Unoffensible
Finishing up for the demo (V0.1.0)
So this is the last version of the playtest that I will be using to playtest before the demo goes back up. Previously the demo did not do well, because it was really in an alpha state, so the playtest version seemed to be a better alternative. But this version now covers a contained part of the game. It can be played from beginning to end.
There are still some things that will be improved from this version to make it feature complete :
- The balance of all the current units will be looked at again.
- Visualizing the range of weapons will be added.
- Accessibility might also be needed
- Maybe there will be 1 more level before the current first level, because it still seems to difficult to get into the game.
- Maybe there will be a 3rd person camera system to make the game more watchable for spectators.
The 1.0 release of the real game will feature more levels, more weapons, more events and a complete story line. But these things will not come to the Demo/Playtest version.
Version 0.0.54 - Voice lines and cutscenes - revert to Dx11
I've added cutscenes when entering a mission, failing a mission and accomplishing a mission. Currently it are mostly voice lines and only available on the first 2 missions. But the basis for adding some visual component per objective is already there.
The voice lines in the menu part of the game have also been redone in a more professional manner.
I've shortened the time of the first run of the game, so you can start playing faster. These voice lines are only run once, so following play sessions can be done faster.
Resetting the brain in the medical bay will result in the 'long' first run voice lines being repeated. But again this will only be the first run after resetting the brain.
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As a head up the steam strategy fest at 28 august will probably be the next version update. I hope to complete and polish the current features. So cut scenes on all levels, bug fixes ect.
For the steam fest there will also be a DEMO version, which will be the latest Playtest version. To increase the visibility of the game I will try to redo the steam store page, the screenshots, the trailer and maybe setup localized pages for different languages.
This also means the game itself won't progress much in the coming month. But looking at the Impressions/Clickthrough rate/Wishlist amount/Playtest players the current weakness is the marketing. So far no-one has said the game is bad :-D, but this is still mostly because no-one has said anything.
So please be the first to tell me why my game is bad :-), feedback would be great at this stage of development.
Dx12 + performance improvements - Version 0.0.53
"It works on my machine" (5700Xt + 3700X). So I hope it works on yours!!
Physics - Since its a single player game, I changed the physics to run with variable deltaTime. This way I can calculate a step every frame, resulting in more stable CPU use and frame time prediction. Will see how it goes.
Vfx - Major performance improvement to VFX. from 0.7ms to 0.2 ms on the main thread. Still not 100% complete, but good enough for now.
Better throwing V0.0.52
The throwing should now be improved on all devices. To feel more natural, and suffer less from wrong input values. Headsets like the Valve Index will still be the best experience, because there is more accurate tracking data available. But expecting to throw far and the block just landing in front of your feet should now be a thing of the past for all devices.
There is still some room for improvement in the data analysis side of this, but its already a big step up. Enjoy!
Edit: It seems the first level is a bit too dark, turn off the glowing block in the settings room. This will make all levels brighter (it disables a post processing effect that balances the colors, but also disables the bloom that is in the explosions).
Update version V0.0.51
- Updated the lighting system.
- Minimizing effect from unity's bad performance input system.
During testing a lot of 'typical upgrade issues' were found and resolved. Do let me know when you run into issues (just leave a message in the community hub).
Version 0.0.50 - SuperWapons and Quit level
- When you kneel down, look up and not touch any buttons in a level. You will be teleported high above the battlefield where you can press a button to quit the level and return to the cryopod.
To return from this height without quitting just move and you will be teleported back to the ground. I don't like how this works so it will probably change in the future... Having a high view over the battlefield is nice, so its a good place for all needed settings.
Gameplay improvements (Version 0.0.49)
- Made it easier for the player to win the first 2 levels.
- Re-added terrains around the level for a better visual horizon
- decreased the size of the hand interaction to prevent grabbing the wrong blocks.
In the 'Menu level' the RenderScale/FSR setting will now also be applied to the menu level, so you can see if it is still an acceptable amount of pixels. To prevent frame losses while turning this setting up/down the value is only changed when the value has not been altered for 1 second. You still get a few frame drops, but now only once per set value.
Smoothmotion and quadratic drag update V0.0.48
Teleport movement and snap turn have been disabled, but they will return as a setting before release. Let me know on the community hub if you miss them.
The towers now follow a more realistic quadratic drag formula when being thrown or falling. The main benefit is that extremely violent throws (sometimes caused by tracking issues) are now damped fast enough to not always overshoot the level.
The 'help-drone' will now hover over the closest location that has context help. Making it more obvious which things can be interacted with.
The second mission was way too hard, so you now get some more time and towers. The idea of the game is that you will be pushed to continuously do stuff, while also allowing time to look around to keep an overview of the battlefield. This mission is very much still on the 'Panic' side :-) but its mostly the secondary objective that gives issues.
Annoying pitch changes in audio while moving have been fixed.
Release of V0.0.47
The RTS part of the game is still using all the old UI, but this will be changed in future releases.
The release is fully functional, but there are still a lot of parts that I wish I could have improved. That will be done over time.
Please let me know what you think :-)
Everything is bigger and more destruction V0.0.46
Everything has been scaled up, including the player. So there is visually not much difference :-). This will help with properly sizing buildings, explosions ect. And different sized levels will now also be possible (currently every level is 1220 m x1220 m).
(Destruction for enemies and buildings is next on the list.)