Tanks VR devlog #3 - HMD support, lobbies, press inquiries & more

We're happy to say that Tanks VR is still growing and that many players have given Tanks VR a review on Steam, all of which were positive! We expect that this will give people that are interested in the game more confidence that Tanks VR will take off!

HMD support

Many people have requested Oculus support. We are happy to say the we have now been accepted to the Oculus Start developer program! This will provide us with an Oculus somewhere in the beginning of May. We can then add official Oculus support, which would not take long. Some players have already tried the game with the Oculus and have reported that it works fine. However, we do not recommend you do this as we can't help you if you experience any Oculus specific problem.

Several people have requested Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) support. We are currently looking into acquiring a WMR HMD. Keep an eye out for announcements about this. Just like with the Oculus, some people with a WMR HMD have tried the game and for some it has worked, and for some it hasn't. Again, we do not recommend you do this.

No lobbies found

We want to make sure that every player gets to play the game. We are aware that many players who try out the game encounter the following.

Most players then make a lobby and wait 5 to 10 minutes to see if anyone joins. On the lobby browser we had already added an invite to our Tanks VR Discord group, in order for players to find others. However, this wasn't enough. So to give players more chances of finding eachother, we have added some tips in the lobby browser.

As can be seen in tip #3, we've added an air raid siren to the garage, which you'll hear when another player has started the game. So if you have minimized the game, watching some videos or something, you'll be notified by the siren that there is now another player to play with.

Ghost lobbies

We have tried to fix the occurence of ghost lobbies. It has worked to a certain extent. We are now encountering less ghost lobbies than previously, but they still seem to appear sometimes. If you encounter one, please let us know!

Press inquiries

Since the last devlog we have been focusing on getting more exposure for Tanks VR, expecting that it results in more people getting a copy of the game. We are doing this in several ways. 

Firstly, we are contacting 30 major gaming and VR websites asking if they would like to review the game or write an article about it. We expect that Tanks VR will be featured on these sites, as their audience would probably be interested in one of the first VR tank simulators.

Secondly, we are giving away copies of Tanks VR on platforms such as KeyMailer, Woovit, Craater and Steam Curator Connect. These platforms connect developers to content creators and reviewers such as Youtubers, streamers and Steam Curators. Already 70 Youtubers and streamers have received a copy of the game, so we expect to see some Tanks VR content in the coming weeks.

Thirdly, we are also directly contacting Youtubers who play VR games to provide them with a copy of Tanks VR, hoping that they will produce a video about it. If you watch or know about any Youtuber that plays VR strategy games and preferably also War Thunder or World of Tanks, let us know!

Fourthly, we will be posting all Tanks VR related news such as these devlogs on multiple subreddits, Twitter, IndieDB and Gamasutra.

Future

For the coming weeks we will be working on implementing in-game 3D voice chat, as well as a new North African campaign desert map and a new tank. We would like to combine these to form a big content update, which we will use to get more exposure in the VR community. It's especially important that we get exposure in the Oculus community, as most Oculus owners probably haven't looked into Tanks VR yet.