Category: Make[REAL]

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The VR Job Hub: Ready At Dawn, LIV & Make Real

Here on the Sunday VR Job Hub at VRFocus we like to include the very latest and most up to date selection of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) jobs from around the world. If a developer is working on an awesome new project and need to up the staff or simply looking to expand their core team, we’ll have those vacancies.

Location Company Role Link
Irvine, CA Ready At Dawn Level Designer Click Here to Apply
Irvine, CA Ready At Dawn Senior Level Designer Click Here to Apply
Irvine, CA Ready At Dawn Engine Programmer Click Here to Apply
Irvine, CA Ready At Dawn Lead Concept Artist Click Here to Apply
Irvine, CA Ready At Dawn Lighting Artist Click Here to Apply
Irvine, CA Ready At Dawn Producer Click Here to Apply
Europe, Remote LIV Unreal and C++ Engineer (VR) Click Here to Apply
Europe, Remote LIV Web Engineer Click Here to Apply
Brighton, UK Make Real Senior Unity Developer Click Here to Apply
Brighton, UK Make Real Senior 3D Artist Click Here to Apply
Brighton, UK Make Real Junior Immersive Learning Designer Click Here to Apply
Brighton, UK Make Real XR&D Designer Click Here to Apply

Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hub to check as well.

If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).

We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.

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Pastimes For Pirates Developer Diary #1 – In The Beginning

One page is all it takes – in July 2017, during the Develop: Brighton conference, we met with a variety of virtual reality (VR) platform and hardware companies to discuss our thoughts about what our next videogame title should be. At the time, it was decided that a mobile VR title would be best fitting, to put the studio in a position of gaining invaluable experience designed and developing for mobile and standalone chipsets with the technology moving towards standalone, all-in-one VR headsets.

Pasttimes for Pirates Dev Diary #1A number of one-page proposals were created by our Senior Designer Pete, who joined the Make Real team to create the early prototype for what became Loco Dojo, into a full title in late 2016 through to its release in April 2017. One particular idea struck a chord with the team and ultimately, VR platform holders who encouraged us to flesh it out into a larger concept pitch document.

With continued positive noises, we developed the one-pager into an early mobile VR videogame prototype, incorporating some key mechanisms to showcase the core concept and use of mobile input devices. After the initial review, whilst the feedback was good, we continued to tweak the prototype incorporating suggestions to bolster the desire for funding.

Not Enough DoF

At this stage, being a mobile VR focused title, the title was set around one particular skill-based game and theme, the then working title “Darrrts” should make it clear what that was. However, even after further tweaking and honing of the potential skill mastery and character progression, we felt that the 3DoF input available with current mobile VR devices was holding back the true potential of the title. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending how you look at it, those who we were showing the early prototype to agreed and so we set out to expand the videogame mechanics and scope by moving over to a full, 6DoF VR experience.

Pasttimes for Pirates Dev Diary #1Suddenly we were freed of the input limitations in relation to what we wanted to achieve and a creative burst of ideas waiting in Pete’s head were unleashed, meaning that we went from a simple, single idea to a much larger, social VR title with much more breadth to consider. Of course this meant that the necessary budget required to be able to deliver the idea increased along with the scope, something that those initially interested weren’t willing to continue to support.

New Funding Ventures

Undeterred, we started to look at other avenues of funding for development and reached out to other publishers and platforms we knew were keenly and aggressively pushing VR videogames that didn’t necessarily have the big brand IP behind them but still offered something new and unique with tight, core gameplay loops and aspirations.

In 2017 we’ve seen some funding options dry-up or require much more analysis or consideration, backed up by sales market metrics and analyst projections, compared to the earlier care-free, caution to the wind approach taken before. This is only natural and to be expected with a slowly maturing market (which is also growing at a slower pace than previously predicted) making some publishers more risk adverse and keen to capitalise on themes and genres that are deemed popular with VR gamers.

Pasttimes for Pirates Dev Diary #1XR Indie Pitch

In order to meet new potential funding partners, the Make Real team applied to be considered for XRConnects London 2018, to be selected for the XR Indie Pitch event running on the second day. We also registered for the Speed Match and Pitch & Match systems running alongside the event to widen our opportunities to meet publishers and VR platform holders attending.

Armed with a lovingly written pitchdeck for Pastimes for Pirates, the 3DoF mobile VR prototype was showcased to select attendees for invaluable feedback, as well as the XR Indie Pitch judges and those who had arranged meetings throughout the event. Whilst the meetings were positive, it’s still at an early stage in the process of getting a title funded and so, the outcomes of which will have to wait until another developer diary in the future.

To our surprise we were selected as 3rd place for the XR Indie Pitch, winning $1,000 credit on the Steel Media website network to use at a time more suitable around release. Up against 18 (?) other really strong, more complete VR videogames and experiences, it was a real boost to the team morale to be selected on the back of a placeholder art in an admittedly fairly rough prototype. Massive congratulations to our expo neighbours Shuttershade Studios for taking 1st prize (we really wanted the baseball bat for getting out of Moorgate across London during rush hour) and Groundrunner Trials for their 2nd place – well deserved winners all.

Pasttimes for Pirates Dev Diary #1So now we have validated our idea on paper and in prototype, and we’ve received a lot of positive feedback and noises around our intentions of what we plan to achieve with the full project. We’re positive that the next stages will be successful but we certainly aren’t holding our collective breath. Being veterans of the videogame industry, having worked on both the development and publishing sides, we know how many titles struggle to get funding at all, and even those that do have a high likelihood of being cancelled before seeing the light of day. Now we have to get our heads down into the serious business development process of negotiating contracts, budgets and development timelines, or at least will do once we settle on a publishing partner. Hopefully this will be covered in some detail within the next developer diary, due in a couple of months. Until then, keep your fingers crossed for us!

You can view an interview with Sam Watts discussing Pastimes for Pirates further here.

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Make Real Partners With Roto VR To Deliver Support Platform

By their own admission it has been a particularly busy year for UK virtual reality (VR) studio Make Real. The Brighton team have been zipping all over the UK throughout the year, involved with a multitude of events across the country and further afield in the likes of Luxembourg, Hungary and the USA. From VRFocus‘ side the most ongoing developments have revolved around their videogame title Loco Dojo, the frenetic collection of mini games full of British humour for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. And brought to life by the unmistakable voice of actor Brian Blessed.Now the team move on to their next project however, and they today announced a partnership with the hardware company Roto VR, who are bringing the world’s first 360° interactive VR chair to market, alongside the Roto Arcade Portal which will offer a range of native VR applications and experiences designed specifically for use with the chair. The aim of the partnership is to allow Roto VR to focus on the final stages of manufacturing of the chair, first announced in 2015, with Make Real putting it’s simulation and physical hardware experience, combined with software platform development knowledge, to create the backend systems for soon-to-be-owners, VR Arcade operators and VR developers alike. With an easy-to-use system to build up and maintain their library of supported VR experiences.

Roto VR supports all VR experiences by default with full head-tracking and a special ‘Cockpit Mode’ of operation but Make Real will be packaging up the Roto VR chair APIs into free SDK assets to allow developers to integrate native support and control over the chair motion directly into their VR applications. Not only that, but a Samsung GearVR-based Roto VR 360° movie player will be released alongside the chair, bringing a timeline rotation tool to allow content creators to match movement to film action. VR Arcade operators will be able to track usage and charge per session, allowing Roto VR to invoice and pay developers accordingly.

“We are very excited to be partnering with Make Real, one the most prestigious content developers in the VR space.” Said Elliott Myers, CEO and Founder of Roto VR said of the partnership: “Their software development expertise allows us confidence in being able to deliver a solid launch platform for owners, operators and developers of the Roto VR chair hardware.”

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Play Loco Dojo for Free this Weekend

Following the Steam launch of Loco Dojo, UK developers Make[REAL] has today made the videogame freely available for all Oculus Rift & Oculus Touch owners for this weekend only. Live right now, the free weekend will end at 6pm BST, 30th July 2017.

LocoDojo Screenshot 1_GuruLoco Dojo is a multiplayer-centric party videogame. Featuring 16 mini-games for up to four players, Loco Dojo offers a wealth of wacky uses for Oculus Touch. The goal is to win a pile of Golden Suns to please Grand Sensei, earning his temple where overall victory against your friends can be claimed.

Discussing the free weekend promotion, Sam Watts of Make[REAL] stated to VRFocus: “We’re honoured that Oculus have chosen the game to be part of their free-to-play weekends rolling throughout the Summer of Rift promotions and look forward to challenging players online!”

Make[REAL] will be running a series of multiplayer lobbies where players can play against the developers to gain tips on how to achieve the gold trophies within the mini-games. Players should look out for lobbies hosted by Make Real VR to join.

The free weekend of play in Loco Dojo is now live, and will run until 6pm BST, 30th July 2017. The videogame van be downloaded from the official Oculus Store, and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest from Make[REAL].

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Loco Dojo Achieves Success at the Develop: Brighton Indie Showcase Awards

Over the past few day the Develop: Brighton conference has been taking place, bringing together industry professional to discuss every aspect of the videogame industry, including virtual reality (VR). As part of the event, organiser Tandem Events also hosts the Indie Showcase Awards, celebrating the best in indie development. Nine titles made the shortlist – four of which were VR – and two have been chosen, one of which was Make[Real]’s Loco Dojo.

Loco Dojo is a multiplayer board game in which players have to compete across 16 mini-games to make it into the Grand Temple and win. VRFocus reviewed the title a short while ago, giving it 4 stars, saying: ‘those who do decide to take the plunge will be richly rewarded with a videogame that is highly enjoyable to play and will keep them coming back for more.’ While the videogame originally launched just for Oculus Rift in April, Make[Real] will be bringing the multiplayer to Steam – and HTC Vive – later this month.

LocoDojo Screenshot 1_Guru

Loco Dojo was chosen as part of the People’s Choice award as voted for by attendees, alongside Abandon Ship, a PC title by Fireblade Software.

The shortlisted studio’s each received a complimentary booth on the expo floor, free expo passes and the chance to demo their game to more than 2,000 developers and videogame industry professionals from all over the world.

Josh Naylor, lead of evangelism EMEA, Unity, said: “The standard of games at this year’s Indie Showcase at Develop:Brighton have been exceptional and we are delighted to see the number of different platforms being developed on, from mobile to PC and VR. The competition is a great opportunity to show the level of creativity in today’s industry. Thank you to all those who submitted and shortlisted and congratulations to the winners.”

Develop:Brighton will return in 2018, from 10th – 12th July, with speaker submissions opening in January 2018.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Develop: Brighton, reporting back with the latest updates.

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The Loco Dojo Party Heads To Steam Later This Month

You may recall Loco Dojo, the madcap multiplayer party game for Oculus Touch that came out on the Oculus Store back in April. Which saw players either test themselves in solo play or take up to three friends in all manner of whimsical challenges on the ‘Table of Trials’ – a board game come to life. The proceedings take place under the watchful gaze and booming voice of the Grand Sensei. The latter explained by the fact the Grand Sensei is voiced by none other than Brian Blessed; a role for which the actor has been nominated for in the Best Performance category at the upcoming Develop Awards. 

LocoDojo Screenshot 1_Gurumake[REAL]’s collection of sixteen “ridiculous” minigames is now set to make the jump to Steam, with support given not just to the Oculus Rift and Touch but also to the HTC Vive.

As mentioned by VRFocus’ Peter Graham in his review: “You’ll be swatting bats with nunchuck hotdogs, milking pigs with baby pigs, stacking moles, whacking urchins, flinging cats, throwing biscuits and more besides – that’s a running theme of food and animals that makes you think what other crazy ideas the studio came up with. You’ll soon find your favourite games to gain gold medals in and this can go onto add a real strategic element to the proceedings.”

The Steam release will take place on Thursday July 27th 2017 and will be the same version as that presently available on the Oculus Store – and indeed the same price at £14.99 (GBP) / $19.99 (USD). Multiplayer is however confirmed to be cross-play and those using the Oculus platform will be able to play against those using Steam and vice-versa.

Loco Dojo is also set to be a part of the Indie Showcase at next week’s Develop: Brighton event.  VRFocus will be bringing you more developments in the field of VR gaming as we get them.

LocoDojo Screenshot 5_FoggyMarsh

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VRFocus Spins the Dice Playing Mini-Game Mashup Loco Dojo

If you were ever a fan of mini-game compilations such as Mario Party or Warioware for example but want something a little more immersive then make[REAL]’s Loco Dojo aims to fill that requirement. Exclusively launched for Oculus Rift and Touch recently, the title mixes boardgame ideas with some intense virtual reality (VR) gameplay.

Featuring 16 mini-games, Loco Dojo allows up to four players to compete against each other, gaining points that’ll earn them new belts, all the way up to the coveted black belt. Once secured they’ll then enter the temple in the centre of the board to complete one last challenge.

Should you want to play Loco Dojo but can’t find any tournaments to join then make[REAL] has added the Ten Trial Test, a shorter single-player challenge where you get ten spins to get as far as you can. And that’s the gameplay video VRFocus has for you today, showcasing some of the trials in store and how the whole process works.

For another gameplay video from the latest VR titles, check back with VRFocus tomorrow.

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Review: Loco Dojo

Party videogames can be a riotous laugh with friends, involving fast paced mini-games that can have you thinking on your feet as you try to out do one another. This is the basic premise for British developer make[REAL]’s first proper virtual reality (VR) videogame, Loco Dojo, bringing everyone together for some laughs and competition, which it does succeed at, (for the most part). 

Loco Dojo perfectly exemplifies British humour and the love for all things daft and quirky – the team secured the vocal stylings of Brian Blessed which is always a plus point. This isn’t a videogame that takes anything seriously, and for that it should be saluted. The premise is simple, you find yourself in front of a wooden circular game board with 16 mini-games located in four zones around a grand temple. Succeed at the mini-games and you’ll be awarded tokens that’ll up your belt ranking, with the aim of accessing the temple for the final challenge.

LocoDojo Screenshot 1_Guru

The mini-games make[REAL] has created vary wildly in their difficulty, and time is short to really master them. You’ll be swatting bats with nunchuck hotdogs, milking pigs with baby pigs, stacking moles, whacking urchins, flinging cats, throwing biscuits and more besides – that’s a running theme of food and animals that makes you think what other crazy ideas the studio came up with. You’ll soon find your favourite games to gain gold medals in and this can go onto add a real strategic element to the proceedings. When spinning the dice (numbered 1-4) there’s a question mark that enables you to choose almost any location to move your counter to, thus selecting the games you’re mostly likely to succeed at or just enjoy the most.

This mixture of gameplay elements makes Loco Dojo a great multiplayer experience but just like any online VR multiplayer it does suffer from player numbers. Multiplayer tournaments have been hard to find at this early stage, really you need a few mates with Oculus Rifts and Touch, then arrange a session together. If this can’t be done then there’s always the single-player ‘Table of Trials’ option which is a very wise decision on the studio’s part. This provides an opportunity to actually play Loco Dojo if no other players can be found and to learn and practice the mini-games. If make[REAL] hadn’t included the feature Loco Dojo might have suffered the same fate as many other indie multiplayer’s and died before it had time to shine.

LocoDojo Screenshot 2_Countryside

There’s always that worry when buying a multiplayer focused videogame that everything hinges on player uptake and to a point Loco Dojo is no different – mainly due to the size of Oculus Rift and Touch’s user base. Hopefully this won’t be the case as those who do decide to take the plunge will be richly rewarded with a videogame that is highly enjoyable to play and will keep them coming back for more. There’s also the fact that make[REAL] has already confirmed loads of ideas are in the pipeline for more content additions, vital for keeping that party spirit alive.

80%

Awesome

  • Verdict
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It’s Time to Party as Loco Dojo Launches for Oculus Touch

Today British studio make[REAL] – the sister company to Radial-G’s Tammeka Games – has launched its first virtual reality (VR) videogame in the form of Loco Dojo. A party mini-game experience, Loco Dojo supports the Oculus Rift with Touch.

Loco Dojo is a light-hearted multiplayer title that takes its inspiration from vidoegames like Mario Party and Warioware, in which players progress around a board by spinning a wheel to move a counter. Landing on certain areas will activate a quick action mini-game which is just as much about learning the technique of that particular game as it is about winning.

LocoDojo Screenshot 3_RockyDesert

Featuring a Tournament mode for two to four players simultaneous players, if there’s no one available a single-player challenge mode has been included called Ten Trial Test, where players have ten rolls of the dice to try and attain a black belt and be classed a master, or just use the time to practice some of the more challenging games.

Loco Dojo only supports the Oculus Touch controllers and retails for £14.99 GBP / $19.99 USD/ €19.99 EUR on the Oculus Store.

While there are 16 mini-games at launch expect a lot more in future updates. VRFocus previously spoke with make[REAL] Operations Lead Sam Watts about Loco Dojo in which he said: “There’s a whole wall full of post-it notes that haven’t been explored that are ready for DLC and future content.”

Checkout the new launch trailer below, and for further update to the title and make[REAL], keep reading VRFocus.

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Mad Cap Party Title Loco Dojo Coming to Oculus Touch

Virtual reality (VR) production company make[REAL] is synonymous with creating immersive content for companies like the McDonald’s Pit Crew Challenge, but it hasn’t created an actual VR videogame. Its sister company Tammeka Games is known for racing title Radial-G. That’s set to change with make[REAL] announcing a multiplayer party experience for Oculus Touch, Loco Dojo.

Featuring a Tournament mode for two to four players, Loco Dojo sits players around a spinning dice wheel which they use to move their counter around the game board. In doing so they open up 16 mini-games to compete against opponents in. Featuring some wild and wacky mini-games players will find themselves milking pigs, boxing eggs, stacking moles, whacking urchins, flinging cats, throwing biscuits and much more. This is all to gain access to the central temple for the final challenge.

LocoDojo Screenshot 1_Guru

When VRFocus spoke with make[REAL] Operations Lead Sam Watts about Loco Dojo and the inspiration behind it he said: “We wanted to start with something fresh and new, something a bit less dark, less sci-fi-esque (in comparison to Radial-G), something that was really lighted-hearted, fun, and a lot less serious. So one of the games that we always wanted to make was kind off like a Mario Party/Warioware game in VR with a collection of mini-games.”

In regards to the mini-games he revealed there are plenty of ideas in the works for more: “There’s a whole wall full of post-it notes that haven’t been explored that are ready for DLC and future content.”

Overseeing the ‘Table of Trials’ is the Grand Sensei (seen above), which make[REAL] managed to enlist the voice acting skills of the renowned Brian Blessed OBE. While the studio wanted a big booming voice for the character the team thought it might be a struggle getting Blessed, but: “never say never”, said Watts. “He loved the concept, he loved the idea and he agreed.”

make[REAL] has also included a single-player, Ten Trial Test, if gamers have no one else to play against, or just want to brush up on their Loco Dojo skills.

The studio lists average play sessions in multiplayer as around 30-40 minutes, while in single-player it’s around the 15-20 minute mark. Supporting Oculus Touch, Loco Dojo has an expected release date of 27th April 2017.

Checkout the screenshots below, and for further updates on Loco Dojo by Make Real keep reading VRFocus.

LocoDojo Screenshot 5_FoggyMarsh LocoDojo Screenshot 4_Seaside LocoDojo Screenshot 3_RockyDesert LocoDojo Screenshot 2_Countryside