Wow ! This is a incredibly exciting day for Unknightly !!

New Major Features

Two Completely New Village Levels

have been added providing a unique atmosphere and variety in level design, visuals, space layouts and they just straight out look fantastic!

Story and Objectives

now accompany every level in the game providing context and depth to game-play.

Remastered Versions of Dungeon Levels

expand them making them non-linear, changing guard layout and patrols, adding lighting and effects making them feel more vibrant and up to date.

New "Player Hub" Area

with it's own new "Mission Selection" experience.

Reworked Tutorial Experience

based on one of the new "Village" levels.

Realistic Audio Occlusion

based on Oculus' "Spatial Audio" system providing huge value to both game-play and immersion.

New Minor Features

• More Control Over Graphics with options including sharpness, shadows and multi-sampling.
  
  
• Custom Background Music per level replaced that single monotonous track.
  

Noteworthy Improvements and Fixes

• Noticeable Improvement in Graphical Fidelity and Overall Performance providing sharper image quality and a smoother gameplay experience.
  
  
• First Class Support for Index Controllers which were previously using defaults based off of the Vive wands, now has proper usage of the Index's grip and other controls.
  
  
• Official Support for Multiple VR Controllers for which the game has customized and been play-tested. The list includes: Valve Index, Oculus Rift (S), Oculus Quest, Vive Wands, and Windows MR !
  
  
• Other valuable improvements including dramatically reduced loading times, arrows attaching to wood surfaces, various major and minor bug fixes and much much more.
  

(!) NOTE: This update boasts significant changes to the entire structure of the game and as such all player progress will be lost.

Content and Features Planned for the Near Future

• Stealth Score System which rates players at the end of each mission based on stealth gameplay performance.
  
  
• Dynamically Background Music to match the changing atmosphere as player travels between different zones within the same level.
  
  
• Remastered version of "Dungeons: Chapter III" which is not included in this update.
  
  
• New "Village: Chapter III" level in which the final part of the story plays out.
  
  
• Updating and Expanding Steam Achievements Integration (currently not functional).
  
  
• Non-lethal Take-outs to dispose of guards.
  

A Few Closing Words

Want to Participate in the "Closed Alpha" Phase?

How's the "Closed Alpha" Phase Going to Work?

What's New in Current Alpha Version?

• Two completely new Village levels !!
  Note this version will not contain any of the pre-existing "Dungeon" levels as these are currently being re-worked.
  
• Realistic Audio Occlusion (!!) based on Oculus' "Spatial Audio" system providing a huge value to both game-play and immersion.
  
• Story and objective system which provide context and meaning to game-play.
  
• Graphical improvements including a massive performance improvements, sharper image quality, new available graphics settings and more.
  
• New "Player Hub" area with it's own new "Mission Selection" experience.
  
• Reworked tutorial experience based on one of the new "Village" levels.
  
• Other valuable improvements including dramatically reduced loading times, arrows attaching to wood surfaces, various bug fixes and much more.
  

What's Planned for Coming Alpha Updates?

Major Features

• Guards to Interact with Doors

  
  
  
  
  • Guards currently bump into doors causing them to slam open.
    This didn't look great but since existing Dungeon levels have very few doors it simply wasn't worth the huge development cost of implementing a proper AI interactions system.
    
  • The Village level has buildings filled with multiple rooms and thus the level has many doors.
    A new system needed to be put in place to handle AI door open / close interactions.
    
  • Thanks to this guard door interactions look a lot better but more importantly if you do not observe your surroundings carefully you might get caught off guard by a guard walking into the room!
    
  • PS: Existing Dungeon levels have been updated to use with with the new door interactions as well. :)
    
  
  
  

• Left Handed Support

  
  
  
  
  • Many left handed players have had an awkward time using controls since they were originally built with right-handed players in mind.
    
  • Moving locomotion control to opposite hands.
    
  • Adapting equipment location (bow, dagger, arrows etc.)
    
  • Fully integrated with tutorial and in-game menu book.
    
  
  
  

• Support for HMD Oriented Movement

  
  
  
  
  • Support for this movement mode has been discussed with players multiple times.
    
  • After giving it some thought and play-testing it we feel it's a viable option for players who have grown accustomed to HMD oriented movement from other games.
    
  
  
  

• Official Windows MR Support

  
  
  
  
  • Unknightly now officially supports all Windows MR headsets.
    
  • The game has been fully play-tested with the Acer's version of the WMR platform.
    
  • WMR has been fully integrated into the tutorial and in-game menu book.
    
  
  

Minor Features:

• Changed Noise Generated from Walking
  
  
  
  • Walking noise is no longer affected by if player is crouching or not. Only movement speed matters.
    
  • Reduced noise generated from walking.
    
  
  As a result of these changes players will no longer be required to physically crouch in order to move around silently but rather only crouch to hide between objects to avoid being detected.
  
  
• Redesigned Light & Noise Indicators
  The previous indicators felt like (and in fact were) placeholders which looked very crude and overly bright. We've replaced those with a much cleaner and elegant design. Check it out in-game.
  
  
• Simplified In-Game Menu Interactions
  We received multiple complaints about players having a hard time turning pages or figuring out they had to pick up the quill-pen to interact with the in-game menu.
  We still insist we do not want any menus inside Unknightly and so we tried to simplify some existing interactions like having to drag a page to turn it (a page will now automatically turn when you grab it) etc.
  
  
• Improvements to Bow Handling
  We've received multiple complaints on the use of the bow & arrow being uncomfortable so we've gone back any re-played a few classic games who are hailed for having great bow & arrow systems.
  One of these games was Valve's "The Lab" to see what learning we could bring into Unknightly.
  We quickly came to the conclusion that the reason people grow to like the bow and arrow mechanics in these games is primarily because after firing a good number of arrows our mind picks up the game's physics and calculates the offset required to hit a target.
  With Unknightly you only fire a very small number of arrows and thus the learning curve is very slow.
  In fact, after firing many arrows in Unknightly we found out the system is more precise than many of the other games out there.
  Yet we were able to include multiple changes improve the bow handling experience. Hopefully you grow to like it :)
  
  
• Minor UI design improvements
  
  
  
  • Tutorial Tips Dark Mode Text:
    Dark mode text fits in much better with the atmosphere of the game and is easier on the eyes.
    
  • In-Game Menu sliders and button colors re-arranged on some pages to be more compact.
    
  • Button Hold-to-Press times changed for Save Game, Load Last Save and Pause Game.
    
  
  
  
• Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
  Fixed or worker around multiple bugs including crashes caused by "ObserVR" plugin, players spawning off limits, etc.
  

Background Work:

• Village Chapter level as presented in the teaser trailer.
  
• Full left-handed players support.
  
• Official Windows Mixed Reality support.
  
• (Possibly add a special movement-mode for motion sickness sensitive players).
  

• Further supporting Unknightly with incremental updates.
  
• Porting Unknightly to addition VR platforms.
  
• Opening Unknightly for modding by the community.
  

Feature Requests:

• Added Press-to-Crouch Option aimed at people who have difficulty with physically crouching. This option is disabled by default and can be enabled through the in-game menu.
  
  
• Press to Snap Turn is now supported as an alternative to swiping.
  

Bug Fixes:

• Game Intro Screen Sometimes Stutters - We have located and treated the source causing the outrageous performance issue.
  
  
• Switch to Newer Version of Plugin to Avoid Crashes - A few players were reporting frequent crashes caused by one of the plugins we are using. Updating the plugin to the newer version seems to have solved the issue.
  
  
• AI Keeps Staring at Player After Light Sensor Value Returns to 0.
  
  
• Guards Not Casting Shadow - This was a bug since we did intend guards to be casting shadows from nearby light sources.
  

Quality of Life Improvements

• Improve Bow Handling & Aiming so controllers do not slam into HMD. Also improved the bow's alignment / aim .
  
  
• Disable Grabbing of Bow & Arrows While in Air since it was interfering too much while climbing & falling.
  
  
• Snap Player to Last Location and Rotation on Unpause and Ignore Noise caused by movement when returning from pause.
  
  
• Improved Bow Haptic Feedback and Sounds to only play when string is moved + play haptic on both hands
  
  
• Remove Snap-Turn "Swoosh" Sound which was getting annoying.
  
  
• Change Color of a few Menu Buttons such as "Quit Game" and a few others to have a brighter color since they looked as if they were disabled.
  

Game-play Changes:

• Re-Tune Hero Movement Speeds - Hero movement speed has been reduced slightly to better fit the pace of game-play we are aiming for.
  
  
• Reduce Hero Noise when Falling Short Distances so when crouching you can safely step off a box, barrel or table and not have to worry about alerting guards. Do not try jumping off while standing though, that will most likely get you in trouble :)
  
  
• Limit "Bunny Hopping" which some players used to blaze through maps, which of course is undesired.
  

Misc:

• Cap In-Game Super Sampling to x1.5 - With all the dynamic lights and shadows in game we cannot recommend SS of x2 as the game has a few scenes where even high-range graphics cards would see a performance hit. Players who do wish to cross the x1.5 recommended max can still do so using SteamVR settings.
  
  
• Removed Chinese Localization - After localizing the game to Chinese and promoting it in China for a few months we come to the unfortunate conclusion that the sales we were achieving in the Chinese did not make it sensible to continue supporting Chinese localization in terms of translating and development costs.
  

Major Features :

• Bow & Arrow

  
  We've always been very inspired by the old "Thief" games.
  Ever since we launched this game we've wanted to add a bow and arrow as a main utility for the player to manipulate the world - and now we've finally done it !
  With this update we've made available to the player 3 different arrow types:
  
  
  
  • Lethal Arrow - Assassinate guards from a range.
    These arrows will not penetrate heavy armor and so as with the dagger player will be required to aim for a guard's head or neck.
    
  • Noise Arrow - On impact creates a noise for several seconds distracting guards and luring them towards it.
    
  • Water Arrow - An arrow that will allow the player to change the lighting conditions in the environment.
    
  
  
  

• Ability to Manipulate All Lights and Snuff out Candles !

  
  Numerous times have people been asking for the ability to snuff out candles.
  We've replied that the challenge with achieving this goal is performance related.
  Without diving too deep into the technicalities of the matter we've made use of multiple optimizations techniques and are now able to support multiple "dynamic" lights in a scene (meaning they can be turned on / off).
  As a result we've made all lights in the game either completely or partially extinguishable depending on the type of light (candles can be completely snuffed out while braziers can be dimmed for a period of time).
  
  

• Manual Save & Load System

  
  Allow the player to save and load the game at any time they wish from their Journal (in game menu).
  The player now has 3 slots which they can save to or load from at any time they require.
  This means you can now save just before you attempt something bold and restart at that very last location if things do not work out as you planned.
  No more checkpoints !
  
  

• Loot !

  
  Loot has been requested since the early days and is finally starting to make its way into the game.
  With this update we've introduced loot as part of every level as well as hints (in the form of notes) lying around hinting at the location of that loot.
  Players who manage to collect all loot in a level will be awarded with a special achievement for their success.
  In future updates we will be taking a look at expanding what a player can do with the loot they collect (ideas suggested include : trophy wall, sell for gold etc.)
  

Minor Features :

• Performance Optimization !
  This update has pushed us to invest a lot of time and effort into optimizing the game's performance in order to support all the features we were striving to add.
  This resulted in the game's overall performance improving quite significantly leading to a much smoother and more pleasant game-play experience.
  
  
• Tutorial Way Point Markers
  Added a way point marker on screen to assist the new players with figuring out their next destination.
  
  
• Official Support for Chinese (Simplified)
  We've translated every piece of text available in the game to Chinese (Simplified) using the help of a professional translator.
  
  
• Guards Now Wear a Variety of Helmets !
  Every guard in game can now be assassinated, should the player wish to do so.
  Every Helmet has its own weak spot.
  
  
• Journal (In Game Menu) Interaction
  Hide hands when interacting with the journal (so they do not obscure the text)
  

Hope you all like this update - we're really excited for your thoughts and feedback !

Major Features :

• In Game Menu !

  
  We're finally introducing a proper menu system into the game - and dare I say we're quite proud of it.
  From day one we knew we did not want the standard menu screens and laser pointers you can find in so many VR games.
  We generally try to put a lot of though and effort behind designing game elements which will blend naturally into the game play experience and keep our players immersed and engaged at all times.
  So our answer to this problem was to let the players carry a small journal that attaches to their belt.
  The player can then pickup this journal, open it, use their free hand to turn pages and use the attached quill pen to change their settings.
  You need to experience it to see what it's all about - we feel it's pretty awesome, hopefully you guys do so as well :)
  Also inside the menu inside the menu we've included some new features.
  Here's some of the more significant ones:
  
  
  
  • Rotation Settings
    Snap & Smooth turn, both with their respective sensitivity settings.
    
  • Level Management
    Restart from Checkpoint, Reset Level, Exit to Main Menu and alike.
    
  • Graphics & Audio Settings
    Super sampling, brightness, background music & ambient sounds volume are now all configurable though the menu - so feel free to can customize them to your liking.
    
  • More...
    
  .
  

• Difficulty Settings !

  
  The game now supports two difficulty settings: Normal & Hard !
  Hard is what was available so far, while Normal is a new and more "casual" difficulty setting meant to be played by the average VR player.
  Make no mistake - Normal is not going to be a walk in the park at all and most players will definitely find it quite challenging and fun.
  We put in a lot of though and effort into making the Normal difficulty strike a good balance of being both challenging and casual at the same time.
  This was done mostly by making the AI more forgiving to minor mistakes made by the player - but go too far and you' probably won't get away with it.
  It's worth pointing out that we did not go down the easy route with a simple x0.5 factor or anything like that but instead we choose to more manually craft and intervene where we felt was appropriate.
  PS: Normal is the default setting, so experience players should remember to turn it up to Hard if they feel like they want the classic hard core experience.
  
  

• Dramatically improved 3D Audio Precision! *

  
  Sound is a critical component of any game.
  This is especially through for a VR stealth game where proper sound spatialization and directivity supply the player with a lot of information just from hearing, on top of the huge benefit in terms of immersion.
  It's for these reasons we've decided to invested significant effort in taking a major step forward in terms of the game's audio quality.
  Anyone launching the game will undoubtedly notice a significant and very welcome improvement from previous versions.
  Having said that, there's so much more benefit left to extract from the audio technology we've implemented - we've only just scratched the surface and will continue to iterate on this front in upcoming updates.
  Here's a link to the technology behind what we've been using to implement realistic 3D audio into the game: https://developers.google.com/resonance-audio/
  

Minor Features

• Player's Movement Speed Now Affects Visibility
  Previously the player's movement speed was not accounted for while calculating his visibility (yellow indicator).
  Now that visibility accounts for this factor, a player's movement speed can both work with or against him!
  By standing still or moving very slowly the player is reducing how visible he is to guards, so if he happen to find yourself in a pickle with no dark corners to hide in, he should try to crouch and remain as still a you can to hopefully escape detection.
  Remember it also works the other way around - sprinting though a dimly lit area is now very likely to get you detected.
  
• AI Suspicion from Touch Builds Up Instead of Instant Detection
  Anyone who got instantly detected by a guard while trying to pick-pocket their keys knows what I'm talking about :)
  Thankfully this now no longer happens
  As the player you have much more slack when bumping into guards or picking their pockets.
  When you frisk a guard he slowly builds up suspicion. Though if you are not quick and careful enough you will still get detected.
  
  
• Significantly Increased Stamina
  Stamina was added as a resource a while ago and we're received a lot of request to increase the amount of stamina the player had to work with.
  That's exactly what we did by giving the player more than double that of the existing stamina amount.
  
  
• Item Noise Predictability
  Picking up and throwing items to distract guards is an important mechanic in game.
  Unfortunately item noise sometimes behaved quite unpredictably.
  We've finally managed to fix it so that items are now much more functional and pleasant to use.
  
  
• Save Player's Last Checkpoint On Game Restart
  Previously restarting the game or level would wipe the player's checkpoint data forcing them to start that level all over again.
  We now save the player's last checkpoint so that once you restart the game and reenter that last level you are respawned on that last checkpoint.
  Going forward it is our intention to replace the checkpoint system with a manual save / load system that would allow player's to freely save and reload multiple saved games at any time.
  
  
• ~100 New Guard Voice Lines
  Evolving guard dialog is always on our radar and has great implications in game.
  We've added close to a hundred new guard voice lines which help communicate to the player what the AI's currently thinking.
  We've also included voice lines where one AI reacts to what another AI has said which creates some very entertaining and sometimes funny moments.
  
  
• Bug Fixes
  Many bug fixes have gone into this patch especially related to the tutorial.
  Special thanks to our beloved community member Jaknet for having brought many of these to our attention.
  Just to name a quick few:
  - Fixed: Tutorial instruction text would sometimes get inverted on one of the controllers.
  - Fixed: Player always start the Tutorial level facing the cell's wall.
  - Fixed: Player could not complete tutorial if he skipped tasks even if he managed to reach the end of the tutorial level.
  - Fixed: Issues with the guards "Look At" functionality which is a significant queue to the player that he's being watched by the AI.
  - More...