Category: Beat Saber

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New Screenshots Released For Beat Saber

Following the announcement Beat Saber, the neon filled virtual reality (VR) title about swinging swords to the beat of music would be releasing in Early Access next week, developer Hyperbolic Magnetism have released a number of new screenshots.

Beat Saber

The Czech Republic based team have been hard at work on Beat Saber for sometime now, building a title that allows players to slice up boxes in time with music in a style of videogame similar in core concept to the likes of Guitar Hero. Boxes fly towards the player and visual cues tell which colour sword they should use to slice said box along with what direction they need to hit it. With plenty of ways to earn points, including building up combos, Beat Saber will reward those who stay on beat and rank up the highest combo possible for each level.

The screenshots, which you can view below, feature a number of different action shots which feature different levels, colours and sword placement. As the title will require users to pay close attention to the rhythm of the level and react accordingly it is refreshing to known that the visual noise from the levels is not to overwhelming. Looking at the screenshots it is clear that the team at Hyperbolic Magnetism have worked hard to maintain a gameplay environment that is fitting to the title but also does not become to much for the players, taking them away from the action.

Beat Saber will be releasing on Early Access this coming Tuesday, 1st May at 2018 at 9:00 PDT (5pm GMT) and is going to cost around $20 (USD). Including within the Early Access release will be all the mechanics for an “arcade mode” with content designed for both casual and competitive players. Hyperbolic Magnetism plan to bring a lot of content to the title before it leaves Early Access with more songs, a single player mode with missions and challenges planned and a possible level editor. Beat Saber will support the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality (MR) head-mounted displays (HMD) on release thanks to Steam VR.

In case you missed it, VRFocus got hands on with Beat Saber at both Gamescom 2017 and Unite Europe 2017 along with naming it one of the best Oculus Rift videogames coming in 2018. For all the latest on Beat Saber in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

Beat Saber Screenshot
Beat Saber Screenshot
Beat Saber Screenshot
Beat Saber Screenshot
Beat Saber Screenshot

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Beat Saber Launches May 1 On Rift and Vive

Beat Saber Launches May 1 On Rift and Vive

An incredible mixed reality video by LIV just revealed a May 1 launch date for music rhythm VR game Beat Saber.

The video does a great job capturing what to expect from this game, which carefully syncs up sword slices to music.

Some other VR music rhythm games have already been released, but the developers behind Beat Saber appear to be taking a lot of care to tweak the feel of slicing your way through various hand-picked songs.

It looks like a ton of fun and we can’t wait to play.

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‘Beat Saber’ to Launch in Early Access on May 1st, Developers Tease New Track

After getting our hands on VR rhythm lightsaber game Beat Saber at GDC 2018 last month, we’ve been looking forward to more information on the game’s release date, which is now confirmed for May 1st. Last week developer Hyperbolic Magnetism revealed a new track, which will launch with the game’s Early Access version.

Update (4/6/18): Hyperbolic Magnetism today told us that the anticipated VR rhythm game Beat Saber is set to release in Early Access on May 1st, and will be available on both Steam and the Oculus Store. The studio says that more details about what will be included in the Early Access launch will be shared the week before the game’s release.

PSVR support hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the studio notes, “we are actively working on other platforms and we will give you more info when we are ready.”

Original Article, Updated (3/30/18): Beat Saber will launch on Steam in Early Access on May 1st. The game’s composer, Jaroslav Beck, last week revealed another one of the game’s 10 confirmed launch tracks, titled Legend. A mixed reality video from LIV.tv shows off the new track while giving a fresh look at the game in third person:

Developer Jan “Split” Ilavsky said last week on Twitter that the new song is “hopefully the last song released before the game release.”

The post ‘Beat Saber’ to Launch in Early Access on May 1st, Developers Tease New Track appeared first on Road to VR.

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Hands-on: ‘Beat Saber’ is Every Bit as Fun as It Looks

At GDC this year, I had a chance to step into Beat Saber, an upcoming rhythm game from Czech Republic-based indie studio Hyperbolic Magnetism that tasks you with slicing flying cubes with lightsabers to electronic dance music. If that sounds cool to you, then you’re in luck. It is cool – but more than that, it’s also ridiculously well executed.

It’s a deceptively simple concept; blocks appear about a 20 meters away marked with colored directional arrows. The color of the arrow corresponds with the color of your lightsaber, so you have to slice the right block in the right direction, and do it on the beat (more or less). The tutorial level I played before actually getting into the gameplay was about as short as that description.

In case you missed the teaser that went viral earlier this year, garnering 1.5 million views so far, here it is:

Obstacles are tactically placed to get you moving. A combo-breaking glass wall will periodically slide into view, sometimes making you move to the left or right, and sometimes making you duck for cover for fear of losing your precious combo multiplier. Blocks bearing an ‘X’ force you to not only be accurate in your slices, but move your sabers to safe positions so you don’t accidentally hit them.

Slicing a few blocks isn’t that difficult. The challenge comes in economizing your movements so you can whip through a dense patch of blocks, slicing downwards and resetting for a quick left and right swipe.

Without knowing it, I was dancing – not as great as, say, Kent Bye from Voices of VR Podcast (seen below), but I was unexpectedly moving my feet, getting into the rhythm of the game and having a blast. Even though the game doesn’t give out points for style, Beat Saber created an immediate need for me to be stylish.

Some of this can be chalked up to the game’s haptics, which create a satisfying buzz in your controller when you touch anything with your sabers. I found myself artfully dragging my lightsabers against the glass barriers while slicing down blocks, and feeling the rumble of what my brain plausibly accepted as an energy beam slicing through anything and everything. This little addition helped be feel like the swords were really there, and gave me an instant mental model of their size and reach.

The impossible, twisting architectures swaying ahead of me and neon lightshow blazing in the background are an exclamation point at the end of every interaction I had with Beat Saber. Despite the outside optics of spazz-dancing (who cares anyway), I felt cool.

Coming to Early Access in April to SteamVR-compatible headsets, Beat Saber will arrive with 10 songs, each with 5 levels of difficulty. Developer Ján Ilavský told Road to VR that there’s a possibility of also releasing a level editor in the future that could allow you to place blocks and barriers yourself. Music, for now, is created by video game composer Jaroslav Beck, although Ilavský was adamant that the studio was actively reaching out to other artists to fill out exclusive, purpose-built music for the game moving forward.

The Beat Saber website features the PlayStation VR logo, indicating future support, although Hyperbolic Magnetism hasn’t officially spoken about when PSVR support will arrive.

The post Hands-on: ‘Beat Saber’ is Every Bit as Fun as It Looks appeared first on Road to VR.

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The Many Ways VR Views Music

Videogames have always had a very symbiotic relationship with music, helping create mood and ambiance that can set the tone for the entire experience. Have a favourite title, then you’ll probably remember the theme tune – Nintendo had some classics – as music has a way of emotionally connecting you to the gameplay in a way visuals can’t. With the advent of consumer virtual reality (VR), music – and especially spatial audio – is just as important, if not more so, than ever before. Yet music exists in VR in various form factors, with a growing trend to interacting, visualising and creation.

Rock Band VR

For the majority of videogames and players, music exists as something in the background, maybe telling you when danger is nearby or when you’ve reached a safe place. On the other hand there are those titles like rhythm action videogames which get you properly involved, or for those musicians amongst you creation tools from the very basic to the professional.

Undoubtedly one of the most popular forms of musical videogame comes from the rhythm action genre, with titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band two of the most synonymous. Oculus Rift owners got a taste of that with Rock Band VR, as the Oculus Touch controllers came with a little accessory to attach one of them to the head of a Rock Band guitar. This proved to be a successful match with VRFocus giving Rock Band VR a four star rating in its review.

But you don’t need an additional chunk of plastic to jam in VR. There are plenty of titles that make use of the motion controllers that come supplied with the various high end headsets. Audio Shield, Audio Beats, Thumper, Beat Saber and many more utilise some drumming rhythm, requiring well timed actions to build multipliers and score points. Such is the energy and physical output needed that some developers have harnessed this for fitness. BOXVR for example requires a player to preform punches, hooks and upper cuts to a beat, burning and calorie counting along the way.

Audioshield screenshot 1

If you’re not interesting in working up as sweat then what about making your own music? There are certainly one or two apps that can accommodate depending on your musical inclinations. Naturally dance music is and easy go to, where you can become a virtual DJ using TheWaveVR to create thumping electro beats for people to dance to. After something a little more traditional? How about The Music Room. Here you can play the guitar, strum a laser harp or unleash your inner Keith Moon or Lars Ulrich and drum away to your hearts content as drum companies such as Pearl, Ludwig, Sabian, Zildjian, DW and Gretsch have all helped in its creation. The app also serves as a midi controller for those who know what they’re doing.

At the top end, for those that really know what they’re doing and just want to play around in VR there’s always AliveInVR. All the apps and videogames previously mentioned work on their own, self-contained experiences to enjoy. AliveInVR is not. It works as a VR midi controller for Ableton Live, a very serious piece of software that musicians use to create tracks. Similar to TheWaveVR music can be controlled through a series of interactable objects, differing due to the shear amount of options and control Ableton offers – which is why it isn’t cheap.

When it comes down to it VR can literally put music in the hands of VR fans around the world no matter their skill level. Whether you just want to have some fun wildly flailing around to your favourite tune or want to get into the nitty gritty of music development there’s a VR app for you. One day there might even come a time when the latest club land summer smash comes from someone who wants to make music in a virtual world.

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Hyperbolic Magnetism Release Teaser Trailer for Rhythm Action Experience Beat Saber

Rhythm action videogames have become a popular genre in virtual reality (VR), with the likes of AudioShield, BOXVR, Thumper and many more available, each offering its own take. Due for release soon is Hyperbolic Magnetism’s version, a sword swinging, beat slicing experience called Beat Saber. This weekend saw the studio release the first gameplay teaser video for the title, showcasing what’s in store.

Just like any rhythm videogame, the essence is to interact with objects at specific times to the music, made all the more difficult by fast beats and specific actions. In Beat Saber, you’re equipped with two light sabers which need to cut boxes flying at you in rapid succession. Each box has an arrow indicating which way you need to slice – up,down, left, right. The more accurate you are with slice will up your multiplier and in turn your high score.

Unlike some titles which let you add your own music to play to, Beat Saber’s music is composed to perfectly fit the hand made levels. There will be a quick-play mode for those times where you want a short session lasting a few minutes, then a campaign mode for hours and hours of beat slicing gameplay.

While the video below might be the first official gameplay teaser from Hyperbolic Magnetism, it’s not the first time VRFocus has seen, or reported on the experience. Development originally began back in 2016, with the first showcase of Beat Saber happening at Unite Europe in July 2017. VRFocus caught up with the studio again during Gamescom 2017, showing off a similar build.

Currently Hyperbolic Magnetism has given a tentative release date of Q1 2018 for Beat Saber, listing supported headsets as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. As an indie developer it hasn’t yet confirmed if the release will be simultaneous across all platforms or more staggered. As more details are sure to be released over the next few weeks, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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PSVR & Steam: VR-Rhythmus-Spiel Beat Saber erscheint Anfang 2018

Werbung für Virtual Reality Hygiene

Das Indie-Entwicklerstudio Hyperbolic Magnetism kündigt mit Beat Saber einen spannenden VR-Titel an, der das partytaugliche Rhythmusspiel mit einem Lichtschwertkampf nach Star Wars kombiniert. Im VR-Titel dürft ihr Blöcke passend zur Musik zerschlagen und euch rhythmisch durch die Level fechten. Das innovative Musikspiel soll im ersten Quartal 2018 (Q1 2018) für Oculus Rift, HTC Vive und PlayStation VR (PSVR) erscheinen.

Beat Saber – Rhythmisch das virtuelle Laserschwert schwingen

In Beat Saber dürft ihr ganz im Stile eines Musik-Partyspiels, wie Guitar Hero an die Controller, um rhythmisch verschiedene Musik-Level zu bewältigen. Der Clou am kommenden VR-Titel liegt in der Steuerung, denn statt klassischer Instrumente zum Anspielen der Töne, dürft ihr hier mit Lichtschwertern kleine Blöcke zerschlagen. Diese fliegen je nach Musiktitel unterschiedlich schnell auf euch zu und fordern eine passende Schlagrichtung, um die richtigen Klänge auszulösen. Außerdem müsst ihr auf die Farben der Blöcke achten, denn diese erfordern entweder das farblich passende rechte oder linke Schwert. Zusätzlich gilt es Hindernisse zu beachten, die neben den korrekten Zielen innerhalb der Level integriert wurden.

Beat-Saber-Oculus-Rift-HTC-Vive-PSVR

Dabei stehen dem VR-Spieler unterschiedliche Spielmodi zur Auswahl. Entweder ein Karriere-Modus, der mehrere Stunden Spielspaß mit vermutlich freischaltbaren Features beinhaltet, wie auch ein Quick-Play-Modus für zwischendurch. Leider sind derzeit noch nicht allzu viele weitere Informationen über das Gameplay verfügbar.

Die Entwickler selbst bezeichnen ihr VR-Spiel als ein Mash-up bestehend aus Guitar Hero und Fruit Ninja, das dank der selbst kreierten Level eine Menge Spaß mit sich bringt. So sollen die Spieler durch die Steuerung zu Tanzbewegungen gebracht werden, die sich aufgrund der Hindernisse und Level automatisch ergeben. Das Potenzial für ein zukünftiges VR-Partyspiel für gesellige Runden wäre hier durchaus vorhanden.

Beat Sabers soll im Q1 2018 für HTC Vive, Oculus Rift und PlayStation VR (PSVR) erscheinen. Wir werden euch über ein genaues Veröffentlichungsdatum auf den entsprechenden Plattformen auf dem Laufenden halten.

(Quellen: Beat Saber | Road to VR | Video: Ján Ilavský Youtube)

Der Beitrag PSVR & Steam: VR-Rhythmus-Spiel Beat Saber erscheint Anfang 2018 zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Beat Saber Is Audioshield With Lightsabers

Beat Saber Is Audioshield With Lightsabers

Want to get fit and feel like a Jedi? Or just want to witness the maddest light show in all of VR? Beat Saber looks like it might be for you.

Judging by the teaser trailer that captured VR fans’ attention over the weekend, Beat Saber has a very simple pitch: Audioshield but using lightsabers inside of shields. Notes that match a song approach the player and must be swiped in a certain direction. The result is what looks like an intense VR rhythm game that will appeal to fans of not just Star Wars but those that like to keep fit inside their VR games.

The game’s set to feature a full career mode with hand-crafted levels instead of user-generated content like in similar games. Judging by the difficulty seen in the trailer, you might actually need Jedi powers to perfect its levels.

Beat Saber is developed by Hyberbolic Magnetism (and has no official affiliation with Star Wars itself). It’s due for release in Q1 2018 on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR (PSVR).

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‘Beat Saber’ is a Fusion of DDR and Lightsaber Combat That We Never Knew We Wanted

If you’ve used virtual reality, you’ve probably deampt up a million cool game ideas that the platform’s infinite possibilities could be used for. But did you dream up a rhythm game where you use dual lightsabers to slice blocks to the beat? Didn’t think so. Luckily, indie developer Hyperbolic Magnetism did, and they’ve got the talent to bring it to life.

Update (2/7/18): After the Beat Saber teaser went viral last month, racking up several million views across various social media platforms, developer Hyperbolic Magnetism has released a full playthrough of the teased track.

The playthrough not only gives us an opportunity the hear the entirety of the head-nodding track titled ‘$100 Bills’—composed for the game by musician Jaroslav Beck—but also offers a glimpse of further gameplay mechanics, including red zones which the player must dodge, and rhythm blocks which come at varying heights. Beck also published the standalone track on various music platforms for download or streaming.

Original Article (1/19/18): As Rocket League (2015) has shown us, even crazy ideas can make for amazing games if executed well. Beat Saber, due out in Q1 from developer Hyperbolic Magnetism, looks to be on that track. The game offers up rhythm gameplay like DDR or Guitar Hero, but instead of dancing or playing instruments, you’re slicing blocks to the beat with a pair of lightsabers.

A new teaser posted to Twitter by Beat Saber developer Jan “Split” Ilavsky‏ shows high speed gameplay with some thumping dubstep composed by musician Jaroslav Beck.

In the teaser footage we can see that each block is colored and must be hit with the matching lightsaber. Blocks also have an arrow indicating in which direction it must be sliced. An older trailer gives another look at the gameplay from a third-person perspective:

From the teaser and the trailer we see some recognizable beat and direction patterns emerging, though I’m curious to know what other mechanics will be introduced—given the power of VR, I hope they’ll think outside the box and go far beyond the usual sustain mechanics… blocks flying at you from all sides could be very interesting, and how about using the lightsaber to reflect the occasional incoming laser fired by a flying drone?

Of course there’s plenty of other solid rhythm games already available in VR. I’m partial to Audio Beats (2017), and Audioshield (2016) is also quite well liked. Granted, the use of lightsabers as the input ‘tool’ in Beat Saber could prove to make quite unique gameplay in a VR rhythm game thanks the player having extended reach, a feeling of destructive power, and the ability to attack notes from various directions instead of only relying on position and timing.

Due for an initial release in Q1, we’ll have to wait and see if the gameplay feels as cool as it looks. There’s no word yet on which VR platforms the game is headed for, but we’d guess a Steam release supporting the Vive and Rift is likely.

Update (2/7/18): An earlier version of this article stated that composer Jaroslav Beck was part of Hyperbolic Magnetism, the studio behind Beat Saber. However, Beck appears to be an independent composer who is contributing to the project.

The post ‘Beat Saber’ is a Fusion of DDR and Lightsaber Combat That We Never Knew We Wanted appeared first on Road to VR.