Category: cyan

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VRDC Returns in September, First Sessions Announced

The Game Developers Conference (GDC), San Francisco, successfully span-off a new arm last year specifically targeting the virtual reality (VR) development community. This year the event, VRDC, will return with the first handful of sessions already announced.

 

Lucky's Tale

 

Paul Bettner, CEO of Playful Corp., the studio behind Oculus Rift launch title Lucky’s Tale, will host a session entitled ‘How to Be a Successful VR Game Studio’ during the two-day event, while Hannah Gamiel of Cyan, Inc. will offer a post-mortem of Obduction as part of the ‘Games and Entertainment’ track.

The event will be comprised of four tracks in total: Games and Entertainment, Brand Experience, Innovation Across Industries and Innovation. The latter will host Facebook’s Mike Booth, who will discuss ‘Creating Social Experiences in VR’.

 

Facebook Spaces headerVRDC will take place 21st – 22nd September 2017, held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. Passes are available to purchase from the official VRDC website now, beginning at $1,199 USD. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest additions to the VRDC 2017 line-up.

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Obduction Devs Respond To Vive Performance Complaints

Obduction Devs Respond To Vive Performance Complaints

After a long wait, Cyan’s Obduction [Review: 8/10] finally came to the HTC Vive yesterday, complete with motion controller support. Fans had been patiently waiting for this version of the game since the Rift edition launched last year but, sadly, it appears lots of people are having issues with it.

Multiple users have taken to Reddit to report issues with the game’s performance when running inside the Vive. It appears that, across a number of PC setups, people are finding issues with reprojection, resulting in stuttering screens even when playing on the lower graphics settings.

We reached out to Cyan itself to ask about these issues. Studio CEO Rand Miller himself had this to say:

We’re reading all comments! Like we did with PC and Rift, we’ll continue to update and optimize Obduction for Vive. Being a small indie dev, we can test some combinations of hardware, but it’s not until release that some issues show up.

Obduction VR definitely takes some horsepower to run, but we’ve found that adjusting settings can usually provide a satisfactory experience for most situations, and we’ll continue to optimize. (And of course make sure your drivers are the latest and greatest.)

As for navigation – we realize that in these early days of VR that almost everyone has a different preference depending on their performance, comfort, and experience. We will continue to add options so that each player can get the navigation experience that suits them.

Thanks for the comments and support!

Cyan also brought Oculus Touch support to Obduction with yesterday’s update, those users don’t seem to be reporting any issues on this side. The developer will also be releasing a PlayStation VR version of the game later down the line.

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‘Obduction’ Adds Motion Control, Coming to Vive and Oculus Touch This Month

Cyan’s spiritual successor to Myst is launching with all-new motion control support on March 22nd for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch. The game originally released on Steam in August 2016, receiving initial VR support for the Rift in October.

Following in the legendary footsteps of Myst and Riven, Obduction presents an ideal VR setting, taken at a slow pace, encouraging players to study the environments carefully, finding clues to solve puzzles in a curious new world. The original VR support for Oculus Rift began as a stretch goal during the game’s 2013 Kickstarter campaign, and arrived in October 2016, a couple of months after the standard game launched on Steam. The game received a free update and launched on the Oculus Store at the same time, and was praised for its visuals and puzzle diversity.

obduction2Using the ‘blink’ teleport feature, the game feels the most like Myst, although a freeform movement with snap turning was also available, which was then updated in November to include a smooth turning option for those unaffected by this contributor to VR sickness. Since then, Cyan have focused on bringing the experience to other headsets, announcing the game would come to PlayStation VR and HTC Vive in 2017, with the major addition of motion controller support.

SEE ALSO
'Obduction' VR Review

The new version arrives on HTC Vive and Oculus Touch on March 22nd on Steam, GOG, Humble Store, and the Oculus Store for $29.99. Existing owners will receive the update for free. Motion control should be a perfect fit in a game scattered with detailed objects to study, and involves extensive button and lever interactivity.

“We have over 200,000 fans on our Steam wishlist, many who have been asking for hand controls for Obduction. As a VR-centric studio, we’re thrilled to be delving even further into these platforms, bringing ever deeper immersion to our worlds and pushing the edge of what’s possible”, says Rand Miller, CEO, Cyan.

obduction1Visitors to PAX East this weekend will have a chance to preview the Oculus Touch version in the Indie MEGABOOTH, and there is a further opportunity to try the game at the Indie Corner of the SXSW Gaming show floor, from March 16th to 18th, 12-8pm at the Austin Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 2 – plus Rand Miller will be taking questions on the SXSW Gamer’s Voice stage at 7:45pm on March 17th.

The post ‘Obduction’ Adds Motion Control, Coming to Vive and Oculus Touch This Month appeared first on Road to VR.

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Obduction Finally Gets Its Touch And Vive Release Date

Obduction Finally Gets Its Touch And Vive Release Date

Cyan’s Obduction [Review: 8/10] was one of the best games released on the Oculus Rift last year, and soon HTC Vive owners will get to enjoy it too.

The developer behind classic adventure games like Myst and Riven today announced that its latest title will be hitting the SteamVR headset on March 22nd. At the same time, the Rift version will also be updated with Touch controls. If you own the game on Steam, GOG, or the Humble Store then you won’t need to pay anything for the Vive support and, if you own it on either those stores or Oculus Home, then the Touch support is free too. Otherwise, the game is $29.99. It’s also available on standard displays and will soon be coming to Mac.

Cyan didn’t mention anything about the previously announced PlayStation VR version of the game, so we’ve reached out to the studio to see how it’s progressing and when it might release.

Previously played with a gamepad, motion control support brings your hands into Obduction for the first time. The game has you solving puzzles and exploring visually rich landscapes as you’re transported across the universe. Since the developer announced motion controller support late last year many fans have actually been waiting on its arrival to actually play the game. In a prepared statement, developer CEO Ran Miller revealed the game is on 200,000 Steam wishlists, many of whom are waiting on the Vive/Touch version.

In our review, we noted that Obduction “does have some issues” but these were mainly to do with the capabilities of VR itself and not the developer. Hopefully motion controls fixes some of those issues, because the game otherwise features “an amazing world, clever puzzles, a fascinating story, satisfying gameplay, and a title that can stand next to its elder brothers Myst and Riven with pride.”

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Vive and Touch Support Coming to Sci-fi Adventure Obduction in March

Last summer indie videogame studio Cyan – the developer behind award-winning titles Myst and Riven – launched a followup in the form of Obduction on Oculus Rift. Then in November it revealed support would also come to HTC Vive, Oculus Touch and PlayStation VR in 2017. Now the studio has confirmed a date in March for Vive and Touch.

Obduction, will launch for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch on 22nd March via Steam, GOG, Humble Store, and the Oculus Store for $29.99 USD £22.99 GBP. For players who already own the title will get Vive and Touch support as a free update.

“We have over 200,000 fans on our Steam wishlist, many who have been asking for hand controls for Obduction. As a VR-centric studio, we’re thrilled to be delving even further into these platforms, bringing ever deeper immersion to our worlds and pushing the edge of what’s possible,”said Rand Miller, CEO, Cyan in a statement.

Obduction screenshot

Cyan will also take Obduction on the road, with playable PC and Oculus Touch version appearing at the Indie Corner of the SXSW Gaming show floor, from Thursday, 16th March – Saturday, 18th March at the Austin Convention Center. On 17th March, master puzzler Rand Miller will make an appearance doing an AMA on the SXSW Gamer’s Voice stage. The studio will also head to PAX East, featuring at the Indie MEGABOOTH in Boston, Friday, 10th March 10 to Sunday, 12th March.

Obduction began back in 2013 as a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign looking to raise $1,100,000. The Kickstarter was hugely successful raising just over $1,300,000 and hitting the stretch goal of VR support for the Oculus Rift.

Work is still ongoing with the PlayStation VR version, Cyan has yet to announce a launch date for it. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Obduction, reporting back with the latest updates.