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Aw thanks so much! That is super nice to hear, glad it lives up to the little twitter captures : D. I hear you on the battle system, it’s my main focus right now. So hard to create something that’s both simple, yet engaging, but slowly getting somewhere! Next version should be way more clear, in fact, you’ll be able to always issue commands, but pay the price by having it go down the queue. No more “why can’t I do this?” I hope : ).

Thanks for the kind words! Hope to have you play the next version before long : ).

Thanks for all the feedback so far, folks! So good to discover where the gameplay needs a bit more clarity, and I just love to get the last few niggles out of the way before diving into actually building the world and story out.

Again, enjoy! Much to improve still, looking forward to anything that jumps out at you! cheers, naam

Here’s what changed:

v0.19

• FEATURE: still short enough to just run through, so no save state yet! : D.
• FEATURE: way better targetting visuals during and outside of battles.
• FEATURE: way more obvious frozen-time indication during battle (color treat, sound cues).
• FIXED: it’s more clear why Dunk sometimes drops items during kitchen chores now.
• FIXED: better object highlighting.
• FIXED: dialog kept disappearing (test rooms). Convos with Tido actually make sense now!
• FIXED: spider no longer says “objectArgumentAssemblyTypeName”. Kill your darlings ^^.
• FIXED: room shaders pickup correct skybox now.
• FIXED: can apply items outside of battle again now without completely messing up the logic.
• FIXED: veggie garden battle convo sometimes restarted.
• FIXED: more reliable portal warping from room to room (if the rooms aren’t aligned, like with the test rooms)
• FIXED: the grubs had no base evade effect, even though it triggered like almost never. Hung the battle that one time though.

Sweet : ) anything that jumps out at you! I’m sure there are things that still feel awkward, or might do well with a slightly different approach. My focus was on getting most of the basic mechanics and storytelling elements in place, and take it from there.

But most of all: have fun : )

Added sound indicators to time freeze, this should be much clearer, no?

https://x.com/_naam/status/1831052085212959021

Aw thanks man! So good to hear!

Oh dear you may want to maybe use the magnifying glass for a hint there ; ) the battle is also pretty close to the end of this prototype, so you’ve seen most of it!

Yes same thought wrt the potion-holding : ) also I should really add a time-slows-down and time-speeds-up sound effect in there!

Cheers!

Ooooh thanks so much. Nice and detailed feedback, much appreciated.

battle freeze:

…that is weird! Happened to me once a long while ago, thought I fixed it : ( Sorry!

ingredients:

There should always be two ingredients ready for grab. You can use the magnifying glass to seek them out : ) When you hold Dunk, there’s only a subtle hint as to where they are. Also, yes: only after the bits of dialog does Dunk add the ingredient to the chopping queue, and is the next one spawned…

pause/restart:

…during storybits you mean? I was thinking to maybe pause time whenever you grab the magnifier, but as long as you don’t progress the dialog, nothing state-changing will happen, really. But yes it feels chaotic with the grub lady continually passing through and the actors seemingly go about their business ^^ I kind of like that chaos myself, but duly noted. …what did you feel you needed a restart for?

spider:

Yeah didn’t look into that, the testing rooms are pretty random, depending on old bechanics still here and there. I’ll put it on the list!

battle mechanics:

Thanks so much! Excellent points. At the risk of sounding defensive, a few clarifications:

• Time should freeze when you’re holding a character, giving you space to make a tactical decision. Are you sure it didn’t for you? I think it does continue when youre dropping the character but still holding the potion. Making a note : )
• oooh an undo, that would be sweet! Will have a hard think on how to do that gracefully, might be hard
• …yes it is still waaaay too easy to accidentally hit your party members, or drop potions on enemies ^^. I desperately want to keep that open, thinking about mechanics like: needing to hit a friend to cure confusion, or dropping health potions on undead to make them hurt : ) I should make it more visually clear which character you’re actually targetting, in the least. It’s way too hit’n’miss now.

Thanks so much!

Ooooh this is scary, there is still so much I want to do to this thing, but, I think it can stand on its own feet now, just about! And I am dying to hear what folks think of this approach!

Had a lot of fun putting the systems in place to make this all work, basic though they are. Most effort is definitely in the story side of things, getting a modular scripting thing in place that allows me to easily write out little story snippets and have it all just work.

Even if the player starts moving the actors around, having them do stuff while they are acting out. It’s so chaotic, but it keeps working ^^.

There’s even a rudimentary battle system in there, super simple, loads to still do there still, buit we’ll see where we can take that. And a neat magnifying-glass mechanic to look for little hidden stuff, lore, hints.

Anyway, here it is! Have fun, see if you can make it break, and do let me know if you have suggestions, frustration, epiphanies, or just plain fun : )

Enjoy!

Not stopped per se, but yeah it's kind of in slumber mode now, I'm sorry to say. Currently mostly focussing my free time on something different.

... I like the survival angle though!
.

good to hear it worked no, thanks. Did you use the 'lean' rig at the start? That applies the lowest graphical settings. Sorry that it is so demanding. 

Thank you!

Sorry for the late reply, just now discovered that itch doesn't notify on devlog comments : (

Alright, I think I fixed it! Works on my side with an Odyssey, seems my Unity version had a nasty WindowsMR bug, I upgraded the project. Hope you can still have fun with it!

...actually, seems that that didn't solve it. I'll investigate.

I may have found the culprit, thank you! Sadly I cannot test on WinMR myself (loaned out my Odyssey), if you could test the build I put here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rg7brbvy99tk6hs/APOTU_Steam_v0.75b3.zip?dl=0
... and let me know, would be very helpful! I'll ask on twitter as well.

Thanks!

naam

Oh dear. What system are you on?

Thank you! That is very good to hear. Hope it was just a fluke!

Ouch, sorry to hear! Can you check the mapping you use for APOTU (in the steamvr controller settings)? It should be set for default, maybe theres a rogue custom mapping active?

You could try to also callibrate the thumbsticks (also in the steamvr settings).

I'm running it on Index myself, so it should work just fine. However, APOTU uses an old version of Unity's Input system, which isn't the greatest in combination with Index, I needed to apply some trickery to get it to work decently.  

hmmm APOTU is SteamVR-only, so it’s not like there’s modes to enable. No idea why steam wouldn’t pick it up. You could try running APOTU while SteamVR isn’t running, that should trigger it. Or (if that’s how you’re running it now)  first startup SteamVR, then APOTU. 

If you move the headset around by hand, does something show up on screen? Does the controller appear if you hold it up in front of the HMD? Been a while since I tested my PC with WMR, maybe update the SteamVR WinMR driver?

Sorry I’m not much help I’m afraid : (

Run the .exe and it should simply work. Can you describe what (doesn't) happen?

Some people are a bit confused by the entry world I stupidly made grey on all sides. If that is your issue: turn around! The interface might be behind you : ).

Ah superglad to hear you fixed it! And thanks for the kind words. 

The public version uses NewtonVR for the interaction framework, I’m rolling my own right now, which is why the update is taking a while : ).  I run through some of the interaction setups on YouTube, if you’re interested. 

For example (big’n):

cheers!

Aw sorry to hear! The game runs through SteamVR, which should auto-launch if you double click the .exe (and oculus should also start). 

All grey-screen problems so far were solved by turning around (shame the OP never told if it worked). My fault for using the monotonous grey! So there’s nothing behind you in VR? 

If not, I’m at a loss, I’m sorry.  Let me know!

Sorry to hear it didn’t work for you! The pacing is quite deliberate, meant to be not much quicker than walking. The system also supports actual IRL walking, if you have the space, or if you keep realigning the VR world. Was amazed for myself as well how slow that feels in VR!

I’m considering adding a multiplier, but really want to encourage players to take the pace as given as much as I can. 

And then I add monsters to run away from ; )

Thanks so much for the feedback! Much appreciated. Duly noted!

Done : )

Hey, thank you!

Everything in APOTU is hand-crafted by me personally, 99% of it in Google Blocks : ). It’s kind of one of the pillars of the project. 

Quest: don’t hold your horses! APOTU is secretly quite demanding (high-tier rendering and LOTS of physics) so it’s quite the challenge for a port. Not planning to for the moment, though I DID walk around in it on Quest via ALVR, which works surprisingly well!

Sadly, no. It wouldn't make sense outside of VR, it's all about the interaction that VR controllers give you. There's not much gameplay in it otherwise ; ). 

Superb! Thanks so much!

Hey folks!

I'm slowly building a VR-only, densely interactive pottering-about simulator, kind of a slice-of-life-em-up, with hidden phantasms. I never really consider GDC until it's way, way too late, and probably wouldn't be able to afford it (I'm in the Netherlands). I also  consider myself more a builder than a game developer in the strictest sense of the word -- there's not really much gameplay to speak of, no strict goal outside of the just being there and soaking up the atmosphere. There's a lot to play with, with all the interactions, though, and there's a story slowly emerging as I build it.

Here it is:

http://naam.itch.io/apotu

Lovely initiative for folks like me this #notatgdc thing! Feel ever-so-slight-a-part of it now, thank you!

Naam

Heh I hear you! It's not the low contrast per se, but my judicious use of volumetric fog. I personally like the atmosphere it creates, but I know it can also feel like smeared lenses! There's a settings panel behind the caravan where you can turn of the volumetrics, see if that makes it better for you!

Sweet! Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Glad to hear what parts are fixed with a re-calibration, 'cause they would've been the hardest problems to fix on my side : ).

As for your suggestions: seems you have a very keen sense of where I want to take this ; ). Not making any promises, but for a slight spoiler check this. Yes, there should be more phantasmical outings! They should tie up with the sense of the place though, so I'm ony slowly discovering them. 

As far as telekynesis is concerned: I meant it more like a solution to hard-to-reach objects (for people playing seated, for example): that you can pick up objects outside of your reach somehow, maybe manipulate them from a distance. It should happen without breaking the groundedness of the world though, so I'm still puzzling with it. 

Thank you! Very helpful this!

naam

Thank you!

Sweet, all excellent points Aime! Thanks for taking the time, hope it didn't make the experience too frustrating!

Can you tell me a bit about your setup? Are you seated? Is your tracking space very small?

Is the floor correct in other VR apps? I have no access to your tracking setup from within APOTU so I have no way to know where your actual floor is, the VR drivers usually take pretty good care of this.

I've been setting up APOTU as a standing, room-scale experience, with some extra's for front-facing tracking (the teleport-rotation). It's been proving hard to take everyone's situation into account. But I'm juggling some ideas that should make it more accessible for other setups (height adjustment, dashing, and perhaps telekynesis), so your feedback is greatly appreciated. 

The app starts in medium settings, not low. Low looks too much off to me to be the default. I deliberately place you in a graphically taxing room so you're sure you can handle the framerate. 

The disappearing objects simply shouldn't happen, it should teleport with you, maybe you hit an exceptional situation, do let me know if you can reproduce it!

The taps – my GAWD! You're right! How could I have tested it so much and not notice! VR man, it messes with your mind!

Thanks!

naam

Aw thank you! Big fan of your work, so this means a lot!

Hey!

I hope this is the same as another report I got, but you may feel a bit silly if it is: turn around! Does that work?

On Vive, sometimes the world starts out front-to-back, nothing I can do about it really, though I'll implement a gradient instead of the neutral grey, 'cause the flat color may look like something went wrong.

Thanks for playing! Hope the above solves it, enjoy!

Naam

This is not a game : ). Just a piece of world, no objective.