CYCOM #19 Key To A Successful Online Multiplayer VR Game?

12/5/2017

CYCOM #19 Key To A Successful Online Multiplayer VR Game?

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Hi guys, I'm working on a VR game called CYCOM Cybernet Combat, and I just released the online multiplayer feature. A common problem for online multiplayer VR games is there's not enough users online to play with.
I've been studying successful online multiplayer VR games like Rec Room, Smashbox Arena, and VRChat, and they all have a few things in common.

They all have a lobby where players can spend time hanging out and not necessarily play games the entire time. Players are able to find their friends online in VR fairly easily when friends are trying to play together.
Rec Room has other random things for you to entertain yourself with in the lobby like take video, shoot basketballs, draw, chat with people, and interact with other things.
VR Chat has chatting, changing avatars, mods, and an ever expanding explorable map.

Ultimately, it seems like the underlying solution to getting more online users is give players something entertaining to do while they wait for players, so they stay online and increase the chances of other players finding them.
In CYCOM 1v1 online battle mode, I put the first player in our Infinite Mode where they battle AI enemies from our Single Player Story Mode infinitely. When a second player joins, they both get jumped into the 1v1 game. I also have a link to our discord tester community page, so they can find players and schedule matches. I plan to implement a lobby in the upcoming weeks, but hopefully this will make a decent stop-gap until then.
From your experiences as VR players and developers, what have you found to be the most successful mechanisms to promote and grow your online multiplayer community?
Thanks for the feedback! Jeremy

4 Comments

Jeremy

12/5/2017 12:23:11 pm

[–]PuffThePedOrbital Injection | Packet39 - Developer 2 points 30 minutes ago
RecRoom is free, VRChat got in early. So did Pavlov & Onward.
Launching a VR multiplayer now is a harder. Invest heavily in marketing, offer free weekends, get as many players as you can at the get go.
Good lukc.
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[–]virtualshadowboynew user|low karma account 1 point 18 minutes ago*
Thanks for the feedback! I think being free is a huge factor, and we eventually want to make CYCOM free, so everyone can play.
I agree with what you said about getting as many players as we can at the get go is critical. I think we'll take it step by step and start with the steam winter sale, see the data, then go from there.
What is free weekends? I'm new to Steam.
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[–]PuffThePedOrbital Injection | Packet39 - Developer 2 points 15 minutes ago
You can set your game to be free to play on certain dates. Some games do free weekend occasionally.
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[–]virtualshadowboynew user|low karma account 1 point 11 minutes ago
Got it, thanks! Since our game is new, we have some restrictions on how often we can do sales, but I've just enrolled us in Winter Steam Sales! Thanks for the feedback!

12/5/2017 12:23:34 pm

[–]Philipp 2 points 20 minutes ago
Link for anyone interested: http://store.steampowered.com/app/713440/CYCOM_Cybernet_Combat/ Nice graphics!
One other thing you may wanna consider in addition to the points you mention: a desktop mode so PC players can join, too. However, another argument could be made to fully focus on VR to get the quality up (I believe Onward doesn't have a desktop mode?), so I can't tell you which is better really...
Good luck!
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[–]virtualshadowboynew user|low karma account 1 point 7 minutes ago
Totally agree. We're working on adding a PC playable version this Spring, so PC users can play with their friends who have a VR headset online or next to each other at home.
One of the biggest design principles we have for making a VR game is the player has to be more skilled at this game in VR than on PC or other platforms--give the player a meaningful reason to play this game in VR because otherwise, they'll just go back to playing their favorite game on PC.
In CYCOM, a lot of mechanics and skill involves seeing the positions and sizes of your enemies and being able to move your body and arms granularly to be most effective at the game.
When we release the PC version, the PC player will be a little disadvantaged compared to the VR player because they lose the granularlity of the 3D tracking, being able to move your body and arms anywhere in 3D space.
What are your thoughts on this trade off in the PC version? Upside is it at least lets people play with their VR friends. Downside could be it's less fun to play on PC, but it's kind of meant for VR in the first place. Feedback?
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[–]vive420 2 points 15 minutes ago
Onward doesn't have a desktop mode, it is VR only. However I do think a desktop mode is a good idea.

12/6/2017 01:37:14 pm

* There is no options menu to lower SFX or BGM volume
Filed as feature request

* The main menu is pretty ugly :stuck_out_tongue: The pixelated font doesn't really do much for me in VR
I agree. The main menu was a placeholder until we have a lobby like Smashbox Arena and Rec Room have, so we didn't spend enough time on it. We hope to release the lobby and remove the main menu within the next month.

* When the voice in the tutorial is talking you might want to disable the buster... its too loud and its easy to overhear the voice
Great point. I think we should mute all non-voice sounds when the voice is talking. Filed as dev task.

* So, yeah, I think the buster is too loud
Good feedback. We'll lower the buster volume for the next release.

* At times I think its too much effects on the battlefield. Light emitted by shots and such. I think a little less lightning effects could help
Good feedback. I think it's partly because the lemonbuster shots are so huge. We plan to make the shot smaller and implement a larger charged shot. We also received similar feedback that the color of the shot should be different colors depending on whether you're on the blue or red side to reduce confusion of which shot is yours.

* When using the Bamboo-Chip (Back Lance or what it is called) and it hits the enemy there is no hit effect
Overall, we're struggling with how to better provide visual feedback that the weapons hit, especially with cards like cannon and back lance. There's no issue with the bombs because they cause a large explosion that stays for half a second, but smaller shots don't make as big of a splash. One idea we got from a tester is to make the enemy flash red when they get hit by a card effect. Ideas?

* When I fired a tornado it spawned much further then were the shot hit
Filed as bug. I'll look into it.
* When the gauge is full it automaticly opens up the menu. Doesnt the voice tell us we can then open it by tapping a button? I really think the user should be able to decide when to call the menu once the gauge is filled
That was an old implementation, and we have a bug filed to remove the line in the narration to avoid confusion. When we let testers choose when to pull up the cards menu, we found testers never brought up the menu because they were so caught up in the heat of the battle with the lemonbuster. Part of the problem is the lemonbuster gameplay is unbalanced and does not encourage use of cards, which is where the real fun is. The other issue with not automatically bringing up the menu is it would be difficult to manage in multiplayer when two players have the ability to freeze time and force the menu to come up. Thoughts?
* I find it confusing to have two busters. I have to memorize which cards were equipped with which buster. It gets hectic at times and I don't like looking down on both busters card then
* I dont think you really need two busters. Could you not move the gauge and health-bar on either the left hand or make it stuck to the HUD?
* I think the card selection could be done in a much cooler way. Maybe the left hand could be your deck-hand where the available cards would show up around your hand when the gauge is done and you could then activate them on the hand. I REALLY think a 2nd buster isnt needed and just makes everything too complicated
Good feedback. I find it can be hectic at times too. One advantage to having 2 busters is the player can shoot at 2 things at once, but if it's hard to do so, then players won't do it that often anyways. We've been brainstorming ways to separate the card use and lemonbuster use, so players can use cards at will. Right now, they are forced to use all their cards before they can use the lemon buster, which ends up encouraging a behavior where players just tap trigger recklessly because the lemonbuster trains them to just pull trigger rapidly and they lose all their cards and don't know what happened. This happened to almost all our testers. There may be a solution in separating it into cards hand and a lemonbuster hand. The benefit is we don't have to freeze time for a cards menu that way too. Cards can just be drawn onto one hand as time goes by, and the player can use them. We need to do some brainstorming, but I think there's something there. Thanks for the feedback!
* There is a clash in graphics. The ground panels have many details and are rounded, enemies are not. I think it could look a lot better if the ground panels would also feature a simpler style.
I agree. Right now, all of our assets are unity store assets. We've contracted a 2D concept artist, 3D modeler and rigger, and animator, but the design process takes more time. I filed a bug to redesign the ground panels as part of our design efforts.
* The pixel-art for the cards doesn't look appearling to me. It can be pixelated for sure, I just think its not clear enough
I agree. We plan to have our 2D artist work on card art after she's done working on the lemonbuster and player avata

12/6/2017 01:37:59 pm

* I think the explanation for many cards might be confusing for people. What about visualizing how it works? I mean, do you remember the guides for the battle network games? It always showed a simple graphic for how the chip would work. Gonna send you a picture of that in a few
Thanks for the pictures. My 2D artist and I will use these as reference when we redesign the cards. This is super helpful.

* I really liked the music in endless mode
Thanks! We hired Hyper Potions from youtube to make the music for us. I'll let them know! Also check them out on youtube!
* It was fun to play
Thanks! I agree with all the issues you mentioned. The player must be able to discover how to play the game and play the game effectively in order to get to the fun. Our game design principles are prioritized as such: 1) discoverability 2) usability 3) fun and replayabilty 4) look and feel 5) rewards for hardcore skilled players

* The pawn (?) card spawns a object that doesnt fir the other graphics.. Its much too round
Good feedback, personally, it doesn't behave very effectively as a shield in the first place, and I prefer the block, so I'm just going to replace the Rook with the Block.

* Why not show the currently SELECTED card at the front of the buster were you are currently showing the directional buttons? This would make it a lot easier to see what card you have selected
Yes, in our latest lemonbuster design, we have the cards in front of you on top of the gun for visibility. We believe we still need the directional buttons to allow players to discover how to move if they didn't play the tutorial because we found most of our casual non-hardcore testers do not play the tutorial. The current lemonbuster is a unity store asset that we hacked UI on top of.
I think there is a lot of potential, but I also think that the graphics are my biggest complaint. Not because I wouldnt like em, but because many different graphical styles are being mixed. I would suggest to use the graphic style that is already used for the enemies. Those are low-poly and that works really well in this game. The less details the more focused we can battle and concentrate on what is important
I agree with the simpler art style. Over time, we'll be able to move away from Unity store assets and get to use more of our own custom designed assets. Right now, no one's getting paid, and we're barely getting a roof over our heads, so our goal is when our games start generating income or if we find publishers or investors who believe in the game, we can hire more design contractors and artists, and we can make the art style much more cohesive.