Category: Hypatia

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Spooktacular Halloween Event Comes To Hypatia

With October and the Autumn seasons comes the start of spooky season as people prepare for Halloween, where all the ghosties and monsters come out to play. Free-to-play social virtual reality (VR) title Hypatia is embracing the spooky fun with a Halloween event update.

From 23rd-31st October, players will be able to take part in a number of themed events, such as hunting for ghosts, painting pumpkins, getting dressed up in costumes and collecting tasty treats.

Hypatia was re-launched earlier this year by developer TimefireVR as a free-to-play VR experience with the aim of creating a persistent virtual city that could act as a hub for creative users to test out new ideas.

Throughout the event period, various activities will be available to the resident of the virtual city. From 23rd-31st, players will be able to go trick-or-treating by seeking out NPCs across the city to get free candy. If you manage to find every NPC in the city and collect their candy, you can turn it in for a special experience bonus.

The pumpkin decorating contest is also going on throughout the Halloween event period, where players can grab a pumpkin and aim to create the spookiest jack-o’-lantern for a chance to win coins, with the winner being announced on 31st October.

From 29th-31st Otober the Spooky Shooting Gallery by Kapow Lake lets up to three players attempt to knock down four creepy targets the come from the lake. Clearing one type of target in a round will get the user a special Gargoyle avatar set piece.

On 31st October, users can take part on ghost hunting, exploring the forests around the lake to find ghosts and capture pictures of them and turn them in to the Photo Museum for prizes, including the limited edition ghost costume.

Hypatia is available for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift through the Oculus Store or Steam. For future coverage of developments in Hypatia, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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TimeFireVR Reveal Content Roadmap For Their VR City And Multiplayer Playground Title Hypatia

Following the re-launch in August to a free-to-play model, independent developer TimeFireVR have revealed that their virtual city and multiplayer playground, virtual reality (VR) title Hypatia will be getting plenty of future content. Shaped by the imagination of its residents, Hypatia was downloaded by over 4,000 players in a matter of days and that was only the beginning of the title.

Through extensive development, careful moderation and regular, continues updates, developer TimeFireVR have worked to build a save, family-friendly world where players can explore their creative side to their fullest potential. By having the freedom to sculpt, paint, curate photographs, perform on stage and interact with others in a number of different online activities, players will be able to impact the evolution of the city itself and begin out it’s artistic side.

To ensure the fun never ends, TimefireVR have revealed Hypatia’s update roadmap to list some of the new content and features that players can expect in the coming months into 2019. This includes:

  • NEXT: Player-owned public property to host social gatherings and contribute new experiences to the community!
  • NEXT: Player-owned private property to purchase and decorate
  • NEXT: The ability to create lavish, permanent voxel-based sculptures
  • NEXT: New musical instruments to make all types of music to your heart’s content
  • NEXT: Set the scene and direct epic in-game movies with props galore!
  • NEXT: Climb structures and see Hypatia from new vantage points
  • FUTURE UPDATE: New landmarks to visit, including an Opera House and Sports Arena
  • FUTURE UPDATE: Adorable and loyal pets and the addition of P2P trading

Hypatia Roadmap

Since it’s initial release the title has seen a number of updates which features quality-of-life fixes and the addition of new items. Players have access to new avatar skins such as the Birdman Angel Bot, the retro hi-fi inspired Vintage Squarebot, and the very summer appropriate, Dipped Ice Cream.

To make the player experience even more exciting, TimeFireVR have announced the new community Double Bit Days event, available now through to Sunday, September 16th. During this time players can earn twice as many bits – Hypatia’s in-game currency – by contributing to the Photography Museum, the Art Studio, the Du Nul Theater, and completing various quests within the title.

Available now on Steam and the Oculus Store with support for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift for free right now. VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on Hypatia in the future so stay tuned for more.

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Virtual City Hypatia Officially Opens Its Social VR World Tomorrow

Virtual City Hypatia Officially Opens Its Social VR World Tomorrow

Several developers around the world are all chasing the dream of delivering the first social VR MMO space to really hit mass adoption. Against Gravity have gotten close with Rec Room, but it’s less of an MMO and more of a VR lobby for multiple games and custom “rooms” for people to visit, similar to Altspace. High Fidelity, VRChat, Sinespace, and Sansar are all closer to the idea of what a de facto VR MMO hub might look like, while others such as Meta World are still toiling away in development. Now, Hypatia is about to enter the ring.

Today, TimefireVR are announcing that their persistent “virtual city” that’s “shaped by the imagination of its residents” named Hypatia is set to launch its full Grand Opening tomorrow, August 28th. It seems to garner inspiration from established principles in experiences such as Second Life and the aforementioned existing VR communities. Previously it was listed on Steam in Early Access with a price tag, but now the Grand Opening is shifting to a free-to-play model. You’re advised not to purchase that version since it will be free as of tomorrow.

Reportedly the developers have a major focus on the shared world experience rather than “isolated activities.” For example, “citizens” as they’re described can paint, sculpt, and animate art pieces, perform plays, take photos, and much more within the living world.

Instead of queuing up for a separate instance to partake in a mini game, you’d instead go visit a building inside the world that houses the activity. When you race boats between islands or visit zero-gravity shopping malls, you do so within the dynamic world.

With this launch there will also be several landmarks around the city that citizens are encouraged to explore, such as the Centrum main hub and social space, the Mango Shopping Story with lots of toys and tools, Sprite Park, thee Creative Art Studio, Theater Du Nul, and much more.

We’re waiting until launch to dive in for ourselves and offer hands-on impressions, but so far it sounds pretty similar to what’s being done in other social VR worlds. However, a major focus on keeping things dynamic and collaborative while specifically targeting VR could help set it apart.

Hypatia officially launches via its Grand Opening tomorrow, August 28th, on both Steam and Oculus Home for Vive and Rift and will also feature non-VR support. You can follow the game on Twitter and Facebook for more details.

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VR City Hypatia to Open this Month, TimefireVR Giving Away 500 Free Keys

Virtual reality (VR) content developer TimefireVR has announced that its immersive city Hypatia is set to release for HTC Vive on 15th June. Additionally, the studio will be giving the first 500 users who sign up for a sneak peak a free key to the VR city.

Jeffrey Rassás, Co-Founder and CEO of TimefireVR, said in a statement: “We will be offering the first 500 citizens of Hypatia a free key and complete access to the city starting June 9th, a week before we open the gates to the general public. Our hope is that these 500 pioneers will become early ambassadors to future visitors. Starting on June 5th people from the United States and Canada will be able to sign up at the TimefireVR.com website to qualify for a free pioneer key of Hypatia that will be offered at $29.99.”

Hypatia screenshot

Taking three years to build, Hypatia is a mixture of creativity. Combining fantasy and realistic elements the platform allows users to chat with friends, paint the city, share VR photographs, solve puzzles, join a stage play, create their own fireworks and much more.

“In appreciation of our earliest citizens not only will they be receiving a free key of our new city of Hypatia, we will be enshrining their names on a future memorial created to acknowledge and preserve their pioneering efforts,” said Founder and President John Wise. On June 9th the entire TimefireVR staff will be on hand to welcome our first citizens. It will be a momentous day for all of us who have worked so hard over the previous three years to make Hypatia a reality in Virtual Reality.”

“Hypatia will initially be available for the HTC Vive platform, with other major VR manufactures to follow. On June 15th our early adopters will be able to download Hypatia on Steam as well as TimefireVR.com directly via a Humble Store purchase,” continued Rassás. “Our world of Hypatia is offering a small glimpse into our greater plans for a large scale environment that will challenge people everywhere to reconsider what we call reality.”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of TimefireVR and Hypatia, reporting back with further announcements.

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Hypatia Mashes Up Facebook and Minecraft In VR

Hypatia Mashes Up Facebook and Minecraft In VR

VR has no shortage of social networks to meet up with friends in, including Facebook itself. Hypatia, however, wants to take services like that and mash it up with something like Minecraft.

Developed by Timefire VR, Hypatia is releasing on HTC Vive later this month on June 15th for $29.99. The 30 man team has been working on the app for the past three years. Over that time we’ve seen apps like AltSpace and vTime make a play for social VR dominance, but Hypatia wants to differentiate itself from those applications by making a playground for the mind. You can see a little of what that might mean in the video below.

To start off with, Hypatia will only feature content created by the developers themselves, but the team wants the app to grow through the ideas of others. Right now citizens will be able to meet up in a picturesque urban environment and paint the city using tools similar to Google’s Tilt Brush. There’s also a virtual museum, an interactive theater, and puzzle solving minigames.

Hypatia seems to have visions of being VR’s Second Life — though Linden Lab has those dreams too — or Sony’s PlayStation Home platform. Some of its more creative features also appear in Facebook Spaces which launched in beta back in April.

Still, Timefire’s mission sounds no less ambitious. Today the developer is launching a competition for Vive owners to win one of 500 keys to get entry into the game. Sign up over at an official website to be in with a chance of qualifying. If you’re interested in checking this one out when  we suggest you sign up.

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