Localizing Toy Gun Office Simulator

Localizing Toy Gun Office Simulator

Aside from myself, I’m the only person within my family and group of friends that owns a VR Headset. This is more than a little concerning when I plan on releasing a VR Game that I want people to actually play. To get around this issue I’ve been localizing Toy Gun Office Simulator in order to make it playable by as many folks as possible.

For its initial launch on Steam it should be translated into Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian. I’m using I2 Localization in Unity which at least makes the coding part of this relatively painless. Although it has been interesting working through the design challenges involved in this effort and I’m hoping that it makes a difference in how accessible the game is.

Shootout Level

Shootout Level

I’ve finished the fourth level Toy Gun Office Simulator will be launching with! In this one you try to survive waves of enemies trying to shoot you with their own toy guns. I tried to make this feel as close to how a toy gun fight would in an actual office with your co-workers and am really happy with how it turned out. This level’s definitely my favorite so far and the handful of folks I’ve had test it really enjoyed it too. 🙂

Starting the Steam Submission Process!

I’m excited to report that my Steamworks Developer account has been approved and I’m currently going through the process of submitting the shooter game, which is now titled Toy Gun Office Simulator, to Steam! Here’s a taste of the game’s description:

Toy Gun Office Simulator is an action VR shooter where you test your mettle in four unique, atmospheric levels. Improve your sharpshooter abilities and survive as many waves of targets as your can!

I’d like to have Toy Gun Office Simulator released by the end of August — which nearly meets the “have one game self-published within a year” goal I had about a year ago when I setup Wanana, LLC.

SHMUP Level

SHMUP UFO

I’ve been working on a SHMUP-style space level for the game. In it waves of targets move towards and past where the player’s standing. I was a bit concerned with motion sickness but since we’re doing this whole “augmented office” look-and-feel — having the persistent office scene that the game’s overlaid on seems to ground the player well and prevents them from getting sick.

SHMUP Boss

The level also has these boss waves that breakup game play and provides another challenge for the player to conquer. I’m pretty excited to have some folks play test this one!

It’s Getting There

Shooting Neon Skeletons

As of this afternoon the skeleton level is done! Or at least done enough for folks to start play testing it. I’m a bit of a fraidy cat so it’s been a little stressful building this level where you really have to keep your head on a swivel. Overall I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. Above is a GIF of how things are currently looking.

I’m working on a space shooter level next. A lot of its components should already be built out from when I was prototyping things so hopefully finishing that level will mostly consist of putting a bunch of pre-existing pieces together.

New Look And Feel

Over the last couple of months I’ve been working on the game’s look-and-feel, menus, and target practice level. I feel like the game’s come quite a long way and will hopefully be in beta soon.

These screenshots don’t really do the colors justice. It’s a neon nightmare with a VR Headset on. I’m going for a low-poly, early video game aesthetic to the AR layer of the game so I’m really happy with how gross and retro it is.

A Bunch of Prototypes

Over the last couple of months I’ve been busy prototyping several shooting levels for a potential VR Game. They’re all extremely rough but I’m quite happy with most of them and am planning on expanding them into a full-on, actual game. Some of my favorite prototypes are a whack-a-mole style shooter, dodging asteroids as you’re shooting them apart, and defending against waves of humanoid attackers.

As you can see in the screenshots, the prototypes all take place within an office environment. I like the idea of a video game existing within augmented reality, with your co-workers unaware of what you’re actually doing, so I think that’s the direction I’ll be going in for now.

This office/AR concept also lends itself to a lot of interesting juxtapositioning of things. Like deers grazing beside a water cooler, vikings attacking around a conference table, or space ships flying past the building’s receptionist.