Joy Way – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

June 11, 2024

‘STRIDE: Fates’ Update for PSVR 2 Brings Graphics Enhancements and New Content

STRIDE: Fates (2023) initially released late last year on Quest, bringing with it a campaign to match the series’ hard-won locomotion mechanics that feel pretty inspired by parkour shooter Mirror’s Edge. Now, the PSVR 2 version of the game just got a big overhaul that hopes to address a lot of the complaints following its release on PS5 in May.

Coming nearly three weeks after launch on PSVR 2, the game’s 1.03 update is now live, including what developer Joy Way calls “planned improvements and added features that you, our players, have been asking for.”

Most visible of them is a major graphics overhaul to game, which features dynamic shadows, better lighting, increased resolution by 1.7×, reduced aliasing, and foveated rendering thanks to the headset’s built-in eye-tracking. Joy Way tossed out a graphics comparison video, linked below:

This also includes an overhaul of some game assets, which sees the replacement of AI-generated assets for custom-built ones.

As promised, the studio also packaged in its ‘Concrete Jungle’ DLC, which opens up 25 new missions to take on—said to be 3+ hours of gameplay—which includes a nifty new Wingsuit gadget so you can glide around the city.

Additionally, the update includes adaptive trigger feedback for weapons, which was previously only available for melee combat, and you’ll also notice that TV output has changed so onlookers get a centered picture, and not the left-eye picture previously outputted.

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You can find Stride: Fates over on Quest 2/3/Pro, SteamVR, and PSVR 2, priced at $30.

The post ‘STRIDE: Fates’ Update for PSVR 2 Brings Graphics Enhancements and New Content appeared first on Road to VR.

September 14, 2023

‘STRIDE: Fates’ Coming to Quest Soon as “full-fledged separate game”

Joy Way, the studio behind parkour action-shooter STRIDE (2022), announced that high-flying follow-up STRIDE: Fates is a “full-fledged sequel” to the original game, and it’s coming first to Quest this holiday season.

In addition to throwing out a new gameplay trailer, the studio also released more info on the game’s narrative:

Step into the shoes of a parkour spec-ops officer. Traverse and shoot your way through the rooftops and basements of dystopian Airon City – from slums to affluent skyscrapers. Deal with power shifts in gangs, dirty family feuds, corporate secrets, forbidden tech and other obstacles to understand your past. Enhancing everything players love about STRIDE, the full-fledged sequel ‘Fates’ pushes the parkour action formula even further with new gameplay and a story-driven campaign.

The studio also included a list of promised features:

Blockbuster-level narrative.
Climb buildings, vault through windows, and slide down cables with lightning speed.
Explore open-world locations under the watch of snipers and drones.
Feel the thrill of close-quarters combat with tactical shooter mechanics.
Use your gadgets and hacking skills to outwit thugs and corporates.
Meet a motley cast of characters to shape your Fate.
Puzzles, collectibles and more cool stuff that will be announced later.

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Originally set to be a relatively short story mode offered as free DLC to the base game, STRIDE: Fates is now being pitched as a “full-fledged separate game,” Joy Way tells Road to VR.

“Instead of an hour of gameplay, we made a separate game, better in every aspect, with new content, mechanics and 5-8 hours of story campaign (depending on side quests and time spent in open world locations),” the studio says.

Joy Way maintains the decision to make it a separate game and not free DLC was also based on avoiding technical limitations inherent to the base game. STRIDE: Fates is said to use a new engine, which offers improved graphics and interactivity for standalone VR, enhancing aspects like shooting, enemy AI, and more.

“At some point, after fruitless attempts to upgrade the existing engine, we had to restart the project and basically re-do almost all the code from scratch, and now the new engine is incompatible with the original STRIDE.”

STRIDE: Fates is coming first to Quest, slated to arrive on the Meta Quest Store sometime this holiday season, which could be as soon as November, the studio says. The game is also headed to SteamVR headsets sometime in 2024. Joy Way says it’s also considering a release on PSVR 2 and Pico headsets “later in 2024,” however that’s still being decided.

June 15, 2023

Long-awaited ‘STRIDE’ Story Mode Coming Later This Year, New Trailer Here

STRIDE: Fates, the upcoming story mode to the high-flying parkour game, was supposed to arrive late last year, although developer Joy Way delayed it in favor of fleshing out what promises to be a full-featured campaign.

Originally slated to launch in December 2022, STRIDE: Fates is set to introduce new parkour mechanics, new physics, and a narrative told from the life of a chaser in what at the time was said to be a 5+ hours solo adventure.

During the UploadVR Summer Showcase, the studio revealed new gameplay footage showing off the upcoming ‘Slums’ area, something slated to be a large open-world location that will take “about 15 minutes just to traverse from one end of the location to the other,” the studio says.

Notably, the Slums area is only “one of the many places you will parkour through as a chaser,” the studio says.

Joy Way says it will be revealing a launch date, target platforms, and all other details later this summer. The base game is already available on Quest 2, SteamVR and the original PSVR.

While release info is still thin on the ground, in the meantime we’ll be sticking to the game’s Twitter for all the latest updates.

May 12, 2023

Run & Gun Roguelike ‘Dead Hook’ Gets New Gameplay Trailer Alongside Delayed Quest Release Date

Ever-agile VR developer Joy Way announced this week that its upcoming roguelike Dead Hook will be delayed into June, a little more than a month after the previously announced released date. To satiate your appetite in the meantime, a new gameplay trailer shows more about how the game will play.

Joy Way, the studio behind Stride and a slew of other interesting VR games, has released a new gameplay trailer for its latest title, Dead Hook:

The trailer outlines some of the game’s fundamental mechanics, including the ability to quickly navigate the environment by swinging around on chains like a steam-punk Spider-Man. The trailer also shows how weapon upgrades will work, and teases an interesting dual-wielding reloading mechanic that we’re curious to learn more about.

Alongside the release of the gameplay overview, Joy Way announced Dead Hook will now release on June 29th, a little more than a month after it’s previously announced May 18th release date.

The studio actually claims it’s still on track for the original release date, but delayed the game due to “important business reasons, including unforeseen changes in the Meta release calendar.”

While there’s not much of an explanation beyond that, most likely it’s related to the recently announced Meta Quest Gaming Showcase that’s happening on June 1st.

In any case, Joy Way says it will use the additional time for “extra polish and finishing touches, as well as incorporating content that was planned for after the release.”

April 13, 2023

Dead Hook Looks Like Doom VFR On Quest 2, Arrives This May

Reminiscent of Doom VFR, Dead Hook brings a new VR roguelike shooter from Stride developer Joy Way, coming to Quest 2 next month.

Developed by Joy Way (the studio also working on upcoming games Red Flowers and Stack), Dead Hook promises an “explosive mix of roguelike shooter genre with brutal combat.” Set on the planet Resaract, you play as Adam Stone, a “mercenary, smuggler, thief, and devoted husband” shooting his way through hordes of demons. Here’s the official description and announcement trailer:

Explore the elder planet Resaract and take on the role of Adam Stone, a mercenary, smuggler, thief, and devoted husband. Find legendary weapons and customize your character with 100 buffs and permanent upgrades to make each run unique. Experiment with different strategies and tackle the challenges that await you in the game. You will embark on a journey to uncover the secrets of Resaract and AI duality, facing tough choices and unexpected twists along the way.

Revealing more across Twitter, Joy Way claims Dead Hook entered development over two years ago and revealed its a reworked version of PC VR roguelike Outlier, which was cancelled after two months in early access last year. At the time, Joy Way stated that it had “overestimated the demand for this game” and “underestimated the complexity of the roguelike genre,” claiming Outlier had a low chance of becoming profitable.

Dead Hook arrives on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro on May 18. When asked about a potential PSVR 2 version, Joy Way stated, “Nothing in the works right now. We are keeping a close eye on the platform’s growth and wish it great success.”

April 7, 2023

Joy Way’s New Roguelike Shooter Looks Like Spider-Man Meets ‘DOOM’, Coming to Quest May 18th

Joy Way, the studio behind STRIDE and AGAINST, revealed a new VR game which seems to combine the web-slinging action of Spider-Man with the demon-slaying melee carnage of DOOM.

Called Dead Hook, the studio calls the upcoming Quest title an “explosive mix of roguelike and shooter genre with brutal combat and captivating storytelling.”

Prior to Dead Hook, Joy Way released a game called Outlier on Steam Early Access for PC VR, which was then cancelled shortly thereafter. At the time, the studio cited “overestimated demand” as a reason for pulling the plug on the alien-centric roguelike. Joy Way says it has since reworked the mechanics, storyline, and overall gameplay of Outlier to create Dead Hook.

In Dead Hook, you take on the role of Adam Stone, a mercenary, smuggler, and thief. In it, you explore the elder planet Resaract, collect legendary weapons and customize your character with what the studio says is “100 buffs and permanent upgrades to make each run unique.”

Enemies include regular and elite elders, which try to stop you in the air and on the ground as they defend their tombs, the studio says. Joy Way also says there’s bosses too which have “multiple phases, making each encounter feel tense and exciting.”

The roguelike shooter is also set to have a story. In it, you’ll “uncover the secrets of Resaract and AI duality, facing tough choices and unexpected twists along the way,” the studio says.

Joy Way, which late last year also released two games on Quest’s App Lab—RED FLOWERS and STACK—is slated to launch Dead Hook on the main store on May 18th.

Additionally, the studio confirmed with Road to VR that it’s still actively developing RED FLOWERS and STACK.

June 5, 2022

Stride Leaves Early Access On June 9 With Multiplayer Modes & More

Stride will leave Early Access on Steam on June 9 with the game’s full release update, adding multiplayer modes and more single player content.

It was just last week that we learned that Stride’s multiplayer update would arrive on Quest and SteamVR this month, but now we have a release date and many new details.

Joy Way also confirmed that multiplayer is only coming to the Steam and Meta Quest stores, with cross-platform play — Viveport and PSVR multiplayer support is currently not planned.

Stride’s Multiplayer will launch with 2 game modes, 4 maps, a player hub, matchmaking and social features (voice chat, player customization, etc.). The first game mode is ‘Horde’, which is a variation of tag:

In this mode, players take on the role of zombies or non-infected survivors. Survivors must avoid being touched by infected zombie players, while zombies must infect as many survivors as possible within the allotted time.

The second multiplayer mode ‘King of the Hill’, featured in the video embedded above, will see players “grab a crown and wear it longer than other players to win.”

Joy Way says it is working on further updates to multiplayer, featuring new modes, maps, private lobbies and more.

In terms of single player content, the full release patch will include a “major content update”, with more details to come closer to release. However, Joy Way teased that “hardcore and casual players, as well as fans of VR fitness, will definitely like it.”

Stride will continue to be updated post-full release, including work on single player story content, however, Joy Way says its “main focus for the near future will be on the multiplayer.”

Stride’s full release update launches June 9 for SteamVR and Meta Quest platforms.

May 30, 2022

Stride Multiplayer Mode Set To Launch In June For Quest, SteamVR

Joy Way confirmed that multiplayer is coming to Stride for Quest and PC VR via Steam in June, with more details to come soon.

The developers announced the news via Reddit, accompanied by a new trailer showcasing the multiplayer mode in action.

As you can see in the trailer embedded above, you’ll be able to play with a number of different players, performing parkour moves across various maps. You’ll also seemingly be able to choose from a number of different outfits for your avatar and interact with other players in some non-parkour capacities.

In a comment on Reddit, Joy Way said it will share more details on the mode next week. There’s no details on multiplayer launch date for PSVR yet, with the launch next month seemingly targeting PC via Steam and Quest platforms only. It’s unclear whether the Oculus Store release for PC VR will also receive the multiplayer update in June as well.

Multiplayer has been a long time coming for Stride. Joy Way first began testing it in Alpha on PC almost a year ago, in June 2021, with plans to later bring the mode to all platforms. That test involved a mode called ‘Zombie Horde‘, which was essentially a version of tag where a group of players were cast as survivors and another group as zombies. The latter have to chase and tag the former — the last survivor standing was the winner of the round.

In November 2021, Joy Way took the test servers down and noted that improvements would be made based on player feedback. The studio also indicated that several other multiplayer modes were in development as well — hopefully we see those in the full launch next month.

Just earlier this month, Stride was restored to the Quest store after it was made unavailable for over a month, as part of a move from Meta to unlist apps with “financial entities” based in Russia. You can find more details on that story here.

May 23, 2022

VR Roguelike ‘OUTLIER’ Cancelled Due to “overestimated demand”

Joy Way, the studio behind VR titles Stride and Against, announced it’s abandoning development on its most recent PC VR title, Outlier, which hit early access on Steam in March.

The studio released a statement on Friday detailing the decision to remove Outlier from sale on Steam.

Joy Way advises users to either refund the game or keep it in their library with the knowledge that there will be no new development going on. Here’s the full statement below:

Dear players,

In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to share that we’ve made the difficult decision to stop our new development work on OUTLIER.

Our plans for this project were ambitious, but unfortunately we overestimated the demand for this game. And underestimated the complexity of the roguelike genre. After the launch, we realized that the effort to implement our initial vision of this game would be too big compared to the relatively small audience we were targeting.

According to our calculations, we would have to involve a significant part of the developement team to work on this project over the next 8-12 months with a low probability that the project will ever achieve at least financial self-sufficiency.

The lesson has been learned, and we will reallocate human and financial resources to our other projects – STRIDE and AGAINST, in order to release updates for these games more often.

The title will shortly be removed from sale on Steam. Given that OUTLIER will no longer receive any updates, feel free to refund it. You can also contact Steam support if you need help with this. If you enjoyed the game, you can still play it, OUTLIER will remain in your library.

If you need any help from our side, please email us at community@joyway.games.

We treasure the help of dedicated players who helped us playtest the game and left detailed feedback, your impact was really valuable during the course of development. Your efforts and more than a year of hard work by our developers: all best practices from OUTLIER will find their application in our other existing games.

Thank you for giving the game a chance, and we hope you had some fun :)

Best,
Joy Way Team

Outlier was a bit of a mixed bag when it launched on Steam Early Access. The single-player game borrows a good amount of locomotion mechanics from Stride, the studio’s 2020 “parkour-shooter” game that has users executing highflying jumps and dodges whilst blasting away with various guns. On top of its battle-rested VR mechanics, Outlier also promised five VR-centric weapons, elemental powers, and 50+ upgrades and modifiers to keep players coming back for more of its procedurally-generated levels set on an alien world.

Joy Way intended to use its time on PC VR to work out issues before eventually releasing a version for Quest, which was initially planned to release sometime in 2022. Since its Early Access launch, the game has received ‘Mixed’ user ratings, with around 60 percent of overall users rating the game as ‘Positive’, which seems to have dampened a favorable outlook for its jump to Quest.

To date, all of the studio’s VR games on Steam are still in Early Access, including Time Hacker, Stride, and its latest rhythm-combat title Against. Stride is however the studio’s first (and only) to make it to the official Quest Store.

The post VR Roguelike ‘OUTLIER’ Cancelled Due to “overestimated demand” appeared first on Road to VR.

May 23, 2022

VR Roguelite Outlier Has Been Cancelled

Virtual reality (VR) specialist Joy Way has been producing some exciting content for gamers having released Stride, Against and Outlier as early access titles over the past couple of years. The latter only arrived back in March and it seems that was one too many, as Joy Way quietly revealed a few days ago that further development of Outlier has now halted.

On its Discord channel, Joy Way detailed the reasons behind Outlier’s cancellation, saying: “Our plans for this project were ambitious, but unfortunately we overestimated the demand for this game. And underestimated the complexity of the roguelike genre. After the launch, we realized that the effort to implement our initial vision of this game would be too big compared to the relatively small audience we were targeting.”

The team went on to add: “According to our calculations, we would have to involve a significant part of the development [sic] team to work on this project over the next 8-12 months with a very low probability that the project will ever achieve at least financial self-sufficiency.”

So that’s the end of what looked to be a promising roguelite. As gmw3 said in its preview: “It could possibly become Joy Way’s biggest and baddest VR game to date, with some wicked looking enemy design – especially the boss – and variety when combining gems to upgrade yourself.”

Due to the cancellation, there will, of course, be no further updates. So those that have purchased the videogame can either continue to play as is or refund even if Steam’s two-hour window has passed.

It’s not all bad news though. Joy Way will repurpose its human and financial resources into Stride and Against, both of which received new updates last week. The studio also mentions that “the long-awaited multiplayer for Stride is on its way,” so there’s that to look forward to.

While Joy Way has shuttered its roguelite plans many other VR developers have embraced the genre. Titles like Until You Fall and In Death: Unchained have done well with new projects like Mothergunship: Forge set to arrive this summer. For continued updates on the latest Joy Way announcements, keep reading gmw3.