Townsmen VR
Indie Arena Booth: Developer Stream Day 2
There has been a lot of progress in the interactive world of Townsmen VR! And we are ready to share new footage with you! We'll be showcasing our latest progress in our upcoming live streams at the Gamescom Indie Arena Booth Online this weekend. So, tune in on Saturday, August 29th, for day 2nd to get a first glimpse of the progress we've made in Townsmen VR!
Our game designer will show you some of the exciting new features LIVE and will present the progress of our Early Access title Townsmen VR! There is a lot to discover! Stay tuned and join us and our booths at the Indie Arena Booth Online 2020 starting 27th of August!
Check out the new content & watch our live events on our Twitch channel twitch.tv/handygames_official
Join our community and chat with the developers on our Discord channel!
https://discord.gg/tKY8jrh
Indie Arena Booth: Developer Stream Day 1
Our game designer will show you some of the exciting new features LIVE and will present the progress of our Early Access title Townsmen VR! There is a lot to discover! Stay tuned and join us and our booths at the Indie Arena Booth Online 2020 starting 27th of August!
Check out the new content & watch our live events on our Twitch channel twitch.tv/handygames_official
Join our community and chat with the developers on our Discord channel!
https://discord.gg/tKY8jrh
Indie Arena Opening Booth!
We will do a booth crawl!
Come over and see all our booths presented LIVE! And we have a lot! Visit and join us on our chats on Discord, share on social media, be part of our streamings on Twitch. Let everyone know we're starting the best indie game event online!
Check out the new content, join us in the booths and watch our live events on our Twitch channel twitch.tv/handygames_official
Join our community and chat with the developers on our Discord channel
https://discord.gg/tKY8jrh
TIME SCHEDULE OF IAB
(27th - 30th of August)
First day, 27th of August
9:00 - 9:30 PM (CET) | IAB OPENING BOOTH
COMMUNITY MEETING
We will start our presentation of our booths!
GO TO TWITCH!
9:30 - 22:30 PM (CET) - IAB BOOTH CRAWL
COMMUNITY MEETING
Let's walk through all of our booths
GO TO TWITCH!
Second day, 28th of August
8:30 - 9:30 AM (CET) | EL HIJO - A WILD WEST TALE
DEV STREAM
Excitement without violence? Can this work? Yes, it can! Ask
the developers of El Hijo - A Wild West Tale anything you
want to know!
GO TO TWITCH!
10:00 - 11:00 AM (CET) | TOWNSMEN VR
DEV STREAM
Ever wanted to play a video game as “god”? Our game
designer will show you some exciting news about Townsmen
VR!
GO TO TWITCH!
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM (CET) | AIRHEAD - MAKING OF
DEV STREAM
Let's talk about the making of Airhead and see what the developers have to say about their ideas.
GO TO TWITCH!
1:00 - 2:00 PM (CET) | MEET OUR DEVS AROUND THE GLOBE
DEV STREAM
Talk to our developers from all around the globe, you'll see what's happening if you drop by, so watch our Twitch-channel
GO TO TWITCH!
2:30 - 3:30 PM (CET) | PILE UP! - MINIGAMES
DEV STREAM
Jump up, slide down, play together, and carry the load! Let's
see if we can solve all the puzzles.
GO TO TWITCH!
4:00 - 5:00 PM (CET) | LITTLE BIG WORKSHOP - LET'S PLAY
LET'S PLAY
The devs are playing around and probably talk about platform porting.
GO TO TWITCH!
5:30 - 6:30 PM (CET) | ONE HAND CLAPPING - BEHIND OHC
DEV STREAM
The devs are talking about the game and will share some of their ideas behind it.
GO TO TWITCH!
7:30 - 8:30 PM (CET) | CHICKEN POLICE - MAKING OF
DEV STREAM
The devs are presenting our Film Noire orientated Chicken Police.
GO TO TWITCH!
9:00 - 10:00 PM (CET) | ENDLING - EXTINCTION IS FOREVER
LET'S PLAY
Are we even ready to save the last fox on earth and its cubs in an apocalyptic nature and a world full of dirt, garbage, dust, and humans wearing protective suits and gas masks.
GO TO TWITCH!
Third day, 29th of August
8:30 - 9:00 AM (CET) | PILE UP! - Q&A
AMA
Why cardboards and boxes? Ask us anything about this game.
GO TO TWITCH!
9:30 - 10:00 AM (CET) | SPITLINGS - Q&A
AMA
Well, you might get the idea. Ask us anything about Spitlings.
GO TO TWITCH!
10:30 - 11:00 AM (CET) | ONE HAND CLAPPING - PLAY WITH DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTS
LET'S PLAY
This has never happened before! We will try playing our early access singing game One Hand Clapping with different instruments!
GO TO TWITCH!
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM (CET) | CHICKEN POLICE - COOKING WITH THE PRODUCERS
LET'S COOK
What kind of humor is that? Developing a game with chickens and then watching the producers cooking something with them? Like it or not, but enjoy the messed up cooking show!
GO TO TWITCH!
1:00 - 1:30 PM (CET) | AIRHEAD - SPEEDRUN
LET'S PLAY
The name says it all: One of our masters of this game tries to beat the clock while he's running through the mysterious world in Airhead!
GO TO TWITCH!
2:00 - 2:30 PM (CET) | MEET OUR DEVS AROUND THE GLOBE
DEV STREAM
Talk to our developers from all around the globe, you'll see what's happening if you drop by, so watch our Twitch-channel
GO TO TWITCH!
3:00 - 4:00 PM(CET) | CHICKEN POLICE - LET'S PLAY
LET'S PLAY
Let's solve the cases together!
GO TO TWITCH!
4:30 - 5:30 PM(CET) | ENDLING - EXTINCTION IS FOREVER
LET'S PLAY
The message behind this amazing game, explained by the developers.
GO TO TWITCH!
5:30 - 6:30 PM(CET) | TOWNSMEN VR - LET'S PLAY
DEV STREAM
Ever wanted to play a video game as “god”? Our game designer will show you some exciting news about Townsmen VR!
GO TO TWITCH!
7:00 - 7:30 PM(CET) | LITTLE BIG WORKSHOP - DEV TALK
DEV STREAM
Join our crafty team for an hour of Little Big Workshop. See what the game has to offer and perhaps talk a bit about what the future holds.
GO TO TWITCH!
9:00 - 9:30 PM(CET) | AIRHEAD - STORYLINE
DEV STREAM
Let’s play and hang around together!
GO TO TWITCH!
Last day, 30th of August
We don't do any live streams but certainly, you're invited to visit us on our Twitch channel, where we'll present most of the streams as restreams!
https://www.twitch.tv/handygames_official
Townsmen VR- Exclusive Previews with Gronkh!
Every German Let’s Player, Streamer and Gamer knows him: Germany’s most famous let's player, Gronkh. We are thrilled to announce that TODAY, August 14th, there will be a unique HandyGames exclusive live showcase on Twitch, packed with a wide range of our indie titles and never seen before content. Watch, comment, play, and be there, LIVE!
Live Let's Play Event, Indie Games Night, Gronkh vs. HandyGames, whatever you want to call it: Tune in! Join the (German) show on Gronkh’s channel on Twitch! on August 14, 2020, at 6pm German time. Let's go!
Developer Update: User interfaces
At your command: Research, trading and destruction
Townsmen VR allows all sorts of interactions in an intuitive way. Although many of them can be performed directly in the game world, some of the most impactful ones are initiated from user interfaces (UI) like the build menu.
There are a few issues with UI controls in VR, compared to UI in non-VR games: While in "normal" games these controls are usually straightforward and easier to execute than the more complex in-game controls, it is the opposite for VR games. Interactions with the game world feel easy and natural, while UI feels immersion-breaking, and reading text is harder.
As you already know, we tackled this issue by reducing the amount of text in menus to a minimum. You also place new construction sites by just manually dragging a building from the build menu into the game world. This "drag-to-place" mechanic works great for several reasons:
- It bridges the gap between the user interface and the game world by allowing players to use pointing or grabbing
- It allows you to carefully choose a place in the world without being restricted by a grid
- It allows you to cancel actions without the need for a confirmation window.
- Therefore, we are using the "drag-to-place" mechanic outside the normal build menu.
Let the hammer fall
We added build options to the building info UI you can activate for each building. These build options contain add-ons and upgrades that use the "drag-to-place" mechanic.
When it comes to upgrades, you drag the upgraded building directly on top of the original building.
But there is a second object you can drag on top of a building:
The hammer lets you tear down a building in case you need the space for something else or need this type of building somewhere else.
As you have to pick up and drop the hammer, it is harder to do this by accident (compared to a UI button doing the same thing). We also make sure that you only destroy the building of which the player opened the building info UI to reduce mistakes. Tearing down buildings is costly and rarely required, so we want to make it as safe as possible.
Ora et labora
The library is one of many add-ons you can build for the church. The library’s info also contains a research selection, allowing you to choose what you want to research next. To start some research, you use the same mechanic, dragging the research item on top of the library.
A stack of books will appear in front of the library and your clerics will have to read through all of these books to complete the research.
The trading trade-off
Trading is a central part of most city building games and has been a big part of the Townsmen series for a long time. But trading is also usually one of the UI heaviest features in these games requiring players to manage large menus.
Trading in Townsmen VR stays in the game world as much as possible and works with physical resources. You can initiate trading from the UI of a trade ship or a marketplace, by using the "drag-to-place" feature from a selection of available offers. A physical pallet will appear where you or your workers can put the required resources. Once the pallet is full, you will get a new pallet with the desired resources. This takes time but makes sure that resources act the same in all cases.
What’s next?
We are currently polishing and testing these features while working on all the levels that use those. After that, we will have to finalize the dialogues and record and implement the voice-overs before we can aim for a release date later this year.
Meet the team!
our Townsmen VR - Team is steadily growing and now we thought we share the new Team Picture with you!
Enjoy the little look behind the scenes and stay tuned for more news in the future.
DEVLOG - VIDEO
It's been a while since our last update. This time we prepared a little video, showcasing some of the new features and our general progress on the game. Please keep in mind that everything that you see here is still work in progress and subject to change.
Enjoy the video!
[previewyoutube="jZzTSFO0Nu8;full"]
Development Update
We are currently balancing and testing these (and other) features on new islands, but are still far away from releasing any updates with the new content.
New townsmen and -women
Gone are the town's "clone" days with its pack of grumpy old men, as we have replaced the old model, not just with one new model, but with a whole character randomization system, allowing us to generate new characters with different parameters for age, gender, body type, skin/hair color, and beard style:
When the job is changed, the townsmen and -women keep their personal characteristics and only change their clothing, including hats and tools.
We also added new military units and (head) variations, but they will still always keep their job.
Building upgrades and construction sites
We have replaced the old building animation and added the possibility to upgrade some buildings.
When upgraded, this house will serve as a residence for more people, effectively increasing the population limit.
Building Add-ons
Buildings can now have add-ons. Add-ons are small extra buildings you can place close to the main building to add extra functionality. Townsmen with a job associated with the main building can also work on the addon buildings.
Some examples:
Woodcutters will still cut down trees, but with the saw addon, they now can also cut the logs into boards.
Farmers will take care of farm animals like chicken, cows or sheep in addition to their harvesting duties.
What would Christmas be without a Christmas Tree?
As 2018 is coming to an end, we want to give you another small glimpse behind the scenes.
We always planned to have more than two trees in the game, so we created several new conifers and broad-leaved trees that fit the style of the overall world even better.
This is a quick overview of the steps in the evolution of the conifer's shape and texture:
And these are the final versions of the new conifers and broad-leaved trees:
With the Christmas holidays ahead this will be all for now. But it will be a busy and exciting 2019 for everyone.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Level Creation
We are still rewriting many of the game's base systems, a decision that we knew, would allow the final game to be bigger and better, but also stop us from doing regular updates for a longer time.
Most of the game code (buildings, combat, work, resources, controls, VR framework) has been updated to the new system. We have also added localization (the game now supports different languages) and are currently working on the UI, the save game system and the tutorial/quest system, with music and animations still untouched. Most of this progress is “invisible”, so unfortunately we don’t have anything new to show there.
But we have also been working on the level creation tools. The first island was entirely built by one artist, without any ways to reuse parts easily. As we want to create many more and also bigger islands, we knew we had to add tools the level designers can use to directly realize their ideas.
Before building tools, it is a good idea to write down what you want to achieve with them and set boundaries.
These are the things we want from our tools:
- Easy to prototype and test new maps
- Easy texturing without external tools
- Not just a heightmap terrain but overhanging parts, bridges, caves and a bottom
- Good performance (limited materials and polygons)
Things the tools won't achieve:
- Procedural creation and/or levels with basically infinite size (hard for balancing and performance)
- A level editor we can ship as part of the game (this would take a big amount of extra time and effort)
We will show you a rough idea of how many steps it takes to build a new level for Townsmen VR:
VOXELS
To decide on the basic shape of a level we do a quick voxel sketch. This is very helpful to define the coastline as well as the location of mountains, rivers and lakes.
We can also take a smoothed version of this island to do first gameplay tests, but as soon as we are happy with the voxel sketch, we start production of the full level.
TILES
The voxel island is then used as a template to place 3D tiles. We currently have over 100 different tiles and are constantly increasing this number.
This is actually the most time consuming part of level creation. In this highly sped up time-lapse you can also see the old island in the background for comparison.
TEXTURES, SCULPTING AND OBJECTS
- Textures: Having the textures on the small tiles fit with any tile combination would make the textures very small and repetitive. After building the base geometry the wall textures are automatically redistributed. Then the top and bottom stone edges are recalculated to fit the walls. Finally the grass border textures are redistributed randomly to not show the same variation over and over.
- Distort: The whole island can be distorted based on a 3d noise function to break up the underlying grid. The stone walls are also being modified so they are not just straight but slightly dented to produce overhangs.
- Splat Map: The grass surfaces are merged into one big texture. This “splat map” allows us to directly draw different textures (grass, mud, sand, stones) on the surface with nice transitions between the materials.
- Smooth normals: As tiles can be placed in many different combinations, there might be visible edges where they meet. This is due to the normals pointing into different directions. Most of these edges are unintended, so we smooth them.
- Sculpt: We have tools to modify the height of the ground to make it look more natural. This is especially being used on beach and river tiles as well as to smooth out slopes. The tools can also be used to move geometry in any direction or even move single vertices, making it easy to modify the geometry anywhere.
- Place objects: To decorate the island, we have brushes to draw grass and trees or place single objects like big rocks to further improve the mountains.
WATER
Rivers are filled with water by creating and modifying control points for the water flow mesh.
RESULT
This is the result we can achieve with the current state of our level creation tools. Please note that all the tile models, textures and decoration objects are still not final, but it should give you a good overview how the level creation process works right now.
We hope this has given you some insight into what we are currently working on. Unfortunately we still can't promise a release date for new content, but we are working hard to create the best medieval town simulation/strategy game for VR.