Brunelleschi Through the Oculus

We've worked hard in the 3D client version of Brunelleschi to offer an experience that's equally enjoyable through the Oculus Rift. When we first got our DK 2, we went so far as to design an entirely new pointer-system so players will be able to select the buildings they're looking at and walk around inside the Main Buildings of each district. Players who don the Oculus will find themselves with an understandable movement and pointer mechanics. Moving around, zooming in and out of first person and controlling the camera should be relatively simple. Now you can explore your city.

Download the most recent Oculus Client on Indie DB.

The first thing after the initial loading screens is the Animated Menu. This is a cute little representation of a small NPC town. During the day, day-time peasants work and play behind the menu items. In the evening, a pair of ladies take a walk while friends share a drink near the Aesop Games button. Selecting [Play] with your pointer will allow you to move on to the next stage.

This is the part where you log into your web-game character so we can find out who you are and where you live (in the game!). The Oculus pointer may feel clumsy at first but it works just fine in the web-view. Navigate through your login process and hit [Play] to move on.

This is what it sometimes looks like while logging into the MMO client. I like to use the Wizard avatar, so that's usually who I see during this phase. If the clay tile weren't there, we'd instead watch ourselves fall into nothing until the next scene loads. It can also look like this.

Finally, you've loaded into the MMO part of the game. Look around, you're probably in the Fields district of whatever your home settlement. The buildings you see here depend on how it was built by the sovereign/minister. You know a developed city when you see Post Offices and Fountains in your Fields district. From here you can start running to another district (this will take a long time), check out the local buildings, head into the Granary or open up your Character Sheet.

This is what it looks like when you're checking out the local buildings. This is a farm that I don't own. That's why there's a big 'Unauthorized' panel over the place where employment information would be if I were the owner. Right now, most of those buttons will say 'Coming Soon' or 'Unauthorized' for the same reasons.

From your Character Sheet there are many things to check out. You could look at your personal info, your Attributes, open up a web-view to manage your character or travel through the Settlement Map. Here on the main page of your Character Sheet, we've recently added the 'Go Home' button.

This is what the original Player Room looks like in the Oculus. The room you find yourself in will depend on the room you're currently renting as your home. We are already working on the mechanics for players to visit each other's rooms and meet in a specific player's room. Living in a player-room provides a cool in-game bonus as well as providing a fun personal location in the 3D client.

This is what the Settlement Map looks like. Your red pointer works exactly like the mouse pointer in the normal PC client. Hovering over a district will highlight it and name it in the upper left corner. Clicking will select it, keep it highlighted, and fill in the basic data in the side-scroll. It will also allow you to open the District Map for that district. Clicking a selected district again will teleport you to that location, saving a lot of in-game running time.

This is what the inside of the Central Bank looks like.