Hello everybody! Today we release fully, and are out of early access after 1 year and 1 month. Tons of new features, bug fixes, and upgrades today! This comes after 21 major updates in the 1.0 update cycle and 68 major updates in the 2.0 update cycle. All weekly, all the time.
Before we get started, we would love you on our discord to help shape the game.
Secondly, if you're enjoying the game please leave a Steam review with your thoughts.
Thirdly and lastly, Happy birthday to Banana Cat, one of our playtesters.
Revamped the Tutorial
The tutorial is all-new. It takes place in the frontrooms now, and has a brutalist concrete feel. It has two ranges, and a setup menu all integrated into the tutorial. The last room has been shortened, and the room with the upgrade bench and crafting bench now uses the integrated workbench layout. There is now a new section titled "Know your entity" which shows wanderers four entities and how to defeat them. This took Paul and I ages to put together, I hope you enjoy the new upgrades here!
Added level 999
A starry night sky is present with asteroids all around. It's peaceful, but it seems everybody left. There are also long-abandoned houses and taller buildings that house secrets. What were they doing there? This level also is completely greyscale. The comets fly by and you stare into the sky. How could this get more peaceful?
Added Level 46
A long, windy, yet surprisingly calm desert level. This level is a giant "M" shape when you look at it from above, as you take three sharp turns to go from the start to the end. The start has a large temple and a small mountaintop ruins. It also has a large waterfall with a small rocky pond below. The ending section has an even larger sandstone temple, with extra houses where the exit door is located. There is a large oasis at the end as well, sporting tall palm trees and a large pool of water. There are also two small castle-like areas in the middle of the level that have supplies. In addition, there are many secret areas.
New entity, sand demons
These beasts hide out in Level 46 and look like facelings, but with larger limbs and no face. However, the largest difference between them and facelings is that they are completely made out of sandstone. They jump to attack you, and the jumps do a bit of initial damage + bleeding damage. They can also melee attack, but this is much rarer to see.
Avatars are now off by default
There is no checkbox to turn them on, you have to go to the frontrooms closet to turn them on now. You can also switch back to gloves only right there.
Improved grab-pulling
Pulling an object from afar (while it still only takes up the grip button) is much more like Boneworks than the original BrVR. It interpolates the rotation (as well as the position) to the hand, is slower, and has a smaller radius to actually grab the item once it's pulled.
Did accurate chambering mechanics to all weapons
Take the mag out, put it in, take it out again, put it in again, and as long as you have more than 0 ammo you won't have to pull the charging handle once. This works different for open-bolt weapons.
Added 4 new songs
These are all tracks playing on the radios around the levels. These are all synth jams with a solid beat. They are all a bit different from the classical and jazz music heard in the other levels, a welcome break. This also means there are 4 new radios in these levels, but that begs the question who put them there? Hmmm.
Added the supernova shotgun
A nice Benelli product now in-game! A solid 6-round pump shotgun that has a picatinny rail on top.
Added more animations to entities
When you approach a faceling, he will play a new alarm animation and sound! In other words, he will scream at you! Hounds, when jumping, now have a new alarm sound too, and the chance for them to jump has increased from 20% to 33%.
Added destructibles
Destructible vases, boxes, and more! Finally, players can open up the mystery "Amazon package" in level 0. Peace at last.
Added stealth
Near an entity? See him in the next room over? Might just want to keep it on the down-low if you don't have any business fighting. Sprinting will now instantly alarm entities if you are near them. This isn't the same for all entities, some hear better than others. But generally speaking, sprinting 20 meters away from them is safe.
Better partygoer balloon hit detection
Ever since version 1.3 and the dawn of partygoers in BrVR, you have been able to shoot their balloons. However, due to how projectile systems are built out, they all hit the balloons slightly differently. This is fixed, and you should be able to hit the balloons with anything now!
Full auto balloon gun
A fun weapon for arena mode. Hold down the trigger and spray death, level fun style. Possibly outlawed in The Backrooms Geneva Convention after the FUN war in level 52, but the MEG still allows use of it.
Added carrots, potatoes, and radishes
Three new fruits and vegetables! These aren't much different from the other ones in terms of nutrition though.
Added new houses to level 9
Some near the second highway, and some elsewhere. There's also some new foliage and terrain variation on that level.
Revamped the Charleston button in the snackrooms
Level 6.1, AKA the snackrooms, has never been this fun! Now pick from songs on a little UI, a simplified interface. This level has also been optimized considerably.
Replaced sandwiches
What's better than sitting down in level 0 and having a good 'ol chicken sandwich? If you said "absolutely nothing", you'd be correct. Don't be a fool and go crazy back there, have a chicken sandwich on your person for tougher times ahead.
Added the Degle .50
We are on the growing list of games that have this joke weapon. Cardboard deagle. What could be better? It does 20 damage compared to the 70 that the deagle does.
Did PBR texture changes to levels 13, 15, 17, 11, 26, 40 and 3999
Level 13's wallpaper and carpet looks better. Level 15's walls look better. Level 17 actually looks like an aircraft carrier interior. Level 11 has normals and roughness in the streets. Level 26's walls look better. Level 40's carpet and walls look better. Level 3999's tiles look better.
Renamed the M16 to the M4A1
Haha, it was named the M16 the entire time. We just completely missed this. Shame on us XD
Fixed the Chris Vector hitbox in the casino
Try to steal Casino Chris' prized possession? Now it's a smoother experience. but remember, crime never pays especially with skin-stealers.
Made Casino Chris play his own slot machine
Ever 13 seconds he reaches for a chip. Every 13 seconds he plays it. And every 13 seconds, he feels the crushing defeat come over his skin-stealer body. He lost again. Is this how it will end for Chris?
Added a "skin-stealer room service" minigame
A silly little minigame, you deliver almond water to random rooms in level 13. You win 900 dollars per almond water served.
Redid the bar 13 bartending minigame
Instead of an awkward, cartoony speech bubble, there's now a monitor that shows the order. Pretty simple change.
Added more entity sports cards
You can buy them at the Pawn Shop in level 1 and hoard them with the "save level data" feature. In the next update, the prices will go up considerably and you will be able to sell them for money. Get in on the deals now! There are 8 different cards to collect, with more on the way. There are also "wax packs" that have 10 random cards.
Added quarter life levels to the hub
Anomalous skin, Unforeseen skin, and skin complex are all available from the hub. You have to unlocked them first though, and since they're an Easter egg they aren't available in the sandbox hub.
Added BUZTELLA
If you are a very certain person you may know what this means. Inside joke.
Added new videos to the TV in the frontrooms
Some fun lil news broadcasts! These replace the old BrVR videos that were once on the TV
Added more orange and blue crates to outposts
These give higher-value loot than the standard beige crate. They also require a crate key, and those can be found in outposts. You see where I'm going here.
Added a new poster to the casino
It's for "social distancing" and it's a play on Casino Chris's animation. What a skin-stealer. Talked about him 3 times already. Stay "about this long" away from each other to stay safe from the hound virus!
The batteries stick in the ammo pouch
No more scrambling for batteries when it starts to go under 25%. They are all in your ammo pouch like everything else.
Added lamps that turn on/off via a button
These are just table lamps with simple buttons, nothing too special.
Added machines that turn on/off with buttons
In level 15, you can turn on/off the machines with two separate interactions. These machines play pipe noises and such.
Improved revolver animation
New sounds for putting in a speedloader, plus an empty speedloader now physically falls out upon it being done loading.
Added a light function to the flashlight
It sort of shows "rings" around the flashlights cone of influence. This cone is slimmer, but is much longer than before. However, it is a bit duller overall (wall hack guy reference!)
Added a working record player to the frontrooms and level 5
You can play disks, and the player has a moveable head. You can move it by pressing trigger while holding it. There is also a record player on level 5 with a different song. Real roaring 20's vibes.
Added new molotov cocktails
It's a glass bottle now, has a fire effect, and a glass break noise. The functionality is the same.
Revamped the hub
It looks a lot more like the wikidot picture! It's brighter, with more lights and lines. There are also curbs and more street markings. So much better than the old version.
Optimization of many levels
Hardcore culling, lods, and texture changes has led to better framerates for all! Less stutter, less dropped frames, and more than that, more happy people (and skin-stealers) exploring the backrooms.
Redid post-processing in the frontrooms apartment
The apartment looks better with better exposure settings and of course better color grading.
Added more furniture to level 5
More chairs, pillars, nightstands, drawers, and more. Really livens up the place in the darker areas of the lobby!
You can now upgrade the flashlight
It takes 2 batteries and a flashlight to upgrade. Once upgraded, the flashlight consumes 90 times less battery. How this is accomplished, the MEG will never know.
Added an indication that slots are full
OMG! CAN'T STORE STUFF IN MY BACKPACK. GAME BROKEN.
Not anymore! Now you know when it's your fault that the slots "aren't working". You can also know when it's the game's fault (Awww c'mon!)
Fixed recoil on the 870
Boomstick means boom, that boom includes some velocity backwards. So now instead of awkwardly turning, it actually pushes back. Crazy. (I was crazy once! They locked me in a room. A skin-stealer room with skin. Skin-stealer skin makes me crazy).
Added removable caps to almond water
A bittersweet change, but a neat realism change. Essentially, you can pull the caps off and take 10 separate drinks now.
Redid camp amber
More concrete, props, and a more grungy feel. This will continue to get more upgrades.
Added a ragdoll fling multiplier
Ragdolls can fling upward with this new optional setting. This is legitimately hilarious. It only works for humanoid entities and hounds right now.
Added a setting for watch presence on hands
You can have the watch be on both hands (default), right hand, or left hand. Pretty basic setting.
Added a setting for door picture presence
If off, door pictures will show up and so will the back section of the no-clip-o-matic doors. If on, door frames and the clock will be the only things showing. Combine this with the doorframe replacements for a neat no-clipping experience.
Revamped the cimkin rooms
Thanks cameraman. More fried chicken.
Added physical props to level 71
Boxes are physical and able to be picked up. Pretty basic change.
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That's it!!
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A bit of a premature statement. There are tons of smaller changes I didn't mention here. However, that's all of the major changes. It's been a wild ride for us and our fam, and a really fun one.
For reference, BRVR WILL STILL UPDATE AFTER THIS UPDATE. We will continually fix things and add new content until BrVR hits "4.0". Then we'll do smaller, less frequent (mostly quality of life) changes. We started in October of 2021, and released Early access in July of 2022. But now, we have this big date and event to remember. We would like to thank our wonderful playtesters over on our discord for finding bugs and helping out immensely.
Hope you all have a fun time with this update!