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[Thaumaturge]

That looks good--and indeed, quite an improvement over the early versions, I think. The tunnels even look a little more uneven to my eye--likely in part thanks to the angled beams on the walls and the rising dirt at the edges of the floor.

Yup, will be doing a non-VR version as well. In both cases I'll probably have a button to reveal the UI (or at least make it easier to see without having to look down).

Aah, I'm glad to read it. ^_^

[Cosmocat Games]

Protagonist concepts by the talented Katerina Ventova/Leventart. She's not actually going to appear in-game, but I'm having something created for promotional purposes. Besides, it never hurts to give the protagonist a bit of a identity

I'm really happy with the work Katerina has done so far. We've only exchanged a few emails so far and she's totally nailed it. Highly recommended!

[Thaumaturge]

Those look really good indeed, I do think! ^_^

Hmm... I'm not sure that this would fit well into a horror game of this sort, but the following idea occurs to me: since you have these portraits, it might be interesting to have a Doom-style "protagonist-face" on-screen, allowing the protagonist to emote and show damage (as in the lower bust, above).

[Cosmocat Games]

It's true what they say... a watched pot never boils

[Cosmocat Games]

Your friends at Rivervale Mining Corporation would like to remind you that safety comes first



P.S. tons of new shots and updates coming soon!

[Cosmocat Games]

Damn, this promotional piece I commissioned from Katerina Ventova turned out really, really well!

[Cosmocat Games]

Here's a quick cap of the new beacon charge mechanic: the more you charge, the harder you throw them. After a certain point, they explode. This can be used to knock barrels out of the way, distract enemies, or hurt yourself if you're not careful

[Cosmocat Games]

I met with the publisher earlier this week to catch up. We chatted about the current state of the VR implementation, and some concerns I had about releasing as VR-only to start with. Specifically, I feel the non-VR gameplay will have to suffer to make the VR experience "comfortable". We agreed that that we will instead target non-VR first, but keep the VR support in for those who can stomach it.

As a result, we're now aiming for an Early Access release on Steam first, instead of the Oculus Rift store. I think this is really good news for the game as it means it'll get into the hands of more people early on, and it should be possible to build a much bigger community than it would be through doing VR-first.

I've spent the week working like a madman, ramping up for Early Access--we're hoping to get onto Steam before they kill off Greenlight.

Here are my commit logs from the past week or so, to give you an idea of what I've been up to!

Code:

* low stamina SFX
* disable ghoul terror zone on death
* tweak ghoul distribution in some levels
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* beacons explode rocks
* add rock piles to all levels
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* differentiate between visited and unvisited areas when full map is revealed
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* pick-axe persistence
* add more tile types and pick-ups to ProcGen8 
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* spike pit traps
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* add player "dot" on minimap when flashlight is out, because some players are pansies
* scale minimap overlays based on map size
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* disable player overlay when flashlight is off (experimental)
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* beacon overlays on minimap
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* add minimap overlays for player and exit
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* fix for prefab tiles not marked on minimap
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* add player damage from beacon explosions
* fix for beacons not exploding if no ghouls in level
* increase range of beacons (4->5m radius)
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* decrease beacon charge time
* disable film grain
* fix for pick-axe swing taking all stamina
* increase ghoul turning speed
* fix for ghoul not always facing player when attacking
* re-enable low-health overlay
----
* disable NavMeshAgent on ghoul death
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* fix for pick-axe in wrong position after picking up second pick-axe
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* ragdoll death for ghoul
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* disable damage in DetectTest scene
* fix for ghoul "sliding" when stopping
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* fix for compass model not showing in inventory
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* reorg
* hack up pick-axe model (still needs some work)
* spawn pick-axe head and body fragments when pick-axe breaks
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* add some missing items to inventory
* fall damage
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* fix for pit barrels missing SFX
* decrease size and opacity of beacon charge gauge
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* remove debug statements
* ghoul only investigates sounds if < 30m
* increase min distance for explosion SFX
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* loud sounds now cause ghoul to investigate
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* visual feedback when charging beacons
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* raise player head
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* beacon explosions
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* add signs to quad supports
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* fix for electrical panels being added on the other side of a wall or tunnel
* add lamp to dead ghoul prefab
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* create composite support structure
* spawn at real-time for select prefabs
* integrate new compass model
* fix for compass and map prefabs missing nav mesh source tag component
* add lamp to compass table
* add radio to map table
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* add survival gear assets
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* disable lightmap static for some prefabs
* add rigibody to construction light
* add canned food pickup
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* replace hanging light with lantern for compass table
* trying some reverse whispering instead of baby crying
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* fix for player's pick-axe not on weapon layer
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* don't deplete stamina if holding sprint button while crouching
* restore stamina upon collecting first aid
* increase min volume range for jump scare prefab SFX
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* remove unnecessary faces from tables
* improve jump scare prefab
* add support beams to several points of interest
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* remove some unused prefabs
* add impact SFX for gib
* reduce volume of barrel impact SFX
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* add gore SFX when attacking ghoul
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* SFX for pick-axe break
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* mined wall integration
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* add weapon damage for pick-axe
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* don't allow picking up a pick-axe if we already have one 
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* disable culling of cockroach tiles for now, was causing cockroaches to be culled if their parent tile wasn't visible
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* double range of beacon
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* basic beacon wind-up/charging
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* display stamina on MonPro
* only regen stamina if > 0%, otherwise, "exhaust" player and require waiting
* parent MonPro to player camera
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* optimization fix: separate ghoul TerrorZone onto separate physics layer as OnTriggerEnter was being called by props
* add ProcGen11 and ProcGen12 to build settings
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* add rigibody to chairs

[Keops]

Ghoul? I don't know about you, but I prefer my ghoul well done.





Beacons now serve as makeshift grenades: Charge them to the max and they will explode on impact!

[Thaumaturge]

I really like that promotional piece--and it looks really well-rendered, too! ^_^

I'm glad to see that the game seems to be starting to shape up; good luck with the crunch ahead of Greenlight--I hope that it works out for you!

[Cosmocat Games]

Here's a little taste of some volumetric lighting I've been playing around with recently:

[Thaumaturge]

Nice! That adds a suitable drop of atmosphere (so to speak ), I feel. ^_^

Hmm... The material used for the stone walls looks a little like plastic to my eye--although this may be an effect of the light that's illuminating it.

[Keops]

Hey Thaumaturge! Thanks for your feedback. We're still experimenting with the lighting and materials and we hope to keep improving the visuals and atmosphere of the game as we progress with dev. We're also exploring some new textures for our materials so we might have some new shots to share soon.

[Pixel Noise]

Probably a wise decision to target non-VR first - the VR market is still too uncertain to predict, I think.

[Thaumaturge]

Hey Thaumaturge! Thanks for your feedback. We're still experimenting with the lighting and materials and we hope to keep improving the visuals and atmosphere of the game as we progress with dev. We're also exploring some new textures for our materials so we might have some new shots to share soon.

My pleasure, and fair enough! Good luck in your experiments. ^_^

[TonyManfredonia]

I agree. VR doesn't seem to be picking up as much as I thought (could be wrong; I'm a big Nintendo guy over here).

Non-VR is usually a great place to start. And then it's all the much cooler when you release an update that says "VR enabled!" for all the VR-buffs out there.

[protoloss]

Good example of how important sound is for a game! ^^

[Cosmocat Games]

Good example of how important sound is for a game! ^^

Thanks! Can't wait to share some new video--hopefully this weekend--I've gone a lot further with the audio in the past few months.

[Cosmocat Games]

I agree. VR doesn't seem to be picking up as much as I thought (could be wrong; I'm a big Nintendo guy over here).

I've had a Rift here for a few months and I hardly ever feel compelled to play anything with it. It's neat, but most of the games I want to play (including mine!) don't translate well to VR. Maybe I just need to go out of my way to find more VR-friendly games, I dunno.

[Cosmocat Games]

I'm finally starting to capture some footage for a Greenlight trailer. Here are a few clips from a recent build, in no particular order, to give you an idea of what we've been up to:




And here are a few shots from the absolute latest build (right-click -> View Image for 1080):