Acorn – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 14, 2022

4 XR Projects From UK-Canadian Collaboration Debut at SXSW 2022

Way back in August 2020 gmw3 reported on the launch of a new initiative to bring together UK and Canadian creators with a focus on immersive storytelling. Called the UK-Canada Immersive Exchange in 2021 six projects were awarded funds – from a prize pool of £300,000 GBP – towards further development. With the annual SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, now underway, four of the projects make their public debut.

Chosen as part of the SXSW XR Experience, the four “prototype projects,” which each received £25,000 were Acorn, Alone Together, Gloaming, and Radio Ghost. They each showcase the variety that can be achieved with XR storytelling. Acorn utilises augmented reality (AR) whereby players plant an acorn and experience the fullness of its life as it grows to an ancient oak. Alone Together also embraces AR, which has been “Inspired by the concept of family rental agencies that provide fake family members to lonely people seeking companionship.” Mixing theatrical storytelling with user interactions, players get to engage with virtual beings whilst navigating what’s real.

Gloaming, on the other hand, is virtual reality (VR) based. It’s a one-hour multi-site VR and live performance experience connecting two groups in different parts of the world. Each is in a multisensory art installation, with one group joining at dawn and the other at dusk.

The final prototype project to be selected for SXSW’s “XR Experience” category, Radio Ghost, is entirely spatial audio-based. Inspired by the Japanese concept of Tsukumogami, Radio Ghost is a ghost-hunt that uses binaural sound and multiplayer game design to transform shopping centres into immersive spaces.

The other two projects that were part of the UK-Canada Immersive Exchange were The Galaxicle Implosions and Intravene. These were “audience-ready projects”, receiving £100,000 in funding. The Galaxicle Implosions is an episodic, animated sci-fi comedy series that’s performed live simultaneously in front of three separate audiences (VR, in-theatre and YouTube). While Intravene uses binaural 360 degree sound to create its two-episode immersive audio experience.

The main SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, begins this Friday 11th March. The SXSW XR Exhibition is slightly shorter, running from 13th – 15th March 2022. If you’re attending the event the XR exhibition is open to all badge holders. For further updates on the latest XR experiences making their debuts at film festivals, keep reading gmw3.

August 29, 2019

Acron: Attack of the Squirrels Review: A Nutty Delight Of A VR Party Game

Resolution Games might have cracked it here. The Swedish studio’s backcatalogue, overwhelming in number, is filled with cheery games, all with a faint smack of commerce. Whether it’s freemium experiments or tie-ins with irritating animals, the studio (notably formed by Candy Crush developer Tommy Palm) has struggled to escape that cynical stigma.

Acron does just that. Moreso than any Resolution title before it, this plays like a game where fun is front and center. And what fun Acron can be; it’s a VR party game, best played in local multiplayer. One player puts on a headset to embody a tree. Between two to eight others jump in via a free smartphone app to become squirrels. Squirrels want the tree’s golden acorns, and the tree has to protect them in matches lasting no more than a few minutes.

What follows is a frantic and fantastical mix of party madness and, with time and coordination, cunning strategy. For the VR player, Acron is a fast-firing game of whack-a-mole sprinkled with a few tactics. You need to knock squirrels down by throwing projectiles which come in three varieties. There’s a fast-spawning standard seed, a larger one that explodes and sap to slow your enemies down. Better yet, if a squirrel dares get too close you can pick them up and toss them like a leafy King Kong. The controls are critically simple and the experience conveys the simple thrills of bringing virtual worlds to life with ease. This is a great place to introduce VR to friends and family. Wielding your giant tree hands, in particular, is a wonderfully surreal sensation.

Like RADtv and Puppet Fever before it, though, Acron does threaten to grow stale as soon as it starts. I’m yet to see a VR party game that doesn’t burn out eventually but, reassuringly, Acron keeps finding ways to amuse. It’s kept me and different groups of friends laughing in anywhere between 20 – 60 minute play sessions in which we’ve been eager to pass the headset over and start yelling over the top of each other. When everyone’s past the short learning curve, it becomes a riotous romp.

Much of that comes from strategizing as the squirrels. Mobile play is initially something of a train wreck; everyone just sort of dashes towards the shiny golden prize in what looks like a woefully inaccurate recreation of D-Day. But as players start to grasp the game — which takes no more than a few rounds — plans start to develop.

Comfort

When in VR, Acron is an entirely stationary experience. You can play either seated or standing, but there’s no movement to worry about. It’s about as comfortable as VR can get.

There are four different types of critter, each with a special power like sprinting, digging tunnels, generating shields or building bridges. A more seasoned team might work to provide cover with shields and bridges while one player burrows beneath them. In one particularly proud moment, I crept around the left side of the map while my teammates successfully distracted the enemy on the right.

It’s telling that, in one session I played, my friends initially complained that the squirrel side couldn’t possibly win. The tree’s ammunition comes thick and fast and, with a sturdy aim (which seems ever so slightly assisted), can seem overpowered. But, as we kept playing, the conversation changed to the point where tree players were losing more often than not.

In fact, the game’s balance is often dependent on level design. Some courses, like a multilayered set of ramps or one with a lake that rises and empties, are necessary additions to give VR players a leg up. When pitted against fields with barriers that pop up after the push of a button, the odds are stacked the other way. Overall the mix is pretty even-handed.

A shame, then, that there are only a handful of levels, all of which you can see through pretty quickly. Acron’s undeniably light on content and I feel like it could benefit from more character classes and ammunition types too. Having said that, I’ve rarely felt ‘done’ when enjoying the game with others, although also not especially compelled to revisit it with the same group. That is, at least, not without any new content to see or a long stretch between play sessions. True that’s a negative in some respects, but it’s also the kind of existence popular games like Jackbox and Mario Party enjoy.

Crucially, though, the game doesn’t have to be played locally. Yes, Acron was designed with couch play in mind, but players from across the world can join you too. Playing with my colleagues on the other side of the globe over voice chat was the perfect workaround when I wasn’t able to arrange a local session. The only obvious downside is being unable to switch the headset over. I’d welcome some sort of in-VR phone emulation so that people that have paid for the game can replicate the couch experience on the fly, too.

Acron is something of a delight, then. Certainly not an epiphanic bastion of VR immersion, but a hectic hassle of shouts and screams that exposes the platform’s more playful side. Played with friends, it’s a wickedly entertaining package that will have you passing the headset in rapid succession. There’s a slickness to the production and design here, one that removes much of the baggage of other VR party games. Even as VR headsets start to become more accessible, Acron is remarkably light to the touch.

Acron: Attack of the Squirrels is available from today on Oculus Rift, Quest and HTC Vive. This review is specifically focused on the PC version using an Oculus Rift S. For more on how we arrived at this score, read our review guidelines.

The post Acron: Attack of the Squirrels Review: A Nutty Delight Of A VR Party Game appeared first on UploadVR.

August 29, 2019

Hands-on ‘Acron: Attack of the Squirrels!’ Might Be My New Favorite VR Party Game

There’s a few great VR party games out there, including the reigning champion Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (2015), although I think a new game is poised to take the VR Party Crown. Resolution Games, the studio behind Bait! (2016) and Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (2019), released arguably their most promising title yet today, the unique couch co-op game Acron: Attack of the Squirrels!

We haven’t had access to a review copy before launch, although I did get an extended chance to go hands-on with a near-final version at Gamescom last week, which showed off a couch co-op experience that was not only extremely well-balanced, but one that you can truly break out at parties for hours’ worth of fun.

Acron supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Oculus Quest. If you’re like me, you’re constantly looking for great Quest titles, and this one easily ranks among the best out there, especially as one of the few VR party games that, in my opinion, has really nailed what makes async VR gaming fun and accessible.

In case you haven’t heard about Acron, here’s the gist: a single player wears a VR headset and takes the role of Giant Tree Guy, who has to defend against an onslaught of tiny squirrels that are eager to steal all four of the golden nuts. You can do this by tossing one of three ammo types that spawn in front of you, which will either slow down or knockout the pint-sized enemies. If a squirrel pal gets too close, you can also physically grab them and toss them around like rag dolls too.

The squirrels, played by up to ~~four~~ eight users on mobile devices, have special abilities too though, which come in handy when Giant Tree Guy is accurately throwing a large number of projectiles. Depending on which of the four squirrels you choose, you can deploy a shield, dig a transport hole to get you closer to the base of the tree, sprint super fast, or build Lemmings-style bridges to help you get closer to the golden nuts. With all four squirrels working in concert, a less than attentive Tree Guy can be easily overwhelmed in the madness of it all.

The squirrels also constantly respawn, so it’s a race against the clock to either attack or defend the precious nuts. I can’t stress enough how important it is to communicate between team members so you aren’t all rushing with the same squirrel type, and have a cohesive plan.

There’s also fun extras like mushrooms that become jumping pads, pumpkins that serve as cover, bushes so you can get sneaky, and dynamic environments that change to create temporary obstacles such as watery moats that appear and disappear periodically. A total of six maps offers a variety of scenery though, with some favoring the squirrels and others more straight forward for the Trees.

Games are password protected, and can be played both locally and over the Internet, although it’s much more fun to have a bunch of people over scrambling to see who’s going to be the Tree next. Games can be played with a minimum of at least two other players.