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[next2indies]

Special note: Due to some technical problems activating Delirium Studio’s account we are opening this thread with the Next2Indies account. We are the PR guys of Delirium Studios


Hello,

First of all, we are Delirium Studios an indie game developer from Bilbao (Spain). We’ve been working hard for 8 years now and you may know us for “The Rivers of Alice”, which created a world inspired by the music and lyrics of Vetusta Morla, or the recent “The Delusions of Von Sottendorff and His Square Mind”

As an indie developer you’re forced to be out of your comfort zone continuously. For our last game we developed for the first time for the 3DS. And now we’re jumping to the amazing world of VR with our new project named “Unforgiven VR”.

The basic idea is simple, you look for a duel and both contendants will shoot each other. We think the VIVE controllers are great for this purpose, with the trigger and shape the immersion was great in our first tests.

We are working with Unity3D 5 to develop the game and it was very straightforward to start with the VIVE integration. We’ve been able to be able to look around in VR and start working with the controllers in two days. From there we had a simple prototype with the duel mechanic in one month.

For now we are working with Unity Networking and it’s working. We’ve heard from other developers that the library was not stable enough to use it in production, but for the moment we had had no problems, have you?

The duels
The phases of a duel are:

• Preparation: Both contendants are face to face, when they line up their hands to the hip, the countdown will start
• Countdown: That moment of tension, waiting for the signal. Trying to start before the countdown will punish you
• Draw: You need to draw your weapons by using the grip buttons of the VIVE
• Aim and shoot: Use your aim and the trigger to shoot at your opponent

The duels are fast, around 10 seconds, and they will end with various possibilities:

• One contendant is hit
• One contendant is dead
• Both ran out of bullets

As you may notice, both first and second one implies to be hit. We wanted to define vital parts that will kill your character if hit. Now the difference is related to the match duration. After some tests we realized that they can’t be settle up only with a shooting. This will cause the player to spend more time in the matchmaking process than in the game itself. That’s why we decided to resolve a match in the best of 3 or 5 duels, but if you’re good enough you can settle it up with a single shoot in the heart or the between the eyes.

We are playing around with other possibilities to end a match. For example, you could surrender by kneeling and raising your hands.

Most wanted
Apart from the fun of dueling your friends the idea of the game is to start with a ranking based on your duels won/lost/drawn. We plan to add some kind of rewards related to how high are you in the most wanted list, maybe some kind of cosmetic item that will inspire fear in your opponents.

Related to this, you ingame name will be generated dynamically depending on your performance and habits. Hey John, do you always shoot at your opponents nuts? You’ll be named Dirty John. Do you kill your opponents even when they surrender? Oh damn, I’m with Merciless John. In the West your name is all you have, fight for it.

Characters
You will be able to choose between a collection of characters that fits the typical roles we found in the Western genre, from the topical Cowboy or mexican to the gold diggers or the army.

These characters are an aesthetic option, in fact their size will be similar to be able to share the same (or very similar) hitboxes. You will have different weapons for each one, but at gameplay level all are the same.

We are now working to change the dummies to the first character. We finished the modeling phase and new we will need to texture this guy.

We hope you like Unforgiven and we are looking for feedback, Do you imagine any special character or role to be in the game? Which weapons do you want to see?

[davebertaud]

Looks pretty cool.

Have you considered adding weapons other than revolvers? It might be an interesting to see someone pull out a rocket launcher in a revolver duel. It would be totally ridiculous but it would be something different. Then you can create some interesting balancing.

It may not lie strictly within the realm of a spaghetti western theme, but seeing something like that might make your game so ridiculous that it would be eye-catching.

Anyway, I really like the art style and I can't wait to see what you will do with this. Good luck, fellow developer!

[jandu]

Awesome idea!

I need to test this on my oculus rift device.

[Ludipe]

Glad to see you guys around this forum! Looks like a neat concept, now I need to find somebdoy willing to lend me a Vive so I can try it out.

[next2indies]

Looks pretty cool.

Have you considered adding weapons other than revolvers? It might be an interesting to see someone pull out a rocket launcher in a revolver duel. It would be totally ridiculous but it would be something different. Then you can create some interesting balancing.

It may not lie strictly within the realm of a spaghetti western theme, but seeing something like that might make your game so ridiculous that it would be eye-catching.

Anyway, I really like the art style and I can't wait to see what you will do with this. Good luck, fellow developer!

Thanks for the reply, different weapons are in Delirium's mind, but we need to go step by step and it will depend on how the development goes. But I can assure you rocket launchers will not be there

[next2indies]

Awesome idea!

I need to test this on my oculus rift device.

Hi Jandu! :D

The game is meant to be played with HTC Vive at the moment because it need the motion controllers. It will be playable with Oculus with the Touch controllers but we have not already tested them.

Glad to see you guys around this forum! Looks like a neat concept, now I need to find somebdoy willing to lend me a Vive so I can try it out.

Hello Ludipe, I'm sure you will be able to play the game soon, we will try to let the people play it as soon as we can

[next2indies]

Hey guys,

Long time we do not post. But we've been working on graphical assets to start testing with more than the dummies. Wanna meet the current version of the cowboy? He changed a little bit.



We also started working in the next character, the Mexican, he is mainly finished and we are going to texture it next.




Alongside the characters the environment for the VR menu has been changing to a better looking one, with more and new assets to start giving a "life" to the town:



Opinions? Ideas?

[next2indies]

Just a quick update. We have a full textured Mexican on board! :D



How does it looks?

[next2indies]

Hey guys,

Last week we published an article in Gamasutra. In case you missed it, here's the link: www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ArturoMonedero/20161024/283992/Creating_multiplayer_presence_in_VR.php

In the article we talk about Presence in VR and specially the problem with a multiplayer game where you'll be able to see the other player.

What happens if you are or encounter a 4 feet person and the character is 6 feet tall?

[Mittens]

It's funny to see this so soon after my company were saying how this would be a great idea for a Vive game. Sucks getting beat to an idea but it looks like you've done it justice.

[next2indies]

Finally, after some time of coding and tuning Unforgiven VR, yesterday we launched our Early Access. We divided our development in different stages grouping features. To be playable some of the early stages will have temporary systems that will be replaced with the final ones when all the pieces are there. Next you can find an approximation of what will include every stage:

Stage 1: Any Gun Can Play
You will be able to select one of the 4 characters and challenge other online people or the AI to duel on 1 scenario and score for a leaderboard based on your win/loss ratio. Do you need to improve your aim? No problem, you can go to the training area to practise.

Stage 2: The Saloon opens its doors
Tired of shooting your friends? Take a break in the saloon, play poker with other people or join a knife throwing game while you wait for someone to duel you. The training area will be enhanced with challenges like “shoot three times in the air that can”. What you want more shooting? No problem, there will be new characters and scenarios to play with.

Stage 3: Become a legend of the wild west
Forget about the old leaderboard. Now you will have to create a character and start your journey to become a true legend. Duel someone for a fistfull of dollars, but be careful, now you can get hurt or even die, and it will mean to lose your character and creating a new one. Ah, and remember, now your ammo will deplete, go to the general store and buy some more. As usual, new characters, weapons and scenarios will come with a enhanced saloon with more places to interact with.

Stage 4: The Town becomes a city
Dress like a sir, die like the rest, more aesthetic and gameplay complements, you know, a good flask in the pocket could stop a bullet. But be cautious, being hurt in a duel will make easier to be killed in the next, take a break to restore your health or… visit the barber and it will fix you up in a minute… for a price. Not the only new pal in the city, new characters will come and a new NPC, the undertaker, that will immortalize you in the Valley of Crosses. Last but not least, sometimes we will be able to find special cards that will come with item drops.

Extra Stage: Magnificent 7
Group with your friends for the ultimate dueling experience. Will you try to rob the bank? Be careful, maybe there are other parties that will try to stop you.

We are very exited, it's our first multiplayer game. It's our first VR game. It's our first Early Access game. Too many variables that drives us Delirant :V, and at the same time, it's motivating to be able to shape the game alongside the community.

As you may remember we are an studio from Bilbao (Spain), and thus, our timezone hardens the interaction with countries like USA (maybe our main target). We were doing turns alongside the people from Talking About Media (our publisher) to be online as much time as possible. We wanted to be sure all was running well, we also wanted to play with the new players, and we needed to be monitoring the community hub to answer the question from the players.

It was exhausting, Theck for example was sleeping during the afternoon to replace Arturo at night. In fact, Arturo spent the day until the launch in the mountains, an habit from the very first game release of Delirium Studios. He powers off his mobile phone and tries to disconnect from what will happen.

Another anecdote from the day was how Theck was playing. The game is currently compatible with the HTC Vive only. That's because we hadn't the Oculus Rift + Touch in the office. Two days ago arrived to Talking About Media, and next week it will be here and we will start trying it. Meanwhile Theck installed it to be sure the Rift works and he tried to execute the game.

Well, technically the game is working, you can do everything but... It seems we need to tune some options of the VR Toolkit because the "click" event of the trigger is launched after pressing it aproximatelly for 1 second. As you can imagine, Theck lost all the duels he played, as he was giving a full second to his adversary to aim and shoot.

This weekend we will be western cosplayed at Mungia in a carnival party where the people will be able to play in an special mode suited for events and maybe arcade rooms, because Unforgiven VR is a great game for this kind of installations.

Well, this devlog ends now, we need to rest, but some work is needed to be done first. Good weekend TIG Source.

[next2indies]

Bugfixing week #1

As expected, our first week after the release of the game on Early Access reported some bugs and nasty behaviors. We want to thank you all that reported those, we can’t test the game in all the configurations possible, but your indications helped us to find some of them.

Another topic that you commented is about having problems drawing your guns. We are aware of this feature and it’s not a bug, it’s part of the difficulty curve to give to that moment that kind of importance. The more you play the easier will be for you to draw. But we are also aware that the position and size of the waist makes harder to get the exact position. That’s why we made the area where the game will let you draw the pistol bigger.

We want to add content to the game whenever is possible. This week the efforts of the team were centered into bug fixing, but also we added a little new detail, now you can make your opponents hat fly if your aim is good enough.

Full changelog:

• Fix: Enhanced moving through the limbo to reduce dizziness
  
• Fix: Drawing zone enlarged
  
• Bug: Pistol position on the bots fixed
  
• Feature: Now you can shoot the opponents hat to make it fly
  

[next2indies]

Two weeks from release, really? It was like hours for us. Last week we fixed some broken parts and tried to ease the drawing of the gun. This week you deserve content, and content we deliver.

I want to introduce you two new inhabitants of the Unforgiven VR world that just arrived to the city, Mr. Harry “Sir” Cook and Tatanka Witko.

These new pals will be available when you create your avatar at the start of the game. But we also added an “Reset character” option in your poster to let you change your name, avatar and it will reproduce the intro sequence again. It’s a temporary solution meanwhile we develop a better way. In any case, your stats will not reset.

We know how frustrating can be to play with other players, creating a game and waiting for someone to join is boring, and waiting on the door of the saloon until you see someone online is not better. We are working on it, but meanwhile we added a little feature that will ease that process. Do you want to play with someone? Wait for it in the training grounds, train your aim and look to the poster with the ranking and the number of players online. As soon as someone joins, create the game and wait for the duel.

As we mentioned on the forums, we received the Oculus Rift headset and the Touch controllers last week. We added an initial experimental support for Oculus Rift and Touch. It’s working fine, but we have not tested it enough to be sure. Please, give us feedback in the forums if you are using the Rift and Touch controllers.

Last, but not least, we fixed some more things, next you can find the full changelog:

• Bug: Some times the player scale was not correct
• Experimental: Support for Oculus Touch
• Feature: Two new characters, Harry “Sir” Cook and Tatanka Witko
• Fix: Time between rounds shortened
• Feature: Poster in training grounds with ranking and online players

[next2indies]

Hello fellow gunslingers,

Today we have a new update, but this time it's not the game who gets new features or content, it's our website.

Players online
I'm sure you want to shoot real people and not these bots, but it's uncomfortable to put your headset only to know if there are more gunners out there.  We know we are not so many people right now. That's why we added on the header of the site a "Population" counter to let you know how many people is online right now.

Most wanted
Unforgiven VR is a game about becoming a legend. You will have to beat the best to prove your might. And who are those legends?
From now in the sidebar of the website you will be able to see the 3 best players of the game, be warned if you encounter them online, show them you're a better gunslinger and make them beat the dust.

Many thanks for reading and see you at high noon

[next2indies]

Community Event - Match 16th - I dare you all: Samuel "Fukuy"

How many times you look a video of one of those influencers and you though - I don’t agree, I will beat you - or something like that? NOW YOU CAN. In this Community Event serie we will invite people like Youtubers, developers or other personalities to Unforgiven VR in an special game mode.

During the event you will see in front of the saloon, near the exit sign, a new zone. Go there and you will be able to see the duels and enter a queue to play with the invited one. Who will win, the community or the celebrity? It’s on your guns.

For this first edition we wanted to invite Samuel “Fukuy” Molina. He is not only an important Spanish influencer, he also helped us in the development on the game because he is a game designer and teacher too. Come and make him beat the dust.

The event will take place ingame this Thursday 16th of March.

Timetables:

• GMT: 21:00
• PST: 14:00

Steam event: http://steamcommunity.com/games/546210/events/261611816910115318

[next2indies]

Bugfixing week #2 and Event Mode
As you may know if you usually look at the forums, today we will host our first community event. This will consist in killing a Youtuber, that’s nice, isn’t it?



Events will work a little bit different from normal duels. First of all, once you enter the game you will see in the street of the town that a caravan has arrived and the show is prepared for you. To join the event just teleport into the sign that will portrait the celebrity invited.

Once in the scenario you will be able to join the queue in the wall next to the caravan. You will be able to see the top 5 queue and how many people are waiting in front on you. Bored from waiting? Just go to the barrels on the other side and try the new amenities, the spinning targets and the sand sack.



Once you reach your turn you will be able to duel the celebrity in a best of 2 rounds duel. We shortened all the duels to make the queue and the game go faster.

For this first edition we wanted to invite Samuel “Fukuy” Molina. He is not only an important Spanish influencer, he also helped us in the development on the game because he is a game designer and teacher too. Come and make him beat the dust.

Bug fixing
Last but not least, this week we worked on the stability of the game and fixing some issues we’ve seen. Next you can find the complete changelog:

• Bug: Fixed hitboxes on some characters
• Feature: Event mode
• Feature: VIP players (developers and other special players) will show a different poster
• Fix: Lowered the level of some bots, maybe they were too fast
• Change: Shortened from 3 to 2 rounds per duel

As every week, we want to thank you all that are playing the game and we hope we will see you in 30 minutes.

[next2indies]

I see that you have problems shooting, get some practise
This week we are adding some new content to the game. We know the initial training ground it’s too simple, it works in the sense you will be able to practise how the aim in the game works, but it’s not enough entertaining to be a “game mode”, something to do meanwhile looking for a game.

We wanted to enhance this section by adding some more “toys” that we hope will give you more fun and new little challenges. Go and shoot the wheel of bulls eyes, the birds, the sand sack or the crows in the bushes.

Talking about the time you’ll spend there, we also added the matchmaking poster in the training zone to ease the match finding, you don’t need to go back to duel someone.

We did more things, you can read the full changelog below:

• New: Added new training “toys” to the training grounds
• New: Added matchmaking poster to the training grounds
• Fix: The matchmaking poster now is faster to show new matches
• Fix: The matchmaking poster now shows first the human players

[next2indies]

Time for travel. Not all duels happen in the town
We are preparing a big update for the game, but it is not ready to ride. In any case, it’s Thursday and we are updating the game with two new additions that makes the game a little bit more interesting for you, players.

The town it’s not the only place to duel in the west. Today we are adding a second scenario, the Indian Tipis, home of Tatanka Witko. The scenario is not selectable right now, it will be chosen randomly each duel.

Last but not least, you may remember we announced some weeks ago that the game started to support Oculus Rift and Touch controllers in experimental mode. After those weeks we are pretty sure we addressed all the problems with the device and from now Unforgiven VR supports officially the Oculus Rift and Touch controllers. We are also working to be able to get the game to the Oculus Store but we need some more time to add some plattform code.

Related with Oculus, but more exactly with one station room setups. We rotated 90º the scenarios because sometimes you needed to be backwards the sensors and it fails to track correctly. Now you will face left or right the major part of the time, so not so much tracking problems will happen.

Changelog:

• New: Indian Tipis town scenario
• Fix: Rotated 90º the dueling scenarios for one station room setups
• New: Added officially Oculus Rift and Touch support

[next2indies]

Last week update added an early version of the Saloon. We spent part of this week fixing the errors that we found and today we are proud to announce that the saloon is officially open. We have plans to enhance it even more, but please, spend your dollars in our amenities, can I serve you a drink?

But it’s not all. This week we add a new scenario and a variation of Cain city main street, set now at dusk. The new scenario is the quarry, shoot each other far from the city, far from the views of the town folks.

Finally, just a little change has been introduced. We moved the hat position and other objects in first person view to widen the FOV and enhance visibility.

Changelog:

• New: Quarry scenario added
• New: Main street at dusk added
• Fix: Problems interacting with the poker elements
• Fix: Position of hat and other first person view

[next2indies]

April bugfixing week



Stage 3 is a huge change in the game. To be able to implement some of the features that will characterize this stage we need to develop some systems that will rule under the hood some of the mechanics. That will need time, and it will not be noticeable in the game soon.

But we want to give you content this time. We are working in parallel to bring some new features and details week by week, but more important, we are going to spend some time adjusting the features we have now to enhance how the game behaves.

This week’s update addresses some of the bugs you found and reported and we added some new usability features. Let’s see the changelog:

• New: The sun can blind you, beware
• New: You can adjust the hat in duel. Just take it with the grip
• Fix: The avatar hands does not disappear when teleporting
• Fix: The NPC in the saloon does not disappear
• New: You can cancel a duel holding for 4 seconds the touchpad