- "Tasks" - the endless mode - is now available - 28 April 2024
"Tasks", the endless mode is now available. Making "tasks" happen required lots of changes in the game and engine. The actual content (including tasks) was just a part of it. For most of the fixes in the main branch, I tended to write them down and have the list as actual as possible, but I did not include into the release notes the changes done on "endless mode" branch. Therefore, the list below contains almost solely content changes: - added endless mode (tasks) - tasks available: - exploration - interface box search - item hunt - hacking interface boxes - data core retrieval - system stabilisation - stop the intrusion - new passive EXMs: - weapon collector (weapon loot is way more often) - energy retainer (on each shot you get free energy to the other hand) - build in magazine (all weapons you have have magazines) - firepower (greater cost/chamber, even more damage) - emergency reviv…
- The endless mode is coming - 22 April 2024
The endless mode is coming soon. If you're looking for it in the game, it is called "tasks". You can switch to it without finishing the story but I strongly recommend playing the story first. The endless mode took a bit of time to develop as it required significant parts of the game to be modified to support the idea of missions/tasks. As it is now, it is a playable framework that will be extended in the future. Having "tasks" in the game makes it possible for me to have more and smaller content updates. Just add an enemy or two. Weapon nodes, new weapon types, EXMs, devices, items. I sometimes jokingly called the "tasks" mode "a remix". It uses lots of the stuff from the main story but mixed and rearranged. This wouldn't be fair though, as there is some new content in it. There are new upgrades (both passive and active EXMs), new unlocks (unique to the tasks mode), new weapon nodes and…
- The interface boxes and tasks reasons - 26 March 2024
I wanted to have some devices to operate for the endless mode. The problem is that I wanted to avoid adding completely new stuff that would not be seen in the already familiar locations. That's unless I would add that there as well. I needed something that could be reused for various purposes or could just work as a decoration. Enter interface boxes. These are devices that hang on walls. If they're important for the task, they will open automatically if required. This is all justified by the narrative/lore. The first tasks you are given are about reconnaissance. You wander around the place, automatically scan the surroundings and transmit the data back to your ship. When you get back and there's enough data gathered (hidden "intel points" currency) you are given access to more advanced tasks. The narrative packs it into a reusable description, something like: "Data analysis of backgroun…
- The task structure of the endless mode - 15 March 2024
The endless mode is going to be divided into, what I initially call, chapters. The idea is that chapters are completely different parts of a bigger story. And each should end with some mini story arc but the core of the chapters are going to be tasks. As I'd like to avoid just a pure mix of various tasks, I came up with a system that helps the game to choose which tasks to offer to the player. The basic idea is that the player should start with simple tasks that narratively provide some knowledge about places to visit and things to do, then they may choose to do these more complex/advanced tasks which provide even more knowledge until they do a single task that is a climax. I divided the tasks into three tiers and to make it possible for the game to choose which tasks/tiers are available, I introduced a hidden currency - intel points. If you collect enough intel points, you get access t…
- About the endless mode - 7 March 2024
As I am working on the endless mode for Tea For God, I'd like to share some details describing the initial release and plans for the future. The current mode will be still available as "story mode" and it will be possible to switch between the two. My main idea about the initial release of the endless mode is to setup a main loop for a mode that can be worked upon. With all the basic elements in place, it will be possible to provide more gradual updates more often. New weapon nodes, new EXMs, new enemies, new places. Some of the new content may appear in the story mode but most will be unique to the endless mode. One of the important features that also required certain changes in the engine is the idea that it should be possible to select a task, do it, come back and select another one while in-character. No exiting to the menu, etc. To make it possible, all the tasks will currrently st…
- v 1.0.9 (#391) - 5 January 2024
changed sound volumes to have more even soundscape added compressor for sound effects channel only (before was only a general compressor that was affecting all the channels) modified some sound effects that had discomforting crackling sound fixed bug when some samples were played too loud for a brief moment fixed sound crackling fixed restarting the game from a chapter where the game was interrupted fixed pause when starting the game
- v 1.0.8 (#383) - 19 December 2023
fixed no distance updated when using smooth locomotion changed "A文" to make it more clear that it is a language selection added "or" between image-based and text-based input prompts (for open overlay info) tweaks for recentering view fixed game switching to demo for older builds
- mid-October update - 23 October 2023
I went to Poznań Game Arena recently with Tea For God. I wanted to check if it really won't affect the sales and it didn't. But I decided to make a prototype to test if there would be some interest in a non VR game. I called the prototype "Subspace Scavengers" as I decided to reuse the gameplay idea from an abandoned project. If I would to make it into a game, I would at least know what to avoid now and what to focus on. The prototype itself was also made to test new features I've been adding to the engine. The two most important things added is a different way to create rooms/world and an animation system. As the new room generation system depends on meshes I still need to find a good way to fit it into impossible spaces system, to adjust to a given play area size. The animation system could be used to work with imported and animated meshes. This should come in handy for some things I…
- v 1.0.7 (#360) - 18 September 2023
added fail-safe for lost arm past "up" fixed creating the same map cell twice when loading particular game saves fixed crashes on loading fixed no enemies when loading a save in "outer rim"
- v 1.0.6 (#357) - 5 September 2023
restored "corrosion showers" in "beneath" fixed loading save games at the initial section of "beneath" fixed cases when the player could get embedded into ground when using smooth locomotion
- plans for September - 1 September 2023
I took some vacations recently that I was looking forward to for a long time. This is the reason why there were no updates for the game. For the next few weeks I should be mostly focused on porting the game (submissions). During the waiting time I don't want to start any bigger tasks for Tea For God but I should be adding some small content (EXMs, weapon nodes, enemies). Most of that will find its place in the main story for time being. But the main reason for adding them is the next big task. And for that I decided to focus on the endless mode. I want it to be the main thing (once you go through the main story but you can speed that up with using infinite health or desolate modifiers). The endless mode will give me an opportunity to add more different content. The main story has its beat, pace, things coming one after another. With endless mode I can add anything and have a greater fre…
- v 1.0.5 (#355) - 1 September 2023
- added a blinking effect on shield when it has low level of energy - exit in beneath is visible from a greater distance - enemies pause for a moment when the player should look at the elevator in "up" - player is reminded about the elevator in "up" after a while - fixed horizontal scaling preview - the grid in options always shows how it would look like with the currently selected horizontal scaling - fixed missing collision at the train platform in prelude - fixed incorrectly ending tasks that could lead to a crash - fixed crash on checking if a path is valid when part of the world got removed
- v 1.0.4 (#349) - 12 August 2023
This is a quick update with one important change (+ a few smaller ones): fixed a few never-ending level generation cases fixed proximity mines and shields attached mid-air (where doors appeared) fixed turn counter rendered in the place of real time fixed typo for dock screen One thing that I often do mention are crash fixes. Mostly because they would be dry "fixed some crashes" and I only mention them when they were something really specific.
- Update 1.0.3 + roadmap - 10 August 2023
Another update mostly about fixes but there are some other changes as well. The most important change is proper preparation of play-area size that is based on boundary points. It works now on SteamVR/OpenVR and OculusAPI. I will be investigating OpenXR as well. Other non-fix changes are related to some gameplay mechanics. Hitting (melee) is now easier as the speeds were lowered. You can get health and ammo from hitting small robots to make it consistent with hitting other objects. If the last hit is a kill and you have appropriate EXM installed, it won't give extra bonus for a normal hit. Also, melee kills provide loot now (same as other kills). During the game, some people may encounter strange devices on walls that have a running circular pattern or just red lights. The read lights are "dead end" but the running pattern is an indicator that the world is being generated. I've seen play…
- v 1.0.3 (#345) - 10 August 2023
added preparing play-area when playing on Quest on PC this workaround works currently only for SteamVR and OculusAPI fixed "mean machine" modifier fixed some game scripts running when exiting game and starting new (or loading game state) fixed bringing permanent EXMs through "another chance" chapter fixed metal pilgrims in burial scene to move based on location, not time fixed flashing door to repair hangar in "prelude" fixed horizontal scaling preview ammo/health for hit is given only if not given for kill improvements for melee easier to hit, particle effects on getting ammo/health on every hit added small robots can be used to gain energy/health via melee added weapon sights customisation options (color + outer ring radius) added "please wait" info when region is being generated melee kills provide loot
- preparing play-area from boundary - 10 August 2023
Since Quest link has been introduced there was one thing that was a bit problematic. It was impossible to read “play area”. It was incorrect, too big, rotated, reaching outside the actual boundary. I reported it only to learn that there were other developers before me who also reported the issue but it has not been fixed. When providing details for the bug and possible solution I found out that Oculus API is reading the boundary points correctly. The only problem was that the play area instead of being the biggest rectangle that fits INTO the boundary was just a rectangle that contained the boundary (with orientation just “as it is”). The same results I got for SteamVR. For OpenXR it was also additionally offset but it seems that it was only because OpenXR by default has a centre in point 0,0,0 while Oculus API allows for offset centre. I had everything I needed to try to implement an a…
- Update 1.0.2 + roadmap - 3 August 2023
This update is mostly fixes but there are some changes about unlocks. For run-based mode, unlocks can be unlocked only if there's no run in progress. You have to either fail or finish the game or - you can end the current run from the unlocks menu. I was a bit reluctant about this change as a long time ago I specifically made unlocks available during run as the unlocks do not affect the current run. But there were side effects I found attractive - if you buy an upgrade, consecutive permanent upgrades in the game will cost less. I have no idea why I liked this idea as it encourages to exit the game, buy stuff using menu and go back to the run. Although it adds a bit of tinkering, it works strongly against the immersion. Another change is that all EXMs that were installed during a run are available to unlock from the unlocks menu. Before it was only about the EXMs that you had on yourself…
- v 1.0.2 (#340) - 3 August 2023
- unlocks in run-based mode can't be unlocked mid-run - all EXMs that were installed during game are available to be unlocked - added "swap joysticks" that swaps movement and rotation joysticks for sliding locomotion - fixes for unlocks menu - fixed "no crouch allowed" being replaced with "auto crouch" - fixed rotating elevators in "breach" when no rotating elevators were allowed - fixed crash when loading a savegame next to the train station and in there was a platform bridge close to the start of outer rim - fixed keeping player from walking through walls code that was actually forcing to be in the wall when exiting turret - fixed reading refresh rate for Quest Pro - fixed creating new player profile - fixed incorrectly displayed "degree" symbol - more visible exits on map for "beneath" and "breach" - lowered memory used by the game: - music is dynamically loaded (and unloaded) when n…
- v 1.0.1 (#337) - 27 July 2023
Two bugs made it through. Both are now fixed. crash on weapon nodes pre-early ending when reaching the train station Both features were tested but not tested enough. The circumstances for the crash seem to be weird but the nature of the crash was quite straightforward. The "pre-early ending" was due to an update to the demo version. Decided to end the demo earlier with more of "the journey begins" moment rather than "now you left the turret". And with changes, I was testing both versions. It was working fine but the timing could be better. Tweaked it and tested both versions again. And then I added a fail-safe for a very unlikely scenario in Demo. Tested the demo and thought that this scenario is so unlikely that without breaking the game internally, not even intentionally as a player, it may not happen, I haven't tested the full version. I'm really sorry about that it this is a lesson…
- Update 1.0.1 + roadmap - 26 July 2023
The time after the release was quite busy and I know that I have lots to do now. With the game and with getting the game to the people. In the first update, I fixed some of the bugs as well as changed a few things in the game. About the bugs - there are still plenty of them to fix and they will be my main focus right now with smaller updates coming more often. The experience mode is no longer available in the full game. It was confusing, there were no explanations. Was ending abruptly and if you tried the actual game, after a few minutes you were going through the same environment. It has been moved to demo which is now shorter to focus on the impossible spaces. I plan to update the demo to show a different part of the game but this will require some bugs to be fixed that have not yet been fixed. One of the noteworthy changes is the weapon stats related. Before it was quite hard to tell…
