itch.io

yeah .. sorry. 32bit processors are not supported :(

The first alpha3 was supposed to be up for over a week now, but first real life happened (aka. too much rent-paying work to code on my game), then my Vive cable broke, and just as I was ready to publish the build I found a glaring bug : for some reason I have to investigate, entering level 3 with a shield on your back and a sword in your hand results in you being stripped of those items and non-working stairs up. So all there is for the moment is a hastily cobbled together video showing a bit of the calibration scene and the fireball spell.

Concerning the music : as some might have noticed I use different music pieces on the videos. There won't be any official music in the game ... ever. Instead I will go the route Bethesda went with Morrowind and Oblivion, namely just scan a directory for MP3s and play the tracks that are found in a random order. There are two reasons for that : first of all I am, at best, a very lousy musician and commissioning a professional for some good pieces would just be too expensive, especially if I want more than one track. Secondly, everybody has a preferred music style, especially for dungeon crawlers. Some prefer movie soundtracks, others would like gothic or classic or even death metal. Each choice is valid, as it significantly alters how the game feels like ... Who am I to decide what kind of mood you want to inject in the dungeon?

The first build of alpha 3 should be out tomorrow evening, if everything goes to plan (but when does it?!)

cheers,
Sammy

Sadly Amazon.com doesn't ship it to Europe and Amazon.de doesn't sell it. I asked on reddit and apparently any halfway decent HDMI cable should do, so I ordered a 29€ redmere one ... and missed the delivery yesterday. Should be in today though :)

I am using a three-leash ceiling system for the cable, and apparently it is a bit TOO good. The constant twisting and knotting happening to the cable due to the fact that you don't notice it is there at all took their toll, and now my HDMI line has a wobble. The display turns black or glitches every couple of seconds if I move my head. HTC asks for over 70€ for a new 5 meters 3-in-one cable which is absurd. So, I am trying to figure out whether a non-HTC HDMI cable would work (and which one). If I didn't find any way to avoid paying the cut-throat fee I'll have to bite the bullet, but until then development is at a stand still as I can not test the changes I made at all.

This is super frustrating to say the least.

EDIT: I bought a 7m Amazon redmere HDMI cable for around 30€, but it seems like I'm out of luck. Apart from the fact that it doesn't really fit in the Vive's front compartment, I also don't get any signal. So back with it and I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and buy an original one (hopefully a new round one, not the flat one I got originally)

It has been a while since I posted something here, but things did not go as smoothly as I wished, so there would not have been much to say apart from "I broke it". The spiders stopped hunting the player, flasks and weapons were not grabbable anymore, the lighting was suddenly completely off ... And of course : way too old backups from a sensible point in the past. As far as I can tell though, things seem to have gotten back to normal, and the mob's behaviour even got a tiny bit better : they shouldn't get stuck as often anymore.
On the plus side : magic never stopped working, so I had that going for me :)

I still need to test a few things out, and record someone playing (for Steam), and then I'll release the next update here and on Steam for free. Again, I hope to be able to do all of that before the weekend, but life has a way of getting in the way ...

On another note : There were over 200 downloads so far, which feels really nice, but I still have no idea how the game runs on your rigs, nor what people I am not related to think about it. So please, leave a message if you tried the game out and tell me your thoughts and how well (or how badly) things run. Thanks!

Sammyf

Nearly there!
Writing the calibration tool for the magic system was much more complicated and involved than I expected, but it seems to be working now. I still have to pass the calibration data to the subsequent scenes, but that should be easy. Sadly, for the time being, the calibration happens using some (awesome) voice overs and, here is the sad part, coder art panels. Literally stick figures. For now this will be enough though, as it works okay to convey the actions expected of the user.
I haven't talked much about how magic will work in the game, mostly because I wasn't sure it WOULD work at all, especially after finding out that I really need to calibrate the system to each player. Magic, in DUTM is highly physical. If you want to play a wizard you better get prepared to "work" to make your more powerfull spells happen.
So far I only implemented a fireball, which in itself is composed of a preparation spell and a trigger "movement". To "create" a fireball you need to do a 70s disco "roll you arms around in front of you" kind of move. If you do it correctly a stationary fire ball will appear in front of you. The longer and faster you roll your arms the bigger the ball becomes and the more powerfull the ensuing missile will be. You have to be carefull though as each size increase consumes mana. Once you are happy with the size of the fireball or run out of time or mana you need to move both arms to the sides of your body and propel them horizontally. The ball transforms into a missile and flies off in the direction you are facing. It will explode on collision or after a couple of seconds and do massive damage to any NPC unlucky enough to be nearby (the splash damage is relative to the distance to the explosion by the way).
Did I mention this is physically quite taxing and requires some coordination to pull off correctly? But on the other hand you can kill multiple foes in one strike that way, so it's generally worth the effort.

In other news : the save system is also working fine, although there is currently no way to trigger it or to reload the last (and only) save.As I said somewhere else, this is a hardcore saving system, designed to be able to pause the game indefinitely, but not designed to let you respawn 2 minutes prior to your previous death. I am still pondering how the player should access it.

With a bit of luck and enough free time on my part, the next iteration should be out by the end of next week (if not before that). I look forward to people complaining about sore muscles from trying out the fireball :D

cheers,
Sammy

The next version and the Steam release are slightly delayed due to my sudden realization as to why my daughter was not able to fire off a fireball ever, despite doing everything correctly.
As it happens, her arms are shorter than mine, duh!

So, before I release the next iteration, I first need to create a whole new scene in which the magic system can be calibrated to the user's body. A big chunk of it is already done, but it could take a couple more days before it is ready.

In other news : the next alpha will be also released for free on Steam, so it will be much easier for you to keep up with updates!

"I finally killed a spider with a fireball!" also known as "the magic system really works!". I am using a 3D gesture based system and while designing it I wasn't really sure whether it would be usable. As it turns out it is quite fun while requiring some motor- and coordination skills. I still need to tweak it a bit and add related items (you will need a magic staff to be able to cast, for example)but with a bit of luck the first alpha3 release with it should be out this weekend.

On another note : I am awaiting a last mail from Valve, meaning the game should be available very soon on Steam!

As always, You are welcome to leave and tell me what you like, don't like or wish to see. Also : I am still very interested in hearing about the game performance on your machines, as I don't have any means to try it out on anything but mine.

cheers,
Sammy

It is not easy to find, unless you know what you are looking for. In my current development build I am adding a couple of random human bones near weapons and shields, so that they are a bit easier to spot.
The sword is always in a room, quite clear of the walls, unless a spider pushed it around but you would hear that. A relatively easy way to spot it is to sweep your teleport beam around the room. the outline of the sword is quite visible when the "destination ball" passes over it.

If you want, you can easily cheat and spawn more of them though : there is a directory called lvls containing (surprise!) the level definition. Just open 1.lvl in notepad or any other text editor and change the line

"items":"sword_1:weapon:_WGO_SWORD_:1:1",

to

"items":"sword_1:weapon:_WGO_SWORD_:5:8",

This will spawn between 5 and 8 swords. The first number is the minimum amount of swords that should be spawned, the second the maximum. If you play with those numbers, be careful not to set them too high as the engine might have trouble finding room to spawn them at.

cheers

My free time is a bit more limited again, but development goes on steadily. The magic system is nearly working as intended, and the first spell should be ready by hte end of the week.

In other exciting news, I also bought some very cool new assets for the next mob. It is what is generally called a "Naga" (google it). I will try to post some of the included concept art later today. I tried it out yesterday and it looks absolutely awesome in VR!

People often ask me why I use (or even buy) third party assets. I am passable in 3D modeling and texturing (much worsein animating though), but honestly, if I started creating the NPCs myself I would NEVER finish the game, and it wouldn't look as good anyway. So, there you have it.

The update is out. Off to do some "magic" :D

First of all Happy New Year everybody!

I have been working hard these last few days (besides all the festivities stuff) and I will upload a new version once I have properly tested the current build. It is the finished Alpha-2, minus the stones and the pouch (they might come in later on, but for now they are on the back list).
So, a shield is coming, some more AI and path-finding tweaks, and a lot of changes under the hood, mostly concerning how different levels are defined. Each level has a config file stating which mobs can appear, how many of them (as a range), and the same for chests and items. The format is dynamic, so I can easily add new parameters as the game grows.

The next version will have A3 in the name, and one of the first things I will work on is the magic system, which will hopefully be spectacular :)

Enjoy the new year, sleep off yesterday's alcohol and/or food, and see you soon on this page :D

Sammy

First of all, I switched to a faster release rate : I now release a new build whenever a major change has been implemented toward a specific target.
The build version is always YYYYMMDD (e.g. 20161227 is the build from December 27th, 2016) followed by the target version (a2 is alpha-2) and the sub-release (_3 is the third sub-release for this particular target).

Despite being on vacation over Christmas and new year my time to work on dutm is sadly very limited due to family matters (aka : my kids are occupying my rig to play with the Vive). Still, I hope to be able to add a shield (which will probably be found on level 2) before or shortly after new years eve.
As Hand to Hand combat is now in I will probably remove the debug sword found at the entrance to the dungeon in one of the next builds, especially as I will start working on the magic casting system.
I'll forgo the stones throwing stuff for now, as it would probably make the player too powerful, at least until I get around to implement more mobs.
I also need to record more lines for the "group of adventurer", to implement the trading system, so that players can spend that hard earned cash on useful stuff.
Release of the first alpha3 with a tentative magic system should be in late January.

As always I would really like some feedback, even (or especially) negative one, as coding in a vacuum is much more difficult.

Late Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year :)
Sammy

Things are well underway for a soon'ish release of Alpha2.

The second Mob, nicknamed "The Wumpus", is nearly done. It is an approximately 2m high bipedal troll'ish guy with three different attacks, and a high running speed.
It also sports some funky sound effects, thanks to my daughters. (Remember : if he creeps on you and scares you with his growl, you just got scared by a 10 year old girl ;)
The spider also doesn't fall through the floor anymore upon death and the AI in general has been revamped and is now a lot more consistent with what I had in mind.
Next in the queue is Hand2Hand Combat. I just hope I will find the time to work more, as there is a lot of non-related stuff going on, thanks to Christmas.

As always, I would be happy to hear about people's thoughts on the game so far, as feedback is invaluable to any lonely independent developer like me.

bbye,
Sammy

I received feedback from an Oculus Touch user, who reported that the ground level is messed up right from the start, which makes the game unplayable.
Any other Touch user can confirm that?

In the mean time I will make a touch-specific version with a higher starting point. It should be available this weekend.

Roadmap

Alpha3

Features:

• (WIP) Setup the magic system
• (WIP) Add a calibration scene for the magic system
• Add the spells (DONE)fireball ,shield and heal
• Save system (Hardcore save.similar to the way Nethack implements it. You have one single save. You die, you lose your save too)
• (WIP) Add at least one extra critter (Wild Naga - half serpent/half human, no weapons nor magic on the wild ones.)
• [Optional]Add random greebles to the walls and the floor (puddles, vines, bones) to make the dungeon more memorable.
• (DONE) Add human bones near items
• (DONE) Add potions

Alpha2

Features:

• (DONE) TP possible using the left controller too
• (DONE) Hand 2 Hand combat (the ability to use your fists to punch the monsters if you haven't any weapon)
• (DONE) At least one extra critter (still pondering which one. I have a couple to chose from)
• A shield
• (DONE) Semi permanent levels
  
• [Postponed]Throwable stones
• [Postponed]A pouch to collect the stones in

Bug Fixes:

• (DONE) Get rid of the ugly tiling on the end pieces of long corridors
• (DONE) fix the gravity not taking hold of the player when off the bridge
• (DONE) find out why the Navigation Agent doesn't always react to noise

You are welcome to reply or start a thread if you find any bugs or have any suggestion:)

bbye,
Sammy