Category: Harmonix

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The VR Job Hub: Random42, Squanch Games, First Contact Entertainment and More

2019 is moving along quite nicely but that may not be the case for those of you who are disillusioned with your current job, or worst still have recently lost a job due to actions beyond your control. If that’s the case then maybe the following companies and vacancies will offer a chance to start afresh.

Location Company Role Link
London, UK Random42 3D Generalist Click Here to Apply
London, UK Random42 3D Animator Click Here to Apply
Santa Monica, CA First Contact Entertainment Senior Gameplay Programmer Click Here to Apply
Santa Monica, CA First Contact Entertainment Senior Game Server Engineer Click Here to Apply
Santa Monica, CA First Contact Entertainment Lighting Artist Click Here to Apply
Santa Monica, CA First Contact Entertainment IT Systems Administrator Click Here to Apply
Santa Monica, CA First Contact Entertainment Senior Full Stack Engineer Click Here to Apply
Austin, TX Gunfire Games Gameplay Programmer Click Here to Apply
Austin, TX Gunfire Games Senior Concept Artist Click Here to Apply
Austin, TX Gunfire Games Character Artist Click Here to Apply
Austin, TX Gunfire Games Senior Environment Artist Click Here to Apply
Austin, TX Gunfire Games Environment Artist Click Here to Apply
Boston, MA Harmonix Community Manager Click Here to Apply
Austin, TX Phaser Lock Interactive Social Media/Marketing Manager Click Here to Apply
Burbank, CA or Raleigh, NC Squanch Games Senior Designer Click Here to Apply
Raleigh, NC Squanch Games Game Producer Click Here to Apply
Burbank, CA or Raleigh, NC Squanch Games Social Media Manager Click Here to Apply
Burbank, CA or Raleigh, NC Squanch Games Lead Programmer Click Here to Apply
Burbank, CA or Raleigh, NC Squanch Games Systems Programmer Click Here to Apply
Burbank, CA or Raleigh, NC Squanch Games Gameplay Programmer Click Here to Apply

Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hub to check as well.

If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).

We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.

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Audica is a new Rhythm Action Shooter From the Team Behind Rock Band VR

When it comes to rhythm action videogames Beat Saber is the current darling of the virtual reality (VR) industry, loved by gamers and bestowed with numerous awards. However, Beat Games is still new at this and is about to be challenged by a veteran of the genre, Harmonix – the developer behind Rock Band VR – with its latest VR title Audica.

Audica

Making the announcement via its Twitter channel, Harmonix said: “Introducing Audica – a VR rhythm shooter that combines Harmonix’s award-winning music gameplay with precision shooting mechanics and a killer soundtrack, all set in a mesmerizing cosmic arena.”

From the looks of the screenshots and mixed reality (MR) trailer, Harmonix seems to be going all out with Audica, offering a frantic first-person shooter (FPS) take on rhythm action videogames, with a blue gun and an orange gun to take out respective targets. Whether they are singular or a succession of smaller targets which look to require a sweeping motion.

Not only does the gameplay look fun, but expect the soundtrack to be equally captivating. As one of the most well-known studios when it comes to this genre of videogame, Harmonix will surely be able to attract some of the biggest electronic artists in the world to supply sounds.

Audica

Audica will see an initial Early Access release via Steam and Oculus Store on 7th March 2019 for $19.99 USD, purely supporting HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The Early Access release will feature a 10 song soundtrack with licensed music, including:

  • 1788-L & Blanke “Destiny”
  • Alison Wonderland “I Want U”
  • Donna Summer “I Feel Love (Afrojack Remix)”
  • James Egbert “The Space”
  • Savant “Splinter”

There will be four difficulties per song, one environment to play in and one weapon set. Online leaderboards will also work in Early Access.

Harmonix expects to leave Early Access before the end of 2019, with the fully released version featuring 25+ songs, Campaign and Practice modes, additional environments and weapon sets, plus expanded leaderboard functionality. The studio also hopes to bring Audica to PlayStation VR after the closure of Early Access.

VRFocus will follow the progress of Audica during its Early Access phase, reporting back with the latest announcements.

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‘Audica’ is an Inventive “VR Rhythm Shooter” From the Studio Behind ‘Rock Band’

Harmonix, the studio behind many rhythm game hits like Guitar Hero (2005) and Rock Band (2007), today announced what they’re calling a “VR rhythm shooter” that looks—to be frank—pretty freaking awesome.

I guess there’s just something about combining body movements with music that is naturally appealing (who would have guessed?); as someone who has said on more than one occasion that a VR gun game featuring ‘instructed gameplay’ (in the vein of Beat Saber) could be tons of fun, I was thrilled to see today’s announcement of Audica, which looks to skillfully tie together gun mechanics with some audio-visual instructions to create a game which looks to only really make sense in VR.

The game is slated to launch in Early Access on March 7th, and is set to come to the Oculus Rift and SteamVR (ostensibly supporting Vive, Windows VR, and Rift). Harmonix hasn’t yet mentioned support for the upcoming Oculus Quest, but they’d be missing a huge potential opportunity if they aren’t already designing Audica to land there eventually (my guess is that they are).

As for the game’s mechanics: from the trailer we can see a variety of distinct ‘shot’ types that players will need to manage: there’s a ‘hold’ shot (which looks like electricity), ‘straight’ (circular target), ‘sideways’ (horizontal target), ‘rapid fire’ (strings of diamond targets), and ‘hit’ notes where the player has to smack a sphere with their gun.

While the type and timing of each shot is clearly visible, I’m very interested to see how (of even if) the game helps players understand how to move from one note to the next. One reason why Beat Saber feels so good is that notes are confined to a small area in front of the player and they also explicitly indicate the swing direction; it becomes intuitive over time how one would move from one block to the next (given the note position and swing direction), even when playing tracks you’ve never played before. With Audica’s notes seemingly covering a much larger potential area, it may be challenging to help the player understand which movements between notes will be best, short of raw practice and memorization.

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Something else I’m curious about about is the frequency with which users will need to pull the triggers. I’ve played a handful of (bad) VR games that basically ask the player to continuously pull the trigger to shoot a pistol for the entire duration of gameplay, which can very quickly lead to finger strain. Harmonix will need to be careful not to directly tie track difficulty to trigger frequency, and to smartly rely on a mix of mechanics to avoid finger fatigue (as they appear to be doing so far in the trailer).

In an announcement post on Reddit, the team behind the game said, “Audica has been a passion project for a small team here at the studio and we’re thrilled to finally share it with the world.”

The team answered an impromptu Q&A offering up some additional details on the game:

  • “The soundtrack will be a mix of licensed music (the majority) and tracks from Harmonix friends & family. The core soundtrack is expected to be electronic but if the game does well and there is demand for DLC I think we would experiment with some different genres.”
  • “When you buy Audica in Early Access you get access to the full soundtrack. On March 7 that will be 10 songs but we’re targeting a 25+ song soundtrack for full release later this year. As we add songs to the soundtrack you’ll get them for free. We may do DLC down the road but it’s a bit too early to say how or what it would look like.”
  • “It’s definitely a challenge on Expert but each song has 4 difficulties so there’s something for everyone.”

The team has notably avoided answering questions about the potential for modding and custom music in Audica, which is understandable considering issues with music licensing. Those capabilities are an essential reason why Beat Saber has formed a strong and active community.

Audica isn’t Harmonix’s first foray into VR, but it does look to be their most inventive—and dare I say, promising—yet. The studio actually has a significant track record across major VR platforms, having previously released Harmonix Music VR (2016) on PSVR, Rock Band VR (2017) on Oculus Rift, and SingSpace (2017) on Gear VR.

The post ‘Audica’ is an Inventive “VR Rhythm Shooter” From the Studio Behind ‘Rock Band’ appeared first on Road to VR.

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Audica Is A VR Rhythm Music Shooter From Harmonix Coming In March

audica harmonix

Harmonix announced a brand new VR rhythm game on Twitter today called Audica. Based on the footage it looks like it’s a mixture of first-person shooter mechanics with the same style of rhythm-based music gameplay the developer has become known for.

Other than the announcement tweet and debut trailer we know basically nothing about Audica at this time. You can see the announcement trailer here:

Here’s what the Steam page has to say:

Audica is a VR Rhythm Shooter from Harmonix, the makers of Rock Band and Dance Central. Armed with a pair of rhythm blasters, you shoot and smash targets to the beat of a soundtrack featuring songs from some of the world’s most popular electronic artists. The better your timing, accuracy and form, the better your score. The better your score, the higher your place on the Audica Leaderboards.

Audica is incredibly intuitive and immersive from the first time you play – use your blue and orange blasters to shoot color-coded targets to the beat while in a breathtaking cosmic arena. On expert difficulty, Audica gameplay is intense and exacting. If you want to claim a spot at the top of the leaderboards, you’ll need to practice until you and your blasters become one, performing a tightly choreographed ballet of beat-blasting brilliance.

You’d be hard-pressed for me to come up with a better series of alliteration than “ballet of beat-blasting brilliance” to describe what I saw in the trailer. That’s A+ word-slinging right there.

In an exclusive interview with Game Informer, Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos dished some extra details. As it turns out, Audica is actually crafted from the remnants of the canceled competitive music shooter, Chroma, that Harmonix had started prototyping years ago.

According to the interview, in Audica you dual-wield VR guns to take aim at targets that form out of different colors and shapes similar to skeet shooting. There is a circle closing around each target and once it is fully closed that’s the precise moment you should shoot it as the music thumps along. In a way, it looks and feels a bit like Audioshield or Beat Saber, but is gun-based rather than swiping or punching.

Audica’s soundtrack will focus mostly on electronic music. When it releases in early access that will include ten total songs, the first five of which are:

  • 1788-L & Blanke “Destiny”
  • Alison Wonderland “I Want U”
  • Donna Summer “I Feel Love (Afrojack Remix)”
  • James Egbert “The Space”
  • Savant “Splinter”

As someone that’s been a fan of Harmonix’s work for years (even before Rock Band, going all the way back to Frequency and Amplitude from nearly 20 years ago) I’m excited to see them still involved with VR. Harmonix Music VR on PSVR was an interesting, albeit overall lacking, eclectic collection of music mini games, while Rock Band VR on Rift had some really great ideas implemented. Even SingSpace on Gear  VR on Go, a VR karaoke game, was a good time with the right people.

Audica will be their fourth VR game so I’m excited to see what lessons they’ve learned and applied from the last several years. You can look forward to playing Audica on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive as an Early Access game on March 7th, 2019. It’ll be on both Oculus Home and Steam.

Harmonix “hopes” to bring Audica to PSVR and Quest eventually as well. You can join the Harmonix Discord for more details as it nears Early Access launch and see the official website. Let us know what you think of the game down in the comments below!

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The post Audica Is A VR Rhythm Music Shooter From Harmonix Coming In March appeared first on UploadVR.

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Harmonix Adds 2 Further Tracks to Rock Band VR’s Library this Month

Harmonix’s Rock Band VR has been out for several months now and in that time the studio’s released a steady stream of DLC tracks for users to continue jamming to. This month is no different, with two new tracks getting added to the rock library.

Coming to the Oculus Rift and Touch exclusive experience are The Weeknd’s Can’t Feel My Face and Twenty One Pilots’ Stressed Out for fans to enjoy. These will be released next Wednesday, 7th June, 2017, retailing for $2.99 USD per track.

Rock Band VR

Rock Band VR is an immersive reimagining of the classic guitar playing series, where gamers find themselves in front of a virtual audience, ready to thrash out chords and rifts in a more organic setting. VRFocus reviewed the title, giving it 4 stars and saying: “Rock Band VR is definitely built around having as much fun with the experience as possible. There’s no right way or wrong way to any of it, just the sheer enjoyment of playing some classic tunes in a far more relaxed manner.”

Since the March launch Harmonix has released DLC in to form of Green Day and White Stripes last month, with six tunes from rockers Aerosmith in April.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Rock Band VR, reporting back with any further updates.

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Review: Rock Band VR

Several years ago rhythm action videogames like Rock Band and Guitar Hero were all the rage, with gamers eager to jam away on plastic guitars to their favourite pop and rock songs from the last few decades. That interest waned however as the genre struggled to offer anything new and improved. Then in comes virtual reality (VR) with an entirely new way of immersing players, and so Oculus supported Harmonix in creating a newly updated version for the technology, Rock Band VR, which has hit all the right notes.  

First and foremost, Rock Band VR isn’t the experience you may remember from the original titles. Over the course of development Harmonix has learned that while staring at a confined area on a TV works for normal consoles that methodology wouldn’t (or couldn’t) transfer into a VR experience, it’s just too ridged. And so the studio has built a far more open, free-playing system that allows you go for 5-star highscores or just rock out anyway you dam please.

Rock Band VR

And this new system has certainly benefited Rock Band VR. You now find yourself on a proper stage, with band mates, pedals, and swappable stage locations to make that feeling of immersion evermore apparent and grounding. When playing a song, you’re no longer fixed to the exact chords and changes of the actual tune – you still play it of course but there’s no failing it as such. Instead the studio gives you a bar that floats above the crowd with certain areas highlighted with particular notes to play to maximise your score, if you wish to adhere to it.

By that reasoning you may think you can just thrash anything out and it’ll sound ok – which it kind of does – but to delve into the rich sound variations takes time, with much more to master than the original versions. It’s a much more easy going videogame than its forebears, the pedals let you tweak the sound how you wish, and with the more modern guitar (this was a Fender Stratocaster) with its higher note buttons, let you chop and change the sound so the same song can be played multiple ways.

But there is something missing. This style of gameplay feels like the saying ‘winning doesn’t matter it’s the taking part that counts’. There’s no direct difficulty to it, you won’t get booted if you can’t keep up or just play rubbish. When you perfectly completed a song on the original title at the hardest difficulty there’s a sense of elation that comes with it, whether you managed to repeat the performance never mattered, the score always stayed as a reminder of the hours of practice put in. Whereas the core Rock Band VR experience doesn’t have that, it wants you to feel good no matter how bad you play.

Rockband VR

There is a flip side to this, Harmonix has added a classic mode which brings back the traditional scrolling neck for those that want it. Seriously though don’t bother. The addition perfectly illustrates why the studio veered away from this design in the first place. It just doesn’t do VR justice in anyway shape or form – the videogame would have got a 1-star if it had stuck to that.

Rock Band VR is definitely built around having as much fun with the experience as possible. There’s no right way or wrong way to any of it, just the sheer enjoyment of playing some classic tunes in a far more relaxed manner. Does it sometimes feel a bit much having to wear a headset, strap a guitar to you and have an Oculus Touch in the mix as well? Yes, yes it does, but quite frankly you probably won’t care when thrashing out some Bon Jovi.

80%

Awesome

  • Verdict
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Green Day and The White Stripes Debut on Rock Band VR

Developer Harmonix has revealed what new DLC is coming up for musical rhythm games Rock Band VR, Rock Band 4 and SingSpace this month.

As usual focusing on well-known songs by popular bands, Rock Band VR’s song library will be getting two songs that hit number 1 on the US Modern Rock Chart, which will be available to download for $2.99 (USD) each:

  • Green Day – Basket Case
  • The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army

In addition, social karaoke experience on the Samsung Gear VR SingSpace was launched earlier in the month and is already receiving new DLC tracks to add to the library. The title uses a subscription model where users can pay as little as $1.99 per month to get access to ongoing updates.

Last week saw classic Queen tracks Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody To Love and Under Pressure added to the subscription library, and four more tracks will be made available to subscribers over the next two weeks:

  • Bad Romance
  • Black Horse & The Cherry Tree
  • DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love
  • No Scrubs

Rock Band 4 is getting additional tracks, too, with the following songs available to download for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 users for $1.99 each:

  • Montell Jordan – This Is How We Do It
  • blink-182 – Bored To Death
  • The Isley Brothers – Shout
  • MGMT – Kids

Keep an eye on VRFocus for further updates on upcoming DLC for Rock Band VR and SingSpace.

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Try and Carry a Tune in SingSpace for Gear VR

This week Samsung Gear VR owners can now enjoy some virtual reality (VR) karaoke either on their own of with friends thanks to Harmonix’s SingSpace.  

The Rock Band VR developer originally announced SingSpace for the mobile head-mounted display (HMD) in October 2016, and since then has only demoed the experience with a few select songs. With the launch this week the core experience features 20 songs, all of which are listed below:

  • …Baby One More Time
  • Ain’t It Fun
  • Beautiful
  • Before He Cheats
  • Bye Bye Bye
  • Can’t Feel My Face
  • Cheap Thrills
  • Girls Just Want To Have Fun
  • Hey Ya!
  • I Don’t Want To Be
  • I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing
  • Material Girl
  • One Week
  • Only Wanna Be With You
  • P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
  • Rapper’s Delight
  • Sugar, We’re Goin Down
  • Take On Me
  • Thrift Shop
  • U Can’t Touch This

SingSpace VR screenshot 2

Rather than DLC Harmonix is running a subscription service for SingSpace, thus giving players access to a broader range of songs. Currently the service features:

  • 18 And Life
  • A Whole New World
  • ABC
  • All About That Bass
  • All Of Me
  • All That Jazz
  • Barbara Ann
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Because Of You
  • Bring Me To Life
  • Can You Feel the Love Tonight
  • Chain of Fools
  • Chandelier
  • Creep
  • Downtown
  • Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)
  • Hakuna Matata
  • Hey There Delilah
  • Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)
  • Holiday
  • I Hate Everything About You
  • I Heard It Through The Grapevine
  • I Want It That Way
  • If I Could Turn Back Time
  • If You Could Only See
  • I’ll Be
  • I’m Like A Bird
  • I’m So Excited
  • Keep Your Hands To Yourself
  • Kiss From a Rose
  • Let It Go
  • Lonely No More
  • Macho Man
  • One Headlight
  • One Way Or Another
  • Oye Como Va
  • Papa Don’t Preach
  • Part of Your World
  • Push It
  • Royals
  • Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)
  • Semi-Charmed Life
  • Shining Star
  • Step By Step
  • Super Freak
  • Take Me Home, Country Roads
  • The Middle
  • Two Princes
  • Un-Break My Heart
  • Under the Sea
  • Y.M.C.A.
  • You Can’t Hurry Love

These songs are subject to change notes the developer, plus a two-week trial subscription is included with every copy of the video game.

SingSpace is available through the Oculus Store for £3.99/$4.99 USD GBP. Checkout the launch trailer below, and for further updates on Harmonix VR projects keep reading VRFocus.