ironlights – Page 2 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

April 3, 2020

The VR Games Launch Roundup: Earthquakes, Obelisks and Oral Hygiene

VRFocus presents a brand-new list of five virtual reality (VR) titles being released over the next week. This week’s list features at least one videogame for the owners of all major headsets, including a host of long-awaited re-releases. To help give you a preview of each title you can check out the accompanying YouTube video at the bottom of this article. Make sure to keep following VRFocus to get further news on each one including possible updates, expansion packs or possibly re-releases for other headsets.

Form – Charm Games

Canadian game studio Charm Games first released puzzle experience FORM in mid-2017. Set in a secluded research facility in Alaska, you take on the role of physicist Dr. Devin Eli, who, as a result of childhood trauma, possesses the unique power of geometric visualisation. In an attempt to discover more about a mysterious artefact, The Obelisk, you must explore this doctor’s memories to unlock the secrets it contains. Unlock a series of puzzles within your own mind, which are built to be solved using tracked motion controllers. VRFocus previously awarded the original HTC Vive version a 4/5, describing it as a “mesmerising experience from start to finish.”

Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
Launch date: 7th April

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories – Granzella

Previously only available in Japan, this action-adventure survival game will be available to PlayStation VR users next week. On a seemingly ordinary summer day, your trip to this city turns into a disaster as a gigantic earthquake terrorises you and your surroundings. You must team up with fellow survivors and fight your way out as collapsing buildings and unstable ground surround you. Your decision-making abilities could be the difference between life and death in a city on the brink of collapsing completely.

Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
Launch date: 7th April

Virtual Battlegrounds – CyberDream

Built from the ground up for virtual reality and set in this war-hungry dystopian island, in Virtual Battlegrounds you must fight to become the last one standing. Featuring an array of physics-based weapons, you can run, swim and jump your way to victory both on your own or with friends in solo and quad modes and also featuring AI bots. VR users can play while standing or seated, with a host of other comfortable playing options available.

Supported platforms: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality
Launch date: 8th April

Ironlights – E McNeill

In this VR duelling game, utilise a series of physics-based weapons to take on your opponents in both single and multiplayer modes. Choose from several fighting styles including Knight and Ninja. Users can even play a single-player game while waiting for a match! Replay features allow you to watch a playback of your fight, which you can export share to the world.

Supported platforms: Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index
Launch date: 9th April

Virus Popper – Starcade Arcade

This educational title aims to help people learn about the importance of personal hygiene. Wash your hands and make use of powerful disinfectants and sprays to fend off viruses, while avoiding touching your face. Indie developer Starcade Arcade, states that they aim to “make a fun and friendly way to share important messages without adding to the fear and panic in the world right now.”

Supported platforms: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality
Launch date: 9th April

March 30, 2020

VR Melee Game Ironlights Launching April 9 With Multiplayer Crossplay

Multiplayer VR melee game Ironlights is launching on April 9 for PC VR headsets via Oculus and Steam, as well as on the Oculus Store for Oculus Quest. The game ran a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier in the year, and is now launching a full release after a limited beta that ran over the last month or so.

Unlike many other Kickstarter campaigns, the Ironlights Kickstarter presented a fully-playable game to potential backers — the aim of the campaign was to raise funds to further refine the game’s features before a full launch. This approach means that Ironlights is now launching only two or so months after its Kickstarter campaign, a rare occurrence when it comes to Kickstarter campaigns.

Some Kickstarter backers were also able to play a beta version of Ironlights after the Kickstarter ended. According to developer E McNeill, the closed beta had a few hundred players and allowed the team to refine the game before launch.

Ironlights will launch with crossplay between platforms and cross-buy for Oculus Rift and Quest on the Oculus Store. Crossplay is a crucial component for multiplayer games, especially for VR games which typically have a smaller install base. Ironlights also supports LAN play for users connected on the same network, which holds great potential for Oculus Quest users who could meet up to battle in person over a shared Wi-Fi network.

With launch only a week away, McNeill also outlined the roadmap for future post-launch content. New cosmetic options, additional single-player content and multiplayer skill tracking is coming soon, alongside an unlock system for cosmetics.

The roadmap also indicates that a 2D app for spectating multiplayer games in in the works and coming soon, which could act as a public spectator client for Ironlights tournaments, allowing them to be broadcast online.

In the long term, E McNeill wants to add new weapons and classes and also adjust some of the visual effects in the game. Users can also expect a training mode down the line, and a revamped campaign system, allowing for more ranges of difficulty.

Ironlights will launch for PC VR and Oculus Quest, available on Steam and the Oculus Store for $19.99.

The post VR Melee Game Ironlights Launching April 9 With Multiplayer Crossplay appeared first on UploadVR.

March 27, 2020

Ironlights Dated for April, Features Cross-play & Cross-buy

Last month virtual reality (VR) indie developer E McNeill achieved Kickstarter success for his duelling combat title Ironlights. Today, the developer has announced the multiplatform launch date will be taking place next month whilst confirming several key features.

Ironlights

The success of the crowd-funding campaign not only meant useful cash to finish and polish Ironlights but also the ability to build a community to test the title before launch. “I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who backed the Kickstarter, and especially to those who’ve been playing the beta over the past several weeks. Their feedback, suggestions, and bug reports have done a lot to help us get Ironlights to the finish line,” said McNeill in a blog posting.

Ironlights will support a range of headsets including Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index at launch. McNeill has confirmed that cross-buy will be enabled between Oculus Quest and Rift on the Oculus Store, whilst all the versions support cross-play multiplayer.

The developer isn’t stopping there either. He’s already released a roadmap for future updates:

Coming soon

New cosmetic options (armors, materials, etc.)
Gameplay tweaks and balance adjustments
Multiplayer skill tracking and handicapping system
New single-player opponents and levels
Cosmetic unlock system (spend coins to unlock new cosmetic options)
Public spectator client (a 2D app for spectating multiplayer games)
Tips page (a section in the menu for explaining advanced mechanics)

Long-term plans

New classes and weapons
Improved hit reactions and damage VFX
Revamped sound effects
Shield shattering (instead of shields shrinking from damage)
Revamped Campaign mode, including more difficulty options
Training mode

Ironlights

Ironlights is a PvP fighter designed around fluid combat. Players are able to use a variety of physics-based weapons to parry, block, and strike down their opponent. Its unique combat system means that weapons shatter on impact, with all the action taking place in slow-motion. While the core gameplay mode is the PvP Ironlights does feature a single-player mode where players can fight to the top of the league.

E McNeill will launch Ironlights across all platforms (Steam, Oculus Quest, and Oculus Rift) on 9th April 2020. For further updates on the videogame, keep reading VRFocus.

March 27, 2020

Ironlights Dated for April, Features Cross-play & Cross-buy

Ironlights

The developer isn’t stopping there either. He’s already released a roadmap for future updates:

Coming soon

New cosmetic options (armors, materials, etc.)
Gameplay tweaks and balance adjustments
Multiplayer skill tracking and handicapping system
New single-player opponents and levels
Cosmetic unlock system (spend coins to unlock new cosmetic options)
Public spectator client (a 2D app for spectating multiplayer games)
Tips page (a section in the menu for explaining advanced mechanics)

Long-term plans

New classes and weapons
Improved hit reactions and damage VFX
Revamped sound effects
Shield shattering (instead of shields shrinking from damage)
Revamped Campaign mode, including more difficulty options
Training mode

Ironlights

E McNeill will launch Ironlights across all platforms (Steam, Oculus Quest, and Oculus Rift) on 9th April 2020. For further updates on the videogame, keep reading VRFocus.

February 19, 2020

Ironlights Livestream: Epic VR Multiplayer Melee Dueling

For today’s livestream we’re trying out the upcoming 1v1 multiplayer VR melee dueling game from E McNeill, Ironlights! If you’re curious about how we livestream the way we do then look no further than this handy guide for general tips and this guide specific to our Oculus Quest setup.

I’ve been eager to get my hands on Ironlights in its pre-release state, the latest VR game from industry veteran E McNeill ever since it was first announced. We’ve already published some early hands-on impressions, complete with versus gameplay footage, but I haven’t tried it out until today for myself.

Essentially the premise here is that it’s a 1v1 VR dueling game. There are some NPC enemies to fight and train against, but the core of the experience is the competitive multiplayer. What makes things feel especially clever is that, to balance and maintain intensity, combat is split between attacking and defending in slow-motion. It’s pretty rad. After a successful Kickstarter the game is due to release on Quest and PC VR headsets later this year.

The stream is planned to start at about 1:30PM PT and will last for about an hour or so. We’ll be hitting just our YouTube and I’ll be facing off against Ian Hamilton live. Harry might join us as well via Discord to help out with chat. You can see the full stream embedded via YouTube right here down below once it’s up:

Embedded livestream coming soon

You can see lots of our past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist and various other gameplay highlights. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe to us on YouTube to stay up-to-date on gameplay videos, video reviews, interviews, and more original content!

And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely.

The post Ironlights Livestream: Epic VR Multiplayer Melee Dueling appeared first on UploadVR.

February 17, 2020

Hands-On: Ironlights Beta Offers Unique And Satisfying Multiplayer Melee Combat

Melee combat can sometimes feel clunky in VR — the weight of your virtual weapons doesn’t match the weight of your controllers, in-game attacks might not keep up with your physical swings and you don’t get that satisfying haptic clang you would expect when two giant hunks of metal clash together.

Ironlights doesn’t exactly solve these problems, but it finds ingenious ways to work around them. The result is a different yet uniquely satisfying multiplayer melee combat game in VR, which also supports LAN connections. What’s even more astonishing is that the game is incredibly polished given its still only in beta.

Ironlights developer E McNeil launched a Kickstarter for game earlier this year, which reached its funding goal about a month later. However, the Kickstarter campaign didn’t present a proof-of-concept — the game was already quite far along the development chain. The Kickstarter was just to help make some further improvements to the game before a Spring launch later this year, which means that after the campaign ended last week, backers who pledged $30 or more received access to a beta version of the game, fully playable already.

Multiple UploadVR staff spent time with the game over the last few days, and despite being in beta, the game feels super satisfying. It does take some getting used to, however, as the mechanics don’t work quite the same as other 1v1 melee combat games. For one, all the combat takes place in slow motion, requiring you to psychically move in slow motion as well. It’s a strange sensation that takes some adjustment at first, but it means that your weapon movements are generally much more consistent with your own physical movement.

Each weapon also only lasts one hit — upon impact, it will shatter and you need to ‘reload’ the sword or weapon by swinging it behind your back. Much like the slow motion mechanic, reloading a sword or a mace takes a bit of readjusting your instincts at first. However, once you get used to it, the reason why becomes clear. The mechanic leads to cleaner, less hectic fights — you start to build a rhythm with your enemy. Once you get the hang of things, battles start to feel like a dance. One-hit-per-swing also solves the problem with haptics, or lack thereof. Because your weapons shatter, you don’t expect that clang and haptic resistance that you would otherwise crave in a melee game.

There are 5 classes to choose from, each with different weapons and play styles. The skill ceiling for each, from the perspective of someone with only a few hours in the game, also seems quite high. You’ll be able to work your way through single player campaigns for each class and find mulitplayer matches online. You can host your own lobbies for private matches, plus if you’re playing against someone on the same network, the game will pick this up and initiate the match through a LAN connection, to eliminate lag and ping. The video embedded above was captured on two separate Oculus Quests, playing a private LAN game against each other on the same network.

There are definitely still some areas for improvement — particular with variety of music, environments and enemy designs — but it is still a beta, and these were some factors that were listed as potential areas for improvement in the Kickstarter campaign anyway. All-in-all, for a game that’s just come out of Kickstarter and launched straight into beta, Ironlights is a fantastically refreshing and fun melee experience.

Ironlights is scheduled for a full release in Spring 2020 on PC VR and Oculus Quest.

The post Hands-On: Ironlights Beta Offers Unique And Satisfying Multiplayer Melee Combat appeared first on UploadVR.

February 12, 2020

VR Interview: Ironlights Creator E McNeill On Kickstarting A VR Game In 2020

Long-time independent VR developer E McNeill successfully funded his latest project on Kickstarter and recently sat down with us in our virtual studio for an interview.

There aren’t many developers with as much experience making VR games as McNeill. He’s built strategy games like Astraeus, Skylight, Tactera, and Darknet for VR. His latest project is a cross-platform sword-fighting project built with design considerations like slow-motion and one-hit swords that force players into a rhythm in multiplayer battles.

“I can’t just make sort of smallish, niche strategy games anymore,” McNeill said. “I want to make something that is a lot more ambitious, that has a better chance of standing out.”

The game is planned for Steam and the Oculus Store (with cross-buy between the Rift and Quest versions) and McNeill says he received tentative approval of the idea for Oculus Quest. The crowdfunding project added more than 500 backers and $21,000 to his development efforts. Ironlights ends its fundraising on Kickstarter at 8:45 am Pacific on Thursday February 13 and a beta release of the game is slated to go out when the campaign ends.

We discussed McNeill’s path from the Oculus Rift Kickstarter project in 2012 to now. He launched his first game on the Gear VR Innovator Editor in December 2014 and that was so early he couldn’t even sell the project since there wasn’t a payment method available. He’s been an independent VR developer for so long, and working mostly on his own for much of that time, that it was great to have him in our studio to discuss the challenges of VR development and his plans for Ironlights.

Watch the interview here:

The post VR Interview: Ironlights Creator E McNeill On Kickstarting A VR Game In 2020 appeared first on UploadVR.

February 7, 2020

Competitive VR Fighting Game Ironlights Hits Kickstarter Goal

Ironlights, the next VR game from experienced developer E McNeill, has officially surpassed its Kickstarter goal of $15,000. It’s a weapon-based multiplayer VR fighting game coming this Spring to Quest, Rift, and SteamVR headsets.

We first learned about Ironlights as the Kickstarter campaign was launching last month and as of this writing there are still five days left of crowdfunding. Currently it sits at just under $19,000 with pledge tiers ranging from $1 to $200 with $15 as the cheapest tier to get a copy of the game at release this Spring.

There aren’t many VR games out there focused on 1v1 multiplayer combat, so Ironlights is definitely filling a void. A few have tried to nail the thrill, but it’s difficult to make this sort of combat feel good since haptics and resistance are tough with current hardware and controllers.

McNeill is aiming to side some of that by designing the game very carefully. For example, during combat time will slow down and force you to move in slow motion, weapons will shatter on contact so there isn’t disconnect between your hand movement and in-game weapons, and the melee is semi-turn-based as opponents trade off between attacking and defending to make things more dramatic.

Currently the game will have five starting classes that each use different weapon sets:

Knight (Two-handed Greatsword)
Duelist (Rapier & Buckler)
Monk (Staff)
Ninja (Dual Katars)
Crusader (Flail & Shield)

The Crusader sounds like a lot of fun to me personally, getting the hang of the flail’s swing and physics could be immensely satisfying. Since the goal was reached E McNeill has updated the page with a stretch goal in mind: if it can reach $25,000 then the backers themselves will get to vote on what which class is added to the game next.

We’re particularly excited to see how this performs over LAN multiplayer via two Oculus Quests near each other in real-life, a feature not many developers have built into their games yet.

The post Competitive VR Fighting Game Ironlights Hits Kickstarter Goal appeared first on UploadVR.

February 5, 2020

Arena Dueler Ironlights Achieves Kickstarter Success

Last month E McNeill – the indie developer behind Astraeus, Tactera and Skylight – launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for his latest virtual reality (VR) title, Ironlights. Looking to achieve the small sum (in videogame terms) of $15,000 USD, that goal was hit earlier today. Now there’s the possibility of stretch goals being hit.

Ironlights

Currently, just over $17,000 has been pledged by supporters to bring this arena battler to fruition. McNeill previously mentioned that the funds weren’t to help build the videogame as it was almost complete, rather ensure it was finished to a high standard ahead of a planned Spring 2020 launch.

With 8 days still left attention has now turned towards stretch goals, namely a $25K target. Should this be achieved the developer says: “we’ll let the backers decide which class should be added next. Do you want to fight with a scythe, halberd, whip, or something else entirely? We’ll listen to your ideas, assemble a list of potential classes that we’re confident would be a solid addition to the roster, and send out a poll to all the backers of this campaign. Whichever class you choose will become our top priority!”

To secure yourself a copy of Ironlights it’ll cost $15 (£12 GBP) which is a 25% saving over the final price once the launch takes place in April. Or why not go for the $60 (£47) tier, getting the entire E McNeill back catalogue of Ironlights + Darknet, Tactera, Skylight, and Astraeus. Ironlights will support a range of headsets including Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index, with cross-buy supported for Oculus.

Ironlights

Ironlights is primarily a PvP combat experience (a single-player mode is available) mashing up medieval brawling with a futuristic twist. Players can select from a range of fighting styles such as the Knight (Two-handed Greatsword), Monk (Staff) and Crusader (Flail & Shield) and then personalise their look before stepping (floating) out into the arena.

All the action takes place in slow-mo with players only able to attack and then defend (rather than a real-time back and forth battle) depending on their energy levels. Melee weapons break with every hit and players can also launch ranged attacks for a small energy spend.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Ironlights as development continues, reporting back with the latest updates.

January 15, 2020March 27, 2020

Dueling Game ‘Ironlights’ Coming to PC VR & Quest in April

E McNeill, the developer behind VR strategy games Darknet (2015), Tactera (2016), and Astraeus (2018), is launching a new VR title next month called Ironlights which aims to bring a strategic bend to the melee combat genre.

Update (February 12th, 2020): The Ironlights Kickstarter passed with flying colors late last month, and now developer E McNeill has announced the official street date for the strategy-based dueling game.

McNeill tells Road to VR that the game has now passed Oculus quality assurance and is currently slated to launch on Quest, Rift, and SteamVR on April 9th for $20, which includes cross-buy for the Quest & Rift versions. All version are said to include cross-play multiplayer. The game will be available on Steam, and the Oculus Store for Quest and Rift.

The original article announcing the Kickstarter follow below:

Original Article (January 15th, 2020): Called Ironlights, the still in-development game is setting itself apart from other physics-based melee titles by offering up a dynamic ‘back-and-forth’ combat scheme, which is designed to further eliminate careless controller waggling by way of a novel turn-based combat system. During a turn, only the attacker can land strikes while the defender must do their best to dodge or parry the incoming blows.

As a physics-based game, all weapons have weight and momentum. However striking an enemy automatically enters you into slow motion, forcing you move your body in slow-mo in order to maintain “optimal control” of your weapons.

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In Ironlights, you’re also only allowed one hit per swing, as weapons shatter after each hit instead of bouncing off. By design, this is meant to side-step the sort of disconnect you might feel when you strike a virtual enemy and your physical controller keeps moving. McNeill says to think of it “sort of like a VR version of Street Fighter or Soul Caliber, mixed with SUPERHOT and maybe a dash of Beat Saber.”

Although Ironlights is said to be nearly finished, with launch slated for Spring 2020, the studio is searching for $15,000 in extra funding via a Kickstarter campaign, which promises a 25% discount off the full game ($20 MSRP) when it goes live later this year on Oculus Quest, Rift, and SteamVR headsets. The funds, McNeill says, will help bring to the game more armor models; backers at the $30 and above will get early access to the game.