Eye of the Temple

Explore an vast and treacherous temple in room-scale VR · By runevision

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Eye of the Temple community

New Build February 5, 2018 - New Puzzle and Action Areas

A topic by runevision created Feb 05, 2018 Views: 1,002 Replies: 18

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runevisionDeveloper6 years ago (2 edits)

New build available February 5. (Read here how to sign up to get access.) Same download link you already got works for new build.

I've prepared a new build that includes some of the new areas I've been developing and integrates them into the temple. One area has focus on puzzle and another on action.

Apart from adding more variety to the gameplay, there's now also a better mixture of moving inside and outside the temple instead of only being outside in the beginning area. This begins to better represent the vision I have for the final game, although there is still much work to do.

New additions:

New Puzzle with a rotating structure.
Head-scratcher or piece of cake to figure out?
New Action in a new type of rooms.
I won't spoil what this room is but the 'Indy' is strong is this one. Do you find these rooms fun or frustrating?
New Environment such as a crenelation area on top of an outside wall.
What do you think of this area?
A Bird that accompanies you in the beginning of the game.
This is a bit subtle. Do you notice it? Do you see what the point is?
New look for scarabs that better indicate that they take damage when hit.
Is it clear enough?

Instructions:

Play area of 2 by 2 meters needed.
Both Vive controllers are needed (for torch and a whip).

Feedback

Reply to share your thoughts. All feedback welcome!

I'd like to hear you thoughts on all the questions I wrote above under "new additions".

Also, a reminder that I have still gotten no feedback at all on the speedrun mode of the game, so if anyone dare try that one out, I'd much appreciate to hear about it. :)

Jaysinvialoux6 years ago(+1)

can’t wait! I’ll try tomorrow and try that speed run.

Jaysinvialoux6 years ago

when are you going to release this game?

runevisionDeveloper6 years ago

That remains to be seen, but I'm aiming for the second half of this year.

Jaysinvialoux6 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

I just tried it. I love the new additions like giving the whip more to do, the new texture work looks great, and I love the new Indiana Jones part.

I’m about half way through it. So far I have a couple notes:

I found at the Indiana Jones part when I ducked, it didn’t even kill me when it fully comes down at some places. Also I still think you need to either speed up the part after you beat the boss or give us something to do as you move over the temple. It’s excruciatingly slow and boring at that part.

I’ll finish it up later and possible try the speed run. Although thinking about it while I was playing, I don’t think this game needs a speed run. I like to take my time but that’s me. I’ll give it a try tho.

runevisionDeveloper6 years ago

Thanks for trying it out so far! If you're half-way you're probably yet to try the new small puzzle. I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts on that as well.

> I found at the Indiana Jones part when I ducked, it didn’t even kill me when it fully comes down at some places.

Thanks for letting me know! Need to check if some bug snuck in after last time I tested this.

> Also I still think you need to either speed up the part after you beat the boss or give us something to do as you move over the temple. It’s excruciatingly slow and boring at that part.

Right, this is on my to-do list to do something about.

> I’ll finish it up later and possible try the speed run. Although thinking about it while I was playing, I don’t think this game needs a speed run. I like to take my time but that’s me. I’ll give it a try tho.

I'd say I agree it doesn't *need* it. It's more of an optional extra bonus. And the speedrun mode is a quite different experience. Less focus on a balanced experience and more on a crazy challenge. In the final game I'll probably only unlock it after completing the game normally. I'm curious to hear what you think if you do try it out. :)

Jaysinvialoux6 years ago (1 edit)

I did finish it and got throught that new puzzle area pretty easily. It was a cool addition but didnt make me scratch my head at all. I really think you need to add more music to your game. I love the parts that have the loud intense music but the rest of the game is too quiet. Need some nice egyptian ambient music or something.

I started on the speed run but didnt get very far. I think there sould be a timer or something to incicate your speed while playing that. Is the speed run any different than the regular game? I think the blocks were moving faster but Im not sure. I guess what im getting at, is its hard to tell if your actually playing the speed run or not.

runevisionDeveloper6 years ago

Thanks for the update!

> I did finish it and got throught that new puzzle area pretty easily. It was a cool addition but didnt make me scratch my head at all.

That's fair! It isn't meant to be hard, but as designer it's always hard to predict in advance how it appears to other people. :)

> I really think you need to add more music to your game.

Yes, agreed! There is more music planned, but I'm waiting a bit with this until the level design overhaul is further along, so the musician and I have a better idea of what environments to create music for. Glad you like the existing music. :)

> I started on the speed run but didnt get very far. I think there sould be a timer or something to incicate your speed while playing that.

Thanks a lot for trying the speedrun! I can see I have some work making it clearer how it works. There should be a timer on the handle of the torch, but it may be a bit hard to see. I can work on making it clearer.

> Is the speed run any different than the regular game? I think the blocks were moving faster but Im not sure.

Ah. The speed increases if you are timing your steps well. This means that you step down on a new platform in the same moment as it lines up, which requires that you started taking the step a bit in advance. I wrote more details in the post about the speedrun mode here.

If you keep timing your steps well you can build up insanely crazy speed, but it's definitely not clear how to use the speedrun mode without that explanation. That's something I'll work on for sure.

Jaysinvialoux6 years ago

oh, I also love the new area additions

Jaysinvialoux6 years ago

OMG!! I played tonight with the Indiana Jones soundtrack on from google play. Makes this game so much better!

runevisionDeveloper6 years ago

Haha, nice! :) Did you get an impression of which tracks fits particularly well with which areas of the game? I can't use the Indiana Jones soundtrack itself, but it would be interesting to know in terms of developing the soundtrack for the parts of the game that doesn't have it yet.

Jaysinvialoux6 years ago(+1)

not sure, I had this on shuffle and it all fit great.

https://play.google.com/music/m/Bdsa7q2czk5gployqsx7ski25q4?t=The_Indiana_Jones_Trilogy__New_Recordings_From_Classic_Scores

supermanscott6 years ago

loving the new additions, the ceiling bit is fabulous. The sense of freedom this game gives you is still second to none. Amazes me how quickly you forget you’re just in a room somewhere.

I think the whip could be improved slightly, with maybe using the trigger to do a ‘whip back’ which could be used to grab levers better, and also a whip back at the right time to hit enemies harder.

I find myself looking at my feet a lot, so maybe use things up higher to force your eyesight upward.

The other thing, is that I’ve changed the room my vr is in since I last played. The new room has a few more obstacles around the edges which means in your game I’m often playing with the chaperone bounds on view. I know this sounds challenging but you could almost do with a system that lets you manipulate the centre of your play area and downsize your overall area etc. Or rotate it maybe, something to cater for the variations in play space. Big ask and probably not possible I know.

Awesome stuff though.

runevisionDeveloper6 years ago

Thanks for trying it out!

I think the whip could be improved slightly, with maybe using the trigger to do a ‘whip back’ which could be used to grab levers better, and also a whip back at the right time to hit enemies harder.

Hmm. It's kind of a design decision to keep the whip "pure" in that it doesn't move "on its own" based on buttons/controls but 100% based on hand movement only. It's part of the dedication to immersion in the game. As a result, it's probably the element in the game with most skill involved too, for better or worse. You can usually grab levers in the first try with the right technique, but it can require some practice to get to that point. I appreciate the input but I think I'll keep this one as it is. :)

I find myself looking at my feet a lot, so maybe use things up higher to force your eyesight upward.

Yes, indeed, I agree! There's a few things already, but I'm always considering more ways to create variation in where to look. The obstacles that come down from the ceiling is one thing to look out for. Gems that are sometimes above your head is another, but currently it's easy to just miss those, so I need to figure out a way to draw attention to them.

but you could almost do with a system that lets you manipulate the centre of your play area and downsize your overall area etc. Or rotate it maybe, something to cater for the variations in play space. Big ask and probably not possible I know.

As you guessed, this is tricky. The game requires a square 2x2 meters, and SteamVR usually centers it from the beginning, so moving or rotating the area would rarely improve things much. Do you mean that you think you could fit the square better than SteamVR does it out of the box? Or that you'd move it around regularly while playing (that would probably be frustrating)? Or if you mean if I could make the game take up less space, that's unfortunately not possible with how it's designed.

Jakhak6 years ago

so moving or rotating the area would rarely improve things much.

Moving might not be necessary, but i believe rotating everything would be helpful due to cable handling. When I started it up first, the default orientation was so that the cables came from left and a bit forward, which was annoying when stepping left in-game. It would have been better if they came from behind, and different setups tend to have slightly different cable management. An option to rotate the playarea in steps of 90 degrees would perhaps be useful.

runevisionDeveloper6 years ago

I can see how that could be useful sometimes. I'll see what I can do!

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runevisionDeveloper6 years ago

Hi. I'm not looking for more testers right now, but leave a message in the thread https://itch.io/t/59040/early-testers-welcome-thread-introduce-yourself then you'll be next in line when I'm looking for more.

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