Tomorrow, Horror Tales The Beggar releases with a ONCE IN A LIFETIME 40% discount. Why would the devs be so crazy to launch with such a DEEP discount??!?!!?!?!?!? Well, first of all, talking about "The Devs" in plural only works if you count my cats Nina and Nus as devs too. You could argue they are fundamental emotional support for the development, though. This game has been developed and self published by only me, Carlos Coronado. I've been launching and developing games since 2012 and this is the first time I have been scared with a release. Indie games, specially indie horror games are selling every day less and less copies. If you follow the news in the industry I am sure you are aware of this. The layouts, the studios closing, etc. It is not something happening in the AAA sector. Sales have been decreasing since 2021 for every dev. Average new teenager players just don't want to play indies anymore. Instead they download Fortnite or Roblox and never leave that game. With the passing of the years, this is taking a toll on indie devs.

Ok but, wtf does this has to do with a 40% discount?

Obviously, It is on my own interest to sell as many copies of Horror Tales The Beggar as possible and I want to make a VERY attractive launch offer to compensate for the decline of usual sales. But honestly, it goes beyond that. My games have never sold a shitload of copies, but they have always allowed me to gain enough to develop the next game. That is success to me. This is the first time in my career that I don't know if I will be able to develop the next game. And the next game is about Exterminating fascist robots in a Half-Like style mediterranean dystopia. It will also end the story of The Wine and The Beggar.
And honestly, I want so f***ing hard to develop Iron Reich! That's why the 40% discount on The Beggar. Yes, my games have flaws, they are not for everyone, but each and everyone of them proposes concepts and gameplay that are whatever you want to call them, but they never are generic or dull. My games don't have filler, microtransactions, loot boxes, paywalled dlc content or similar predatory industry techniques. This may be bad marketing and monetization, but I never want to use those tools. I just want to keep developing these weird concepts and a strong release of Horror Tales The Beggar will allow be to do just that. That is again why the 40% discount. On the other hand, during the next year after the release, the game will never be discounted 40% again. If you want to buy The Beggar, this is the cheapest it will be FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340/HORROR_TALES_The_Beggar/

Feedback and reviews.

I won't be the first dev to tell you how important day 1 positive reviews are! If you like the game, please come by and leave a review! On the other hand, if you didn't like the game of course you can leave a negative review :( but I always listen to negative feedback and it is way, wayyy less harmful for the game if you leave your negative feedback or problems with the game in the Steam Discussion forums for The Beggar. Using this kind of feedback allowed me to update the demo with better mechanics, controls, and bug fixing. I always listen and I am fast updating the games, it really is the only advantage t of work alone! There is no need to leave negative reviews to gain my attention. This turned out a little bit more personal than expected. I don't know if tomorrow I am going to regret it but f*** it, I realse the best game I have ever done tomorrow! Big hug, Carlos.

[ 2024-06-16 10:14:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Horror Fans! My name is Carlos Coronado and I am the solodev of The Beggar. Next week, Monday June 17th everybody will be able to enjoy Horror Tales The Beggar. Until then, there is A LOT I need to explain during this week!

Steam Next Fest

For those of you who are seeing Horror Tales The Beggar for the first time during the Steam Next Fest, just know it is the sequel of Horror Tales The Wine and it is a highly high high high horror game. Not your usual horror game at all! Play the free demo if you want to know why, but essentially The Beggar is a weird mix of space-time bending player skills and hardcore sci-fi with of course horror. TONS of horror.

Price and Launch Discount

Monday 17 of June you will be able to play Horror Tales The Beggar and sometime during this week I will announce the price and launch discount. Just a little spoiler: It will be cheap, and the discount will be more than you imagine.

Duration

Horror Tales The Beggar is BY NO MEANS a replayable game. It is a high intensity adventure with no filler or bland moments. Please don't buy the game if you expect it to be replayable. It will be impactful, with everything 100% hand crafted and tailored thowards being a experience that will last in your memories for years. In terms of play time it really depends on your skills, but for a normal first playthough for someone who usually plays games you are going to spend 3 to 5 hours in The Beggar.

Steamdeck compatibility

Although we haven't got the Steamdeck verified tick yet, the game has been optimized to run at 60fps with dedicated steamdeck settings in the video menu! The best part is you can try it by yourself right now, because the free demo is also optimized for steamdeck!

Accessibility

The Beggar also features a VERY robust accessibility menu. You can access it anytime in the main or pause menus. There you will find options for subtitles, controls or even totally disable enemy damage! On the other hand, if you are a hardcore player, activating the "immersive mode" in the accessibility menu will totally disable all interface in the game. That's all for today! Expect way more news for The Beggar during this week and don't forget to Wishlist! It helps A LOT! Big hug, Carlos. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340/HORROR_TALES_The_Beggar/

[ 2024-06-12 08:23:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340/HORROR_TALES_The_Beggar/ Hello Horror fans! Let's be clear: You can play the Demo of Horror Tales The Beggar NOW!! Here is what you will find in the demo:

• 3 Playable levels with puzzles, scary encounters and more!
• 1 Boss fight encounter
• 2 Big Puzzles to use the spacetime bending mechanics
• Lore to dig in!
  

The Demo and the game features these languages: English, Spanish, Catalan, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Turkish and Dutch. After the demo was releases, I even updated the game with feedback from players. What are you waiting for? Switch off the lights in your room and step into the sequel of Horror Tales The Wine. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340/HORROR_TALES_The_Beggar/

[ 2024-05-23 09:20:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Horror Tales fans! The Demo of Horror Tales The Beggar just got released for everyone to enjoy! You can download it in the steam main page of Horror Tales The Beggar. The Demo features sections of the first four levels of the game. Give it a try, it is free!

Release June 17 2024 with a 40% discount.

Three years have been put in the making of this game. It is a very beautiful moment for me. The final game will release June 17 with a 40% discount. That means it is also a great time to wishlist Horror Tales The Beggar now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340/HORROR_TALES_The_Beggar/ If you liked the game or you have some suggestions on how to improve it, please step in the Steam Discussion forums of The Beggar! I would love to hear your feedback.
But hey, I even have MORE good news! Yesterday I set up community localizations to get aditional languages inside The Beggar. In just ONE day, two community members localized the game to Brazilian Portuguese and German! Please cheer for them! Awesome, beautiful people indeed. These are their Steam profiles in case you want to add friends! I've hidden two easter eggs for them in the demo too. Will they find them? MAGNUSnoos Psyringe If you want to help with the community localizations, here you can find the instructions and all the info to participate!

Steamdeck and low end computers.

You may be tempted to think your Steamdeck, potato or semi-potato computer could never run Horror Tales The Beggar because of the quality of Unreal Engine 5, Nanite and Lumen used in the game. Well, you are WRONG! Although high end computers will for sure enjoy the graphical fidelity of the game, the game has a very robust video settings menu! There you can downgrade everything to even ultra-low or totally disable some effects. There is even a dedicated steamdeck settings button to make the game run almost 60fps flawlessly on the Steamdeck! So yep, that's all for now. Please play the demo and leave a wishlist to Horror Tales The Beggar. It does help a lot :) https://steamcommunity.com/app/1343340/discussions/0/4356746661276178544/

[ 2024-05-09 14:29:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Horror Tales players! Well, today I have a BIG surprise to you all: The Free Demo of Horror Tales The Beggar will release tomorrow 16:00 CET. The demo features parts of the first 3 areas of the game, when some content cut down to make the demo more compact while also leaving some of the lore mistery to be resolved in the final game! Releasing this demo SO close to the release date (June 17) is a big gamble for me, but the demo had to be released because various reasons. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340/HORROR_TALES_The_Beggar/

Reason 1: a VERY weird and unique game.

Horror Tales The Beggar is not Horror Tales The Wine 2.0. It expands in not just the lore, but the gameplay itself too. Let's just say that The Beggar is highly experimental with some game mechanics you've never seen in a Horror Game. For those of you doubting to buy the game or not on release, you can try the Demo and see for yourself if this is your cup of tea!

Reason 3: Steamdeck ready!

You can try the Demo on your Steamdeck! The game features a "Steamdeck" mode in the video settings menu, and I'd love for you to try it if you are a steamdeck owner. Lots of hours have been focused into making an amazing steamdeck experience. Now it is time for you to judge if it was worth it!

Reason 4: I want to listen to you!

After you have played the demo, please come to the Steam Discussions of the game and post your feedback! Although the game will be released shortly in June 17, I am a quick worker and if there is some fixing to be done I can DO IT!

5: Community Localizations:

If you love what you see in the demo and would like to help me with localizacion of the Demo and The Full game, please let me know here! We are currently looking for localizations to French, Arabic, Korean, German, Italian and Portuguese! Having also Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek and Swidish localizations would be absolutely fantastic too!!! Of course, your name will also be featured in the credits of the game :) The localization is just 2145 words long, so it should not take you longer than 1 hour. Access to Community Localizations Why community localizations for those languages? In my previous experience with other released games, including Horror Tales The Wine, economically it is just not worth it to pay for a profesional localization in those languages. That is the simple and crude truth.

A big gamble

To finish this long post. as you may know, the videogame industry is in crisis mode from quite some time. Layoffs everywhere, indie game that sell 0 copies, etc. I have not been inmune to this crisis and the sales of my games have significantly decreased since two years ago. That why I am betting my gamedev future in one big gamble: Go big or go home. That's why I am releasing a Demo so close to release AND also will feature a 40% discount for release. The game will never be as deeply discounted for years. See you all tomorrow in your youtube and twitch channels playing the demo or in the discussions reading your feedback! Don't forget to Wishlist the game. Big hug, Carlos https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340/HORROR_TALES_The_Beggar/

[ 2024-05-08 11:14:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello there! As previously stated, I am developing a game with lots of gameplay mechanics that will make MIND: Path to Thalamus players explode with tears of happiness. Similar to MIND, in Horror Tales The Beggar players can change the weather to serve their purpose. Does this brings back memories from MIND? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340/HORROR_TALES_The_Beggar/ [previewyoutube=g3ivbA5DWQc;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-04-16 07:27:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello you beautiful people, How has been everything going? From my dev side, I continued developing games, but instead of focusing on puzzlers, I shifted thowards immersive horror fps. My about to be released soon game Horror Tales The Beggar, second of The Horror Tales Saga shares many design choices with MIND: Path to Thalamus, but 1000 times better. You will bend the earth, the sky and physics to defeat demons in The Beggar and as you can see in the trailer, it looks amazing thanks to the power of UE5 and nvidia DLSS. I am sure anyone who loved mind will enjoy The Beggar too! Watch the trailer in Horror Tales The Beggar Steam page or my twitter. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340/HORROR_TALES_The_Beggar/ Big hug, Carlos.

[ 2024-04-10 13:40:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Wanderers! I am Carlos Coronado, solo game developer of your beloved or hated MIND: Path to Thalamus. I don't want to talk too much. I am making a new horror game called HORROR TALES: The Wine. You can find it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1340640/HORROR_TALES_The_Wine/ It is in many many ways similar to MIND, but diferent in many others. You'll have to find for yourself. The surreal environments are there indeed! It will be released in two months. Here are some screenshots of it. EEENJOY! If you want to know more, visit it's steam page :)

[ 2021-03-23 12:15:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

First of all, you deserve some words. The game is not well maintained, youre right. As we stated some times in the forums, MIND was developed by only one person, and Carlos published 2 more games and is working in his next unannounced title. That made hard to fit the necessary time to fix some of the issues you reported. MIND is an old game, and some of the features added, specially for VR, were developed when the headsets and the motion controllers did not exist. Some of the systems behind are hard to modify and we needed to wait until Carlos could invest the needed time to avoid new bugs from the fixes. Today were releasing a new patch that addresses some of the known issues with VR movements and some features missing from time ago. VR movement has been changed. Use the left hand trackpad (Vive) or joystick (Oculus) to move around WASD like. Also, now the character will move in the direction youre looking, no more head-body disconnection. Finally, you can use your right hand trackpad / joystick to rotate the character, especially useful if you play with only one station and dont have 360 tracking. Next you can find a full VR controllers reference: [url=https://i.imgur.com/aeDDC3E.png]
Click for a high resolution version Last, but not least. We added 2 new languages today, Hungarian and Norwegian. Both languages were in the game in the past, but they were missing and weve been able to put them again. I want to remind you that the game does not rely anymore in Steam language selection. We had to make a new system because the game has some languages not currently present on Steam like Catalan and Euskara. To change the game language go to Settings > Game.

[ 2017-12-19 15:43:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

First of all, you deserve some words. The game is not well maintained, you’re right. As we stated some times in the forums, MIND was developed by only one person, and Carlos published 2 more games and is working in his next unannounced title. That made hard to fit the necessary time to fix some of the issues you reported. MIND is an old game, and some of the features added, specially for VR, were developed when the headsets and the motion controllers did not exist. Some of the systems behind are hard to modify and we needed to wait until Carlos could invest the needed time to avoid new bugs from the fixes. Today we’re releasing a new patch that addresses some of the known issues with VR movements and some features missing from time ago. VR movement has been changed. Use the left hand trackpad (Vive) or joystick (Oculus) to move around WASD like. Also, now the character will move in the direction you’re looking, no more head-body disconnection. Finally, you can use your right hand trackpad / joystick to rotate the character, especially useful if you play with only one station and don’t have 360º tracking. Next you can find a full VR controllers reference: [url=https://i.imgur.com/aeDDC3E.png]
Click for a high resolution version Last, but not least. We added 2 “new” languages today, Hungarian and Norwegian. Both languages were in the game in the past, but they were missing and we’ve been able to put them again. I want to remind you that the game does not rely anymore in Steam language selection. We had to make a new system because the game has some languages not currently present on Steam like Catalan and Euskara. To change the game language go to Settings > Game.

[ 2017-12-19 15:43:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

The title may seem redundant but its what literally happened with Mind and the language support and the patch we launched today. Nearly one month ago we launched a patch that fixed the translations of the game. It worked in our internal testing but once merged with a new build with more fixes the translations banished again. Later we will go deeper in the technical aspects but for those looking for whats new, next you can find how the new language system works. In the Settings - Game menu you will find a new option called Language. Every time you click on it the game will be translated to a new language, click until you find yours.
Due to some problems with some languages the current supported languages are:

• English
• Russian
• Portugus
• Korean
• Chinese
• Italian
• French
• Euskara
• Spanish
• Deutsch
• Japanese
• Catal

Later we will update the game to add the missing languages. Also, now the game ignores the language you selected on Steam, we will update the game to detect and configure the game accordingly in the future. On the positive side, Catalan and Basque people will be able to play the game without having to hack it ;)

Technical stuff

In the last announcement we talked about how the updates of your tools may cause problems. Well, this is a good confirmation of the theory. The last update fixed the language problem. We relied on some kind of hack of the Steams depot system that allowed us to overwrite the file that corresponds to the english translation of the game. Every time you switched from a language to another, Steam overwrites the english subtitles with a file with the texts on the selected language. And in fact, it was working correctly, the files are updating correctly right now, but for some reason, the texts ingame were in a perfect English. After some research it seems that the Unreal Engine translation system crashed and the game is not loading that file and its showing the default value for the the texts in the game (yes, English). Luckily Carlos is working in a new game and he developed a new translation system for it and finally we adapted it for Mind. Thats why we needed some time and thats why its not fully functional, its a beta version of the translation system and it lacks some features (like getting the language you selected on Steam). Thanks for reading,

[ 2017-01-10 22:51:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

The title may seem redundant but it’s what literally happened with Mind and the language support and the patch we launched today. Nearly one month ago we launched a patch that fixed the translations of the game. It worked in our internal testing but once merged with a new build with more fixes the translations banished again. Later we will go deeper in the technical aspects but for those looking for what’s new, next you can find how the new language system works. In the Settings - Game menu you will find a new option called “Language”. Every time you click on it the game will be translated to a new language, click until you find yours.
Due to some problems with some languages the current supported languages are:

• English
• Russian
• Português
• Korean
• Chinese
• Italian
• French
• Euskara
• Spanish
• Deutsch
• Japanese
• Català

Later we will update the game to add the missing languages. Also, now the game ignores the language you selected on Steam, we will update the game to detect and configure the game accordingly in the future. On the positive side, Catalan and Basque people will be able to play the game without having to hack it ;)

Technical stuff

In the last announcement we talked about how the updates of your tools may cause problems. Well, this is a good confirmation of the theory. The last update fixed the language problem. We relied on some kind of hack of the Steam’s depot system that allowed us to overwrite the file that corresponds to the english translation of the game. Every time you switched from a language to another, Steam overwrites the english subtitles with a file with the texts on the selected language. And in fact, it was working correctly, the files are updating correctly right now, but for some reason, the texts ingame were in a perfect English. After some research it seems that the Unreal Engine translation system crashed and the game is not loading that file and it’s showing the default value for the the texts in the game (yes, English). Luckily Carlos is working in a new game and he developed a new translation system for it and finally we adapted it for Mind. That’s why we needed some time and that’s why it’s not fully functional, it’s a beta version of the translation system and it lacks some features (like getting the language you selected on Steam). Thanks for reading,

[ 2017-01-10 22:51:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

First of all, we want to apologize for the delay fixing the game. We launched two games this year (Annie Amber and Sky Racer) and maintaining Mind and the other games needs to be done while Pantumaca Barcelona is working in a new title. And Pantumaca is a one developer studio. Also, it was hard to know what was happening because we have changed nothing in the game, so it was strange to have so many new errors. In fact, all the problems came from updates but not from Mind, but from Vive and Unreal Engine 4. These updates changed how some low level API work and broke our game. We are releasing an update today that addresses some of them, next you can find the changelog:

• Fixed player spawn in the 2nd part of the Father chapter
• Changing the language in the Steam properties fixed
• Fixed Vive controllers touchpad problems
• Achievements can be unlocked again
• White borders appearing in Vive

Many thanks for your understanding

[ 2016-12-15 16:42:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

First of all, we want to apologize for the delay fixing the game. We launched two games this year (Annie Amber and Sky Racer) and maintaining Mind and the other games needs to be done while Pantumaca Barcelona is working in a new title. And Pantumaca is a one developer studio. Also, it was hard to know what was happening because we have changed nothing in the game, so it was strange to have so many new errors. In fact, all the problems came from updates… but not from Mind, but from Vive and Unreal Engine 4. These updates changed how some low level API work and broke our game. We are releasing an update today that addresses some of them, next you can find the changelog:

• Fixed player spawn in the 2nd part of the Father chapter
• Changing the language in the Steam properties fixed
• Fixed Vive controller’s touchpad problems
• Achievements can be unlocked again
• White borders appearing in Vive

Many thanks for your understanding

[ 2016-12-15 16:42:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

MIND: Path to Thalamus is here again, with new content to surprise all its regulars and potential new players. We have added an exclusive level, Halloween-based. Be ready to visit the darkest corners of a mind on this new level weve prepared for you... NO MIND CAN ESCAPE FEAR ITSELF!

THE HIGHEST BEAUTY CAN TURN UNSETTLING

MIND is renowned for being a game full of the highest beauty thanks to the expert hand of its creator, Carlos Coronado. Breath-taking environments that are dreamy and poetic. But the same ability to make the game impressive and beautiful can make it spooky and unsettling. Expect a whole new layer to the MIND experience, ready to cause you some good ol goosebumps.

BRING NEW THINGS BUT NEVER FORGET THE GOOD OLD ONES

Carlos Coronado is a prolific gamedev that have surprised the world with beautiful games such as MIND. But since then he has also created the mesmerizing game Annie Amber, created to be experienced in VR. And now Sky Racer has been his latest release, also to be played on VR. But good thing is he juggle between creating new hits while also revisiting and improving prior games. This is what has happened with MIND, even if it succeed years ago, the game has been improved constantly, with whole new features such as a VR version. And now we have this, a Halloween level, that adds a whole new layer of experience to the game.

[ 2016-10-28 16:16:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

“MIND: Path to Thalamus” is here again, with new content to surprise all its regulars and potential new players. We have added an exclusive level, Halloween-based. Be ready to visit the darkest corners of a mind on this new level we’ve prepared for you... NO MIND CAN ESCAPE FEAR ITSELF!

THE HIGHEST BEAUTY CAN TURN… UNSETTLING

“MIND” is renowned for being a game full of the highest beauty thanks to the expert hand of its creator, Carlos Coronado. Breath-taking environments that are dreamy and poetic. But the same ability to make the game impressive and beautiful can make it spooky and unsettling. Expect a whole new layer to the MIND experience, ready to cause you some good ol’ goosebumps.

BRING NEW THINGS BUT NEVER FORGET THE GOOD OLD ONES

Carlos Coronado is a prolific gamedev that have surprised the world with beautiful games such as “MIND”. But since then he has also created the mesmerizing game “Annie Amber”, created to be experienced in VR. And now Sky Racer has been his latest release, also to be played on VR. But good thing is he juggle between creating new hits while also revisiting and improving prior games. This is what has happened with MIND, even if it succeed years ago, the game has been improved constantly, with whole new features such as a VR version. And now we have this, a Halloween level, that adds a whole new layer of experience to the game.

[ 2016-10-28 16:16:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today we are publishing an small update, in fact, there are only two items in it:

• Fix: Father chapter portal problem
• Fix: Clear Night in Uyuni ball not showing

I want to apologize for the delay fixing these two, it was hard to find what was happening, especially in the second one because it was related to a new feature of Unreal Engine we were not aware of. Every time you post in the forums a bug we start the bugfixing process. Its starts by reporting it to Carlos and implies prioritizing them. For example, game stoppers are always at the top, because its preventing people from ending the game. Then it comes the tricky part. We need to reproduce a bug to be able to fix it. It could seem easy because its failing for you, and its clear there is an error, but the variables that may cause an error are overwhelming. Sometimes its a problem with the graphics adapter, the operating system or how the engine is made, and even its possible that its a problem with a single model of graphics card and driver version. Once a bug is reproducible, its possible to start fixing it because you can change something, test how it affects the game and find whats causing the error. Ironically, its usual to spend less time fixing the problem than finding how to reproduce it. Thanks for reading

[ 2016-08-19 21:15:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today we are publishing an small update, in fact, there are only two items in it:

• Fix: Father chapter portal problem
• Fix: Clear Night in Uyuni ball not showing

I want to apologize for the delay fixing these two, it was hard to find what was happening, especially in the second one because it was related to a new feature of Unreal Engine we were not aware of. Every time you post in the forums a bug we start the bugfixing process. It’s starts by reporting it to Carlos and implies prioritizing them. For example, game stoppers are always at the top, because it’s preventing people from ending the game. Then it comes the tricky part. We need to reproduce a bug to be able to fix it. It could seem easy because it’s failing for you, and it’s clear there is an error, but the variables that may cause an error are overwhelming. Sometimes it’s a problem with the graphics adapter, the operating system or how the engine is made, and even it’s possible that it’s a problem with a single model of graphics card and driver version. Once a bug is reproducible, it’s possible to start fixing it because you can change something, test how it affects the game and find what’s causing the error. Ironically, it’s usual to spend less time fixing the problem than finding how to reproduce it. Thanks for reading

[ 2016-08-19 21:15:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

People who followed us in the last year were aware of the effort we put in the Enhanced Edition was VR ready from day 1. We worked hard to redo the game using Unreal Engine 4 and Carlos invested countless hours stalking how people walk in order to create VR Olive, a locomotion system meant to reduce dizziness in VR when you play with a gamepad. VR Olive was not perfect for everyone, but it specially failed when you have such a different device as the VIVE is, with its controllers and the ability to move around. Its a great technology for VR. But Mind is not a VR game, and because of this it was not easy to adapt it. As you may know we are working in new games. We released Annie Amber for GearVR last month (do I said we are running a little contest?) and now we are porting it to other VR devices and at the same time working in a new title we will announce soon. The easy way was to focus in the new projects and let MIND rest in peace. But you, our community, make us what we are and thanks to you MIND is a successful game. So thanks to your feedback we noticed that there was something wrong. You deserve a complete VR experience with MIND. In this update we added to MIND: Path to Thalamus a teleporting motion system to the VIVE users. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3QYfgJt7D8 When VIVE is detected, you will see a lantern in the game, by using the trigger and you will see a white line ending in an sphere, point to the place you want to teleport to and if the sphere is green, you will get that point as soon as you release the trigger. Additionally, you can use the trackpad to move around WASD style. With the other hand you can grab the ball using the trigger. Additionally, if you play with only one station and 360 movement is not possible, you can click the touchpad to rotate the body 30. Finally, we modified some parts of the game to fit this new system. Some puzzles needed some tweaking to assure you dont teleport to places you are not meant to reach. Some others are now easier for evident reasons. We hope you will enjoy the update.

[ 2016-06-07 17:33:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

People who followed us in the last year were aware of the effort we put in the Enhanced Edition was VR ready from day 1. We worked hard to redo the game using Unreal Engine 4 and Carlos invested countless hours stalking how people walk in order to create VR Olive, a locomotion system meant to reduce dizziness in VR when you play with a gamepad. VR Olive was not perfect for everyone, but it specially failed when you have such a different device as the VIVE is, with its controllers and the ability to move around. It’s a great technology for VR. But Mind is not a VR game, and because of this it was not easy to adapt it. As you may know we are working in new games. We released Annie Amber for GearVR last month (do I said we are running a little contest?) and now we are porting it to other VR devices and at the same time working in a new title we will announce soon. The easy way was to focus in the new projects and let MIND rest in peace. But you, our community, make us what we are and thanks to you MIND is a successful game. So thanks to your feedback we noticed that there was something wrong. You deserve a complete VR experience with MIND. In this update we added to MIND: Path to Thalamus a teleporting motion system to the VIVE users. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3QYfgJt7D8 When VIVE is detected, you will see a “lantern” in the game, by using the trigger and you will see a white line ending in an sphere, point to the place you want to teleport to and if the sphere is green, you will get that point as soon as you release the trigger. Additionally, you can use the trackpad to move around WASD style. With the other hand you can grab the ball using the trigger. Additionally, if you play with only one station and 360º movement is not possible, you can click the touchpad to rotate the body 30º. Finally, we modified some parts of the game to fit this new system. Some puzzles needed some tweaking to assure you don’t teleport to places you are not meant to reach. Some others are now easier for evident reasons. We hope you will enjoy the update.

[ 2016-06-07 17:33:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, We just released a new update fixing a couple of bugs, VR releated and on-vr releated. These are the mayor bugs fixed: - Fixed player height in intro level when using a Oculus headset - Fixed the problem with the ball not emitting light in the "Light in the Deep" level - Fixed portal teleportation in second chapter, in the grass fields. -12 minor bugs fixed. Also, we dropped support for 32 bits in the enhanced edition, however, you can still play it in 32 bits by selecting old_mind in the betas tab. We dropped 32 bits support because it is a mess to have it while also doing VR. It caused a lot of bugs and crashes so we decided to just drop it. Thanks for your patience, Carlos Coronado.

[ 2016-05-20 13:16:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, We just released a new update fixing a couple of bugs, VR releated and on-vr releated. These are the mayor bugs fixed: - Fixed player height in intro level when using a Oculus headset - Fixed the problem with the ball not emitting light in the "Light in the Deep" level - Fixed portal teleportation in second chapter, in the grass fields. -12 minor bugs fixed. Also, we dropped support for 32 bits in the enhanced edition, however, you can still play it in 32 bits by selecting old_mind in the betas tab. We dropped 32 bits support because it is a mess to have it while also doing VR. It caused a lot of bugs and crashes so we decided to just drop it. Thanks for your patience, Carlos Coronado.

[ 2016-05-20 13:16:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Great news for both VR players and non VR players! Carlos has been crunching all the weekend instead of playing with his cat to refine the VR support. In short, you won't be 4 meters tall in the game anymore, the player spawning in the wrong direction after entering a portal have been fixed and it is now easer than ever to return to the main menu using the vive controllers! Aside from that, after investigating a little bit, we have also added better fullscreen support. So, how does it works now? When you launch the game in Non-VR, the game will automatically detect the highest native resolution of your monitor and then you can force a higher or lower resolution using screen percentage in the settings menu. No more "windowed fullscreen" problems :) We have also added a little menu when you launch the game that lets you choose if you want to play VR or non VR. But... we've done some testing and if you want to play non VR but you've got a Vive, you will have to turn off the vive first. It doesn't happen with all the Vives we have tested... but in some of them it will launch the game in VR instead of fullscreen if you got it plugged... Complete and serious changelog: - Fixed VR eye height while ingame. -Fixed Pawn too far from eyes while ingame. -Fixed bad player rotation after going out of a Portal. -Redesigned the pause menu to a "fade to go back to main menu" widget. - Added choose how do you want to play little menu on steam. -Changed the steam library name to MIND: Path to Thalamus E.Edition to adapt to the choose how do you want to play Menu. -12 minor bugs fixed. Including lighting build leaks and static lighting not being applied to some meshes.

[ 2016-04-24 19:25:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Great news for both VR players and non VR players! Carlos has been crunching all the weekend instead of playing with his cat to refine the VR support. In short, you won't be 4 meters tall in the game anymore, the player spawning in the wrong direction after entering a portal have been fixed and it is now easer than ever to return to the main menu using the vive controllers! Aside from that, after investigating a little bit, we have also added better fullscreen support. So, how does it works now? When you launch the game in Non-VR, the game will automatically detect the highest native resolution of your monitor and then you can force a higher or lower resolution using screen percentage in the settings menu. No more "windowed fullscreen" problems :) We have also added a little menu when you launch the game that lets you choose if you want to play VR or non VR. But... we've done some testing and if you want to play non VR but you've got a Vive, you will have to turn off the vive first. It doesn't happen with all the Vives we have tested... but in some of them it will launch the game in VR instead of fullscreen if you got it plugged... Complete and serious changelog: - Fixed VR eye height while ingame. -Fixed Pawn too far from eyes while ingame. -Fixed bad player rotation after going out of a Portal. -Redesigned the pause menu to a "fade to go back to main menu" widget. - Added choose how do you want to play little menu on steam. -Changed the steam library name to MIND: Path to Thalamus E.Edition to adapt to the choose how do you want to play Menu. -12 minor bugs fixed. Including lighting build leaks and static lighting not being applied to some meshes.

[ 2016-04-24 19:25:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

As you surely know Virtual Reality is finally here, and MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition was compatible with this new technology from day 0. With the consumer versions of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in your hand we needed to update the VR SDKs integrations to take advantage of the headsets hardware. MIND: Path to Thalamus is designed to be played as a seated and stand-up experience with no room scale. You can use a classic gamepad or the Vive controllers to move around the environment.
We also improved Olive VR to be more flexible and from now you can turn 30 using the gamepad shoulders (or Vive triggers).

Linux support

Those penguins out there, SteamOS or classic Linux users, will be able to play MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition right now.

Changelog

• VR performance improved 14%
• Improved Vive controllers support
• Stereo rendering enabled
• Added Oculus Rift 1.3 support
• Added degree rotation for VR (mouse wheel, gamepad shoulders and the
• triggers from the vive controllers)
• Added Linux and SteamOS platforms support

[ 2016-04-07 23:19:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

As you surely know Virtual Reality is finally here, and MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition was compatible with this new technology from day 0. With the consumer versions of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in your hand we needed to update the VR SDKs integrations to take advantage of the headsets hardware. MIND: Path to Thalamus is designed to be played as a seated and stand-up experience with no room scale. You can use a classic gamepad or the Vive controllers to move around the environment.
We also improved Olive VR to be more flexible and from now you can turn 30º using the gamepad shoulders (or Vive triggers).

Linux support

Those penguins out there, SteamOS or classic Linux users, will be able to play MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition right now.

Changelog

• VR performance improved 14%
• Improved Vive controllers support
• Stereo rendering enabled
• Added Oculus Rift 1.3 support
• Added degree rotation for VR (mouse wheel, gamepad shoulders and the
• triggers from the vive controllers)
• Added Linux and SteamOS platforms support

[ 2016-04-07 23:19:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

One of the best parts of porting the game to Unreal Engine 4 was possibility to deploy to more platforms easily. Being such as a small team those advantages are one of the most important features of a game engine. But easier doesn't means it will be piece of cake. Even with Unreal Engine push one button to deploy on Mac mechanism problems arise. In our case the main problem was the key bindings. Key bindings in the game were managed by a third party plugin that does not have official Mac support. We tried to fix the problem but it was not easy for us and then, we had to overpass this by removing the plugin and obviously, the possibility to change the games key assignments. Its not the best solution, but meanwhile we try to fix or replace the plugin Mac users will be able to play the game. Next step, maybe Linux?

[ 2016-01-21 17:31:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

One of the best parts of porting the game to Unreal Engine 4 was possibility to deploy to more platforms easily. Being such as a small team those advantages are one of the most important features of a game engine. But easier doesn't means it will be piece of cake. Even with Unreal Engine “push one button to deploy on Mac” mechanism problems arise. In our case the main problem was the key bindings. Key bindings in the game were managed by a third party plugin that does not have official Mac support. We tried to fix the problem but it was not easy for us and then, we had to overpass this by removing the plugin and obviously, the possibility to change the game’s key assignments. It’s not the best solution, but meanwhile we try to fix or replace the plugin Mac users will be able to play the game. Next step, maybe Linux?

[ 2016-01-21 17:31:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

We were busy on those last months of 2015 with Fun & Serious and Granada Gaming festivals and of course with the Christmas sales and celebrations too. But the “resting” time is over and we need to go back to work. Today we released an small patch with the following fixes:

• Fixed Japanese subtitles not showing correctly
• Fixed an error in the menu not going to the correct chapter

Additionally we added the Norwegian translation to the game. Many thanks to Candela who shown a great implication in this translation to assure you will understand every part of the game. Finally we know some people have problems starting the game. It seems it’s a common problem with other Unreal Engine 4 games and it’s related to some Windows updates not being present. The user CalvaryBear told us how he fixed the problem here.

[ 2016-01-05 20:08:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Yesterday we updated the game. The main reason was to upgrade Unreal Engine to the last version (4.10) that hopefully will solve some of the problems with the game. Unfortunately there’s a major drawback with this change. We need to strip the plugin we use for the bindings to be able to update and to launch the Mac version of the game. We will try to update the game ASAP to add again this feature. We want to apologize for the lack of communication from the team those days. We’ve been in the AZ Play awards and Fun & Serious festival where we’ve been showcasing the VR version of the game and we are proud to win the Best Indie Game Award. This weekend we will be in Granada Gaming, so we want to apologize again in advance. Apart from upgrading the game engine we fixed some of the reasons that prevented the game to start, the russian subtitles will be shown correctly and if you increase the Screen Percentage option to a point you get less than 9fps the setting will go back to 100%. Also, the game now includes MAYOR VR optimizations coming with 4.10 We will work hard again as soon as we come back from Granada and we hope we will update the game once more before the year ends.

[ 2015-12-09 22:37:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Yesterday MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition was released and, as usual, some errors went unnoticed. Also, the community requested some missing features. One day later we are launching a first patch to address some of them:

• Fixed a typo in the English texts (“Uncoscious”)
• Screen percentage setting now can be over 100% (150%, 200%, and 500%)*
• Fixed a typo in the Russian texts (“главы”)
• VSync option added to the Graphics settings
• Mouse sensitivity option added to Game settings
• Fixed and error with the fog “bubble” in certain conditions
• Fixed subtitles scaling not working
• Catalan and Euskera languages files re-uploaded (see FAQ)

We will be working on the other bugs, so report any other issues you may have on the forums. * - Be careful with this option, every click will decrease the percentage until 10% and then it will go to 500%. Be sure your hardware will be able to handle it. Otherwise, when you reach 10% is better to use the "All Medium" button to go back to 100%.

[ 2015-11-04 13:09:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition is out, and to celebrate the release, it is 40% off. Far from being a simple restyling, MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition is the game completely created from scratch in Unreal Engine 4, the last iteration of Epic Games engine. It’s VR enabled, it adds new puzzles, redesigned levels, four hidden areas, easter eggs and a new and reconsidered finale as well as other enhancements to the game. We will add as soon as possible support for OS X and Linux. Also we are working in the PlayStation 4 and XBOX ONE versions of the game. One of the most highlighted feature on MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition is the narration system where the player decides if he wants to listen the narration voice instead of the past automatic reproduction system. The general performance has improved in order to achieve a fluid experience on Virtual Reality. The new subtitles system allows to set the text aspect ratio to customize the experience. And of course new achievements! Furthermore, to widen game’s accessibility to MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition users will have new ingame texts and subtitles in the following languages: Korean, Russian, Japanese and Chinese in addition to the existing English, German, Italian, French and Spanish. Even though Virtual Reality has not yet established as a market, the PC version of MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition will be compatible with consumer ready VR devices from day one and adds a serie of key features like the VR Olive movement system to prevent motion sickness and headache, very optimized levels and an scalable graphics system. If you have any problem or question, you can read the Enhanced Edition FAQ: http://steamcommunity.com/app/296070/discussions/0/490124466478011515/

[ 2015-11-03 14:17:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

After the success of MIND: Path to Thalamus, the awarded First Person Puzzler, comunity asked if the game will be released on consoles. To do this, Carlos Coronado, Lead Project of Mind Dev Team created again the whole game from scratch using Unreal Engine 4, the last iteration of Epic Games engine.

MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition

Far from being a simple restyling, MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition, in addition to Windows operating system will be available on OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, XBOX ONE and will have support for Virtual Reality. Also adds new puzzles, redesigned levels, four hidden areas, easter eggs and a new and reconsidered finale as well as other enhancements to the game. One of the most highlighted feature on MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition is the narration system where the player decides if he wants to listen the narration voice instead of the past automatic reproduction system. The general performance has improved in order to achieve a fluid experience on Virtual Reality. The new subtitles system allows to set the text aspect ratio to customize the experience. And of course new achievements! Furthermore, to widen game’s accessibility to MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition users will have new ingame texts and subtitles in the following languages: Korean, Russian, Japanese and Chinese in addition to the existing English, German, Italian, French and Spanish. Even though Virtual Reality has not yet established as a market, the PC version of MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition will be compatible with consumer ready VR devices from day one and adds a serie of key features like the VR Olive movement system to prevent motion sickness and headache, very optimized levels and an scalable graphics system. Windows users will get this new version free of charge as a game update next 3rd of november 2015. Afterwards will be available the OS X and Linux system. The PS4 and XBOX ONE versions are in their final development stages and soon we will be able to confirm a release date and other news. To celebrate the release, MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition will be 40% off.

[ 2015-11-01 21:42:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Tras el éxito de MIND: Path to Thalamus, galardonado First Person Puzzler, la comunidad se preguntaba si el título vería la luz en consolas. Para ello Carlos Coronado, Lead Project del Mind Dev Team ha creado de nuevo y desde cero el juego, utilizando Unreal Engine 4, la última iteración del motor de Epic Games.

MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition

Lejos de tratarse de un restyling, MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition además del sistema operativo Windows, estará también disponible en OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, XBOX ONE y tendrá soporte para Realidad Virtual. Además viene con nuevos puzles, rediseño de niveles, cuatro áreas ocultas, easter eggs y un final completamente replanteado, sin olvidar el resto de mejoras que aporta el juego. Una de las novedades que incorpora MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition es el sistema de narración, siendo el jugador quien decide si quiere escucharla en vez de activarse de forma automática al llegar a puntos clave del recorrido. El rendimiento general también ha mejorado sustancialmente con el objetivo de conseguir una experiencia fluida en Realidad Virtual. El nuevo sistema de subtítulos nos permitirá ajustar la relación de aspecto de los textos para una experiencia personalizada. ¡Y por supuesto nuevos logros! Además, con el objetivo de facilitar la accesibilidad del título al máximo número de usuarios MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition tendrá nuevos textos y subtítulos en los idiomas Catalán, Euskera, Coreano, Ruso, Japonés y Chino, sumándose al Inglés, Alemán, Italiano, Francés y Español. Aunque la Realidad Virtual todavía no se ha establecido como mercado, la versión de PC de MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition será compatible con dispositivos de consumo de VR desde el lanzamiento e incorpora una serie de características clave para evitar mareos y dolor de cabeza como el sistema de movimiento VR Olive, unos niveles muy optimizados y un sistema gráfico escalable. Los usuarios de Windows recibirán esta nueva versión de forma gratuita como una actualización el próximo 3 de noviembre de 2015. Posteriormente también estará disponible la versión para OS X y Linux. La versión para PlayStation 4 y XBOX One están en su fase final de desarrollo y en breve podremos confirmar la fecha de lanzamiento así como otras novedades. Para celebrar este lanzamiento, MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition tendrá una rebaja del 40% sobre su precio actual. Si quieres conocer con más detalle el desarrollo de MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition, consulta el Devlog de Mind Dev Team.

[ 2015-10-29 11:31:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

As part of the celebration of the first year on Steam of MIND: Path to Thalamus we are halving the price of the game for two weeks. Now you have Steam trading cards and a new motivation to gift the game to a friend, or to buy as a 2x1 offer, same price, two copies. We want to thank again all the people who walked alongside us on this Path to the Thalamus and we hope we will be a bigger family with this offer.

[ 2015-08-15 17:05:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

As we mentioned on social networks, one year ago Mind: Path to Thalamus was released on Steam. To celebrate, we want to give you some more content for the game while we continue working in the Unreal Engine 4 version. Today we are launching a little update to the game to add 10 Steam Cards, 5 profile background and emoticons. We hope you'll find it as a great pretext to play again the game or encourage your friends to do so. Finally, we are preparing other surprises we hope we will be able to announce soon, stay tuned.

[ 2015-08-12 15:37:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

On last June 26th Gamelab 2015 was closed. During three days, 24th -25th and 26th on June, there was a celebration of the 11th Games & Interactive Entertainment Conference in Hotel Barceló Sants of Barcelona. In this period, Gamelab received over 1.000 professional people of videogames under format with conferences, showroom and networking. As has become customary in Gamelab, the Spanish Videogames Industry Awards ceremony is celebrated, being the 8th edition and sponsored by Sony Mobile. This awards, convened by Academia Española de las Artes y las Ciencias Interactivas and Gamelab together, are the greatest recognition to the spanish sector companies and professionals, highlighting the best works developed in the last year. MIND: Path to Thalamus was nominated for six categories, including “Game of the Year”. Furthermore, as the rest of the nominees, it aimed to the public and press awards. Finally Mind Dev Team obtained six awards.

Best Art Direction Best Game Design Best PC game Best Debut Game Press Award Game Of The Year

MIND: Path to Thalamus was present actively in the exhibitor zone in the Talking About Media stand, company focused on marketing, publishing & advertising for video games, who managed the awarded video game, with the new version of the game with Unreal Engine 4 and adapted to Virtual Reality that transforms the MIND experience in a more immersive one with the Oculus Rift device. Lots of people got into the oneiric travel of MIND: Path to Thalamus with very positive feedback from the experience. Finally and as a closure event, on the same Gamelab premises, took place the Indie Developer Burger Awards 2015, the independent developer awards for independent developers. As in previous editions the ceremony was characterised for its relaxed atmosphere and with categories like “We want a sequel” and at the other end “Please try again”. MIND Path to Thalamus won “Juego más molón” (Coolest Game) and the “Juego del público” (Audience Award). With six “Premios Nacionales a la Industria del Videojuego” and two Indie Developer Burger Awards, MIND: Path to Thalamus is the best spanish video game of the current year. You can read this post in spanish on ZehnGames.

[ 2015-06-29 08:52:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Indie video game “MIND: Path to Thalamus” increases its localization options by adding French, Italian, Hungarian, Portuguese and Turkish as available languages, on top of the already existing English, German and Spanish. “MIND: Path to Thalamus” is a First Person Puzzler that throws you into a fantastic and surreal environment. Bend the natural elements to your will in order to progress in this emotive, remarkable tale. In addition to releasing regular updates, “MIND: Path to Thalamus” is being completely redone in the last installment of Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine 4, for which Carlos Coronado was invited to Epic Games on April 2015. The game is to be released in current generation consoles and include Virtual Reality support. MIND: Path to Thalamus has six nominations on Premios de la Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Interactivas which celebrates next June 25th in Gamelab BCN 2015 XI Games & Interactive Entertainment Conference. Also, MIND: Path to Thalamus has been highly acclaimed by international media, including The Telegraph and Eurogamer and has won the “Best Art and Design” award on Granada Gaming Festival 2014. With over 70.000 players, MIND: Path to Thalamus is available on Steam Summer Sale saving 55%, from 12,99€ to 5,84€.

[ 2015-06-16 14:38:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Barcelona, ES - May 22nd, 2015 - Indie video game “MIND: Path to Thalamus” increases its localization options by adding German as one of the available languages, on top of the already existing English and Spanish. Mind Path to Thalamus adds German localization in its last update “MIND: Path to Thalamus” is a First Person Puzzler that throws you into a fantastic and surreal environment. Bend the natural elements to your will in order to progress in this emotive, remarkable tale. In addition to releasing regular updates, “MIND: Path to Thalamus” is being completely redone in the last installment of Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine 4, for which Carlos Coronado was invited to Epic Games on April 2015. The game is to be released in current generation consoles and include Virtual Reality support. “MIND: Path to Thalamus” has been highly acclaimed by international media, including The Telegraph and Eurogamer and has won the “Best Art and Design” award on Granada Gaming Festival 2014.

[ 2015-05-22 09:45:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! I am Carlos Coronado, currently redoing MIND: Path to Thalamus in the UE4 and VR. In this thread I would like to show you something I've been working in the last months: my approach to first person controllers for VR. To sum up, I've been watching how we humans behave when we walk and turn and I've tried to imitate this process in the VR. No, this is not about realism. This is about a more natural way to control shooters in VR. For me, moving the direction of the player's body with the left mouse or joystick has always been a problem, because when we do so, the feeling we get is the entire world is rotating, but our physical head has not moved at all and that may cause dizziness to a lot of people. In the other hand, as VR developers I think we want the player to move the head (but not too much so they don't feel tired) to get a better inmersion and this new system I've made is also a good way to achieve that. Let's get to the point. If you want to rotate your body, first you look at the direction where you want to rotate, then you press the "rotate body" button (could be anything: left trigger, E, Q, a number, middle mouse button...) and then your body rotates where you are looking at. This button also have a second mode: if you constantly press the button, your body wil always rotate where you are looking at. Amazing for running! So... yes... you are moving the player with just one hand and rotating him with just one button! Then, what awesome stuff can be do with the other hand (the mouse hand or the right joystick hand)? Well, let's use it for shooting! Use the mouse to move a crosshair in the screen... just like in on-rails shooter arcade games such as Time Crisis or The House of the Dead. What about aiming? Well, I've done some tests and aiming doesn't feel good at all. I mean, it is indeed too realistic to work in a game. Fortunately, there're good news still. I have tested this with a lot of people and about 75% of them prefer this new way of controlling shooters. Of course, there is a 25% that still prefer the old school way. Don't worry. With this system the right button is free to use and while you hold it down, you will move your player as you have always been doing... but with 100% free screenspace to aim! There is still a lot to do, but I think this is completed enough to show this to the world. A big company working in VR asked me to show this to them and so I did a month ago. No answer from them still so if they are not interested I hope you are! To sum up: - WASD or joystick to move the body - Look somewhere, then press the "rotate body" button to reorient your body in that direction - Constantly press the "rotate body" button to always rotate your body where you are looking at - shooting and aiming as in time crisis games - gets rids of the tank mode problems in the old school method - no limits, tricks ore workarounds like moving the mouse in the center of the screen is used for aiming and moving a lot the mouse is used for rotating Well... here are three videos showing how the system works. Sorry for my English. This was all improvised and I didn't had time to make a script for it. Movement Shooting Menus and Objects

[ 2015-02-25 20:07:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

UE4 Oculus Rift version. And a happy new wip Linux version! Of course, everything is work in progress and no release date yet :)

[ 2014-12-29 19:14:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here it is at last, the promised update! Reworked script and environments, controller and Big Picture support, settings improvements, more music, and lots of other changes. True, the update was promised for September, but it just got delayed and everything didn't come together until yesterday. In the gameplay area, the most importer change is this one: the balls won’t be annoying anymore while you carry them. They become smaller and appear in the bottom of the screen.

The narrator

Now, the script. The narrator's voice is much less intrusive throughout the adventure and we have streamlined everything he says so that every last word is relevant; the fluff is gone, as is the overly complicated language that came off as pretentious. That said, the ending remains the same; the message or the point of the story has not been compromised. In fact, the streamlined script makes the meaning of the story much clearer. Structurally, the narrator now only speaks at the beginning of most levels, before your mind is occupied with puzzles, or when you as the player approach certain parts of the environment, which have been reworked to visually tell a story which the script compliments. Indeed, you read that right: new narrative layers have been crafted into the environments, something that was sorely lacking at release. Also, certain parts of some levels have been completely redesigned. Those with no great changes still have new details for those players who are particularly interested in the story. Meanwhile, if you only wish to solve puzzles or look at the environment, you are now free to do so. Also, as it has become obvious that many of you play for the sake of sight-seeing and taking pictures, all levels will now be unlocked since the beginning. You know that damn puzzle you can't crack? Well, if what you want is to take a good look at, for example, the Zen garden at the end of the game, now you can simply go there!

Big Picture & Utra HD

You wanted more control and you will certainly have it. The game is now controller-supported so you will be able to enjoy MIND in the living room, with Steam’s Big Picture. Of course, there is now an option to configure the vertical axis, and there is support for 4K resolutions . Now you will be able to see every grain of salt at the shallow sea. Literally.

Settings improvements

There are more enhancements coming along with this update. You will be able to set the level of grain and vignetting, including disabling them completely , which is perfect for taking photographs at crazy resolutions.

Achievements, bugs and exploits

Achievements have been fixed —now each and every one of them works. Also, most of the bugs have been put to rest. Why “most”? Two of them have been deliberately left alone, as they are used by speedrunners to quickly (and quite creatively) advance through the game. If you want to know who was the first MIND speedrunner , you can follow their steps and you will find their name!

Future

Generally, this is it. But there is still some more MIND to come. In the near future, there will be translations to new languages and a Mac version. Then, Oculus support. And much later, you may yet find new surprises if you stick around. Did someone say “MIND photography contest”? CHANGELOG Narrative - Reworked and rerecorded the entire script - Environmental narrative now present in almost each level - Music added to certain key areas - Mysterious something appearing somewhere now  (shhh do not spoil anything!) Environment improvements - Added new models and textures. - Reworked the entire level flow after leaving the old house. Configuration Improvements - Added support for xbox controller and any other kind of pc gamepad. - Added the Big Picture feature. - Added parameters to control Vignette, Grain and Y axis. - Added support for ULTRA HD resolutions (4k). - Unlocked all chapters from the beginning Bugs erased: - Zen Moment achievement - Collision problems at the beginning of chapter 4 - Reespawn event glitching the game at flying rocks - Audio non stopping at the final boss - Sounds improved at the beach level - Collision problems at the cave - Cave achievement now working properly - Grass now doesn’t spawn near the player - 17 minor collision bugs - Ball now doesn’t glitch anymore at the hospital level Our warmest regards from the TEAM!

[ 2014-12-11 21:22:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi players, We have received some great feedback for the game on its first week of release. Some of the technical aspects will be fixed on the coming weeks, but something we have heard loud and clear is that the voice acting and the script are too intrusive, repetitive, and pretentious. Basically: we hear ya. The scriptwriter for MIND, Luka Nieto, has a few words for the community: "When I wrote the script, I did it around a game that was already essentially done. Of course, the story had already been thought up during development, and the design of the game reflects it, but how much of the story would be explicit was still on the air. When I got the job, we decided to design the storytelling with a simple premise: you would get a snippet of the story each time you solve a puzzle. We were so much inside the box of development that we couldn't see it, but we got too carried away with that premise and resorted to way too much padding, repetition and off-the-point philosophical disgressions. All I can say is our intentions were good; we knew it was filler, in a way, but it was meant to accompany you while walking. Also, the pretentious text does tried to pay off in the end —I won't spoil the ending, but the early levels in particular were certainly supposed to sound annoyingly pretentious. Obviously, we went way too far. Essentially, the feedback is clear: neither the filler nor the disgressions worked as intended. We aren't changing our vision of the game, but we are adjusting the script so that our vision of the story is clearer and also so that it's less intrusive to the gaming experience. Right now, you'll get an update that cut outs pretty much all the filler, the repetition and the unnecessary disgressions. But soon, in September, you'll get another update with a re-structured script and lots of redone voice work, which will have a more appropriate tone and register. Both I and Greg Nugent, the voice actor, are really, really eager to work on all of this. Although we already have plenty of ideas on how to improve the script, we would love to get direct feedback from our players, so we have created a Reddit thread in which you can voice your own specific concerns. As long as you are constructive, we accept any kind of criticism, however harsh. We really do want to improve the game. We hope today's update and the more thorough update next month will greatly improve your experience of MIND: Path to Thalamus. As I am not the man who designed it, I can say that it is a beautifully designed game, both visually and in terms of the puzzles. The story was meant to support it, not detract from it, and we hope that that will be the case soon." Also, with this update we will bring in new content from Dani Navarro. Check out those amazing new new skies!

Changelog:

• Fixed a bug that didn't let the player get an achievement the first time they discover the rain
• Added two new portals in the first part of the cave, so you will walk less in that puzzle
• Added new textures made by Dani Navarro
• Fixed some issues with the subtitles
• Fixed 6 bugs related to optimization issues

Regards, MIND: Path to Thalamus Team Reddit Thread Website

[ 2014-08-14 20:36:14 CET ] [ Original post ]