Today I ran into the biggest problem I have ever encountered while developing a game...
...The entire Unity project of Oh Captain VR is corrupted.  I've tried everything and nothing seemed to fix the problem. Any previous backups of the project, locally or in the cloud, are either broken, or too outdated to be usable from this point on...
At this point, it seems like Oh Captain VR will have to be delayed indefinitely.

I've put a whole year of work into this project, and though I still am having a difficult time believing that all my work is gone, and as disappointed as I am, I am happy to say that over this past year I have learned a lot to become a better artist and programmer, and am super excited to move on to bigger and better things.

In addition to now finally using Unity 2019 after being stuck with 2017 for Oh Captain due to VRTK APIs, I have a few really cool ideas I can't wait to share.  More info will be coming soon about my new project, and I promise it will be worth the wait.

Thank you for reading,
​Judah

Yes, it's another blog post!
​Over the past few days I've been recording my screen while working and hope to soon publish a timelapse/voiceover video going over what I've been working on in a more visual way.
But, just to summarize here:
When the player presses the Left Grip Button, a map UI will appear (either as a held object, or a static object in front of you).  This will have the player's stats (health, stamina, gold amount, etc), along with some options as to which object to be building (Walls, stairs, etc).

I am also experimenting with making the game moddable via Json data.  Then, the player can easily go into the files and alter the way the AI works, the players stats, and effectively use "Cheat Codes" (a rarity nowadays) to change the way the game plays.  Hopefully this should extend the life of the game in ways that I didn't think possible previously.

Any feedback is appreciated!

Thanks for reading!
- Judah

So, I just got back from an awesome vacation in Costa Rica, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I didn't get much work done...
But, I do have some new ideas that I will be implementing into Oh Captain VR asap!

These include:

• Some roguelite elements adding some stakes to the game
• Adding more objects to be built, other than just walls and staircases
• A map popup UI that has the health, menu options, and building options

Additionally, I, quite literally, iterate on the enemy AI every day, trying to make it the best it can be.  This includes both reacting to sword physics, attacking the player properly, and even trying to break down the player's built fortresses.

For the roguelite aspects of the game, your stats, levels, and the like will persist from game to game.  However, when you die, the worlds you create will be lost, only saved in a snapshot, viewable from the "Captain's Logbook."

Overall, there is a lot more to come, with exciting updates coming regularly.
Thanks for reading!
- Judah

Short post today:
After messing around a ton with the lighting in the scene, I finally got things looking better, AND running better/smoother, so that's pretty great.  I am experimenting with changing up the island design, but that's another post in the coming weeks.

Additionally, I do intend on improving the enemy AI, so there's better combat physics, defense, etc.  More info to come.

Thanks for reading!
​- Judah Mantell

This year I got a lot done, and with that time, I was able to hone the mechanics of Oh Captain VR into the playable demo I have now!  Once again, it still has a ways to go before I release it for free through the Steam Page (Coming soon though!), but it will be well worth the wait.  After fixing the building mechanics, the one challenge is to find a good way to save and load the player's creations and progress.  (More on this in the "Techy Stuff" below.) I also plan on adding other shapes to build like stairs and things, to allow for multiple floors in your fortresses!  I'm quite happy with the Enemy AI's movement, but not their combat.  Yes, they will attack you, but sword combat can be much improved.  I also want to have them attacking your fortress, weakening it and possibly even breaking it unless you kill them.
In terms of the enemies themselves:  For the demo island, I made sure there is always ten enemies in the scene.  After experimentation, I found that's the right number to not take a hit on performance, and still make the world feel alive.  I also plan on adding wandering cattle just for effect.  You can't kill them for anything like in Minecraft, but I think it will help with the ambiance.

Techy Stuff:
Saving and loading numbers and strings isn't too difficult (and is perfect for saving how much wood and gold you have), but with this game I have to save and load every instantiated object (built blocks) the player has spawned.  It's not possible to serialize objects in the scene, so I have to save every instantiated item in a list, their transforms, then re-instantiate them in those positions.  It's not too difficult, but just time consuming.  Additionally, if I will be adding other types of blocks (like stairs, etc), I'll have to do the same with those--again, possible, but time consuming.

Thanks for reading, happy new year!
- Judah

Hey everyone!
Yes, yes, I know it's been a while, but it's not for nothing!  I've been focusing on polishing what I have of the game as much as possible, to get ready for a free demo release.  Aside from adding SFX, particle effects, and refining controls, I've been working on making the building system the best it can be.  This means making sure it's intuitive to use, looks good, and just works the way it should.

You can check it all out in the video below! (Watch on YouTube for full screen)

Techy stuff:
I'm working on valid/invalid states for the system to ensure that players don't build on top of existing blocks.  The cursor will be transparent green when you can build, and transparent red when you can't.  Simple enough.
Additionally, I have to make sure every placed block carves out a small section of the AI Navmesh so the enemies know to either go around or try to break through the fort created.  Say what you want about Fortnite, the building system it has is pretty great, and that's what I'm trying to replicate, but in VR.
At the moment there's only one type of "block" you can use, a single wall panel, but it can be rotated any way you like, making it usable as walls, floors, roofs, or even simple barricades to ward away enemy skeletons!

Thanks for reading!
- Judah

I should preface this by saying once more that the demo I'm working on now will be released for free via the upcoming Steam Page.
Since the last post, I mainly just added some sound and particle effects.  Not too much technically, but wow do some added particle effects make the difference.  Killing enemies feels so much more satisfying, and swinging the sword around and chopping down trees is so cool!

The one "feature" I've added (or currently working on, rather) is treasure. To put it simply, when enemies die, they drop treasure, which you can then grab and add to your overall treasure amount.  For the demo, the focus will be more on arcade-y gameplay (rather than a full open world like in the finished game), with all the same mechanics, where you try to last the longest, and collect the most treasure for high-scores. 

In terms of timing, because I'm very busy with college applications, development will slow down a bit for the next month or so, but after then, I plan on having so much more content! (*Ahem* Local Multiplayer *ahem*)

Techy stuff:
There's currently a bug that prevents the spawned treasure from being destroyed in the scene which is causing a bunch of trouble.  It's trying to destroy the original asset, rather than the instance in the scene.  In any case, this will be worked out eventually.

Thanks for reading!
- Judah

As mentioned previously, I am working on perfecting a demo to release on Steam for free!
It has all the same mechanics and features of the full game, just in a more arcade-y, smaller, more enclosed environment with a focus on getting high scores.  While the full game is much more expansive (literally ten times the size of the demo), this demo should give players a taste of what's to come.
In terms of what exactly is in the demo, well, here's an informal list in no particular order!

• Fight enemies hack-and-slash style with swords, guns, grappling hooks
• Collect treasure from dead enemies
• Search for the large treasure chest, which randomly spawns in a new location each time
• Chop or shoot down trees to collect wood
• Use the collected wood to build structures to hide from enemies, create fortresses, etc
• And more!

The Steam page is currently being worked on, and I hope to have the demo released for free there in the coming weeks...?
As to when the full game will be released... well, it's still in active development as we speak!
As stated on the game's page, I might go for an early access approach, releasing a full, albeit smaller, game, adding content regularly until it becomes what was originally planned.  This would allow players to get their hands on more content faster, expecting updates frequently.  

As always, more to come!
Thanks for reading!
​- Judah

This past Thursday I had the pleasure of attending Playcrafting NYC's Demo & Play event at Verizon's Alley FiDi.
It was my first Playcrafting event, and I hope to attend more in the future!
I got to show Oh Captain VR to a room of about 50 people, along with 9 other amazing developers showing off super cool games. (Shout out to Game Revenant's Where Shadows Slumber, an awesome puzzle game now on the App Store.)

I showed the trailer, explained what I've been working on, and answered a few questions.  The response was super positive, and I got some great feedback about both VR game design, and adventure/survival game design in general.  
After the presentations everyone split up into little stations for people to play the games.  Because I needed some space for the VR game, I was lucky to get a whole office to myself!
Most of the people there have never tried VR, so I had to explain what to do a little more than with a regular game.  Because of this, I realized (and this really applies to any game) that, while the developer might know exactly what to do in a game, that doesn't necessarily mean the people playing the game will.  After the event, I ended up rearranging the demo environment so the player starts out in the Tavern, where they can pick up weapons, teleport around, and get a general sense of what to do before venturing out into the island.

Since then, along with those environment changes, I've made some more modifications to make the game easier to play.  While the full game still has quite a ways to go in development, I hope to release the demo for free soon...
More info about the demo to come!

Thanks for reading,
Judah