First month!
Excavator Simulator VR has had a great first month! As a solo developer just finishing university, it has been an exciting first release. The goal is to take this "school project" and turn it into the excavator simulator we all want it to be.
Sales and community support has surpassed expectations. This allows for reinvestment in the simulator, continuation of development, and additional future feature updates. A general development roadmap is shown below.
Community
Community feedback is very important to me. I want the community to have a say in the development process. The more a certain feature is suggested, the more likely it will be implemented or fast tracked in releases.
Leave suggestions in the Improvements or New Features discussion.
The future
Let's talk about what the future looks like**. This is a general roadmap*:
Note that features may be added or removed from these updates and updates may be pushed to a beta branch for early testing of features before an official release.
The overall plan is to build out the core systems of the simulator in order to better support growth in the future.
Stability Update (Fall 2021):
- Sandbox mode
- Terrain optimizations (Support for larger truly open world maps and more terrain types)
- Improve excavator movement (More closely mimic real-world track movement)
- Improve hydraulic joints (Max joint force similar to real-world hydraulic joints)
- Reduce digging glitches
- Scenario support (Allows for more levels/missions to be added in the future. This does not include Steam workshop support though)
Quality of Life Update (End of 2021/beginning 2022):
- Add basic sounds (Menu, excavator, dirt, ambiance...)
- Complete UI overhaul (New assets and menus)
- VR controller joystick support (Use VR controller joystick instead of virtual joysticks)
- Xbox controller support (Excavation without the use of VR controllers)
- Recording camera (Display exactly what user sees in VR for recording purposes. This also includes new camera angles for steamers)
Feature Update (TBD)
- This will be the exciting update with all the good new features and content. (Most excited about this one.)
*This game is developed by a solo developer working on the project as a hobby so development will take some time and all dates are only estimates.
**Even though this game has been released as a full game, development will still continue as if it were in early access.