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Alien Dawn News

Alien Dawn Unreal Engine 5 | Open Alpha

🗣️ Calling all Escapees!

It's the dawn of a new era.

Alien Dawn is now open for playtesting in Unreal Engine 5!

This is a very early build and there will be bugs and issues to expect, however your help is critical to our goal of successfully bringing the game in to this new era.

PLAYTEST INFO:
  • TO PARTICIPATE in the developer feedback UE5 playtest, sign into our Discord and please react to this same message in the "news-and-updates" forum using the 👽 emoji.
  • You'll get access to a channel where we'll notify you when the latest playtest version is released.
  • We'll be using the ⁠"alpha-testing-reports" forum on the Discord for reporting bugs, issues and posting screenshots/captures.
  • For now, we're only focusing on the desktop version in this initial test phase, tho VR is available and optional.


This is a critical next step for the future of Alien Dawn and its development.

If you have any questions or are having trouble with the playtest, please let us know in "⁠alpha-testing-reports" on our Discord.

Official Alien Dawn Discord: https://discord.com/invite/2DJ9tebEUP

- L I V I D

Alien Dawn "TOP 20 INDIE VR GAMES OF 2023" + NEWS

Hi All,

As it is the 6th and still less than a week into 2023 I can still say, Happy New Year!

In some exciting news, IndieVR has added Alien Dawn to it's "TOP 20 INDIE VR GAMES OF 2023" list and highlight video. (Alien Dawn is the first up in the video at 1:24)

It's always been one of the goals to have Alien Dawns on lists like this, so I can't say how much I appreciate them for believing in what we are creating. This channel is doing a great thing for VR indie devs by choosing to focus on these handcrafted titles. Please support the channel by taking a look!

I'll also be on the IndieVR podcast in the next week telling an in-depth story about how VoyagerVR and Alien Dawn got started. I'll be posting the link when it comes out.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Unreal 5.1

In terms of game development, it's been decided that the correct move forward was to prepare the game to be ported to Unreal 5.1 and that process has begun.

With the major improvements to the engine and the refactoring of the games code, this will be the correct foundation the game has needed and I can't wait to have it done.

Hope you all are well and please check out the IndieVR YouTube Channel!

Xtian

Alien Dawn | UPDATE 19

Hi All!

[h2]bHaptics Support[/h2]

The most unique aspect of UPDATE 19 is the addition of native bHaptics support. bHaptics is a haptics feedback system that really adds to a high end VR experience, with 40 individual motors in the vest that give the player detailed feedback as to what is happening to their character.

An obvious example is if you're getting shot in the back, only the back potion of the vest will vibrate, giving you better situational awareness of the battle.

What has been really cool for me was incorporating the 40 individual motors into the inventory system. Each inventory item slot on your vest and backpack react to an item being stored with exact motor location on the haptic vest, creating a really unique experience. It's almost like this vest was made to be used with this inventory system.

I plan on doing a video update describing this more in detail soon.



A big thanks goes out to Jen and the team at bHaptics for sending me the dev kit, and djstelo for recommending I contact them.

It's worth mentioning that aside from the free dev kit, I am not being paid to add support for or talk about this device.

[h2]Graphical Improvements[/h2]



I've made some lighting and color changes to Map 1 to address some of the graphics quality issues.

[h2]Game Mode Modifiers[/h2]

Finally there is the addition of Game Mode Modifiers that will allow you to alter various aspects of how Alien Dawn functions. Some of these will be slight game play tweaks to fit your personal preferences, and some will just be goofy fun.

The first of these 3 Modifiers are what I'm calling Arcade Mode. This gives a more action oriented experience for new players so the initial play though isn't as overwhelming, which is still one of the biggest areas of the game I'm trying to improve dramatically.

It's also just fun to run around guns blazing too :)

If you have any ideas for Modifiers let me know, I'm sure we can come up with some fun ones.

Xtian

12/12/2022 (Early Access) v1.19

+ Added Modifiers
+ Mod + Unlimited Ammo
+ Mod + Show Location Markers In game
+ Mod + Gun Slides Cosmetic Only

+ Added bHaptics Vest and Tactosy for Arms Native support
+ Added 60+ unique bHaptic In Game Events (Some listed below)
+ Player Stores Item in Inventory (40 Unique Motor Events on Front and Back of Vest)
+ Player Attaches and Removes Vest and Backpack
+ Player Shot / Player Slashed / Player Fires Weapon / Player Uses Melee or Punches
+ Player Hungry (Stomach Rumbles)
+ Player takes Fall Damage
+ Player is low on Health (Heart beats)
+ Player Rumbles when Mothership arrives
+ Player takes Damage from Mothership attacks
+ Player gets Revived / Player Uses Health Pack
+ Player Searches through Backback

+ Added Armor to Players Vest
+ Added Armor Plate Pickups

+ Added Low Health Event with new FX and SoundFX
+ Added Fall Damage Event with new FX and SoundFX

+ Revised HUD Player Icons
+ Revised Scene Color and Lighting on Map 1 for Day and Night

+ Reduced Player Head Shot Damage
+ Revised Mag Grip Slot size on Guns to help with accidentally Ejecting Mags
+ Improved reliability of Grabbing Mag out of Backpack with Index Controllers
+ Increased AutoStore trace size to make storing Items more reliable

+ Increased chance of same type of Mag spawning multiple times
+ Weapon spawns now spawn compatible Mags instead of duplicate Weapon
+ Tripled Melee Uses before Broken
+ Increased Speed necessary for Melee Swing

+ Fixed Swapping Hands with Weapon and Weapon disappearing bug
+ Fixed bug where storing Weapon while Gripping Stock disabled Gripping Hand
+ Fixed losing Inventory Slot bug
+ Fixed Vehicle continuing to drive after broken
+ Fixed Index and Touch Controller bug where Gripping with Grip could grab Mag out too easy
+ Fixed Index and Touch Controller bug where Gripping with Grip drop Item after Gripping

Alien Dawn | v1.18a (HotFix)

11/12/2022 (Early Access) v1.18a

Made Tutorial optional on bootup for first time Players