Category: carbon studios

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The Wizards Series Passes 100,000 Copies Sold On Quest, PSVR, PC VR & Go

Beat Games isn’t the only one with sales news this week; Carbon Studios’ The Wizards series has surpassed 100,000 copies sold across its various iterations and platforms.

To be clear, that figure includes sales of the original game, the Enhanced Edition that came alongside the PSVR release, and the Oculus Go-exclusive The Wizards: Trials of Meliora. True, it’s not in the same league as Beat Saber’s two million copies sold, but it’s yet more proof that VR development is emerging as a viable platform for studios after years of struggles.

Carbon didn’t break down how many of those units were on Oculus Quest against other platforms. The Quest version was one of the first titles to launch on the platform after its release in May 2019. Since its arrival, multiple VR developers have seen increased sales of their games.

Carbon started working on The Wizards series after its first game, Alice VR, which only ever came to PC headsets. The first full game initially released in early 2018.

As the name implies, The Wizards is a spell-casting game in which players use a series of gesture-based inputs to summon magical weapons and shoot projectiles.

Elsewhere, Carbon is still working on its standalone expansion to the original Wizards in The Wizards: Dark Times. We’re hoping to see that release on PC VR headsets later this year. In the tweet above, Carbon teases that more news on the game is coming ‘very soon’, so we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled.

The post The Wizards Series Passes 100,000 Copies Sold On Quest, PSVR, PC VR & Go appeared first on UploadVR.

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Something For The Weekend: Swords, Sorcery, Sport & Steam

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday consigned to oblivion for another year… or at least until we look at our bank statements at any rate… it’s back to our usual trip through the stores in Something for the Weekend. This week VRFocus is looking at Steam for anything playable on any of the supported head mounted displays (HMDs). Be it the HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift, the OSVR or even Windows Mixed Reality headsets that are both up for grabs and available with a good percentage of money off. So let’s see below just what you can get, for how much and on what right now.

Obduction screenshotObduction

Compatibility: HTC Vive & Oculus Rift

Whenever you get a film nowadays it always says at some point in the trailer ‘from the makers of [blank]’ with blank filled in by some other film someone on the higher ups has been involved in. Videogames tend not to do that, concentrating on the big name producers alone. Obduction bucks the trend by wearing its ‘from the creators of Myst‘ badge proudly. And if your game was created by the people behind Myst… well you would, wouldn’t you?

“Abducted far across the universe, you find yourself on a broken alien landscape with odd pieces of Earth. Explore, uncover, solve, and find a way to make it home.”

Obduction is currently at 50% off until December 4th 2017, and you can get it now at £11.99 (GBP) as opposed the usual £23.99

Don't Knock Twice Screenshot 08Don’t Knock Twice

Compatibility: HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

We might be getting into all things winter but that doesn’t mean you can’t also get a scare. Beginning yesterday and continuing all the way until December 15th 2017, Wales Interactive’s Don’t Knock Twice is also available at a 50% discount. Bringing the total to £7.99 (GBP) from £15.99.

“For a true horror experience you have to be almost defenceless, surviving in the darkness with that glimmer of hope you’ll escape, listening to every creak and whistle of the wind wondering what’s around the corner. If that sounds like your type of VR videogame then Wales Interactive’s Don’t Knock Twice might be just what you want, possibly.” – Peter Graham, VRFocus‘ Review

SportsBar VR

Compatibility: HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

The former Pool Nation VR just announced their biggest update ever with cross-play and other updates and not only that you can get it for a third off on Steam until December 8th.

Always a favourite of VRFocus since its early days, we reviewed it back in March and it received a five star review from Editor Kevin Joyce. “[SportsBar VR] isn’t simply a VR recreation of a pool table, balls and a ruleset. It is, in fact, a virtual environment for players to enjoy a game of pool in, as well as a number of other entertainment activities. It’s more than the name suggests, and because of this [SportsBar VR] is one of the most enjoyable experiences currently available for the HTC Vive.”

SportsBar VR is currently available for £10.04 (GBP) from £14.99.

Eternity Warriors VR

Compatibility: Windows Mixed Reality, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift

One for virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR), this Early Access title from Vanimals Games has its roots outside of VR. The original Eternity Warriors having launched six years ago on smartphones. Since that time it has had three sequels and this version looks to continue the first-person hack and slash tradition.

Previewing the title back in September VRFocus described it as “a hoot” and you can get Eternity Warriors at 20% off on Steam until December 12th 2017. With a price of £8.79 (GBP) from £10.99.

Lucid Trips

Compatibility: HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

The developers describe Lucid Trips as “a Virtual Reality experience which takes places in planetary dream worlds. You explore an artistically designed surrounding with a completely new concept, defining and navigating your avatar in a distinctive way, using hand motion controllers.”

Another Early Access videogame, it is available at £2.79 (GBP) from £5.59 – or half price – until December 7th.

The Wizards screenshotThe Wizards

Compatibility: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality

Another Early Access videogame, this time from Carbon Studios and set in a land of magic and enchantment. You, the player, take on the role of a young sorcerer tasked with defending the realm from an army of rampaging creatures. You’ll need to rely on your magical arsenal of elemental spells (lightning bolts, fireballs, etc) and your defensive skills in order to survive and expell the foul orcs and goblins threatening your home.

 

Presently available at £11.99 (GBP) from £14.99, The Wizards is currently discounted on Steam by 20% until December 7th 2017.

Titanic VR Cover Art VR Landscape imageTitanic VR

Compatibility: HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

A relatively new release on Steam, the title by Immersive VR Education takes you underwater to explore the wreck of the famed passenger liner. Discover secrets, artefacts and unlock upgrades to go deeper inside the once thought ‘unsinkable’ vessel.

Titanic VR is available on Steam for £11.69 (GBP), a 40% discount.

Unknightly

Compatibility: HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

A title we’re actually yet to feature on VRFocus, but one we’ll no doubt be looking at in the future. Developers Portal Studios describe the title as “a medieval VR stealth game designed from the ground up for VR. You play the role of a former member of the Knight’s Order. You have thrown betrayed and thrown into prison by someone very close to you. But by who? Hungry for revenge and fortune you seek to uncover the identity of those who double-crossed you, gain insight into their motives and eventually set the record straight.”

Currently in Early Access, Unknightly has a 40% discount on its regular price of £15.49 until December 7th. Meaning you can pick it up for only £9.29.

Space Panic: Room Escape

Compatibility: HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

As the name likely suggests Space Panic: Room Escape is a VR escape room videogame, developed by Xefier Games. Set in the future aboard a space station, your freedom is at stake and you’ll need to solve a number of fiendish puzzles in order to secure your escape.

Space Panic: Room Escape can be purchased through Steam for £3.49 (GBP), 30% off its regular cost of £4.99.

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The Wizards Update Introduces New Gameplay Modes

Fantasy adventure title The Wizards from Carbon Studios is adding in some brand-new gameplay modes in an upcoming update, with Arena Mode and Cafe Mode, which will bring some new aspects.

The Wizards is currently in Early Access and the development team at Carbon Studios have been keen to keep the title up to date for players. Last month new movement options were added in, introducing free movement and free teleportation, which introduced the possibility of finding hidden paths, secret enemy encounters and hidden item pickups.

The new modes introduced into The Wizards are Arena mode, which allows players to test their skills by facing off against increasing hordes of enemies, with two different gameplay variants. The Arena Mode will also be introducing a new Fate Card set and a separate leaderboard, with Card unlocks available through high scores in the Arena mode.

The Wizards new screenshot 4

Cafe Mode is a new mode aimed at VR arcades, allowing for casual players and newcomers to jump right into the action, able to access all the content that would usually be gradually unlocked during the campaign.

Further information and updates are available on the Steam Store page.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on The Wizards as it becomes available.

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The Magic of Free Movement Comes to The Wizards

As virtual reality (VR) technology advances and issues such as ‘simulation sickness’ are resolved the demand is growing for more realistic and active forms of motion in VR titles. Fantasy adventure title The Wizards is responding to that demand by launching a free locomotion update.

Last month, developers Carbon Studio were searching for players to help them test various movement options to find the best implementation for new movement types. That testing has apparently been successful, since on 12th September, a new update will introduce free movement and free teleportation into the title, to go alongside the node-based teleportation that was already available.

Along with the new movement options, some design tweaks, bug fixes and some additional content have been added, with the aim of rewarding players who use the new movement options to explore the world, such as hidden paths, item pickups and secret enemy encounters.

The Wizards new screenshot 4

“We’ve strongly underestimated how common is the need for free movement among VR community. It turned out that more and more players get their “VR legs,” which makes them find free movement as the most convenient and immersive method of locomotion. Our players asked for free locomotion and they were totally right about it – thanks to this feature The Wizards delivers a strong feeling of exploration and is more fun to play.”

The Wizards is currently available in Steam Early Access for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, priced at £14.99 (GBP). Further information and updates can be found on the Steam store page.

A video trailer for the new locomotion update is available to view below.

VRFocus will bring you further updates on The Wizards as it becomes available.

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The Wizards Is A Spellbinding VR Game Hitting Early Access This Month

The Wizards Is A Spellbinding VR Game Hitting Early Access This Month

Casting spells and VR motion controls go together incredibly well. Flinging fire balls, blocking projectiles with magical shields, and throwing missiles of extraordinary power feels amazing from within the immersive presence of a VR headset. The Unspoken proved that. Now with The Wizards from Carbon Studios, the game is avoiding that competitive multiplayer focus for a renewed focus on single player content and crafting a spellbinding world for players to lose themselves in instead.

Last time we wrote about The Wizards all we knew is that it was coming to Rift and Vive sometime soon, but now we can finally put a date on it. The Wizards will be releasing into Early Access this month on July 28th on both the Oculus Home Store and Steam.

According to a press email with the news, “The Wizards is a VR spellcaster that helps people to fulfill their childhood dreams of becoming powerful magicians. In the game, players cast spells with hand gestures using motion controllers of HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.”

While you wait for it to come out you can see the previously released gameplay trailer above and the new batch of screenshots right here:

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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Sign-ups Now Open for The Wizards Closed Beta

Earlier this year Carbon Studios revealed its followup virtual reality (VR) title to  ALICE VR in the form of The Wizards, a fantasy experience set in a world of magic. Set for release later this year the developer has recently announced a closed beta will take place and sign-ups are now live.

If you fancy throwing fireballs and casting bolts of lightning and you own either a HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift with Touch headset, then you can fill in the required form to be in with a chance of testing The Wizards out – there’s no guarantee you’ll be chosen. Those that do get selected will be sent an email with all the relevant download information, and for everyone who finishes the videogame and fills in the provided survey they’ll get a chance to win one of 20 Steam/Oculus Home keys for the full experience when it gets released.

The Wizards screenshot

The Wizards is a spellcasting experience in which players step into the shoes of a young sorcerer who must defend the realm from legions of rampaging monsters. Solely single-player, the videogame allows a player to cast all sorts of elemental spells, from lightning bolts to fireballs, alongside defensive spells like a shield, to attack and protect themselves from orcs and goblins.

Additionally, the title also features a PvE mode so that players can practice their magical skills against waves of enemies before heading into the campaign. Fate Cards change can change the gameplay, making it easier or harder as the player wishes, with corresponding changes to reward values. And online scoreboards are included so everyone can share their spell wielding results.

As further details are released on The Wizards, keep reading VRFocus for the latest updates.

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Take a Look at Carbon Studios’ The Wizards in New Screenshots

Last week, Carbon Studios announced that The Wizards will be coming to Steam Early Access this summer, complete with support for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift with Oculus Touch. A debut trailer also arrived at that time, and now VRFocus can bring you a small selection of new screenshots from the videogame.

Developed with Unreal Engine 4, The Wizards is a virtual reality (VR) exlcuisve title designed to be played with motion-controllers. Much like Insomniac Games’ well received The Unspoken, players will use either the HTC Vive controllers or Oculus Touch to weave spells through gesture-based input.

The new screenshots from The Wizards follow below. VRFocus will be sure to keep you updated with this promising VR videogame as it approaches its Steam Early Access debut later this year.

The Wizards screenshot The Wizards screenshot The Wizards screenshot The Wizards screenshot The Wizards screenshot The Wizards screenshot

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Preview: ‘Alice VR’ is a Reality Bending Sci-Fi Puzzler for Rift and Vive

Alice VR is a sci-fi exploration puzzle game from Carbon Studio coming out soon for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and OSVR. I was taken through three levels of the game, which studio co-founder and Art Director Aleksander Caban says is more or less in its final form now, barring professional voice overs and some bug fixes, that is.

Loosely based on the characters and concepts from Lewis Carroll’s iconic Alice in Wonderland, Alice VR reimagines the beloved classic tale with a science fiction twist. To give me a better idea of what that actually meant, Aleksander Caban told me the game was kind of like a sci-fi version of The Witness (2016) or Eastshade (2016) and “something more than a walking simulator.”

Playing the three non-sequential levels, which took me through a desert, a city, and an underground lair of some sort, I didn’t really get a clear sense of how Alice VR would play out story-wise, as Carbon Studio is keeping most of the story elements under wraps until their projected October release. What I did come to grips with was Alice VR‘s level design, and some of the decisions the developers have made with how you traverse the world, and how you are supposed to interact with it.

The game features a number of reality-bending game mechanics that you’re required to use as you progress through the game. Shrinking or growing to fit through doors of various sizes, and gravity-shift ramps and puzzles, where you find yourself upside down or walking straight up the walls, are all apart of the landscape of Alice VR. After a few years playing VR games, I finally have a trusty set of ‘VR legs’ that bring me through most discomforts unscathed. I asked Caban what he thought about the topsy-turvy game mechanics in respect to newcomers to VR.

“We want to maintain that it’s 100 percent user friendly for everyone, but to do that you would have to stand in place, look around and teleport everywhere. So you have to go for a compromise,” Caban said. “We did a lot of testing and invited a lot of people that have never had contact with VR, and they told us what they felt. Some of the elements–like the gravitational ramps–we decided that the risk is worth the reward, because I think it’s particularly amazing when you’re upside down and there’s everything going around you. It may [however] be a bit uncomfortable for some people.”

thedesert alicevr thecity2 alicevr thecity alicevr

From start to finish, I was told, the main path through the game will top out at between 3-4 hours in length, but that there will be optional paths, collectables and audio logs to help keep the story flexible in respect to the individual user. I was told that levels were more ‘bite-sized’, (each level I played lasted about 10 minutes each) and that they would afford the user a break if he/she needed it.

Visually, I was confronted with some well-crafted backgrounds filled with giant mountains, buildings, and futuristic spacecraft, all of it making me feel small in a large world. Foreground items and interactables were less detailed, although Caban maintains they still need to refine graphics.

Using the Xbox controller, the right stick was dedicated to only forward and backward movement, and the only way to change POV was by looking at my desired direction, or spinning in my chair. Other locomotion styles will be made available at launch, but there’s no telling exactly which ones Carbon will decide to offer.

mirrage alicevr

In the end, I can’t claim to understand the lore of Alice VR yet, and exactly who I am and why I’m moving forward through the world set before me. I’m hoping the story brings a level of depth to the game that really makes me feel like I’ve fell down that gravity well, or whatever otherworldly mishap that brings me to the mysterious world of Alice VR.

The post Preview: ‘Alice VR’ is a Reality Bending Sci-Fi Puzzler for Rift and Vive appeared first on Road to VR.