2017/04/17 Update! Behind the Scenes Work, and Descend Progress!

1. Oculus Compatibility!

I went ahead and tweaked some things Oculus users suggested, but there were no major issues overall in testing! Going to mark the game as Oculus Compatible officially this week!

2. Demo Switch!

For the Oculus compatibility, I had to update the demo build - they WERE seprate branches, which would have been a pain. To get around this, I went ahead and implemented a "switch" in the engine, so I can easily swap between demo and regular builds in the future. This one took a long time, and was a good amount of work...BUT now demo players can help test the new mode in development as well (will get more voices involved to create the best possible game mode)

3. Quit Confirmation!

Now when you hit "quit," it asks if you're sure. This was to prevent exiting the entire app by accident (suggested by an Oculus tester who would pick controllers up from desk and accidentally hit "quit" - I thought it was a great suggestion) - this also exposed some serious issues with the menu system that I spent some time fixing.

4. Optimizations!

I was ready to hop in and work on the new mode, but my controllers weren't charged, so I spent a good amount of time optimizing textures in classic mode and on the fists - more texture optimizations to come. You shouldn't notice a visible difference, but much less should be loaded on RAM now.

5. Updates to Descend!

----------FIRST---------- Previously, Descend was a straight mode. It went from point A to point B in a straight line, then Descended to the next stage. I thought to myself, "This is boring." SO - NOW movement is based on a generated spline - the map can now turn! Here's an image of two procedurally generated maps from a bird's eye view: Here's what that looks like in the game (Turning around corners definitely livens things up a bit and keeps you on your toes!): This one was tough, and I'm quite proud of it! In addition to this, I've removed being able to spin around the tunnel for two reasons:

• 1. Current implementation no longer works with the corners

• 2. It was causing motion sickness in local playtesters

Still some tweaking to do, but the map generation algorithm will only get better over time! ----------SECOND---------- There are now voice clips for the first and second stages - there will be a (small...very small) story associated with this mode! Get down and destroy the parasite boss! ----------THIRD---------- There's now new map art (with more to come) - each map segment is now generated from a circle of 8 randomly selected tiles - to add some variation in the art. There are currently 4 tiles for the game to choose from with more to come - here are some example images: This is 100% aesthetic, but important. Each ZONE of the game will also have completely different art when all said and done. (There will be 3 zones, each consisting of 3 levels (for a total of 9 levels)) before the boss fight! ----------FOURTH---------- The framework for stage progression is now in place, so each level can have its own set of enemies/challenges! Each ZONE will have different enemies and obstacles when all said and done! Still LOTS to do in this mode, but hopefully this gives you a decent idea of where I'm headed with it!

That's all I have for tonight - stay tuned for future updates, and keep on punching! Also, I'm loving the feedback you all are providing! It's a huge help!