- Small Update - 29 October 2022
This is a small update with two adjustments while I work on a larger update. - The way data is stored has been completely refactored to fix a rare "crash on start" bug. - The skull photo objective has been temporarily removed due to a bug preventing the objective from being completed.
- Update Notes 08/17/2022 - 18 August 2022
- Updated OpenXR plugins - Schnitzel cries less in the start area
- Summer Update Released to All - 17 July 2022
Hi Everyone! The update with a number of new features and fixes is now available to all. Thanks for feedback in BETA. I'll be reviewing feedback on this new version and expanding the dog companion with some new features soon, but wanted to get this out in time for the Steam VR event. Please leave feedback in the forums. It's been a very busy 2022 for me, sorry for the delays. Once I get feedback from the community and shore up any issues, I'll be posting a poll on what features / changes I tackle next that you can vote on. Have ideas for new artifacts? I'd love to hear! Known Issues Schnitzel will slide around a bit sometimes, particularly when sitting and a guard approaches. He also looks a bit off going up/down stairs. Looking to improve Schnitzel in the coming weeks. Improvements since BETA The cost of perks has been reduced, especially items that are not easily found in the dungeon.…
- Summer Update Available in Public BETA - 2 July 2022
Hi Everyone! The update with a number of new features and fixes is now available in the public BETA branch. To try it out, opt in to the BETA via Steam. I'll be reviewing feedback on this new version and expanding the dog companion with some new features, but wanted to get this out in time for the Steam VR event in July. Please leave feedback in the forums. It's been a very busy 2022 for me, sorry for the delays. Once I get feedback from the community and shore up any issues, I'll be posting a poll on what features / changes I tackle next that you can vote on. Artifacts I’ve had several requests for special perks or gameplay modifiers that can be reused without purchasing them each dungeon run. Artifacts fill this role. The Third Reich was notorious for stealing or obtaining artifacts from all over Europe and Africa. If you discover one of these, it provides perks that will always be av…
- DevLog: New Rooms and Development Update - 28 April 2022
Work continues on the update. 80% of the new features are done, but there are quite a few tweaks/bugs that I am making as I playtest, so still several weeks away from BETA testing. New Rooms The update will include two new room types which are now complete. These include an infirmary and a classified area. These areas are locked, so you must find a key on a guard to enter them. There are times where there is an objective you need to complete in these rooms, but there are other reasons to seek these areas. The classified area which has a random large weapon you must sometimes photograph always contains additional ammo for all weapons on a second level within the room. So, if you are low on ammo seek it out. I'll leave the weapons you can photograph a surprise for now. The infirmary always contains food and drugs, so if you are low on health, target this area. An additional drug, D-IX, ha…
- DevLog: Development Update and Pet Companion - 4 April 2022
Happy Spring! Development of the new update is progressing nicely. Collapsible walls that reveal secret passageways and the new artifact perks are complete and working well. Before I tackle the AI stealth mechanics and new rooms, I wanted to work on Schnitzel and make him an option as a companion with his own perks. For those who have not gotten this far in the game, there is a dog named Schnitzel at the start of the third dungeon if you make it that far without dying. Today he just appears at the dungeon start as a tease, but in the upcoming update you will be able to find and free him where he will start following you. In addition to gaining an increase to your empathy trait (also a new feature) that can impact the outcome of your character, he also brings a passive ability. He will growl when there is an unalerted guard nearby which is helpful when storming into a room or through a c…
- DevLog: Collapsible Walls and Artifacts - 11 February 2022
I thought I would update the community about what I am working on for the next update. There are actually several things going into the next release, but today I'll focus on what I am tackling this month. Collapsible Walls I am coming up with a plan to make iterative improvements to some e of the combat and stealth elements of the game. While I think there are plenty of things I can do to improve those areas, I am very happy with the dungeon complexity in the game. I'd go so far as to say the dungeon layouts generated dynamically are more complex than most other Roguelike games I've played in VR. Navigating the dungeon is as much a part of the game as combat and how you approach enemies. I wanted to further the variability even further. I am adding some new room types for the next release which I will talk about in a future new update, but right now my focus is on collapsible walls for…
- Toggle Grab and Helmet Features - 1 February 2022
Early Access Launch Version 0.958 Thank you so much for supporting the Early Access version of the game. This is a solo developed title and I am very interested in feedback and ideas. Feel free to participate in the Discord or post something in the Steam discussion forums. When I started creating this game, it was really about creating a game I wanted to play in VR that did not exist. Thanks for all the encouragement and support! Please be patient as it takes a while to make changes and do adequate testing as a solo developer. My current list of priorities are listed at the end of this update below. It's only been about 20 days since the last update, but I wanted to get this smaller update out before I tackle some bigger items in a larger release (looking at end of March). Enhancements / Revisions Toggle Grab The primary purpose of this release was to add a toggle grab feature. This can…
- Update Notes for Version 0.955 - 9 January 2022
Early Access Launch Version 0.955 Thank you so much for supporting the Early Access version of the game. This is a solo developed title and I am very interested in feedback and ideas. Feel free to participate in the Discord or post something in the Steam discussion forums. When I started creating this game, it was really about creating a game I wanted to play in VR that did not exist. Thanks for all the encouragement and support! Please be patient as it takes a while to make changes and do adequate testing as a solo developer. My current list of priorities are listed at the end of this update below. Enhancements / Revisions Wells may now appear in the dungeon. Wells can be used to dispose bodies but you can also throw coins in them for a chance to find something (with a twist). Each time you throw a coin in, you have a chance of getting a random item, nothing at all, or LOSING an item (…
- Update Notes for 12/14 - 15 December 2021
This is a small patch with only one change. The "destroy radio" objective has been temporarily removed as some players had problems completing it. This will be re-added in the future when some additional objectives are added for upcoming additional rooms (infirmary, bathroom, etc)
- Update Notes for Version 0.950 - 12 December 2021
Early Access Launch Version 0.950 Thank you so much for supporting the Early Access version of the game. This is a solo developed title and I am very interested in feedback and ideas. Feel free to participate in the Discord or post something in the Steam discussion forums. When I started creating this game, it was really about creating a game I wanted to play in VR that did not exist. I figured if people wanted to come along for the ride that's great. I do appreciate the support! If you are looking for a fun game to play for free over the holidays and don't mind going retro, check out the original Castle Wolfenstein 8-bit games from the 1980s on the Internet Archive. Here is a link to Beyond Castle Wolfenstein which was ported to PC. Enhancements / Revisions An enemy alertness indicator has been added to the tattoo on the players wrist. If you are spotted by guards, fire your gun or dea…
- Update Notes for Version 0.947 - 8 December 2021
Early Access Launch Version 0.947 Thank you so much for supporting the Early Access version of the game. This is a solo developed title and I am very much interested in feedback and ideas. Feel free to participate in the Discord or post something in the Steam discussion forums. I am reading all the review feedback. Changes in this version: This update mostly focuses on the rare dungeon generation bug that could make a dungeon you could not escape. Thanks to the people who provided dungeon seeds where this occurred. It was really helpful in diagnosing it. Fixed rare bug that caused some dungeons to have a large inaccessible section of the map. This happened 1 / 250 generations or so. The game now does an elaborate check to make sure distant corners of the map are reachable. Fixed bug related to changing gun angle for weapons in left hand Fixed bug where master volume might not be set whe…
- Update Notes for Version 0.946 - 3 December 2021
Early Access Launch Version 0.946 Thank you so much for supporting the Early Access version of the game. We are very much interested in feedback and ideas. Feel free to participate in our Discord or post something in the Steam discussion forums. I am reading all the review feedback. Changes in this version: This update mostly focuses on more urgent adjustments with a couple of minor gameplay tweaks. Bigger changes to improve stealth and other mechanics are coming. Thanks for your patience! Hand positions should be more correct across all OpenXR devices A gun angle setting has been added to the game settings which will allow you to increase the angle of held weapons. Some players find the default uncomfortable. If you use this setting, I would be curious to know the controller you are using and how much you increase the angle. Headshots now inflict much more damage and are instant kills…
- Updates Notes for 0.945 - 27 November 2021
Early Access Launch Version 0.945 Thank you so much for supporting the Early Access version of the game. We are very much interested in feedback and ideas. Feel free to participate in our Discord or post something in the Steam discussion forums. I am reading all the review feedback. Changes in this version: This update mostly focuses on more urgent adjustments with a couple of minor enhancements thrown in that did not require extensive testing. Bigger changes to improve stealth and other mechanics coming soon. Thanks for your patience! There is now a basic surrender calibration at the start of the game. Some users had problems surrendering because the default values only worked well for people with a certain arm length. Reduced distance regular enemies detect player in field of vision from 18 meters to 16 meters. This should help alleviate guards spotting you before you spot them in low…
- Game Update / Plans - 21 November 2021
Hi Everyone, First of all, thanks for supporting the game in Early Access and your patience while we continue to improve the game. There are definitely things that need to be improved and polished, and those are being worked on which is why this is in Early Access. Its encouraging to see players starting to escape and progress through some of the enhancements that are unlocked as you escape the dungeon. Immediate Plans Right now the focus are major bugs and improving some immediate areas of the game based on initial feedback. Additional Comfort Options Bottle Physics Improving some gun interactions Enemy behavior regarding the player hiding to be more balanced and realistic These changes will trickle in over the coming weeks. Common Issues Almost all of the issues with actually getting the game to run at this point are related to OpenXR and it not being configured correctly as far as th…
- Updates notes for 0.944 - 21 November 2021
Early Access Launch Version 0.944 Thank you so much for supporting the Early Access version of the game. We are very much interested in feedback and ideas. Feel free to participate in our Discord or post something in the Steam discussion forums. If you encounter any bugs, send them our way! I will be monitoring closely for any issues and get right to work. Changes in this version: This update just focuses on control issues and more urgent adjustments. Bigger changes to improve stealth and other mechanics coming soon. Thanks for your patience! Angle of the held objects adjusted to make aiming weapons easier It should be harder to trigger teleporting accidently (down joystick). If this continues to be an issue, I'll add an option to remove teleport Fixed leaderboard formatting. Leaderboards no longer show zero values in game or Discord bot. Snap-turn debounce time has been reduced so snap…
- Surrender Bug Fix - 19 November 2021
Hi Everyone, Well, had a few bumps for launch day and apologize for the trouble. The biggest issue reported has been that your character immediately surrenders as soon as they get into the dungeon. This should be resolved with this fix. This was due to the way the controller positions were being calculated and depending on player height, what OpenXR was reporting, etc it might think you had your hands up when you did not. This did not appear in testing but may be due to variety of people and how OpenXR reports some things for some configs. I am aware of a few other issue but this was the most serious and wanted to get a fix out as quickly as possible. If you encounter further issues please let us know. A patch with other fixes will be coming soon. If you are using an Oculus Quest via Virtual Desktop, please make sure you have SteamVR set as the OpenXR runtime or the game will not work p…
- Oculus Quest and Virtual Desktop Issues - 19 November 2021
Hi. If you are using Virtual Desktop with the Quest you will have to make sure you do a few things. Otherwise, the game will not run or the controls will not work correctly (you will automatically surrender and cannot move correctly). 1. Make sure you are using a roomscale boundary on the Quest. 2. Make sure SteamVR is set to be the OpenXR runtime. There is a setting in SteamVR for this. 3. I recommend using the most recent SteamVR beta. 4. Launch the game from SteamVR Home versus the VD Games menu Using these steps I was able to play the game using Virtual Desktop. I am researching how to improve this integration with the Virtual Desktop developer this morning.
- Gameplay Overview Video - 17 November 2021
With the game launching into early access in only a few days, I wanted to share a special video I produced that really goes over the gameplay and features in the current release. If you are not sure the game is for you, check out the video. It has a lot of footage and an overview of the entire game if you haven't read the user manual. Nothing special was done to create the footage, it is just from playing the game and trimming clips. Keep in mind that some things are not unlocked till you complete certain achievements. Most enemy and perk progression is based on number of escapes. Excited to have people play the game finally! Special thanks to my wife for narrating the video :)
- Early Access Release on November 19! - 12 November 2021
I am happy to announce the Early Access version of the game will be released on November 19! Thanks for your support and patience! A new trailer and screenshots are available on the Steam page if you have not seen them yet and a complete press/media kit is available at https://uberlaufer.com/press-kit/ The user manual has also been updated. You can check this out at https://manual.uberlaufer.com New Stuff Some additional game features and mechanics have been added while waiting for the Early Access release to be ready. Surrendering It is now possible for the player to surrender in the game. To surrender, drop anything you are holding and put your hands above your head. If you are being attacked by a guard he will stop. After a few seconds, the screen will start to fade out. You can abandon surrendering at any point, but as soon as you do a guard pointing his weapon at you will start sho…
