Vecter
1.3.0.10
- Fixed the issue where if you opened the guid in the main menu using the keyboard (and not the mouse or controller) it wouldn’t let you close it. Unfortunately this has created a new problem where you have to press enter twice on the next action you want to do but it’s a less annoying problem.
1.3.0.9 - Minor Fixes
- The profile picture on track death markers was always on top of everything, this has been fixed
- The profile picture on track death markers would appear even when the UI was turned off. This is no longer the case
- The names on the track death markers would sometimes be bigger than the marker itself. The names have been restricted to 16 charecters.
Vecter 1.3 - The Forever Update
My commitment with Vecter always has been to create a small game, that would be capable of running on pretty much any PC, and offer it for FREE to anyone regardless of their gender, race, location, or wealth.
Over time however, various features within it have broken down due to, in no small part, my poor planning.
So I've gone ahead and given Vecter a bit of an overhaull. Some features have been removed, some new features have been added, but overall it's a more stable and smooth experience. For full details on what's happened I recommend watching this YouTube video I've so kindly put together for you all. Hope you like it!
And here's a full Log Change for the game:
Vecter 1.3.0.8
- Removed Multiplayer
- Removed Custom Backend
- Removed Shadows and Shadow Playback
- Removed Custom Names
- Removed Rebindable Controls
- Removed Achievements that no longer apply
- Removed YouTube videos
- Removed Discord integrations.
- Added Steam Leaderboards
- Displays User Steam Profile Pictures in game
- Uses steam nickname in-game and on leaderboards
- New Leaderboards display in-game
- Updated menu so that it's completely wordless
- Removed all other donation options appart from DLC Donation
- Removed the tutorials prompts
- Vecter will no longer force new players to play training mode before they can go into top dog mode
- Added back Linux Build
- Added Steam Deck support
- Added key binding help cards dependent on the controller you use, including steam deck
- Replaced DOS font with Aracade-style font
- Changed the score counter at the top to be a bit more modern
- Added a better, more reliable achivments tracking system
- New user guide in multiple languages (which I will keep adding information to over the comming weeks)
- Rechecked all achivements to make sure they still work
Pst! Hey!
I have completed the coding for the upcoming 1.3 update, which I have tested and believe to be fully stable. However, I still need to create all the new Steam page assets, descriptions, etc. before I can launch it, which will take another week or two.
As a reward for your support, you get the chance to play the new version early before everyone else. And if you post a score during the time when I'm creating the new Steam video, you might even get your name featured in the video!
Here's how you can play the new version:
- Go to your Steam Library and find Vecter in the list on the left. It should be in the "FAVOURITES" wink wink
- Right-click on Vecter and select "Properties."
- In the window that appears, click "BETAS" in the left-hand list, and then select "thesupersecretclub - Thanks for reading my ramblings on Steam ;)" from the dropdown on the left.
- Close the window.
- Steam will then perform a quick update to install the new version of Vecter. You are now ready to play!
Note: I'll let you explore the game. If you catch your ears in any of the buttons as they no longer have text on them, click this button on the main menu and it will open up a guide with explanations on what everything does. I'm working on increasing the number of languages in which this guide is available so bare with me.
Oh and I've not posted this info on any other social media. So it's only you guys that get to read it and find out.
Yes I'm working on an update
This is a small announcement for an upcoming update for Vecter. In recent times, the game has been neglected and some of its features have fallen by the way side. However, there are many exciting changes in store for the players.
The good news is that there will be some cool improvements like multi-language support, steam leaderboards, in-game profile pictures, better offline support, and improved controller support. These new features will enhance the overall gaming experience for players.
Unfortunately, some features like Multiplayer, Rebindable controls, Shadow Playback, and YouTube have had to be removed. Some of these features may make a comeback in the future, such as Rebindable controls and Shadow Playback which have a high chance of being re-added. However, others such as YouTube, will not be returning due to compatibility issues.
When the update is released, a full update of the steam page will be made with all the new features, as well as a new trailer to showcase the changes. This is an exciting time for Vecter fans and players can expect the update to be available in a few weeks' time.
Vecter going forward - Big announcement
Every single thing I tray to do to / in it is a pain, every change seems to break something else, it's time to let go, draw a line under it and start over.
Fact of the matter is I'm starting a new game, a sequel to Vecter, hopefully better in every way. I put a lot of effort into explaining myself, what happened to Vecter and what the next game is in the following video, so if you want to know the story, have a look:
Also, I would massively appreciate it if you go and subscribe. I'm trying to raise money for development and one of the ways to do so is to turn on monetization on the YouTube channel, but to do that I need 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours, So PLEASE HALP! Ideally I would like to quit my job and work on this full time, but that's not going to happen unless I can make as much money developing the game as I do talking about Inusrance all day.
And you can Wishlist the next Vecter here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2028270 so go! Away with you! Go click the Follow button. I will be posting my devlogs there going forward!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2028270
I think that's it for me! A small personal update as well: MY STEAM DECK IS COMMING! I'm so excited <3
Okay! Catch you next update on the new game page! PACE!
Vecter - Steam Deck Verified!
Have a Steam Deck? Nothing to play?
Nonsense... if you have a Steam Deck your steam library probably looks like a graveyard of untouched games. DON'T LIE I KNOW IT DOES!
However, should you want to scratch an itch so fast-paced it's quickly spreading through your body like that rash you keep putting off going to the doctor's for (Seriously, go get that checked!) whyyyy not give Vecter a try?
It's full of F's, it has the best F's, you've never seen F's this good:
- Fast
- Fun!
- FREE
- Foreveeeeeer
- Focaccia?
Everything's going up these days: cost of living, inflation, gas, power, heartrate whenever you see the news, corruption. But no matter how much these things go up by, 43132423% of 0 is still 0 so you too can race to your heart's content.
Common, you know you want to ;) Download a Vecter, disconnect and have a fun little race.
Promise I'll join you on the Steam Deck as soon as mine arrives, sometime between now and the heat death of the universe.
Taranasus's Vecter Alpha 1.3 + Unbound: Worlds Apart
It's been a while. I've been hard at work at upgrading Vecter to URP like I said. It's not by any means finished but I think it's in a good enough state to release an Alpha for it. Details on how to get the Alpha in this post bellow.
However, I'm also making this post because a game I've been really hype for the last few years is releasing NOW: Unbound: Worlds Apart (I do mean right now! It should be released at the time this article is live)
[previewyoutube="mi9DVkjSn4o;full"]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/814680/Unbound_Worlds_Apart/
DISCLAIMER: Alien Pixel Studios (APS) (the developers of Unbound: Worlds Apart) have not sponsored this post in any way, shape or form. APS and I are friends so my views may be a bit biased, but I genuinely believe Unbound is an excellent title that you should check out
Unbound's release is very important, and you may be wondering why: It's because of my friend Serj, one of the creators of Unbound, that Vecter even exists. Two months before I started work on Vecter I swore up down and sideways I would never do GameDev again, due to some bad experiences in the past.
But Sergiu's encouragement, as well as the passion he displayed for working on Unbound inspired me to try again. By that point he was already working on unbound for a year or two, so imagine that I built and released an armature game while these guys have continued working and perfecting Unbound, and it shows in the game itself.
I've played the Alpha, and the Beta, and the pre-Alphas and it's an excellent platformer which I've seen grown and perfect in front of my eyes. Amazing artwork, engaging puzzles and really satisfying and precise controls. Goes to show what 5 years of dev do for a project.
As for Vecter, the rebuild is coming along nicely and it works on low end hardware a LOT better than the version that's currently available to the general audience, however there's still loads to do.
What's been done so far:
- Swapped the render pipeline from Legacy to Universal Render Pipeline, that runs much better on phones and low end hardware
- Bloom (Glow) implemented back in, but still needs some tweaks
- Black and white death screen implemented back in but it is a little different. This is because I'm trying to save on resources
- Color picker has been completely re-written to be more efficient, and it seems to work well
- Dissolve animation (that makes the world appear in front of our eyes) has been re-written to be more efficient, but still needs a lot of work as it's quite buggy
What still needs to be added back in:
- CRT Screen effect (maybe, maybe I won't add it at all, dunno)
- Glow animation when ship with shields smacks into thing
- Glow animation when bullets hit object
- Bullets same color as ship
- Redo the city landscape as it's ugly and can do with a prettier one
So here are your options:
- If you want to try a new but potentially buggy Vecter with what I've been working on, all you need to do is switch to the Alpha branch in steam. Sadly there's no new content there yet as I'm working on giving it parity with the old Vecter, it should however run better on older hardware
- If I've however tempted you into trying out Unbound (you should, you really really should) then follow the link and I hope you enjoy as much as I do (P.S. They also have a Switch version, which is what I'm playing on since I like laying on the couch like a potato)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/814680/Unbound_Worlds_Apart/
I'm back...ish
I want to get back in the gamedev game, but right now I don't feel like talking much, so in very short here's what's happening:
- Retirement's over, I'm working on Vecter
- I'm not as chatty anymore, I'll be focusing more on coding and less on discord / social media
- I'm no longer taking input
Retirement's over, I'm working on Vecter
I actually missed coding on Vecter, so I'm getting back to that, hopefully to help me disconnect from the world that's crumbling around me.
Okay so what am I actually doing:
Technical explanation: Vecter is running on the Legacy Rendering Pipeline in Unity which, is old and has become very restrictive when I want to do anything. It's one of the main reason I threw my toys out of the pram. So I'm basically deleting the whole graphics side of Vecter, every custom trick I did to make it work on PC and will be rebuilding the whole thing in Unity's Universal Render Pipeline (URP) complete with it's own custom shaders and such. Some visual features will be lost because I either don't like them anymore or can't be bothered to implement them, some will be added (because I think they look cool/better, but there will be some visual changes. That's what I'm focusing on right now.
Okay, now in English:
I'm ripping out the graphics and re-building them from zero in the hopes of making it better / faster / work on more devices
I'm not as chatty anymore, I'll be focusing more on coding and less on discord / social media
What I did not miss was talking to everyone. It became overwhelming to the point where I couldn't handle it anymore, and that's a real shame. Talking to EVERYONE made me discover some amazing friendships, friendships that lasted to this day (You know who you are) but it also created a massive tsunami of people wanting my attention. Not gonna lie, my overinflated ego enjoyed it for a while but it became incredibly overwhelming trying to keep up. It's not anyone in particular's fault, it's just gets tiring being on discord day in and out trying to keep up with the conversation.
So I'm not going to... sorry I guess. Might post more on twitter tho'? Or not... I dunno
I'm no longer taking input
I'm also going to be taking suggestions and ideas less. I'm most definitely not going to reply to them, and will probably not give any hints or roadmaps. For a long time Vecter no longer felt like Taranasus's Vecter, it felt more like "add all the features" Vecter, to me anyway, and that ain't cool. I was trying too hard to make something that other people liked but not necessarily that I liked. That's gonna change now and I hope you like what I make because if you don't, well it's a free game.
v 1.2.0.13 - Bug fixes
- The "Who made dis?" achievement has been hooked up to the credits button so you get the achievement when looking at "ze credits"
- Fixed the "Keep Vecter Free" achievement