Official Throwback VR Game Thread

Hi there. We made a VR game called Throwback and we're trying to get it out there because we think it's tons of fun and you'll have fun playing it!

It just released in steam early access today! Here's the link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2468030/Throwback/

I've got a few keys to give out as well so let me know if you're interested. Thank you for checking it out! It really means a lot to us :)

Here's a couple steam keys. Please only use them if you have a PC VR setup. We primarily use meta quest 2 via link cable.

WG8MA-H7NIF-TXPW5

ZFFGF-DG74Q-RAT9N

grabbed the top code , i'll give it a go later tonight when i have the room to myself and see how it goes . i'm suprised this post was made almost a week ago and the code was still there honestly , i'll report my thoughts back.

Took a look at the trailer and seems a little frenetic for me, but I wish you well with early access and eventual release.

Ok i gave it a go . Let me start by saying i think taking Paperboy and turning it into a VR game is a neat idea, cause thats what this sorta is. I think the core mechanics and concept are overall pretty sound.

My first gripes however is the tutorial and control/perspective settings.

When you launch into the game there are only sound settings and while those are great to have i found that my perspective wasn't exactly the best but i pushed start anyway. once into a level i found i was clipping a bit into the ground and the bike handelbars were over my head so i was forced to quit out of the game and readjust my bountray settings . there was no way i could see to fix/change this in game and i didn't know How to quit out of thegame other than to take my headset off and use my mouse to exit via steam proper as none of the buttons helped.

Upon reajusting my headset's boundry settings i reentered the game and while it didn't look much diffent it was a bit better. I double checked the settings to see it i'd missed anything and i had not so i believe that is something that i think should be added is a way to readjust your playing area.

I once again loaded up the first level , there is a tips sorta style loading screen common to most games but i found that it was a bit too fast to read so i just sorta ignored it . once into the game again it was definately better than my previous attempt to start , the handel bards and basket were sorta low but much better than before when they were way above my head , i sorta intuitively pressed stuff like any person who's played games for about 30 years and funbled my way into the controls , they aren't rocket science but a pop-up on first play or a controls section in the menues would have made something like that helpful i think for others.

I looked at the steam page before i'd started the game up and honestly if i'd never played paperboy and hadn't actually looked at the video vs pictures i frankly would not have really known what to do , but because i had i just sorta started trying to grab my newspaper and started tossing them at things , its pretty simple gameplay and it works but there were a number of times where i felt it went too fast to be able to get rid of barriers and also due to the on rails nature of it and how my perspective was i felt like i should have been able to sorta steer towards the middle of the road more , honestly that part wasn't a big deal but it felt weird the first time through.

When i'd completed the level the completed screen showing what i'd done popped but saying i'd done X and i needed to do Y to open but the next level which was pretty helpful so i deciced to give it another go . Loading the stage up again i was able to read more of the loading tips and realised it was the tutorial/instructions. i still couldn't finish reading them but knowing thats what it actually was now i can flat out say that i think thats a bad spot for them and would recomend a pop-up at least upon first play either instead or in addition to this. Anyway i completed the level and unlocked the next . i had still missed come objectives but they were for non-robot and mailbox things and i frankly have no idea what they want me to hit otherwise still.

The second stage was wintery themed and it was a nice different scenery showing variety to the world i guess, it was much of the same as before which is expected and i did just that. This level has hills however and while i found the flater roads of the first level to be pretty friendly for the most part i instead found the hills on this stage to be kinda awkward. the bike acts like you would sorta expect in that it tilts its angle rather in a realistisc sorta manner for going uphill , the consequence of that however is that your basket of newspaper changes position and personally i found it harder to reach for leading to me not actually having anything in hand and missing point i would have otherwise gotten. i'm not sure if this is an intended difficulty spike or not.

In addition to this slight difficulty spike from the hills i also found near the tail-end of the stage i was also starting to get a tad motion sick on them. i don't play a ton of VR games because i do have motionsickness issue so i was originally hesitent to redeeem the code but i'd figured i'd been a week so if it was still there ( obviously was) it was worth giving it a try to give feedback, with the first stage i had been plensently suprised to have no motion sickness issues but by the end of the 2nd stage i decided that i'd given it a well enough go having gotten some time in to provide feedback and well here we are .

Overall i think its a neat little game with but i think it could use some work. at $25 on early access tho i would not recommend it tho sadly . i might not have gotten far enough in to give it a fair shake to seee if it would be worth someones money at that price in theres depth and such but at first glance i would've been upset if i paid more than 10 Especially in early access. I do however thank you for the code and for letting me give it a try . i don't play stuff often in VR since i usually find it a pain so i hadn't actually touched my quest 2 since last year and while it wasn't amazing it was pretty easy to get running and play for the most part which is nice i was worried i was going to have to look for my link cable but it actually worked really well with airlink which was a nice suprise considering you'd mentioned using a link cable instead.

Anyway here are some highlights of thoughts...

• Neat idea
• Mechanically works
• Nice visual aesthetic
• Needs better tutorial
• Would benifit from Settings options having alignment adjustments options
• Up hill parceptive can cause difficulty spike and motion sickness issues
• Price point seems steep at first glance for early access offerings tho that could change.

Again thanks for the code and letting me try it out , i hope the feedback is helpful for you and your team, i'll probably boot it up again n see if there are any other thoughts i might have to add after but overall i think its a solid neat little idea that just needs work.

@styx971: Wow, thank you for trying it out and for giving such an in-depth feedback. It's really helpful!

You raised a lot of great points that were also pointed out by some other folks so we took it to heart and just released the first update to the game today! There's a full player tutorial now, tons more settings, some new enemy types, alternate paths, and we lowered the price to $15. We tried to address all of your critiques as they were spot on :)

Our next update will include a new map and a beta for a rouge-like mode, which is shaping up to be really fun. I'll keep you posted when that one goes live too so you can give it a shot!

Oh, also here's the link to the update post which goes over everything in more detail: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2468030/view/3645154746148442807?l=english

@jonnyp: sounds like i should give it another go then :) it probably won't be for a good few days but when i do i'll see if i have anything to add , its good to see dev addressing issues/concerns tho :)