VR Jam 2

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A jam submission

Tales from an Electric Forest (VR)View game page

Fight the blackout blight in an electric bioluminescent forest

Submitted by andyman404 (@andyman404) — 4 minutes, 59 seconds before the deadline

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Tales from an Electric Forest (VR)'s itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Presentation	#1	4.250	4.250
Overall	#3	3.417	3.417
Use of Theme	#4	3.375	3.375
Enjoyment	#5	2.625	2.625

Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

MagmaHost159 days ago

When the game started up, Around me was a beautiful looking forest but after i pet the deer everything got scaled down and instead of taking the opportunity to use VR as a way to show the huge scale of the forest (like it was in the first menu), Instead the player gets put into this sort of cramped box full of cables, i think it would have been much better if the game sticked to that huge scale version

Either way i completed the objective of finding the 3 bugs and then the voice told me to go to the heart of the forest which i assume is the glowing orange platform and even tho i tried restarting the game multiple times when i'd get there nothing would happen, i don't know if the game was supposed to end there or if this is a softlock.

Very interesting concept tho, Thanks for taking the time to make something!

andyman404Developer159 days ago (1 edit)

Thanks for playing! There was a last minute bug in the game jam build that prevent the game from recognizing that the 3 lightning bugs were at the heart. The post-jam build fixes that if you want to see more of the story.

Making everything large wouldn't have worked well for navigating around the forest. In early development, I had everything large, but it made moving around the forest way too tedious. Making things smaller lets your physical reach go much farther, and lets you get around much more easily. Also, in later parts of the game that were inaccessible to the game jam build, you need to be able to reach both hands out to be on the opposite sides of the blackout blights in order to shoot lightning between the deer and the lightning bugs.

I tried to get a zoom adjustment feature working but it was buggy and I couldn't figure out why, and had to remove it.

JKLabsSubmitted160 days ago (1 edit)

Didn't run too well on my computer even on the low settings :( but I did like the look of it, reminded me of tilt brush, I'm long due a new rig, so will keep this to try when I do upgrade :)

Submitted

Super Charger VR

andyman404Developer160 days ago

Thanks for trying anyway! For reference, what CPU/GPU were you using?

I'm glad it reminded you of Tilt Brush - the assets were drawn in OpenBrush (which is based on Tilt Brush's code base), then cleaned and broken down or animated in Blender, and then used in Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine is really hard on older machines.

JKLabsSubmitted159 days ago(+1)

Hi I have a i5 2.4ghz, gfx1650, 16gb ddr3, for reference Our super charger entry runs about 20fps over-link,(72-80fps) without link in play mode.

I suspect as well as being underpowered it's the usb, no matter which socket I plug it into oculus/meta link complains about usb3.

NasershootSubmitted160 days ago

The game is magnificent and so is the atmosphere. I had trouble with the movement because I often found myself turning the camera instead of moving forward, which got me a bit lost.

I think there were too many cables falling from the ceiling, which made it hard to see what was going on.

I really like the idea of controlling the deer.

I never managed to get any further after getting the 3 insects together. Is there anything after that ?

Submitted

andyman404Developer160 days ago (1 edit)

Tip: use the grips for movement and forget about using the thumbsticks that were added as an extra option. The grab-the-world movement lets you control your movement much better, and lets you move up and down too.

The game jam build had a bug that prevented the game from recognizing that all 3 lightning bugs were at the heart. Download the post-jam build to experience the dance party, the blackout, the rekindling, and the fight with the blackout blights.

Thanks for the feedback!

RunningOnCoffeeSubmitted160 days ago

Obviously a very beautiful world and the third person concept feels fresh since it less explored then first person vr games.

Since VR players usually have two controllers in their hands I'd suggest to keep snap turning on one stick and movement on the other since I accidentally turned a lot while moving with the stick.

I really enjoyed pulling myself almost to ground level, flying forward as fast as possible and avoid obstacles. Felt like I was part of this electrical forest.

You should think about fleshing out this game, there is potential!

Submitted

andyman404Developer160 days ago(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! The game jam build had a last minute bug that I couldn't fix in time for the deadline, which prevented it from progressing after getting the lightning bugs to the heart of the forest. Download the post-jam build if you want to see the rest of the story that the bug blocked, including the dance party, the blackout, the rekindling, and the blackout blights fights.

Good idea on separating the forward/backwards movement and the snap turns to different thumbsticks! I personally think the game works a lot better if the player solely uses the grips to walk around the world and not use the thumbsticks. But everyone's different.

maschiaTSubmitted161 days ago

The presentation of art in the VR world is unique and gorgeous. It is like a healing game to me. But then the motion is a bit difficult to control. It would be better if a movement instruction is provided.

Submitted

andyman404Developer161 days ago

Thank you for the feedback. I included a lot of options for movement to be flexible. Maybe it was too much? I'm curious if you noticed the movement instructions text on the controllers themselves, right in the start scene. You can use the left or right thumbsticks for movement, or either hand's grip for movement.

I personally find it a lot easier to use the right grip to grab the world to move, and right thumbstick left/right to turn, while controlling the deer with the left trigger.

maschiaTSubmitted161 days ago

For example, one action wrote "flick upwards". I am not sure what does this mean. So I think may be more specific?

andyman404Developer160 days ago

Thanks for the clarification. One of the issues I run into is being too wordy with instructions, and then nobody reads them because it is too much text. This time maybe it was too short? Maybe next time I'll have to do a graphical animated illustration, but that takes a lot more time than I can afford during a jam sometimes.

In this particular case, the flick upwards means to move the tip of the left pointer upwards in a swift motion to make the deer jump when you are controlling it, as if it is a puppet you are dangling on a string.

ToreadorGamesSubmitted162 days ago

A colorful, vibrant and unique world, with a gorgeous little deer with lightning antlers. Great abstract application of the theme. I didn't seem to notice any difference between Ultra/Epic, and I played the PCVR build using Virtual Desktop with the Quest 3... That said, it looks like you went for the miniatures theme AND the electricity theme, clever... I really liked the art design, the idea of a biomechanical forest was great... and I liked the 'move the world around' with grab mechanic... but I will say the ever-present dangling cables, the small scale/god mode and using the left stick to steer the 3rd person deer that also rotated the camera combined to reduce the wonder of the art/level design. I'd suggest separating input for the character from camera manipulation, but I'm a guy that would rather turn in person than use a stick. Really clever, really cool, but a couple things detracted from the experience. Nice one!

Submitted

Super Charger VR

andyman404Developer161 days ago

Thank you for the feedback! It's funny - in the earlier part of the jam, the scale started a lot bigger, 4x as big, so you really feel the forest. But because I personally only use the move-the-world-around grip controls for locomotion in the game, I found that it was easier to control things by making the scale smaller so you don't have to move around as much, and can reach a lot "farther" in the world since you're a lot bigger in proportion. The "miniature" theme was purely unintentional. :)

I had a feature that allows you to resize the world similar to how it is done in Tiltbrush by grabbing both grips and moving them closer/farther, but it had a bug that I didn't have time to figure out, so I cut it unfortunately. It would have been useful for those who want more immersion.

Both left and right thumbsticks worked the same, so you can get through the whole game using only the right thumbstick for locomotion, and only use the left trigger for directing the deer. I wonder if it would have been less confusing if I didn't include thumbstick forward/back locomotion and only had grip locomotion? Or perhaps have the left thumbstick simply move/strafe both the deer and the camera at the same speed like a third-person controller? I still gotta figure that out. Thanks for the feedback.

ToreadorGamesSubmitted161 days ago

Hello again, so here's my comments from a second playthrough, trying to avoid what got in the way of the game, namely using the stick. Once I realized I just had to find the fireflies and make my around to do so with grab hands, it was so much better. It felt like I was pulling myself through the electric foliage, rather than turning and clipping into it incessantly. Point and hold click, and Electro-Bambi came cantering over. It was a lot easier to enjoy the details this way. Not sure if I did something wrong, but after gathering the fireflies to the center, nothing further happened? Regardless, a lot more fun on a second go, thanks for insight to your process.

andyman404Developer161 days ago

Thanks for the additional playthrough! In the game jam version, there's a bug that prevents the story from advancing after you gather the fireflies to the center. If you want to see the rest, then I invite you to download the post jam build, where you'll get to actually use the fireflies to fight some interesting looking blackout enemies when you reach that point in the story.

BigEnterButtonSubmitted162 days ago

Incredible frickin graphics! But... Although the gameplay started well, I had a few problems:

-the left joystick snap-turn was very annoying as I kept getting disorienting myself when accidentally hit it when trying to move right or left

-the level progression seemed weird as I couldn't get passed where you light up the forest because I took like 15 minutes running around trying to find what I din't light up and eventually noclipped the deer into the ground so I just closed the game

But anyway I loved the graphics and audio which were the best in this jam for sure :)

Submitted

Synthesized Electricity

andyman404Developer162 days ago(+1)

Thanks for playing! Congrats for lighting up the forest again! Sorry, I didn't get a chance to make a scripted ending - so if you've relit as much of the forest as you can, and there are no more of the blackout blights, then you've completed the episode!

Thanks for the useful feedback. I'll add a strafe to one of the thumbsticks. Were you able to try using the alternative grab-world-and-drag locomotion - it is much more precise and lets you move in all 3 axes more easily.

BigEnterButtonSubmitted162 days ago

Yes I did try using the alternative locomotion though it does not quite feel natural to me but adding both locomotions as options is a great way of abling more people to play the game in a confortable way