“And so I’m back, from outer space; you just walked in to find me here, with this VR HMD on my face…..”
First off - APOLOGIES!! For being silent for so long; so long in fact that some of you (with very good reason) thought that I had abandoned the project all together. This is understandable considering my long public absence, but I am happy to assure you that this is not the case.
I did have some time away from the game’s development as I had to go get, what our mothers would call, ‘a proper job’. I was as shocked as anyone when PFE didn’t instantly sell millions of copies and I wasn’t sat in the back of a limo flipping through ‘What Trophy Wife’. Then the Girlfriend stepped in and gave me a reality check. She said that I had to get a job because she likes the finer things in life, like ‘not being homeless’ and ‘not having to beg for food on the streets’. I tried to convince her that I was suffering for my art, but she convinced me that I would be suffering from her foot in my ass if I didn’t get jiggy on the job front.
I got a job :( but to be honest, I needed a bit of a break for a little while - 18 months of 18 hour days had taken their toll and I was a bit burnt out. It wasn’t just the game dev, it was the constant changes by oculus / valve / Unity. The oculus and valve software was still basically in beta and in a constant state of flux and every time they changed something, Unity changed the game engine to keep up, which would instantly break the build I had on the dev machine and I’d lose days trying to get it back how it was. It was both heart breaking and soul destroying.
Needless to say, I could not stay away for long. As soon as I got through the probation period at work, I went back at developing Push full time in my spare time (if that makes sense). To help things along, both oculus and valve now seem to have much more stable builds of their headset software and Unity has released a new version of their engine that seems stable enough for me to not want to update with every patch, which should save me weeks/months of pain.
So where are we up to? Well, pretty much new everything. New camera system to accommodate different headsets. I’ve completely ripped apart the locomotion system (again!) and it’s much more stable now, revamped the mission system, re worked vehicle enter / exit system, totally re-made the tracked controller layer to easily accommodate new controllers, nailed in the support for Oculus touch, re made picking up weapons, fixed the issue with picking up turrets on the resource planets, basically everything that anyone was having issues with, I’ve taken back to bare metal and started again. It’s been a slog, but now I have a solid foundation to build the rest of the game on.
So no Guys, not given up; I couldn’t if I wanted to. I love the project too much to just walk away and I get such a massive kick when I create something new or implement a new feature. Hell, it’s like being Flynn - Digital Jazz man!
Why so silent for so long? Well, I needed to have a fixed and improved version of the game on my drive before going public with it. Silence is bad enough, but to go public too early and then promise deadlines that might not get hit, well that felt worse.
So YES! New improved PFE! Can you see it? NO!
I won’t be doing a steam update until it’s been thoroughly beta tested. The last thing I need is a bunch of new bugs and more negative feedback. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BETA TEST? I’m rather hoping that some of the usual suspects on here might be up for the challenge of doing some testing with me. If you have the time and inclination and would like to get involved, and you can provide me with bug reports and feedback, please do drop me a mail at [email protected] I especially want to hear from you if you have had problems with the game in the past (I need to know I’ve squished those bugs!)
What can you expect to see once you get in the new build. Well, if you have never had a problem and you completed upto the end of the first solar system, then not much tbh; things might feel a bit smoother, some extra options, you were one of the lucky ones. If you have been playing this on an oculus, then you guys get Touch! Dual wielding a cyber sword and a shotgun is just waiting for you! If you were one of the unlucky ones who could not pick up a gun or get in one of the vehicles - well my friend, new space and planetside adventures await ;) If you are a monitor player, the gunplay has been considerably tightened up.
I just want to say, to those of you who like the game and have remain interested enough to check in here every now and again, and possibly got upset / angry at the thought that it might have been dropped: Thank you. Your support is very much appreciated and a great source of drive. Again, sorry for the radio silence and working under the radar: will try harder in future.
Email me, we’ll do Beta!
Cheers! And many thanks,
Lupus