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

Devblog #14 A Tribute To Our Community Of Musicians

Hello everyone,

This week we refined the social features and created more accessories to customise your avatars.

In terms of social features, we are adding functionalities in the chat to enable you to have private conversations with your friends. We also enable you to add friends, or block people: so you can chose to spend more time with the ones you like, without being harassed by unpleasant individuals.

As for accessories, we added a selection of masks you can wear to further express your personality.

We will share some visuals in the near future, so keep an eye on future dev-blogs and on our social media.

In the meantime, I wanted to pay a tribute to all the fantastic musicians and artists who accepted to provide music for our virtual world. We heard a lot of positive comments from our community about the music, and I can say confidently that it will only get bigger and better. It is just a beginning. If you visit the game now, you can still enjoy music from the likes of  Tobu, Daniel Di Marchi, Elysean Records, Clarx or Starkin.

In the next build we will update the playlist to share new music with you with a fresh playlist, featuring exciting new artists like Sky Jonez, Lazyboyz, XVII, Flawless Real Talk or Moonbeat.

The list goes on, and there are a lot more fresh talent to come, like Veela, SugarBeats, Beyond Recall....

I'd like to grab this opportunity to thank Neil from the JFC Virtual Community for his hard work on helping us bring so many incredibly talented artists on board.

Weekly Developer Activity

Art;

• 3 head masks for men and women
• GUI for the social features

Design;

• adding social features to the chat

Programming;

• Fixed bugs
• implementing chat and social features

DevBlog #13 - Social features and private space revamp

Greetings all,

Welcome to our weekly devblog! This week we updated the PS4 alpha for our Kickstarter backers: you'll find now that PS4 users can play cross-platform with PC users, on the same server!

We also added more social features and created more content for the avatar customisation, private and public spaces.

Progress on our private spaces

Our friends at SubD Studio updated the Mirage house to make it bigger, more polished. They added furniture and a day and night cycle. Find below some exclusive screenshots!

Weekly Developer Activity

Art;

• added scaffoldings and cranes in the hub
• created more headgear accessories

Design;

• adding social features to the avatar's actions menu

Programming;

• Fixed PS4 alpha
• improving chat and social features

DevBlog #12 - Bug Fixing and Head Wear Accessories

Greetings all,

The weekend is finally here and that means it's time for our weekly DevBlog! What's been happening you ask? Well, if you've been following our progression on Steam, you'll notice that there has been quite a few updates this week. We've been taking full advantage of our testing branch releasing patch after patch.

The main theme this week has been bug fixing. We've had our bug nets out this week and we've been hunting down all kinds of bugs with the help of the community. Once we believe that we've got a solid build, we'll be moving the newer version of Atom Universe over to the Main Branch.

New Head Gear Coming Soon

While the Programming and Design team have been focusing on the bug fixing side of things, the art team have been working away on the some new fashion accessories for you avatar, allowing you to have a bit more customization over your avatar, want to see? Of course you do!

Eve's looking stylish with her Aviator sunglasses.

Adam sure knows how rock wearing a Beanie Hat.

Weekly Developer Activity

Art;

• Build the entrance of the arcade plaza and added WIP art in The Hub
• Creating hats for the avatars

Design;

• Bug fixing (Bowling, new player menu, new internal UI system)
• Designing new chat interface and new interface for friends system

Programming;

• Bug fixing on the server side of things
• Beginning work implementing the "friends" server code

Community;

• Scheduling more content and planning 
• Deciding whether to join the Dark Side or Rebel Forces. 

DevBlog #11 – Improvements to the UI, New Dances Moves and Poses Added and Weekly Developer Activity

Greetings Everyone!

Wow, is it Friday already? Well, we guess it’s time for another entry into our DevBlog. So, what’s been happen this week you ask? Quite a lot in fact, in last week’s Devblog you may have noticed that team was in the process of implementing some new dance moves, new poses and the in-game players was getting a revamp. 

New Dance Animations

It’s not secret, Adam and Eve were a bit shy when it came to dancing on the Arcade Plaza dance floor (awkward). Anyway, after a few lessons and dance routines in Unreal Engine 4, they can’t wait to the back to the dance floor and bust-a-move!

Looking good Adam!

Eve is starting to feel those electronic moves.

In total, Adam will have choice of six dance moves and Eve will have choice of six. Between each Avatar, you’ll be able to select between shared and unique moves.

New Avatar Poses

It’s time to show off with our new poses, whether it’s for a group photo or maybe you want to act like the Karate Kid. Similar to the dance moves, we’ll be adding six new poses for your avatars and once again, there will be a mix match of shared and unique poses for the avatars.

In-game Player menu 2.0

One of the more notable changes to Atom Universe in the improvements on the in-game player menu. Previously, by press TAB on the PC or Square on the PS4 a menu would appear above your avatars head. While it gave you basic access to the emojis, dances and poses, we felt that it was a bit unconventional.

With the newer design, your avatar will use and small device that transmits a holographic menu in front of your avatar (futuristic huh?). While the menu is open, you’ll have access to all the options that were previously available and you’ll also be able to preview them before selecting them.

PlayStation 4

What about the PS4 version of Atom Universe? This week, the team have been looking at bringing the Arcade Plaza to the PlayStation 4. At this current point in time, we’re in the process of building the PS4 version and testing it internally around the studio. Once we’re happy with the build and there aren’t too many game breaking bugs, we’ll be looking to release to our Kickstarter backers for further testing.


We must continue to ask for your continued support and patience while we continue to work Atom Universe and make it an experience that everyone can enjoy. From all your encouraging posts on Social Media, we know just how much the PS4 version means to you.

Once the Arcade Plaza is live on the PS4 for our Kickstarter backers, we’ll also be holding weekly competitions across our community giving you the chance win access to the PS4 version.

Weekly Developer Activity

Art;

• Created design mock-ups for the in-game store.
• Worked on a bunch of dance and poses animations.

Design;

• Implementing new in-game player menu. 
• Continuing to make improvement to the UI Framework

Programming;

• Unreal Engine upgrade for the game to 4.10.4. 
• Preparing a PS4 build of the game for internal testing.

Community;

• Scheduling content and planning DevBlogs.
• Logging player feedback and bugs reports.