Is that a Playable Demo?
Encephalon Games is happy to announce that Couch Invaders has a *playable pre-alpha download! Click HERE to download the demo. You’ll need a USB type C cable, and it’s a lot easier to install with SideQuest. As far as the cable, it just needs to connect to your Quest 2 and your computer to transfer the file from your PC. There are more expensive cables that let you play higher quality games from your PC on your Quest, but that’s another subject.
If you’ve never used dropbox, you may see a pop-up asking you to sign up. You don’t need to! Just close the window and you’ll see the download link behind it:
Issues aside, I wanted to get a feel for how a small slice of the game felt. If you have a Quest 2, please give it a try and let me know what you think! If not, you can see what it looks like in this week’s video, HERE (I’m taking this down 7/18 since we’re getting closer to the next demo; keep an eye out in early August!)
Is that UFO actually in the game?
I wanted to share this UFO even though it won’t quite make it into the game as it is. The model is the one from the game, but not the material that wraps around it. Working with the Oculus Quest 2 has some limitations, but it’s a pretty good trade-off to have something mobile. My first attempt at “fake complexity” didn’t work out so well here and the material failed to come through. If you look closely at the starting level of the demo, though, I used a texture on the ground that did work pretty well.
So what’s this demo all about?
You can’t be hurt yet, so there’s not really an end goal at this point. You can play around with some of the guns in the game, though, and it is pretty fun taking down a small group of zombies. The slow-motion is great, and driving the remote-control car (or first version of it, anyway) can be a blast. Literally.
Try baiting the zombies, then drive the car up next to them and shoot the mini-barrel. Up until recently, the shotgun shells were also cloning themselves when you’d pick them up. I kept meaning to check into it, but having unlimited ammo was sometimes helpful in testing. It looks like that might be fixed now, but I wasn’t expecting that when I played. Running out of ammo was kind of unnerving … in a good way!
How do I play?
Use the grip buttons (the lower rear buttons on the controllers) to pick up objects. You can pick them up from a distance by lining your hand up with the “ring” on the object. If the ring turns orange, the right hand has locked onto the object. If the ring turns blue, then the left hand is ready to pick up the object.
The ‘Y’ button on the left controller will enable Slow Motion for as long as it is held down. In the real game, this will be a temporary power-up. No reason to not have it available now though!
For movement, if you prefer the ‘smooth walk’ option instead of teleport, just click the left thumbstick. Click again to go back to ‘teleport’ mode. Want to see some different hands? Click the right thumbstick. Some of the different hands even include arms!
The rest should be pretty intuitive. The zombies will attack the chairs, and you, but will go for Burger Boy when possible (or where he was fired FROM, anyway). I can’t take the credit for the slow-motion or any of the interaction stuff. All of this comes from the VR Interface Framework on the Unity Asset Store. It really made it possible to jump right into making the game instead of making controls.
Roadmap going forward
After sleeping for at least one full day straight, I’d like to start tackling an idea I had with the zombies. I’d really like to bring a katana into the game, but first I need to make it so the zombies can lose their heads. It’s just not right to make a zombie game with swords and NOT have that, I’m just not sure how to do it yet. I know the bow looks pretty boring so far, but just be patient — this is where the illegal fireworks come in.
I’m really excited to begin modeling the inside of the house, even if it’s just a mock-up. I expect most of the game will actually be played inside, but I don’t really know. You could open the door and fight everyone from the yard if you wanted. My thought in making this game was to do Space Invaders with a twist. I liked how you could hide behind the little shields, at least for a while. Instead of little shields, however, the zombies are going to come through the South wall of your living room.
Still no BCI?
Not quite this week, I really had to hustle to get this demo online! Next week I will show you the OpenBCI headset. This thing is so cool, but not the most intuitive. You won’t believe some of the things you can do with it. It sort of reminds me of the way 1950’s Doc Brown looked in Back to the Future when he opened the door to Marty from the 80’s.
That’s all for this week! I really hope you have a moment to watch the video of the demo and tell me your thoughts. If you have an Oculus Quest 2, and a few minutes to try the demo, even better.
As for me, I’m heading for the couch. There’s a new playable demo there called “Taking the day off”, and I’m all about that.