Hello, hello!
We're back with a brand new beta as we prepare for update 6.
These past few weeks we've been working on new game modes. Two to be precise. You can find them in the Experiments tab as usual, so grab the beta and jump in.
A word of warning: they are work in progress. They are not finished. We would love your feedback.
Bull Run
The first mode is bull run. It's quite different from what we've done until now. The non-VR player takes control of one of four special rebel bull (I originally wanted to a do a 'cow run' but we don't have cow models yet...). They have to get back to the barn without getting caught (and eaten) by the gorilla. It's fun because everyone looks the same and things go crazy.
We are still working on the balance but would love your feedback on the direction.
It's also on a brand new map, which is for now only available in Bull Run. We hope the forest cover adds an interesting dimension to the 'hide and seek' concept.
The other game mode is called pretty plainly "Cross the City". It's our first attempt at adding more mission/goal-based behavior. We're using this game mode to help us prototype the systems we need to build more complex game modes. In this mode you basically have to cross the city 10 times before the gorilla eliminates 10 of you.
We've re-purposed the town map but there are still a lot of ideas to explore before this mode is super fun. Among which:
- Should we form chokepoints or force all traffic through one cross-road.
- What about multiple goals, having to reach 2/3/4 targets in turn or out of turn
- Go there and back
- How to make it fun for the gorilla without making it too easy for one side or another
- How to make the AI not drive off bridges
So it's still early days with this mode but we wanted to share our progress there too.
Improved AI
One of the side benefits of working on new game modes is that we also get to improve the AI in parallel. Short term, this improves the single player experience. Longer term, it helps automate our testing and populate the little worlds we are building to make them feel more alive.
Of course it's still got bugs and areas that we can improve but it's getting better with each update.
Future
These are the first new game modes we've prototyped and implemented since we've launched in Early Access in July. It's given us the opportunity to re-work a lot of our game mode code, make it easier to try out new ideas and fix a looooot of little bugs.
We are slowly chipping away at our backlog but there are still a ton more ideas to try out. Your support means a lot to us, thank you.