Space Salvage Blog #7 : Tutorials – New Levels – Combat

It’s the April Dev Blog, and we are working hard on our early access release coming to you this year!
We’d like to give a big thank you to you all for giving us over 20k clicks and over 130k views on SideQuestVR! This is amazing! We have grown so much since the last month, and we couldn't have done it without you.

Tutorials

Tutorials, tutorials, tutorials; either you love them or you hate them, but you got to have them!  However, we've created them to be a somewhat challenge while you learn and hone your skills. Currently, there are two types of tutorial missions, we have a racecourse to help you better learn to fly your pod while under pressure, and we have a tutorial to help you aim your laser better.

These tutorials are completely optional, but give them a go! We think you'll have a lot of fun with them. Below are some screenshots to showcase what you could be playing soon!

New Levels

For the early access, we are planning to have a total of 7 environments with story missions, tutorials and your everyday job as an SSC employee. Each environment will have a job for you to complete, achievements to gain and even secret missions that unlock when you complete the main objective, who knows!
Let's get a sneak peek at some levels! 

Merope

A beautiful and green environment to ease you into the world of Space Salvage. It is relaxing and gives a newly hired SSC employee the general gist of what their job involves.
Fly through and experience the surrounding environment, catch a glimpse of floating satellites and billboards to give you a better feel of what Space Salvage will involve.

Albali

When entering Albali, you should have a better handle of your pod and how to manoeuvre. Here is where things get a bit more tricky in the environment with the “Fast n loose” motel. Remember to check every nook and cranny for all the hidden pick-ups possible in this level. Fly through the dark and dingy motel to gather what you need for SSC and be careful…stay here for too long and something might come for you…

Combat

We have upped our game when it comes to combat. Hopefully you have reached the Scav pirate in the demo and as you have noticed, he is quite stationary and robotic with minimal movement but still packs quite a bit of damage. 

However, for the early access, we have created AI drones that will zip past you while taking shots at you! Don't let those pesky little drones get away, and shoot them down! These little buggers have a lot more personality and can easily be destroyed, but be careful when there is a swarm of them. SSC will not pay for any damages due to your negligence.

What’s to come!

More levels are being created, each with its own unique trait; with more environmental objects so not every environment feels the same. VFX are being updated to fit more to the game’s style, and we can not wait to show you everything! So look out for next month’s dev blog! 

If you want to give us more feedback, please feel free to leave a review in the app lab page, it would help us a lot! 

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Space Salvage Blog #6 : Feedback – Next Steps

It’s our March update and as majority of you know, we have released our new update to the demo! We would like to start this off by saying a few thanks before we begin the dev blog.
Firstly, thank you to all who have played our new update! We have reached over 16k clicks and nearly 100k views on SideQuestVR! This is an amazing feat and we’d like to thank you all!

Feedback

As you know, our update to the free demo was recently released and we’ve had amazing feedback from the community! We’d like to showcase some of the reviews we’ve gotten so far on the app lab page!

Next Steps

The next update we release will be the beginning of our early access. As you all know, our game is not free, only the demo is. We just want to clearly state this so you all aren’t caught by surprise. 

Now let’s talk about what this early access will have in store!

NEW Home UI System

Previously, we all showed you a tablet/handheld system which had physical buttons to allow you to navigate in the home environment. It allowed you to choose which missions, upgrades and to promote. However, we thought that the handheld was very limiting due to the physical buttons, new things couldn’t be easily added and it was difficult to teach the player how to use it. UI shouldn’t be like that, it should be something simple and easy to understand.

Due to this, we have revamped the home UI! Say hello to your “friendly” robot, provided by your favorite company Space Salvage Corporation! This is a touch screen which will allow you to manipulate through all the missions, shops and your stats!

Below are some concept designs on what your UI system could look like, including their exterior, the menu design and even a video about the implementation of the UI!

Missions

We have a lot of missions lined up for you in the early access! The demo was just a teaser to what we have! Of course, your main task as an SSC employee is to collect the flying cargo in space; however, no one said you were the only one in space.

Let’s start with tutorial missions. Now as gamers ourselves, we understand that sometimes, you don’t want to play a tutorial and just want to figure things out yourself; so we have made it that all tutorials are optional. However, we would recommend you try them as they may include some fun tidbits. An exampple of this is learning how to fly your pod. We’ve created a little race course for it! That’s all we’ll say for now as we don’t want to ruin it for you all, but please look out for the videos we’ll be posting on social media!

 
The missions we will be implementing will vary from calming, simple, collecting missions to high intensity destroying missions. There are alot of drones, enemy ships, turrets and all sorts out there trying to stop you from doing your job! However, you won’t be able to take any of them down until you buy your laser! So grab as many credits as possible and purchase the upgrade, it is highly recommended by SSC! A little teaser for you guys is that we might even have environmental factors obstructing your missions and just ruining your day. We want to make this game fun and challenging for you all, but we want to give everyone the option of what type of missions they want to play. We know that there are a few of you who just enjoy flying around and exploring the beautiful environments; whereas others want that challenge and intense moments.

Another type of mission you will encounter are story missions. These will unlock as you progress and increase your employee rank. We don’t want you to just aimlessly fly through space, we want to give you the option to have story missions and to get a better understanding of the type of world you’re in and your true mission. 

We won’t ruin any of it for you so for now, here is a little peek at some of the environments you’ll be flying through.

What’s to come!

We are currently working on the early access, using all the feedback given to us as well as implementing the new features mentioned in the blog and more!

We are even working on bringing Space Salvage to other headsets, so please wishlist it on Steam so you get notified of it straight away.

We will keep you up to date on what’s happening from our monthly dev blogs, or if you want the updates straight away, follow our social media and join our discord!

If you want to give us more feedback, please feel free to leave a review in the app lab page, it would help us a lot!

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Space Salvage Blog #5 : Demo Update – Testing

A few days late to the party, but here is our ~February update on the development of Space Salvage!

First off we would like to thank you and celebrate with you for reaching the milestone of 10k downloads on Sidequest this month! We are deeply grateful for all your support and hope our update of the Free Demo will express just that.

We will be submitting our update for review to Oculus in the first week or march so keep an eye out on sidequest and applabs for a notification of new content. Of course, we will also give you a heads up as soon as it gets approved!

If you haven’t checked out our demo yet, here are the links where you can find us:

Testing

As mentioned previously we have been working hard on updating our Free Demo. Our goal is for it to be a better representation of what Space Salvage will have to offer for its players. To do that we followed up on the plethora of changes added since the last month with some rigorous quality assurance. We wouldn’t want to thank you with a buggy update, now would we? Here’s how we approached this task:

External QA :

We teamed up with Indium Play, and had them hack and smash at our demo in two separate sessions. Getting professional external QA hired for this FREE update was essential for us to prove our commitment to making a fantastic game and we really hope you feel so too when you give it a go! We also did lots of internal QA and went to York St. John University to hold a player testing session with some of their students which was a blast.

New content

Player Hands

Last month, we almost got entirely rid of our robot friend which was a placeholder for the player’s suit. The only missing piece were the hands. Well, they are no longer missing and have been custom rigged and animated by one of our awesome fruity dev, Amy.  We are so excited for you to be all geared up in your SSC uniform!

Scav Combat

As devs, we love to give you players a challenge so we have included S tier, top of the range pickups hidden in places you’ll (hopefully) never find. We’ve scattered them in new infrastructures and in new environments! So keep your eyes peeled for those high quality pickups to grab those juicy credits.

What’s to come!

Our next step in development will be working on our early access build. Simultaneously we are also updating our home website and impatiently waiting for our Oculus stamp of approval on the Demo Update.  In the coming month after the release, feedback from players will be most crucial for it to be appropriately implemented into the initial release build. However, if you have a brilliant bit of feedback for us in may, do not fret, we will always do our best to implement it, even if it might need to come along in a future patch or update. Thank you for being on board with us on this journey so far!

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Space Salvage Blog #4 : Demo – Pickups – Combat

The first month of the new year is nearly over and boy have we been busy! We have a lot of new things to tell you about this month!

First, we would like to give a big thank you to everyone who has downloaded our demo! We are currently at 6.7k downloads on SideQuestVR and we are ecstatic! Thank you so much for all of the support and because of this, we have a big treat for you all!

If you haven’t already, please tell more people to give our FREE demo a try!

Demo

As mentioned before, we are currently at 6.7k downloads for the demo on SideQuestVR. The demo has been a huge hit and we want to give more back to the community, so we have decided to update the FREE demo with a whole bunch of new things! Including pickups, infrastructures and so much more!  Keep reading to find out more.

Player

One of the changes we will be adding is a player body with a special Space Salvage suit; you can’t start your job without a uniform to represent Space Salvage Corp! We’ve also incorporated some gloves for your hands which are animated to give you a better feel when sitting in the pod. No more robot body!

Below are some images:

Sound

One of the feedbacks we got from you all was that the sound effects didn’t feel quite right. So we did a complete rehaul and updated them all! We have a lot more satisfying button presses which really give it that “umph” as well as switches!

We’ve included ambient background music so you don’t feel so lonely while cleaning everything. We aimed for it to not be intrusive but we would love your feedback when the updated demo is out!

Below are some videos giving you a little teaser:

VFX

We have also updated our visual effects! We know some of you felt like you weren’t really moving in the pod and didn’t feel like you were going fast; don’t worry, we got you. A bunch of visual effects have been updated and new ones have been added, one being the classic speed lines you see in retro-esque games. Sticking to our style, we want you to feel fast in your pod and feel like you’re really driving a space pod; controls help with this alot but visual effects also provide support.

Another important effect we have changed is the tractor beam! Previously, it felt like the pickups would just float towards you, this time, we really feel like it gives you a more pull effect with an accompanying sound to give it more of an impact.

Have a peek below at the video and tell us how you feel about it:

We have so much more to tell you about but we don’t want to spoil it all for you! We’ll only go through some of the biggest changes so keep on reading to find out more!

Pickups

Looking back at the current game, we have the standard pickups you see in any  game where they look like loot boxes. We felt this was very out of place and wanted our pickups to relate to the lore of the world. So, we have created objects which your clients will actually want you to obtain, such as battery packs, server nodes and so much more.
With new pickups comes a tier list as well; the higher the tier, the higher the value. However, don’t be fooled by common game conceptions, instead of having a standard colour scheme, we have wear and tear to differentiate the value. No one will pay for a broken up battery pack!

Here is an image to give you a better understanding of the pickups and the tiers they come in:

Hidden Loot

As devs, we love to give you players a challenge so we have included S tier, top of the range pickups hidden in places you’ll (hopefully) never find. We’ve scattered them in new infrastructures and in new environments! So keep your eyes peeled for those high quality pickups to grab those juicy credits.

Combat

One of the common feedback we got from you all was that you wanted combat. The current demo doesn’t really showcase that very well so we’ve decided to give you a better taste of what’s to come! 

Hopefully you’ve completed the demo, if not sorry but there’s spoilers! At the end you have a Space Pirate who is angered that you stole his booty and he will shoot you down, you have to find him and shoot the mines to blow him up. This combat system is very basic and doesn’t feel exciting. We are planning to completely revamp the entire combat system.

Instead of you stealing his loot, the pirate will now protect it as any good pirate should! You won’t be able to sneak past without his radars picking you up and you better be prepared when it does.
As with any boss fight, the pirate will have multiple stages to his health and combat. We want to implement a modular ship system which will allow you to target different parts of his ship. This will allow you to determine what is the highest threat, what needs to be destroyed first and how to manoeuvre around him and outsmart him.
That’s not all, we will also be introducing turrets. They will fire back at you, target you with various patterns so don’t think this fight will be easy!

This is all under development so it is subject to change but this is what we are hoping to achieve for the demo, we look forward to creating a pirate which will give you a challenge as well as a better excitement factor.

What’s to come!

We are hoping to release this update for the demo next month so please look out for it! You’ll be able to grab it on SideQuestVR as well as the App lab.

Next month we’ll talk about the release of the demo update and what other new things that are added into it, such as a pod update, lore and much more!

Don’t forget to follow our social media to keep up to date with Space Salvage!

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Space Salvage Blog #3 : Navigation – Job Types – Upgrades

It’s that time of month again Space Salvage Cadets and we have a lot of things to show you. Ranging from how you navigate through the menu, how you make money and upgrades for your pod!

We’re hoping this blog will give you more of an insight for what’s to come and you can see Space Salvage really take form.

A couple of mentions before we begin though!
We have currently set up a discord server! So if you want to talk to devs or get the latest news come join us! Link is below:

DISCORD

We have also been approved by Oculus and our demo is on the SideQuestVR store and App lab! If you missed us at EGX and want to try out the demo, don’t worry, follow the link below and give it a try! Please leave us a review and any feedback, it would help us greatly.

DEMO

Navigation

An entirely new Home UI system has been built to satisfy all of your button pressing needs! As we all know, pressing buttons in VR is VERY satisfying so why not add more! 

SSC has kindly provided you with a navigation tablet! It may look a bit rusted and old but it works perfectly fine and that’s all that matters right?
You will be able to select your jobs as well as purchase upgrades for your pod through the shop menu.

The tablet starts as a small handheld which is ambidextrous, so no matter what your dominant hand is, it will know! Do you see how kind SSC is to provide you with such a luxury?
Once a button is pressed for example “Job”, a panel will pop out, giving you a bigger screen and more options for you to press. 

We believe that this type of menu system is a lot more intuitive and fun to interact with as it gives you a more real world application but in a Sci-fi environment. We all love the types of gadgets Sci-fi offers in various movies or other games; so what better way to showcase it than having your own personal handheld. 

Enough about that though, let us go more in depth at what the options available to you are!

Job Screen

Once the “Job” button has been selected, a panel will pop out from the side showing you a selection of job types. The jobs available will depend on your player rank; the higher your rank the more options.

Using the four buttons on the side to determine which one you want, once selected, it will then take you to another screen. This will show you your client, the description and possible hazards in the area.

Once you are happy with your selection, pressing “accept” will move you forward into your pod to start the job.

Shop Screen

Similar to the “job” screen, a panel will pop out when the shop is selected, or if the panel is already out, the shop screen will appear on the panel. Multiple categories will appear, this includes:

• Promotion
• Upgrades
• Weapons
• Cosmetics

The promotion screen will show you a set of requirements needed to advance your rank; this could include an upgrade purchase or a job type you need to complete. SSC also does not offer free promotions, you will need to pay them to advance but don’t worry, a little surprise will happen when you promote! Maybe…

Upgrades will allow you to purchase items for your pod to make your job easier. This could include more health, bigger fuel tanks or shields!

We decided to give weapons its own category as we will be adding a multitude of them. There will be alot for you to shoot or mine! We look forward to creating them all and showing you the possibilities different weapons can provide 

Lastly we have cosmetics. Everyone wants to design their pod their way. If you want a decal, change the interior walls, bobble heads or dinosaur figurines, you name it, SSC has it and they will give it to you… for a high price of course.

Quick Job

SSC has also installed a button into your handheld that will let you instantly jump into a random job. This allows for faster efficiency with no hassle, so if you’re grinding for money to get that certain upgrade or cosmetic, this is the button for you!

Job Types

During this sprint, we have created four different types of environments for you to explore through but only two different job types to begin with. First, let us talk about the ranking system and how this ties in with the Job types

Ranking System

Players will be given the “Trainee Operative” rank to start off with. To progress further, they will need to complete a set of requirements which are available under the “shop -> requirements” option in the handheld. This will tell you what you need to do to acquire the next rank.

Each rank is broken down into stars. For example, you are a Trainee Operative, you complete the requirements, you will go up by 1 star but are still a Trainee Operative.
Once 3 stars are claimed in that rank, you will be boosted into the next stage which will be a Junior Operative.
Each rank requires a different amount of stars to progress further but it will also unlock a lot more for you. 

Currently for Trainee Operative, there are only two Job types: collect and destroy. Later on you could unlock mining jobs or even racing, we can’t wait for you to see what you will get! Harder jobs will appear but that means more money and loot!
For now, we will talk about the current job types available.

Collect

Collect jobs are your standard missions where you need to fly around the environment and gather a certain amount of loot the client has requested. However, don’t get used to the layout as everything could change the next time you’re in there. It’s better to focus on your flying abilities, the trusty radar as well as your eyes and ears to spot them all.
You will have a chance at the end of the mission to keep flying around and find more “hidden” loot that could be worth a whole lot!
On the other end, if you choose to leave the mission before even completing it, SSC will fine you and take half of your credits. 

Destroy

Destroy jobs will give you the chance to fire your laser beam (once you’re purchased it) at enemies. Various things are in space and one of them are mines which are placed by the other faction; the Scavengers.
Don’t worry, considering your low rank, SSC will not send you out to the super dangerous places, these mines and/or probes will not fire back or chase you. However, remember to shoot them from a distance because they will explode and they will damage you.
This job does require you to destroy enemy objects, but don’t forget to look around for loot! There will always be loot for you to pick up and get some extra cash

Below are some environments you’ll be flying around completing these types of jobs.

Upgrades

We have spoken about what jobs are available, what rewards you can obtain, ranking system and more. However, what do you do with all that money you get from completing jobs? SSC will gladly take it all but they aren’t tyrants mostly. In your handheld, there is a shop option available, there are multiple options here for you to spend your credits! But one of the most vital pieces for Space Salvage is upgrading your pod. 

The upgrades range from Pod health, Fuel tank increase and many more. Again, the higher your rank the more different options at things you can buy will become available. 

These upgrades are vital in making your jobs a lot easier or even helping you complete a job which is too difficult. Some promotion requirements will make you purchase certain upgrades so grab as much loot as possible when you’re out and about! You’re going to need it!

Another category which will help you are the weapons. You won’t just have a laser beam to help you, later on you’ll be able to purchase homing missiles, better combat lasers, target assists and so much more. But of course, this will only unlock as you progress further into the ranks! There may even be a special surprise when you reach the top, or maybe SSC won’t care, you’ll have to find out.

What’s to come!

This concludes our Dev Blog for December, we hope this has given you more of an insight for what’s to come and makes you excited to play!

We are currently working on the different factions which will be in Space Salvage, giving our game a bit more story-rich environment. Get to know the Scavs, SSC and even civilians more. The type of objects they want you to scavenge for them and their general aesthetics. 

We are also having a revamp of our visual effects, this includes bigger and better explosions, a shield to protect you from enemies and even some speedy lines to make you zoom through space!

Thank you for reading this dev blog and don’t forget to join our discord server as well as follow our other social media to keep up to date!
We also have the demo available for you to play for free on the Sidequest and App Lab!

DEMO

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