Steam’s winter game festival back in February was a great way to get a look at some of the exciting virtual reality (VR) titles developers are working on and next week you get to do it all again. Wednesday will see the launch of the Steam Next Fest with hundreds of free playable demos across all genres. Where VR is concerned there won’t quite be that many but some choice demos will still be available.
Whether you’re after some comedy capers, rhythm-action mayhem or something more serious, the Steam Next Fest has most VR genres covered. Cropping up first on VRFocus’ radar was Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual!, teaming up with the crime-fighting duo to battle aliens and take on challenging police training exercises. Or for those explores amongst you how about Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder set in a dieselpunk world where you become a penniless prospector hunting for riches.
Looking for something a bit more brutal and physical? Then why not try Undead Citadel where you have to fight hundreds of living corpses with all manner of medieval weaponry. Keeping with the fighting theme whilst adding a little rhythm, Againstdrops you in 1930s New York to hack, shoot and slice through a noir crime nightmare. In fact, this demo is already available.
VRFocus is also looking forward to testing out Into The Darkness, a single-player action-adventure that mixes up puzzles and combat in a world with highly accurate physics. Joy Way, the team behind Against have a second title appearing in the festival, Outlier, a roguelite adventure with procedurally generated levels and RPG elements.
The Steam Next Fest runs from 16th – 22nd June 2021. In addition to the free demos there will also be livestreams and chances to speak with some of the developers. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.
Steam Next Fest, the newly renamed Steam Game Festival, is starting its week-long PC gaming celebration on June 16th, bringing along with it free demos from upcoming VR titles, developer livestreams, and Q&As.
As part of Steam Next Fest announcement earlier this month, Valve threw out a video showing off the playable VR demos coming to the week-long festival, naming five games and promising “so many more.”
Here’s the list of those five mentioned in the video. We also linked that below so you can get a peek at each game in action:
If this month’s Steam Next Fest is anything like the Game Festival back in February, we’re expecting to see many more VR game demos, as earlier this year the platform attracted around 20 titles. We haven’t seen the full list of participating games, but we’ll sure to keep you updated as they’re revealed.
If you want to get a jump start on at least one of the VR games on offer, Against already has a free demo, which features a single level of its gritty rhythm-based, neo-noir bad-guy-punching goodness.
Outside of PC VR games, Steam Next Fest is also hosting demos across a number of PC genres including adventure games, RPGs, puzzles, platformers, and strategy games.
The week will also play host to developer chats, live streams, and include new info on upcoming games. Valve calls the format “an opportunity to get early feedback from players and build an audience for a future launch on Steam.”
Steam Next Fest goes from June 16th to June 22nd. You can sign up for an official reminder here, which can send you either an email or push notification from the Steam mobile app.
A special thanks to our reader VReporter for pointing us to the news!
Here at Joy Way, we LOVE mixing genres and gameplay mechanics. For a long time, our game designers wanted to make a rhythm videogame that would seem fresh but familiar to fans of the genre. It took some time to decide on a game mechanic that would be unique to the market, but we think we have finally found a winning formula!
The search for our own style and gameplay led us to create AGAINST, which we plan to release in the third quarter of 2021.
Mixing film noir crime drama styling and horror elements, AGAINST is set in the shadowy streets of 1930s New York City where players battle AGAINST the Mafia and dark forces. Looking to stand out in the rhythm action genre, the game mixes up its gritty visuals with a varied gameplay mechanic employing guns, swords and even knuckle dusters to help you dispatch foes.
Let us tell you how the game was created and what players will get on the release.
The birth of key game mechanics
The lead game designer of AGAINST, Aidar, has a fondness for rhythm VR videogames. Pistol Whip, Beat Saber– these projects made a great impact on the industry, being system sellers and the first choice for newly arrived VR gamers. And for a long time, while we were working on Stride and other projects, our developers wanted to give this genre a try. Although the genre is considered oversaturated, Aidar had his own vision of what could be brought to it.
The player’s arsenal is not limited to the sword
Aidar tried to combine the mechanics of slicing and shooting, which was generally similar to how Pistol Whip works, but there was a problem – we wanted the player to quickly switch between the weapons, following the beat. We had the following options:
– the weapon automatically switched at the right moment. This was confusing for players. They didn’t feel like they were in control of the game; – the weapon could be switched with a button. This created an additional challenge for the player who was distracted by that, instead of focusing on the rhythm; – the weapon appeared in front of the player for them to grab when needed. This idea worked for us because when the player sees the weapon in advance, they already know what they should do next. In addition, the moment a weapon appears and is picked up is synchronized to the rhythm, which works in favour of the overall concept of the game.
Based on this idea, we mocked up a prototype. Prototyping is one of the most effective tools in game design, as it allows you to quickly see whether your ideas would work in a real game.
The first prototype for testing basic mechanics
The prototype was approved inside the studio, and we also realized that we were not limited to the sword and pistol and could add any weapons and new mechanics as long as the moments of their activation coincides with the rhythm of the musical composition. That’s what led us to brass knuckles and the movement mechanics.
Locomotion and similarities with Stride
As for locomotion, we believe that it has a very strong impact on VR immersion, and that point & teleport locomotion should be forgotten as a relic of a bygone era. This idea was elevated to an absolute principle in Stride, with free locomotion based on the player’s body movements. But despite that, we decided that AGAINST should utilize the “on rails” type of locomotion in order to reduce the difficulty curve for casual players or players, focus on the rhythm aspect of the game and reduce potential motion sickness.
However, we have taken some of the best practices from Stride and added running, jumping and wall-running to AGAINST to diversify the gameplay.
Visual style: how it started
The visual style is very important for us, because it either hooks a potential player or makes the videogame look like another clone of Superhot VR or Pistol Whip.
As we started with the gameplay prototype, the initial style was corresponding: simple shapes and colours; low-poly, easy-to-make models. We started experimenting, and our artists prepared a lot of concepts.
Initial concept art
At some point, we decided on a digital Tron-esque style. Our 3d designer shaped the level, threw a bunch of particles in, adjusted the light, and it was ready. We recorded a gameplay video that was posted on Reddit to collect initial feedback.
Many positive reviews and well-reasoned criticism were received, so we made the final decision to make this game. Everything looked nice in the video, but the visual elements in actual VR were overwhelming the player due to the large number of particles and bright elements around. Enemy animations were hard to read, which is a big no for a rhythm game.
The search continued.
The gritty noir style
Concept art evolution
One of the most popular options within the team
However, almost all options were similar to variations of SuperHot or Pistol Whip. We decided to try something radical and started looking towards the gangster aesthetic of America in the early 30s.
It was important for us to convey not only the scenery but also the crushing atmosphere of the Great Depression era, when a person’s own fears were even more dangerous than the marginalized social elements that flooded the night streets of New York.
Concept art that formed the basis of the final style and spirit of the game
That’s how a style was born that was unlike any other rhythm game, which reflected our vision and fit well with the gameplay.
However, just like in the first prototype, enemies kind of blended in with the background environment.
The enemy blends in with the environment
Therefore, we tried to make everything black and white, except for the interface elements and blood, and highlight the characters with contour lighting. It turned out much better.
Noir style, concept artNoir style, in-game
The visuals remained a little flat and we decided to add volumetric light (aka “god rays”) to additional light sources like streetlights and car headlights. This created an even more mysterious aura, the atmosphere of film noir.
Concept artNo volumetric light
[You’re now here] Game announcement and a free demo.
As the game began to look great and the main gameplay elements worked well together, so we decided to release the demo on Steam. We wanted to introduce players to our game and get more detailed feedback. You can play it right now for free, and we hope you do! We would love to get more feedback to further improve as we get closer to the final release.
The noir style must go?
The noir style doesn’t suit our goals very well. In the future, we can keep it as an option, but the main style will be colourful. In the game, a lot of attention will be paid to locations that will be very different from each other visually, as well as have a variety of characters. The black-and-white style imposes limits in terms of music, which is bad for the modding community. We want AGAINST to be played equally well with both electro swing and your favourite pop hits. Also, the monotonous visual style can quickly bore the player and reduce the replayability of the experience.
Therefore, the final product will offer more visual diversity. The main focus is on the characters and objects of interaction.
A sky battle level looks fabulous in colour
VR optimization is a tricky process
The VR optimization process deserves special attention.
Developing VR titles, especially for standalone devices, is very much like developing a game for the first PlayStation. Our 3D designer on the project watched a bunch of videos about how developers made games for it and he was always interested in how they managed to find creative solutions to overcome the strict technical limitations. For example, it was possible to display only 5 enemies on the screen because PS1 had very little RAM.
We have to work in a similar situation, we constantly face rendering challenges and have to monitor the displayed number of polygons in each frame. For example, most of the houses in the new style will be just square boxes with textures, and all the details (windows, window sills, etc.) will simply be drawn.
Good old boxes with textures
For optimization purposes, we can’t make the shadows from the enemies render in real-time, so we want to make them hand-drawn spots on the floor. At the same time, we didn’t want them to be static, but change their rotation depending on the position of the light source.
This means that when an enemy runs near a lantern, the shadow under them is affected realistically.
The city is teeming with shadows
Also, we probably won’t be able to use post-processing of the frame and all the other options for contrast and colour tone. Rather, we will do it on the textures themselves in Photoshop. And instead of real light reflections on the edges of enemies, there will be an imitation with the help of shaders.
Returning to the houses, we have reduced almost all the house models to simple boxes with detailed textures, while adding unique buildings as points of interest for the player, with more complex silhouettes and detailing.
Interactive points of interest
Balancing between mysticism and realism
The main challenge in the enemy concepts is to maintain a balance of realism and mysticism to the extent that our Mafioso-nightmare-creatures fit eclectically into the setting, and don’t look ridiculous.
When we were preparing a replacement for the Venom model (what we in the studio call the enemy jumping on the player), the first thought was to make a lizard man from retro horror movies, a kind of amphibian, but the lead artist stopped us in time, and we came to a more neutral option – a werewolf.
Current model of the jumping enemy (“Venom”)Final concept art of the new model – the werewolf
The perfect reference for us is the style of animated series by DC, for example, Batman, and their animation in general.
We were inspired by their sharp stylization and simplicity of forms so that the silhouettes of our characters, weapons, and other things were highly readable and easily distinguished from each other.
Easy-to-read enemy silhouette and animations
Bosses and… a story?
It is no accident that so much attention is paid to the visual design of enemies. For us, this is not only an element of game design – it is much easier for a player to navigate in what is happening at high levels of difficulty if different types of enemies differ visually – but also an element of a story narrative. Yes, you heard us right, the game will have a story component, all levels will be connected by lore and a certain plot. You will learn more about the story closer to the end of development.
Bosses at the end of each level fit perfectly into this concept. They simultaneously test the player’s skills, are a rewarding challenge for completing a level, and also close the level’s story arc and tell a piece of the game’s lore.
A spider boss
Despite all the work done, the game is in the alpha stage and has more surprises for you, the players. We will be grateful for any feedback in our Discord. Have fun!
Joy Way, the developers of VR parkour-shooter STRIDE, released a free demo today on Steam for its upcoming rhythm game, AGAINST. It’s a strong start; it does an interesting job of mashing up familiar VR rhythm mechanics, tosses in some super hero-style jumps, and soaks it all in spurts of blood.
The studio is billing Against as a ‘rhythm-fighting’ game that pits you against an army of sinister Mafioso enemies stalking the streets of New York City, circa the 1930s. It has a lot in common with Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, and FitXR too, as it offers up chances for slashing, shooting, punching, dodging and more. And like all of those games, it’s about getting up off your butt, moving to the beat, and getting your heart pumping.
Check out the demo level on hard mode below to see for yourself:
Before I get into the gameplay, the first thing you’ll really notice about Against is just how cool it all looks. Its dark, gritty style feels like the VR lovechild between Frank Miller’s Sin City (2005) and Spider-Man Noir, making for a pretty slick visual aesthetic. I know Batman isn’t always so overtly neo-noir, but there’s definitely some influence there too as you beat up comic book-style fiends with all manner of old timey weapon.
Dodge & slice | Image courtesy Joy Way
In the demo you come across crowbar-wielding melee types that you have to slice with your katana, gun-totting baddies that you can either shoot or deflect bullets with your blade, axe-throwers that you have to dodge, a giant snake, and plenty of baddies to punch with your brass knuckles.
You’re actually offered up such large set of enemies to tackle—and always with the weapon you’ll need in that particular section—that it feels more like a beat ’em up style side- scroller come to life, replete with end stage boss battle. Forward movement is all automatic, but is punctuated with stationary fight scenes.
Wallrun prompt arrows (right) | Image courtesy Joy Way
And is if there wasn’t already enough going on, you’re then prompted to do wall runs. Well, you’re prompted tp toggle into a wall run mode by smashing two arrows that pop up during the middle of the level. I didn’t find it uncomfortable at all because of how quickly you’re zoomed to the new wall-run position.
Then there’s the boss battle: a giant spider lunges in, forcing you to cut off its legs, dodge web balls, and shoot it to pieces. You can see it all in the last few seconds of the video above. This seemed a little anticlimactic, but that just may be how the demo is for now. As it is, the single level does an admirable job of showing off what Against plans on bringing to the table.
Having played both the easy and hard mode (just barely on the last one) I noticed that the monotone color scheme seems to be pulling double duty. It not only looks cool, but it also helps to highlight important targets in the game by letting in pops of red and yellow—seen in slice pattern arrows, slashes of blood, and directional arrows to tell you which way to dodge. On hard mode, those pops of color become your lifeline to moving forward, as it gets difficult to distinguish enemy types just by looking at them.
Kablam! Biff! Pow! | Image courtesy Joy Way
I died more than a few times on hard mode, as every time you’re hit you lose one of your three hearts. Losing a heart can be as simple as not ducking low enough to dodge a barrier, not jumping out of the way fast enough of an incoming enemy snake/axe/bullet, or missing a wall run prompt.
One thing that didn’t click right away was the rhythm element to the game. Because much of the game is dependent on character animations, and trying to shoot or slice specific regions, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and completely forget that you’re supposed to be syncing up with the beat. Looking back at my gameplay footage, I was hitting things fairly close to the beat though, so maybe I had already clicked with the game without really realizing it.
Image courtesy Joy Way
Joy Way, a three-person team currently, is planning to release Against sometime in Q3 2021. The team says it will include up to ten music tracks, three difficulty modes (easy, hard, expert), and a unique final boss challenge.
The demo level does great service to showing off the ensemble of mechanics, and is ripe with possibilities. But assembling that music and making it pop like, say, ‘$100 Bills’ did for Beat Saber in its OST, is going to be another issue to tackle. I’m not sure the demo really features a brain-infesting earworm that it truly needs to spread the gospel of Against.
The demo is now available on Steam, including support for SteamVR-compatible headsets. You can play it for free, although Joy Way says its merely a beta at this point and not reflective of the final product.
At the end of March, Stridedeveloper Joy Way released a brief gif showcasing a new rhythm action videogame it was working on. No other details were released at the time, but the visual style and gameplay certainly caught people’s attention. Now the studio has made an official announcement, releasing a trailer and more for its upcoming title, Against.
Mixing film noir crime drama styling and horror elements, Against is set in the shadowy streets of 1930s New York City where players battle against the Mafia and dark forces. Looking to stand out in the rhythm action genre, Against mixes up its gritty visuals with a varied gameplay mechanic employing guns, swords and even knuckle dusters to help you dispatch foes.
Against also offers mechanics VRFocus hasn’t seen in this type of VR videogame before. It may take you down an automated central path but as the trailer shows there are moments where you can parry bullets with a katana, jump onto higher ledges and even wall-run while shooting enemies. This makes for what could be a very dynamic gameplay experience. Each level will then finish with a boss battle – so naturally, there’s a giant spider.
“We thought for a long time about how to implement our own rhythm in the game and deliberated on a game mechanic that has yet to be realized in the VR space,” said the team in a statement. “It took some time to decide on a game mechanic that would be unique in the market, but we have finally found a winning formula!”
At the moment only three developers are getting Against ready for release, Joy Way confirms. The plan is to include up to ten music tracks for the launch, with 3 difficulty levels (easy, hard, expert) and an epic final boss battle.
Currently, Joy Way has stencilled in a Q3 2021 launch for Against, coming to Steam for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Valve Index headsets. Further store support is planned for a later date so that could mean Oculus Quest and PlayStation VR at some point. Take a look at the first trailer below and as further details are released, VRFocus will let you know.
AGAINST is an upcoming VR rhythm game from developer Joy Way that looks to be channeling the best parts of popular games in the genre with its own gritty flair and unique mechanics like wall-running, jumping, and weapon switching.
Between Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, and FitXR—some of the most popular VR titles out there—you’ve got slashing, shooting, and punching. But what if you mashed them all together?
That’s what developer Joy Way intends to find out with Against, a new title from the studio behind the VR parkour action game Stride (and a handful of other projects), which is due to launch in Q3 of this year.
Against might be clearly borrowing mechanics from its contemporaries, but it looks to be bringing its own flair to the table too. Not only is it built around a stark, gritty aesthetic, it’s also throwing things we haven’t really seen in the genre, like wall-running, gesture-based jumping, bullet-cutting, and boss fights (which the studio says will bookend each level). Check out the trailer:
The game has an interesting take on movement too. While it uses the same fixed-forward motion of its contemporaries, some of the action takes place while standing still, some while running, and some while wall-running, which could make for some intriguing pacing.
From the trailer alone this looks like a reimagining of the VR rhythm genre as much as a mashup; we’re looking forward to finding out if juggling all of these mechanics will be as fun as it looks.
Joy Way says that Against will launch first on Steam, but the studio seems to have plans to “release on other stores later,” which will hopefully also include Quest and PSVR. The initial launch is expected to bring 10 tracks with three difficulty levels each (Easy, Hard, and Expert).
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It’s been interesting to see Joy Way experiment with this title before finally today announcing an upcoming launch. In late 2020 the studio shared a low-poly Tron-esque prototype it had built which laid much the groundwork ahead of what has been a total shift in the aesthetic. Between Against, Stride (currently available in Early Access), and its other projects, Joy Way is emerging as a studio with a knack for rapidly prototyping interesting VR concepts.
Thanks to the success of Oculus Quest 2, the amount of stuff you can play on the Oculus Quest Store is rapidly expanding. Here we take a look at some of the upcoming titles we can’t wait to play when they land in the next few months.
Note: These are just a few native Quest titles we’re looking forward to. There’s also a mind-boggling amount of VR games to play outside of the Oculus Quest Store too. You can play via SteamVR or Oculus PC provided you can setup Link or Air Link and have a VR-ready PC. Also, don’t forget App Lab and SideQuest for unmoderated Quest content.
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge Part II
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge first came to Quest back in November 2020, bringing with it a wholly new Star Wars experience. Creators ILMxLAB announced that the narrative-driven adventure is getting its first sequel here this year; the series will conclude in its fourth installment. That sounds like a lot of pirate blasting and droid saving.
Developer: ILMxLAB
Launch Date: 2021 “later this year”
Resident Evil 4 (Quest 2)
Ok, we get it. Resident Evil 4 (2005) isn’t new, but its Quest 2 port will be. Capcom’s beloved horror-shooter is getting a first-person overhaul, which is said to include higher resolution textures, a made-for-VR UI, and positional audio for greater immersion. The only catch: it’s coming exclusively to Quest 2 and not the original Quest.
Developer: Armature Studio, Capcom
Launch Date: TBD
Ilysia
Successful Kickstarter Ilysia is coming to all major VR headsets, including PC VR, Oculus Quest, and PlayStation VR. This cross-play MMORPG is expected to release to backers sometime before the end of 2021, bringing with it plenty of beasts, world bosses, and both megalithic ‘Guardians’ and ‘Titans’ to contend with.
Developer: Team 21 Studio
Launch Date: before end of 2021
Larcenauts
Larcenauts is set to bring the hero shooter genre to Quest in a big way. This six vs six shooter ostensibly takes its cues from games like Valorant, Overwatch and Apex Legends. It’s not only natively coming Quest, but also Rift and SteamVR-compatible headsets, including cross-play.
Developer: Impulse Gear
Launch Date: Summer 2021
After the Fall
After the Fall, the long-delayed co-op shooter, is finally coming to Quest, and its launching alongside Oculus PC and PSVR. Vertigo Games first announced the post-apocalyptic zombie shooter back in June 2019, although the studio recently gave us an eye-full of some updated gameplay, so it’s definitely still coming.
Developer: Vertigo Games
LaunchDate: Summer 2021
Wanderer
Wanderer is a VR adventure game that takes inspiration from Quantum Leap (1989) and Dark (2017), letting you travel back through history to prevent the collapse of civilization. It’s coming to all major VR headsets sometime later this year, which includes Oculus Quest!
Developer: Oddboy, M Theory
LaunchDate: Q3 2021
Ancient Dungeon
Ancient Dungeon is a rogue-lite dungeon crawler that found success on Kickstarter last year. It’s aiming for launch sometime “soon,” developer Eric Thullen says, with plans to arrive in early access on both SteamVR headsets and Oculus Quest. You can test it now in beta via App Lab for Quest.
Developer: Joy Way
Launch Date: sometime “soon”
Captain ToonHead
Captain ToonHead vs The Punks from Outer Space is a whacky first-person tower defense that puts your granny’s chancla (Spanish for ‘slipper’, often used as an impromptu bludgeon) in one hand and a gun in the other as you build towers and shoot down a mess of cybernetic baddies.
Developer: Teravision Games
Launch Date: Summer 2021
Project 4 (Boneworks)
Image courtesy Facebook
Boneworks (2019) offers up some awesome physics-based shooting madness on PC VR headsets, and we were intrigued when the studio announced they’d be bringing the game’s mechanics and core systems to Quest and also put it “anywhere we can,” Stress Level Zero says. There’s still nothing out there on the so-called Project 4 game yet, but we’re hoping to learn more sometime soon.
Developer: Stress Level Zero
Launch Date: TBD
Assassin’s Creed & Splinter Cell
Image courtesy Ubisoft
After a rash of first-gen VR games and a pre-COVID foray into VR arcade experiences, Ubisoft is again renewing its commitment to at-home VR gaming with bona fide Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell VR games. The studio announced both titles in September 2020, but there’s still distressingly little information out there outside of the fact that they will be built from the ground-up exclusively for the Oculus platform, and will “include elements of the franchises that players know and love.”
Developer: Ubisoft
Launch Date: TBD
Against
Against is rhythm game that is all about fighting and wall-running to the beat through stylish neo-noir levels. We had a chance to preview Against a little while ago; it has a lot in common with Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, and FitXR, but it’s much darker in tone as you slash, shoot, punch, dodge and more.
Developer: Joy Way
Launch Date: Q3 2021
Update (May 13th): We’ve completely overhauled this list, and took out games that have since launched. You can catch many of those over at our Review section to find out where to spend your hard-earned cash.
What new games are you excited to play on Quest? Let us know in the comments below!
