At your command: Research, trading and destruction

Townsmen VR allows all sorts of interactions in an intuitive way. Although many of them can be performed directly in the game world, some of the most impactful ones are initiated from user interfaces (UI) like the build menu.
There are a few issues with UI controls in VR, compared to UI in non-VR games: While in "normal" games these controls are usually straightforward and easier to execute than the more complex in-game controls, it is the opposite for VR games. Interactions with the game world feel easy and natural, while UI feels immersion-breaking, and reading text is harder.
As you already know, we tackled this issue by reducing the amount of text in menus to a minimum. You also place new construction sites by just manually dragging a building from the build menu into the game world. This "drag-to-place" mechanic works great for several reasons:

• It bridges the gap between the user interface and the game world by allowing players to use pointing or grabbing
• It allows you to carefully choose a place in the world without being restricted by a grid
• It allows you to cancel actions without the need for a confirmation window.
• Therefore, we are using the "drag-to-place" mechanic outside the normal build menu.

Let the hammer fall

We added build options to the building info UI you can activate for each building. These build options contain add-ons and upgrades that use the "drag-to-place" mechanic.
When it comes to upgrades, you drag the upgraded building directly on top of the original building.
But there is a second object you can drag on top of a building:



The hammer lets you tear down a building in case you need the space for something else or need this type of building somewhere else.
As you have to pick up and drop the hammer, it is harder to do this by accident (compared to a UI button doing the same thing). We also make sure that you only destroy the building of which the player opened the building info UI to reduce mistakes. Tearing down buildings is costly and rarely required, so we want to make it as safe as possible.

Ora et labora

The library is one of many add-ons you can build for the church. The library’s info also contains a research selection, allowing you to choose what you want to research next. To start some research, you use the same mechanic, dragging the research item on top of the library.



A stack of books will appear in front of the library and your clerics will have to read through all of these books to complete the research.

The trading trade-off

Trading is a central part of most city building games and has been a big part of the Townsmen series for a long time. But trading is also usually one of the UI heaviest features in these games requiring players to manage large menus.



Trading in Townsmen VR stays in the game world as much as possible and works with physical resources. You can initiate trading from the UI of a trade ship or a marketplace, by using the "drag-to-place" feature from a selection of available offers. A physical pallet will appear where you or your workers can put the required resources. Once the pallet is full, you will get a new pallet with the desired resources. This takes time but makes sure that resources act the same in all cases.

What’s next?

We are currently polishing and testing these features while working on all the levels that use those. After that, we will have to finalize the dialogues and record and implement the voice-overs before we can aim for a release date later this year.