Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Fixes to the stacks in the upcoming weeks

I've been paying close attention to users experiences with the stacks and have compiled a list of stuff that needs fixed/improved before my final release to Oculus.

Remove those cubes
In my head, it sounded like a good idea. A way to encourage the player to explore the boards. In reality it is a tedious mechanic. Better to have a game that plays in an hour all the way through than a game that takes days to find stuff. I will still have the hidden keys and egg but those cubes have to go.

Fix the flashlight
The flashlight doesn't have a mesh and it was causing UDK to spew out log errors. I got a million log lines in 15 minutes which reduced the run speed by half. I pulled it to remove the log errors but that made some parts of the game really hard.

Improve the Stacks Maze
That was the first thing I ever lit in UDK and it is way too dark. The problem is that I accidentally lost the original blender object file for the crates and they have no light mapping. I will have to rebuild that mesh from scratch. I may rebuild the entire maze so that it proportionally matches the adventure 2600 maze in addition to just the flow of it.

Move the Stacks respawn point
Falling off the ledge and starting back in the maze was unintentional and can frustrate anyone trying to reach the clouds.

Allow customization of jump, run & view navigation
I need to allow people to customize the experience to make it more comfortable (if that is possible)

Provide clarity to confusing game elements
Prevent the user from accidentally replaying intro or resetting their game. If I remove the cubes I may not need a "new" option anymore.

Work on improving the Stacks map performance
I will probably need to regenerate it with even smaller ring segments.

Fix some miscellaneous bugs
There are some clipping area issues and a missing catch that need added.

Research the wireless controller issue
The wireless controller isn't working for everyone. I'm not sure what is going on there. I can't reproduce it but I will do more research on it.

If you have any other issues/problems that need address (besides vertigo and run speed) drop me a line here or on reddit.

4 comments:

  1. I hope the cubes don't disappear entirely. They are a reward for exploring, even if they aren't mandatory. Like finding collectables. I just played Viscera Cleanup Detail which is entirely about doing repetitious tedious work - but it does have the option to leave the job unfinished without negatively impacting forward progress.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the game will have 2 modes: casual and gunter. gunter will require all cubes. only the gunter mode will have the keys, egg and alternate 2001 ending

      Delete
  2. Hello dude.. i was woundering if you had an update for the stack for the DK2 i can't get the head tracking to work on my rig... thank i can't wait to play the game.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do not. Getting the stacks to work with DK2 means porting it to UE4. Porting means starting from scratch. I'm taking a break from game development. When I return, the game will be different with the stacks crashed into a landscape and a rabbit hole leading to new version of the boards.

      Delete