FireSprite – Page 3 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

June 10, 2018

Horror-Roguelike The Persistence Will Be Playable At E3

The biggest event of the videogaming calendar, E3 2018 is now upon us, bringing with it the customary haul of announcements, demos, reveals and hype. For people who are fortunate enough to have made it to E3 this year, developer Firesprite has some PlayStation VR goodies in store.

Liverpool-based developer Firesprite announced that it was delving into the realm of horror with a new title called The Persistence, which will be heading to the PlayStation VR.

The Persistence screenshot

Horror tends to work effectively in virtual reality (VR), with the immersiveness and immediacy of the medium working to its benefit. The developers have chosen to also adopt some roguelike elements by introducing procedural generation.

The story of The Persistence involves a spaceship far out into deep space which is studying a collapsed star. A disaster occurs, killing most of the crew. The ship’s computer tries to employ the cloning machine on board to resurrect the crew, but the damage suffered by the ship means the majority of the crew are revived as horrific, mutated abominations.

Players take the role of the only non-corrupted crew member, who needs to defeat the corrupted crew and take back control of the ship.

The decks of the ship are procedurally generated, so each run through the videogame will offer some different routes, options, weapons and powerups. Players can use a special weapon called The Harvester to extract DNA from other crew, which can then be used to re-sequence your DNA to unlock new powers and abilities.

The Persistence

A playable demo on the PlayStation VR will be available at E3, though it has not yet been confirmed if this will be presented by Firesprite themselves or will be at the Sony PlayStation area.

PlayStation have announced a number of new PlayStation VR titles over the past few days, including Tetris Effect, Ghost Giant and Beat Saber, with other announcements expected at the PlayStation showcase. VRFocus will be sure to bring you the latest news from E3.

January 31, 2018

Horror Roguelike The Persistence Pre-Orders Now Available

Something about the immersiveness and immediacy of virtual reality (VR) means it lends itself particularly well to horror. One of the most successful early titles on the PlayStation VR was Resident Evil 7 biohazard, which continues to scare the pants of players in VR a year after release. Hoping to capture some of that terrifying magic is developer Firesprite and its upcoming horror/roguelike titled The Persistence.

The Persistence draws on the beloved traditions of a roguelike, such as procedurally-generated levels to explore, skills to unlock and, of course, a high degree of difficulty. Dying is not the end of a journey, however, it is just the start. Players have a multitude of clones to deploy. The clones form a core part of the horror aspect – a nearby black hole is causing havoc on the spaceship you are travelling on, damaging the clone machine and causing it to spit out horrific mutated copies of the ship’s crew. The player is the last uncorrupted survivor, struggling to stay alive.

The ship’s decks are procedurally generated, so each run can contain entirely unexpected surprises. That could mean an advantages placement of a weapons manufacturing facility to allow you to go guns blazing against your foes, or it could be a nest of mutants ready to pounce. As the developers admit, you are going to die – a lot.

The player character has some tricks up her sleeve, however. Which each new clone is the chance to re-sequence her DNA to unlock new powers and skills and become more powerful, allowing her to reach new, more distant areas of the stricken ship.

A multiplayer option is also available, with local play allowing a player’s friends to use a smartphone or tablet to manipulate the ship’s systems and help out the player. There’s a catch, however, as your smartphone-wielding friend could potentially get a big reward when you die, presenting a question of trust.

The Persistence is due to launch on 24th July, 2018. Pre-orders are available now, with a discount for PlayStation Plus members.

Further news on The Persistence and other upcoming PlayStation VR titles will be here on VRFocus.

December 20, 2017July 20, 2018

Hands-On: The Persistence Is A Tense, Sci-Fi VR Roguelike

Editor’s Note: This preview is from December 2017, but it has been republished today as a lead-in for the game’s launch on Tuesday, July 24th. Our full review will be live the night before on Monday, July 23rd at 9PM PT.

Original: One of the biggest issues facing the VR market right now is that most of the content is too short to hold anyone’s attention for more than an hour or two. We’ve gotten some long, elaborate adventures as of late such as Skyrim VR, Fallout 4 VR, and even Resident Evil 7, but for the most part VR games can be “completed” in a single afternoon. The Persistence from Firesprite is not one of those games.

Since The Persistence is designed to be endlessly replayable it borrows many design principles from the roguelike genre. In these games you typically play as a single character and attempt to reach the end of the game. Usually you don’t on your first, or second, or third try, so when you die you start over, but get to keep some progression across playthroughs. What makes these sorts of games special though is that you don’t replay the same levels — things tend to change each and every time.

Footage from a hands-on event in March 2017

In The Persistence You’re meant to explore a massive spaceship, picking your way through it as you gather loot and fight terrifying enemies, slowly making your way to the ship’s core. Each time you die the ship’s layout gets altered, but you can download samples of your past life’s DNA to maintain some progress.

At this year’s PlayStation Experience (PSX) I got the chance to go hands-on with a brand new build of the game and came away even more excited than before. The game’s mechanics perform well and it feels similar to most other head-tracked first-person action games such as Resident Evil 7 and Skyrim VR using the DualShock 4 with a mixture of teleportation and full, smooth locomotion.

Weapon variety was great with a nice mixture of pistols, larger rifles, grenades, and melee weapons. My favorite weapon I got to try out in the new demo was a gravity-based weapon that suspended enemies in the air and let me control them with my head movements. After picking them up, I could whip my neck up, down, and side-to-side to slam enemies into the walls, floor, and ceiling. Seeing the blood spatter across surfaces was very satisfying in a sort of dark, twisted way.

The Persistence also features second-screen functionality enabling another player sitting next to you to pull up an app on a tablet or mobile device that interacts with the game world in real-time. They can do things like highlight areas of the environment, alert enemies, uncover loot, and even hinder you from time-to-time to secure their own upgrades and progression. None of it is essential to the experience, but it does offer a unique twist that’s never been seen before in a game like this either inside of or outside of VR.

Another point about The Persistence worth mentioning is that it’s on the borderline of basically being considered a survival horror game. I found myself having to crouch and sneak through rooms very cautiously and felt a sharp sense of tension every time an enemy discovered me and rushed forward to attack. There is a real sense of fear and danger here, which is nice, and should add to the unique atmosphere aboard the spaceship.

For The Persistence the biggest question mark is going to be how varied does each playthrough feel? The developers are claiming a single, full playthrough without dying will take approximately four hours to finish, but will players have a real incentive to try and complete it once, twice, or even three more times?

Games like From Other Suns are facing similar questions, but at least in that scenario there is cooperative multiplayer to offset some of the issues. We have no idea if The Persistence is going to pack enough content to really carry itself, but we will find out soon enough.

The Persistence from Firesprite is coming to PSVR in 2018. If you’re hungry to try it out for yourself, you can check out an older demo build of the game on the most recent PSVR demo disc batch. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

Tagged with: Firesprite, PSX, The Persistence

The post Hands-On: The Persistence Is A Tense, Sci-Fi VR Roguelike appeared first on UploadVR.

November 8, 2017

Second PlayStation VR Demo Disc Arrives, Full List Of Videogames Revealed

Yesterday we brought you news of the second PlayStation VR Demo Disc which would be available for PlayStation VR users as of today. At the time we weren’t sure what exactly we would get by way of videogame titles baring an announcement from developers Polyarc confirming that virtual reality (VR) action platformer Moss would be amongst the titles on offer. (Much to the delight of the VRFocus team.)

The listings for PlayStation VR sampler has now been revealed and includes titles from across the genre spectrum. The full list of titles joining Moss can be found below.

Battlezone by Rebellion

A regular on VRFocus’ lists relating to the best VR videogame experiences out there, the tank-based shooter takes the series classic roots and updates them for the virtual stage. Battlezone gained a 5-star review on VRFocus, where it was described as “intense and addictive”.

Dino Frontier by Uber Entertainment.

Cowboys meet Jurassic Park by way of Sim City, Dino Frontier lets you capture and tame dinosaurs in the Wild West to help build and manage a virtual town.

EVE: Valkyrie by CCP Games

CCP Games might be packing up the big top as far as their involvement in VR is concerned but that doesn’t stop EVE: Valkyire continuing to be one of the best VR experiences out there, and now VR and non-VR players can enjoy dogfighting in spaceships together.

Fantastic Contraption by Radial Games

Another title commonly amongst those VRFocus recommends: “Easy to begin with, Fantastic Contraption lets you get accustomed to the intricacies of what does what before throwing the real challenges at you. And there’s a lot, the title features 50 levels to get your head around.”

Job Simulator by Owlchemy Labs

A multi-award winning videogame, Job Simulator was so good Google brought developers Owlchemy Labs into the company. The title continues to get development and content as well, with the recently revealed ‘Infinite Overtime’ update.

Raw Data by Survios

A highly popular virtual reality (VR) shooter, Raw Data sees players equipped with both firearms and a katana, and have the simple object of taking out the enemies before they themselves are overcome.

Rez Infinite by Enhance Games

Another PlayStation VR title that received a full five stars in its review, Rez Infinite is the spiritual successor to the original Rez, which first appeared on SEGA’s Dreamcast console.

StarBlood Arena by Whitemoon Dreams

The only title on the listing specifically requiring additional downloading, a demo of Starblood Arena was initially made available back in August. Starblood Arena allows the player to take control of one of nine available ships, each with its unique pilot, features and weapon loadout. Allowing would-be players the combination that suits their preferred style of play.

Star Child by GameTrust

One of a crop of PlayStation VR titles to receive a share of the spotlight recently during Sony’s press event at Paris Games Week, which included the reveal of a brand new trailer. Star Child is takes place on an alien world full of fantastical Martian creatures and creations in a homage to platformers of the 90s while also being something entirely new.

The Persistence by Firesprite

Originally revealed back in March this year, The Persistance comes from the developers behind The Playroom VR. Awaking from cryosleep, it’s up the players to kill the undead and take back control of the ship before it plunges into a nearby black hole.

Thumper by Drool

The self-described “rhythm violence” videogame was announced in March last year and by the time it hit the show floor at 2016’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) it had already made an impact. Drool said in their announcement that Thumper was “unlike anything you’ve seen, played or heard – a cocktail of kinetic action and aggressive acoustics. It’s the kind of game that inhales you, spits you out and leaves you yearning for more.” And they certainly aren’t exaggerating.

Tiny Trax by FuturLab

Slot car racing get a new twist. Tiny Trax features a drifting/boost-recharge mechanic, alongside lane switching and epic jumps across twelve tracks that’ll take players to tropical islands, volcanoes, ice caves and outer-space. It’s developer, Brighton-based studio FuturLab, recently revealed a new PlayStation VR title in Mini-Mech Mayhem.

The PlayStation VR Demo Disc 2 is now available on the PlayStation Store, it requires 15.2GB of space and several titles within it – Raw Data, Rez Infinite, Job Simulator, Dino Frontier and Fantastic Contraption – do require PS Move Controllers in order to play them.

VRFocus will bring you more details on developments with the PlayStation VR very soon.

June 5, 2017

5 PlayStation VR Games to Watch at E3 2017

The PlayStation VR benefited from a huge swathe of videogame titles at launch, but in the months that followed this barrage slowed to a trickle. The recent releases of the well received Farpoint and Star Trek: Bridge Crew see the first wave of titles announced coming to a close; so what’s next? VRFocus looks at five new titles on the horizon, and why you should be excited for them.

The Persistence

After the success of Playroom VR, UK-based Firesprite are coming back for more virtual reality (VR), this time with a much darker experience. The Persistence is a horror title featuring procedurally generated environments. In a similar fashion to Ubisoft’s Zombi, every time the player dies they become a new character, but in The Persistence the space ship upon which they are based will have changed: a new layout, enemy placement and items.

To connect each attempt, the player can harvest cells which can be used to improve attributes such as speed, health and stealth. If a player dies these are transferred for the next play through, hence that title.

The Persistence was originally expected to launch last month, however there’s no signs of a release date at present. It’s likely we’ll learn more at next week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Los Angeles.

Bloody Zombies

Another UK studio, nDreams pledged their commitment to the new medium very early in the wave or modern VR. After launching The Assembly last year, the developer/publisher is returning to PlayStation VR with Bloody Zombies: a side-scrolling brawler.

While the genre may not scream ‘VR’, it is actually a perfect combination of technology and action. The 2D characters appear like cardboard cutouts in the virtual environment and the added benefit of a widened viewpoint allows developer Paw Print Games to hide secrets beyond the edge of the traditional 2D screen.

Bloody Zombies has been designed to allow for up to four players to use any combination of VR and non-VR when playing together online, keeping the experience open to all. VRFocus has already been hands-on with Bloody Zombies and will get to experience the title once again at next week’s E3.

Theseus

Recently confirmed for PlayStation VR, Forge Reply’s Theseus proposes an interesting combination of platform challenges and brawling, combined with static and dynamic camera angles, screams ‘God of War’.

According to Samuele Perseo, Producer at Forge Reply: “Theseus is not an ordinary hero; in our game he is the prey, not the hunter. He is “only human” while his enemy, besides being 33 feet tall, has otherworldly strength… and he is invulnerable.

“Theseus cannot just fight the Minotaur head-on: each encounter between the two poses a new challenge. It may be necessary to resort to stealth, or an ancient mechanism could be the key to escape death. The monster is blind, but his hearing and his smell are sharp.”

Theseus is expected to launch on PlayStation VR this summer, and as such will likely make its playable debut at E3 next week.

Tiny Trax

The third UK studio delivering their wares to this list, FuturLab has built a strong audience thanks to the success of the Velocity series. Now however, the developer is turning its attention to VR, with the upcoming Tiny Trax.

Having been compared to Micro Machines with a hint of Off-Road 4×4 thanks to its unique viewpoint, Tiny Trax will follow Codemasters’ Toybox Turbos in delivering an unconventional racing videogame to VR players. Featuring both single player gameplay and an online multiplayer for up to four people, Tiny Trax will include six vehicles to select before heading out onto the track.

No release date has yet been announced for Tiny Trax, however FuturLab has suggested that it will be ‘coming soon’. Of course, VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details.

Sony Santa Monica

So, we don’t actually know what this one is. So why’s it on this list? Because Sony Santa Monica is one of the most highly respected developers on PlayStation hardware. That’s why.

As you will most likely have seen, last month VRFocus reported on an unofficial statement regarding Sony Santa Monica’s continued work in VR, and that after assisting a number of studios with external projects its first title for the PlayStation VR will likely be announced soon. That ‘soon’ may well be at E3 next week.

Whether it will be a part of an existing franchise – Sony Santa Monica has of course championed the God of War series – or a brand new title is yet to be seen, but you can be sure that whatever comes will shoot straight to the top of PlayStation VR owners’ most wanted lists.

March 12, 2017

The VR Job Hub: Carbon Games, Firesprite & BBC

Whether you’re an experienced designer, programmer, engineer, or maybe you’ve just been inspired after reading VRFocus articles, the jobs listed here are located worldwide, from major game players to humble indie developers – the one thing they all have in common is that they are all jobs in VR.

View the new listings below for more information:

Location	Company	Role	Link
London, UK	BBC	Senior Distribution & Business Development Manager	Click Here to Apply
Bellevue, WA	Carbon Games	3D Artist	Click Here to Apply
Bellevue, WA	Carbon Games	Technical Artist	Click Here to Apply
Bellevue, WA	Carbon Games	Technical Designer for VR	Click Here to Apply
Liverpool, UK	Firesprite	Graphic Designer	Email jobs@firesprite.com
Liverpool, UK	Firesprite	Technical Artist	Email jobs@firesprite.com
Liverpool, UK	Firesprite	3D Modeller	Email jobs@firesprite.com
Liverpool, UK	Firesprite	Senior Programmer	Email jobs@firesprite.com

Look back at last week’s post for ongoing listings. If you’re an employer and are looking for someone to fill a VR or AR related gap on your workforce and would like your role to feature on next week’s VR Job Hub please send details of the role to either pgraham@vrfocus.com or keva@vrfocus.com

Check back with VRFocus at the new time of 3pm GMT every Sunday for the latest positions in this ever growing industry.

March 10, 2017

More scares await PlayStation VR as The Persistence Confirmed

It’s just been announced that Firesprite, the Liverpool, UK-based developer behind The Playroom VR on PlayStation VR, is working on another title for the head-mounted display (HMD). Taking a somewhat different direction to the family oriented videogame, the studio is working on horror experience The Persistence.

Horror has become one of the most popular genre’s for virtual reality (VR) developers to explore, and Firesprite will be going down the sci-fi survival route for The Persistance. Every good horror title needs a decent backstory, and this sees players on board a research vessel studying a collapsed star. Disaster strikes and the ship’s on-board computer tries to save the crew by reviving their deceased bodies. As you may suspect this doesn’t go according to plan and the process transforms them into ravenous mutants.

Awaking from cryosleep, it’s up the players to kill the undead and take back control of the ship before it plunges into a nearby black hole.

The Persistence - screenshot 2

The Persistance is a procedurally generated videogame so that every time a player dies another character in cryosleep is awoken, but the ship will have changed, with a new layout, enemy placement and pickups. These come in the form of stem cells which can be extracted from enemies using a weapon called the Harvester. These cells can then be used to improve attributes such as speed, health, and stealth. If a player dies these are transferred for the next play through.

Other weapons include a six-shooter pistol, a Gravity Bomb which drops miniature black holes, and for some melee action there’s the Rage Serum granting players temporary super-strength.

Firesprite isn’t just making The Persistance a solitary, solo affair as many survival horrors tend to be. Its working on a social app for smartphones and tablets that allows other players to help or hinder the VR user. With the app they can view the ship’s compartments, identify threats or mark items.

There’s no confirmation on when The Persistance will launch, but VRFocus will keep you updated on when it does.

March 10, 2017

Hands-On With The Persistence, A New Procedurally Generated Survival Horror PSVR Game

Every now and then a game comes along that marries genres together in such a way that it just makes perfect sense. When the premise for The Persistence was described to me, I found myself wondering why it hadn’t been made sooner. Essentially, you take control of a passenger on a starship that’s awoken from sleep after all of the previous crew was either murdered or transformed into a hideous monster. If you die as this new passenger, the ship’s A.I. awakens a different sleeping passenger that you take control of to pick up where the last one left off.

The twist is that, as a procedurally generated title, every time you restart, the ship’s layout changes. That’s where things get interesting.

Yesterday, Sony invited UploadVR and other members of the media to a private showcase of upcoming PlayStation VR (PSVR) titles. There were five games in total: Farpoint, Starblood Arena, Fantastic Contraption, Statik, and this brand new game right here, The Persistence by FireSprite.

In addition to being a clever combination of procedural generation and roguelike mechanics, it’s also a first-person survival horror game, otherwise known as one of the best genre fits for VR we’ve seen to date. During my demo there was a heavy focus on stealth and many of the items I came across were melee-focused. My standard weapon allowed me to drain the stem cells from my enemies and I even found a device that could turn them against one another, transforming one of them into a “pet” of my own, to fight by my side. I did find an old-style revolver eventually, but the randomization algorithm only blessed me two precious bullets.

On top of all of that though, there is even optional, second screen, multiplayer functionality that fits the theme perfectly. While you’re playing, a second person can download an app on their tablet or mobile device that displays the current map of the ship, as well as icons describing where items and enemies are located.

The second player gets XP for doing things like helping you out, but every now and then they might receive an objective to put you in harm’s way, but on the flipside, the VR player can upload viruses to the second player, stealing XP at certain moments if they wish.. This creates an interesting trust and betrayal dynamic that extends the experience beyond the headset, which the PSVR is already great at doing. It certainly adds an interesting new layer to the game as a whole, but thankfully The Persistence is still fully playable on your own if you’d prefer.

One of the things in The Persistence that stood out the most to me is just how clean and polished everything looks. The lighting is sharp and detailed with wonderful shadows in all of the darkest corners of the derelict vessel and character models are far more articulated than we’ve seen in most VR titles.

Some of the weapon animations could use some work — I noticed when I found the revolver my character became obsessed with flipping and spinning it around in his hand for a few seconds, but it was way too close to my face and was jarring since it seemed to pass through where my head should have been in some cases. Some of the traps and hazards (such as poisonous smoke) were a bit hard to notice visually given the darkness of environments and I had difficulty maneuvering around them at first, but part of that could be chalked up to my impatience and desire to see as much of the demo as possible in the restricted setting.

Movement was a full locomotion system using the DualShock 4 controller. The developers found that instead of implementing partial degree snap turning on the right stick, if they actually just sped up the rotation to be super fast, your eyes and inner ear didn’t perceive it as natural motion and it sidestepped the sickness issues. You can also teleport forward to sprint longer distances or get around objects with the press of the button. It’s hard to say if the comfort solutions actually work — motion sickness doesn’t plague me — but it seems like a creative workaround.

It’s also hard to gauge length for a title like The Persistence, since you’ll often find yourself playing newly generated maps over and over with different experiences each and every time. Your mission is to reach the far end of the ship, get past all of the enemies, and figure out a way to send the craft back to Earth in an attempt to save everyone that’s left on board. During my demo, I didn’t get very far before dying, but that’s sort of expected with games like this. You should be prepared to die several times in many different ways.

The Persistence is currently slated for a May 2017 release window on PSVR according to Sony, but there’s no definitive word on the price point or plans for other platforms in the future right now. Does The Persistence sound like the type of game you see yourself playing in VR? Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

Tagged with: FireSprite, PSVR, The Persistence