District Steel News

Hi all, Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to give you a short preview of the next chapter that's currently in development. We're working on a set of new missions that will take you deeper into the enemy base and throw some twists into the current gameplay mechanics. Skip this post if you want avoid spoilers and find out for yourself once we release the update! ːsteammockingː

[h2]Missions[/h2]

These environments will add a new variety to the current visual style of the game. A lot of inspiration came from some classic video game levels and movie environments. These new missions will also have some additional gameplay mechanics for a greater variety of VR movement, like underwater swimming and wall-running.



[h2]Weapons[/h2]

I'm working on an improved weapon system, which will also allow dual wielding guns in both hands and properly two-handing a bigger weapon. The game initially wasn't planned to have this, but due to popular request (and the fact that you can't really have a slowmo shooter without akimbo pistols) I'm currently changing the code to allow for this and figure out how to best implement the ammo system and how to practically reload two pistols at the same time in VR.



[h2]Enemies[/h2]

More enemies will come to mix up the current gameplay and add more challenge to the shootouts. These enemies will be faster and smarter, so you can't just slowmo your way through everything.



I don't have an ETA for the release yet, I'm afraid. Thank you very much for your patience, as we are still working on this game in our free time beside our regular jobs. All the positive feedback and reviews have been really helpful to us and hopefully some day every VR gamer will get to play District Steel!

Enjoy your day!
- AJ & Arno

• Weapon: Revolver, a powerful handgun with slow firing speed. Can be fired quicker using the fanning technique, at the cost of accuracy
  
• Gun selector popup UI for quick weapon swapping
  
• 35 Tech Chip collectables hidden throughout the game, used to unlock bonus features
  
• 17 unlockable bonus cheats to use when replaying missions

• Changed the default controller layout to be more in line with similar VR shooters, and added more buttons to the customizable controls. (If you prefer the old controls, you can quickly swap back to the previous button layout)
  
• Regular jump action added to player movement
  
• Added Trigger Sensitivity option
  
• Added option to throw Grenades using a preview throwing arc indicator
  
• Added first iteration of two-handed weapon holding (needs much more improvement and is currently only for immersion, has no impact on gun recoil yet)
  
• Buffed Energy Cell pickups to make them more appealing
  
• Further rebalanced boss fight
  

This update adds two new sections to the ingame menu; the Loadout screen for new weapons (like the new Revolver) and the Tech Unlock screen for unlockable features, such as cheats. Future content will be added here and is unlocked through the new Tech currency which rewards players for exploring the levels and replaying missions. (There’s also an unlockable tool to make finding them easier) The cheats are only usable on previously completed missions and are meant to provide some extra fun, some cheats might not work in certain parts of the game. Everything is still subject for further improvement, especially animations and UI design. If you run into any bugs, let me know on the forum!

(If you have issues with a new patch, you can always go back to an older one in Properties > Betas)

Feeling nostalgic? Unlock the bonus features, like Paintball Mode!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/616820/District_Steel/

This week I've been finishing up the new revolver sidearm. This weapon works slightly different than the previous guns, so it needed some additional functionality for it to feel like an actual revolver. It's almost ready for release, but before it can go into the game, I want to have the new unlock system finished as well.

Some of the future content will be locked behind this new progression system, encouraging players to do more exploring in the levels. I'd like to add a lot of secret areas and hidden rooms to the game, but those would be less interesting if they only offered ammo and health pickups, like the game currently does. This is why we're working on a new type of collectible pickup, spread throughout the missions, which will be linked to the new progression system. This system will reward players with points that they can use to unlock new gear and bonus features, adding more depth and replayability to the existing and future missions.

Lastly there will be another small balance update to the current final boss. This update is already available on the beta branch, so check it out if you're currently stuck on the boss fight. The final phase has been adjusted to be a little less overwhelming.

That's all for now, have a great weekend!

- AJ

Yesterday we've released patch v0.1.2 onto the main branch, making the upgrade to Unreal 4.27 official. It's very nice for me to know that we're (hopefully) finished with the big technical updates, so now we can fully focus on the fun part; developing new weapons, enemies and levels. Alongside this upgrade I've added a lot of bugfixes and some quality of life features, many of which were suggested by the community. Many thanks for this continuous feedback, keep all those ideas coming, they are much appreciated!

We've also started working on the continuation of the campaign, thinking about what the next area is going to be like. The idea of the "story" of the game is to infiltrate much deeper into the enemy base, deep into the SenTRI nerve centre. One of the new locations we are working on is the Caverns, which will present an interesting combination of natural rock formations together with the artificial sci-fi bunker elements of District Steel. This opens up new possibilities for level design, with interesting combat encounters and ways to put rocket jumping and slowmotion to use. Check the screenshot below for a little teaser of what this is going to be like, but keep in mind that the level is still very early in development!

Have a nice weekend all!

- AJ

Teaser:

Patch v0.1.2

Fixed:

• Upgraded game engine to Unreal 4.27
  
• Reworked Quick Save system
  
• Added Steam Cloud Save support
  
• Fixed a randomly occurring crash when loading a save. (FRenderResource Error)
  
• Fixed duplicate guns from spawning after loading a save from the main menu.
  
• Fixed a bug where the game could autosave while you were dead.
  
• Normalized HMD direction for HMD Oriented movement.
  
• Fixed a visual bug with the data upload terminals in Mission 04.
  
• Fixed a possible issue with the game losing focus when starting.
  
• Fixed the game sound being muted when not in focus.
  
• Fixed ‘Health Already Full’ display message on HUD.
  
• Fixed another bug where you could exit Map Mode without losing the green wireframe vision.
  
• Guns now start reloaded at the beginning of a mission, if the ammo is available in pouch.
  
• Slightly increased player bullet velocity during slowmotion.
  
• Added option to select either left or right hand in the Rocket Boost Orientation setting.
  
• Slightly increased canvas size of PDA Menu to make space for future content.
  
• Added a slight amount of air-control when rocket jumping.
  
• Slightly reduced max health of the weakpoints of the last boss. (Boss difficulty will get further polished in a future update, more consistent AI and pathing e.g.)
  

Known issues:

• Some visual effects behave differently in slowmotion in this engine version, I will manually fix these in the coming days.
  
• The background music during the arena battles can make a stutter when you exit slowmotion.
  
• Previous Quick Saves will be lost because of the reworked system. You will still keep your unlocked mission progress in the Select Mission screen, but you’ll have to start from the beginning of the mission if you had quit the game half-way after your last play session. Sorry for this inconvenience! (If for some reason you also lost unlocked mission progress, check the FAQ on the forum!)