As expected the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019 is building up nicely with a growing number of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) announcements. During the Unity keynote, Magic Leap and Weta Workshop announced for the first time a new multiplayer project for the mixed reality (MR) headset called Grordbattle.
Currently, in an early prototype phase, Grordbattle is set within the universe of Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders, an offshoot of that experience where between two to four players can go head-to-head in battle. As you can see from the below image, the videogame allows players to select a character of their choosing, giving their head a new digital representation where their eye movements and voices are mirrored by the character.
Developed entirely in Unity, the original Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders is another collaboration with Weta Workshop and Magic Leap, creating a realistic action game in which evil robots have chosen the players living room to stage an invasion.
“We are thrilled to partner with Unity to showcase this exciting development in spatial computing. Unity has been a long-standing supporter of the Magic Leap platform. Developing in Spatial Computing requires a completely new way of thinking, with fresh opportunities and challenges for creators, said Magic Leap in a blog posting.”
Demos of both Grordbattle and Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders will be available to GDC 2019 attendees.
Magic Leap looks to be having a much greater physical presence at GDC 2019 than in previous years, likely due to the company being keen to ramp up content support by supporting the developer community. It was only last month that Magic Leap announced the 31 successful applicants for its Independent Creators Program, with the likes of Resolution Games, Funktronic Labs, Felix & Paul Studios and Within all being selected.
The Magic Leap One headset is still very much a device for developers rather than a consumer version. While it’s now more widely available, it still comes with a retail price starting from $2,295 USD. As further details or Grordbattle are released VRFocus will keep you updated.