Now that I'm finally done porting the game to Quest 2/Vive XR Elite, I'm circling back to improve a few minor issues that have bugged me. This is a smaller update with some quality of life improvements mainly centered around the PC player. The main feature is the ability for the PC player to look down their weapon sights when playing as Ground Support:




A few people have requested this in the past. This definitely feels very nice, especially with the depth of field effect. It also makes hitting headshots at a distance much easier.


This seems to make the feeling of controlling the PC player more fluid and less restricted.


Just some further font changes to improve the in game UI for the PC player.

Old In-game UI:


New In-game UI:



Switched over to Unity's default occlusion system which was used when porting the game to standalone. This gives some pretty large performance gains on certain maps.


When the PC player zooms in, it was causing the mouse sensitivity to be high relative to the camera's FOV. I've tweaked this so that the sensitivity is lessened when zoomed in. This makes aiming for those crucial headsets infinitely easier.


This looks more realistic and avoids the odd look of all your shell casings following the exact same path when leaving the weapon)


Made some slight tweaks to the positioning of weapons while being held to improve feel on Oculus controllers.




If you haven't been paying attention, I recently ported the game to standalone headsets this past year. Containment Initiative: Recon is available Quest 2/3, Vive XR Elite, and Pico 4. The only thing missing is obviously the asymmetric co-op. Other than that, it's the full experience.

If you are interested in checking out the game on standalone headsets, you can check it out here:
Containment Initiative: Recon for Quest 2
Containment Initiative: Recon for Vive XR Elite




Questions? Join the Discord here.

I'm happy to announce that work on the port of Containment Initiative to standalone headsets is finally complete!

Quest 2 Version

Vive XR Elite Version

I've been working on this project on and off for the past 8 months(Which is why there has been a lack of updates for this game. Sorry!)

Optimizing the base game to run on standalone headsets took quite a lot of work. The biggest changes you'll notice are more baked lighting and less real time lighting in maps. There is also much more aggressive occlusion culling that happens behind the scenes. The biggest challenge was porting a game that was designed using the SteamVR 1.0 plugin from 2016(yes you read that right.) Every interaction had to be able to handle the new OpenXR standard which allows the game to run across multiple headsets and is the current industry standard for new VR titles.

Containment Initiative: Recon is the full experience except for one feature that I wasn't able to include. Sadly, the asymmetric co-op wasn't really feasible without a monitor. If I included a separate app for phone or PC to play over a network, it would have probably taken me another year to finish it(probably wouldn't have finished it at all).

All in all, I'm very happy with the final result. You'll see from the trailer below, that there weren't many concessions that I had to make in order to get this running on mobile hardware.

So there you have it. Containment Initiative on the go. If you enjoyed the base game, I hope you will check out this new portable version of it.







Thanks for playing,
CIDev

-Checkpoint and factory performance optimizations
-Boundary break fixes in sewers
-Grenade launcher falling through floor when holstering fix

It's been way too long since I've released a major update for the game, but today, the 1.9 update is finally ready to be released.



This map features all new mechanics that include doors that need a certain item/keycard to unlock and a nasty surprise that will make the area more challenging until you disable it. You will also need to do some searching in previous maps in order to unlock all of the secrets in the area.




New poison variant zombies also appear in this map. When you kill them, there is a chance that they will emit a green mist that can damage you. You can quickly cut off your exit points if they bunch up and you get unlucky enough.




This can really come in handy if you need to defend your extraction point and are getting overwhelmed. I will probably include a supply drop in a future update to allow you to refill this weapon during a mission.



The PC player also gets a fun new explosive weapon in this update. If you ever enjoyed playing with proximity mines in Goldeneye 007, then these will be right up your alley. You can place these anywhere in a level and they will explode whenever zombies get near them. Another great way to defend your exit point.




One major change in this update is the way you unlock the new weapons. These can't be bought with cash and must be 'discovered' within the game. I don't want to spoil anything else, but I'm happy to answer questions on the forums or Discord.

If you have any questions/comments regarding the update, please come join the Discord. I'm usually around and am happy to answer any questions you may have.

I hope you enjoy the new update! Thanks again for playing.

-CIDev

This is probably one of the most requested improvements(Especially mentioned in negative reviews). The old body tracking for the holster vest was less than ideal. It would always follow the headset unless the player looked directly down. This led to confusion when placing guns/melee items in holster slots because sometimes you could break the threshold and the vest would snap away. This could cause a lot of frustration when you are being swamped by zombies.

This new system takes into account the direction that both controllers are facing in order to make an educated guess as to when the player turns their shoulders/chest. The alleviates the sudden snapping behavior when looking down to place items in inventory slots.

This was really challenging to get right, so any feedback is greatly appreciated. So far the testers have said that this new system is a massive improvement. I'll keep refining this new system based on player feedback. Feel free to comment in the forums or on the Discord.



This is mainly to make sure that all players are aware of snap turn being available in the game. I will most likely add other setup options as needed. Let me know if you think of any that would be helpful.


The vest used to have a slight lag to it when the player would rotate 45 degrees. Now the snap turn script will also handle rotation on the vest when the rotation occurs. This will ensure that the vest will always be in the exact position it was before the player was turned.



Thanks for playing!

-Fixed an issue that only affected controllers with joysticks(Mainly Oculus users) where sometimes the players position would drift slightly even if no input was currently being pressed.

Small update that includes the following:

-Added all new icons for each weapon in the main menu
-Fixed an issue with Snap turn that could cause the user to break boundaries
-Improved Snap turn for players using Vive Wands
-Renamed weapons to have some made up identifiers instead of just <Caliber> <Gun type>(Example: .45 pistol has been renamed to CT-45)


New weapon icons:



I'm hoping to have time to put out another content update soon. Just wanted to fix a few smaller issues with this update.

Just a quick update that will aid in grabbing/putting away weapons without difficulty

-Added a highlight around the holster objects to make them more visible.

Today, I have released the Explosives Update for Containment Initiative. This update includes a few fun new toys to play with and some great improvements for the game overall.



This weapon has been a blast(no pun intended) to create. It's a single shot M79 Grenade Launcher that uses a break barrel mechanism for reloading. When zombies bunch up, you can create absolute carnage with just a single blast from it. You can damage and kill yourself and your teammate if you get to close to the blast, so be careful! The weapon is available as a sidearm, so you can dual wield this with other guns just like the Sawed-Off Shotgun. It will cost $10,000 and is available to purchase under the Equipment menu.



Here is some longer gameplay with audio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4M8svjVmSA



If you can't afford the Grenade Launcher, then don't worry, you can still have plenty of fun with these new tanks. Propane tanks will now spawn in random locations in most missions. You can carry them around and shoot them to create an explosion. Being able to use them strategically with your partner is a lot of fun.





As part of this update, the game engine was updated to Unity 2018. This caused some issues with existing particle effects and I ended up having to replace a good chunk of them. The end result looks much better than before:






This has been a long requested feature that finally made it into this update. You can now adjust the vertical positioning of your holster in the options menu.



Full Update Notes:
-Grenade launcher sidearm added
-Propane tanks added as random spawns to most levels
-Holster height adjustment added to options menu
-Engine upgrade to Unity 2018
-Minor menu adjustments to accommodate additional sidearm
-New Particle Systems(Muzzle flashes, etc.)


This update was a particularly tough one to work on due to one major personal change. As of last month, I'm now a dad. Turns out it's a lot harder to put an update out when you have to take a break from blowing up zombies to change diapers.

Next month marks five years since I started work on the game. I just want to thank everyone who has played and supported development during this time. Working on this has been an amazing opportunity and I just want to let everyone know how much I appreciate them playing it.

If you have any questions/comments regarding the update, please come join the Discord. I'm usually around and am happy to answer any questions you may have.

If you are interested in looking back at how the first Early Access release looked, here's a video of the game back in 2016:(Spoiler: It's awful and really embarrassing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBkdWm4MMVg

-Replaced button images in menu(Replaced the solid black color with a much nicer looking image)
-Simplified map selection panels
-Added additional text to tutorial to inform player that they get money for each zombie killed
-Font changed in a lot of places to improve readability
-Fixed bug where player could get stuck in Factory
-Fixed small room issue on Bridge