DevBlog #19 – The Return of The Hub

Hello there and welcome back to Atom Republic’s DevBlog. During last week's entry we got a first look at the newer, revamped Hub. The week, the AR team has been in full swing continuing the momentum working on The Hub, so much so, that Steam players can now test and explore The Hub on the King Pin Branch (click here to find out how access this update on Steam).

What’s New?

While exploring The Hub you quickly learn that this area is very much under construction! The work force have left certain rides and attractions fenced off and if you look to the sky, you can see cranes going about their business. Lucky, the new area that is available is safe enough for your Avatar to explore.

The Lost & Found Minigame

During the excitement of The Hub re-opening, it seems that some unfortunate visitors to the park have lost some of their property…Keep a watchful eye out for these missing items and return them to the Lost and Found Kiosk to receive a reward. Keep bringing back lost items every day and you will receive a reward each day. 

What's Next?

• Bug Fixing - With new updates comes new bugs, the development team have a list of known bugs from what they've discovered in the studio, but keep your bug reports coming in on the Atom Universe and Steam forums. 
• Steam & PlayStation 4 Early Access - Once Atom Universe is in a solid position and the development team are happy, we'll be looking to push this update out live for all Early Access members, allowing the cross-play functionality to once more be resumed by both platforms. Keep an eye on our social media channels, forums and blog. We'll be making a big splashy announcement a little bit closer to the time. 

Weekly Developer Activity:

Art;

• Breakdance animations.
• More head accessories for your avatar to wear.

Design;

• Improving Avatar socket system to attach accessories.
• In the process of adding UI sound manager component into the menu options.

Programming;

• Server Performance.
• Various bug fixes.

Community; 

• Gathering Analytics and making pretty charts.
• In the process of creating an updated version of the Private Spaces video.

DevBlog #18 - Atom Republic Block Party and The Hub Screenshots

Greetings to all,

Welcome back to the Atom Republic DevBlog!

Before we move on to the new stuff, let's have a little recap of what happened last week. CEO Tanguy Dewavrin sat down in front of camera to answer some of your burning questions and there was some chit-chatter about The Hub making a return and that we would share some more information over the course of this month (what a tease!).

Just a quick reminder that the Atom Universe Block Party is this weekend. Come join Tanguy and the Atom Universe Community Manager in the Arcade Plaza this Saturday at 12:00 CST (10AM PST/1:00PM EST/6PM GMT). Who knows, maybe there will be some surprises during the party...

The Hub

Building on from last week's DevBlog, three new images have surfaced this week. In the first you can can see the entrance of the Arcade Plaza leading underground.

The second showing the The Hub from behind the Arcade Plaza Entrance, one of the more notable things in these pictures is the addition of the platforms, Kickstarter backers may remember that these were not place around The Hub before the Early Access phase. 

And Finally, Adam is trying out his new Teddy Bear mask (such a show off). 

Weekly Developer Activity 

Art;

• Creating new Daily Bonus Artwork
• Creating even more head gear accessories

Design;

• Linking the Arcade Plaza to The Hub

Programming;

• Getting the performance metric from the server
• Updating the Front-end menu to all access to The Hub

Community;

• Maintaining the flow of content across our social channels
• Reviewing older videos and seeing which content needs updating.

Community Corner - April 2016

Greetings and welcome to the first Community Corner (and hopefully, the first of many). Within the Community Corner, we’re hoping to highlight various activities, content, communities and members that pop-up within and around the Atom Universe community.

3rd Party Communities to explore and join:

“AviLife is a community that is designed to collate the latest news, information, events and virtual groups/clubs from multiple virtual worlds in one place.

We first came up with the idea of AviLife not long after the announcement of Atom Universe. Currently we're a relatively small community but we hope to grow alongside the next generation of virtual worlds.”

We’re all about the community.

“Other community websites often forbid you to talk about any other groups or clubs you may be a part of, but not us. Our recently launched club board, a place where club leaders can create discussion posts for their club is an example of how open we are to other communities and groups. Other boards on our forum include an events board, a place where you can organize and post about upcoming events, a general discussion board and a sub forum for each virtual world.

You may have seen one of our Atom Universe video tours on YouTube or read one of our Q&A sessions with virtual world developers, something that is going to continue as the next generation of virtual worlds launch.

We hope you stop by to read the latest news, take part in upcoming events and get involved with the community.”

Where to find us: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | AviLife

“J.F.C & The Virtual Community is an adult based social club, Soon to be on Atom Universe. We will be hosting & streaming club/community parties & already have events planned that are on the back burner for now with some amazing artists. We will also be doing photo shoots & contests. Making club/community videos, which we will upload to our YouTube channel regularly, & so much more.

We welcome everyone 18+ to come check us out. Regardless of what other club/community you may be a member of.

J.F.C & The Virtual Community will be filled with diversity, and welcomes everyone to join us.

We encourage everyone to be themselves, & also respectful of other members. We all are on the same team.

We currently have over 500+ community members in our community on the PlayStation 4, (Search us). As well as 500+ members on our Facebook group. Our Facebook Page is also growing as well.

We are all just waiting for Atom Universe to go public so together we can all make it happen cap'n. All we need is you, so we'll see you there, on Atom Universe.”

Where to find us: Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Twitter | YouTube |

“When PsHome closed people started to look for other places to go, but not everyone knew where to look and what options they had…Mizukikioko and Peerhoofd decided to make a Facebook group where they could all meet, share and talk about the virtual worlds they joined or already "live" in.

The Virtual Future! Is a Facebook group for all ages and all virtual worlds. We share or bring news as soon as it is out. Our members can post all they want as long as it has to do with virtual worlds. Do you play a virtual world? You are more than welcome to join us!

The Virtual Future! Where we bring the news of tomorrow today.”

Where to find us: Facebook

YouTube:

KaptinFathead has been doing an amazing job bringing you the latest news of Atom Universe. You can check out his Official YouTube Channel.

Forums:

Towards the end of April, we hosted our first video Q&A! You'll be able to both parts of this video series on our Official YouTube Channel, but we couldn't have done it without you guys and gals. Here's a big thank you from Atom Republic to you: 

Atom Angel, Bestscreenname, Fanblade, Greenlanter360, MidNight, Muir, Mumbles and ♥So♥Pixelicious  

Future Community Corner Posts:

Here's a question to the community, is this something you'd like to see again? Maintaining posts like this would require your help and assistance too! Have you created some fan art, wrote a blog or maybe you've made a YouTube video that includes Atom Universe? 

Reach out to us on Facebook, Include the #AtomUniverse hashtag in your tweets or share your posts on the Atom Universe Community. And who knows, maybe you'll see your work appear in the next Community Corner. 

DevBlog #17 - Community Q&A and Weekly Developer Activity

Hello and welcome to another addition of the DevBlog!

Earlier this week, we created a post on the Atom Universe and Steam forums asking members of the community to share their burning questions about the development of Atom Universe. And posted you did.

Questions ranging from the value of Atomz, in-game clubs, avatar interaction and whether we preferred cookies or coffee (obviously cookies!). In return, our CEO Tanguy Dewavrin, jumped in front of the camera and answered all the questions he possibly could.

This resulted in a two part video series in which the first part was shared yesterday:

Ahh, you're probably asking yourself now, but I've seen the first part already...Where's the second part?! 

Well, the...Umm dog ate the tape...(Just kidding).

The second part of the Community Q&A is now live on our Official YouTube Channel. 

What's Happening Next? 

The Hub!?

Could it be? There's chatter around the Atom Republic Tower that the development teams attention has returned to The Hub, for more information on developments keep an eye out on our Blog (that's here) for more news over the course of next month.

Atom Republic's Block Party

Come by to dance, play games, and have fun with us during our very first Atom Universe Block Party. Beginning Saturday, May 7th at 12:00PM CST (10AM PST/1:00PM EST/ 6PM EU) Atom Republic will hold a bi-weekly Block Party in Atom Universe. With cross-play available both PC & PS4 players will be able to attend! We look forward to seeing you there, and we may even some surprises... Tanguy Dewavrin & Atom Universe Community Manager.

Weekly Developer Activity

Art;

• Creating art assets for the "Lost & Found" Minigame
• Created some more Teddybear masks

Design;

• Implementing functionality to retrieve all accessories from the accessories system.

Programming;

• Increased numbers players limit from 12 to 16 players

Community;

• Filmed Community Q&A video with our CEO Tanguy Dewavrin
• Drafting up the monthly Newsletter

DevBlog #16 - Weekly round up of Atom Republic news

Hello and welcome to another addition of the DevBlog. Today, we’ll be have a little catch up of the events that have happened over the course of this week around the Atom Republic Studio.

Patch 0.1.10.4104

It’s been quite week here so far, on Wednesday we saw the release of Patch 0.1.10.4104. This brought Atom Universe on PlayStation 4 and Steam to the same version, allowing PS4 and Steam Early Access players to cross play between platforms. For more details on Patch 0.1.10.4104 visit our blog post from earlier this week.

New Head Gear Work In Progress

Yesterday, a couple more Work in Progress surfaced on our social media channels. It seems like our art team have been working on a couple more head gear accessories for Adam and Eve. This they come in the form of Face Masks.

Is Eve starting to prepare for the apocalypse?

Is that Adam wearing a Guy Fawkes mask?

Rumour has it, there might be a couple more Work in Progress appearing at some point over the course of next week, best to keep an eye on our social media channels.

Tanguy Dewavrin’s Interview with VRTV

Earlier this week Zeena Al-Obaidi of VR Focus was joined by our very own Tanguy Dewavrin, during the course of the interview, Tanguy discusses Atom Universe and his perfect VR hangout! You’ll be able to catch the full interview here:

Weekly Developer Activity

Art;

• Working on some new head gear assets for the Avatars

Design;

• Implementing the Social User Interface and functionality in the Front End UI.
• Creating a system for attaching any generic object to a list of sockets.

Programming;

• Server Performance checks.
• Import friends list from Steam.

Community;

• More planning and plotting content to match up with the studios development plans.

Patch Notes 0.1.10.4104 - Steam and PS4 Early Access Update

Good Afternoon everyone.

Today, we'll be releasing a new patch for Atom Universe Early Access across Steam and PlayStation 4. This will bring each platform to the same version, allowing cross play between Steam and PlayStation 4 players.

Additional Steam Information 

Steam Players, you'll be able to access the latest version on our main branch. If you've been testing on our King Pin branch you will need to default back to the main branch. You'll be able to achieve this by doing the following:

• Open your Steam Client
• Right Click on Atom Universe
• Go to Properties
• Head over the 'BETAS' Tab
• Click on the drop-down menu
• Select 'NONE - Opt out of all beta programs'

Afterwards, the new update should download for you (depending on how you've got your Steam Client set-up). If not, you can always 'Verify Integrity of Game Cache' from the 'LOCAL FILES' tab within the properties menu (this will force Steam to download the latest version).

PATCH NOTES

• Added inspect player in the social menu
• Added player menu icon call out
• Fixed the offline time for recent players
• Fixed a bug of blocked players are not visible when they are offline
• Cross play for PS4 and Steam users
• Edit Text controls in chat allow copying/pasting with keyboard keys
• PS4: Scrolling chat messages with Left Analog Stick
• PS4: With virtual keyboard fixed a bug of swapped X and O buttons

DevBlog #15 – Improved Social Features and Updated Music Playlist

Greetings,

The weekend is officially here! That means it time for our weekly DevBlog. As always, the Atom Republic team are busy at work, developing features and improving various mechanics to make your experience better while playing Atom Universe. Right, let’s get to the juicy bits.

Joining Servers

When you first start Atom Universe up, you’ll now notice that you’re able to select a server from the main menu. Now you’ll be able to arrange your community meet-ups and join them flawlessly, or maybe you’ve got a bunch friends that you’d like to hang out with.

Friends List

A friends list you say? Yes, we've gone ahead and implemented our very own friends list. You’ll be able to add your fellow gamers as friends. Simply press ‘Tab’ and ‘Shift’ on over to the recent players tab to select who you’d like to add.

Now that you've made a new friend or two, should the event arise and you get separated from one and another you will now be able to re-join them. While in in-game, simply press ‘Tab’ and head over to the Social menu and visit your online friends section. Here you’ll be able to select your friends name and join them (no matter what server they’re on).

Private Message

Got something you want to tell your friend privately? Why not send them a private message? In the latest version of Atom Universe you will now have the ability to send your friends and other players private messages. Press ‘ALT’ to open your chatbox and ‘right click’ to send a private message.

At this point in time you’ll only be able to send PM’s to individual players, you won’t be able to create group chats just yet.

Updated Music Playlist

Someone has dropped the beat! We made some changes to the Arcade Plaza’s Playlist, your avatars will now be able to dance off to a blend of Hip-Hop and Trap music. The new Playlist follows as:

• Flawless Real Talk – Doctors
• Flawless Real Talk Feat. David Reyes – Watching Over Me
• Lazy Boyz – Falling
• Lexxmatiq – Sloth Syndrome
• LVX – Get Em Up
• MoonBeat – Lullaby
• Nostalgia – Get Dizzy
• Sky Jonez Feat. Flawless Real Talk – Dreamer
• Sky Jonez Feat . Issa Pointer – Found My Way
• XVII – Achilles

New Dance Moves and Poses

With all that new music we fought it might be a good idea to include some new dance animations and poses. Adam and Eve now have 7 additional dance animations and 1 new poses each. (Time for a dance off?)

When Can We Play This Update?

Steam members, you'll be able to access this latest update once you've finished reading this DevBlog. This update will be available on the Main Branch of Steam (if you've been testing on our King Pin branch, you'll need to opt-out of Beta to get access). 

Patch notes can be found here.

If you've got access to the PS4 version of Atom Universe, we're currently in the process of getting the update ready, keep an eye out on our social media channels as we'll be making a big splashy announcement when closer to the time of release. 

Weekly Developer Activity

Art

• Added an additional 16 dance moves and poses.
• Swapping the in-game music for a fresher sound.

Design

• Working with the programming team, fixing any bugs affecting the social features.

Programming

• Social features bug fixing and tweaking

Community

• Play testing the latest build
• Planning and preparing assets for community updates
• Eating Korean Sweets