nDreams, the veteran VR studio behind titles like Fracked (2021) and Phantom: Covert Ops (2020), today announced a $35 million investment from Aonic Group.
nDreams was an early adopter of VR, starting with early VR tech demos in 2014, followed by small titles for headsets like Gear VR by 2015, and a larger title, The Assembly, which launched alongside the original Oculus Rift in 2016. Ever since, the company has been dedicated to VR development, having launched more recent games like the Oculus-exclusive Phantom: Covert Ops (2020), PSVR-exclusive Fracked (2021), and partnered with some major IP with the likes of Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity, a game developed specifically for out-of-home VR attractions.
Image courtesy nDreams
Some eight years since its pivot into VR, nDreams seems to have positioned itself well to continue its relevance for another eight years, having today announced a $35 million investment from the likes of Aonic Group, the video game division of Mercia Asset Management.
With the influx of cash the studio says it plans to “create more ambitious titles,” grow its internal studios, and expand its publishing business which it had established back in 2021 with an initial $2 million fund; its first publisher title, Little Cities, is due to launch Spring.
With two internal studios under its umbrella—Studio Orbital and Studio Elevation—nDreams says it currently employs 130 people and plans to expand to 175 by the end of 2022. The company says Orbital is focused on building live-service games for VR while Elevation is “creating AAA VR games and new IPs.”
As part of the announcement the studio says it has its “strongest line-up of future projects already in development,” including games in the works aimed at the upcoming PSVR 2.
Welcome to another VR Job Hub where every weekend gmw3 gathers together vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industries, in locations around the globe to help make finding that ideal job easier. Below is a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on immersive entertainment.
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 Hubto 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 gmw3 at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
Over the past year, British virtual reality (VR) specialist nDreams has made significant strides within the industry, from releasing major titles like Fracked for PlayStation VR to Studio Orbital, which is developing live service videogames for VR. Today, a new arm has been added; nDreams Studio Elevation.
Glenn Brace, Head of nDreams Studio Elevation. Image credit nDreams
For the announcement today nDreams says that Studio Elevation: “will focus on creating AAA and Core VR gaming experiences” so gmw3 would assume something along the lines of Phantom: Covert Ops or Fracked. No projects have been revealed at this time, simply that Glenn Brace who came up with the Phantom concept would be leading the studio.
“nDreams’ continued expansion is a combination of competency growth, investment in emerging developers, and the VR ecosystem,” said Glenn Brace, Head of nDreams Studio Elevation in a statement. “Feeding the VR industry with funding, game development knowledge and technology, as well as exploring new and existing genres of player experiences will help our entire industry drive player adoption and platform growth. nDreams Studio Elevation aims to be at the forefront of this new wave of VR innovation by creating deep, immersive and engaging experiences that take VR gaming to the next level.”
Brace’s career has seen him serve as Head of Art at nDreams and prior to that as an Art Director at Climax Studios, where he helped develop titles including the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Trilogy.
Just like a significant number of videogame studios at the moment Studio Elevation will operate a hybrid working model with plans to open a UK-located HQ eventually. Currently, the studio is recruiting for several key positions.
In addition to Studio Elevation and Studio Orbital, nDreams also has its new publishing arm to aid indie developers when it comes to finishing and marketing their projects. The first title revealed under this new initiative is Little Cities by Purple Yonder which is coming to Meta Quest in spring 2022. For continued updates from nDreams, keep reading gmw3.com.
nDreams, the veteran VR developer and publisher behind Phantom: Covert Ops (2020), announced it’s creating a new studio dedicated to AAA VR games, dubbed nDreams Studio Elevation.
Studio Director Glenn Brace, who previously served as Head of Art at nDreams and art director at Climax Studios, calls it a combination of “competency growth, investment in emerging developers, and the VR ecosystem.”
“Feeding the VR industry with funding, game development knowledge and technology, as well as exploring new and existing genres of player experiences will help our entire industry drive player adoption and platform growth,” says Brace. “nDreams Studio Elevation aims to be at the forefront of this new wave of VR innovation by creating deep, immersive and engaging experiences that take VR gaming to the next level.”
The opening of nDreams Studio Elevation follows the opening of its second VR development studio back in July, called nDreams Studio Orbital, which focuses on creating games as a service for VR.
As one of most senior VR developers, nDreams has created a number of VR titles over the years spanning all major platforms, including Phantom: Covert Ops, Far Cry VR: Dive into Insanity, Shooty Fruity, The Assembly, and meditation app Perfect. It’s also gearing up to publish third-party indie titles, with the first being upcoming VR city simulator game Little Cities from Purple Yonder.
The company’s new VR game studio is offering a hybrid work model by being remote first with plans to open a UK-located HQ as a space for in-person collaboration. You can find job listings here.
Fracked and Phantom: Covert Ops developer nDreams has opened a third studio dedicated to making VR content.
The team today announced Elevation, which will be working on high-end VR games for core audiences. It’s headed up by the studio’s Art Director, Glenn Brace, and will operate on both a remote and in-house basis. nDreams plans to open a new UK-based office for the team in the future.
New nDreams Studio Launched
The team isn’t announcing its first project today but, from the sounds of it, you can expect titles of the caliber of Phantom and Fracked, two shooters we really enjoyed, though each of which we felt could have been longer, more fleshed out games. Hopefully this focus — and VR’s rapidly growing install base — will allow the team to make bigger projects than what’s come before.
Elevation is the latest in a series of expansions for nDreams. Last year the company also launched another studio, Orbital, which is a fully remote team dedicated to live service VR gaming. Plus the company announced a return to VR games publishing, which includes the upcoming VR city building simulation, Little Cities, from the Purple Yonder team.
What are you hoping to see nDreams work on next? Let us know in the comments below!
There’s something to be said for calm, relaxing virtual reality (VR) experiences. Not the full tranquil, meditative sort but the ones that give you a challenge without all the rush and frustration. Videogames like Cubism and Puzzling Places are great examples of these and now VRFocus has been able to demo another that easily fits the bill, just in its own way. Little Cities harks back to those city building classics which were all about the strategic planning of an awesome metropolis, rather than worrying about what crazy event would happen next.
The work of indie team Purple Yonder with help from VR veterans nDreams, the demo was an early, pre-alpha version, offering up a suitable slice of the mechanics and the charming miniature aesthetics. With a shipping port as the starting off point, there was a wedge of cash in the bank to start building a few roads and stretch out across the main island. While the studio has said the final version will feature a multitude of locations, for this particular demo there were four, sun-kissed islands to expand across, with a couple of bridge designs automatically appearing once the shoreline was reached.
Roads are the core infrastructure mechanic here, there are no dropping buildings in random locations to connect up later. Each piece of road has two build markers that appear on either side, these are the only place to build the rest of the city ensuring that roads need to be carefully placed to maximise space. This meant sticking with traditional city building rules of creating blocks rather than twisting road systems that look fun but are entirely impractical once the videogame really starts to open up.
That happens by levelling up to a maximum of level 25. By this stage most of the city was built, finally unlocking the City Hall which made all the resident’s happy. Way before that though was the careful art of zone placement that fell under Residential, Commercial, and Industrial. People need homes, they need places to shop and they need work. Little Cities does continue to stick to real-life needs and desires in this regard, people don’t want to live next to factories so if you build a house next to one its happiness will go down. The same thing with utilities. Everyone wants a good network connection and reliable electricity but living next to pylons and giant masts, that’s a no-no.
Little Cities also likes to throw in other mechanics such as crime, healthcare and other worries, all of which can be fixed with police stations, hospitals, schools and other services. Trying to juggle all of this sounds stressful yet it isn’t. Purple Yonder have created a rather idyllic city builder, where you can sit back and survey all while the sounds of the city mutter along below.
In screenshots and the first trailer the studio showed the ability to get down and into the city, which wasn’t available in the demo VRFocus tried. It kept a lofty viewpoint with the city placed directly on the floor, almost like playing with a toy set. Even so, it looked very quaint seeing all the tiny motor vehicles whizzing around carrying out their daily chores. Once Little Cities really go going it superbly highlighted some awful road placement, vehicles stuck in long tailbacks because there was only one bridge or there weren’t enough junctions for them to take alternate routes.
For such an early demo ahead of a Spring 2022 launch for Oculus Quest, Little Cities was a pleasing delight. Placement of most of the buildings was easy – although being able to manually twist help would be good – especially when dropping a whole new neighbourhood in one hit. Even with only one area to build upon, once that first city had been completed it was time to open another save slot and try a whole new design, it’s why these types of videogames can be ridiculously addictive. Can’t wait to see what Purple Yonder has in store for Little Cities next year.
The city simulator genre is making its way to VR, with Little Cities arriving on the Oculus Quest platform in spring 2022.
Announced this week alongside a first look in the trailer embedded above, Little Cities looks to be a VR version of popular city-building simulators like Sim City and Cities Skylines. Releasing for Oculus Quest headsets, it has a similar visual style but slightly simplified and on a smaller scale — as the name suggests — taking place on connected islands.
In a press release, nDreams confirmed that the game will feature some city sim gameplay staples, such as area zoning, utility planning and connections, and providing essential services such as emergency departments, education and healthcare. There will also be multiple islands to play through, “each providing its own gameplay challenges.”
There will be options for seated or roomscale play, using Oculus Touch controllers to build and populate your city — hand tracking isn’t confirmed yet, but given what you can see in the trailer, the game might be a good candidate for it. Unlike flatscreen city sims, being in a virtual environment in Little Cities will let you walk around your city and get up close and personal to each street corner in a new way. Hopefully, this immersive, god-like nature of the game differentiates it from the genre’s flatscreen predecessors.
Little Cities will release Spring 2022 for Oculus Quest and Quest 2.
At the start of 2021 British virtual reality (VR) developer nDreams announced a $2 million fund to help co-fund and publish VR content from third-party developers. The first being brought to fruition from that initiative has been revealed today, a charming city building experience called Little Cities.
Created by indie team Purple Yonder, Little Cities is all about creating beautifully intricate, interwoven metropolises with residential areas, areas for commerce as well as industrial zones for everyone to work. As your city grows it requires careful balancing of these three core areas, enabling you to grow the population whilst ensuring all their needs are met.
Keeping the populous happy is your main priority, which also means ensuring crime is low by building police stations, hospitals are there to keep them healthy and schools to educate them all. Then there are all the utilities. An expanding city and its residents require access to power, water and network connectivity but they also don’t want to see them out their garden window. Little Cities will also feature unlockable buildings that’ll have their own unique properties.
You won’t be confined to one area either. You’ll be able to expand and build across several islands, each with its own unique features like mountains that block those important network signals.
Purple Yonder wants to make Little Cities as accessible as possible. So you’ll be able to play either seated in comfort or standing, allowing you to really lean in and see the city come to life, watching all the vehicles whizz around doing their daily chores. In keeping with the tranquil gameplay, Little Cities has a relaxing soundtrack, the gentle hum of an everyday city and the sounds of nature to further bring the experience to life.
Currently, Little Cities is scheduled to arrive in Spring 2022 for the Oculus Quest platform. Take a look at the first trailer below and for further updates, keep reading VRFocus.
Summer 2021 was looking really good for big virtual reality (VR) titles until a couple of projects had to be delayed by their developers. Thankfully, nDreams’ PlayStation VR exclusive Fracked has suffered no such problems, ready to offer players the kind of wall to wall action that Hollywood loves to throw out during its seasonal blockbuster fest. The problem with blockbuster titles is that quite often they’re style over substance, so is Fracked the same or does it have brains as well as brawn?
Just like a Bond movie Fracked wastes no time in dropping you into the action, almost immediately skiing down a mountainside being chased by an avalanche caused by fracking. Steering is all head-based, carving through the snow and in between trees as you look for safety. It’s a fantastic intro albeit an intense one, making a quick trip to the comfort options essential for anyone who’s not got their VR legs.
These skiing sections crop up a number of times in Fracked, with the latter sequences throwing in enemies on snowmobiles and guard towers to blow up with your handy SMG. They’re immensely entertaining as your try to avoid splatting against a rock whilst shooting bad guys – you can’t get much more action hero than that!
Essentially Fracked continues that no-holds-barred gameplay throughout, but with the added bonus that the majority of the levels offer plenty of choice and verticality when it comes to the epic shootouts. Most of the areas tend to be a sequence of arenas interlinked with climbing and other traversable terrains, providing that all-important feeling of interaction with the environment. This physical element is seen all over Fracked, most importantly in the shootouts.
These set pieces see Fracked continually provide plenty of cover, explosive barrels and the most ziplines a VR videogame has ever had. Cover has always been crucial in any FPS, where you generally duck behind it by either pressing a button or (in VR’s case) kneeling down. Fracked offers a different option, grabbing the cover so you can quickly hide behind it and then peer over or around it to locate the next enemy. It’s another great example from nDreams of marrying VR gameplay with intuitive mechanics. Being able to do that became so natural that you’ll wonder why it’s not seen more often.
Yet Fracked doesn’t want you to stay in one place, movement is key and the levels do encourage this factor, perfect for a nice flanking manoeuvre. PlayStation Move isn’t exactly the best controller when it comes to running around a battlefield but Fracked provides a decent system which can be found in other PlayStation VR titles like Arashi: Castle of Sin. The same goes for its reloading, providing a basic manual reloading mechanic where glowing cartridge appears, you push it in and cock gun. Quick and effective without being overly tedious.
However, it’s the range of weaponry that starts to let Fracked down. You’re given all this space and choice when attacking the enemy yet your only two guns are a pistol and SMG. That’s literally all you carry, nothing else. Not even any ammo, which is picked up by walking over green boxes, harking back to very traditional videogame tropes. Other guns do appear including a revolver, grenade launcher and very short-range shotgun but these are “special” weapons that are single use only. Once their ammo is depleted they fade away. Really annoying if you’re in the middle of a firefight and your gun starts to dissolve leaving you a sitting duck.
The enemies do take advantage of this as they’re not the usual run and gun AI opponents. They do seek cover and will reposition to gain an advantage, which makes for some great shootouts. As mentioned, you have to use the space as there are explosive grunts who’ll charge and detonate, whilst the big tank that lays mines can only be killed by destroying the pack on their back.
So you’re continually having to blast your way through and rework strategies on the fly. On the one hand that’s what you want in an action-oriented videogame yet the gameplay does get a little shallow. There are no real puzzles to speak of, you’re continually pointed towards the next checkpoint when having to complete a task and because of this continual speed, Fracked is over before it has really begun, clocking in at around 3 hours. There are coins hidden throughout which seem like an afterthought, simply serving as a Trophy award.
nDreams is well versed in making highly polished VR titles and Fracked is no different. The art style is gorgeous, adding a comic book blend to the action playing out. And there are some wonderful ideas and mechanics employed. Unfortunately, they’re not given the time and breadth to be expanded upon, and that’s certainly the case when it comes to the narrative. Fracked is exuberant and exciting to play, it just burns too bright and fast.
Fracked is the latest VR title from veteran VR studio nDreams, and a PSVR exclusive at that. The game has a lot going for it—good looks, a unique cover system, and strong fundamentals—but its combat and doesn’t evolve enough to really stick the landing.
STRIDE for Quest Details:
Available On:PlayStation VR (PS Move required)
Price: $30
Developer: nDreams Release Date: August 20th, 2021 Reviewed On: PSVR (PS5)
Gameplay
Fracked is a shooter at its core, but peppers in some skiing, climbing, and light puzzles which help break up the pace.
The game has strong fundamentals. Guns feel responsive and satisfying to shoot and reload. Art direction is great. A unique cover system—where you can grab nearby cover to easily peek your head around corners—works really well. And nDreams has done a commendable job with movement controls (considering PS Move lacks a thumbstick).
But while Fracked starts out strong, there isn’t enough variety to the combat to carry it through to the end of the game, especially as the ending sequence plays out like a wave shooter.
There’s really only three enemies in the game, and you’ll meet all of them within the first hour or so. There’s the basic soldier guys, the kamikaze guys, and the heavy guys.
The first two are fun enough to shoot at, but the heavy guys are more annoying than exhilarating to fight as they function mostly as a bullet sponge, by way of knocking them down with mines (that they place at their own feet) before you can unload on their weak spot.
A big clue that Fracked’s combat loop is missing something is that all enemies are visibly outlined, essentially giving the player x-ray vision to see where they are through walls and behind cover. Without this it would be really hard to figure out where the enemies are because they reposition frequently and quickly, and often feel like they’re coming out of the woodwork. While spatial audio could be a solution, I felt like the audio channel was often too crowded with music and other less important sounds for it to be a reliable positional indicator.
Image courtesy nDreams
While Fracked has a handful of weapons, there’s really only two ‘core’ weapons—the pistol and the SMG—which you can have permanently equipped. The three other guns—shotgun, revolver, and mortar—are treated as ‘power weapons’ which you can find during certain encounters with very limited ammo.
This division between ‘core’ and ‘power’ weapons might not feel so restrictive if not for the way that the power weapons and handled from an inventory standpoint. Unlike your pistol and SMG which can be stowed in your inventory, the power weapons can only be held. If you use your hands for anything else, you’ll drop the power weapon on the ground and (if you’re playing in the recommended seated position) you won’t be able to pick it up again.
This led to several frustrating moments where I went to climb a ladder only to watch the gun I just found drop out of my hand into an unretrievable position on the ground. Not to mention being forced to waste something like the powerful single-shot mortar on a single weak enemy because they ran up to attack me but the game doesn’t allow you to stow the weapon to save for a more opportune moment.
Fracked attempts to break up its combat sequences with a handful of other activities, most of which work well. There’s skiing, climbing, and some light puzzling, but combat still makes up the bulk of the gameplay and it just doesn’t see enough evolution over the course of the game to keep it interesting by the end, which is capped off by an exceedingly mundane boss fight.
As far as story is concerned, Fracked sets up an interesting premise but it fails to develop its world and characters, and often left me wondering what I was doing and why. It’s the kind of story where the main villain comes out at the end and you’re saying “who is this guy again?” The ending sequence goes a bit off the rails with some kind of sci-fi twist that doesn’t feel sufficiently explained. The very very end—like the last scene—actually made me say out loud, “whaaat?” in disbelief that it was actually the end of the game.
Fracked is also a rather short game, clocking in at just three hours—even after I had a handful of frustrating checkpoint resets from enemies that snuck up and killed me from behind before I could react.
Immersion
Image courtesy nDreams
Fracked is a great looking game. nDreams nailed the visual style, which not only gives the game a distinct look, but also fits great with the antiquated resolution of PSVR.
There’s not much to the game in terms of environmental interaction, except for scripted climbing sequences, and the occasional zip line, but Fracked does a good job of not showing you things that look like they should be interactive but aren’t (which helps hide the interactive limitations).
I found that the game’s cover system works very well as an immersive alternative to simply using a thumbstick to move in and out of cover. Instead of doing that, you can grab the edge of any cover and then use your hand to peek out of the cover. It feels natural in the midst of combat, and the vast majority of cover that I expected to be able to grab was in fact grabbable.
nDreams found a great balance between gun interactivity and simplicity. Both the pistol and SMG are reloaded by ejecting the magazine, inserting a new one, and then charging the weapon. The gestures for doing this are forgiving while still feeling satisfying. I can hardly remember a time where I messed up a reload, which let me focus on the action. Reloading feels so good in the game that it’s a shame the three other guns (the power weapons) don’t actually have their own reload sequences because they disappear after a single magazine.
Although the guns stick to your hands, I didn’t feel like this was out of place for Fracked, especially considering that PS Move lacks a dedicated grab trigger. Even though they’re attached to your hands, I appreciated that you could hand a gun from one hand to another, which made the cover system more flexible.
Comfort
Fracked makes a handful of comfort missteps that I couldn’t overcome without cranking up the peripheral blinders to their maximum setting (which felt very imposing).
Fracked doesn’t seem to mind forcibly moving the player’s view at times. But this can lead to discomfort, especially when its rotation. The instances of rotating the player’s view seem minimal—like during some climbing sequences when you round a corner—but I found them to be uncomfortable enough over time that I couldn’t play the game comfortably for more than 30 minutes at a time before cranking up the blinders. You can reduce the rotation while climbing by disabling ‘Climb Mode’ in the accessibility options, but this doesn’t prevent all scripted rotation in the game.
I was surprised to find that the game’s skiing sequences actually seemed quite comfortable; I think this was helped by the fact that you steer the skiis by tilting your head from side to side.
One small technical issue that likely has a big impact on comfort is the game’s snap-turn implementation. Instead of a proper instantaneous snap-turn, each snap is actually just a very fast rotation. This means that each time you turn you can still see the entire world turning around you, along with all the vection this creates. I was frankly a bit surprised to see this mistake in a game from a studio with such deep experience in VR.
Fracked isn’t a game that I would recommend to people who consider themselves fairly sensitive to VR motion sickness. While a sensitive player may find comfort by cranking up the peripheral blinders they bring a hefty blow to immersion.
Fracked Comfort Settings – August 16th, 2021
Turning
Artificial turning
Smooth-turn
Adjustable speed
Snap-turn
Adjustable increments
Movement
Artificial movement
Smooth-move
Adjustable speed
Teleport-move
Blinders
Adjustable strength
Head-based
Controller-based
Swappable movement hand
Posture
Standing mode
not explicit
Seated mode
Artificial crouch
Real crouch
Accessibility
Subtitles
Languages
English, Italian, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese
