MeerkatGaming

A big HELLO to all you Klepto-maniacs! It's time for our January development update.

The Oculus Rift will be shipping to consumers in March and this news has really energized the Klepto team! We cannot wait to show you Klepto in VR!

And since we're already on that topic, let's start off with...

VR

We've added various head mounted display (HMD) options for fine tuning camera position and we've set up HMD checks at runtime to optimize various settings (adjustable via game options).
Since they're the frontrunners in high-end consumer VR, testing is being conducted with both the HTC Vive and Oculus DK2. We fully expect to have support for both of the leading consumer HMDs at game launch.

Also , to ensure that the game remains fluid in VR, we're working on optimizing many of the more complex materials that use large numbers of shaders. Since those extra visual enhancements are not quite as noticeable in VR, swapping them to less complex materials when an HMD is detected will free up valuable resources.

DESIGN / ART

Welcome to our first neighborhood, Murky Meadows! The Meadows is an older inner-city neighborhood which will feature 60+ houses to... er, "explore". It's hard calling a run-down urban neighborhood "pretty", but Apothis, our newest 3D artist, has done a truly jaw-dropping job. The man definitely has skills.

Full-body inverse kinematic rigs have been added. Inverse kinematics simplifies the animation of our game characters and allows for advanced animations with less effort by allowing the animator to position the last bones in a character's "bone chain" while the other bones are repositioned automatically. An example of this would be the animator positioning the character's fingertip and having the rest of the hand and arm following naturally. This will take some time to fully integrate into our existing 2bone IK rig. Feet have already been setup and Nate is now working on hands. We're also working on integrating the full-body IK change to character's arms with the HTC Vive motion controls. We'll be doing the same with Oculus Touch.

interaction icons - These new 3D icons are designed to worked with both VR and non-VR gameplay.

This is a big one... Nate completely blew us out of the water this week when he added dynamic weather effects to the game. I've played a lot of games in my time and the weather effects in Klepto are among the best that I have ever seen. You're a black magic voodoo wizard, Nate!

GAMEPLAY

Glass breaking - Get your crowbars ready because door and window glass in the game is now fully destructible allowing a quick but noisy method of gaining entry into homes.

Loot / Heat system - Look for a Feature Topic article on this Soon(tm).

Random Mission Generator - In addition to unique missions, a random mission generator has been added which will offer bonuses for certain items at the start of a round.

AI

More AI improvement have been made to police response. AI cop cars will now identify and pursue suspects. This was originally limited to the dispatched officer, not the random police that spawn with the AI traffic system. If you're lurking in the shadows, keep a watchful eye out for patrols because they'll be watching for you!

Finally, to end this month's update with a bit of a bang, we'd like to introduce you to our three newest player characters!

That's it for this month! Be sure to keep at least one eye on our Twitter feed @MeerkatGaming for more Klepto news, updates and images. We'll see you in the shadows!