Operation Black Wolf – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

September 19, 2018

Skonec Entertainment Prove They’re All About Location-Based VR

If you’ve never been to South Korea then you should know its a very technologically forward focused country – hardly surprising with tech giant like LG and Samsung based there. VRFocus recently went there and found an impressive amount of virtual reality (VR) there, where we spent time with location-based entertainment (LBE) specialist Skonec Entertainment to learn more about the company’s ongoing projects.

Operation Black Wolf Battle of The Desert

Having featured a number of times on VRFocus, Skonec Entertainment is best known for its VR title Mortal Blitz which is available for both home VR headsets as well as its LBE attraction. Such is the growing popularity of VR arcades around the world the team have been working on several other titles as well as its own hardware tech for businesses.

VRFocus originally reported back in February that the studio was developing three new experiences, two shooters Mortal Blitz Legacy and tactical FPS Operation Black Wolf: Battle of The Desert, plus Dark Tale Heroes a MMORPG style fantasy themed multiplayer. Development team lead and chief developer at Skonec Entertainment, JongHyeon Yuk, discussed how the projects were going and what time frame the team were working towards regarding release dates.

Apart from the Mortal Blitz release Skonec is mostly focused on its home market at present, opening its own official location in Seoul, VR Square back in May. It plans on adding a further 2-3 more VR Square’s in Korea over the course of this year.

Mortal Blitz Legacy

That’s not to say the company isn’t starting to look further afield having attended the 4th annual AR & VR Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University as part of a group of South Korean technology companies backed by government organisation Gyeonggi Content Agency (GCA).

Check out the video interview below. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Skonec Entertainment and its location-based VR plans, reporting back with any further developments.

February 7, 2018

Skonec Release further Details about Operation Black Wolf and Two Further VR Titles

Late last month VRFocus reported on South Korean developer Skonec announcing a new virtual reality (VR) title for its location based Walking Attraction booths, Operation Black Wolf. Today, the studio has released further details on the title as well as two more VR experiences in the works.

Operation Black Wolf’s full title is now Operation Black Wolf: Battle of The Desert, and as VRFocus previously surmised the videogame a modern military themed multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS). The experience is designed for three to six players, with three guests making up one team in one Walking Attraction room. Two VR Walking Attraction kiosks can then be connected allowing two teams to cooperate on the same maps which will feature team-based objectives.

If you happen to be going to the Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) 2018 this month then you’ll have a chance to demo the VR experience.

As mentioned, that’s not all Skonec has been working on. It’s main title Mortal Blitz will be getting a prequel in the form of Mortal Blitz Legacy. As a team of three to four people, players will have to cooperate with each other and they battle androids and giant robots.

Finally there’s Dark Tale Heroes a MMORPG style fantasy themed multiplayer based on a famous fairy tale story. Designed for a minimum of three people, Dark Tale Heroes will also support a PvP team battle option for up to 16 players, linking a maximum of four Walking Attraction kiosks with four players in each.

Skonec’s Walking Attraction locations are currently only based in Asia, with the company yet to announce plans on a wider roll out to western shores. To see the studios’ handy work in action, Mortal Blitz is available for Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. You play a special agent finding themselves trapped in a secret research facility. Using an assortment of weapons, including environmental objects, you need to fight through Teratoma mutants whilst searching for a means of escape.

As Skonec release further details about its VR project, VRFocus will keep you updated.

January 29, 2018

Skonec to Showcase new VR Title Operation Black Wolf at JAEPO 2018

Western gamers will know South Korean developer Skonec Entertainment through its first-person shooter (FPS) Mortal Blitz, which arrived last year for PlayStation VR, before being ported to HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. In its home country however, the company is better known for its virtual reality (VR) theme park attraction Mortal Blitz for Walking Attraction, created alongside the home version. Next month sees the Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) 2018 take place and Skonec Entertainment will be showcasing its latest project, Operation Black Wolf.

Mortal Blitz_PSVR_Artwork_02_00

At present Skonec Entertainment has only mentioned what the VR videogame will be called, revealing no other details about what the title will play or look like. That’s not to say VRFocus can’t make a few reasonable assumptions base on what’s known about the company and its tech.

Being called Operation Black Wolf its certainly sounds like a military themed title. And since it’ll be going into the Walking Attraction franchise where players don headsets and guns, a military FPS is the most likely experience. While Mortal Blitz is a sci-fi horror, filled with nasty, monstrous creatures and hi-tech weaponry, Operation Black Wolf may go in the opposite direction, offering a more realistic, simulator style experience, possibly featuring team-based objectives or even team deathmatches with other Walking Attraction kiosks.

For now that’s all just guess work, with Skonec Entertainment keeping details under wraps until JAEPO 2018, which starts in a couple of weeks time from 9th – 11th February 2018.

Additionally, Skonec Entertainment has received the Best VR Theme Park Attraction Award for Mortal Blitz for Walking Attraction at the 2018 VR/AR industry Ecology Summit Forum, hosted by a Chinese VR media company 913VR. Held in the China National Convention Center last week, leading companies attending the event included AMD, HTC, VRCORE, PIMAX, NetEase, Baidu XR, Depoon, Matrix, Shanda Group and the Institute for Culture Creativity Tsinghua University.

Mortal Blitz EP-1 originally launched back in 2015 for Gear VR. It casts players as a special agent finding themselves trapped in a secret research facility. Using an assortment of weapons, including environmental objects, they need to fight through Teratoma mutants as they search for a means of escape.

As Skonec Entertainment release further details on Operation Black Wolf, VRFocus will keep you updated.