PS Vita Release: Dark Paradigm 0.0.8 (Homebrew Game, KyuHEN competition entry)

Developer Parking Lot Studio released an update to Dark Paradigm, their zombie survival game for the PS Vita. Dark Paradigm 0.0.8 participates in the KyuHEN Vita Homebrew competition, a contest with more than $1700 in cash prizes. The KyuHEN competition is now officially over, but we’re catching up on a few of the releases from the past few days.

What is Dark Paradigm for PS Vita

From the readme:

Dark Paradigm is a project created to fill the hole that the PS Vita has regarding shooters, it’s a mix of horror and FPS, the environments are mainly dark and you will lack ammunition if you don’t aim to the head.
This is a work in progress looking to get feedback from the community. Currently only Arcade mode is available, no bullet/ammo/explosives/weapon pickups are available yet, but they will be soon!
Don’t forget to try out the photo mode!

Changelog (v.0.08a):
TECHNICAL:
– Native 444/222/166 overclock, all possible thanks to Ibrahim-778
– A good chunk of the code was reworked towards an event based approach for better performance & stability,
making the whole app less bug prone and easier to debug, decouple and flexibilize systems and sped up development
– Optimized physics interactions for performance

BUGFIXES:
– Fixed a bug with automatic weapons where fire rate was extremely fast
– Fixed a bug where pickups didn’t interact with the player
– Fixed a bug where the app would get extremelly slow after the player was killed if no new game was started
– Fixed a bug where some distant objects would render with visual artifacts

MISC:
– Replaced Docks level with an interior map
– Added Bullet Time mechanic
– Added RE Inspired interaction sounds to the menu
– Removed music and replaced with custom made tracks
– Photo Mode disabled due to tweaking
– Reduced starting bullets to 4 full magazines with one being equipped
– Removed clouds shown some months back to merge them with the skybox shader,
this approach is not used in this buildas dynamic skyboxes still need more work and testing
– Overhauled lighting system, added fake volumetric light beams and real time shadows
– Removed weapons and animations from v0.0.1a and replaced with custom ones (moddels from Skechfab)
– Added intro videos and KyuHEN Splash screen

QoL:
– Improved overall stability and performance
– Reduced RAM usage to about half what it would need originally
– Removed head bobbing due to performance issues
– Tweaked enemy hitboxes to make them bigger
– Removed PostProcesing due to performance, currently being reworked but not a priority since it is only feasible for photo mode
– Optimized Skybox for minimal performance impact

KNOWN ISSUES:
– When an enemy is killed, its collision is disabled after the enemy dissolves,
this results in the player taking damage from dead enemies after they’ve disappeared
– The Pause Menu isn’t shown and when going back to play time stays frozen,
this can be worked around by enabling bullet time after going back to play if the player has bullet time remaining
– Pressing left shows a non-functional Weapon wheel
– Controls screen shows an outdated control scheme
– Some Players report not being able to go pass the Title Screen, if so please contact @ParkingLotStudio on twitter

Check out this video from an older version of the game (courtesy of scene veteran 2 old 4 gaming):

You can download Dark Paradigm 0.0.8 from its page on the Kyuhen competition here.