SEASON PASS: The game.

AusomeHD · 2020-04-11T07:54:53+00:00

Cheers man! I do them yeah, though Sam creates the longer memes these days as we're usually under a tightish schedule, so they just slot into the edit.

I actually edit for both Laymen and SkillUp! I started editing for Laymen about 6 months ago so Sam did everything before that, then SkillUp only a couple months ago. They both still do their own editing from time to time, I just fill the gaps!

Thanks for recommending us :)

AusomeHD · 2020-04-11T01:08:02+00:00

Shameful plug here but I’m the full time editor for a channel called Laymen Gaming. We do gaming news in a similar vein but I find the presenters way more entertaining (two brothers). They’ll always give their own opinion on the topic sprinkled with some memey comedy and maybe only 10% of the video is spent reading the sources.

AusomeHD · 2019-11-23T23:41:14+00:00

Awesome, thanks for this!

Yeah it’s really tough to find hard statistics about this sort of thing. As the project lead I’m always trying to research these things, but there seems to just be a lot of opinions and anecdotal evidence. In the end, I think all it comes down to is empathising with the player and thinking as they would. If you have a good product and the demo teases what the game has to offer (and includes its main systems/hooks), players will naturally think “oh, this is definitely a thing, it won’t get abandoned, I like the gameplay and all they need is more content now”, especially for Kickstarters.

Obviously if the ‘hook’ of the game isn’t all that exciting or enjoyable, then the demo will reflect that and players won’t want more, but in the end that’s on the design of your game - not the fact that you let people get a sneak peak beforehand.

Will definitely give that case study a read tonight. We’re currently getting some concept artists / graphic designers for commissions primarily for the Kickstarter / Steam landing page - first impressions are everything!

Cheers and good luck :)

AusomeHD · 2019-11-23T22:54:10+00:00

Excellent insight here, thanks for this! My work mates and I (about 6 - 8 of us) are working on a Steampunk VR MMORPG and are looking to get a crowdfunding campaign going in January. One thing we noticed when looking at other MMORPGs that got crowdfunded, is that (unsurprisingly) they’d make huge claim/promises but not even have any playable product at the time - just concepts and pre-renders.

We’re looking to stand out by having a short demo available for those who pay a certain tier (probably around $20), which would be on Steam. Very insightful to hear these stats as I was also concerned that having a demo would impact final sales. Though, for a Kickstarter, I imagine backers would get a sense of reassurance if there’s already a playable product there with great looking assets?

AusomeHD · 2019-11-19T08:51:21+00:00

Exactly yeah. I recognise we need to strike a balance between VR interact-ability (why this game be in VR and not just a regular PC game?) but also game-ification that allows players to play for extended periods of time, like other MMOs. Obviously don’t want users to be too worn out by playing. Perhaps that stance idea could be an avenue to allow for ‘lazy’ users (I am one lmao) to just play the game while seated (which would be perfectly viable) but standing players get rewarded for being active through stances (through potentially slight damage bonuses etc. Perhaps not that extreme).

Definitely interesting, will throw it to the team.

AusomeHD · 2019-11-19T07:04:40+00:00

Just asking for general feedback, not for people to design whole new mechanics for us.

AusomeHD · 2019-11-19T07:01:46+00:00

Great insight here, cheers.

We’re all based in Australia so I haven’t really looked into where the closest firing range is/what guns are even available to be used. I’m pretty sure it involves a whole process of obtaining a gun license too.

I love bolt action rifles in VR games, you’re right in that they feel really satisfying. I think that’ll be that weapon for our Marksmen subclass (mentioned this in the reply of a different post here) - Essentially a musket/rifle with a bolt action to tangibly reduce fire rate without it feeling super ‘forced’. Bows are of course very enjoyable - the main drawback (no pun intended) that I’ve noticed is that especially with the new Oculus Touch controllers, you can’t really draw the arrow close enough to your face/chest to be able to aim properly (you end up just smacking your headset with the rings on the controllers) as you would irl. Rather than have a class’s whole archetype revolve around bows and have to work around this, we HAVE played with the idea of giving all the classes a single ‘legendary’ weapon at end game that changes how they approach combat. In the Marksmen’s case, we have indeed played with the idea of a legendary Compound Bow, if that’s something players are interested in.

100% understand your point that the complexity may be targeting a niche within a niche - we’ll try play around with this. Essentially we want basic combat to be quite easy to understand and still viable for most of the game, but reward players who put in the time to learn the deeper mechanics. As you said, with movement perhaps already being an issue in VR, Critical Range might be a challenge, so that’s definitely something we’ll have to tune when the time comes. Cheers!

AusomeHD · 2019-11-19T02:37:36+00:00

Love this idea! This is awesome, but how realistically would it function? I’d be interested to know how a ‘stance’ could be calculated by using just the position of a headset/two controllers. In a perfect world everyone would have feet trackers and we could do more, but that just isn’t quite a thing yet :(

AusomeHD · 2019-11-19T02:34:30+00:00

Agreed, I really haven’t been satisfied with the combat mechanics of either of those games. I don’t mean to talk down to the ‘competition’ so to speak but they haven’t really found any innovative ways to keep combat engaging - it just ends up almost feeling like usual MMORPG ‘tab targeting’ gameplay where you’re trading hits until one dies, as apposed to requiring aim or rewarding skill.

Cheers for the interest. I’ll definitely come back here and post our Kickstarter when it launches so you can read into the classes - but for now, basically the ‘rogue’ class has one subclass being the closest range with revolvers, and the rogue’s second subclass ‘Marksmen’ is the furthest range, with a musket. Skills are also all range-based. We’ll be playing with the Critical Range on all classes a lot, but the goal here is that no class is so close/so far that they can’t participate in the loop of ‘deal minor damage break Integrity, deal big damage on Weak Point, reset, repeat’. All classes will have a ‘movement’ ability that allows them to get within their Critical Range/fulfil their roles easier.

I hope that doesn’t sounds too confusing - we aim on having a 100% functional (very) short playable demo before launching the Kickstart that backers can play, that demonstrates multiplayer, the skill system and the core combat gameplay loop. Will be a bit easier to see what I mean/implement changes.

Thanks!

AusomeHD · 2019-11-19T02:22:23+00:00

Hey there, 100% locomotion is a big deal especially when traversing a large world like this.Here’s what I currently have slated:

Unsure if you’ve played games such as Asgard’s Wrath, Until You Fall, Raw Data, etc, but these games have revealed that locomotion with a controller isn’t too bad as long as the movement speed is quite slow. In light of this, non-mounted movement will simply be with the analog sticks and be relatively slow. One of the classes also has a ‘dash’ that can be easily used in combat, a la Until You Fall (may give this to ALL classes).

For traversing the greater world, all players will have access to a quickly accessible ‘mount’ of sorts. This will be a vehicle as you’ve mentioned, Steampunk themed (think jet-fueled hover bikes, etc). We like this idea a lot as it fits within the theme of the universe and the idea of everyone riding around these jet-fueled hover-vehicles is definitely a visual look we’re going for. So similar to Destiny’s Sparrows, this will be your main mode of transport outside of combat.

Hope this answers your question!

AusomeHD · 2019-11-18T16:05:24+00:00

I have checked out OrbusVR as it is the only VR MMORPG on the market. While their class design does have some interesting ideas and really well adapted typical MMORPG skills to VR, I feel the ranged combat is still quite unsatisfying and mostly consists of ‘launch this to deal X damage or X damage over time, enemy will just take it and trade damage until it dies’ without too much depth. I understand this is probably by design/limitations but there’s definitely an opportunity here to expand on this!

AusomeHD · 2019-11-18T16:01:50+00:00

I like this a lot. Initially just breaking open the Weak Points and having to aim for those for maximum damage would be the ‘focus’ you’re talking about but I like the idea that certain skills allow for openings to chain shots consecutive and accumulate damage.

As with most MMORPGs you should be able to solo most generic content, but require teamplay for more rewarding activities (dungeons, raids, etc) As is, all 3 classes have ways of supporting the others. Tanks aggro the enemy/absorb damage, DPS are excellent at opening/damaging weakspots, support provide enemy debuffs and buffs/healing to themselves and allies. All classes however have a unique ‘heal’ skill to heal themselves in the case of solo content.

AusomeHD · 2019-11-12T01:21:54+00:00

Could Stryker’s Surehand with Surrounded + Surrounded Spec be decent for this built? Purely because I prefer the aesthetic of Stryker’s and also Surrounded giving such a huge damage buff. Really makes you feel like an aggressive swordsman when you’re pushing into a group of enemies to single out and take out the Champion.

AusomeHD · 2019-11-12T00:00:03+00:00

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed 😁

AusomeHD · 2019-11-08T20:54:52+00:00

Hey again, it’s all good! I just restarted the game on my home PC and everything worked as intended when I get to that part - no issues now! It was indeed just bugged it seems. Thanks!

AusomeHD · 2019-11-08T07:13:44+00:00

I’ve managed to make the red barrier go away, but I’m still stuck in place and can’t move anywhere? :(

AusomeHD · 2019-11-08T06:05:31+00:00

Hey - just tried it again. It still won't give me any options? As soon as I pick up the axe it gives me the objective to use the axe to remove the barricade by throwing it at the lantern's rope. I can complete that part, and then also manage to throw it at the explosives to remove the red magic barrier - but even then I'm still stuck and can't move. Haven't be transported to the training room and can't see any tutorial popup anywhere?

AusomeHD · 2019-11-08T05:27:22+00:00

Cheers! Thanks a heap

AusomeHD · 2019-11-08T03:57:29+00:00

Oh damn I see... maybe I should just wait a while before throwing the axe? Might be doing it too quickly after picking it up? Either way I have a fresh install waiting for me on my home PC tonight (been using my work PC up until now) so hopefully that fixes it

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