It's been a while, but the last of the major levels is in its final stages and should be released in the coming weeks. And oh is it a doozy.

You didn't directly ask for it but we did it anyway: Xtreme Paddleball now supports the Oculus and Oculus Touch! The former requires the latter, actually. Lots of other changes too!

We're all friends here! Great big VR engine upgrades means that Oculus Rift is now fully supported, with little to no discernible difference, other than the in-game controller models, which will definitely get an upgrade sooner than later. Speaking of engine support, though:

In order to get Oculus (and, we can now confirm, PS4) support in there without burning everything to the ground in the process, we had to upgrade both Unity from a mid-2016 version, as well as the VRTK integration, the previous version of which pre-dated the Oculus Touch altogether. Gross. That leads to a few other subpoints:

• The Unity upgrades made our old lightmaps entirely incompatible, so we had to relight everything. As a result, some scenes look a bit different. Whether some of the changes are good or bad is entirely up to taste, but regardless, we'll be doing some fidgeting as time goes on.
  
• All new bugs, probably! Took a lot of tape and glue to get things running again, so let us know if anything particularly calamitous happens.

XPB was initially built with the Vive in mind, because it was the only one that had motion controllers at the time, and also room-scale is great. But here we are, and the Oculus not only has Touch now, but is also designed from the starting point of a seated experience.

...so we've got that now! Toggling can now be done from the main menu (it's temporarily where the Settings button was/will be,) or from the pause menu in-game. Which reminds:

Sorta! Less of that weird floaty and easy-to-accidentally-trigger nonsense, and more just a big "PAUSED" and instructions on how to switch from seated to standing and vice versa. We'll figure out a quit/restart option soon that works logically for all possible controllers.

It's technically in there, but it's a little weird right now. Click either Touch joystick, or press the Vive touchpad in the center to snap to the nearest 90 degree increment.

We've seen enough people taking a dishearteningly long time in the first area, so we've softened things up in a couple of ways.

• Events that are designed to occur at certain hit counts now automatically take place at various time increments.
  
• There's a handy little note on the desk that gives a gentle nudge in the right direction.

• It's now impossible to grab the ball without already holding the paddle, so there will be fewer frustrations in high-stakes situations.
  
• The motto that appears in the first stage now appears on your paddle, so you can look at it if you want, but not be blinded by it.

A lot of little ones, but one of the biggest is the one that caused the second level's reveal to happen instantly. Which is stupid.

• The application window says it's a trial version even though it definitely is not a trial version thank you very much
  
• AI is still dumb as a bag of rocks but also magic (i.e. bad at collisions)

As always, thanks for all your support and let us know if you like the game or have any trouble with it!

It's a molten hot batch of new for Xtreme Paddleball! As promised, there's an entire new area with absolutely nothing of any sort to hide! We wouldn't burn you by putting any unexpected surprises in there. You'd be boiling mad and nobody wants that.

Also, some sweet new features and bug fixes!

The Living Room
Wow oh man a whole new space in which to play paddleball! Featuring all new scenery outside the window, a couch, a painting, AND a secret household object! You're right to be so excited!

And who knows, maybe you'll even make a few friend if you paddle long enough!

Camera Snapping
For those with limited space to physically turn, pressing either touchpad to the left or right of center will snap the camera by thirty degrees in that direction. It fudges with the ball physics for a hot second, but nothing egregious.

Bounds Occlusion
When sticking your head somewhere it oughtn't be, you'll now be presented with a distorted view of where you are, as well as text giving you a heads up. This seems better than merely plunging players into a darkness unparalleled by any unspoken abyss.


Plentiful and largely insignificant, but here are a few:

• The second fan in the first level is now impossible to get to see you too soon.
  
• There's now a fallback contingency in case the player gets stuck outside of target practice on the first level.
  
• Some minor futzing with the paddle summoner.
  
• It's now possible to die in the mine cart, like a real person, jeez
  
• Preview sections now have "Coming Soon" stamped all over them in order to avoid confusion.

We're at a fork in the road for progress, but basically it comes down to two options:

• Oculus/PSVR Support
  This can be added in fairly short order, but requires some code base adjustments that will break things for a bit, causing delays. Plus, Sony hasn't gotten back to us about a dev kit, so the value in doing this is stagnating somewhat. But, we could sell more, which would be A+.
  
• The Next Level
  The next level planned is a big jump from the three that are already in there, and a giant undertaking. That said, the visuals are more or less completed, and it comes down to dialogue recording and interaction designing. Again, doable, but not parallel with the above.

We'll let you know how that shakes out. We're also looking at a Free Play mode in case you want to really zen out. Until then, keep on swinging them paddles!

It's a molten hot batch of new for Xtreme Paddleball! As promised, there's an entire new area with absolutely nothing of any sort to hide! We wouldn't burn you by putting any unexpected surprises in there. You'd be boiling mad and nobody wants that.

Also, some sweet new features and bug fixes!

The Living Room
Wow oh man a whole new space in which to play paddleball! Featuring all new scenery outside the window, a couch, a painting, AND a secret household object! You're right to be so excited!

And who knows, maybe you'll even make a few friend if you paddle long enough!

Camera Snapping
For those with limited space to physically turn, pressing either touchpad to the left or right of center will snap the camera by thirty degrees in that direction. It fudges with the ball physics for a hot second, but nothing egregious.

Bounds Occlusion
When sticking your head somewhere it oughtn't be, you'll now be presented with a distorted view of where you are, as well as text giving you a heads up. This seems better than merely plunging players into a darkness unparalleled by any unspoken abyss.


Plentiful and largely insignificant, but here are a few:

• The second fan in the first level is now impossible to get to see you too soon.
  
• There's now a fallback contingency in case the player gets stuck outside of target practice on the first level.
  
• Some minor futzing with the paddle summoner.
  
• It's now possible to die in the mine cart, like a real person, jeez
  
• Preview sections now have "Coming Soon" stamped all over them in order to avoid confusion.

We're at a fork in the road for progress, but basically it comes down to two options:

• Oculus/PSVR Support
  This can be added in fairly short order, but requires some code base adjustments that will break things for a bit, causing delays. Plus, Sony hasn't gotten back to us about a dev kit, so the value in doing this is stagnating somewhat. But, we could sell more, which would be A+.
  
• The Next Level
  The next level planned is a big jump from the three that are already in there, and a giant undertaking. That said, the visuals are more or less completed, and it comes down to dialogue recording and interaction designing. Again, doable, but not parallel with the above.

We'll let you know how that shakes out. We're also looking at a Free Play mode in case you want to really zen out. Until then, keep on swinging them paddles!

-Main menu is now a little less openly-antagonistic/prone to accidental quits
-Overall volume has been lowered (end-user slider is forthcoming)

-Main menu is now a little less openly-antagonistic/prone to accidental quits
-Overall volume has been lowered (end-user slider is forthcoming)

-Fixed a bug at the end of the first area where the end trigger would cease functioning if the player hit it too early.

-Fixed a bug at the end of the first area where the end trigger would cease functioning if the player hit it too early.

As if to emphasize the whole point of Early Access, we're excited to announce that an additional area will be available WAY ahead of schedule, i.e. barely a week after the game goes on sale.

We're as surprised as you are.

Now, don't get too excited for what you'd call "frequent" updates, because the one after this is a massive undertaking. That said, it's just as deep in progress as the one in this announcement, so that could well show up earlier than expected, too.

Keep an eye out for updates, and keep on paddling. It's good for your forearms.

As if to emphasize the whole point of Early Access, we're excited to announce that an additional area will be available WAY ahead of schedule, i.e. barely a week after the game goes on sale.

We're as surprised as you are.

Now, don't get too excited for what you'd call "frequent" updates, because the one after this is a massive undertaking. That said, it's just as deep in progress as the one in this announcement, so that could well show up earlier than expected, too.

Keep an eye out for updates, and keep on paddling. It's good for your forearms.