It’s amazing how well SUPERHOT (2016), the unforgettably stylized action game, worked when translated to virtual reality. Now, the developers at SUPERHOT Team are looking to get more hands on deck as they dive deeper into the world of VR development.
Once the developer relations guru at Oculus, Callum Underwood has since moved on to work as somewhat of a talent scout at indie games publisher Raw Fury. Making his way over to the Superhot Team’s HQ, Underwood tweeted out to his followers, many of whom continue to follow from his days at Oculus, that the Polish indie devs were “looking to hire some more VR developers.”
Hello VR Twitter! It’s been a while :) My friends at the SUPERHOT HQ are looking to hire some more VR developers because the rest went on a spiritual journey and might never come back. If you are an artist or programmer and <3 VR and SUPERHOT y’all can DM me :) 🤓
While Underwood alludes to the fact that many have left the studio on their own “spiritual journey[s] and might never come back,” it means the Superhot devs are still dedicating resources to VR development—a good sign coming from the team that produced our 2017 HTC Vive Game of the Year.
Orange Bridge Studios today announced that End Space (2017), the single-player space dogfighter for Gear VR, is headed to Oculus Rift January 25th. The Steam version for HTC Vive and Rift is slated to arrive sometime next month.
Orange Bridge says the Rift and Vive version will be an “expanded, remastered and enhanced version,” and will arrive with new content, better visuals, and new motion controller-based flight systems.
The single player game puts you in the cockpit of an advanced Minos Starfighter, where you battle your way through campaign mode on your quest to control the Tartarus Sector. Orange Bridge says the game’s story-driven space combat harks back to classics like Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994) and Wing Commander (1990).
End Space supports a variety of controllers, including gamepads, motion controllers, and HOTAS. In addition, Orange Bridge has made their gaze-assisted flight mode default, something studio head Justin Wasilenko describes as “kind of like Eagle Flight, but with lasers attached to your hand.”
Seeing a bump in graphical fidelity, both Rift and Vive editions will feature “higher resolution models and textures, increased shadow quality and post processing effects like Ambient Occlusion, Bloom, & ACES color grading.” Wasilenko says environmental updates including planetary surface animations have also been added.
End Space will be available for $15 on Oculus Home on January 25th and on Steam in early February. Keep an eye on the Rift version here. You can also keep on the Vive version here.
Cubism is an upcoming VR puzzle game from indie developer Thomas Van Bouwel that challenges you to think in 3 dimensions. Inspired by puzzles like the Soma cube, or a cube composed of smaller Tetris-like geometric pieces, Cubism tasks players with assembling increasingly complex shapes in what results in a real brain teaser.
First announced a month ago, Van Bouwel has now published a working demo of Cubism, which gives you a quick slice of the sort of difficulty ahead.
Starting out with basic ‘flat’ geometry, you soon encounter interesting jaggy 3D shapes and hole-filled messes that start to take a toll on whatever primordial part of your brain is tasked with processing colorful Duplo blocks.
The control scheme is intuitive, mapping a button that magnetically assembles the blocks nearby, something that makes picking them up from the zero-G environment and clicking them into their spots an easy affair. You can also move the wire structure and turn it to get a better sense of where the next block should go.
After playing for about 15 minutes and taking off the headset, I noticed a sort of 3D version of the ‘Tetris Syndrome’, the unique effect that occurs when you finish playing a round of Tetris and your brain is still engaged in placing blocks (despite the Game Boy being stashed in your nylon, neon book bag). The effect wore away after a few minutes, but it was interesting to note that I was now ‘thinking in 3D’.
Cubism is currently still under development, and is slated to release sometime in 2018 with support for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and all Windows MR Headsets. The demo, which works with SteamVR-compatible headsets, can be downloaded here.
Gallopin’ Gorgons! An updated version of the Harry Potter Universe game for Daydream, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR Experience, is arriving today. Not only that, but owners of Vive, Rift and Gear VR will finally be able to get in on the magic-casting fun too, as the game lands on their respective app stores.
Finding yourself in Newt Scamander’s magical suitcase (it’s bigger on the inside), you encounter beasts taken straight from the 2016 film. Exploring the different areas, you can cast spells and interact with a variety of fantastic animals; Graphorns, Bowtruckles, Occamys, Nifflers and the multi-winged Thunderbird.
According to J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore, the updated Fantastic Beasts VR experience will include “many more beasts to interact with.”
image courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne got a chance to pop into the updated version of the game, saying it was “so immersive – unlike anything [he’d] ever experienced,” although it’s uncertain if Redmayne was simply referring to the Vive headset or the experience itself. Redmayne lends his voice to the experience, narrating throughout as he teaches you how to cast spells with your wand.
While Vive, Rift and Daydream users will be able to cast spells and interact with the world using a single motion controller – rendered as a magic wand – the Gear VR version won’t actually feature a wand, likely meaning all interactions will be gaze-based. Gallopin’ Gorgons, indeed!
We’ll be updating this article once links become available for Rift, Vive and Gear VR versions of the game. Check back later today.
With VR’s strengths for cockpit-based games, you’d think that there would be more quality mech titles available to today’s headsets. Alas, a killer VR mech game hasn’t reared its head just yet; Vox Machinae, a promising VR mech combat game that has been running silent on development for a long time, has reappeared, now set for release in 2018.
Vox Machinae first appeared on our radar all the way back in 2014—back in the Rift DK1 and DK2 era, and long before motion input. The game appeared quite promising back then, and while indie studio Space Bullet only rarely surfaces with updates on development of the title, we have been assured that it’s still in development. What’s happened between now and then?
“Well, we’ve been spending all that time polishing the game up, now we’re ready to reveal to you the latest developments,” says Space Bullet’s Jakub Czeszejko-Sochacki. A new video published by the developers shows a more polished version of the game now featuring native motion input support for controlling and piloting your mech.
In addition to the new video, Czeszejko-Sochacki says that the studio is soon to be running a closed beta for Vox Machinae, hopeful test pilots can sign up here. He also says that the studio plans to release the game in “one form or another” this year. The studio says players can expect the following:
A unique mix of weighty and tactical simulation with responsive action.
Pilot a hulking robot across hostile planets with your computer AI for company.
Choose between five distinct Grinder chassis, each with their own benefits.
Customize your loadout an array of devastating weaponry.
Immersive physics simulation drives movement and combat.
Play offline, on a local network, or online with up to 16 players.
Optimized for smooth VR performance and visual quality.
Full motion controller support for the ultimate immersive experience.
Motion Input
Image courtesy Space Bullet
Space Bullet has clearly spent a lot of their recent development time revamping the game for native motion input. The studio gives a taste of the way you can interact with your mech through the cockpit, including an awesome looking eject handle:
Steer
Rearrange System Displays
Eject Like a Badass
– – — – –
We’ll be looking forward to our first taste of the game now that it’s been reworked for motion input, and hoping for a substantial release this year.
Onward, the tactical multiplayer shooter for Vive and Rift, is getting another free weekend – this time for Rift players on Oculus Home.
The free weekend begins January 25th at 1:00 PM ET and goes
until the 29th at 3:00 AM ET (your time here). Check out Onward on Oculus Home here.
Created by Downpour Interactive, Onward offers 5v5 online multiplayer, as well as solo/coop vs AI mode, and objective-based gameplay. With 30 different weapons at your disposal, all of which are modeled after real-world military weaponry, the focus of Onward is decidedly on creating realistic battles. Fans craving the usual assortment of heads-up displays or cross-hairs seen in other shooters need not apply.
Normally priced at $25, the free weekend should give you a chance to see if the mil sim-paced game is right for you. At this point in Early Access, there isn’t a ranking system in place, so expect to meet all levels of skill when you first start playing. This can be daunting, considering how much of a hardcore player base the game has garnered in the year and half since it launched into Early Access, but the free weekend should level the playing field somewhat as a glut of new players enter the game.
If you’ve used virtual reality, you’ve probably deampt up a million cool game ideas that the platform’s infinite possibilities could be used for. But did you dream up a rhythm game where you use dual lightsabers to slice blocks to the beat? Didn’t think so. Luckily, indie developer Hyperbolic Magnetism did, and they’ve got the talent to bring it to life.
Update (2/7/18): After the Beat Saber teaser went viral last month, racking up several million views across various social media platforms, developer Hyperbolic Magnetism has released a full playthrough of the teased track.
The playthrough not only gives us an opportunity the hear the entirety of the head-nodding track titled ‘$100 Bills’—composed for the game by musician Jaroslav Beck—but also offers a glimpse of further gameplay mechanics, including red zones which the player must dodge, and rhythm blocks which come at varying heights. Beck also published the standalone track on various music platforms for download or streaming.
Original Article (1/19/18): As Rocket League (2015) has shown us, even crazy ideas can make for amazing games if executed well. Beat Saber, due out in Q1 from developer Hyperbolic Magnetism, looks to be on that track. The game offers up rhythm gameplay like DDR or Guitar Hero, but instead of dancing or playing instruments, you’re slicing blocks to the beat with a pair of lightsabers.
A new teaser posted to Twitter by Beat Saber developer Jan “Split” Ilavsky shows high speed gameplay with some thumping dubstep composed by musician Jaroslav Beck.
In the teaser footage we can see that each block is colored and must be hit with the matching lightsaber. Blocks also have an arrow indicating in which direction it must be sliced. An older trailer gives another look at the gameplay from a third-person perspective:
From the teaser and the trailer we see some recognizable beat and direction patterns emerging, though I’m curious to know what other mechanics will be introduced—given the power of VR, I hope they’ll think outside the box and go far beyond the usual sustain mechanics… blocks flying at you from all sides could be very interesting, and how about using the lightsaber to reflect the occasional incoming laser fired by a flying drone?
Of course there’s plenty of other solid rhythm games already available in VR. I’m partial to Audio Beats (2017), and Audioshield (2016) is also quite well liked. Granted, the use of lightsabers as the input ‘tool’ in Beat Saber could prove to make quite unique gameplay in a VR rhythm game thanks the player having extended reach, a feeling of destructive power, and the ability to attack notes from various directions instead of only relying on position and timing.
Due for an initial release in Q1, we’ll have to wait and see if the gameplay feels as cool as it looks. There’s no word yet on which VR platforms the game is headed for, but we’d guess a Steam release supporting the Vive and Rift is likely.
Update (2/7/18): An earlier version of this article stated that composer Jaroslav Beck was part of Hyperbolic Magnetism, the studio behind Beat Saber. However, Beck appears to be an independent composer who is contributing to the project.
Gunfire Games’ most recent release, the space adventure game From Other Suns (2017), is playable for free this weekend. The game is exclusive to the Oculus platform and designed “from the ground up” for the Touch controllers, coming from the studio behind Chronos (2016) and Dead & Buried (2017).
The free weekend lasts from Jan 19th at 7:00 PM CET (local time) until Jan 22nd at 9:00 AM CET (local time). Reverting back to its normal $40 price tag after the weekend, it might just give you the opportunity you need to see if the game is right for you.
With similarities to the roguelite FTL: Faster Than Light (2012) and the Borderlands series, From Other Suns is a compelling space adventure game that works best as a co-op experience, combining action FPS gameplay and spaceship management. The procedural technology makes for randomised locations and encounters, and the vast array of weapons allow for “over 2000 possible variations”.
In our full review, we noted the challenging resource management could prove frustrating for some players. But the premise should appeal to many sci-fi fans and fans of FTL in particular, and its gameplay is backed up by rich visuals and audio.
Hatsune Miku, the impossibly saccharine anime pop vocaloid, is coming to SteamVR headsets in a new rhythm game from creators Degica Games and Crypton Future Media.
Update (02/27/18): The Steam link is live, and launch date is confirmed for March 9th, 2018. Check out Hatsune Miku VR here on Steam.
Original article (01/19/18): First reported by Gematsu, Hatsune Miku VR will be landing on SteamVR headsets in spring 2018. Developers Degica Games say in the promo announcing the game that it will feature songs by “various famous Hatsune Miku artists.”
Degica spells out the list of upcoming features:
Rhythm action game using VR controllers
Enjoy Miku’s original dance while playing the game
Eight songs with two difficulties for intense dance action (more songs to be added later)
Support for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift
Game available in English, Japanese, and Chinese
This isn’t the Japanese CG starlet’s first foray into VR. Crypton Future Media, the inventors/rights holders, have licensed Hatsune Miku’s likeness to a number of VR ‘concerts’ across including PSVR (Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live), and both Gear VR and Daydream via the VR Cruise app (Gear VR version, Daydream version).
Since there’s only eight songs to choose from, we don’t expect this to be high on the list of ‘must plays’, but if you’re a Hatsune Miku superfan, you might want to keep this link handy to check for when the game finally arrives on Steam. You can also sign up for future updates through Degica’s website.
Boasting a smashing, shooting, alien skull-splitting adventure, Stonepunk Studiosaims to transport you billions of years into the past to the very first planet near the center of the universe in their upcoming single-player adventure brawler Primordian.
Visually, Primordian seems to be drawing on a really interesting mix of Avatar meets Turok meets Warhammer 40K. The game, which features plenty of head-chopping melee battles, also includes strange ‘organic weaponry’ like fleshy plant-like pistols, crossbows, and grenades for ranged combat styles.
image courtesy Stonepunk Studios
Primordian will arrive when it releases on Steam Early Access “this week” starting with Part One. Stonepunk says the single-player story will be released in parts along with the final level and secret areas within the course of the 3-4 month-long Early Access period. Within that time, the developers promise to deliver “an ancient story that will unfold slowly and let you draw your own conclusions as to what is happening in this world.”
Primordian supports HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Check out the game’s Steam page here.
image courtesy Stonepunk Studios
Here’s how Stonepunk describes Primordian:
The game takes place many billions of years ago in the center of the universe, the first planet that all other planets were seeded from. Due to its unusual rotation, one side of the planet is always in darkness and the other always in light.
Every few thousand years a small moon passes between the planet and sun to create a long-lasting eclipse that allows the beings from the dark side to travel among the light. The current time period is during this eclipse. You play as Grygor, a being form the dark side (or so you believe) sent on a mission to destroy temples of light and allow safe passage for your people during the eclipse. Uncover the story of both sides of the world, its many generations of tribal law and unforgiving landscape during this opportune moment in time. You are the future of our past. You are the Shadow within the Shadow.
VR YouTuber ‘Paradise Decay’ recently released a gameplay video showing a little more about how Primordian works; it certainly gets points for being stylish and overall good-looking. Although there were some concerns about how the game ran on his NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB GPU, he says he barely noticed when asynchronous spacewarp came in to smooth dropped frames. Bear in mind though that a GTX 1060 3GB is less performant than the game’s required minimum GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290.
