Category: Climax Studios

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Build Your Own AR Building in Towers for Tango for Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro

This week Chinese tech giant Lenovo launched the worlds first Google Tango enabled smartphone, the Phab 2 Pro. Tango technology allows the device to able to map out areas, track objects and place items into a users field-of-view, unlocking far more accurate augmented reality (AR) features. Now Climax Studios has release Towers for Tango, an AR building videogame specifically designed for Tango and the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro.

The first title developed by Climax’s new studio in Auckland, New Zealand, Towers for Tango enables players to become building tycoons, using AR to create a tower anywhere they like. As players improve the structure they have to keep residents happy, fend off incoming disasters and reach a 5 star rating to build an impressive skyscraper.

Towers for Tango screenshot 2

“With the recent, massive success of Pokemon Go and overall interest in AR, we are really excited to launch our latest AR title,” said Simon Gardner, CEO. “We feel we have created a game that utilises the new technology and adds an element of magic and wonder.”

Studio Head, Andy Wilton added: “To be releasing our first title within 6 months of opening is fantastic, and a great testament to the team we are building here. For it to be an AR title, helps put us on the map as the forefront of new technology”

The launch trailer (shown below) showcases some of the features of Towers for Tango, showcasing how players can simply rotate their building round, go inside to checkout all the floors and see what’s going on, recruit employees such as cleaners and more.

Towers for Tango is available now through Google Play for $2.99 USD/£2.89 GBP exclusively for Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro. The device itself retails at $499 for the unlocked version.

For all the latest Tango news, keep reading VRFocus.

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The VR Challenge: Day One Mentor Wrap Up With Cherry Pop Games & Climax Studios

Yesterday was the kickoff of VRFocus‘ first ever game jam, The VR Challenge (VRC), and it hasn’t only been new for us. The two mentors who attended yesterday stuck around and gave a helping hand to each of the developers who have been bound to their workstations, and through working with them the mentors themselves were even surprised.

Below you can see how Bradley Hester of Cherry Pop Games and Russ Earwaker of Climax Studios helped out the attendees, and guage how well each of the teams are doing. There is even a bit of a hint as to what one of the teams is doing to interpret “a safe pair of hands”, the topic for this game jam. It seems as though there is a mix of ability, but despite that they are all as equally likely to get stuck on the simplist of problems.

Stay with VRFocus for the developments of VRC as it progresses throughout today and concludes at 5pm BST. But, in the meantime make sure to check back for all the news, updates, and features in the world of VR.

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VRFocus Virtual Reality Challenge: Let’s See Who is in the Running

Right now we are two hours into VRFocus’ VR Challenge, and there is no ambiguity surrounding the challenge bit, especially for attendees who are programming for the chance to win an HTC Vive. Looking around the room there is no shortage of creativity, and each person has come with a way to influence the game jam in a unique way – whether it is by music, colour, or narrative.

As you can see in the opening speech that was broadcast live earlier today at around 1:30pm BST (courtesy of Virtual Umbrella), our Community Manager, Kevin Eva, shared that the theme to this game jam is “a safe pair of hands”. This can be interpreted in any which way the groups desire for an HTC Vive application, and over the next 48 hours we shall see how it turns out.

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The groups who are competing for the free HTC Vives are:

Virtually Done: Anna Stoilova, Morgan Page, Sean Gorman

Supraliminal: Billy Mansell, David Matthewson, Josh Saunders

Catastrophe: Mark Bailey, Mat Burri, Jan Kaniewski

Group D (casually known as Team Deadly): Jing Tan, Daniel Poulsen, Omar Mohamed Ali Mudhir

Currently present to help mentor each of these groups is Bradley Hester from Cherry Pop Games, who has worked on the studio’s flagship VR title Pool Nation VR, and Russ Earwaker of Climax Studios, who has specialised in VR for the last two years. This won’t be just it as there will be more mentors to come tomorrow, just as it says in the Meet The Mentors post that was shared a couple of days ago.

VRFocus will be reporting on the progress of each of the groups as they work through the last 22 hours that they have to have a chance, so stick around for some video interviews with the jammers and mentors, as well as all the news and updates in the world of VR.

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VRFocus Virtual Reality Challenge: Meet the Mentors!

VRFocus is set to host the Virtual Reality Challenge (VRC) this weekend, the UK’s largest ever virtual reality (VR) Game Jam! Attendees have just 24 hours to create something unique in VR, but they won’t be doing it alone as mentors from Climax Studios, Cherry Pop Games and Supermassive Games will be on-hand throughout the weekend.

So who are these talented individuals who are volunteering their time? Here are some brief overviews of the VRC mentors and their histories.

Russ Earwaker, Climax Studios – Saturday, Sunday

During his 15 years in the games industry Russ has designed for Crytek, Lionhead and Blitz Games, working on classic titles such as Crysis and Fable. Currently working at Climax Studios, Russ has specialised in VR for the last two years. He’s currently working on a Launch Windows title for DayDream and a rather unconventional title for the Vive, amongst others!

Russ Earwaker

 

Bradley Hester, Cherry Pop Games  – Saturday

Brad is a Games Programmer at Cherry Pop Games. Working on general game play, graphics and UI programming for PC, next generation consoles and virtual reality.

He studied BSc, Computer Games Development, achieving a First Class Degree

Bradley Hester

Gary Napper, Supermassive Games – Sunday

Gary Napper is a Game Designer with 16 years’ experience working on such franchises as Burnout, Harry Potter, Family Game Night, Spare Parts and Halo Wars 2 at studios including EA UK, Criterion, Sony, EA BrightLight and Creative Assembly. Gary is most recently known as the Lead Designer on the BAFTA Award winning, and industry acclaimed, Alien: Isolation. After working with Sony on PlayStation VR, he is currently working as a Game Director at Supermassive Games (Creators of Until Dawn, TumbleVR and Rush Of Blood) on some new and exciting things with the recently expanded VR team. Follow him on twitter @xopsx and Supermassive Games @SuperMGames.

Gary Napper

Our thanks once again to all of our supporting partners who have helped VRC come about. Unreal Engine, Nvidia, HTC, Valve and Climax Studios.

VRFocus will be reporting from the venue during the day so look out for bulletins and updates via our social media channel.