Our projects are named after the Greek gods of winds. Zephyrus is the Greek god of the west wind. So the names are quite different, but they're still uniform. It was a working title in the beginning, but we liked it and we kept it.

Currently supported devices are Oculus Quest, Oculus Quest 2, Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality devices.

The only difference is that our project uses real-time shadows with a large number of polygons, so we had to find an artificial solution on Oculus Quest 1 due to the hardware limitation. We finally found a way to display shadows under dynamic objects on Quest 1 too. It's a cheap fake solution, but it visually reinforces the spatial position of the object for the player and gives them a better experience than if it wasn't there.

In the 1.4 alpha demo version, we have further improved the quality of the visuals on each platform, which means displaying ambient lights on creatures and heroes without any particular loss of fps. This has opened up further possibilities in game mechanics and further enhancing the atmosphere of the world.

If people like it and want to support this project we are more than happy to take their useful feedback for the best possible gaming experience.

Alpha has the Pre tag in front of it because many features aren't implemented yet, and the current ones aren't final either. A lot of things are deliberately simplified at the moment, I'm thinking about puzzles or activating spells, because the goal was primarily the experience, not the challenge.

We've created a Patreon where we can be supported at different tiers and in return players will have access to additional rewards and assets when the game is released.

Currently, Zephyrus Preludeis under review at Oculus AppLab, HTC ViveStore, Steam and SideQuest.

We hope it will be available soon...

Currently, the demo can be downloaded from Oculus AppLab, SideQuest, Itch.io, and MageLoop’s website.

We've created a Patreon page where we can be supported at different tiers and returning players will have access to additional rewards and assets once the game is released.

The ongoing comic reveals that. If you are interested, please find details on Patreon :)

But I'll tell you up front that you'll be entering into a mystical, magic-infused world, full of mysteries, magic, strange creatures, traps, puzzles, surprises, curses, treasures, fights and as you progress through the obstacles, you'll grow, gain more and better abilities, and learn more about the world and what you're looking for in it. On top of that, there will be unlockable hidden lore that will give you useful information along the way. 

Players personify wizard-like figures such as mages, witches, other wizard species, and mystical figures. The aim is to get out of Zephyrus, but it will not be easy, because puzzles, traps, and annoying creatures hinder the players. In multiplayer mode, you have to help each other and everyone will have unique magic abilities to strengthen the team. Players can learn more about the demo on our Wiki page.

Two game modes are currently available. Single-player and local network mode. The next one will be the Online mode. We are still working on cool features before we publish that to the general public.

In each mode, all the working functions of the demo are available, the only difference is that to complete one puzzle, you need two players to work together in the multiplayer.

In a nutshell to everyone, but actually , over the age of 10, we recommend it to anyone. A fantasy world that is exciting, humorous, adventurous, and yet captures the atmosphere of Grimms' Fairy Tales or the magic of Miyazaki's worlds.

Very simple. All untethered VR devices or tethered VR devices with their PCs must be connected to the same Wifi Hotspot/Local Home Network. One player chooses the Host in the Game menu, while the others choose to Join. For more details, please read our 'Setup Instructions'.

I can give you a more technological answer to that. With this style, we took out several mosquitoes with one stroke.

It is a significantly faster way to create or modify assets later. It can also be modified without problems in the engine, without having to touch or repair the source assets. We can use a lot more geometric detail because there's less memory reservation and less load on shaders, which also allows us to use real-time shadows. This style is also better suited to the World we create, and no matter the proximity or distance, the graphic quality remains consistent. Not to mention that the game must also run at an optimum speed on Quests.

Our original concept was designed for VR parks and transferred from there to the online version, but since it would have a serious impact on game mechanics and would not be compatible with the VR park version, that's partly why we chose locomotion. Moreover, teleportation, in the complex environment we imagine, would create many problems with network management and thus host many bugs.

We currently have only a few people developing the game at the moment, so since implementing this version is a big task, we skipped it to release our demo in time.
We will of course implement it in the future, but it is a serious development in itself and will require a lot of testing and iteration from us to make it enjoyable for players and not frustrating because of bugs. 

It's an “Achilles' heel” in VR. We have some unique ideas on how to reduce this effect for more sensitive people. Implementing and testing them will be an important task for the next period. That's why we need feedback from the players who are trying out our demo.

We haven't built an options menu into the demo at the moment, which doesn't preclude a simpler version of it in the future, but we think options will be important when the full game is released, so that players can immerse themselves in the game as comfortably as possible.

What options should we think about? For example, how much motion sickness the player has, some control parameters, music volume setting, game difficulty, safe space, etc.

Currently, we've included localized versions of 12 languages in the 1.4 demo, as a test. We have used an advanced AI for this purpose, mainly out of courage + curiosity, and to improve the localization system itself and improve it based on feedback.

Supported languages:
English, 中文, Brasil, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, 日本, Magyar, Polski, Русский, Svenska

At the moment, this is another important development area so that players don't have to focus on control, but on the game, the environment, and strategies. We will also need as much feedback as possible to get the best possible result on this.

We also pay close attention during this development to give players different options to feel as comfortable as possible in the company of others, especially if they are strangers to them. This is important because we want younger age groups to enjoy the world of this game as well.

Currently, players can pass each other but they can't interfere with each other, because in this case, we don't display the other player's Avatar on the client. Of course, there will be an option for what the player will allow in multiplayer when the Avatars are close to each other.

The next big step is the combat system, which we've just started working on. This missing feature will be a big update. This will involve a new animation system, a new VFX solution and a new game logic.

If we had designed the game for only one player, it would be much easier to develop, but because of the cooperative mode, we have to pay attention to many more aspects, as we did with the puzzle system.

New creatures and even missing Avatars are in the works, as well as a hand gesture system, not only for cooperative play, but also for spells and unique events. Then there's teleport control, which will be no small feat either. The rest of the plans will be worth talking about once we've passed these milestones ;)