Just two months on from its launch on early access, developer Joy Way has canceled work on VR roguelite, Outlier.
The studio shared the news on its Discord channel last week, stating that it had “overestimated the demand for this game” and “underestimated the complexity of the roguelike genre.” The game will soon be removed from Steam.
Outlier Canceled
he studio reasoned that continuing to work on the project would take another eight to 12 months with “a low probability that the project will ever achieve at least financial self-sufficiency.” Outlier was Joy Way’s fifth announced game in two years and the second project to be fully abandoned, the other being a puzzle game called Brains vs Zombies. Its other three projects, Stride, Against and Time Hacker, are all also in early access, though the latter title seemingly hasn’t received an update in over a year.
Joy Way said customers should “feel free” to refund the game and reach out to Steam support if they need help.
Outlier offered roguelite action similar to flatscreen games like Hades and Returnal as well as VR games like Sweet Surrender and Until You Fall. You fought through areas of an alien planet using firearms and superpowers to defend yourself. We quite liked the game at early access launch, but noted the developer’s tendency to release new prototype projects rather than finish old ones was becoming a problem.
“More cautious optimism, then, but with this marking the fourth major early access release for Joy Way with a full game yet to launch, it’s high past time the developer started consolidating on some of this potential,” we said.
Joy Way does continue to work on Stride and Against, however. The latter just got an update improving the flow of the game. Stride, meanwhile, recently disappeared off of the Quest store for over a month as Meta delisted apps from developers with “financial entities” based in Russia. Joy Way told UploadVR that it has “very few employees” left in Russia and Stride has since returned to the store, with its long-promised multiplayer mode still in the works.
What do you make of Outlier’s cancellation? Let us know in the comments below!
The first major update to Joy Way’s VR rhythm action game, Against, essentially overhauls the game to make timing more accurate.
The Heartbeat update is rolling out now and mainly responds to player feedback saying some actions in the game felt off-beat. To combat this, Joy Way has gone back and overhauled all of the game’s animations to make the timing more accurate. There are also new visual effects to help indicate how and when players should move, making the overall experience a little more coherent.
Against Update Goes Live
Elsewhere, there are also new interface markers and improved support for LIV Integration. The update is free for existing owners of the game.
“As for new content, work on the 1.0 version of the game continues, and it may take a few more months before the full release,” a press release for this week’s update reads.
We think Against is a really impressive rhythm action game that successfully blends elements of Beat Saber and Pistol Whip into its own style. Currently, the game has only been confirmed for release on PC VR headsets but we’re hoping to see it arrive on more platforms once the full version hits later this year.
Elsewhere, Joy Way recently saw the return of its VR free-running game, Stride, to the Quest store after Meta delisted the app. You can read more about that right here.
Popluar VR free running game, Stride, has returned to the Quest store after being taken down more than a month ago in a move from Meta to unlist apps with “financial entities” based in Russia.
Stride is developed by indie studio Joy Way, and was removed from sale on Quest in late March. During that time, it remained on sale on Steam, though some PSVR users also reported issues with finding the game.
Stride Returns To Oculus Store
However, in a statement issued over email to UploadVR in March, a Meta spokesperson suggested that economic restrictions placed on Russia in light of its invasion of Ukraine had led the company to de-list certain apps. “Due to difficulties in making financial transactions and processing payments in and from Russia, we will not be able to list any applications on Quest that require payment to financial entities based in Russia,” the statement reads.
“While we do not sell Quest devices in Russia, those who have acquired a device through a resale market or other means have likely been impacted by various restrictions that have been placed.”
Over the course of Stride’s absence, Joy Way, repeatedly told us that it did not know why Stride was removed from the store. In emails to UploadVR a representative said that, whilst the studio was established by a mix of European and Russian developers, the company is “majorly controlled by Cypriots” and was registered as a Cyprus company in September 2021 with its main development office now located there.
“During the early stage the company’s IT development team was based in Russia,” the Joy Way rep wrote. “Later on after the successful launch of Stride we initiated a process of company restructuring and incorporated a Cyprus company. This was made for certain reasons. First of all, the European jurisdiction is claimed to be more favorable and reliable for doing business. Secondly, the majority shareholders are Cypriots and this was their mandatory requirement to structure the business in Cyprus.”
This weekend, however, Stride returned to the Quest Store without warning. “Speaking of this whole situation, we still don’t know the exact reason why the game was taken down on Quest,” Joy Way said in a follow-up statement. “Meta asked us to provide legal information about Joy Way LTD and STRIDE in particular. After doing so, they took their time to make a decision, and we were not informed of any specific details of their internal discussion, we only had an approximate time frame for this decision.”
“So it was pretty stressful and we’re glad that STRIDE is back to the store.”
The company says it now has “very few employees” left in Russia, with many relocated. Those that remain due to “family circumstances or due to lack of necessary documents” are mainly within the studio’s quality assurance department, according to a Joy Way representative. Ukrainian developers have also relocated, the studio claims.
“It is impossible not to feel pain seeing the situation in Ukraine,” the studio added. “Fortunately we have managed to give every assistance to our Ukrainian team mates and their families and evacuate the majority of our employees to a safe place.”
After a few delays, the high-flying parkour madness of STRIDE (2021) is finally making its way to PSVR today.
Created by Joy Way, the studio known for VR games OUTLIER and AGAINST, Stride is all about jumping and shooting your way through increasingly difficult environments.
It does this by combining some particularly clever locomotion methods with the sort of run-and-gun action you’ve probably seen in a John Wick film—or maybe Mirror’s Edge.
Playing with PS Move, user get up to running speeds by pumping both arms back and forth, almost as if you were drumming or running in place. To jump, you depress a button and release it while making an upward thrust with your controller. Together, it makes for a surpassingly comfortable and fast-paced way of getting around.
Having previously launched on PC VR and Meta Quest headsets last year, the PSVR release suffered several delays which pushed it from an “early 2021” release window until today.
We haven’t gone hands-on with the PSVR version yet—so we can’t tell whether it’s worth the wait or not—however when we reviewed Stride on Quest back in mid-2021 we gave it a very solid [7/10].
Stride’s single-player modes make for some great arcade-style fun, offering just enough reason to come back for more shooting action on both the game’s rooftop environment and procedurally-generated endless mode.
Since then, the studio has included multiplayer modes among a number of tweaks that have really filled out the game. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem multiplayer is coming at launch on PSVR though. You can check it out on the PlayStation Store here.
When asked whether Stride would also eventually come to PSVR 2 however, Joy Way responded this:
It’s surprising to think that Joy Way used to be location-based entertainment (LBE) specialist PlatformaVR, transitioning into a full-time virtual reality (VR) studio a couple of years ago. During that time the team has released a selection of Steam Early Access titles with the latest to arrive being Outlier. This joins the ever-growing roguelite genre VR developers are loving at the moment, continually fighting and dying, trying to inch closer to the finish line whilst incrementally improving your stats.
Outlier very much has this at the core of its DNA with a basic narrative to give it some structure. You’re the captain of a spaceship looking to find humanity a new home, along the way getting sucked into a black hole that imbues you with powers whilst offering a potential planet. However, that planet is being attacked by hostiles that need clearing out first, so with new said abilities you get to unleash a little mayhem.
As an Early Access release Outlier doesn’t offer many bells and whistles, to begin with. All the VR basics are present, smooth locomotion only, you can grab ledges to climb and guns can be housed over each shoulder (nothing on the hip). There’s no manual reloading, simply pop the gun near your hip to reload making for a quick arcade-style experience. Early on there seemed to be some inconsistency when it came to dropping the gun. Rather than popping it over my shoulder, simply letting it go generally left it there although on the odd occasion it seemed to auto-return. Ahh, the vagaries of an early access videogame.
Planetside, Outlier looks great, fighting through what look like ancient ruins and temples, giant monoliths stretching skywards with plenty of undulation in the level design; keeping most of the enemy encounters in small areas. Joy Way has also used a trick where the environment is entirely contained within canyons (so far at least), presumably because levels are procedurally generated. In any case, it doesn’t feel confined, with plenty of room to manoeuvre.
And you’ll need to, the first opponents encountered are fast and deadly accurate with their throwing axes. It takes a moment to actually keep up and track their movements as they flit from side-to-side, unusually tricky for introductory foes. They’re actually a bit too erratic in all honesty and there were times where it felt easier to just run up and gun butt them, only to find I couldn’t! I’m also not a fan of the ragdoll effects when they die, definitely seems out of place in this style of VR experience.
Physical violence may have been off the cards but thankfully Outlier doesn’t just provide guns, you can unleash some telekinetic rock throwing. Thus you’ve got the option to dual wield two guns when you’ve found them, a gun and helpful rock or just go full-on Jean Grey and start hurling boulders around the place. Alas, you can’t just rip them out of the ground, only certain rocks and pots can be lobbed but even so, it makes Outlier physical, interactive and fun.
Now, as mentioned this is a roguelite which means gaining loads of useful stuff, death, losing all your stuff and then upgrading core abilities to go back at it. Outlier achieves this in a number of ways, the first being the in level buffs. Every so often you’ll come across a glowing pedestal with 2 or 3 items, usually 3 buffs or 1 buff and a gun. Buffs can range from improving your grab distance and walking speed to upping the number of times you can dash in succession or adding perks like Death from Above where you gain a 10% damage improvement when airborne.
These are all your temporary boons, the permanent ones come from killing enemies to gain some sort of magical energy. This is the good stuff, only usable onboard your spaceship once you’ve died. At the moment the ship doesn’t look as good as the rest of Outlier, very bland in its aesthetic and user interface. There’s also the less than inspiring voiceover for the story narration and gameplay tutorial. It’s not the only thing that needs some more polish whilst inside early access, enemy wall glitching and game crashes were two of the more prominent issues.
Outlier also seems to have been influenced (partially) by Joy Way’s biggest VR title Stride. The jump/dash mechanic takes a little getting used to, as it’s a physical flick. You have to hold the A button down then flick the controller in a direction, releasing the button at the same time. It is a gameplay fundamental learning to quickly dash sideways, backwards, or jump across chasms.
All of this combines to make Outlier an intriguing prospect. 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. However, this is the studios’ fourth early access videogame on Steam, begging the question as to whether they’ll all stay in this EA limbo or actually come to fruition. There are some excellent roguelite videogames available for VR headsets and Outlier could well join this group, eventually.
Joy Way, the studio behind VR titles STRIDE and AGAINST, announced it has another game in the early access pipeline. Called OUTLIER, the sci-fi roguelite is headed to Steam next month, with a version for Quest planned for 2022.
Outlier is offering up procedurally-generated levels, an array of weapons and characters, and is taking inspiration from indie greats such as Risk of Rain (2013), Dead Cells (2018), and Hades (2020).
Here’s how Joy Way describes Outlier:
You are a captain of one of the last human arks. In search of a new home for humanity, your vessel was sucked into a black hole. From your position beyond space and time, you witness an unknown race devastating what looks like a habitable solar system. The unknown physics of the black hole endow you with mysterious powers and allow you to exist in parallel worlds. Live, die, and repeat in your quest to conquer at least one of these worlds in the name of mankind.
The advanced controls integrate a wide range of movements. As you tactically break your way through the enemy hordes and navigate the complex terrain, you’ll need to use your body to cast artifact powers, slam enemies with surrounding objects, cut them into pieces, dodge their attacks, hide behind objects, jump, dash, and more.
Looking at the release date trailer, it also seems to include a good measure of the jumping and shooting mechanics we’ve seen in both Stride and Against too.
Image courtesy Joy Way
Arriving first on Steam Early Access for PC VR headsets on March 17th, Outlier is also slated to launch on the official Quest Store at some point in 2022. Joy Way says it will be using Steam Early Access to “help us figure out what aspects of the game players are really responding to, and nip any design issues in the bud.”
“Though, we plan to tweak all main game systems first during the early access period,” the studio says. “After we receive enough feedback from the community on the core mechanics and future content of the game, we will start working on a Quest port.”
To date, all of Joy Way’s games for SteamVR headsets are still in early access, including Time Hacker, Stride, and its latest rhythm-combat title Against.
Stride is the first of the bunch to make it to the official Quest Store, and not in early access, garnering the game around a [4.2/5] user rating.
Having revealed its latest virtual reality (VR) project, Outlier, last year,developer Joy Way is gearing up for its early access launch via Steam. The studio has announced that the PC VR release will be taking place next month.
Coming from the same studio behind Strideand Against, Outlier is a very different beast, a roguelite shooter set in a stylish sci-fi universe. The narrative revolves around you being captain of the last human ark, vessels designed to find humanity a new home. However, your ark is swallowed by a black hole and during this process, you discover what looks to be a habitable planet. Unfortunately, it’s being attacked, fortunately, that black hole incident has endowed you with powers. So down you go to clear out the menace.
Those abilities include a roguelite’s main feature, rinse and repeat until perfect. With every level procedurally generated death merely means restarting a little bit stronger and hopefully slightly wiser. That does mean, of course, that you’ll encounter different characters and experience new artefacts, weapons, and story pieces.
Player progression is always an important factor in any roguelite with Outlier combining power-ups and ability modifiers for players to tweak their characters. Spells such as the fireball or telekinesis can be merged to create an explosive fireball and a fire push. During early access Joy Way will continue to add more weapons, more powers, and more pickups.
As gmw3has previously reported, Joy Way plans on bringing Outlier to Meta Quest 2 later in the year, saying in a statement: “Meta has accepted putting Outlier to the official Quest Store. Though, we plan to tweak all main game systems first during the early access period. After we receive enough feedback from the community on the core mechanics and future content of the game, we will start working on a Quest port.”
Outlier is currently scheduled for release via Steam Early Access on 17th March, supporting Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index. The full videogame is currently slated to arrive by the end of 2022. Check out the new trailer below and for further updates keep reading gmw3.
When a virtual reality (VR) developer reveals another rhythm action videogame it can be a little difficult to get excited about the whole prospect. However, when Joy way revealed that its latest project AGAINST would be in this genre it piqued VRFocus’ interest due to its dark aesthetic and multiple gameplay features. Looking unlike any other rhythm action title is one thing but providing a unique gameplay experience, that’s a bit harder. Due to arrive as a Steam Early Access videogame, AGAINST does have its own flair, even if it is a bit cheesy at points.
You might have already played a version of AGAINST as Joy Way took part in Steam Next Fest during the summer, offering an early demo of its gritty design. The look and feel of AGAINST has been significantly enhanced since then, particularly where the visuals are concerned. Gone is the very striking, almost film-noir style in favour of an environment a touch easier on the eyes. That hint of colour which would only appear in an enemy’s eyes or as the indicator to slice in a particular direction has made its way across the landscape, making for a far more polished looking experience.
AGAINST might look prettier but it’s no less brutal in its delivery, where you can hack henchmen in half, cut the heads off giant snakes and uppercut gormless goons with visceral trails of blood. Unlike a lot of other rivals AGAINST doesn’t pretend to try and handhold new VR players with friendly, bouncy rhythms; it’s brutal, in your face and definitely looking to attract those hardcore VR fans.
In a similar vein to Pistol Whip 2089, AGAINST employs a narrative campaign strategy rather than loads of individual songs you can swap between. So you get a story set in 1930’s New York City, playing out over seven levels. Full of the stereotypical comic book tropes, there’s an over-the-top villain who wants to unleash darkness on the world and you play a detective determined to stop him. While the narrative does provide a mildly humorous respite between levels and provides some explanation of why you’re fighting werewolves, burly blokes and snakes, if you skip it you won’t be missing much. Although the skip function never worked, so replaying levels meant having to listen to it all again and again, unfortunately.
When you first start AGAINST it drops you almost immediately into the tutorial, and for good reason, there’s a lot to get to grips with. If you’ve played any rhythm action title several components will be instantly familiar such as using the sword to slice opponents, knuckle dusters to punch them, and a revolver – followed by Tommy guns later on – to shoot them at range. Kill them in time to the music – which is mainly Dubstep or heavier EDM – and you’ll score points, helping attain that leaderboard position, you get the gist.
AGAINST mixes things up by adding punchable directional arrows, thus activating a short wall run sequence or boosting you up to a higher platform. The wall running especially helps to open up the dark and moody levels, providing a novel switch in focus for a moment. However, later levels naturally bombard you with opponents, obstacles to dodge and these switching moments. Even on the normal difficulty setting (Easy and Hard are also available), this can get quite fierce which some players may find jarring.
Get past that and you’ve got a really challenging experience that takes two or three levels to get into. The first just seemed ridiculously difficult even on normal with multiple restarts required to complete the level. The second and third were a breeze in comparison and moments where you have to use the sword to deflect bullets back at the shooter became mini (John Wick style) badass moments that were very satisfying to complete. What you have to get used to is the constant weapon switching between the sword, guns and fists. As any Beat Saberplayer will know, you find a nice rhythm and flow that makes the more expert levels manageable. AGAINST doesn’t quite have that as it just feels like it’s trying to do too much all at once.
That being said, AGAINST has a personality that other VR rhythm games lack and additions like the mini-bosses at the end of some of the levels help to give it a classic arcade vibe VRFocus loves. Joy Way says that the Early Access period will be used to add a couple more weapons and polish and that the core campaign is done, which is slightly concerning regarding longevity as there are only seven levels. There is a free Beatmap Editor (VRFocus hasn’t tested this tool yet) which could extend the experience by making your own custom maps if you really want to. AGAINST didn’t instantly hook, it takes time to warm to but there is a little magic under the surface. Hopefully, Joy Way will nurture it and not leave it in the early access abyss.
VR rhythm action game AGAINST from VR studio Joy Way is now set to launch December 16th. The game has seen a total makeover with a more bold look compared to a preview we saw earlier this year.
Against is an interesting take on the VR rhythm game that steeps the usual arm swinging and body dodging of its contemporaries with gameplay grounded in an action-focused paradigm. Instead of cutting blocks or dodging walls, you’re slicing enemies, blocking bullets, and ducking under flying sawblades—to the beat, of course.
Although it’s all set on a linear path, there’s also more active elements than you’ll see in most VR rhythm games, like wall-running and jumping, not to mention multiple weapon types which will change up the moment-to-moment gameplay.
In our preview of the game earlier this year, the game’s look was very much in the noir realm, with rainy city streets and shadowy figures to fight. Since then, Joy Way has given the game a complete makeover with a much more fantastical and colorful tone, as we see in the game’s new release date trailer:
Another recently released trailer for the game takes the look a step further with a boss fight where players are battling a giant demon figure.
Against is set for a December 16th release date on Steam. Joy Way hasn’t made specific mention of whether or not the game will make its way to Quest or PSVR, but did say previously that it had plans to release the game “on other stores later,” so we may see it on more headsets in the future.
Joy Way is also in active development of OUTLIER and STRIDE, a VR sci-fi FPS and VR parkour game, respectively.
Joy Way’s upcoming super-powered shooter, Outlier, is releasing on PC VR in Q1 2022.
The game will release in early access via SteamVR, much like the developer’s other upcoming title, Against, will do in a few weeks’ time. Outlier has also been confirmed for an Oculus Quest release in the future, though don’t expect that to show up anytime soon.
The news was revealed on the Upload VR Showcase today. Check out a brand new trailer just below.
New Outlier Trailer Revealed
Outlier is a roguelite shooter in which players fend off enemies on an alien planet. You might wield a firearm in one hand as you make your way through randomized areas, clearing away threats, and then you can either dual-wield with your other hand or you’ll be able to wield powers like fireballs and more.
The trailer shows off some agile combat, with the player springing into the air, and we also get a look at new weapons like a bow and arrow. As you progress through a run you’ll also get new upgrades to aid you in battle. As with other roguelites, the game will no doubt take repeated runs to see through as you look to get better builds and make it to the end.
Look for more details on Outlier in the new year. Joy Way is also continuing to expand on its popular parkour title, Stride, with a campaign and multiplayer support still in progress. For now, stay tuned to the Upload VR Showcase, as we have plenty more to talk about today.
