Please keep us updated if you take this further, I'd like to see what you do with it.
Taking it beyond the hyperspace tunnel into asteroid fields sounds great. Capital boss ships could be really fantastic... (and recall if you will, how Starfox 64 shifted from an 'always forward' locomotion to an arena style against its bosses, where if you didn't circle back yourself it would auto-return?)
What about a battlestation that... isn't a moon? Maybe you could, I don't know, fly down a trench or something?
Another suggestion: Take a page from Galaga, and maybe one of your ships gets 'captured'/tractor beamed... then, if you can free it by shooting its captor, instead of rejoining the hand it was separated from, it joins the ship that freed it, doubling its firepower (either linking the ships together, or having it in the previously mentioned wingman formation, behind and to the left/right, programmed to not fire if it's forward 'wingman' is in line?)
Simply put, by making hands into spaceships, you have blended the imagination we all had as children with the agility of our wrists and hands to create a unique mechanic, and I say why not throw the kitchen sink in there when it comes to space battle?
ToreadorGames
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Wow! This was both a lot of fun and has a lot of potential! Starfox VR? Cool! It played really smoothly, and I liked the score, sound and VFX.
As a stubborn standing-only player, thank you for the prompt to sit down and recenter.
Although it was an unpleasant discovery, I found it hilarious I could shoot my partner ship if I tried to fly in wingman formation.
My suggestions:
Either lower the health of the enemies, or increase the size/damage of the player's shots. I found myself needing to focus on one 'mob' for too long, and often took fire doing so. This also has the effect of 'freezing' your ships in position while you perfect your aim... which leads me to my second suggestion:
Add a barrel roll or Immelman turn/loop (can't Uturn in hyperspace!) you can trigger, that temporarily detaches the ships from your hands to do a maneuver that is impossible for hands to replicate. That will add to the agility of the ships, and reduce the 'flying pistols' effect?
Finally, by giving the enemy ships lateral movement within the 'hyperspace' tunnel, you increase the sensation of 'hyperspace battle' that your level design suggests, and also unfreezes your ship controllers in turn, as the target is never static this way?
Seriously though, this has a lot of potential. I think you should push it into a full game, as it might be the first of its kind? Great work!
I appreciate you addressing our challenges, but I prefer embracing the original over the popular, and will always maintain this stance. We know we made this thing in the time allotted, so thank you for what you were able to contribute. I am proud of what we've made, sir.
I've never sat down to play VR. The body needs to move to believe. To each their own.
The look of it is entirely JKLabs' doing, also the UI. There was a bit of a hiccup integrating my Cinemachine powered dual camera set-up into his lit/optimized levels, as Cinemachine apparently handles post-processing differently... Also, whatever little frame-rate loss we suffered is also due to my less-than-optimal characters and physics. I feel lucky to have JK Labs as a collaborator and teammate.
Thank you for the kind words. What I'm calling the 'Swarm' mechanic was so much fun to unlock, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The most direct comparisons to your gameplay loop would seem to be both Beat Saber and Pistol Whip, right? VR endless runner? Rather than you moving forward, the world (or in your case, the enemies/objects) comes at you?
I would take a page from their constraints when it comes to lateral movement as a player mechanic, where you can dodge almost everything if you lean far enough in any direction. That would require resizing your level, though, and that might prove too compressed to differentiate the 4 lanes of approach you're working with...
Considering player movement was your core mechanic, what would you consider your secondary mechanic? That's all I guess I was missing, as VR feels better with both head AND hands as input, whatever it may be. To avoid the obvious of slicing and shooting, maybe you could 'cast spells'/remote grab to re-arrange the approaching objects?
Very polished, regardless. Cheers!
I had a couple of issues playing your game, namely that upon start it asked for Spatial Data, (so I restarted to insure my boundary was set up), and then upon loading into the game, I found myself floating above the graveyard, so any physical obstacles didnt seem to affect me. I liked the witch in the corner, I liked the lighting, and running from a crowd always adds to tension as your choices are steadily taken away. If it helps, I started standing (which is my default play position) so maybe that interfered with calibration?
Spooky! Good job!
This was vaguely reminiscent of Boo from the Mario Games, where observation stops the horror in its tracks. Why was your environment a bank? I would have liked the flashlight to be whiter, the yellow really washed out everything. The (spoiler) scared me the first time it caught me, and I liked being able to fend it off for a time.
For some reason, the Game Over screen wasn't in VR, so it read something that looked like GEAR.
Spooky! Nice job!
When I first saw your .rar filesize, I was confused as to how much game you'd be able to fit into those 32mb. I was pleasantly surprised to explore your low poly world. I liked being able to go upstairs, (even if unnecessary), I liked the flashlight, I liked the susurration sound effects, made scarier with that one line (no spoilers!).
I would have liked the locomotion speed to be higher, and found the lighting outside brighter than indoors, until I approached the greenhouse, where it became dark again? After finding the gas can, I returned to the starting point, but wasn't sure how to proceed.
Spooky! Nice job!
I'm a pretty active VR player, defaulting to standing, but was surprised that the widest points to lunge were quite far.
All in all, the game played very smoothly, with nice details to the presentation. I would have liked something to do with my hands, and found the score fixed to my POV both distracting and diminishing of the overall effect. With such a wide lateral movement required to meet (or dodge) all 4 lanes, an in game warning might be useful in the future?
Great Halloween decor, too! Nice job!
Hey there, here's some comments from a second playthrough. I realized I was trying to jump onto a trigger pad for a cube. This was a little bit of an epiphany, and I was then able to play the rest of your game. I liked the electric motors that would operate in 'forward' or 'reverse' depending on the charge you feed it, this spoke to the theme in a very direct way. My only suggestion this time around is that being able to draw/pull the charge/cube closer would have helped, but maybe I missed that control scheme? I liked the physics of the grab cubes, how stacking them was part of the jumping puzzles, I liked the design of it all, and the whole game played smoothly. Great job!
Here's some commentary from a second playthrough: I chose the campsite instead and was pleased to see the flies swarming me, nullifying my earlier concerns to an extent. (I still think even in the tutorial they should buzz around, but that's besides the point)
Variety in weapons allowed for some style in the bug swattin', and I like the big boys that required a little extra bonkin'. Since they're flying, perhaps you could vary/randomize their height, and as they approach, they descend? More lightning bolts would be fun, too!
Hello again, so here's my comments from a second playthrough, trying to avoid what got in the way of the game, namely using the stick. Once I realized I just had to find the fireflies and make my around to do so with grab hands, it was so much better. It felt like I was pulling myself through the electric foliage, rather than turning and clipping into it incessantly. Point and hold click, and Electro-Bambi came cantering over. It was a lot easier to enjoy the details this way. Not sure if I did something wrong, but after gathering the fireflies to the center, nothing further happened? Regardless, a lot more fun on a second go, thanks for insight to your process.
Every limb is breakable. Head, shoulders, elbows, knees, spine and hips. I don't think greater visualization of that would work, but definitely agree that visualizing the power drain would. We're incorporating what we've learned from feedback like this into the apk we're also building for the Q3. Thanks again!
Thanks for playing! Your power level automatically increases on every break of a robot limb/body, but you probably dont notice it because you're busy breaking things. (The idea being that breaking a robot limb makes them 'bleed electricity'). Once they're broken parts, they're out of juice, but it's neat to hear that you were picking up parts and trying, anyhow.
Having a visual of the power you're stealing would help comprehension, most definitely, so it's a little more obvious when you do.
Thanks again!
Thanks for playing! I'm curious how you killed your enemies, because the charger function works, but what you need to do is break the robots to gain energy from them, by hand. You can break them with throwables too, but you dont gain any juice doing so. On our end, it would help to have a more visual representation of 'feeding' from the fallen robots, and maybe some haptics to notify the player of increased charge. We had lots of fun ideas on how increasing our charge would affect combat, and got some of them in there. Thanks again!
I see a zombie animation on the page, but don't recall zombies popping up. I guess that didn't make it to build? Using punk music to motivate a whack-a-mole game that didn't seem to match the tempo of the music was very unsettling, and likely downright unacceptable to those that do not like punk music. Did you have multiple tracks you could cycle/randomize through to enhance replayability?
Once I understood the timing of the closing circles, I was able to keep up, mostly, but my whacking of the moles didn't seem to produce any results, so I swiftly lost interest. Cute title logo, and the hammers were fun. Adding physics-based hands/hammers (to keep the hammer head flat) and haptics upon a proper whackin' might help the sensation of the game, as its entirely about rewarding timely downward strikes, right? Cheers!
A colorful, vibrant and unique world, with a gorgeous little deer with lightning antlers. Great abstract application of the theme. I didn't seem to notice any difference between Ultra/Epic, and I played the PCVR build using Virtual Desktop with the Quest 3... That said, it looks like you went for the miniatures theme AND the electricity theme, clever... I really liked the art design, the idea of a biomechanical forest was great... and I liked the 'move the world around' with grab mechanic... but I will say the ever-present dangling cables, the small scale/god mode and using the left stick to steer the 3rd person deer that also rotated the camera combined to reduce the wonder of the art/level design. I'd suggest separating input for the character from camera manipulation, but I'm a guy that would rather turn in person than use a stick. Really clever, really cool, but a couple things detracted from the experience. Nice one!
I was ready to swat some flies, but when I spawned them in, they were stationary? The buttons seemed to resist being pushed occasionally, but I got it working. Nice variety in weapons, but without moving targets, it was sort of moot. It's great you had multiple levels created, did I miss something, do the flies attack/swarm in other levels? I'd suggest looking into "boids" on a small scale as a way to do a fun swarm of flies/insects. Besides that, nice work assembling all the parts together into a game that had clear instructions, multiple levels and the best of intentions!
The instructions were clear, so I knew what to do. Remote grab sorting, got it. For a little while, I didn't realize the stealth/closer conveyor belt, so pieces were dropping from the sky, it seemed like. I like how the red crystals are indicated by warning signs on the rollers. At one point, no less than 6 crystals all spawned at once at the 'higher up' spawner, which was impossible to catch all together, but that's a minor quibble. I was able to save the world and that's great, having a win condition. If anything, either a different layout of conveyors for multiple levels and/or a different position for the player might have helped to vary the gameplay, but great job on putting it all together!
** EDIT July 2nd: New Playthrough upon discovering power source!
I really liked the cloud main menu, although it was a bit of a trip to look down. Great title screen/signage/art.
Once I figured out I could 'charge' from the electric outlet and then zap the minotaurs with my electricity, we were cookin'. I was able to gather enough souls to explore my house, (nice library) and then fall out of my back yard door. (Why gravity, we're Zeus!?) Lol.
It's a fun level layout, and once I could fight back, could enjoy what you've put together. I do wonder why Old Man Zeus needs to recharge his electricity from something as mundane as humankind's puny replacement for his power, but the mechanic worked clearly and directly, tying into the theme. Electricity as a weapon!
Some sort of instructions might have helped clarify what you were intending, but the idea of Zeus in retirement fending off minotaur home invaders is definitely unique. (I played the PCVR version using Virtual Desktop with the Meta Quest 3).
I love the title, and the simple yet effective design. Of all the Jam entries, this is the most literal application of the theme, and had a few fun applications. I could see this being useful in a science class kind of environment, which is an interesting thought about how Virtual Reality can teach as well as educate with such hands-on demonstrations.
I did have some weirdness with height. Originally upon spawning, I was too tall to reach the battery, and each time I reached for it, either the battery moved down, or we stood taller? I soon discovered I could change my altitude with the right stick, but I kept popping back up to that seemingly too tall height. I would also suggest either different color hands or floor, as they kind of blend together. That said, I loved your cable system, it was simple yet effective, and all around a clever and solid Jam Game! Great work!
Nice lil' gravity gun you got there, complete with launch function. Made for some simple yet kinetic puzzles! Unfortunately, I got to a spot where the dotted line paths suggested I needed to go, and wasn't able to jump across to jump strength. (Was I supposed to put the cube down and jump down onto it? If so, neato!) Considering you have a side post on the gun, perhaps consider a two-handed attach, as the other hand really has nothing to do, and thus you'd stabilize the firing experience and engage the player more doing so? Nice work!
Excellent point. I know it was a byproduct of trying to disallow multiple notes playing at the same time (no chords on a trumpet!), but when all you can really do is hold the trumpet and push the valves, it reduces responsiveness quickly.
A post-Jam update would include a UI to indicate the note being played, maybe simple instructions on the most basic of trumpet songs, to enable those that have never played one, to noodle out a track. As it was, I was reaching back to my youth, playing trumpet in high school band. Thank you for playing my entry, and for great comments! I may have been missing the music in your entry, but everything else about it was really stylish.
All good. I, in turn, need to learn how to export both PCVR and APKs. I've always defaulted to PCVR to keep it open to all headsets (and not constrain it with the Quest's limitations)... but if Meta Horizon OS is gonna take over all headsets, maybe I don't get to use OpenXR as my shield. You're building that lush/stylish an environment without being able to test in runtime? I salute you. Looking forward to your next entry!
Thanks so much for giving it a try and for such nice comments. It was a big swing, and only a partial hit... call it a line drive single or some such. Yes, the notes are correct, and yes, the valves+breath plays the right notes, but no, the valves aren't moving without breath (which is a glaring flaw) and no, Switch(int, bool, bool, bool) isn't enough to capture the full chromatic scale, at least the way I was attempting to organize it.
Allowing the animation to play without breath is rather trivial, but would absolutely increase responsiveness. I'm not too fond of the stick for pitch control, either, but we had a week, right?
Thanks again for this Jam, sir, and for such a clever, unique (and for me, nostalgic) theme. Looking forward to the next one!
Great feedback. I'm guessing you had real world experience with a flute, too? Trying to recreate an embouchure in VR is still the bugaboo, but as you guys have discovered, so is avoiding polyphony (only playing one note at a time, to honor the design). You're totally right, notes changing mid-blow is hard as heck (especially when each clip has an intro/outro), but its necessary to maintain the mechanic of 'airflow through valves makes sound'. Discovering I had combos of valve+blow that played NOTHING was a frustrating late discovery, but that was due to my attempts to parse the scale vs. the valve positions vs. the breath octave. (Two full closed notes in every octave with only one note with all three valves open? ARGH!) It's just not as simple as Switch(int, bool, bool, bool)...
I still want to do a post-Jam update, with some UI feedback on the notes we're playing. Should be able to do Taps at the very least... The only thing that would take your lil' Groovebox over the top would be what I cannot allow: Multiple notes at the same time (so both hands could play, but that's just wishlisting on an already cool thing)
Thanks for givin' it a toot!
Had another go at it, and my hands showed up, and I was able to play. Very nice sound, and the little CASIO keyboard style backing tracks were terrific. Couldn't play more than one-two notes at a time though, so no two-handed play and it limited the utility of finger tracking. That was my first time playing a VR keyboard, so thanks! Seemed like it was in tune, did you use samples for the keys or pitch-shifting? Nice one!
It appears that we are diametrically opposed in our playstances, as my only major concerns with your game was about defaulting to a seated position as a standing player! Yes, the calibrator is designed to work after the headset reaches a certain height, which is what you discovered upon standing. Thank you for playing!
It never occurred to me that someone would try to play such an active game from a seated position, as most punching starts with the hips, especially the big goofy swings that this game encourages. It's a healthy reminder of different playstyles, including the suggestion about stick-based turning. (The calibrator would have worked if you had stood up, as it waits to rise above a certain altitude to do so.) Thank you for playing!
Neato! One man loop band, in VR!
I'm curious what interactions you used for this, the springs on the wrist for the drumsticks were really great and a desirable effect for most VR interactables. I wasn't able to get the looping going, but the idea of runtime VR musical sequencing would make the Marc Rebillets of VR very happy, and a very clever idea all around. Were the blocks' pitch created by modifying the pitch of the block, or through different samples of different tones? See also cowbell?
I really like that the drums' volume was tied to the impulse of the collision, that improved their 'drum' feel. Great musical instruments and really clever presentation! Very cool!
I really liked the music staff as bullet trail, and the room was pleasantly presented... Pistol Whip and Audica are the models for musical shooters, so some of those aspects could have been incorporated to either make this more melodic, rhythmic, or both. For a game so heavily steeped in musical props, decor and interactables, I'm surprised that the musical notes, when shot, did not play a tone, and so, there was no musical instrument to be had here. Any tune would have sufficed, so the player had a sense of contribution to the moment beyond target practice.
It's a fun little shooter, though! Gorgeous lighting and style!
Well that's one heck of a grungy environment and style! With such a nifty room to look around, I'm surprised we couldn't move around it, too. I don't think I ever hit a note on the guitar in time with the bombs, though, and not having the guitar in the demo room meant we could only try and figure it out while we steadily lost the game. A very cool room, but the instrument in question never worked for me. Very slick, though!
It's a good start towards a Beat Saber clone, but it's a shame that nothing actually happens when you 'hit your note'. other than gaining morale. Beat Saber's songs (and hit points) are designed to add percussion to the song (also Pistol Whip's shooting rhythm), so you're actually playing along to the beat and making the song better when you're winning. (I have jokingly called it Drum Hero more often than not, especially at higher levels). I would suggest haptics on successful hits, particles, different drum sounds and improving the animation of the 'battle' so that you have some degree of understanding of progress. It's a cool idea regardless!
When I realized we were gonna do some Missile Command action, I had hoped for some cell fracture/Asteroids kinda fun, but accept that we all have to start somewhere. Here's a link to a free Unity asset that will take your falling rocks up a notch or two, and then check out 'Cell Fracture' in Blender to be able to make your own!
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/breakable-asteroids-167825
If you wanted to expand on this concept further, I'd suggest perhaps having a multiple grab setup for a large cannon like you have (to reduce the wiggle of this 'heavy weapon') and/or options of one big gun vs. two smaller guns (one for each hand?) Maybe the rocks that hit the ground spawn enemies that charge you at ground level, to vary the angle of what you're shooting at? Nice one!
I died twice to the malfunctioning airlock, and was bemused to fall out and then downwards of the space station.
Space, man! Turn off that isGravity bool so we can Dutchman off in whatever direction! Any direction but down!
Kidding aside, it was a nice level layout, and I liked the maps and the use of both 'suction' (airlocks) and 'lower gravity areas' I would have appreciated a faster locomotion method, and more low-zero gravity scenarios, rather than walking at a steady pace while the space station 'self-destructs' around me. The hand with the green security band was a nice touch, but didn't get so far as to find the red key.
I use the Quest for standing/untethered movement, so I always default to standing. This meant my head was clipping into the 'thrusters'/exhausts of the hot-air balloon throughout the flight. Once it started to turn while ascending, there didn't seem to be a way to stop it, which meant it rapidly became a test of VR vertigo. I've got good VR legs, but that wasn't very pleasant. A hot air balloon should be as pretty an experience as possible, considering how limited your interactions can be. Some clouds (which can help define altitude gains), some water/hills/mountains to vary the terrain below, maybe a simple procedural sun?
I don't think I have MR setup, so my kitty was in a grey void, but I still got to enjoy having a third person feline controller to play with. I like that they have specific interactions with objects, I like how the head moves in relation to the body (for the most part, sometimes it'd contort, but it's a work in progress, I dig it). I can imagine how the jump will work, and suggest maybe a charging function for the leap, keeping in how cats 'power up' before launching?
I managed to pick up the cat with remote grab at one point, and must say that seemed pretty accurate for how a cat DOES NOT WANT TO BE PICKED UP. Cat ownership with none of the scratching? Yes please.
Very cool, sir!
My condolences to the author's loss, and my compliments to the team that created this work of art. My only suggestion would be to add hand models (and/or hand posing) of some kind. So many scenes are delightful (and poignant, in hindsight) in their presentation, the only immersion-breaker (to me) was the controller models.
This is a shining example of how effective VR can be as a story-telling medium, even in the abstract, with just little Fragments of memory presented visually and backed by vocal performance. Keeping the form of the lost one indistinct allows the rest of us also familiar with grief to share in the reminder that the good memories are what live forever, in all of us. Thank you for sharing this. Tremendous work to all involved!