itch.io

Here's a video walk through. You can see I put a considerable amount of work in here. 

Would anyone with Unreal programming experience like to take over lead on my Unreal Engine based VR game "QuestORama"? The whole game is based around self contained modules that are called by master control programs. It's completely procedural in nature, constructing itself from a seed number. So adding and modifying the game should be easy... in theory. You'll have to dig around to see the order in which things are called. Maybe I can come up with a design doc if you really need one. 

I just can't see myself working any more on it on my own. I *might* be able to contribute some more in the future if needed. It's a free game and I worked on it feverishly for about 6 months. I simply can't bear to go any further on it alone anymore. 

Here's the game on SideQuest: https://sidequestvr.com/app/338

Here's the game on Oculus's App Lab: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/4995738100499185

What I'm asking for is definitely accomplishable on almost any machine. The graphics can be nothing more than ASCII characters if necessary. The Game of Life can run on an Arduino chip. I'm just asking for something slightly more advanced than the Game of Life.

I have an odd request, but I'd like some sort of self-evolving app for my rarely used mini-PC to run.  Something like the Game of Life, but not the Game of Life. I've been trying to write it myself in the Unreal engine, but not with a alot of luck. It seems like ground I'm certain has been well tread by others, but I'm having some issues finding any. A few paid games on Steam seem to come close, but have been abandoned long ago. I need a life-sim, or something else that's self-evolving and interesting to observe. Something that is interesting if you even if you never mess with it. And it needs to run on low-end hardware. 

Right now, if you hack the hex consoles, there's a small chance you'll uncover some audio stories. They appear as floating audio cassettes you can grab. You have to buy the tape player to hear the cassette though. 

I would like to expand that into a greater metagame that involves earning your freedom.

Well the hex consoles are something that are helpful, if you need them. I did leave the option to just go hack them all after you take over each node on the server. I know some people don't like puzzles so I didn't want to force them to use them. So you are using them as intended. 

I would love to have the game jump into more separate modes. The conduit you pass through when you open the tears, that gauntlet-style challenge, was just one of several types of mini-game environments I was thinking about adding. One of them was fish... aka Phishing. 

Man, took a full 60 days to finish my book and post it all. I'm still rewriting the text version, but all of the YouTube is up. 

I dunno, maybe someday. I haven't tried making any VRChat avies. If I did, I'd start with my IMVU work, as I've made many avie parts in that game. That's actually how I make a living. 

The book is Bucket Geezer, and I've been slowly reading chapters into YouTube. I've done 9 chapters aloud, and I'm writing 15th chapter now. Each chapter is pretty short, at 3 to 6 pages each, or about 8 to 18 minutes of audio. This is the playlist I've been adding to: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiqVbYmMmWaRasKKoMRO_YIqKEhK77pgG

Thanks for the kind words!

Nice to hear from somebody. 

I'm currently writing a book, so QuestORama is on the backburner. I don't think I'll work on another software project until I can find at least ONE more person to work with. After QuestORama, MineTank, and the others, I can see now that I can't complete a project without another person to work with. I have to have a sounding board, if nothing else. 

Multiplayer would be amazing, but the black magic necessary to make a server and clients work is far beyond my knowledge. 

The game saves itself as you go, usually every 5 seconds or anytime you make a big change like editing a gun. Every time you reload the game you should see your saved game list. Your options are always either a game from the save list, deleting saved games, or making a new game. Every new game comprises multiple levels, but there's no end game boss, so as you tunnel into the levels you'll eventually hit dead ends as you reach the limits of the server. 

Let me know what info you need. I'm ready to help!

Man, I can not build a community to save my life. Or my game. The lack of feedback is just killing my motivation. I don't know if the things I have been working on are good, or bad, or so-so, or need better... something... I've been working in a cave, alone, and in the dark. It doesn't help to see other games on SideQuest, with alot less going for them, just shoot past my download numbers in weeks, when I've been at it for months. If I had a partner, or even just a dependable sounding board to show new stuff, I think I could press on. I really wanted to make the best kind of action game the Quest could possible present. I think I got pretty far on the project. But at this point I'm feeling lost.

If i can find a solid vision for the next step, I'll see about working on the game some more. There is a sword trail effect I could add, which can be seen on the baton pointed in Audio Warp. the audio visualizer I made recently. But that's about the only thing I'm certain could be added. I could add another sub-level, like the Firewall sections. Or maybe some enemies? Or some sort of more complex tutorial level? I don't know. All of those will require tons of work and I don't know if working on them will matter or not. There's no FEEDBACK! 

I was just trying out the demo and I really like the section where you can remove your hand. In fact, i think there's real gameplay potential there. It would be fascinating to see if you could crawl your hand over to switches and buttons that are well out of reach. 

I would suggest making a fist for a few seconds to pull your hand back to your arm. You could even pull items back to yourself if you grasped them during this gesture. If this sounds familiar, I left a similar comment on Reddit a few weeks ago suggesting the same thing. 

Also, I liked the telekinesis part, although I would suggest that quickly opening the fingers could trigger the push, and slowly for just dropping. The hand tracking on the Quest can be a bit buggy, but that should make it as reliable as possible. 

I'd like to work with you on a demo for a puzzle game based on throwing your hands around, if you're interested in the idea at all. I suppose I could make something myself eventually, as the Quest hand tracking support was recently added to the Unreal Engine (I'm only familiar with coding in the blueprint system in UE4, I'm more of an artist then a programmer). But working with you would make things leaps and bounds better then anything I could do on my own. 

You can see some of my past projects on my own Itch.IO page. I also have somethings up on SideQuest. 

You'll definitely need the power for VR. Anything that can run VR will run UE4 just fine. Also, keep in mind that Unreal does let you make up your own blueprint stuff in C++ if Visual Studio is more to your liking. I just need blueprint stuff so I can integrate everything into the final package for users. I'm more of an artist then a programmer, so blueprinting is the most I can handle. I've done some regular, text coding with Arduino, but only by hacking up other people's code. Art is my forte, coding is something I force myself to do. I'm more like a fish that can walk on land then a jogger, so to say. But if you're familiar with coding, I think it'll all make sense. 

UE4 bluepints only let you plug in data lines into things that will take them, and when you drag off something, they suggest what it can connect to. Sometimes I just drag off pins to see what I can do with them. All of the types of data are labels, integers, floats, strings, names, ect. And there are *ALOT* of tutorials on everything. I just type in vague questions into Google and YouTube, and there's always a tutorial. The only thing I can't find good tutorials on are network play... that is why none of my projects have been multiplayer. :p 

Are you still interested? One thing you will need, besides the Unreal Engine (using v4.23), is the Audio Analyzer.

https://www.parallelcube.com/content/docs/audioanalyzer

I don't think you'll be able to write or test much code without it. It's $30 on the Unreal Marketplace. Not to disparage you, I don't know anything about your reliability or productivity, so I can't volunteer to buy it for you. I've been burned before throwing money at people who didn't come through. I'd be REALLY thrilled if you're on the level. I've been soloing stuff for too long. I don't even have anyone to chat with about the stuff I do, much less someone to collaborate with. 

What's up with discord? People seem to be in love with it, but I can't figure out why.

Yes, I'd love to get some help! Audio Warp is very moduler, so adding new modules would be easy. Are you familiar with UE4 and blueprinting? I can send you the source to look over and if needed, make a video walking you through adding modules.

Let me know below, thanks!

OMG, this latest item is KILLING ME. Who would have guessed a Tape Player in VR could be such a headache??  

I'm adding some "Blackmail" bits to the game. These are rare finds that tell a dark story about someone who uses the server you're hacking. They are presented in audio and in text to make them easy to follow.  Each story has 5 parts, and each part has a small chance of spawning every time you crack a Hex Console. They will spawn in order, no matter which consoles you crack, just to make things less confusing. 

The tape player itself is an optional buy from the Data Broker, but who could resist if you already found the tapes?? Also the Tapes will automatically stack into one, to cut down on inventory clutter. 

Right now I only have 4 stories and I could use some more. If you want to contribute, let me know. 

There is a story in my game (tentatively titled) QuestORama. It's about an AI developed in a university by a clever girl that get's stolen by the Russian mob to loot and crash out servers. You're extensively a slave, injected into a place that's trying to kill you, by people who only desire the chaos you provide. In return for your forced theft and damage, they supply you with more weapons to continue your impromptu onslaught. Ideally, you'd discover your true roots, who's holding your chains, and break free. 

There's just one *little* problem with telling this story... I have no idea how to implement it. 

The game is a self generating series of systems, designed to give an open-ended experience every time you play. It's not a fixed narrative story. I can't forced the player to do things, but hope they take an interest in their own. And if I forced the systems that generate the level, I could end up making boring, fixed sections that I hate so much in other games. 

Games like Terraria have plots in their self generating systems. I'm not too sure if they are 100% successful, because I only know they exist because of Wiki's, even after dozens out hours of gameplay. I just didn't know what to look for to uncover them. The bits of the story should be a little easier to find if I want people to really FIND them at all. 

In MineTank, my other game, you can find story bits in every level. They appear as twinkly bits on the ground, and once you know they are there, it's easy to find them on the "Super-View". There isn't a Super-View in QuestORama. I have used shafts of light to indicate things, but those are already pretty cluttered with the Terminal and Drop Cases, so I wouldn't add any more there.  I have in-your-face markers for the Tears, but I certainly don't want more of those. Large icons already exist for the Gun Editor and Tutorials, but they are a bit artifical. I'm not in love with them. 

I *might* be able to give them out with the Hex Consoles. Maybe as something you get in additional to Data and the Broker menu. Of course, since NOBODY is leaving feedback, I don't even know if people are solving those consoles. The lack of any feedback at all is very troublesome in this game's development. I know you players are out there, and you download the game. You really have to let me know your thoughts. 

Just a thought, but you can backup stuff on Google Drive. I also do all of my work on a Windows 7 computer, but have to compile it on my Windows 10 machine, so I get a backup that way too. But man, making copies of your digital life is essential. Go ahead and be a digital hoarder, space is cheap!

no.

Like a pat down? That might be amusing. I'd imagine alot of weird stuff would fall out of their pockets. Maybe if somebody else were to join the team, we'd have enough human resources to generate all of that stuff. 

I'm in the middle of adding the first NPC's to QuestORama, the humble Bit. Much like Tron, these are cute little things, mostly harmless, that coast around doing "computer stuff". You can grab them, they chat to you (in gibberish), and they only spawn when you're nearby so their performance effects are negligible. But... if you abuse them too much... 

Since not everyone wants to watch a tutorial video on YouTube (the last one got kinda long), I got to work on a in-Game Tutorial. After *ALOT* of thought and messing around, I've settled on a collection of 4 TV-Sets that pop up on the first level, that will walk you through the 4 major aspects of the game: Base Controls, Inventory, Survival, and Winning. If you watch all 4 of these, you get a BIG reward. Or ignore them, because the game isn't *that* hard to figure out. But you should at least watch each one once, in case there's something cool about the game you didn't know. And did I mention the reward? 

Also there's a mess of bug fixes. MY GOD, every time I turn around, another bug pops up! 

Two problems are persisting that I can't get a grasp on. One is the climbing issue, the hands aren't always reliable. The other is, on a rare instance, it's possible for a gun to simply vanish when dropped on the Mule (the green thing that sticks stuff to your body). This bug especially panics me, as I'm a loot-monster by nature. Seeing a nice gun vanish is a CARDINAL SIN! 

After playing my old game, MineTank, I'm kinda dying to put some story elements into QuestORama. I do like writing melodramas. 

Anything you'd like to see on the PC or Oculus Quest.

Aw crud, the Key is bugging out in certain games. Out of all of the systems I worked on, looking over the key slipped my mind. I know how to fix it, but I have some work-related stuff that needs to be attended too first. Gotta pay the bills! (maybe if some people were to hit up my Patreon I'd have more time, hint-hint)

In the meantime, the game is certainly playable, it just might have issues being winnable. There's still no end-game status for taking out all of the server nodes, so it's not a huge problem. If a node is giving you grief, just rip open another hole and go someplace else. I did test it thoroughly before release, so I'm certain this bug with the Key is rare. Lucky me, the bug only showed itself when I was showing the game to a friend for the first time. *EMBARRASSING* (FML)

Please post your suggestions and thoughts about the game. You're input makes for a better game in the future. 

OMG, what a LONG and TRYING path v0.2.4 has been! Gameplay wise, it might not seem like much, but to be able to tear open holes between servers and travel interconnected levels, all generated in real-time and on-the-fly... well... it was a trial. And not a sprint, but a grueling marathon! I finally did it (hopefully). You can travel back to a level you just visited and pop right back to the same spot you left. And that level can look like ANYTHING! It's all generated in real time, as you travel. This is the holy-grail of random generation, the ability to connect one level with another to form a world. This is what the big-boys do, like MineCraft, Terreria, and No Man's Sky. I feel a bit like a REAL programmer, and not just an artist trying to fake it! We have a world, baby! 

Maybe I don't understand what you mean by "in the ground".  I can put my controller on the ground in real-life and it matches up with the game. I usually test while sitting on the floor, I rarely play standing up. When I played well sitting on the couch, the floor seemed higher.  

Do you start the game while standing? Maybe the game engine is setting the height default on it's own? 

I've decided to mix things up quite a bit in v0.2.0, hopefully not making a mess in the process. 

Now you spawn with a sword at the start. No more weak gun and half-dozen grenades. There are still grenades, but you'll have to hack those passwords to unlock the Data and the Data Broker to buy them. Also grenades still fall in Blue Weapon Drops. As long as you open the drops as they appear, eventually you'll get a Blue one. 

Also the Double-Jump Slow-Motion is now on by default. I've just had too much fun with this to leave it as a optional thing. You can disable it in the Settings Menu (Hold A&X for 3 seconds). 

To really top off the slow motion and sword, I've give the sword the ability to stop bullets. In slow motion is this *AWESOME*. If you're quick and skilled enough, it really is possible to charge an enemy and survive. Make clever use of your grappling hook while in slow motion to change your direction. You *WILL* feel like an action movie GOD. 

Or course, all of the previous tactics still work, like sneaking up around ledges with climbing, or just some real-time gun skills. 

Not all levels spawn "Crates", but when they do, take your sword and START SMASHING! Lots of good stuff in those things. "Crates" come in all sorts of weird shapes. They are those small things you can knock over. One good bullet or a poke from a sword will smash them. I love smashing stuff.... 

Be careful with grenades and all forms of explosions, they now affect players again. There was a weird glitch that was preventing them from harming the player, but that's been fixed. This make the Drunk Missiles from the new Metal Head actually dangerous. I'm still trying to figure out how to make him navigate the level without getting stuck so much. On the bright side, with the Drunk Missiles and Flame Thrower, you might want him to get stuck once in awhile. If you find him hard, remember you can go into slow motion mode at any time now. His missiles are slow and can be shot out of the air. 

Check out the new version, the height issue should be gone. Maybe. I don't know, as I never saw it in any version. But in 0.1.8 I lowered the player's capsule height to get around bumping grenades placed on a ledge well hanging off the side. That didn't help, but I didn't see any changes either, so I forgot about it. In 0.1.9 I changed it back to the default height of the capsule the game has had since the beginning. Again, I didn't see any difference, but maybe you'll see a change. 

I was able to fix the "bumping" problem by instead making the player's capsule skinnier. Now it's much easier to place grenades on the edge when climbing up. Of course now, thanks to slow-motion and swords, my new favorite tactic is to just fly directly at the enemies, deflecting bullets with the sword and running them through. 

If you want to play QuestORama on a more beefy machine, I've just started up a PC-VR version of the same build. It's pretty easy, as the Unreal Engine can build between multiple platforms (yay Epic Games!). Since the Oculus Rift uses the same "Touch" controllers, you get the same game but at much higher framerates. I can also do neat things, like turn on shadows. I'm still trying to figure out the platform detection module, so I can keep the whole build using the same code, but a *slightly* tweaked Windows-PCVR version is available here: 

https://maxsmoke777.itch.io/questorama-pcvr

It's v0.1.9. I'll TRY to keep it up to date with the Quest version. Right now it's tweaked with the, aforementioned, shadows, as well as a higher enemy count. Oculus Quest lags out from AI with more then 5 consecutive robots walking around at a time. To combat this, I spawn them as needed on the Quest. On the PC, they can pile up. So prepare for more difficult fights! 

Not that anyone is likely to care but I'd like to take a moment to pat myself on the back for finally fixing the Data Broker widget for the Hex consoles. Now it sells the correct stuff and doesn't change the second you walk away! So many dumb problems were in it. 8 hours a night on top of my other two jobs, make'n me sloppy.

I think this is suppose to be posted in the dev-log, but I can't find the link! One more thing to fix later I suppose.

Quick Summary: Grappling Hooks and Guns in a Digital World

I made a Windows version of my already successful Oculus Quest game. It works dependently with people who have the Oculus Rift. The VIVE doesn't have the buttons for controlling it, but the Knuckle controllers might. I think Windows Mixed Reality headsets have the correct buttons as well. It's an Unreal Engine game, so if the buttons exist, it'll use them. The Windows version takes advantage of the desktop hardware by having dynamic shadows and a larger enemy count. Otherwise, same sweet game, just on a new platform. 

https://maxsmoke777.itch.io/questorama-pcvr

Here's a Tutorial video for the Quest version. The PC is the same, albeit looks better:

Ah... and you already hit my game with a bad review. Once this problem is resolved, PLEASE CHANGE YOUR SCORE. QuestORama's rating has already suffered enough from people who decided to use the review process as a means to submit bug fixes, but NEVER came back to update their review after their problems were fixed. This is VILE thing to do. It's a free game and represents hundreds of hours of my life. At the very least, you should allow your issues to be addressed here before trashing the reputation of my project. 

I think your quest is damaged, my floor is normal. Anyone else see this??

Oh, have you tried deleting the UE4Game/QuestORama directory? That will clean out the save directory. It shouldn't effect your height, but old save files might mess up other stuff. Maybe you have some super old files there?

Melee Weapons, Chrome effects, lots of bug fixes. What do you think? What do you WANT? Let me know.

This release is MONSTROUS! One of my hardest to complete yet, but also one of the most important. This release adds a huge amount of depth to the game, allowing you to edit your weapons and buy things. 

The levels will only get harder if you try to complete an entire server. The game is still missing health and healing-rate upgrades that will be important to that end, so maybe don't try to complete a whole server right now. It will be nearly IMPOSSIBLE TO DO. Every level you beat raises the difficulty. Reset the game to keep it playable for now. 

The changes I have made have laid the groundwork for a much deeper game. Expect level progression items and wilder stuff in the future! Maybe I'll even get around to those new projectiles soon. 

v0.1.7 is being pushed out early to fix a problem with disabled hands. Hopefully the problem has been corrected, but should you lose the ability to pickup items again, bring up the Setting Menu (hold A & X for 3 seconds) and click on the "Fix Hands" button. This should fix any issue with the hands. Just don't do so well holding anything in your working hand. 

I also added a gun-smoke effect to the guns, which appears after firing them. 

Working on the Gun Editor menu. Each gun part now has it's own stats, so you can Frankenstein yourself a better gun from the parts of those you have collected, assuming you can find an editing station. Here's what I'm thinking. Any comments? 

Where'd you go? I'm interested in the help.