BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

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WIMdowz
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BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by WIMdowz »

Hi everyone!

My brother has created an Oculus ready playable demo called 'BouncerVR'. He's currently trying to collect money via a crowd funding project to turn this demo into a fun game. Let him know what you think!
http://igg.me/at/BouncerVR/x/1645789

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BouncerVR is a virtual reality arcade game for PC, Mac, Linux and Oculus Rift. The game is a tribute to games of the past.
Simple to play, yet engaging and challenging. In the game, you control a shield with only your vision. With this shield you bounce a ball towards the enemy.
You score a point when the enemy is unable to bounce back the ball.

You can collect various power-ups to help you reach your goal. Some power-ups speed up or resize the ball, while others change the gameplay dramatically.
Play through various levels and unlock new types of power-ups in the process.

While this game is made from the ground up for the Oculus Rift virtual reality glasses, it can also be played without them by using your mouse.
Playing the game in VR gives you the advantage of depth perception thus you can see the ball and power-ups coming towards you and guess their distance and speed.

I am one of those people who becomes motion sick very quickly while using the Rift. With this project he succeeded in creating a game that doesn't have this effect on me.
I think this is mainly because you don't move around in the virtual world.

The game uses only your head movement as input controls.
No need to fumble around with gamepads or mouse and keyboard. Just put on the rift and play.

ps: He has also started a Thunderclap message.
It needs 100 people who support the message so the system sends it out. It's free and takes less than a minute to support.

http://thndr.it/12m9mDS

Please share the project with your friends. It's very hard to get exposure as a small developer. Every small mention on Facebook, Twitter or forum/blog helps a lot.

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przecinek
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by przecinek »

Great small demo. I appreciate the fact that it only weights 10mb when zipped.
I'm not sure how powerups work, but I'm sure they do :)

While graphics are good, I find lack of music along with the static cube a bit monotonous.
I personally would prefer some kind of arcanoid/proton pulse clone rather than pong. Sure each level means increased difficulty but in the end it's still the same bot on the other side of the room, that seems to be just as puzzled by new traps as you are.
FVANtom
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by FVANtom »

Hey przecinek,

My name is Tom. The developer of the game. You make some very good points!

I have updated the base game features to incorporate better sound effects and background music. I meant to add it but didn't get around to it while building the demo. You know how it is.

It's true the bot is kinda dull at the moment. I have a few ideas on how to make it more intelligent but once again. Lack of time :) I would really love to add multiplayer to the game. That combined with some cool levels will add a lot of fun to the game.

Power-ups activate when you catch them with your shield. Most people seem to have trouble with it. The reason I made it like that was because some power-ups are actually bad for you. Like speed at the wrong moment or a smaller ball. So players can catch the ones they want and ignore the ones they don't want. Do you have ideas on how to make this more clear to the players?

It would be great if you could share the project on Facebook and Twitter. It's very had to get visibility as an independent developer. Check out our Thunderclap at http://thndr.it/12m9mDS It's free and takes less than a minute.

Cheers,

Tom
WiredEarp
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by WiredEarp »

Very cool. There is also another brickout type game for the Rift as well (single player only however). I can't remember its name currently (will edit my post when I do), but it also doesn't cause nausea, probably for similar reasons.

EDIT: could it have been Proton Pulse?
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Fredz
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by Fredz »

WIMdowz wrote:BouncerVR is a virtual reality arcade game for PC, Mac, Linux and Oculus Rift.
Do you know when the Linux demo will be published ?
FVANtom
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by FVANtom »

Fredz wrote:Do you know when the Linux demo will be published ?
Hey Fredz. I haven't had a chance to try and compile the game for Linux yet. I will post a project update on my crowd funding page when I get around to it. Keep an eye on http://bouncervr.com
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przecinek
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by przecinek »

FVANtom wrote: Power-ups activate when you catch them with your shield. Most people seem to have trouble with it. The reason I made it like that was because some power-ups are actually bad for you. Like speed at the wrong moment or a smaller ball. So players can catch the ones they want and ignore the ones they don't want. Do you have ideas on how to make this more clear to the players?
Hey Tom. Catching powerups with your shield is a normal and natural thing to do. I think the easiest way to make it more clear to the players is by making effects more pronounced. Ball gets tiny or starts to move at 2x speed. Same for the ones that are good.

Multiplayer sounds like a lot of fun, but in single player - all the traps and extra elements that appear in subsequent leves shouldn't really affect the bot. Game is not meant to be fair if it's single player :roll: Walls should only bounce back "your" ball, but computer can have it transparent. Otherwise next level is just another game-set but in a different surrounding. You have to feel like it's getting harder and harder. You can make bot get really good when you're fighting for the last game point. And since I'm at it - it's a good idea to start with less powerups (maybe one at a time/level) or make them appear as the game goes on.

The key is to make each level more interesting than the last one.

Music is essencial, you could even make the room act as a simple equilaser (I know I'm getting carried away a bit :D ). So that when the 'drop' approaches (music drop) the room goes all colorful, maybe even with some fireworks & confetti :D :D
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Fredz
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by Fredz »

FVANtom wrote:Hey Fredz. I haven't had a chance to try and compile the game for Linux yet. I will post a project update on my crowd funding page when I get around to it. Keep an eye on http://bouncervr.com
I'll keep an eye on it then, thanks. Btw, did you use an engine like Unity or is it coded from scratch ?
FVANtom
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by FVANtom »

Hey przecinek, Thanks for all the good comments and suggestions. I've added them to our google moderator page. Feel free to add more ideas on there!
http://www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=2 ... =20c345.40

btw: The background music equalizer thing was something I also wanted to do, but I decided not to spend to much time on something that isn't fundamental for the gameplay while building the demo. If it gets voted up enough I might add it as a stretch goal though.

Fredz, the game is build using Unity3D. So linux support will depend on Oculus + Unity3D + Linux compatibility. Currently I'm using Mac myself, but up until recently I've used Ubuntu for 9 years. I haven't compiled a project for linux yet though. Do you have any experience with it?
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Fredz
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by Fredz »

FVANtom wrote:Fredz, the game is build using Unity3D. So linux support will depend on Oculus + Unity3D + Linux compatibility.
Ah ok, I don't know if the Unity toolchain has been released for Linux yet, but the Oculus Unity Demo Scene is available for Linux though. I'll download the ovr_unity_0.2.3_lib.zip file to see if there is apparent Linux support inside.
FVANtom wrote:Currently I'm using Mac myself, but up until recently I've used Ubuntu for 9 years. I haven't compiled a project for linux yet though. Do you have any experience with it?
I've quite some experience with building software on Linux yes, but none with Unity (not sure if it's possible to use it directly under Linux anyway). If you want me to try/test something don't hesitate to ask, I'd be glad to.

EDIT: there is no reference to Linux in the ovr_unity_0.2.3_lib.zip file, I guess someone should test if any option to publish for Linux is available in Unity on MS Windows or OS X to be sure.
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by FVANtom »

Hey Fredz, I've spend some time testing the game on linux (Latest Ubuntu). The normal version works, but I can't get the Oculus version to work. I guess we'll have to wait until the Oculus Rift SDK for Unity3D will support Linux. If anyone knows anything about when or how. Please let me know!

Can you test the normal version of the game on Linux and let me know if there are any probs Fredz?
Download can be found at http://bouncervr.com
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Fredz
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by Fredz »

FVANtom wrote:I guess we'll have to wait until the Oculus Rift SDK for Unity3D will support Linux. If anyone knows anything about when or how. Please let me know!
It seems support for the Rift may be available in the 4.0 beta of Unity, but I'm not sure if it's stable yet. Yesterday I've tried a demo that supported warped rendering and head-tracking but the controls didn't react and I couldn't play it. Maybe it's worth a try though, only the 64 bits version showed something by the way, the 32 bits version showed a black screen.
FVANtom wrote:Can you test the normal version of the game on Linux and let me know if there are any probs Fredz?
Tried it, it works well, thanks. :)

EDIT: hem, I went to the Unity website and the current version is 4.1.5, that info about 4.0 beta must be wrong.
FVANtom
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by FVANtom »

Alpha version 2.0 of Bouncer VR can be downloaded at our crowd funding campaign site http://bouncervr.com.

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In this update I am testing out the ability to change the look and feel (theme) of the game room every few levels. The concept is comparable with the Star Trek holo-deck; You step inside the room and a simulation is loaded which changes the visual representation of the whole room. Eventually I would like to show an empty room at the start of a level and load the holographic theme gradually while the player is already in it. I think this will give it a cool Sci-Fi effect.

The Morganville vampire series, created by one of our sponsors 'Pen Ultimate Productions', was the perfect test case. In the new alpha you can still play the sci-fi space hull themed levels (Start 1) as well as a new grave yard themed level (Start 2).

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Currently the game is played in exactly the same way in both themes. However, in future versions of the game I will add new game play elements and combinations of elements every level. This will keep the game fun and challenging.

Some more ideas for room themes are:
- On top of a sky-scraper, if you look down you see a steep drop in front of you.
- Inside an asteroid belt.
- On the bottom of the ocean.
- In a jungle clearing.

I know it's still a little rough around the edges. I mainly want to test if this is a good idea. Let me know what you think as well as how you think I can improve the experience.
FVANtom
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by FVANtom »

I'm very proud that Bouncer VR is 1 of the 10 initial games on the official Oculus VR Share platform. https://share.oculusvr.com/category/all

The campaign has less than 2 weeks left now. Please tell your friends about the project. Let's give the project a final push together! http://bouncervr.com
FVANtom
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Re: BouncerVR, no nausea, no controls, just fun!

Post by FVANtom »

We have released the new version of this game. It has more complex gameplay and better graphics. You can download it for free at http://bouncervr.com

In the game, you control a shield with your vision. Collect coloured resources to charge your abilities and to attack, but beware the enemy can bounce your attacks back at you. You win when the enemy has no more health.

You can collect various abilities by defeating enemies. Some abilities shoot special balls, speed up or split the balls, while others change the gameplay dramatically.

We currently provide both a Windows and a Mac version which you can play with or without the Oculus Rift DK1/DK2.
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