Online Lobby and Unity Updates

Hey folks,

this is the biggest change to online co-op since we launched it: a completely new lobby. Playing together should feel like visiting a friend, not like configuring a server.

The new Online Lobby

• See who's online – "Play Online" now shows a live list of players and their worlds.
• Knock on a friend's world – knock, and the host gets a "Knock knock!" prompt to let you in. Hosts can also invite players straight from the list.
• Private worlds and join codes – switch your world to private and share its short code; your friend types it in and joins.
• Choose your save game with preview – the host picks which save you play, and every save shows a preview picture and its progress (sheep and crystals) right in the lobby.
• Voice chat now optional – sometimes our voice chat servers don't work, and that used to block the game connection from ever succeeding. Now voice chat tries 3 times, and even when it fails it will allow you to start the game.
• A fun lobby name for everyone – two-word names like woolyRock: roll the dice for a new one or type your own.
• Analytics added – a new startup window asks you about sharing analytics data. Please do so and help us understand our game better and fix problems faster. Thx.

Note: online play needs both players on this version (0.87). Older versions can't connect to it.

Help us make VR Giants better (optional)

On your first start we ask once whether you'd like to share anonymous usage data: which levels and menus are used, how long loading takes and where problems happen. No name, no voice, no chat. You can change your answer or delete your data any time in Settings > Game > Privacy . Saying no changes nothing about the game.

Report a bug in one click

The Report Bug button now sits right in the main menu (top right) and also on the VR startup screen, with a cleaner form. If something goes wrong, that's the fastest way to tell us.

Smoother and faster

• Updated to the Unity 6.3 engine.
• Better performance, especially on Quest: foveated rendering on Quest 2, lighter rock and platform shaders, cheaper shadows and effects.
• First start: shaders are warmed up behind a progress bar on the loading screen, so levels stutter less later.
• On PC we still had some trouble with our OpenXR chooser, but now if you have a problem, there's the bug report button right there. Please use it whenever you need to.

Fixes

• Fixed a freeze in the main menu when pressing Escape or B while a level was loading.
• Fixed a crash when quitting the PC version.
• SteamVR: the game now keeps the VR runtime Steam picked, and a failed VR start no longer blocks the next launch.
• PS5 DualSense controllers now show PlayStation button symbols.
• Steam Deck: a click or tap switches the menu back to mouse/touch mode (e.g. when entering a join code).
• Several crashes when switching levels in co-op fixed, plus many smaller fixes.

Thanks for playing – and for every bug report. Tell us how the new lobby feels!

Cheers, Wolfgang