OK we've been teasing some "big announcements" for a while. Here they are!
1) Rec Room is going cross-platform. We'll have more to say soon but the tdlr is that Rec Room is coming to Oculus w/ Touch. We've been testing it out and it works great. This means existing Vive players will get many new players to splat with paintballs, befuddle in Charades, and defeat in disc golf.
2) Announcing Rec Room memberships. Membership is free and optional. Go through our (hopefully) rather delightful signup process by finding a kiosk in the Locker Room:
http://imgur.com/kQIflTQ
Why would you want to become a member? Oh baby...
- Private games (COMING SOON) - members can create and invite each other to private games. So if you want to play with just specific people, you can do that (as long as you're all members).
- Cross-platform friendships (COMING SOON) - we've been relying on Steam's backend for friends, etc. But since we're expanding to Oculus (and beyond...) we need to support cross-platform friendships. So we've been busy standing up our own system for that.
- New "selfie" user pic - update your selfie at any time using the kiosks in the Locker Room.
- Secure your Rec Room username! Do you want to be 'gribbly' or 'gribbly_87'? We support display names, so you can set your visible name to whatever you want (consistent with our code of conduct). But you know it's cool to have a rad username too =]
3) New watch menu - we've migrated the Rec Room menu to be a cool smart watch! Rather than pressing a button, just look at your wrist:
http://imgur.com/2TecbOe
This is v1.0, it's a little clunky (e.g., you still have to use the laser pointer, and you can't use it one-handed). Expect improvements to this over the next few weeks.
4) New ghost button. We've sometimes hear reports that players receive unwanted attention and feel crowded, mobbed or otherwise uncomfortable in Rec Room. I've had this experience myself :-/ Whether it's just over-enthusiastic people who don't realize they're too in your face, or someone actually being deliberately creepy, it's no fun. Behold the ghost button:
http://imgur.com/GKkainy
The new ghost button is designed to (a) be quick and easy to use, and (b) immediately create breathing room to figure out the situation without someone waving objects in your face or saying inappropriate things at you.
To activate ghost mode, use the watch menu (as shown in the GIF), or press and hold the menu button for two seconds.
Ghost mode currently works in the lobby and pre/post game. It does not work during a live match.
All of this is live!
Some additional notes on memberships:
- This is a "soft-launch" of memberships. Only players Level 2 or higher can sign up right now.
- You'll need to provide a working email address to become a member. We won't spam you!
- Private games and cross-platform friendships are actively being developed, but won't be available in this update. They are COMING SOON.
As always, thanks for playing Rec Room, and please continue to provide us with any feedback you have positive or negative. We read it all!