💥 ProtonVR Devblog: Post-Alpha Feedback & Path Forward
Thank You, Community!
First off, a massive thank you to everyone who jumped into the Alpha Demo build, played around, and provided invaluable feedback!
Your support has been incredible. With little to no dedicated marketing, ProtonVR has gathered over 1,200 Wishlists! That is a staggering number, and it validates that we are building something people genuinely want to play. It feels amazing.
I also want to assure you that I am always active and accessible on Discord. If my Steam communication is sometimes delayed, it is simply because I am laser-focused on development during this critical phase. A huge thank you for your understanding and for sticking with ProtonVR's development!
Now, let's get down to brass tacks—the feedback.
🎯 Demo Feedback Analysis
Playtime and Engagement
I was honestly floored by the demo statistics. The median player spent over 45 minutes in the current build! I had initially aimed for a 10-15 minute "taster," but some of you went all-in for hours at a time! That level of engagement is a fantastic sign.
While the overall feedback was very positive from most testers, the work is far from over. Besides the immediate bugs and quality-of-life (QoL) improvements, I am prioritizing the opinions of experienced VR shooter players to ensure the core combat loop is challenging and satisfying.
Weapons, Attachments, and Upgrades
This was the clear highlight. My goal was to convey player freedom through customizable weapons, and it worked. Players overwhelmingly enjoyed the firing feedback and interaction with the guns. Weapons felt varied, though some balancing is definitely needed.
The consensus is that they are fun to play with—and yes, I’m looking at you, Pump-Action Shotgun!
Enemies: Not Great, Not Terrible
Opinions regarding the enemies were merely okay. They are functional but clearly need a personality and presence upgrade.
The primary focus right now is enemy feedback. Hitting an enemy, like the Cyborg, must feel better than it currently does. The current state—where all enemies share one alert sound, one pain sound, one death sound, and a single hit animation—is the core issue.
The Fix: Enemies, starting with the Cyborg, are getting a comprehensive personality treatment. We are moving to over 10 sound effects per category. Expect randomized vocoded sentences when idle or alerted, several unique pain hits, and some truly gnarly death sounds. They will feel alive and dynamic.
Finally one important thing that is missing was a Difficulty option to get a more challenging experienced, some of you just mowed down enemies like fish-in-a-barrel... That's on me.
Hit Feedback
Players enjoyed the Hit Effects and Hitmarkers. However, two points occasionally caused issues for some players: the Flashing effect (on enemy kills) and the Screen Shake (when shooting). This caused some reported nausea.
These effects need refinement, but to ensure accessibility, I will definitely add a dedicated Option to Toggle these effects On/Off in the QoL settings.
Level Design Consistency
Last but not least, my biggest source of woe: the test-level for Cybernetics research. Feedback here was less concise, but the key takeaways are clear.
On the positive side, people enjoyed the element of verticality (climbing, monkey bars, ramps), which adds a fresh layer to movement, as well as the overall aesthetic (machinery, computers).
On the negative (and I strongly agree with this), many felt the level was bland, inconsistent, and messy. The core issue is that the visual language and layouts can differ too much between rooms, forcing players to re-learn the structure every time. This is fatiguing and takes focus away from the source of enjoyment: the combat.
How will the bland and confusing layouts be fixed?
To understand the problem, let's define levels in ProtonVR:
Levels are a series of pre-fabricated connected rooms, placed in a pseudo-randomized order.
The demo generated 8-10 rooms from a pool of 48 rooms. The issue is the wild variance between these rooms. The solution is applying a strict set of Rules and Standards for level creation to enforce consistency.
Example: Rooms in Level X will all share core features, such as 2 floors and a central bridge. Rooms in Level Y will all be elongated, have 3 floors, and require jetpacks or ladders.
The variety and unpredictability must be easily readable but unknown just enough to keep the experience fresh. Rooms within a given level theme will feel the same structurally, but their top-down layout shape will be randomized (L-shape, X-shape, T-shape, etc.).
🛠️ Final Notes & Next Steps
All these conclusions and necessary readjustments would not be possible if over 500 players had not installed and tried the demo. Thank you again.
My goal is for the next demo to feel 80% closer to the final gameplay experience. This is a highly iterative process that relies entirely on community feedback. Nothing is added or changed without aiming to maximize fun—no excuses.
List of priorities for next release:
Level Design (More consistent structure, less bland aesthetic)
Refined Gameplay Combat Feel
Difficulty Options
Significant Enemy Hit Feedback Improvements
New Enemies
Critical Quality of Life Options (Toggles for screen effects)
Bugfixes
Until then, meet the newly textured Titan Corp. Centurion MK III!
(it's the updated version of the guy you see on the cover, now with a fresh and proper pixel-texture look)
Kind regards,
-Sam