Indie studio Ivory Crow Games have released a new demo for Chrono Weaver, a single player game that lets you make copies of yourself to solve physics-based puzzles.
Set in a mysterious science facility filled with mind-bending puzzles, you use your trusty slingshot and time travel device to find solutions to seemingly impossible tests.
If you’ve noticed a few familiar influences in the new trailer, you’re not wrong. Here’s how the studio described Chrono Weaver to Road to VR:
In our game you play as a test-subject starting a new job, with unknown origins and a simple goal: Smash the Data Disk. Guiding you along the way is a flying robot named Yoto, a quirky character who manages your journey and helps make sure you don’t get too lost along the way.
The gameplay loop has a vibe similar to Portal, going from puzzle to puzzle with short bursts of story and mystery in between. The game teaches as you go along, so there is no true tutorial, instead it grows in difficulty, introducing mechanics and weaving them together creating exciting and challenging puzzles. Other games that are similar to it in VR are The Last Clockwinder, We Are One, and Transpose VR.
While there’s no release date yet, the two-person indie studio has released a demo that shows off a good slice of the game’s time-bending fun. Notably, this is a completely overhauled demo from the one distributed during Steam VR Fest back in December.
The demo is said to take between 30 minutes and an hour long to complete, which you can download for free for both Quest 2/3/Pro and SteamVR headsets. If you already played the original demo from December, the studio says you’ll need to replay it from the top, as saves don’t carry over.
Still, the studio says that with all the changes “it is basically a brand new experience so we think you will enjoy it.”
Resolution Games today confirmed that Spatial Ops, the studio’s multiplayer mixed reality shooter currently in beta, is heading for full launch on Quest sometime later this year.
Spatial Ops lets you turn any physical space big enough for mixed reality play into a virtual battlefield, replete with barriers and a host of weapons, such as Tommy guns, revolvers, shotguns, scoped rifles, rocket launchers, grenades, and a riot shield—making it feel more than a bit like a game of laser tag on steroids.
Featuring 1-8 players, Spatial Ops offers a number of modes, including a solo PvE bot mode, and PvP modes like Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Domination, and Free-For-All.
While it might seem like the game is designed with VR arcades in mind, thanks to a handy level editor basically anyone can pick up Spatial Ops and tailor it to their living room, basement, or well-lit outdoor space for some pretty impressive battles. Check out our early hands-on here to learn more.
Resolution Games says the launch version of Spatial Ops will focus on reduced gametime setup, pre-set and movable maps, performance optimization, more gameplay, more enemies, and more modes.
Spatial Ops is already available to wishlist on Quest 2/3/Pro via the Horizon Store (ex-Quest Store). If you’re interested in playing the open beta, you can play it via SideQuest up until its full launch.
Meta’s social VR platform Horizon Worldshasn’t been available to everyone, with the company restricting the app’s use to only a few countries. Now it’s rightfully rolling out to every region where Quest is supported.
Despite being available on the web since last January, geolocation restrictions only allowed Quest users access in select countries, which included Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Meta today announced that starting this week the company will begin rolling out Horizon Worlds “to people in all Meta Quest markets in supported languages so more people can connect with each other around the globe.”
This includes access for users 13+ across the following Quest-supported regions: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Users must be 14+ in South Korea and Spain.
This comes as the company ostensibly seeks to promote Horizon Worlds as a more fundamental social layer to its rapidly growing platform, which is soon set to include third-party VR headsets for the first time.
Horizon Worlds will come part and parcel with Horizon OS (ex-Quest OS) and the Horizon Store (ex-Quest Store), which will be available on Quest-like headsets built by ASUS, Lenovo and Xbox.
Quest users have long wanted a better way to manage windowed content to make web browsing and using 2D apps a little easier. While users subscribed to the Public Test Channel (PTC) have been able to do that since late June, starting next week everyone is getting the ability to place windows wherever they want with the rollout of v67.
Update (July 4th, 2024): Meta says the update will start rolling out the week of July 8th, coming to Quest 2/3/Pro. This allows you to arrange up to three panels in a new “hinged” layout, and then place up to three more panels anywhere. When it arrives, you can find the new flexible window feature under Experimental in Settings.
The update is also adding a ‘Theater View’ button to the control bar to let you automatically expand a panel’s size and dim everything else.
Additionally, Meta is rolling out Swipe Typing, letting you slide your finger or cursor from letter to letter to spell words—accessible via Settings, then System, then Keyboard and selecting the toggle next to Swipe Typing.
Another highlight for Quest 3 is the ability to use a new Wi-Fi QR code scanner, letting you scan a QR code whilst in-headset, accessible by in Settings, then Wi-Fi and tap Scan QR Code.
Original Article (June 25th, 2024): As discovered by XR enthusiast and serial data miner Luna, the PTC has allowed some users early access to the headset’s v67 update, which includes a new experimental feature that allows a more flexible way of placing windowed content—feeling more than a little inspired by Vision Pro.
Meta first unveiled multitasking support in early 2020, which allowed users to place multiple windows in three docks. Luna notes that, at least in its early access release, windowed content appears to be limited to three docked panels and three freely placeable panels, making for a lot more flexibility when it comes to setting up your virtual home office.
There’s also set to be a new virtual keyboard feature that lets you to place the keyboard both vertically or at an angle for easier typing.
To access these features before stable release, you’ll need to enroll in the PTC. If you haven’t already, follow this quick guide, courtesy of Meta.
To sign up for eligibility for Quest PTC from the mobile app:
Open the mobile app, tap Menu in the bottom-right corner, then tap Devices.
Tap Headset settings, then tap Advanced settings.
Tap the toggle next to Public Test Channel to try to join Quest PTC.
If the toggle doesn’t work, Quest PTC is currently full and not available.
From there, as Luna mentions, simply head to Settings > Experimental Features > New Window Layout, and toggle the feature to activate.
If you’re on PTC and don’t have those features yet, make sure to check back regularly, as Meta tends to do soft rollouts of both its early access and stable OS updates.
RIVEN (1997), the sequel to iconic point-and-click puzzle-adventure MYST (1993), just got the VR treatment in its new remake. Unlike Myst, which felt a little too game-y and obtuse at times, Riven plays a lot more like a modern title, which thanks to Quest and SteamVR support, is true in every sense of the word now. Granted, you’ll need to look past some VR implementation issues which keep it from feeling like a ground-up VR native, although however you play, you’ll be exploring a fascinating world that’s both puzzle-dense and undeniably beautiful at every turn.
RIVEN Details:
Available On: Quest 2/3, SteamVR Reviewed On: Quest 3, Quest 3 via Link Release Date: June 25th, 2024 Price: $35 Developer: Cyan Worlds
Gameplay
I know Riven pretty well by now, having shuffled my way around its five PlayStation 1 discsa number of times as a kid. This is the first time popping back in as an adult though, so I kind of get the chance to not only relive a bit of the past, but rediscover puzzles long forgotten, this time in the immersive first-person view of a VR headset.
While I really can’t stop nostalgia coloring some of my experience with the new 3D-rendered Riven, I’ve spent enough time in VR to know where things fit on the VR-port-continuum. Some games feel unnecessarily forced into working with VR, some are indistinguishable from VR-natives, and somewhere in the middle are great games that still feel like ports, but that’s okay because they bring enough to the table on their own. That’s where Riven sits—great game that works pretty ok in VR.
If you’re playing it for the first time, you’re in for a patently Cyan experience of deciphering codes, shuffling puzzle pieces around, and visiting (and possibly re-re-revisiting) places, doors, and enigmatic set pieces to figure out the world around you. That’s reason enough to play if you’ve never had the chance. Riven’s puzzle can be tough for the uninitiated, but ultimately more rewarding than Myst thanks to its heaps of environmental storytelling that feels less formulaic, and a lot more organic. More on that in the Immersion section.
Image captured by Road to VR
If you have played before though, many of the game’s puzzles and gadgets are slightly modified from the originals, likely due to the spatial nature of real-time 3D graphics as opposed to the single-frame point-and-click original, which was much more static in how its presented interactive elements. A 27-year-old walkthrough guide that works with the original may still be useful to help with the broad strokes, but you’ll definitely notice differences here and there, with some puzzle elements simplified, or complicated in new ways separate from the original.
One thing that hasn’t changed is there’s still a ton of walking and looping around to do, which is just a feature of the game due to its wide and varied puzzles. You’ll spend a good amount of time circumnavigating one of the game’s five islands for the umpteenth time turn on a thing, to return to a puzzle across the map to see what it did. Then again, that’s just the old school charm and hands-off approach Riven brings to the table.
Image captured by Road to VR
Not only that, but the old school approach to game design makes you rely upon your own spatial memory. There are no map markers, signs, or ‘helpful’ NPCs to guide your way—an aspect of the game that still makes it one of my favorite experiences.
And unlike Myst, you can go a pretty impressive distance through the game with only a few hard roadblocks to stop you, making progression feel very natural. Then again, Riven is beloved for being more organic in level design, and less formulaic than Myst overall, feeling much less like of a jumble of toys, and more like Cyan’s modern titles Obduction (2016) and Firmament (2023).
Image captured by Road to VR
Knowing Riven’s past, I shouldn’t really complain about loading times—they’re certainly faster than shuffling through a broken jewel case filled with PS1 discs—however on Quest you’ll be sitting there for a while waiting for levels to load, the longest of which is the initial startup screen which the game warns “could take a few minutes” to do (it does). From there, whether on Quest or SteamVR, vehicle transitions will constantly toss out 10-second loading screens, which doesn’t sound like much, but happen on both sides of transfers between islands.
Another niggle: there’s no practical way to write down notes so you can remember clues or sketch out solutions, which is precisely what you’ll need to do to decode stuff. You can take a screenshot with the game’s built-in camera system, and that’s about it. I just wish there was a spatial pencil so I could annotate found letters, or somehow keep myself from taking off the headset to write stuff down.
Immersion
I had a chance to play both on Quest 3 natively and PC VR versions. Here’s the breakdown between the two, which most anyone can guess.
On the Quest version you’ll notice a ton of low-res textures and geometry that dynamically chunk-loads into place the closer you get to it. Once things are in place though, at times Riven can be one of the prettiest games on the Quest platform. That’s if there aren’t any NPCs around, which are bloated and a little too cartoony for the game’s lush, natural environment.
Image captured by Road to VR
It also seems Cyan is throwing the entire toolbox of Quest performance tricks at you at all times, including what feels like always-on asynchronous spacewarp and glaringly obvious fixed foveated rendering.
Since it was primarily developed for the flatscreen PC crowd, the PC VR version is a fair bit ahead of the Quest 3 native in terms of visuals. Even on ‘Epic’ settings though, you’re bound to notice some oddly applied shaders that make shadows dance about and move when they shouldn’t, and also discrepancies in how shaders work in both eyes, leading to some pretty visible mismatches in shadows and lighting. Still. chunk-loading of areas is mostly minimal and textures are fairly high, making it rightfully a more graphically intense version of the game.
Like Myst, Riven suffers from middling object interaction, which is a shame considering how many items are strewn about in the game. Oftentimes I’d find myself trying to interact with something, only to find out I wasn’t pressing it correctly, or it wasn’t interactive at all in the first place, making it more of a guessing game than it should be. Here’s me fruitlessly grasping at a weird banana-kiwi thing, then trying to grab a strangely unusable pencil on the same table. Again, I wish I could use that damn pencil.
There is a physical inventory though where you can keep the various books you collect throughout the game, although you can’t use it for anything else.
Whether you’re on Quest or SteamVR, something that never fails to impress is coming to a precipice or turning a bend to find a new, breathtaking scene in front of you. Riven is all about natural beauty, punctuated with megalithic structures that don’t feel nearly as abandoned and lonely as Myst did.
There’s wildlife, sprawling villages, shrines, and plenty of environmental storytelling here to dig into, putting exploration at the forefront. There’s even inhabitants in the world, albeit too skittish to interact with such an obvious outsider.
Comfort
Riven features the full gamut of comfort options in addition to some quality of life options that make things a little easier, but likely less immersive as a result. Traveling between islands is always done on some sort of vehicle, which can be a little jarring for some since it’s fast and a bit jerky.
You can turn vehicles transitions off entirely though, essentially letting you jump right to the next island’s rail station, or put in the option to make windows dirty, which helps ground you a little more in the vehicle’s cockpit. The game also offers similar options for instant traversal of stairs and ladders, which otherwise a manually climbable.
Sony is getting ready to release tethered PC VR support for PSVR 2 this summer, but that may be one the last meaningful things the company does for its increasingly latchkey VR hardware.
According to a report by Android Central‘s Nicholas Sutrich, Sony isn’t leaving any budget for first-party content. Paraphrasing for anonymity, Sutrich’s source maintains there will be “very few opportunities for VR game development at Sony going forward.”
Citing a separate source with knowledge of Sony’s internal strategy, the report alleges only two PSVR 2 games are currently in development at Sony. The company hasn’t responded to the report at the time of this writing.
These require Sony’s funding and ongoing interest in VR to accomplish, something that seems to have faltered since the headset’s launch in February 2023. To boot, the list PSVR 2’s first-party content hasn’t changed in a year, which includes Horizon Call of the Mountain, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 Remake, and Gran Turismo 7.
Image courtesy Sony
Instead of showing off a slate of exclusive content to mark its first year anniversary back in February, Sony instead announced it was going to officially support PC VR games with the launch of an adapter box, coming in August for $60. PC support won’t include a number of features unique to PSVR 2 though, including HDR, headset feedback, eye-tracking, adaptive triggers, and haptic feedback other than rumble.
The move comes in stark contrast to Sony’s prior strategy with the original PSVR, which pushed compelling first-party content up until 2018 with the launch of critically-acclaimed platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission. Notably, Astro Bot Rescue Mission was never updated to work with PSVR 2; meanwhile, its upcoming sequel Astro Bot is skipping VR support entirely.
Some of this no doubt comes down to cost-savings. Earlier this year Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan announced a wide-reaching layoff round affecting a number of its first-party game studios. This included the closure of Sony’s London Studio, known for VR action-adventure game Blood & Truth (2019), and reductions at Firesprite, the studio behind Horizon Call of the Mountain.
Apple Vision Pro isn’t exactly brimming with XR games yet, although starting next month you’ll be able to jump into a classic city builder that has been updated to include full mixed reality support.
Magic Fuel Games is releasing Cityscapes: Sim Builder (2023) for Vision Pro soon, bringing with it a new immersive view so you can manage your city as the god-like mayor you always wanted to be. It’s slated to arrive on July 3rd via Apple Arcade.
“They’ll use their hands to lay down roads, build neighborhoods, and ultimately grow their city into a thriving, profitable, and sustainable place to live,” Apple says in a press statement.
Cityscapes: Sim Builder has been available across all Apple devices since its initial iOS launch in mid-2023, taking the Apple Arcade Game of the Year as well as an Apple Design Award finalist.
While we still think the platform could benefit from more ports (and proper motion controllers) this follows the release of a few top mixed reality games that make use of the headset’s hand-tracking, including Game Room, WHAT THE GOLF?, Super Fruit Ninja, Where Cards Fall, Crossy Road Castle, and Solitaire Stories.
Meta appears to be readying a tool that will allow Quest users the ability to force software updates via a tethered connection.
XR enthusiast and serial data miner Luna uncovered existence of the tool, which is said to allow users the ability to update Quest’s operating system over USB via the “Sideload Update” option in the recovery menu.
Luna also shared a screenshot and link to an informational page detailing the ostensibly web-based update tool, which appears to be 404’ed at the time of this writing.
Image courtesy Luna
In it, the tool is said to “help fix software-related issues such as slow performance and unresponsive apps. Updating your software will not affect the data saved on your device, including app progress and settings.”
Luna also showed a screenshot of a support page detailing the software update tool, noting that users require at least 2GB of available storage on your computer, a USB-C cable that came with your headset, and a data backup of the headset.
Image courtesy Luna
The support page in question is still live, however it currently reads: “The feature may not be available at this time. Please view our help article to learn how to update your device software.”
Luna is credited for having discovered a number of Quest-related features before their official announcements over the years, most prominent of which was the release of Quest 2’s tutorial video before its official debut at Connect 2020—giving us our first confirmation of the headset’s specs.
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Provided the tool indeed releases, it’s likely to allow Quest users greater flexibility on when to download OS updates, as Meta tends to release them on a rolling basis that can lag behind in some regions.
How open the tool will be, and whether it will allow users to effectively rollback updates remains to be seen. We’ll be F5-ing those pages linked above and keeping glued to the company’s developer blog too, so make sure to check back soon.
Maze Theory today announced that its upcoming immersive puzzle-adventure game Infinite Inside is set to arrive next month, coming to all major headsets.
Initially released as a demo on Quest earlier this year, the full game is set to arrive on July 12th across Vision Pro, Quest 2/3, Pico, SteamVR headsets and PSVR 2.
On mixed reality-supported devices (re: not PC VR or PSVR 2), Infinite Inside is said to blend VR and MR, making these “multi-dimensions a fundamental part of the storytelling and gameplay.”
Check out the trailer below:
When Infinite Inside launches next month, Maze Theory says it will feature five “peaceful and soothing labyrinths filled with mysteries,” environmental storytelling, and “challenging and accessible” puzzles.
Here’s how the studio describes the action:
When the enigmatic ancient artifact known as the ‘Plinth’ mysteriously materialises in your home, it opens a portal to a tranquil, dream-like world, filled with impossible architecture and hidden secrets waiting to be discovered. Guided by the echoes of past explorers, you will collect shards, solve three-dimensional puzzles, and assemble keys to unlock the mysteries of a secret society committed to maintaining the balance of Order and Chaos.
Can you solve the puzzles and reveal the truth about the society, the legacy of the Plinth, and ultimately, your own place in this mystical world?
Maze Theory, a subsidiary of Saltwater Games, is the London-based team behind a slew of XR games, including Peaky Blinders: The Kings Ransom, Doctor Who: The Edge of Time and Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins.
Infinite Inside marks one of Maze Theory’s (and likely the industry’s) broadest releases to date, covering nearly all major VR/MR platforms. You can find it on Steam, Quest, PSVR 2, and Pico. An App Store link for the Vision Pro version should arrive closer to launch, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled.
Meta announced a new developer accelerator aimed at kickstarting ‘Lifestyle’ apps for Quest which make use of mixed reality, AI and hand-tracking.
Meta says in the announcement selected participants of its new ‘Meta Quest Lifestyle App Accelerator’ can apply for seed-stage grant funding, as well as product resources and mentoring from Meta and participating VC partners, which include a16z, Anorak Ventures, BITKRAFT Ventures, Boost VC, and Lightspeed.
“The program focuses on fun, delightful consumer experiences with novel, engaging, and retentive mechanics that leverage the unique capabilities of Meta Quest in emerging lifestyle categories such as Fashion, Beauty, Home Design, Shopping, Cooking, DIY, Arts & Crafts, and more,” the company says.
One such example cited by Meta is Zac Reid’s PianoVision, which uses mixed reality to teach users how to play piano.
Aimed at small teams, the six-month program will include three paid milestones to help teams prototype their concepts, as well as up to three Quest 3 dev kits for teams in supported countries. Notably, selected participants will retain full ownership of their IP, code, assets, design, and distribution rights, Meta says.
“We’re looking for founders who want to build companies dedicated to MR apps in Lifestyle categories that drive engagement with Meta Quest users. Whether your company has a long track record of publishing apps or is just getting off the ground, our Meta Quest Lifestyle App Accelerator could be a great fit if you’re working on a brand-new Meta Quest lifestyle app that is big enough to be a standalone business.”
Who shouldn’t apply: companies at Series B or later, and studios marketing activations, B2B apps targeting schools or professionals, video games, media consumption, fitness & wellness, or sports. Interested teams should check out the full eligibility requirements and developer FAQ first to make sure they qualify.
Submissions are now open, with the cut-off date scheduled for October 15th, 2024. Meta will select participating teams on December 31st, 2024, with the program officially running from December 2024 to May 2025.
