The Xumi Post #2: Full STEAM Ahead!

Introduction

Hey there fellow builders! Today we'll be giving you a closer look at the most exciting things coming soon to BuildPort Xumia. This next update has many features that we've wanted to have for a long time, so we're working hard to get them in your hands soon!

TL;DR

• BuildPort Xumia is coming to Steam this month!
• We're adding features to make it easier to find, play, and share with your friends!
• We're making improvements to the gizmo testing loop!

Full STEAM Ahead!

You heard us right, BuildPort Xumia is officially releasing on Steam this September! To ensure the best possible experience on these devices, you will also be able to adjust the graphics quality settings from the Settings App on the Wristpod when playing on Steam.

But it doesn't matter what device you choose to play from! With seamless cross-platform play, you'll be able to join your friends from any device. Playing Xumia on Steam will work exactly like it does directly from the Meta Quest store.

To learn more about what devices are supported and other system requirements, please visit our Steam page.

And our work in developing Xumia to work on multiple platforms is not done yet. So for those of you considering getting a Steam Deck, or those of you with other non-Meta devices, please know that we will continue working to support them in the near future!

Friends in Xumia

With the introduction of cross-platform play, we know finding and inviting your friends in Xumia might become harder. So we're also happy to announce that we are adding a new friends system within the world of Xumia to make it easier to do just that!

You can find this new system on your Wristpod in the form of the Friends App, where you can view the status of friends, send invites to play, or even join sessions that they have opened!

Adding friends in Xumia is easy - simply scan the player you wish to add in a session and send them a friend request, which they can accept either by sending one back or finding your friend request in the Social App.

Friends in Xumia are independent of platform, so you'll be able to know which of your friends are online even if you play on different platforms! And for those on the same platform, we have also added an option to view a player's platform-specific profile from the game, to make it easier to connect your platform accounts too!

This system is still in its early stages, so expect lots more to come in future updates, from notifications to deeper integration with platform-specific friends!

LIV Integration

Ever experienced a crazy moment while testing a spaceship or fighting it out in Core Siege and wished your friends could've seen it happen? With the power of LIV, this will finally be possible! LIV is finally on its way to BuildPort Xumia to make it easier than ever to stream and share your best gameplay moments with others.

We can't wait to see all the fun, unscripted interactions you might be able to capture now with the power of LIV. Be sure to visit our community Discord to share your own clips or discover others! You can join the community here.

Strengthening the Build-Test Loop

As we continue to add more social features to the game, we want to make sure that the core systems continue to improve too! With that said, this update we're trying to address one of the biggest pain points highlighted by our community on Discord: the friction between building and testing gizmos.

In the physics-based world of Xumia, building a balanced gizmo is no easy task. We understand just how difficult it is to build a gizmo that doesn't just look good, but flies well too, and this process often takes many tries to get right.

To make this process of testing your gizmos easier, we're adding a new feature called Quick Testing. From the BuildPort, simply scan the gizmo you want to test, and select the "Test" option to immediately load into that gizmo in the Rift!

Our efforts to make building balanced gizmos in Xumia easier will not stop here - we have many other updates planned in the future to help both new and experienced players understand the building process to a deeper level, so please stay tuned!

New Portal Designs

The artists in our team have also been hard at work for this new update! We've updated the look of the portals between our various game modes to give players a better preview of the new worlds that they can enter through them.

Scan or teleport into these portals to seamlessly enter their corresponding game modes without any obstructive menus or buttons, and immerse yourself in the experience of warping through hyperspace to new worlds!

Closing Words

Once again, we'd like to thank you for your continued support in BuildPort Xumia. Our team is still full of ideas and hard at work to bring these new ideas and continued improvements to life! We can't wait for you to experience the next update with us (and all the other things we didn't mention here!) in the coming weeks.

See you around, Builder!

• The BuildPort Xumia Team