Under a Desert Sun
Scope reduction Under a Desert Sun
Since 2017 I've been working on this project with the hope of building a cool VR game with cool mechanics, a horde mode, flightmode and including a singleplayer experience.
It's been a long journey and one where I've learned a lot! As most of you have noticed I've had a hard time polishing and finishing the first singleplayer chapter. This is due to the fact that making VR game is quite complex.
With the limiting time I have working on this and the encreasing complexity coming with every bit of the singleplayer I've decided to scrap the singleplayer.
In coming updates I will most likely remove the singleplayer maps and will remove any promises of this coming from the steampage.
This also means that once that update is done I will tone down development of Under a Desert Sun VR. For everyone allong for the ride thank you! All the feedback has been greatly appreciated!
I'd like the next project to be something lighter and more likely to finish without reducing scope.
Lastly a small poll/question. Do you want me to remove or leave the existing sp levels?
Kind regards everyone,
Raymond
Startup and cleanup
For example loading screens use nice artwork now:
Also added an important painting of our best friend:
More soon! Build will be live in the next few hours.
Kind regards,
Ray
Under a Desert Sun: it's time for Bullettime!!
I just Pushed bullettime to the main branch.
You can try it in horde mode by grabbing the orb from your wrist and throwing it so it breaks or by shooting it!
Bullettime trailer!
Kind regards,
Raymond
Under a Desert Sun: Upcoming update - Bullettime!!
See the movie for some info!
Bullettime trailer!
Kind regards,
Raymond
Under a Desert Sun Beta 2.0: Sandbox update!
This update is huge! Next to a whole bunch of new enemies the biggest change is the addition of being able to swap enemies in Hordemode maps.
From now on you can swap enemies in maps!
This means that you can now change up which enemies you fight during horde mode. A much requested feature. Want to fight mummies and soldiers? Go ahead! Want to only fight bugs? Why not!?
To change things up is pretty simple, just change the enemy toys on the level picker and they'll be featured in the map you load.
New enemies and sound improvements
BigBoy!
Wasp and Weaver!
Spidermummy!
In addition I also added more ambient sound and sounds to
enemies to make them feel a bit more real.
Kind regards,
Ray
Under a Desert Sun: Upcoming update news
Wanted to update and hopefully get feedback on some stuff. So first two gifs are new enemies that I will try and add soon to the game. The first one is a BigBoy mummy that pukes and explodes on death (Not very original but very fun to have in a VR game). THe second is a spidermummy that spits projectiles and does massive damage up close. You can't see it very well but these dude is huge!
I also want to make the hordemode more dynamic so I am working on a system where you can change up the enemies in a map using metal toy versions of the enemies. So if you'd like to just fight flying bugs in a map, just put em in using the metal toys on the map platform changing the spawns immediatly etc.
Hoping people will like this. Once this is done btw I will continue work on map 3 of the singleplayer.
Kind regards,
Raymond
Under a Desert Sun: 1.53 Beta, New enemies, and improvments
So the new enemies are ready for everyone to try. You can find them in the two most new horde mode maps.
I wanted to add a bit more variety when fighting the undead in hordemode. Therefore I'm working on 2 new types of enemies that both are projectile based. In other words, they shoot jucky stuff at you from afar;)
I've also made the blimb in the airplane maps a bit more active. They now shoot at you!
Lastly I made a whole slew of improvements on the bullet stuff and soldiers so you'll probably find that behaving a bit better too!
I plan to add these pretty soon so keep an eye out for the next update.
Kind regards,
Raymond
Under a Desert Sun 1.51: New enemies incoming
Just wanted to update you on some stuff I am working on:
I wanted to add a bit more variety when fighting the undead in hordemode. Therefore I'm working on 2 new types of enemies that both are projectile based. In other words, they shoot jucky stuff at you from afar;)
I plan to add these pretty soon so keep an eye out for the next update.
Kind regards,
Raymond
Under a Desert Sun Beta 1.5
So the moment has come that I feel that the beta for the single player campaign can finally be played by everyone. In this release the first two short chapters can be played titled Search and Escape. You reach the second chapter by finishing the first and the level cube for the first map can be found in the main lobby. Keep in mind these chapters are still in beta and feedback and bug-reports are greatly appreciated.
Further big stuff
A new hordemap (Ethereal)
I've added a new horde map. This one contains fast moving enemies in a weird otherworldly place.
Horde mode now has gun buying, a roguelike feature
Yup, you can no longer use all guns. You need to spend hard earned points to buy them. Choose wisely as the points are deducted from your highscore. Are you going to buy that handcannon? Or keep shooting with what you have?
Small improvements
Most guns now have a brightend-up reticle to more be able to aim more easily
Muzzleflashes have a distinct bullet trajectory and detach from the gun (looks way more natural then
before)
The leaderboards have been reintroduced an can be seen in the main lobby
Performance
I've chosen to go to an almost completely baked lighting system. This has a tremendous effect in some maps on performance in the positive sense. If you've played the game before I'd love to hear if your performance has increased.
Hope to hear what you all think so join the discord or leave a comment!
Kind regards,
Ray
Under a Desert Sun Beta 0.75
Hi everyone,
Like before I've not been able to work on the SP map so no updates on that for now. Instead I've opted to add more functionality and other small bits in this update with the biggest addition being several new enemies and enemy types.
New monsters & Boss fights
I've added several new monsters to all wavemaps. Some will randomly spawn and others will visit you on the third round as boss fights. The bosses are obviously quite hard to kill. Let me know what you think in the comments!
New starting area
I've created the final starting area. Previously I used maps I worked on as temporary starting areas. This starting area is the final an true starting area of the game. And yes, it's an airship with your own personal plane and dog. Epic? Yes.
New rifle - M1 Carbine
The M1 Carbine was a weapon I just did not want to miss in Under a Desert Sun. I've added it to the game. Let me know how you think it handles and if it still needs tweaking.
Small changes
I've also changed some small things
Spring clips
Many guns now have spring clips so the ammo releases better and does not reslot accidentally. It also looks kinda cool.
Lvl cubes
Lvl cubes in the lobby no longer get lost. They always return to the spot you found them if you drop them.
More room in some maps
I found that the desert maps especially had non logical boundries. I've made sure that there is a bit more room to move and that the desert dunes have become the logical cutoff.
Default grabbing method = grab
As some of you know, this game started out as a game just for the vive loooong ago. So toggle grabbing was the default method. I've noticed that this is annoying for most users these days. There always was an option for just grabbing when you hold the grab button. I've set this to default for new players. The option for toggle grabbing still remains in the options menu!
Some small things I am still working on:
- The armor of most enemies can be shot off. However there's still some tweaking to be done here.
- I want to make the flamethrower boss his gastanks to be explodable in a way that shooting the top of the gastank makes them go BOOMMMMMM!
- I feel the big hulk monster still needs something extra, if you have any ideas, let me know in the comments!
Known bugs
I've noticed that the sand fading of enemies sometimes triggers in the newest desert map. Looking into this and how to fix. Will fix it with a small patch and mention it in the comments.
Hope you like it!
Kind regards,
Raymond