Oddbug Studio – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

December 15, 2017

Oddbug Studio’s Charming VR Adventure The Lost Bear Confirmed for Oculus Rift

It was only a few short months ago that British indie videogame developer Oddbug Studio launched its first virtual reality (VR) title onto the market, a puzzle-platformer called The Lost Bear, for PlayStation VR. This week the team have announced that they’ve been working on expanding support, with the aim of porting the experience to Oculus Rift prior to Christmas.

The Lost Bear Oculus Reveal

Oddbug Studio made the announcement via Reddit and Twitter, alongside the above image. As a traditional platformer mixing it up with an immersive VR setting, The Lost Bear is played on PlayStation VR using the DualShock 4 controllers. As the Oculus Rift no longer comes supplied with a gamepad, the studio has wisely ensured the videogame is compatible with Oculus Touch.

The Lost Bear’s story line revolves around main character Walnut, a young girl on her way home who becomes separated from her brother. She must now must venture through a world corrupted by the toy stealing Snatcher, overcome her fears and rescue her beloved teddy.

When VRFocus reviewed The Lost Bear on PlayStation VR, the title got a full five stars, saying: “Despite being a relatively compact experience, OddBug Studio has created a tightly knit series of challenges invested in an eye-catching world topped-off with a VR implementation that will undoubtedly be copied by many other titles before the year is out. It’s hard to fault the team for what content is there, as in those few hours of gameplay it’s likely that you’ll find The Lost Bear to be one of the most compelling PlayStation VR videogames to date.”

As VRFocus was impressed with Oddbug Studio’s first VR offering, The Lost Bear made it onto ‘The Best PlayStation VR Games of 2017 so Far‘ list. Should the studio plan on expanding support further or release additional content, VRFocus will let you know.

September 7, 2017

Watch the Story of The Lost Bear Come to Life on PlayStation VR

OddBug Studios and Fabrik Games launched the PlayStation VR exclusive, The Lost Bear, to critical acclaim earlier this week. For those VRFocus readers still on the fence, we’ve prepared a gameplay video showcasing six minutes of the videogame in action.

The Lost Bear gif Walnut, on her quest to rescue her lost teddy bear, has fallen deep into a world corrupted by the Snatcher. In the video below you can see the unique interpretation of virtual reality (VR) in action. Watch as the 2D experience is played on a screen directly ahead, while the area surrounding the player pops with life in every scene.

Prior to launch, VRFocus delivered a review of The Lost Bear, stating: “It’s likely that you’ll find The Lost Bear to be one of the most compelling PlayStation VR videogames to date.”

The gameplay video can be watched in full below, and VRFocus will bring you more on The Lost Bear very soon.

September 5, 2017

The Lost Bear Launches with Discount for PlayStation Plus Members

Fabrik Games has today launched The Lost Bear a unique 2D adventure designed for PlayStation VR, available now via the PlayStation Store. PlayStation VR owners who also subscribe to PlayStation Plus can benefit from a 10% price reduction for a limited time.

The Lost Bear offers the player the opportunity to immerse themselves in a hand-drawn world as they attempt to help Walnut on her journey home. Along the way however, they must face corruption at the hand of the toy stealing Snatcher. The player will frequently break the fourth wall by using intuitive virtual reality (VR) interactions that connect you with the world and help Walnut escape Snatcher’s Hounds and find her way back home.

The Lost Bear started as a project at Norwich University of the Arts and ‘Dare to be Digital 2013’. The team at OddBug Studio were inspired both by Limbo and Eastern European puppet shows and teamed up with Fabrik Games to create and release the final version of the videogame on PlayStation VR. VRFocus recently delivered a review of The Lost Bear, stating: “It’s likely that you’ll find The Lost Bear to be one of the most compelling PlayStation VR videogames to date.”

The Lost Bear is available to download now, exclusively for PlayStation VR, priced at £9.99 GBP on the PlayStation Store. VRFocus will keep you updated with future titles from OddBug Studio, and other VR experiences from Fabrik Games.

September 4, 2017

Review: The Lost Bear

Fabrik Games’ virtual reality (VR) debut was expected to come by way of the PlayStation VR edition of Filthy Lucre, however instead of acting as developer the team are publishing OddBug Studio’s debut as their entry into the new medium. The Lost Bear is a very different kind of videogame to Fabrik Games’ own steal-‘em-up, instead telling a much more whimsical tale deep in a dark, corrupted land.

The Lost Bear gif Playing as young Walnut, the quest before you is to rescue a stolen teddy bear. However, soon after the hunt begins Walnut becomes lost in a mysterious world corrupted by an evil being known as The Snatcher. Robot dogs, ghost bears and other creatures will help or hinder you as your journey continues, and while many of the challenges you will face may at first appear obvious in their solution, often not all is as it seems.

A 2D adventure videogame, The Lost Bear is an unusual candidate for VR, and yet it makes such wonderful use of the medium. The core gameplay loop revolves around platform-style progression and environmental puzzle solving; using levers to create pathways, avoid the line-of-sight of bad guys and other familiar convention. The arrangement and pacing of the action will be somewhat familiar to anyone who experienced Ubisoft’s Valiant Hearts: The Great War, while the delivery of the storyline doesn’t stray too far from the heartstring-tugging Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. What makes The Lost Bear different however, is the near-immaculate depiction of its unique world.

The action plays out on a screen in front of you almost as if it were a puppet show, while your surrounding environment takes on many different forms relating to the scene the protagonist is experiencing. Walking through a corn field will see shoots of corn protrude through the floor of the wooden shack you reside in, bees and fireflies will break the fourth wall, and later in the videogame things become significantly darker.

The Lost Bear gif ‘Later’ is The Lost Bear’s biggest problem, however. The mixture of platform and puzzling gameplay is engrossing, but the duration of the videogame is very much limited. Even when taking your time and soaking-up the ambiance of every varied scene, The Lost Bear is unlikely to last more than two hours at most. It’s a short-lived, yet very sweet adventure.

Offered at a launch price of £9.99 GBP, The Lost Bear offers value for money in its creative use of the medium opposed to longevity, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Despite being a relatively compact experience, OddBug Studio has created a tightly knit series of challenges invested in an eye-catching world topped-off with a VR implementation that will undoubtedly be copied by many other titles before the year is out. It’s hard to fault the team for what content is there, as in those few hours of gameplay it’s likely that you’ll find The Lost Bear to be one of the most compelling PlayStation VR videogames to date.

100%

Awesome

Verdict

August 28, 2017

Go Behind the Scenes on The Lost Bear

Upcoming adventure puzzle-platformer The Lost Bear will be launched for PlayStation VR on the 31^st August, 2017. Ahead it its launch, developers at Odd Bug Studio have released some images that give insight into how the title was created.

The Lost Bear is a hybrid of platformer and puzzler that follows a girl called Walnut who must learn how to face her own fears and overcome the many obstacles that are in her way and she seeks to recover her lost teddy bear, who has been stolen by the villainous Snatcher. Walnut will need to learn many new skills on her way to escaping Snatcher and return home with her beloved bear.

A series of images showing the development of The Lost Bear was shared on Image sharing site Imgur, along with commentary describing the progress. The process begins with the Art Director creating concept art of how he wishes a scene to look. Next, all the assets that form part of the scene need to be created. The post points out that every aspect of it needed to be hand-painted to meet the aesthetic look the creators were going for.

As the process of painting the various layers is under way, the 3D art team build up the diorama that forms the ‘stage’ and surrounding area. Once that is complete, the layers are stacked together, like a much more complex version of a paper-cut-out puppet theatre.

Then, lighting and other post-processing effects are added to get the finished result.

You can view the images below. Or you can view the Imgur post HERE.

VRFocus will bring other news on The Lost Bear and other PlayStation VR titles as it becomes available.

August 14, 2017

The Lost Bear Coming To PlayStation VR End of August

The official twitter for independent development studio Oddbug Studio has announced that its hand-drawn 2D platform title The Lost Bear will be launched on PlayStation VR on 31st August, 2017 for a price of $12.99 (GBP).

The title’s director, Daniel Robinson had previously indicated that The Lost Bear was headed to an August release on the PlayStation Blog. Robinson spoke on the genesis of the project and how the idea of moving it into virtual reality (VR) influenced the direction of the title: The VR mechanics of the game took a lot of time to get right,” Robinson explained, “We didn’t want Walnut to be aware of the player and we wanted to avoid any mechanics that did not fit the feel of the experience or break the flow of the game.

The Lost Bear is a puzzle-platformer that follows a girl called Walnut, who learns how to overcome obstacles and challenges on a journey to recover her beloved lost teddy bear. Her bear has been captured by the toy-stealing villain, Snatcher, and Walnut must learn new skills and overcome her fears to escape Snatcher and find her way back home with her bear.

The aesthetics of the title were heavily inspired by Eastern European puppet show theatre and as such features a paper-cut-out style that uses hand-drawn animation throughout, offering a VR cinema effect, with the player effectively part of the audience, while still being in control of the action.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on The Lost Bear as it develops.

August 1, 2017

2D Platformer The Lost Bear Will Be Coming To PlayStation VR This Month

Hand-drawn 2D platform title The Lost Bear was announced last month by UK-based independent developer Oddbug Studio, who confirmed it would be heading for the PlayStation VR. Now the developer has confirmed the title will be launched on the console sometime in August, 2017.

The title’s Game director Daniel Robinson announced on the PlayStation Blog that The Lost Bear would be available on the PlayStation Store some time in the coming month. An exact date was not specified, nor was a price point.

The Lost Bear tells the story of a girl called Walnut, who sets out on a journey to rescue her lost teddy bear, overcoming obstacles and her own fears along the way. The style of a title was heavily inspired by puppet show theatre and features hand-drawn animation throughout.

Robinson said on the Blog post: “The project started at Norwich University of the Arts and ‘Dare to be Digital 2013’ where myself and two close friends wanted to accomplish a dream by creating our very own game. We were inspired both by Limbo and Eastern European puppet shows (our art director Harry is from the Czech Republic) and we teamed up with Fabrik Games to create and release The Lost Bear on PlayStation VR.”

The Blog post goes into details about the challenges faced during the development of The Lost Bear: “The VR mechanics of the game took a lot of time to get right,” Robinson explains, “We didn’t want Walnut to be aware of the player and we wanted to avoid any mechanics that did not fit the feel of the experience or break the flow of the game. During the prototyping phase we tried many gameplay iterations, and other gameplay prototypes. The decision was made that if they didn’t ground the player within the experience, or feel viable to coexist between 2D and 3D, then they wouldn’t make the cut.”

VRFocus will bring you further information about The Lost Bear as it becomes available.

July 10, 2017

The Lost Bear, a 2D Platformer by Oddbug Studio Revealed for PlayStation VR

British indie developer Oddbug Studio and Fabrik Games (Filthy Lucre developer and publisher) have announced a new title for PlayStation VR, a 2D, hand-drawn platformer called The Lost Bear.

Set in 3D virtual reality (VR) environments, The Lost Bear brings classic videogame platforming to Sony Interactive Entertainmnet’s (SIE) head-mounted display. A puzzle adventure, the main character is Walnut, a young girl on her way home who must venture through a world corrupted by the toy stealing Snatcher.

The lost bear screenshot 2

Walnut needs to rescue her teddy bear from Snatcher, so Oddbug Studio has combined 2D gameplay with intuitive VR interactions that connect players with the world to help Walnut escape The Snatcher’s Hounds and find her way back home.

Further details are currently scarce, with no official release date or if The Lost Bear is purely exclusive to PlayStation VR. Screenshots and an initial trailer showcase a title that’s going for a VR cinema effect, with players sat in an auditorium with a similar look and feel of the platformer they’re playing on the screen in front of them.

Checkout the first gameplay trailer for The Lost Bear below, and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.