Greetings Hypatians!

We're proud to bring you the first of our content updates! We will be releasing new content every 2 weeks, without fail!

This week's release includes several new avatar skins, as well as some frequently requested control updates.

We've added a smooth turning option, a turning speed control, a height offset, some quick mute options on the right wrist watch, and finally a split control method, where you can have one hand for movement, and one for turning!

Full Update Notes v1.2.192

• Added new styles! Birdman (Angel Bot), Bee (Ladybug Bot), Fighter (Odyssey Bot), Vintage (Square Bot), and Dipped (Ice Cream)
  
• Added smooth turning
  
• Added turn speed (applies to both smooth and snap turning)
  
• Added a height offset (For when you don't want to be short while sitting down!)
  
• Added quick mute buttons to the right wrist watch
  
• Added ATM to Kapow Lake
  
• Added this update tab!
  
• Fixed Rocket Steve!
  
• Fixed Bunbot Wrist size
  
• Fixed a bug with dropping from voice server
  
• Fixed Cogwheel Garden Collision
  
• Fixed wall LOD popping in Cogwheel Garden
  
• Added a proper loading phase to the Photo album context menu
  
• Fixed sounds on Kapow Lake Ferry
  
• Drone now hovers by default
  
• Added "You Are Here" indicators to maps in Streets areas.
  
• Added sounds to the buoys in Waterfront
  
• Lots of other minor things!

We are proud to announce our feature roadmap! Come join us in game to talk about these upcoming features and more!

First, lets add the one to the road map that is not displayed - Events!

We are going to be adding an official event calendar, and support for users to create events within Hypatia. This will likely be one of the next things we add even before some of the features presented on the "Next island" above!

Climbing and Voxel scupting!
If you've purchased the Travel Ticket to the Testing Area you may have already experienced Climbing and/or Voxel scupting in Hypatia! Both of these features will be integrated into the game in the near future.

Musical instruments will be added soon, which will allow you to perform live using guitars, drums, flutes, and more!

3D Prop Films are a new unique art form! Record and save prop animations to play for your friends or the general public. This will likely be added first as a testing area, like climbing or voxel sculpting

Accessories are incoming as well! Like the current hats? Wish they followed your head, or stayed with you between areas? Want more accessories? Well you'll get all that and more!!

Property
Ever wanted to have your own a private space in Hypatia for just you and your friends? What about renting an apartment and filling it with your favorite things? Wish you could own the door across from the Art Studio? Wanting to build an amusement park for all of Hypatia to enjoy? With the coming Player Property update, Hypatians will be able to purchase and design public and private areas!

Fixed game board + inventory crash bug
Fixed problems with rejoining and not being able to edit your 3D painting
Fixed Ferry sound effects
Fixed a client side crash bug with gazing
Fixed a number of server side disconnect/crashes
Fixed max distance on voting joysticks
Unlocking the 3D paint brush will now provide the proper color
Attempting to unlock any gameplay object with a full inventory will now properly notify the player
Blocking a player will now properly hide their avatar (and yours from them)


More fixes are coming soon!

Fixed Chief's display of Secret areas!
Fixed a couple of exploration areas that were not completing properly
Hedge maze item teleport fix
Fixed a previously blocked secret in Centrum South
Updated intial character creation keyboard
Fixed improper rotation of Wes Bot left hand!
Fixed some bad collision blocking Onion's Office from being accessable
Fixed some Mango Shopping Center Collisions
The prop puppet and castanets will no longer drop on use
Records will properly stop playing now
Fixed exploration on the two tower rooftops

More fixes are coming soon, and we will share our feature road-map tomorrow!

This Friday (8/31) and Saturday (9/1) join the developers in the first official event of Hypatia!

Each of us will be joining the world to chat, hang out, and answer questions about the development of Hypatia!

We will be on from at least 10 AM - 4 PM PDT but if you miss us, don't worry! You're likely to see us popping in and out frequently all the time anyway.
(1-7 PM EST)
((5-11 PM UTC))

Also we have setup our Reddit and a Discord to encourage player-player and player-dev communication cross platform! (Dont worry, I'll still check the Steam forums daily!)

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HypatiaVR/
Discord: https://discord.gg/DFGat9E

Introducing... The Devs!


Its me! I am the lead programmer and the one who (currently) posts all of the updates on Steam, Facebook, Twitter, Email, Reddit, etc to you!



Turk is our Database Engineer. He ensures that you can log in, everything you do is properly saved, and helps make Hypatia into a persistent world.



Jason is our Engine Programmer, and hired goon!



Timbo is our Lead Designer! He is responsible for envisioning the cohesive city that is Hypatia!



SteosaurusRex is our lead artist, and the guy who made the above promotional image! He is responsible for creating the beautiful environments you experience in Hypatia!



LilStevers is one of our 2D/3D artists. You can play with some of her wands in the Live Theater and you might even be wearing one of the Avatar Skins or Parts she has created!


Vincent is our most recent hire, and our only sound guy. You can expect all the audio within Hypatia to keep getting better because of him!


Finally, we would like to thank all the former developers who ever worked on Hypatia. It would not be what it is today without the work of so many. It has been a large group effort over a long period of time to get to where we are now, and we just want to say thanks!


Until next time,
See you in Hypatia!

Tell your friends! Come experience Hypatia and all of its many, many exciting new features!

Our current reviews are very outdated and we want to know what you think of this newest update! So give us a review and let us know what you think.

We will be announcing a special event soon, as well as our feature road map for updates! Expect to hear from us soon!

Until next time,
See you in Hypatia!

Hello Hypatians!

I am pleased to announce that we are officially launching Hypatia: Grand Opening tomorrow!

For those of you just tuning in for the first time, a quick recap:

First and foremost, Hypatia is going to be free to play for everyone. This happens tomorrow with Hypatia: Grand Opening.

Oculus will be our offical platform for the Oculus Rift, while Steam remains our platform for the Vive.

Both platforms will play together on the same servers and have the same experience. At launch, if for any reason you want to transfer your Steam account to Oculus, you will be able to do so - simply send us your username from both platforms to support@timefirevr.com

We also feature limited mouse and keyboard support for those interested but who do not have a VR headset just yet. Keep in mind, this is a VR-First experience and we do not officially support mouse and keyboard at this time. As such the controls may not always be ideal when not using VR.

Now that all the technical stuff is out of the way, lets talk updates!

• Commerce - Gather Bits & Coins to buy hundreds of new items!
  
• Explore the world to gain experience and level up, unlocking new items!
  
• New areas and updates to all existing levels
  
• Enhanced photography development!
  
• New painting features (metallic + emmisive)
  
• Unlock new pieces and heavily customize your avatar
  
• Enter your paintings or photos into the new Art contests to win prizes!
  
• And much, much more!

We will be announcing upcoming events and update plans soon. Stay tuned.

Until next time, see you in Hypatia!

Hello Hypatians!

I know many of you are waiting anxiously for our free to play launch, and unfortunately I must ask you to wait just a little longer. Organizing the launch with our partners is taking a little longer than expected and has pushed our launch date back. We will be launching the Hypatia: Grand Opening update as soon as we can finalize all the details, and that should take no more than a few weeks.

I didn't come here just to share bad news though...



Oculus will be our offical platform for the Oculus Rift, while Steam remains our platform for the Vive.

Both platforms will play together on the same servers and have the same experience. At launch, if for any reason you want to transfer your account, you will be able to do so - simply send us your username from both platforms to support@timefirevr.com


We've also uploaded a new trailer to the store page, so be sure to check it out and let us know what you think!

Finally, here are some more screen shots for your viewing pleasure!

As promised in the last post, we'll be detailing our photo development process this week!

Players can take photos with a variety of different cameras in Hypatia, each camera with their own effects and qualities. Once you've taken the photo, what do you do with it?

Take your camera to the photography museum!



Thats a lot of buttons and dials! We wanted to create an in depth and satisfying process of developing photos.

The simpliest instructions

1. Insert camera
   
2. Select photo
   
3. Load your blank print
   
4. Open the lamp
   
5. Open the blocker

After a few seconds close the blocker, add chemicals and watch it develop right before your eyes!

But thats just the beginning. You can zoom, pan, and even color your photos. Try multiple exposures, or explosing different photos onto the same print!

Combine all of that with the various photography stations that help you setup nice shots for custom photos and you end up with such a variety of shots!



This duck is not blue, and its eyes are not gems, but they are in this expertly developed photograph!


This photo is out of this world good!


An interesting view of the skydome.


Underwater dinosaurs? Why not!

Come back next week for our biggest announcement yet, and the final release date revealed!

As part of the Grand Opening update, we've made a focus on making user art more persistant and sharable!

You can now submit your painted canvases to an NPC in the Art Studio area.

You can either use the free canvases provided in the art studio, or use one that you purchased from the shop. If you use a purchased canvas, you'll receive a print of your painting to show off later!


Submitted paintings will be put on display for users to vote on.


The top performing paintings will be put on display for everyone to see.

Every Sunday the creators of the three paintings in the "Best Of The Week" display will earn bits based on the number of votes they got! The more people who vote, the more you will earn, so be sure to invite your friends!


The photo museum will also feature a weekly contest for photos submitted using our new photo development process, which we will detail in our next post!