cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

[WIP] Kangaroo Dash - Last minute update APK inside!

nilstastic
Explorer
Last minute update!
https://vrjam-submissions.s3.amazonaws.com/signed/4bd5ffbcfc9b/YeBRSjBYTriVjcJWo71h_kangaroo_dash.ap...

Update May 11 - Final APK
It's been a fun couple of weeks but I'm glad that it's finally over. Been working after the kids get into bed and it's starting to wear me down. All in all, I'm very happy with the end result - and I hope you all enjoy playing it as much as i had doing it. 😃

https://vrjam-submissions.s3.amazonaws.com/signed/4bd5ffbcfc9b/SikHhPwiTpWUjr3jVjIM_kangaroo_dash.ap...

Challengepost: http://vrjam.challengepost.com/submissi ... garoo-dash

Video:



Update May 8 - test apk
Controls - just jump!
Lots of things left to do, but it would be nice to know if it's working or not. 😃
https://vrjam-submissions.s3.amazonaws.com/signed/4bd5ffbcfc9b/OnBizDUyTZqI4Uh4Hg9F_kangaroo_dash.ap...

Update May 3 - milestone 3 video



Update April 27th - milestone 2 screenshots

2 of 3 islands in view, everything is unlit (except the island) and a lot of placeholder meshes till there.


ingame screenshot

Premise
In the game Kangaroo Dash you find yourself stranded in a unknown world that consists of multiple floating islands. In order to find your way back home you will need to visit multiple islands, overcome obstacles and avoid deadly traps in order to collect the vital information needed to repair your ship and begin the voyage home.

The control scheme challenge
Since traversing and exploring large open worlds in a first person view is one of the most difficult things to undertake in virtual reality we first need to solve two problems.


  • Natural motion is hard to mimic with the currently available input solutions, nausea often sets in if the player makes sudden movements in unnatural directions which is damaging not only to the game but to the VR movement as a whole.

  • The loss of presence that using available control methods like gamepads or touchpads infer.


In Kangaroo Dash I have solved these issues in one single blow.

Jumping.

Using accelerometer input the player is able to traverse the world by jumping between points in a fixed grid. The inherent unpredictability of the human jump combined with the player doing the *actual* physical movement keeps the nausea at a minimum while still being able to freely roam the environment. Since the input solution is natural it is very easy to get into “the zone” when the game loop tightens later in the game.

Aesthetics
To keep the game running at a cool 60 frames per seconds the game uses low poly aesthetics combined with baked textures to keep the draw call and vertex count to a minimum.

Moving forward
If the game is somewhat successful in the community it would get a makeover before releasing it into the wild. I do think that this game has a *“you gotta try this!”* potential from a user and a spectator perspective, which would make it an excellent title for an emerging platform like the Gear VR.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[original post]
Hi everyone!

Since I love a challenge more than the end result I'll try to accomplish the following.

- Learn Unity, but since my day job is working with C# I'm kind of hoping this will be easy..
- Sharpen my Blender skills. In the 2013 jam I made a snake and a arcade cabinet but I'll try to do better this time.
- Learn SunVox! Seems like a great way to make music.

The idea is to create some sort of physical obstacle course without making the player nauseous. I got most of the game-play elements done and since I'm hosting a real world game jam this weekend (ludum dare!) I'll probably spend the weekend iterating over various game-play issues and trying to make the feel of the game as smooth as possible.

On the graphical side of things the plan is to create some sort of low-poly world that wont tax the note too much, but we'll see how that goes. 😃

33 REPLIES 33

nilstastic
Explorer
This is what was posted for the third milestone.


spinaljack
Protege
the game looks brilliant
I can see all the bruised knees and knocked over cups now XD

nilstastic
Explorer
"spinaljack" wrote:
the game looks brilliant
I can see all the bruised knees and knocked over cups now XD


Let's hope so. 😃

If anyone would be willing to test my APK I'd be very happy. The game got a bit of work left on it (no music, etc etc you know the drill) but it would be nice to know if it's working. 😃

Controls - Just jump, the yellow quare thingies are checkpoints and press the touchpad to restart.

https://vrjam-submissions.s3.amazonaws.com/signed/4bd5ffbcfc9b/OnBizDUyTZqI4Uh4Hg9F_kangaroo_dash.ap...

mallmagician
Expert Protege
"nilstastic" wrote:
"spinaljack" wrote:
the game looks brilliant
I can see all the bruised knees and knocked over cups now XD


Let's hope so. 😃

If anyone would be willing to test my APK I'd be very happy. The game got a bit of work left on it (no music, etc etc you know the drill) but it would be nice to know if it's working. 😃

Controls - Just jump, the yellow quare thingies are checkpoints and press the touchpad to restart.

https://vrjam-submissions.s3.amazonaws.com/signed/4bd5ffbcfc9b/OnBizDUyTZqI4Uh4Hg9F_kangaroo_dash.ap...

Hi there,

This works great and is loads of fun. I couldn't find any bugs or anything. When you die it would be good to have whatever sound effect, but I'm sure that's on your radar.

Excellent work and the jump mechanic works really well (or a nod when I got tired.) I don't often do vr stuff standing. I like that this pretty much forces me to - because I thoroughly enjoyed playing it.

spinaljack
Protege
That was awesome but maybe move the restart button to the back button on the Gear VR.
Was not best pleased when I made it to the upper platform and then accidentally brushed the touch pad 😠

Maybe make that restart at the last check point instead.

Back button is mapped to Input.GetKeyDown("Escape");

MaximMiheyenko
Honored Guest
Nice and dynamic game with hot gameplay. Thank for hard work, man!
Maxim Miheyenko, VR Production. House of Languages: viewtopic.php?f=77&t=22268&start=40

nilstastic
Explorer
"spinaljack" wrote:
That was awesome but maybe move the restart button to the back button on the Gear VR.
Was not best pleased when I made it to the upper platform and then accidentally brushed the touch pad 😠

Maybe make that restart at the last check point instead.

Back button is mapped to Input.GetKeyDown("Escape");


Ah, sorry about that. I had to make a quick restart button when demoing this at work (got 20+ videos of people twitching and jumping) but I'll fix it in the next release. Thank you for playing! 😃

nilstastic
Explorer
"MaximMiheyenko" wrote:
Nice and dynamic game with hot gameplay. Thank for hard work, man!


Thanks, I'm glad that I got this far (the only time i got for this is after the kids go to sleep) but it's been tons of fun. + thanks for taking the time to play. I'm a bit scared of testing other apps since it might break my spirit this close to the end. 😃

Jaycee900
Explorer
Not that i noticed, but this needs a control screen at the start, couldnt for the life of me work out how to move until i came on here! Will give it another go! :lol:
Mini Gear VR Reviews Blog --> http://gearvrreviews.blogspot.co.uk

nilstastic
Explorer
"Jaycee900" wrote:
Not that i noticed, but this needs a control screen at the start, couldnt for the life of me work out how to move until i came on here! Will give it another go! :lol:


Thanks for giving it another try, the idea is to have a robot voice giving away hints - but if that fails I'll add a control screen for sure. 😃