The Xumi Post #3: STEAM Is Upon Us, Alongside the September Update!
BuildPort Xumia launches on Steam with a permanent price reduction, new parts, avatars and paints, crossplay, and September quality-of-life updates.
Introduction
Hey there fellow builders! Today marks the last blog post before the September update for BuildPort Xumia. If you want to learn more about the quality of life features, take a look at last week's blog post. This week we're looking at the new content you'll be seeing in a few hours!
TL;DR
- Permanent price reduction!
- BuildPort Xumia is coming to Steam this week!
- We're adding new parts for everyone!
- 6 new avatars incoming, inspired by RecRoom, and 6 new paints.
- QoL features recap from the last blog!
- Stay tuned for the next 3 months as there's a lot more coming 😀
Price Reduction
After a lot of decision making, we've decided to permanently reduce BuildPort Xumia's price! As of September 8th, the game has been permanently reduced to $9.99! We want this to be a social experience and keep tearing down the barriers of play for everyone. For any existing players that logged in up to September 8th, we're adding an additional 1,000 crystals to compensate for the change!
Steam Release
As you might've heard, we're coming to STEAM! Also on the 24th of September, and going forward all of our updates will go live at the same time for all platforms. With Steam, you can access quality settings, a smoother experience and full crossplay with all existing users on Meta. With the friends system coming alongside the update, it will be easier than ever to add, join and invite each other! Check it out here.
Brick by Brick
With this update, we're also adding 3 new parts, available to everyone at the start! These are inspired by pipes, and are the beginning of a new set of parts, of which you'll see more of in the future. All of which will be immediately available, no objectives required!
Stylin' N' Profilin'
We were big fans of RecRoom and were sad to see it go. To remember it in our own way, we're adding 6 new avatars in the store, with our own take on their avatars. In case you don't know, builder avatars represent species the Xumis have encountered, so who knows, maybe they played a bit of RecRoom themselves! All 6 avatars will be immediately available in the store with a bunch of styles to mix and match. 2 of them will be free permanently!
Additionally we're also adding more avatars and paints. 4 objectives were reworked and added as Tier 2 Path 6, "Path of the Disruptor". From here you can grab these 4 amazing new paints!
We have also added a copper and a pearl color to the store.
As a reminder, all store items are available with crystals, which you can acquire by playing activities, levelling up, some objectives, and through In-App-Purchases.
Notice for Steam users: In-App-Purchases will be disabled with the initial release, and added at a later date. You can still get all available paints and avatars in the meantime by playing the game!
Breaking the Barriers of Play
As we said last week, we have a host of quality of life improvements coming. Here's a quick overview, in case you missed the last blog post:
Friends System
A new sub-app in the Wristpod:
- Part of the Social App alongside the previous Session App.
- Allows you to manage, invite and join your friends; accept requests, view sent requests, remove and block players.
- To add a friend, simply scan a player while on foot or in a spaceship gizmo and select "Add Friend"! Once they accept it on their end, you'll be able to easily join and invite each other anywhere!
LIV Integration
The new camera button on the Wristpod's top bar:
- Allows for recording, screen capture and streaming with multiple POVs anytime and anywhere!
- Make sure to share cool clips with us on Discord (join the community here).
The Test Loop
Test with one button!
- Scan a gizmo and select "Test" to immediately take it to the Rift.
- Alternatively, look at the inventory window in the BuildPort and select the "Test Gizmo" button on the bottom right corner of the item card.
New Respawn Screen
When dying in a gizmo, you'll now see a screen similar to the Duels one, in case you want to spawn directly back in one of your last 3 selected ships, spawn normally, or return to the BuildPort directly!
New Portals
New look and functionality:
- Out with the squares. In with the new portals!
- You can scan them as usual, but you can also directly teleport into them!
- Additionally, when exiting a session through the Wristpod exit button or the Session App, it will now also trigger a return portal to the BuildPort!
New Settings
Exit button:
- Now you can quit the game, from the app! Just go to settings and it's at the bottom.
- Steam users also now get access to quality settings.
Rift Activity Leaderboards
- Added leaderboard integration for the remaining activities.
- We also found a bug which caused the leaderboards to not update correctly, which has been fixed (and all existing entries have been correctly updated).
Outside of these there are also plenty of bug fixes and performance improvements across building objectives, sessions, and much more!
More to Come
Another week and another blog! We're super excited to get the build out to all of our players, new and old! BuildPort Xumia is growing and we're super excited for you to get your hands on all the new updates! We're ironing out the final bugs right now and we'll see you at the release!
See you around, Builder!
- The BuildPort Xumia Team