know if you come across any issues while playing!
All the best,
Kalle from Tunermaxx