If you're a front-facing player on Oculus, and you'd like smooth turning in Left-Hand Path, I've just added that in an experimental build.

To try it out, right-click on Left-Hand Path in your Steam Library, go to "Properties", and then go to "Betas". In there, choose "smoothturnalpha".

Once you've got that beta (which also features a few other improvements and fixes, including the Teller Of Tales achievement now working for Nehemoth), you can enable Smooth Turning by going to the menu, then ticking the "Smooth Turning" checkbox.

Let me know what you think, and if it works for you!

Wow, it's finally here.

After a year and a half of development in Early Access, I'm proud to announce that Left-Hand Path has left Early Access and is now fully released in 1.0.0. It's also got a whole pile of new features and polish!

If you've come from another site and are not aware of Left-Hand Path: it's a Dark Souls inspired VR horror/RPG where you learn spells and cast them by drawing runes in the air. It's also one of the rare full-length games in VR, totaling around 15 hours of gameplay, with replayability and achievements on top of that. It's had a great reception in Early Access, currently sitting at Very Positive - 85% Positive reviews on Steam.

Many A True Nerd called it "One of the most interesting and promising experiments in making large, complex games I've seen on the Vive." So that was nice!

In order to get Left-Hand Path up to scratch as a full release, I've worked for six months on polishing it, adding Quality Of Life features, and responding to community feedback. Today's update adds all that to the game and brings it out of Early Access.

Thanks to everyone who responded there, and to everyone who has been so supportive of Left-Hand Path on Steam and on Reddit. This has been an amazing experience and I'm super grateful to you all.

Changes from the Early Access version include:

• Massive graphical improvements including a total overhaul of all spell effects, teleport effects, a new Grimoire, and more.
• Light Level Overhaul - based on numerous comments and feedback, I've significantly raised the light levels throughout the game. It's still scary (have tested, can confirm) but you can now see what you're doing!
• Better Braziers - I've also raised the light levels on lightable braziers and fires.
• Low-Terror Mode - allows people who love RPGs but don't love being scared out of their wits to play Left-Hand Path with seriously reduced terror, including much more visibility and adjusted monster placement and effects.
• Story Mode - want to experience the story and the world of Left-Hand Path without banging your head against Dark Souls-like difficulty? This mode's for you.
• New Lobby - I've completely redesigned the first thing you ever see in the game. The black room is no more - now your very first introduction to the game is much clearer and contains a bunch of new features too, including an ever-expanding library of lore.
• Tutorial - lots of people said that the Early Access version was a little hard to get into. So a new introduction area now teaches you the basics of spellcasting and ritual, as well as filling out a bit more of Left-Hand Path's story.
• Locomotion overhaul - I've gone through every area in Left-Hand Path and improved locomotion, as well as overhauling the locomotion system in general. If you prefer locomotion to teleporting you'll find the 1.0.0 release a much smoother experience!
• Sound effect improvements - including foley effects for almost every object in the game.
• Book Code Overhaul - You no longer need to twist your wrist around to read books. A tiny change with a huge impact!
• Front-Facing Play Support - if you play in a front-facing configuration, that's now supported in Left-Hand Path, with a new "turn" option on the controls.

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Return To Previous Zones - when you've defeated the greatest challenges in each area, you can now return there to find spells and story you missed.

Destructive Power - your spells aren't just dangerous to creatures any more! You can destroy most things in the game with arcane power, and sometimes that'll be useful in your journey.

New Ritual Of Husks - Find objects of meaning throughout the world of Left-Hand Path, and leech their treasured - or horrifying - memories dry for power.

Many, many, many bug fixes - I wouldn't be surprised if the bug fix list is in the thousands of bugs. It's certainly well into the hundreds. From difficult-to-navigate areas to weird spell interactions, I've been on a fixing frenzy.

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I'd like to shout out to my awesome beta-testing team: Chilkoot, /u/Styggpojk, /u/arislaan, /u/countjocular, VR-For-Ever, Dave Lloyd, and especially my tireless QA tester Ian Mulliner who continued hacking through the release version looking for bugs even when he was nearly bedridden with flu. (And thanks too to the person I've inevitably forgotten to mention, and advance apologies if that was you!)

I hope you enjoy it - and as always, if you have any problems, comments or feedback, do let me know. I'm serious about that - contact me on Reddit, Steam or email (hugh.hancock AT strangecompany DOT org) and I'll get back to you!

We Who Watch The Well wish you success - enjoy Left-Hand Path!

To mark the full release of Left-Hand Path on Friday, I'll be doing an Ask Me Anything (and I'll answer most things :) ) interview on Reddit's /r/games.

I won't just be answering questions about Left-Hand Path, but also questions about VR, Machinima, my 20 years around the realtime 3D and games world, and anything else!

It'll be Friday, starting at 4pm GMT.

Should be fun!

After a year and a half of development in Early Access, I'm proud to announce that Left-Hand Path is coming to its 1.0 release out of Early Access on November 10 2017 - with a whole pile of improvements and new features!

(If you're seeing this from another site and you're not aware of Left-Hand Path: it's a Dark Souls inspired VR horror/rpg where you learn spells and cast them by drawing runes in the air. It's also one of the rare full-length games in VR, totaling around 15 hours of gameplay.)

I've worked for six months after completing the story and content of Left-Hand Path primarily on polish - that's what this release focuses on. But it's also got a bunch of new features in it, including the long-awaited Low Terror mode!

Changes from the Early Access version include:

• Massive graphical improvements including a total overhaul of all spell effects, improved lighting that keeps the atmosphere but improves visibility, a new Grimoire, and more.
• Low-Terror Mode - allows people who love RPGs but don't love being scared out of their wits to play Left-Hand Path with seriously reduced terror, including much more visibility and adjusted monster placement and effects.
• Story Mode - want to experience the story and the world of Left-Hand Path without banging your head against Dark Souls-like difficulty? This mode's for you.
• Tutorial - lots of people said that the Early Access version was a little hard to get into. So a new introduction area now teaches you the basics of spellcasting and ritual, as well as filling out a bit more of Left-Hand Path's story.
• Locomotion overhaul - I've gone through every area in Left-Hand Path and improved locomotion, as well as overhauling the locomotion system in general. If you prefer locomotion to teleporting you'll find the 1.0.0 release a much smoother experience!
• Sound effect improvements - including foley effects for almost every object in the game.
• Return To Previous Zones - when you've defeated the greatest challenges in each area in the Well, you can now return there to find spells and story you missed.
• Destructive Power - your spells aren't just dangerous to creatures any more! You can destroy most things in the game with arcane power, and sometimes that'll be useful in your journey.
• New Ritual Of Husks - Find objects of meaning throughout the world of Left-Hand Path, and leech their treasured - or horrifying - memories dry for power.
• Many, many, many bug fixes - I wouldn't be surprised if the bug fix list is in the thousands of bugs. It's certainly well into the hundreds. From difficult-to-navigate areas to weird spell interactions, I've been on a fixing frenzy. (Big thanks to the many Redditors who contributed to this, as well as my crack beta-testing team).

The release version of Left-Hand Path will be available at 11am on the 10th of November - British time, in case you're wondering.

See you there!

I'm very pleased to announce the official release of Left-Hand Path's final two areas, Samael and Xanadu.

They're part of the 0.7.0 release which is now live!

(If you're seeing this from a VR news site and you're not aware of Left-Hand Path: it's a Dark Souls inspired horror/rpg where you learn and cast spells by drawing runes in the air. You can buy it from Steam here.)


This is a huge patch with:

• Two new areas, Samael and Xanadu, totalling around 5 hr of play time!
  
• 6 completely new enemies to confound and murder you.
  
• 5 new spells and rituals.
  
• A complex interleaved plot and brutal ultimate antagonist to overcome in Samael.
  
• New, powerful talents to choose to aid your path through the Well.
  
• The end of the Left-Hand Path story, complete with fully-voiced and motion-captured NPC interactions.
  
• Quality-Of-Life improvements including health recovery at new heads and run option on locomotion.

If you don't want to get to the end of Gamichicoth again, there's a hack to get around it:

Go into your Left-Hand Path directory, edit the .json file with your current character name, and change the "headlevel" to "Samael/Samael"

If you're not confident doing that I'm happy to update your save file for you - send me an email at info@strangecompany.org with your json file if you'd like me to do that.


We're still in Early Access, so it's possible you'll encounter some bugs. Please let me know if you do!

On very low-end systems near minimum spec, I'm aware of one performance bug related to unusually long play times. If you find your system starting to lag badly, get yourself killed or restart Left-Hand Path once you hit a Screaming Head. That will completely reset the lag. I'm looking into this bug actively, and please do let me know if it affects you.



And that's it! Please do let me know what you think, and enjoy your trip through Samael and Xanadu.

If you'd like to discuss the game with other players, feel free to jump on the Steam forums, or I've started a discussion of the latest patch over on Reddit's /r/vive subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/6k0lt9/lefthand_path_070_released_5hr_more_playtime_2/

Yes, I have just set Patch 0.7.0, which contains around 5 hr of new content for Left-Hand Path, live on Steam.

This is a "Soft Launch", meaning that I won't be publicising it outside this page for a bit, as I'd like to hear from you that everything's OK first!

So, please do download over the next day, try it out, and let me know how the new areas are working for you!

If you don't want to get to the end of Gamichicoth again, there's a hack to get around it:

Go into your Left-Hand Path directory, edit the .json file with your current character name, and change the "headlevel" to "Samael/Samael"

If you're not confident doing that I'm happy to update your save file for you - send me an email at info@strangecompany.org with your json file if you'd like me to do that.

Features of the new release include:

• Two new areas, Samael and Xanadu, totalling around 5 hr of play time!
  
• 6 completely new enemies to confound and murder you.
  
• 5 new spells and rituals.
  
• A complex interleaved plot and brutal ultimate antagonist to overcome in Samael.
  
• New, powerful talents to choose to aid your path through the Well.
  
• The end of the Left-Hand Path story, complete with fully-voiced and motion-captured NPC interactions.
  
• Quality-Of-Life improvements including health recovery at new heads and run option on locomotion.

This is a soft launch, so it's possible you'll encounter some bugs. Please let me know if you do!

On very low-end systems near minimum spec, I'm aware of one performance bug related to unusually long play times. If you find your system starting to lag badly, get yourself killed or restart Left-Hand Path once you hit a Screaming Head. That will completely reset the lag. I'm looking into this bug actively, and please do let me know if it affects you.

If that bug or any other bugs prove to be too severe or frequent, I'll roll back this release until I can fix them. Otherwise, I will be doing a full release tomorrow!

Looking forward to hearing what you think of Samael and Xanadu! Enjoy, and do let me know!

I've just released Left-Hand Path 0.6.0 to Steam! This is a Quality-Of-Life release, so no new areas, but new and improved features.

If you've not heard of Left-Hand Path: it's a difficult, Dark Souls inspired VR horror/RPG. You play a wizard and cast spells by learning and drawing magical symbols with your hands. As you explore a wierd place called the "Well of All Reward", you'll fight dangerous creatures, piece together the story of what happened to you and others stuck in this place, and try hard not to die.

Major features to look out for in the new patch include:

• Neural Net based gesture recognition. Gesture recognition should be significantly improved. In addition to that, I can now take in feedback from you if you're having trouble with a gesture and use it to train the recogniser further! See the forums for details on that.
• "Memory Palace" System You'll find new rituals in Nehemoth, Sathariel and Gamichicoth that allow you to summon recollections of everything you've seen and read. Enjoy piecing the plot together! There are also new achievements for finding all the writings and conversations in an area.
• Onward-style locomotion. All controlled through the right trackpad or stick. You can sidestep and move backward, and speed of movement is adjusted as usual for an analog stick or mouse (further out = move faster).
• * Oculus Touch support. Not too relevant to Vive owners, but yup, I now support The Other Guys too. On SteamVR only and 360 degree only at the moment.

Smaller quality of life improvements include:

• Khalah indicator - when you've cast the defensive ritual "Khalah", you can now tell how long it will continue to work by looking at your left hand.
• Room Extender works with Touchpad Locomotion - you can run both at the same time now.
• Cardinal Points Detection improved - the game now detects what direction you're casting ritual symbols in by direction, not distance.
• Ritual Symbol Practise - you can now practise casting ritual symbols without having a ritual circle in place.
• Ritual Circle persists longer - slightly less rush on your rituals now!
• Grimoire now grabbable - want to move your spellbook for easier access? You can now do that.
• Bloom effect can be toggled off - some folk were reporting Crazy Bloom Levels, so it can now be turned off.
• The major character in Gamichicoth is now more audible - you should be able to hear what he says much more clearly now!

And there were a bunch of bugfixes too:

• Julia won't talk after she's dead - It was appropriately creepy - but it was also a bug, so it's gone.
• Spiders in Gamichicoth should now all get to you - Yes, I'm afraid they can all reach you now.
• Several walls are now impenetrable - so you can't accidentally locomote through them.
• Staff Of Sloth effect considerably up-powered - now considerably more use in the Well.
• Disabled colliders on books which you've picked up - books will no longer go crazy if you accidentally run them into a wall.

So grab the update (or Steam should grab it for you!), let me know how well it works for you (particularly the gesture recognition), and enjoy! If you have any problems at all please do post in the discussion forums and I'll see them immediately.

P.S. I'm aware of a couple of minor bugs in 0.6.0, including the Ignifer bug on Touch, and will be working on them this week. Stay tuned!

I've just released Left-Hand Path 0.6.0 to Steam!

This is a "Soft Launch" - meaning that I'm releasing it and giving it a few days before I do the big song-and-dance, announce on Reddit, call press, etc. The reason for that is there are several semi-experimental features in this release, and whilst I and Playtester Ian have tested them as hard as we can, I'd still like to get broader feedback from the Left-Hand Path community before I really publicise them.

So: if you'd like to help me and Left-Hand Path out, please do have a play, have a test, and let me know if you hit any problems, big, small, or moderate sized.

If the Path is reasonably smooth over the weekend, I'll let the General Public and the Oculus community know that the patch is out on Monday!

With all that out the way - major features to look out for in the new patch include:

• Oculus Touch support. Oculus Touch is autodetected, and the control mechanism adjusts appropriately. Left grip to teleport, no more touch detection on left trigger, and other improvements.
• Neural Net based gesture recognition. Gesture recognition should be significantly improved. In addition to that, I can now take in feedback from you if you're having trouble with a gesture and use it to train the recogniser further! See the forums for details on that.
• "Memory Palace" System You'll find new rituals in Nehemoth, Sathariel and Gamichicoth that allow you to summon recollections of everything you've seen and read. Enjoy piecing the plot together! There are also new achievements for finding all the writings and conversations in an area.
• Onward-style locomotion. All controlled through the right trackpad or stick. You can sidestep and move backward, and speed of movement is adjusted as usual for an analog stick or mouse (further out = move faster).
• Lots of quality of life improvements. Khalah indicator (check your right hand), Room Extender now works at the same time as touchpad movement, longer-duration ritual circle, ritual circle now works by orientation not distance from cardinal points, and lots more. I'll have a full list on Monday.
• Lots of bugfixes. Like, lots. Again, full list on Monday.

So grab the update (or Steam should grab it for you!), let me know how well it works for you (particularly the gesture recognition), and enjoy!

Yep, things have progressed nice and fast, and I'm glad to say that Patch 0.6.0 will almost certainly be coming next week - probably around Feb 1st or Feb 2nd.

Major new things in this patch:

• "Memory Palace" rituals to allow you to recollect everything you've read or heard in the Well, so that you can piece together the story more easily.
  
• Neural Net-based gesture recognition. Should be much more accurate now!
  
• Official Oculus Touch support. Customised controls for the Touch.
  
• Onward-style touchpad movement - move forward, backward or sideways with the touchpad.

Plus lots of bugfixes and maybe one or two other features if I manage to get them in!