Gate Health Display
One of the pieces of feedback that I often get is one about displaying information. Particularly information about Gate Health, which is an important part of the game. In VR however, 'Health Bars' feel like a shortcut and take away from the sense of immersion that I am conscientious about maintaining. So a lot of though was put into a way to show Gate Health at a glance, but also keeping it grounded in the physical world and enhance (or at least maintain) the level of presence.
This was the solution we came up with. Gates are now adorned with a symmetrical pattern of crystals. Each representing a small percentage of the gate's total health. As the gate takes damage the crystals will pop off, and if the gate is healed the crystals will regenerate.
This servers a few purposes and (in my opinion) also increases the feeling of presence within the game. Not only is it now possible to take a quick look at the gate to see roughly how many gems are remaining (since the pattern is uniform and symmetrical it is easy to quickly judge what percentage is missing), but you can now get a much better sense of how much damage each enemy does in an intuitive and interesting way. When a small enemy attacks the gate one or two crystals might pop off per hit, but when a charging or flying enemy hits, a bunch of crystals explode off the wall.
Due to the relatively complex nature of the crystals (100-200 individual gems that all have physics when they fall off the gate), they are only active when EffectQuality is set to 1 or above.
SteamVR Home Item
QuiVr now also has a collectible item in SteamVR Home! You can read a bit more about that here!
In Korea
I'm in Korea until the 8th (hence the delayed update) doing beta testing of the Keyboard/Mouse version of QuiVr in PC Cafes. I'll likely post a more in-depth review of the experience and what we got done once I return :)