Beat Saber, the acclaimed VR rhythm game, is soon to get a special version, Beat Saber Arcade, which will offer officially sanctioned use of the game in out-of-home VR arcades.
Despite Beat Saber’s seamingly perfect fit for VR arcades—thanks to its ease of understanding and quick fun—developer Beat Games hasn’t yet offered a means of commercial licensing for the game, which would give VR arcade operators the rights to offer the game to their customers.
Today the company announced that Beat Saber Arcade will be released in “a few weeks,” and further said they had planned to offer commercial licensing from the beginning but that the small indie team has been stretched working on the forthcoming level editor and the PSVR version of the game.
“We couldn’t be more grateful for the positive response from the Beat Saber community and hope you find our delay to make earlier arcade announcements more a reflection of our commitment to quality than anything else,” the company writes.
The studio says they’ll release more details soon as to when and where Beat Saber Arcade will be available.
While the existing version of Beat Saber is already a good fit for VR arcades, we expect the arcade version will use local leaderboards by default, and possibly have some additional customizations to enhance the game for the arcade setting.
Seeking Dawn (2018) is a sci-fi first-person shooter which puts you in the boots of a space marine who’s assigned to carry out a search and rescue mission on a mysterious alien planet. Including a single player campaign, and online co-op which lets you and your friends or strangers team up, Seeking Dawn promises a full-feature game with multiple hours of gameplay, however this results in only just enough incentive to keep you hunting around for that last uranium rock to spend on that OP rocket launcher you’ve had your eye on.
Developer: Multiverse Available On: Steam (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PC), PSVR (TBA) Reviewed On: Oculus Rift, Tested on HTC Vive Release Date: July 12th, 2018
Note to the reader (July 11th, 2018): I wasn’t able to get into an online match during my time with Seeking Dawn, so I’ll be posting an update once the game goes live and multiplayer servers are up and running.
Gameplay
As a soldier of the First Centauri Republic (FCR), you’re after the missing Major Walker and his team who were sent to the alien planet to find what promises to be a powerful key to put an end to the ongoing war with the Alpha Centauri Commonwealth (ACC), a new nemesis in the 24th century universe of expanding human influence over the stars. The story is your standard sci-fi shooter fare, so don’t expect much more than a SyFy ‘B’ movie script and voice talent. While it can be cringey at times, it’s mostly an innocuous pretense to the alien-ganking action.
Like a jack of all trades, Seeking Dawn carries with it a longer than usual list of features for VR games currently: single player and online multiplayer co-op, resource gathering, weapon & equipment crafting, base construction, and survival elements that require you to stay properly fed, watered and full of appropriate ammo types throughout the game.
Image courtesy Multiverse
Shooting is a simple experience. All guns have a projected aiming reticle that requires no need for lining up the sights and aiming down the barrel. All guns are single-handed, so you can choose to go dual auto-pistols, or even dual rocket launchers if you have the material. Simply grip to reload, or wait for the last spent cartridge to exit the gun.
Basic crafting materials are found in a number of ways; everything you destroy drops something valuable to the overall goal of building guns, armor, mini construction factories, ammo – everything has its price. Enemies drop meat, and crafting items like collagen which are used in construction. Trees, which you explode with your handy Woodchucker, give a few types of wood and health-restoring berries. Dedicated mineral deposits, which you can explode with your Excabreaker, give out a number of minerals that are important to crafting guns and other non-lethal tools. Your Woodchucker and Excabreaker are invaluable, as you use them up the very end of the game to harvest resources.
A tree ready to explode, Image captured by Road to VR
That said, there are no tech trees, or upgrade systems—what you see is what you get, and you’ll predictably abandon about half of the 5-6 total guns as you encounter more powerful enemies like high-level ACC soldiers. In the later quarter of the game, I found myself using the rocket launcher almost exclusively, as it provides infinite ammo and does around 400 HP damage; this felt a bit cheaty, as I would launch a barrage of rockets at a wall where I suspected enemies to be, and hit points would magically register. For a game that boasts crafting as a big feature, I was expecting a lot more variability in that department. Once you get the hang of clearing an area of minerals and trees, crafting really just becomes a timed hurdle to obtaining any specific weapon (eg: a big boss is coming up, and surprise surprise, I see my first deposit of uranium – something required for a level item.)
Crafting guns and tools, Image captured by Road to VR
In short, weapon and tool crafting is fun to begin with, but soon becomes a dull chore with expected rewards handed down at important intervals in the game, making it essentially a monolithic loot chest with tedious extra steps in between.
To manage all of your weapons and tools on the go, you’re given what I consider a basically good and functional inventory system. A button press brings up a ring with a limited number of slots, and by selecting the weapon or health item, you equip it in either your left or right hand to be used. Because of how often you use the Woodchucker and Excabreaker though, I would have much rather preferred a hotbutton to quickly switch between guns and tools for quicker harvesting and battle readiness. A larger inventory, which is best consulted when out of harm’s way, lets you swap out items into your quick inventory.
Full inventory, Image captured by Road to VR
Enemies are varied enough to keep things interesting. Regular enemies include flying bug-types, massive tanks, fast tiger-like aliens, hopping scavengers, and ACC soldiers of various abilities. While you can count the number of bosses on two or three fingers, they always prove to be extremely tough—which when compared to the crappy little baddies running around, make for a clear ramping of difficulty. To beat the mid-game boss, I struggled for over an hour to scavenge wood to create enough bullets to take him down. Only near the end did I feel like the difficulty plateaued to an even pace.
Image courtesy Multiverse
The game includes a single prefabricated base, and that’s where the part of the game forces you to throw some resources at building turrets during specific times (no random attacks). But even skimping on turrets and using my own two hands proved to be a fairly simple.
Image captured by Road to VR
Like with crafting, this is a moment when I wish the feature set could really lived up to my expectations instead of being a couple of wave-based defense missions. I wanted to build out my base and have to worry about defending them from savage alien beasts, but instead I was given a voice over prompt from my omnipresent Captain Coleman for the games few base defense missions.
My personal gameplay time was 11 hours, which is about half as long as the studio says it should take. I’ll admit I was using the fastest possible way to get from point A to point B: walking at max speed with automatic running, which I’ll talk about in the Comfort section below.
Immersion
Immersion is a bit of a mixed bag in Seeking Dawn.
Every once in a while you’re treated to real moments of awe, as you round a bend and find yourself staring at an enormous mushroom swarming with neon jellyfish, or what I can only describe as a skyscraper-sized alien Brontosaurus who curiously casts a look in your direction from what seems like a mile away. There are a few giant baddies out there too that will have you fearing the long trudge back to the start of the level if you forgot to set a teleporter node. The set pieces and level design are definitely highlights in Seeking Dawn.
Image captured by Road to VR
The game’s visuals are certainly a cut above many, but I do have a few healthy niggles. Smaller geometry like plants and ammo boxes pop in after only a short radius, and faraway textures can look muddy at times even on high settings (low is decidedly much more messy). Several times I’ve wandered into a level to find it barren of enemies, only to hear the drumming beat of the fight music piped into my ears as creatures pop out of nowhere. This only puts a slight damper on the overall effect: a varied, iridescent world that transmits an eerie beauty across several biomes. Dank cave systems open up to underground crystal structures, pulsing alien trees loaded with glowing fruit, and even a few hellish underbellies littered with bones and rotting corpses, and some with burping volcanoes and dizzying heights.
Let’s make no bones about it: Seeking Dawn is very much a game that relies on some traditional gaming shorthand that’s oftentimes more concerned with delivering an efficient way of traveling, killing enemies, building structures, etc, than giving you a 1:1 experience of crash landing on an alien planet.
Hit counters let you know when you’ve landed a critical hit on an enemy, and big white numbers pop up above their head to tell you what it’s worth. This is convenient, and maybe even forgivable for a sci-fi shooter game, but it still feels like I’m playing a game, with all the regular traditional conventions attached.
Image captured by Road to VR
Object interaction is carried out via ‘force powers’, meaning you need to hit a single button to quickly collect crafting items, even ones out of your arm’s reach. This is much more comfortable than having to pick up the thousands of items, but it does come at the cost of hand presence. Once an item is locked on, you can’t let go until you reinsert it into your inventory, or swap it for something else.
Comfort
Seeking Dawn offers a bevy of locomotion choices suited for most people: head and hand-relative forward locomotion, smooth turning, snap-turning, ‘blink’ teleportation (driving a ghost of yourself until you reach your desired teleport destination) and of course room-scale locomotion, although there’s not much of a reason to move around your room outside of the standing position. You can also play seated, although you’ll be ‘seated’ in the game as well. There is brief exception during climbing portions of the game, where handholds may be out of your reach.
One other locomotion style rounds out the bunch. There’s also a ‘swinging your arms to run’ mode which turned out not to be as fun or comfortable as I’d hoped, as it introduces artificial head-bob. This in general is something most VR developers stay away from because of the associated nausea, although it seems the arm-swinging did help mitigate this some. Instead, I opted to use head-relative walking with an automatic run option which lets you pick up speed gradually.
Schell Games, the studio behind popular spy-themed VR puzzle I Expect You To Die (2016), today launched a VR chemistry lab practice game that aims to get students excited about chemistry by gamifying an otherwise time intensive (and possibly dangerous) lab learning experience.
Dubbed HoloLAB Champions (2018), the VR chemistry practice game is now available on HTC Vive via Steam for $8 (regularly $10). HoloLAB Champions is however free for educational instructors, students, and facilities. Eligible users can request educational copies of the game at on the company’s website.
Here’s what Schell Games has to say about HoloLAB:
In a game show-style setting, HoloLAB Champions guides players through a series of mini-labs that lead up to a final lab challenge. Earl, the holographic host, is a friendly commentator, armed with a fun sense of humor and a few eye-rolling science jokes. The camera-bot, Meyer, is his irreverent sidekick. Players score achievements based on their ability to perform tasks safely and accurately. Those who complete an event are awarded an elemental trophy and can take their place among the famed Hall of Brains. There is also a Practice Mode available, where players can hone their skills to prepare for the main event challenges.
The game was primarily designed for a single players, targeting students aged 14-18, but can be played in a group setting for immediate group and instructor feedback. Schell Games also offers a written classroom guide to help teachers integrate the game into their classroom and guide students through the labs. The added benefit is here is clearly safety—there aren’t any dangerous spills or lab equipment breakages in VR.
Image courtesy Schell Games
Schell Games says the game is a “companion tool to an in-person high school chemistry lab experience,” with two 30-40 minute episodes to teach players basic lab skills, procedures, and protocols.
The first episode is ‘Chemiluminescence’, where students need to mix correct amounts of liquid and solid ingredients to create a glowing chemical solution. The second episode, ‘Identify Unknowns’, presents students with a set of substances and, with limited reference information, players must correctly identify each substance.
Image courtesy Schell Games
“HoloLAB Champions is important because it teaches students about science and lab safety in an environment that is both educational and engaging,” said Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games. “Virtual reality is still a new and relatively untapped space so we are excited to see it being used in classroom settings. We look forward to gauging its effects on learning outcomes and student engagement in the future.”
HoloLAB Champions was funded in part by a SBIR grant from the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education, and further refined with the help of students, educators, and RAND Corporation, a non-profit global policy think tank.
The Netherlands-based Craft Game Studio is bringing Crooked Waters, a multiplayer pirate ship game for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, to Steam Early access this week.
Pitting would-be pirates in a four vs. four battle on the high seas, the goal of Crooked Waters is to sink the other ship. While it sounds simple, cooperation here is the ultimate key to success; players will have to work in concert by navigating the ship it by steering, adjusting the sails to get optimal speed, and loading, aiming and firing cannons at the enemy.
Image courtesy Craft Game Studio
You’ll be able to join up with a randomly selected crew, or invite your friends to join in the battle. A tavern below deck gives you a chance to strategize, play mini-games, or just toss back a few pints of grog while you wait for a match to start.
Image courtesy Craft Game Studio
Craft Game Studio has put special emphasis on the game’s many locomotion schemes, which includes free locomotion, snap-turn, arm-swinging locomotion, and a climbing mechanic that lets you climb the mast to adjust sails and get a better vantage point.
The game is online multiplayer-only, although the developers say this is an issue they’ll keep this in mind while developing the Crooked Waters throughout its Early Access period on Steam; the game is slated to hit Steam on July 13th.
Japanese VR studio MyDearest and Los Angeles-based Sekai Project launched a Kickstarter campaign last month to fund the development of a new VR manga game. Dubbed TOKYO CHRONOS, the VR visual novel game is now one step closer to coming to users of HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PSVR, and Oculus Go.
Update (August 22nd, 2018): Tokyo Chronos has blasted past their $75,000 funding goal, with $90,625 in total. The campaign reached their funding goal only last week.
The article detailing the Kickstarter follows below:
Original Article (July 10th, 2018): Lead by Kazuma Miki, a producer behind VR-centric anime series Sword Art Online (2012), TOKYO CHRONOS is said to offer users a VR visual novel mystery adventure that blends visual animation with a comic book-style UI.
The story follows 16 year-old protagonist Kyosuke Sakurai (voiced by Yuto Uemura); one day Kyosuke finds himself in the “Chronos World”, a deserted Shibuya frozen in time.
Image courtesy MyDearest Inc, Sekai Project
According to press release obtained by Anime News Network, the narrative involves “8 childhood friends separated from the reality of this world, and trapped in an empty Shibuya, barren of any other souls.”
The statement continues:
“As time and space seemingly comes to a halt, the eight begin to disappear, one by one. What has happened to this world? What is happening to the ones trapped inside this hollow void? Who is the culprit that set the mystery in motion in a space that stands still.”
TOKYO CHRONOS’ director Haruki Kashiwakura previously created 3D graphics for anime such as Rakuen Tsuihō – Expelled from Paradise (2015), Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (2011), and Blassreiter (2005).
MyDearest is a Tokyo-based VR developer specializing in adventure games. Established in 2016, the company has already released several titles including the interactive manga Innocent Forest (2017) and Innocent Forest 2 (2017) for Oculus Rift and mobile VR platforms Oculus Go and Gear VR.
The creators are targeting a funding goal of $75,000, and are estimating a February 2019 delivery date of digital keys. The lowest ‘Early Bird’ funding tier of $30 gives users access to either a Steam code (Rift, Vive) or PSN code (PSVR).
A little while back, Oculus issued a $15 credit to many Rift users after an issue which prevented the headsets from working for a day or two. Seeking out something worthy to drop this credit on, I scrolled through the store pages I stumbled upon Luna (2017). The game’s unique artwork had me intrigued. After looking further, I realized I had heard of it months prior, but it slipped off my radar. Once I took a look at the preview, the combination of artwork, soundtrack, and relaxing vibe sold me.
The majority of my time in VR has been spent in fast paced action or sports games, and while I’ve really enjoyed all of those experiences, Luna—which is also available on Steam where it can also be played without a headset—proved to me that you don’t need a fast paced game for a really enjoyable time in VR. As I played through, Luna also struck me as the perfect introduction to VR for those who aren’t serious gamers. The relaxed feel and mechanics make it easy for someone new to get used to moving and functioning in a virtual world.
The overall goal of Luna is to complete puzzles and restore the world to the condition it once was. When you arrive in Luna you meet a little bird that is lacking color. A few cutscenes play out then you find yourself before a snowglobe-like dome which tasks you with a simple musical interaction puzzle.
After completing the musical puzzle you are transported to the sky for a simple shape-based puzzle where you rearrange stars to create specific constellation shapes. As each puzzle is solved, new objects are added to the dome, and on completion of all of the constellation puzzles the dome transforms and the musical interaction is gone and you are placed before a newly generated dome in which you can place items that you obtained earlier. Each item is customizable and allows you to create your own customized dome. The items comprise different plant life to help restore the landscape within the dome. There are also little secrets within each level such as starting a fire or some hidden critters to find. The level of detail and the unique art style makes the game incredibly charming.
Image courtesy Funomena
Tapping objects to generate sound, maneuvering the stars, placing objects, and petting your little bird friend all feel great. The interactions are all easy to complete and the game is responsive. At first, I thought the puzzles and musical interactions would get a bit monotonous, but later domes add additional complexities that keep the game entertaining yet peaceful.
This is why I could see this game being very accessible for entry level VR users. The simple interactions and the reward at the completion of each vignette are engaging yet not overly stressful, and don’t rely much much on traditional gaming skill or design tropes. I also would not expect people to get motion sick at this game since it runs very well, moves at your own pace, and generally keeps the player in one place throughout. The overall chill vibe makes each vignette accessible and easy to work with. It also gives a good breaking points if someone needs to take a moment to gather themselves; if you take off the headset you can reload into the next vignette or wherever you left off without worrying about save states or the like.
The freedom of creativity in the game also feels great in VR. The way you can place the little items in the dome wherever you like, change their color, and change their size makes it feel like the player has good control over what the end product looks like. I was able to place items wherever I wanted and it gave me this burst of creativity in trying to make what in my eyes was a beautiful landscape. It felt whimsical in a way other VR games often don’t.
The simplicity of the interactions also lends itself to being accessible to people who don’t typically play videogames, let alone VR. Everything is simply explained and the puzzle difficulty ramps up at a pace that it wouldn’t be out of the question for someone who isn’t an experienced gamer. It was also helpful that the positioning of the domes could be adjusted to whatever height was needed. At one point my legs got tired from standing so I ended up sitting on my beanbag chair on my floor. By pressing in the thumbsticks on my controllers the vignette I was working with dropped to my level and I was able to continue generating my own little worlds while sitting comfortably on my floor. Thus, I could see this game being accessible to younger children, or even older adults who can’t stand for long periods of time. I could easily see handing this off to my mother (who hasn’t played games in a few years) and her still really enjoying the experience.
Image courtesy Funomena
It’s worth reiterating the game’s beautiful look. The art style is very unique and feels different from other VR games that I have played. It seems to have design elements of a stop motion film and each character and element is carefully crafted in homage to that style. Each time the vignette progresses to a cutscene it is beautifully rendered in VR and the interactions between the elements of each are wonderful. Overall, the color scheme has a muted but rich look to it, but each color fits wonderfully and looks fantastic as you pick your colors and place your elements about the world. The music also lends to the overall vibe as a soothing and creative game. Tapping the musical interactions to open up the constellation puzzles feels very satisfying and the music does not feel discordent even if the interactions do not match up perfectly with the background music. Aesthetically this game is incredibly relaxing and beautiful to look at and interact with.
When I stumbled upon Luna, I was looking for something relaxing, but I didn’t expect to really enjoy this game as much as I have. Even though I had played through all of the vignettes I plan to go back and see if I missed any secrets hidden within the levels that I have beaten and to create new beautiful little biospheres to engage with. I want to interact with my little bird friend again and see all of his pals come to life in the gorgeous vignettes again. Lovingly rendered scenes and soothing music make it a perfect game to sit down and chill out to after an overwhelming week.
Super Puzzle Galaxy (2018), a physics-based puzzle game from Vive Studios and 2Bears Studio, has just existed its seven-month stint in Early Access. To boot, the studios have also launched the game’s second DLC pack today, dubbed ‘Warp Ball’, which adds 24 new levels and two new obstacle types.
Super Puzzle Galaxy is a physics sandbox based in outer space that lets you sculpt sand across 16 challenge levels (base game) in effort to get the ball to the goal.
Image courtesy Vive Studios, 2 Bear Studio
Players use the new Warp Ball ability to solve 16 more additional puzzles. A new ice trap and rotating obstacles are available in Create Mode. You’ll also be able to use the Warp Ball ability to solve the eight challenge levels and see if you can collect all galaxy gems—making for 56 levels with both the base game and Warp Ball DLC.
The game is available on Steam and Viveport. Priced at $2 extra, the Warp Ball DLC is offered separately from the base game on Steam, and as an in-app purchase on Viveport.
Stifled (2017) originally launched last year as a PSVR exclusive, but now Singaporean studio Gattai Games is bringing the echolocation-based horror game to Rift, Vive, and PC next week.
As the protagonist David Ridley, you’re suddenly stricken blind, making the world around you dark—well, not exactly. You’re given the ability to use sound to see brief illuminations of the world around you. Using the onboard mic, you use your voice (or optional button press) to ‘see’ the world, but also inevitably attract the attention of horrifying creatures that lurk everywhere, hunting you through dank caves and all sorts of creepy destinations.
Stifled is coming July 10th, and will be available on Rift, Vive and PC through Steam, Humble, Itch.io, GreenManGaming and Razer Game Store, and for Rift on the Oculus Store.
We haven’t had a chance to review the PSVR version, although our initial hands-on last year revealed the game to be an intense way of managing sight and sound – not knowing if you should alert a baddy for the sake of getting out of an area alive. Some features like running water and ringing phones help you as waypoints along the way, but it’s really up to you to decide when and how to escape the ever present danger lurking around every corner.
Just in time for the end of Steam’s summer sale, Valve has released a list of the top selling VR games of 2018 so far.
Broken down into a series of ‘Best of 2018‘ charts, we got our annual eye-full of just how well VR games have done when roughly compared to each other in the ‘Top Selling VR Games’, which is broken down into several tiers: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze categories.
The list on Steam doesn’t specifically show the exact rankings according to sales within the tier (reload the list and games are shuffled).
Last year we used SteamSpy to get an idea of how many units were sold, and around how much revenue the games generated. SteamSpy is unfortunately less accurate after its death scare earlier this year, so we’ve listed the games in alphabetical order to forgo any assumption that those stats are reliable enough to report.
Take note: some games were bundled with the Vive at some point, and are figured into Valve’s list below.
Platinum
Arizona Sunshine (2016)
Beat Saber (2018)
Budget Cuts (2018)
Fallout 4 VR (2017)
GORN (EA – 2017)
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades (EA – 2016)
Job Simulator (2016)
Onward (EA – 2016)
Orbus VR (EA – 2017)
Pavlov (EA – 2017)
Superhot VR (2017)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR (2018)
Many of the games on the list above are repeats from last year’s Platinum tier, with the exceptions of Pavlov, Orbus VR, and the new 2018 entries—a testament to the staying power of truly fun games, however also a bit concerning considering so few games published this year made the cut.
Gold
Audioshield (2016)
I Expect You to Die (2017)
Raw Data (previously EA – 2017)
Rick and Morty Virtual Rick-ality (2017)
Sairento VR (previously EA – 2018)
Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope (2017)
Space Pirate Trainer (previously EA – 2017)
Sprint Vector (2018)
Stand Out: VR Battle Royale (2017)
The Talos Principle VR (2017)
Tilt Brush (2016)
Virtual Desktop (2016)
Another near repeat of last year’s list, there’s been a bit of shuffling and only one new game to make it, Sprint Vector, a 2018 title.
Now for the rash of Silver and Bronze tier games; all 2018 games besides The Mage’s Tale, Hatsune Miku VR, Psychonauts: The Rhombus of Ruin, ARK Park, and Apex Construct are Early Access titles, or were previously available in Early Access at some point—another clear indication that smaller indie VR developer teams are driving the bulk of new VR games on the platform.
The heyday of virtual pets like Tamagotchi and Digimon may be long gone, reaching the height of their popularity in the late ’90s, but with new mediums come new possibilities, and new ways to interact with virtual pets too. Enter Waba, an impossibly cute, amorphous little guy that aims to wobble your heartstrings.
Created by Los Angeles-based indie studio Edwon Studio, Waba needs your care and attention; you hatch a Waba, feed it, and put the squishy little chub-monster to rest.
The original concept, studio head Edwon says in an introduction video, was to see what it would be like to touch something in VR. Three years later, Waba has grown from a cute concept to a full-featured virtual pet that stretches and wobbles around as you interact with him.
“He really enjoys getting slapped around at first, but if you slap him around too much, he’s going to cry and he’s going to run away. You should really be more gentle with Waba, and he’ll like [you] for sure.”
In your inventory, you have access to a number of locations: a feeding area, a play zone for playing fetch, a paint section to change the color of your Waba, and a bedroom where you gently rock him to sleep after a day of playing and eating.
Waba is launching on Steam Early Access (Vive, Rift, Windows VR) and the Oculus Store (Rift) July 10th. Edwon says he plans on adding more content over the next few months.
