Project Honeydew

• A PC VR headset on Windows (HTC Vive, Valve Index, a Quest through Link, Air Link, Steam Link or Virtual Desktop, or a Steam Frame streaming from your PC): the Windows download, the big Download button.
• No headset, on a Windows PC: also the Windows download. Play on your monitor with a gamepad or keyboard.
• A Linux PC or a Steam Deck: Linux · x86-64, under the Download button.
• A Steam Frame on its own, no PC: Steam Frame · Linux ARM64.
• A Meta Quest 3 or 3S on its own, no PC: the Quest download (experimental). If you have a gaming PC, the Windows download through Link is the main, most tested version.

Every version needs your own Pikmin (GameCube) disc image. None of them includes game files.

Windows

1. Download the zip and unzip it anywhere (right-click > Extract All).
2. Open the folder and run nectar-launcher.exe. If Windows SmartScreen warns, choose More info > Run anyway: the files aren't signed.
3. Choose Install. The launcher looks for your disc image (or lets you pick it) and suggests a game folder.
4. When it's done, choose Open the launcher.
5. For VR, start SteamVR first (on a Quest, connect Link first), then press Play. Without a headset, just press Play.

Linux PC or Steam Deck

1. Download the .tar.gz and extract it (in your file manager: Extract here).
2. Open nectar-launcher and choose Install, then pick your disc image.
3. The README.txt in the folder covers SteamVR and adding the game to Steam.

Windows, Linux, Steam Frame and Quest players of the same version play online together.

Steam Frame on its own

1. In Desktop Mode, download the Steam Frame package, and copy your disc image to the Frame (Downloads or an SD card).
2. In the file manager, right-click the package and choose Extract here, then open nectar-launcher.
3. Press Install: the launcher finds your disc image, and the game adds itself to Steam.
4. Back in Game Mode, start Project Honeydew from your library (Non-Steam), so the controllers work.

Or stream from your PC with the Windows version, like any PC VR headset.

Meta Quest 3 / 3S on its own (experimental)

1. Turn on Developer Mode for your headset in the Meta Horizon phone app.
2. Connect the Quest to your computer and install the APK with SideQuest (drag the file onto it), or run adb install ProjectHoneydew-0.3.1-quest.apk.
3. Copy your disc image to the Quest's Download folder over USB. It must be an .iso or .gcm: convert RVZ, WIA or GCZ images to ISO first. Leave about 2.5 GB free.
4. On the Quest, open Project Honeydew from your Library (Unknown Sources), pick your disc image when it asks, and wait for the one-time import.
5. After the import you can delete the disc image from Download. Uninstalling the app deletes its saves.

This is an experimental build: expect rough edges. If you have an earlier version, install this one over it the same way (SideQuest, or adb install -r ProjectHoneydew-0.3.1-quest.apk): your imported game and saves stay unless you uninstall. Online: Settings > Online (at the title also Y) to host or to type your friend's room code; it plays with another Quest and with the Windows, Linux and Steam Frame versions of the same release. Voice chat isn't on the Quest yet. In busy scenes (many Pikmin and enemies at once) the Quest runs at about 50 to 55 frames a second.

Updating (Windows and Linux)

Close the game, unzip the new release into a separate folder, then run its nectar-launcher.exe, choose Update, and pick your game folder. Or press Update in your current launcher and choose the zip you downloaded. Saves, settings and texture packs are kept.

The first time you play online, Windows may ask about the firewall: allow it on Private networks.

Headset support

Built and tested on the original HTC Vive, and tested on a Meta Quest 3 through Link: connect the Quest first, then start SteamVR, then the game. Valve Index, Steam Frame (streaming from your PC), other Quests or connections (Air Link, Steam Link, Virtual Desktop) and other SteamVR headsets are untested. Other graphics cards are untested.

The trailer uses Henriko Magnifico's free Pikmin 4K texture pack. It's optional, and works in VR and on a monitor in the Windows and Linux versions.

1. Download the pack from its page (the Standard Edition, if you're unsure) and unzip it. It's made for the Dolphin emulator, so it holds several folders: you only need one of them.
2. Inside it, open Load > Textures and copy the folder you find there (named GPI or GPIE01).
3. Paste it into Load\Textures\ in your Project Honeydew game folder, so you end up with Load\Textures\GPI\…. Create the Load and Textures folders if they aren't there yet.
4. Open the launcher and choose the pack in Settings > Texture Packs (or in the game: F1 > Graphics > Texture Packs).
5. Start the game: the pack applies the next time it starts.

Ignore the pack's Config, GameSettings and Shaders folders: those are only for Dolphin. A big pack needs extra video memory, and an area can stutter briefly the first time its textures load. That's normal.

• Online in the game. Host and join from the game's own Online page: Settings > Online (F1 or Select/View), or the title's F4 / Y shortcut, in the headset too. Choose whose save to play, then host, or type your friend's six-character room code on the keypad (point and pull a trigger in VR; a mouse, keyboard or gamepad works too). The launcher's Online tab is gone: the launcher installs, updates and starts the game.
• The Quest plays online. The Quest version hosts and joins like a PC: with another Quest, or with a friend on Windows, Linux or the Steam Frame, when you both have the same version. Voice chat isn't on the Quest yet, so a game with a Quest player has no voice chat.
• Your room code stays private. It shows as KX7-*** until you hold Show. In VR the game keeps its desktop window blank while the keypad or a code is up, and a Quest asks the headset to leave it out of casting and recording. On a PC headset the code is still in the headset's picture, which SteamVR's VR View and capture tools can show: don't open the keypad or hold Show while you stream.
• Host and Join no longer freeze the game: it checks its files in the background and keeps running while the link starts.
• Leaving is deliberate: during a day, hold Disconnect for a second, so a stray press never ends your friend's day. Open a router port is a setting on the Online page, Off by default.
• Fixes: in VR, closing the settings page with a laser pull no longer leaves that hand's trigger with the page (it stopped throwing Pikmin and opening an Onion or the ship until you opened the settings again); in co-op, your own Onion menu now shows in front of you in the headset, no longer on your wrist out of sight.

Previously in 0.3.0

• Online between Windows and Linux. The Windows, Linux and Linux ARM64 (Steam Frame) packages of the same version now play online together. Both players still need the same version, from this site.
• Room codes: when you host online, your friend can type a short room code (like KX7-Q2M) instead of pasting the long join code, and a friend behind a strict router no longer sends a reply code back. Send it to your friend only; the privacy page says what passes through this site.
• Petting works: a Pikmin waits for your hand, and every stroke counts.
• Look from above: hold the throwing stick up (Vive: click and hold the top of the throwing pad) and the view blinks up above Olimar: you look down on him from 8 m up, as a giant. Let go and it blinks back. Olimar stands still while you look.
• A new settings page in the headset: a Controls tab, a sorted Graphics tab, a quick bar at the bottom of every tab, scrolling by dragging or swiping, and a new Render Resolution that asks "Keep this resolution?" and goes back by itself after 10 seconds. A stray press while you can't see no longer resets your settings.
• Skip All Cutscenes (Settings > Gameplay). Skipping with Start no longer loses a ship part (the Main Engine on day 1, or the last part), and the Onions' light beam comes back after skipped scenes.
• The hand camera: the holster sits behind your shoulder, out of the way; photos leave out your own helmet and body, and selfies show you with your squad.
• The helmet is off by default, for everyone (VR > View > Helmet turns it on).
• Hide HUD hides the watch, the radar, the laser and the cards, for recording footage.
• One card at a time: the controls card, the tutorial, hints and What's new wait their turn, are never covered while you read them, and close with A or X, never by pointing.
• Tips are off by default: first-day hints, the VR tutorial and the co-op tips start by themselves only with Tips on.
• The tabletop is closer and easier to see: higher, nearer and 1.5x bigger by default. Hold both grips and pull your hands apart or together to zoom. Its top tilts towards you like a drafting table (VR > View > Tabletop Tilt).
• Pikmin Notice You is less robotic: not every Pikmin looks back, and a sleeping one may stir.
• Big enemies' health bars come down to your eye level in VR.
• Pikmin carry on by themselves in Expanded: Gameplay > Chain Pikmin Actions is now on there, so after breaking a Pellet Posy they carry its pellet home.
• Graphics changes no longer stall the headset, and a stage now waits a moment for its HD textures before it shows (fewer textures popping in).
• Sound: the game's own Music and Sound Effects volumes and a sound toggle at the top of the Audio tab, which also says whether your microphone is on.
• The original game's painted forest wall is gone in VR and first person: you see the open horizon instead (it stays in normal flat play).
• Carry Counter Order shows the carriers on top, for anyone who reads the carriers first.
• Disbanding works when Olimar has been standing idle too, and the controls card says how.
• Long achievement names wrap instead of being cut off.
• Found a bug? Data > Report a Bug opens this site's form, filled in with your version and headset.
• What's new appears once after an update.
• The launcher: the programs carry version information (fewer antivirus false alarms), and the install card finds your game file in OneDrive folders too.
• A desktop shortcut and a Start menu entry (on Linux, the applications menu and the desktop): the launcher offers them after installing, and once after an update if you have none.
• Fixes: Olimar no longer slides down gentle slopes while you stand still in VR; online, your friend's sounds come from their captain, a friend who drops can come back, health bars show on a monitor, the watch's mute badge works reliably, and the title's demo movie no longer plays after a drop.

Both players need 0.3.0 for online play.

Previously in 0.2.9

• No IP address on screen: codes show only their first letters, and the launcher shows your address only after Show my address.
• One question at first start about the microphone (voice chat, Mic Whistle, Pikmin Hear You, Parrot); no microphone opens until you answer.
• Dismissing takes holding the stick straight down; a flick never dismisses.
• A new settings menu in VR, worked with the stick; the left menu button pauses and the right one opens the settings, for either hand.
• Your own controller's buttons in the game's screens, and no hands in cutscenes.
• Installing is one press: the launcher finds your disc image and suggests a folder. On SteamOS a new installation adds itself to Steam.
• Update straight from the download: press Update and choose the zip you downloaded; the launcher checks it against this site's checksum.
• The launcher tells you when a new version is out (Settings > Launcher turns that off), and no longer downloads cover art.
• Paste buttons for codes, Add to Steam while Steam runs on Linux, and no more overlapping boxes on small or 4K screens.
• An experimental package for the Steam Frame itself, and an experimental Meta Quest standalone test build.

Previously in 0.2.8

• Throwing is back to the original 0.1.0 feel; Throw Assist only nudges your aim (0% for none).
• Grab the Pikmin you reach for: a white ring at its feet shows which one.
• The hand camera rides over your shoulder, out of the way of plucking, and photos no longer flash white.
• Voice chat: no more accidental mutes. Touch the microphone badge on your watch to mute; every voice option is in the new Audio tab.
• A bigger settings page in the headset: point at it and pull the trigger.
• Hold the walking hand's menu button for a second to skip a cutscene. A skipped cutscene still does what it had to: day 1 ends after the Main Engine.
• Online, your friend sees your captain's own arms instead of floating gloves, and a VR friend's hand glows gold for high-fives.
• Online, the ping shown is your connection's real round trip, presses reach your friend sooner, and a slower PC no longer slows the game for both players.
• Fixed: the white flicker in the opening, flipping light beams, the see-through watch, mono sound and the text colours.
• Meta Quest 3 through Link is tested, Add to Steam in the launcher starts the game from Steam or the headset's library, and the Steam Frame's left D-pad works.
• A first Linux package (x86-64), untested on real Linux hardware.

Previously in 0.2.7

• Dedicated Steam Frame controller bindings. On Index, Quest and Frame controllers, flick the right stick left or right to turn, up to switch colour, or down to dismiss.
• Online play works at any headset refresh rate. Matching your friend's rate gives the smoothest experience; an in-headset card explains which rate to set if needed.
• On a monitor, the camera moves at the correct speed again online and in FPS Mode 60 / 120.

Previously in 0.2.6

• Lighter throwing: an ordinary swing reaches about 6 m. Released Pikmin no longer get grabbed straight back.
• Wave to Recruit responds every second.
• The camera moves to your hip; the wrist watch and radar are larger and clearer. Hold the left menu button to open the map.
• Snap-only Immersive cutscenes, with the Whimsical Radar cutscene's flashing fixed.
• The Forest Navel has a cave ceiling. Slopes slide correctly again, and Onion seeds no longer land in walls.
• Fixed underwater splash noise, water ripples, photo stutter, and Beady Long Legs appearing before its entrance. Pikmin Parrot's voice is higher.

Previously in 0.2.5

An Onion could stay unopenable for the day after you skipped the morning landing with Start; it now finishes landing by itself.

Also in 0.2.4

• Launcher fits 4K screens.
• Voice chat carries approximately 150 m.
• Steal your friend's Pikmin with the whistle.
• “Back to the Ship” in the pause menu if you get stuck.

• Valve Index and Steam Frame headsets and controllers are untested on real hardware.
• The Linux package is untested on real Linux hardware.
• The Quest version has no voice chat yet, and in busy scenes it runs at about 50 to 55 frames a second.

Host and join in the game: Settings > Online (F1 or Select; at the title also F4 or Y), in the headset too. One player hosts and gets a six-character room code; the friend types it on the keypad. One of you picks Your save (Olimar), the other Your friend's save (Louie). Windows, Linux, Steam Frame and Quest players of the same version play together: both need version 0.3.1, your own copy of Pikmin (GameCube, USA) and the same gameplay settings. Voice chat isn't on the Quest yet. Online play supports story mode; Challenge Mode is solo for now. If a game drops, start it again and join with the same code while the other player is still in the day.

The room code shows as KX7-***: hold Show to read it, and send it only to the friend you're playing with (not on a stream). A room closes once your friend is in, and after 30 minutes; the privacy page says what passes through this site.

VR can cause motion discomfort. Seated play, snap turning and one-handed play are in Settings (F1 > VR tab). Theater cutscenes (the default) are the comfortable choice.