- HOTfix 1.0.1 - 16 October 2020
There's always an itch to immediately get back in there and keep improving once an update is launched. The release of Powers a week ago being no exception. But I decided, in the spirit of it's Early Access days to let feedback accumulate and accumulate it did. Almost immediately new bugs became known issues, and players way more experienced with VR today than they were back in the original 2017 release date started pointing out inconveniences and things they had grown accustomed to in other titles. With a few days worth of data and I'd like to offer up today's hotfix and patchnotes: FEATURES Stick rotation - You can now use the thumbstick/thumbpad on your controller to rotate 45 degress to the left or right. Simply tilt the thumbstick to one direction then press it or press on either side of your thumbpad (if using an HTC Vive). This new mechanic is now a part of the tutorial. Collectib…
- PowersVR leaves Early Access - 10 October 2020
Launch The time has come for PowersVR to leave Early Access and join the exclusive club of games that were actually released. After years of development and a...small...hiatus the latest and greatest update is now live. To celebrate the occasion a one week discount awaits those who still haven't joined in during Early Access. If you want to head straight into the action you can download it and play it immediately. If however you want to know what's new stick around. The Sandbox The hero of this update is ironically not a superhero at all, but instead the map where it all takes places. Hundreds of hours placing buildings, making systems and optimizations as well as creating unique zones to explore mean that Metropolis has now grown about 40 times of what it once was. Parks, residential and business areas as well as a few unique locations mean there's plenty to discover. With a large amou…
- PowersVR will release on October 10th! - 27 September 2020
Hi. Before I get into any type of details I'd like to announce that yes, PowersVR is finally defying the curse of the indie in Early Access and launching version 1.0 on October 10 2020. Ah yes 2020. This year has frankly been a lot. If there is one good thing it did for me, is created an enviornment in which I can once again spend hundreds of hours working on something I deeply care about. I don't want to make excuses. Work, life etc. are a factor yes, but I would like to apologize for the long wait, to those who believed in the project and backed it early on. This being my first major project would, hardly realized what I had gotten myself into until I was in too deep. Since the early days of the year I've slowly but steadily been making progress on PowersVR. The game took a different direction, and I hope it's not one which dissapoints. Now as we're nearing the aforementioned date, I'…
- Happy birthday to PowersVR - 10 February 2018
Well, it's been an year since I released PowersVR in Early Access and after a lot of back and forth and community feedback I feel like we're getting somewhere! If you've been following these posts you'll know that after the initial few content patches I've moved on to only working on the story mode, and while progress is slow, it's certainly happening. As maps get bigger and more detailed I've put in extra time to tinker with lighting and optimization. One of the problems with having cities is...well someone has to make the city, and that's quite the task for a one-man team. So I've been working on some tools and systems to make the endeavor a bit lighter. Using systems I've talked about before and some new ones I'm slowly getting comic book New York to feel more alive. Most notably I've recently finished a dynamic path system, where a street, or train tracks or anything similarly linea…
- Happy birthday to PowersVR - 10 February 2018
Well, it's been an year since I released PowersVR in Early Access and after a lot of back and forth and community feedback I feel like we're getting somewhere! If you've been following these posts you'll know that after the initial few content patches I've moved on to only working on the story mode, and while progress is slow, it's certainly happening. As maps get bigger and more detailed I've put in extra time to tinker with lighting and optimization. One of the problems with having cities is...well someone has to make the city, and that's quite the task for a one-man team. So I've been working on some tools and systems to make the endeavor a bit lighter. Using systems I've talked about before and some new ones I'm slowly getting comic book New York to feel more alive. Most notably I've recently finished a dynamic path system, where a street, or train tracks or anything similarly linea…
- Progress report - A month on the pipeline - 11 October 2017
Been a while since the last update. Work is progressing on the story mode and I wanted to let you know how it's going. Right now I've decided to make a complete playable level, just so I can implement most major systems that will be used in the story. It's one of the first levels in Act I and features some city exploration and combat. Different levels will feature different types of gameplay and this level in particular has a couple of wave defense segments. So some of the work I've done in the last month has involved both the Wave system and improvement for the game's AI. The first step was creating as many assets as I can to make the city feel believeable. Props, decals and buildings have been the focus for the last couple of weeks. In addition to that I've been creating outlines for early story cutscenes and storyboards for later ones. After the this level is complete I'll paint in t…
- Progress report - A month on the pipeline - 11 October 2017
Been a while since the last update. Work is progressing on the story mode and I wanted to let you know how it's going. Right now I've decided to make a complete playable level, just so I can implement most major systems that will be used in the story. It's one of the first levels in Act I and features some city exploration and combat. Different levels will feature different types of gameplay and this level in particular has a couple of wave defense segments. So some of the work I've done in the last month has involved both the Wave system and improvement for the game's AI. The first step was creating as many assets as I can to make the city feel believeable. Props, decals and buildings have been the focus for the last couple of weeks. In addition to that I've been creating outlines for early story cutscenes and storyboards for later ones. After the this level is complete I'll paint in t…
- v 0.4.0 - Origins - 4 September 2017
You guys know I'm just playin', when I give you update estimates right? No? Well I am. I've missed another deadline, but in my defense I'm quite bad with estimating, and the list of things I wanted to get done just kept growing. But enough of this directionless rant, let's get down to bussiness. After the 0.3.0 update I warned that my primary focus from now on would be work on the Story mode, while keeping the sandbox and challenges updated especially using systems and assets that I've made for the story mode. For the most part that's true, but there were a few things that I felt needed to be done and that's why today I'm releasing the Origins update. Note: Scroll to the bottom to see the full patch notes The first big addition is the Gallery - a new location accessible through the main menu. Here you can read the backstories of heroes you've unlocked in the Sandbox. Some are quite leng…
- v 0.4.0 - Origins - 4 September 2017
You guys know I'm just playin', when I give you update estimates right? No? Well I am. I've missed another deadline, but in my defense I'm quite bad with estimating, and the list of things I wanted to get done just kept growing. But enough of this directionless rant, let's get down to bussiness. After the 0.3.0 update I warned that my primary focus from now on would be work on the Story mode, while keeping the sandbox and challenges updated especially using systems and assets that I've made for the story mode. For the most part that's true, but there were a few things that I felt needed to be done and that's why today I'm releasing the Origins update. Note: Scroll to the bottom to see the full patch notes The first big addition is the Gallery - a new location accessible through the main menu. Here you can read the backstories of heroes you've unlocked in the Sandbox. Some are quite leng…
- Progress report - Building buildings - 13 August 2017
I'm working on a 0.4.0 release which implements some important gameplay changes, as well as brings a bunch of assets into the game, but that's at least a week away so I wanted to catch everyone up on what I'm up to exactly. First of all, I've been doing work specific to the Story Mode. I'm not gonna talk about it much to avoid spoiling something, but I've evaluated all segments of the story and have worked on the ones that I'm sure I wanna have, and ignored ones that might be rewritten or removed in favor of more sensible segments. Right now Story Mode work mostly consists of drawing the comicbook panels that will be used for the cinematics and is something I do to unwind from other work, as they are the least priority item on the list. Moving on - assets! Almost anything in the game can be considered an asset, but when I say assets I mostly mean 3D models or 2D drawings. I've been maki…
- Progress report - Building buildings - 13 August 2017
I'm working on a 0.4.0 release which implements some important gameplay changes, as well as brings a bunch of assets into the game, but that's at least a week away so I wanted to catch everyone up on what I'm up to exactly. First of all, I've been doing work specific to the Story Mode. I'm not gonna talk about it much to avoid spoiling something, but I've evaluated all segments of the story and have worked on the ones that I'm sure I wanna have, and ignored ones that might be rewritten or removed in favor of more sensible segments. Right now Story Mode work mostly consists of drawing the comicbook panels that will be used for the cinematics and is something I do to unwind from other work, as they are the least priority item on the list. Moving on - assets! Almost anything in the game can be considered an asset, but when I say assets I mostly mean 3D models or 2D drawings. I've been maki…
- v0.3.6 Patch notes - Where do you think you're going? - 31 July 2017
Another day, another patch brought on by the object pooling system. I promise you, it's worth it, but as it stands, pooled objects that were supposed to be attached, would appear in seemingly random location when reactivated. The issue was brought to my attention after users noticed the minigun floating around the map after switching to a different power and back to Alloy. The same thing happened to Shield Maiden's shield. Well, that's the main reason you're getting 0.3.6 early, but not the only thing included in this update. If you've read previous announcement, you might know that (as with a lot of superhero themed media) PowersVR's story mostly takes place in New York. This suggests a busy city, with many buildings and streets, and while I have been slowly churning out 3D models to populate the sandbox, I hadn't actually considered that New York has it's own aesthetic. Luckily for me…
- v0.3.6 Patch notes - Where do you think you're going? - 31 July 2017
Another day, another patch brought on by the object pooling system. I promise you, it's worth it, but as it stands, pooled objects that were supposed to be attached, would appear in seemingly random location when reactivated. The issue was brought to my attention after users noticed the minigun floating around the map after switching to a different power and back to Alloy. The same thing happened to Shield Maiden's shield. Well, that's the main reason you're getting 0.3.6 early, but not the only thing included in this update. If you've read previous announcement, you might know that (as with a lot of superhero themed media) PowersVR's story mostly takes place in New York. This suggests a busy city, with many buildings and streets, and while I have been slowly churning out 3D models to populate the sandbox, I hadn't actually considered that New York has it's own aesthetic. Luckily for me…
- v0.3.5 Patch notes - Object Sink - 27 July 2017
Another quick update. The main reason I'm publishing this one is a major fix for an issue I noticed recently. If you've been reading these announcements, you'll know that I put in an object pooling system in the game. This lets the game reuse objects without creating/deleting them, which improved performance a lot especially when projectiles are introduced. Well after some testing I realized that despite the game running fairly smootly, it wasn't thanks to my new system. The system didn't work at all! I was still spawning/despawning everything. A day later I had a fix lined up, but since it wasn't so critical I decided to beef up the update with something else too. While I was fidgeting with some settings I noticed the menus looked outdated and oddly designed. As if they were being drawn to have something underneath all buttons rather than for visibility, clarity and aesthetics. I've ma…
- v0.3.5 Patch notes - Object Sink - 27 July 2017
Another quick update. The main reason I'm publishing this one is a major fix for an issue I noticed recently. If you've been reading these announcements, you'll know that I put in an object pooling system in the game. This lets the game reuse objects without creating/deleting them, which improved performance a lot especially when projectiles are introduced. Well after some testing I realized that despite the game running fairly smootly, it wasn't thanks to my new system. The system didn't work at all! I was still spawning/despawning everything. A day later I had a fix lined up, but since it wasn't so critical I decided to beef up the update with something else too. While I was fidgeting with some settings I noticed the menus looked outdated and oddly designed. As if they were being drawn to have something underneath all buttons rather than for visibility, clarity and aesthetics. I've ma…
- v0.3.4 Patch notes - Polishing - 23 July 2017
With my current focus being on the story mode, it's easy to forget that the game is out, even if it's in Early Access. That's why I took this weekend to fix some outstanding issues with the game as well as do some polishing such as improving performance, size and art quality. One thing I tackled this weekend, and think will pay off in the long run is proper Steam integration. It took some tries, but the game now features it's first set of achievements. They're all related to gathering heroes in the sandbox, but many more will come especially with the story mode. This now opens up the door for things such as Cloud saves, Trading cards and rewards. Since they're non-critical to the completion of the game I'll tackle them when I need a rest from doing other things. I'm also quite pleased with the lighting in this build. More so than previous versions where you could see artificats and oddl…
- v0.3.4 Patch notes - Polishing - 23 July 2017
With my current focus being on the story mode, it's easy to forget that the game is out, even if it's in Early Access. That's why I took this weekend to fix some outstanding issues with the game as well as do some polishing such as improving performance, size and art quality. One thing I tackled this weekend, and think will pay off in the long run is proper Steam integration. It took some tries, but the game now features it's first set of achievements. They're all related to gathering heroes in the sandbox, but many more will come especially with the story mode. This now opens up the door for things such as Cloud saves, Trading cards and rewards. Since they're non-critical to the completion of the game I'll tackle them when I need a rest from doing other things. I'm also quite pleased with the lighting in this build. More so than previous versions where you could see artificats and oddl…
- v0.3.3 Patch notes - D'oh - 21 July 2017
That's the effect of under-testing for ya. A couple of days ago I released a sligtly dated version of the game without realizing it. This rendered almost all combat heroes in the game unuseable. I've now remedied my mistake and even squeezed in the rework of Alloy and Ruby. Realistically their bullets just got swapped, but it was an important change, from a balance and fun perspective. Alloy should now be much more fun and skill-based to use, while getting hits with Ruby's finger gun revolver is easier than before. The rest you can read in the patch notes: GENERAL * Fixed issues Fuego, Professor Hex, Dark Prinxess, Hiroku and Ruby, where they couldn't deal damage to enemies. * Implemented new projectile system for all projectiles in game - Better performance - More consistent behaviour - Easier to work with for future projectiles - Better physics ALLOY * Alloy's bullets are no longer hi…
- v0.3.3 Patch notes - D'oh - 21 July 2017
That's the effect of under-testing for ya. A couple of days ago I released a sligtly dated version of the game without realizing it. This rendered almost all combat heroes in the game unuseable. I've now remedied my mistake and even squeezed in the rework of Alloy and Ruby. Realistically their bullets just got swapped, but it was an important change, from a balance and fun perspective. Alloy should now be much more fun and skill-based to use, while getting hits with Ruby's finger gun revolver is easier than before. The rest you can read in the patch notes: GENERAL * Fixed issues Fuego, Professor Hex, Dark Prinxess, Hiroku and Ruby, where they couldn't deal damage to enemies. * Implemented new projectile system for all projectiles in game - Better performance - More consistent behaviour - Easier to work with for future projectiles - Better physics ALLOY * Alloy's bullets are no longer hi…
- v0.3.2 Patch notes - Age of Sandboxtron - 19 July 2017
A bit later than promised, but I've finally wrapped up the changes for the latest patch. If you've already read the previous progress report, you'll know that this patch brings some important systems to the table. Since there aren't too many patch notes to speak of, I'll talk a bit more in-depth about all the changes. Just to have something colorful here's a concept for a melee villain called Malware. Since I decided to go with super strength for the melee combat in the game, Malware slowly morphed into Ruby. Ruby, alongside the other ballistic hero - Alloy will be undergoing slight reworks in the next patch. The highlight of this update however is the new AI system that I've put into place. Many of you have rightfully noted that the robots that infest the sandbox are simply way too dumb, unresponsive and generally don't pose much of a threat. This update aims to not only target these p…
