For the last three weeks I’ve been taking some time off from developing on Caretaker – spending it mostly in Florida. While there I decided that the time had come to enable the VR support in Caretaker. If you played Caretaker while it was being shown at any events, then chances are you played it in VR but for the Early Access release I turned off VR while I waited for Unity 5.4 to be released and now it’s finally here and supports VR natively it was time to turn it back on – so I have. As of today you can play Caretaker if you have an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive VR headset. The Vive support is a work-in-progress as I’ve not had an opportunity to fully test it out but some have told me it’s working fine for them. As this is a fairly major update the price of Caretaker will be raising too, I’ve asked Valve to raise it to $9.99 – it’s up to them to approve this price point so it’s in their hands at the moment. It hasn’t happened as of me writing this so if you want to get a copy while it’s still at the reduced price I suggest you do so now. Once at $9.99 it will stay there for a while until the next major release. If you have a VR kit attached to your computer when you launch Caretaker than it will automatically detect it and alter the settings to use it. This means it will disable the mouse and keyboard input and use joypad only. You still need to press ‘A’ on your keyboard to get passed the initial Early Access warning screen. The joypad controls have changed slightly in VR, the right analog stick controls vertical movement and rotation around ‘Y’ so that you can look behind you if you are sat while playing Caretaker in VR. My preferred way of playing it is stood up so that I can physically turn around to see things (a much more immersive experience) but if you’re not that experienced in VR I recommend you sit down to play it first. The roll controls are disabled while in VR, the main reason being having the camera roll while in VR is the quickest way to make you throw up – trust me on this, I found that out the hard way! If you have a VR headset, then give it a go with Caretaker and let me know what you think. As always I accept and value your feedback!

For the last three weeks Ive been taking some time off from developing on Caretaker spending it mostly in Florida. While there I decided that the time had come to enable the VR support in Caretaker. If you played Caretaker while it was being shown at any events, then chances are you played it in VR but for the Early Access release I turned off VR while I waited for Unity 5.4 to be released and now its finally here and supports VR natively it was time to turn it back on so I have. As of today you can play Caretaker if you have an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive VR headset. The Vive support is a work-in-progress as Ive not had an opportunity to fully test it out but some have told me its working fine for them. As this is a fairly major update the price of Caretaker will be raising too, Ive asked Valve to raise it to $9.99 its up to them to approve this price point so its in their hands at the moment. It hasnt happened as of me writing this so if you want to get a copy while its still at the reduced price I suggest you do so now. Once at $9.99 it will stay there for a while until the next major release. If you have a VR kit attached to your computer when you launch Caretaker than it will automatically detect it and alter the settings to use it. This means it will disable the mouse and keyboard input and use joypad only. You still need to press A on your keyboard to get passed the initial Early Access warning screen. The joypad controls have changed slightly in VR, the right analog stick controls vertical movement and rotation around Y so that you can look behind you if you are sat while playing Caretaker in VR. My preferred way of playing it is stood up so that I can physically turn around to see things (a much more immersive experience) but if youre not that experienced in VR I recommend you sit down to play it first. The roll controls are disabled while in VR, the main reason being having the camera roll while in VR is the quickest way to make you throw up trust me on this, I found that out the hard way! If you have a VR headset, then give it a go with Caretaker and let me know what you think. As always I accept and value your feedback!

When I said that I was putting Caretaker Sacrifice onto early access so that I could engage with the community and get feedback to make the game better I really meant it. Over the last 3 days I’ve been acting on feedback and making changes to the game. The first bit of feedback was that there needed to be some way to help with locating the suppressors in the level. I liked that they were hard to find but some of you were finding them too hard to find. So, to help with this I’ve now added a radar pulse that you can fire off which will light up both the portal and the suppressors to let you know where they are. When the pulse hits them they will light up as green and can be seen through walls for a short time. You can hit the pulse as many times as you like. To add a bit more variety, I’ve now made it that the suppressors start off in random locations (except for the first two times you encounter them) – so not even I will know where they are which makes it more fun for me when I’m testing too To activate the radar pulse press ‘B’ on the joypad or hit the space bar. I’ve still got to come up with a sound for the pulse on my synth but for now it’s in the game and working so give it a go and let me know what you think. The second biggest bit of feedback was about the controls. For those of you playing with the mouse and keyboard you wanted another way to do a roll rather than just hold down the right mouse button. I’ve added ‘Q’ and ‘E’ to roll as well as ‘R’ and ‘F’ to move up and down. Right, it’s back to making levels for me. Thanks again for buying a copy of Caretaker Sacrifice and I hope these changes make it an even better game for you – let me know!

When I said that I was putting Caretaker Sacrifice onto early access so that I could engage with the community and get feedback to make the game better I really meant it. Over the last 3 days Ive been acting on feedback and making changes to the game. The first bit of feedback was that there needed to be some way to help with locating the suppressors in the level. I liked that they were hard to find but some of you were finding them too hard to find. So, to help with this Ive now added a radar pulse that you can fire off which will light up both the portal and the suppressors to let you know where they are. When the pulse hits them they will light up as green and can be seen through walls for a short time. You can hit the pulse as many times as you like. To add a bit more variety, Ive now made it that the suppressors start off in random locations (except for the first two times you encounter them) so not even I will know where they are which makes it more fun for me when Im testing too To activate the radar pulse press B on the joypad or hit the space bar. Ive still got to come up with a sound for the pulse on my synth but for now its in the game and working so give it a go and let me know what you think. The second biggest bit of feedback was about the controls. For those of you playing with the mouse and keyboard you wanted another way to do a roll rather than just hold down the right mouse button. Ive added Q and E to roll as well as R and F to move up and down. Right, its back to making levels for me. Thanks again for buying a copy of Caretaker Sacrifice and I hope these changes make it an even better game for you let me know!

Two people reported a very similar crash on starting the game today. I manage to narrow it down to the save game getting corrupt so tonight I replaced the save game stuff with something completely different. I've tested it out here an so far it's working - so I've made that build live. Let me know if you get any issues. One thing became apparent to me when testing the game and that's when I add in a new level I want to get to that level quickly having already been through the rest many times so for while the game is in early access I've added in a keypress that allows you to skip levels. If you press 'N' on your keyboard at any time it will take you to the next level. Enjoy and let me know if you get any issues!

Two people reported a very similar crash on starting the game today. I manage to narrow it down to the save game getting corrupt so tonight I replaced the save game stuff with something completely different. I've tested it out here an so far it's working - so I've made that build live. Let me know if you get any issues. One thing became apparent to me when testing the game and that's when I add in a new level I want to get to that level quickly having already been through the rest many times so for while the game is in early access I've added in a keypress that allows you to skip levels. If you press 'N' on your keyboard at any time it will take you to the next level. Enjoy and let me know if you get any issues!

Well, sort of a new level, if you played Caretaker Sacrifice at Rezzed in London this year youll recognize this level. Its been updated to the new art style and given a few new features. Over the next few days Ill be integrating the existing levels too. Theres some bits still to do on this level such as come up with new sound effects for certain features but while in there I managed to fix a visual bug to do with the particle system.

Well, sort of a new level, if you played Caretaker Sacrifice at Rezzed in London this year you’ll recognize this level. It’s been updated to the new art style and given a few new features. Over the next few days I’ll be integrating the existing levels too. There’s some bits still to do on this level such as come up with new sound effects for certain features but while in there I managed to fix a visual bug to do with the particle system.

Today I finally clicked the big green publish button on Steam – now what? For me there’s no time to rest. What’s currently up on Steam is a taster of Caretaker Sacrifice so that I can get a feel on how people play and react to the gameplay and level format I’ve settled on. So far it seems to be going well so over the next few days I’ll be integrating more levels into the build and getting them out to you. Thanks for playing and an even bigger thanks for giving me feedback – it really helps make this game so much better. Now, it’s my birthday and I believe there’s a cake in the house that’s calling my name ;)

Today I finally clicked the big green publish button on Steam now what? For me theres no time to rest. Whats currently up on Steam is a taster of Caretaker Sacrifice so that I can get a feel on how people play and react to the gameplay and level format Ive settled on. So far it seems to be going well so over the next few days Ill be integrating more levels into the build and getting them out to you. Thanks for playing and an even bigger thanks for giving me feedback it really helps make this game so much better. Now, its my birthday and I believe theres a cake in the house thats calling my name ;)

One of the things I’m currently struggling with in Caretaker is about how to make the voice over segments accessible for all players, not just the ones who can hear. This is kind of important to me because as a kid I was deaf so I really want to come up with a good solution to this. I’d like to get your opinion. One solution is to always display subtitles when the voice over sections are playing. Some people will have a problem with this because the text will always be taking up some portion of the screen space and obstruct the view of the world. Another solution is to only display subtitles when they are selected or enabled. One way of doing this is to have a setting that the player has to enable or disable to turn off subtitles in some kind of menu option somewhere or perhaps some kind of run-time toggle. The other option is to not have subtitles at all but to somehow embed the text of the VO into the game. In a version of the game I took to Rezzed this year this is exactly what I did – I put the full text as a transcript on the geometry and made it a part of the environment. Initially I was in favour of this approach because I wanted the text to be a part of the world rather than something tacked onto it. This approach does have some serious localization issues though. What are your thoughts?

One of the things Im currently struggling with in Caretaker is about how to make the voice over segments accessible for all players, not just the ones who can hear. This is kind of important to me because as a kid I was deaf so I really want to come up with a good solution to this. Id like to get your opinion. One solution is to always display subtitles when the voice over sections are playing. Some people will have a problem with this because the text will always be taking up some portion of the screen space and obstruct the view of the world. Another solution is to only display subtitles when they are selected or enabled. One way of doing this is to have a setting that the player has to enable or disable to turn off subtitles in some kind of menu option somewhere or perhaps some kind of run-time toggle. The other option is to not have subtitles at all but to somehow embed the text of the VO into the game. In a version of the game I took to Rezzed this year this is exactly what I did I put the full text as a transcript on the geometry and made it a part of the environment. Initially I was in favour of this approach because I wanted the text to be a part of the world rather than something tacked onto it. This approach does have some serious localization issues though. What are your thoughts?

So, what’s happening with Caretaker Sacrifice? Well, around about the time I was due to be releasing Caretaker Sacrifice something pretty scary happened to me. I was told that it was possible I had Cancer. I don’t mind saying that this had me bouncing off the walls. I, like most of you hadn’t really faced the concept of my own mortality but this brought it front and centre, waving it’s arms frantically in front of my face shouting ‘look at me!’ Don’t get me wrong, a Cancer diagnosis is by no means a death sentence these days but that’s honestly not the type of positive thinking you go through when being told you possibly have it. I have to stress that I’ve now been through all the tests and procedures and I am clear. The reason they thought I might have it was due to my lymph nodes being swollen and I had managed to lose a significant amount of weight in just under 3 months – I went from 117Kg to 95Kg and that’s enough to raise warning flags with doctors. How does this affect the game? The biggest impact was that the period of time when we didn’t know I was clear forced me to do a lot of thinking (and I mean a lot). My original plan was that Caretaker Sacrifice was going to be a smaller game which told the story of a sub-plot of the bigger game, to act as a kind of background as to where the bigger game was going. I would release Sacrifice in April and then go on to release Caretaker Retribution some time either later this year or next year. However, when faced with the prospect that you may not be here next year to do that I decided to dump that plan and combine them into one game. It was possibly a rash decision made under stressful circumstances but even though I’m clear the thought that none of us really knows when it’s time to checkout and power down I still want to release the games as one. So that’s what I’m doing. The plan is that I’m going to get three levels of the game done and then release it onto early access as soon as possible. Those three levels are going to be polished beyond belief though as they need to be representative of the final game and not just some buggy game thrown up onto early access. I know that some of you have been waiting a long time to play this game and I’m working as hard as I can to get it to you as soon as I can. I really can’t thank you enough for the support you’ve shown me! If there’s anything this recent scare has shown me is we never know how long we’ve got so make the most of your life now – don’t wait.

So, whats happening with Caretaker Sacrifice? Well, around about the time I was due to be releasing Caretaker Sacrifice something pretty scary happened to me. I was told that it was possible I had Cancer. I dont mind saying that this had me bouncing off the walls. I, like most of you hadnt really faced the concept of my own mortality but this brought it front and centre, waving its arms frantically in front of my face shouting look at me! Dont get me wrong, a Cancer diagnosis is by no means a death sentence these days but thats honestly not the type of positive thinking you go through when being told you possibly have it. I have to stress that Ive now been through all the tests and procedures and I am clear. The reason they thought I might have it was due to my lymph nodes being swollen and I had managed to lose a significant amount of weight in just under 3 months I went from 117Kg to 95Kg and thats enough to raise warning flags with doctors. How does this affect the game? The biggest impact was that the period of time when we didnt know I was clear forced me to do a lot of thinking (and I mean a lot). My original plan was that Caretaker Sacrifice was going to be a smaller game which told the story of a sub-plot of the bigger game, to act as a kind of background as to where the bigger game was going. I would release Sacrifice in April and then go on to release Caretaker Retribution some time either later this year or next year. However, when faced with the prospect that you may not be here next year to do that I decided to dump that plan and combine them into one game. It was possibly a rash decision made under stressful circumstances but even though Im clear the thought that none of us really knows when its time to checkout and power down I still want to release the games as one. So thats what Im doing. The plan is that Im going to get three levels of the game done and then release it onto early access as soon as possible. Those three levels are going to be polished beyond belief though as they need to be representative of the final game and not just some buggy game thrown up onto early access. I know that some of you have been waiting a long time to play this game and Im working as hard as I can to get it to you as soon as I can. I really cant thank you enough for the support youve shown me! If theres anything this recent scare has shown me is we never know how long weve got so make the most of your life now dont wait.

If you want a chance to try out Caretaker Sacrifice on the Oculus Rift then come along to the PC Gamer Weekender in London on the 5th of March. They are offering 20% off the price of admission: http://weekender.pcgamer.com/exhibitors/caretaker-sacrifice SEE YOU THERE!

If you want a chance to try out Caretaker Sacrifice on the Oculus Rift then come along to the PC Gamer Weekender in London on the 5th of March. They are offering 20% off the price of admission: http://weekender.pcgamer.com/exhibitors/caretaker-sacrifice SEE YOU THERE!