Download JARPUG alpha 0.3 for Oculus Rift here!
The JARPUG alpha 0.3 flat test demo (non-VR!) is also out!
Fancy new attack! Not pictured: dodges now show a dotted line the for the new partial dodge success zone. I didn't record a new gif for that.
This added a new tower and blimp to climb, new VR gadgets to play with, a couple new NPCs and cutscenes. I also added parries and partial dodges to battles! There were lots of other changes, too. (full changelog)
Also, the VR demo has been updated to have the same amount of content as the alpha 0.3! This is a much better point to end a demo at. It shows off the VR controls better and gets across more of the setting. The next alpha update will again make it so there's more content in the purchased game. Buying the game now, IN THE PAST, or even IN THE FUUUTUUURE will ensure that you get those updates.
I wasn't expecting a Christmas Carol hook there.
Alpha 0.2 came out last October! Then I worked on porting Cloudbase Prime to the Nintendo Switch until May 2020. Since then I’ve been working on JARPUG as much as I can, which hasn’t been as much as usual.
We’re not sending our kids to school during the pandemic. That’s cut down on my work hours a lot.
Last month I finally released something I've been keeping fairly discreet: a non-VR test demo for JARPUG! This is a small scale test of the feasibility of a non-VR version of this game. It adds extra controls and a controllable ghost hand to replace the game’s VR interactions. That was a lot of porting work and testing! Camera angles were a big new thing to consider and add.
Since then I've been working on getting an Oculus Rift version of the game out with the same content, while fixing up many of the issues those testers found.
It’s been a while and VR support in Unity is evolving at a kind of weird pace that I believe has deprecated the current Oculus support in JARPUG. I’m currently ignorant about the readiness of the tech meant to replace it, despite blearily scrolling through a few forum threads of varying age. It complicated things, but I have a new Oculus Rift version for you. Alpha 0.3 is out on itch.io now!
I’m hoping to get support out for more VR platforms soon, but I need to do a better job of figuring out what my options actually are. I’ll be starting a new VR micro project to check that out.
Working on JARPUG’s getting faster and faster with more development and fixes, but I’ve got to admit that I’m nervous about how long this is all taking and how much time I’ve actually got to work on things. I’ll be paying attention to my pace on this new project. I’ll have to reevaluate JARPUG’s scope if it's dramatically slower to work on than other options.
- Added a new tower and blimp to climb with exciting new VR LEVERS, spring pads, and other gadgets
- Added vertical camera movement. Just for the tower so far. I'm very interested in your VR comfort feedback on this!
- Improved platforming controls responsiveness
- Added walking tilt/puff effects for better platforming
- Added foot shadows, drop shadow while jumping for better platforming
- New story segments introducing Rex and some ghost
- Added talker "wah wah wah" voices for dialog
- Player dogs now render as a flat silhouette through walls, enemies.
- Improved combat UI: active player highlight that animates from one character to the next, to clarify movement controls
- Improved combat UI: arrows showing commanded players' movement direction, also to clarify movement controls
- Added parry to battles for single target attacks.
- Added partial dodge success to battles for AOE attacks that the player ALMOST dodged.
- Added boing effects to dogs to make them look sillier
- Added boing effects to clothes to replace the old broken cloth simulation
- Tweaking default camera offset.
- Fixed talk bubble placement. Mostly avoids colliding with things, happily renders over stuff otherwise.
- Fixed a lot of bugs with camera placement
- Fixed fog/text render order issues
- Improved Party Menu UI, controls
- Lots of other bug fixes.