- VR support enabled and price change - 12 October 2016
For the last three weeks I’ve been taking some time off from developing on Caretaker – spending it mostly in Florida. While there I decided that the time had come to enable the VR support in Caretaker. If you played Caretaker while it was being shown at any events, then chances are you played it in VR but for the Early Access release I turned off VR while I waited for Unity 5.4 to be released and now it’s finally here and supports VR natively it was time to turn it back on – so I have. As of today you can play Caretaker if you have an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive VR headset. The Vive support is a work-in-progress as I’ve not had an opportunity to fully test it out but some have told me it’s working fine for them. As this is a fairly major update the price of Caretaker will be raising too, I’ve asked Valve to raise it to $9.99 – it’s up to them to approve this price point so it’s in their han…
- VR support enabled and price change - 12 October 2016
For the last three weeks I’ve been taking some time off from developing on Caretaker – spending it mostly in Florida. While there I decided that the time had come to enable the VR support in Caretaker. If you played Caretaker while it was being shown at any events, then chances are you played it in VR but for the Early Access release I turned off VR while I waited for Unity 5.4 to be released and now it’s finally here and supports VR natively it was time to turn it back on – so I have. As of today you can play Caretaker if you have an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive VR headset. The Vive support is a work-in-progress as I’ve not had an opportunity to fully test it out but some have told me it’s working fine for them. As this is a fairly major update the price of Caretaker will be raising too, I’ve asked Valve to raise it to $9.99 – it’s up to them to approve this price point so it’s in their han…
- Radar pulse, controls and responding to feedback - 25 August 2016
When I said that I was putting Caretaker Sacrifice onto early access so that I could engage with the community and get feedback to make the game better I really meant it. Over the last 3 days I’ve been acting on feedback and making changes to the game. The first bit of feedback was that there needed to be some way to help with locating the suppressors in the level. I liked that they were hard to find but some of you were finding them too hard to find. So, to help with this I’ve now added a radar pulse that you can fire off which will light up both the portal and the suppressors to let you know where they are. When the pulse hits them they will light up as green and can be seen through walls for a short time. You can hit the pulse as many times as you like. To add a bit more variety, I’ve now made it that the suppressors start off in random locations (except for the first two times you e…
- Radar pulse, controls and responding to feedback - 25 August 2016
When I said that I was putting Caretaker Sacrifice onto early access so that I could engage with the community and get feedback to make the game better I really meant it. Over the last 3 days I’ve been acting on feedback and making changes to the game. The first bit of feedback was that there needed to be some way to help with locating the suppressors in the level. I liked that they were hard to find but some of you were finding them too hard to find. So, to help with this I’ve now added a radar pulse that you can fire off which will light up both the portal and the suppressors to let you know where they are. When the pulse hits them they will light up as green and can be seen through walls for a short time. You can hit the pulse as many times as you like. To add a bit more variety, I’ve now made it that the suppressors start off in random locations (except for the first two times you e…
- Corrupt save game hot fix and ability to skip levels - 20 August 2016
Two people reported a very similar crash on starting the game today. I manage to narrow it down to the save game getting corrupt so tonight I replaced the save game stuff with something completely different. I've tested it out here an so far it's working - so I've made that build live. Let me know if you get any issues. One thing became apparent to me when testing the game and that's when I add in a new level I want to get to that level quickly having already been through the rest many times so for while the game is in early access I've added in a keypress that allows you to skip levels. If you press 'N' on your keyboard at any time it will take you to the next level. Enjoy and let me know if you get any issues!
- Corrupt save game hot fix and ability to skip levels - 20 August 2016
Two people reported a very similar crash on starting the game today. I manage to narrow it down to the save game getting corrupt so tonight I replaced the save game stuff with something completely different. I've tested it out here an so far it's working - so I've made that build live. Let me know if you get any issues. One thing became apparent to me when testing the game and that's when I add in a new level I want to get to that level quickly having already been through the rest many times so for while the game is in early access I've added in a keypress that allows you to skip levels. If you press 'N' on your keyboard at any time it will take you to the next level. Enjoy and let me know if you get any issues!
- A new level - 19 August 2016
Well, sort of a new level, if you played Caretaker Sacrifice at Rezzed in London this year you’ll recognize this level. It’s been updated to the new art style and given a few new features. Over the next few days I’ll be integrating the existing levels too. There’s some bits still to do on this level such as come up with new sound effects for certain features but while in there I managed to fix a visual bug to do with the particle system.
- A new level - 19 August 2016
Well, sort of a new level, if you played Caretaker Sacrifice at Rezzed in London this year you’ll recognize this level. It’s been updated to the new art style and given a few new features. Over the next few days I’ll be integrating the existing levels too. There’s some bits still to do on this level such as come up with new sound effects for certain features but while in there I managed to fix a visual bug to do with the particle system.
- It's out - what next? - 18 August 2016
Today I finally clicked the big green publish button on Steam – now what? For me there’s no time to rest. What’s currently up on Steam is a taster of Caretaker Sacrifice so that I can get a feel on how people play and react to the gameplay and level format I’ve settled on. So far it seems to be going well so over the next few days I’ll be integrating more levels into the build and getting them out to you. Thanks for playing and an even bigger thanks for giving me feedback – it really helps make this game so much better. Now, it’s my birthday and I believe there’s a cake in the house that’s calling my name ;)
- It's out - what next? - 18 August 2016
Today I finally clicked the big green publish button on Steam – now what? For me there’s no time to rest. What’s currently up on Steam is a taster of Caretaker Sacrifice so that I can get a feel on how people play and react to the gameplay and level format I’ve settled on. So far it seems to be going well so over the next few days I’ll be integrating more levels into the build and getting them out to you. Thanks for playing and an even bigger thanks for giving me feedback – it really helps make this game so much better. Now, it’s my birthday and I believe there’s a cake in the house that’s calling my name ;)
- Your thoughts on how to handle subtitles? - 21 June 2016
One of the things I’m currently struggling with in Caretaker is about how to make the voice over segments accessible for all players, not just the ones who can hear. This is kind of important to me because as a kid I was deaf so I really want to come up with a good solution to this. I’d like to get your opinion. One solution is to always display subtitles when the voice over sections are playing. Some people will have a problem with this because the text will always be taking up some portion of the screen space and obstruct the view of the world. Another solution is to only display subtitles when they are selected or enabled. One way of doing this is to have a setting that the player has to enable or disable to turn off subtitles in some kind of menu option somewhere or perhaps some kind of run-time toggle. The other option is to not have subtitles at all but to somehow embed the text o…
- Your thoughts on how to handle subtitles? - 21 June 2016
One of the things I’m currently struggling with in Caretaker is about how to make the voice over segments accessible for all players, not just the ones who can hear. This is kind of important to me because as a kid I was deaf so I really want to come up with a good solution to this. I’d like to get your opinion. One solution is to always display subtitles when the voice over sections are playing. Some people will have a problem with this because the text will always be taking up some portion of the screen space and obstruct the view of the world. Another solution is to only display subtitles when they are selected or enabled. One way of doing this is to have a setting that the player has to enable or disable to turn off subtitles in some kind of menu option somewhere or perhaps some kind of run-time toggle. The other option is to not have subtitles at all but to somehow embed the text o…
- So, what’s happening with Caretaker Sacrifice? - 15 June 2016
So, what’s happening with Caretaker Sacrifice? Well, around about the time I was due to be releasing Caretaker Sacrifice something pretty scary happened to me. I was told that it was possible I had Cancer. I don’t mind saying that this had me bouncing off the walls. I, like most of you hadn’t really faced the concept of my own mortality but this brought it front and centre, waving it’s arms frantically in front of my face shouting ‘look at me!’ Don’t get me wrong, a Cancer diagnosis is by no means a death sentence these days but that’s honestly not the type of positive thinking you go through when being told you possibly have it. I have to stress that I’ve now been through all the tests and procedures and I am clear. The reason they thought I might have it was due to my lymph nodes being swollen and I had managed to lose a significant amount of weight in just under 3 months – I went fro…
- So, what’s happening with Caretaker Sacrifice? - 15 June 2016
So, what’s happening with Caretaker Sacrifice? Well, around about the time I was due to be releasing Caretaker Sacrifice something pretty scary happened to me. I was told that it was possible I had Cancer. I don’t mind saying that this had me bouncing off the walls. I, like most of you hadn’t really faced the concept of my own mortality but this brought it front and centre, waving it’s arms frantically in front of my face shouting ‘look at me!’ Don’t get me wrong, a Cancer diagnosis is by no means a death sentence these days but that’s honestly not the type of positive thinking you go through when being told you possibly have it. I have to stress that I’ve now been through all the tests and procedures and I am clear. The reason they thought I might have it was due to my lymph nodes being swollen and I had managed to lose a significant amount of weight in just under 3 months – I went fro…
- Caretaker Sacrifice playable at the PC Gamer Weekender - 23 February 2016
If you want a chance to try out Caretaker Sacrifice on the Oculus Rift then come along to the PC Gamer Weekender in London on the 5th of March. They are offering 20% off the price of admission: http://weekender.pcgamer.com/exhibitors/caretaker-sacrifice SEE YOU THERE!
- Caretaker Sacrifice playable at the PC Gamer Weekender - 23 February 2016
If you want a chance to try out Caretaker Sacrifice on the Oculus Rift then come along to the PC Gamer Weekender in London on the 5th of March. They are offering 20% off the price of admission: http://weekender.pcgamer.com/exhibitors/caretaker-sacrifice SEE YOU THERE!
