The virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) industries are wonderfully diverse when it comes to the job roles available, always looking to hire the best talent to work on exciting projects. Whether you’ve been an avid fan of the tech for a while or are already involved in some way, today’s VR Job Hub has plenty of new roles which can help you become more involved and shape VR/AR’s future.
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 VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
In the current climate now might not seem like the ideal time to start job hunting but there are still plenty of jobs out there, with some industries able to carry on regardless while others have to close in the lockdown. For the most part, videogame developers can work remotely and still need new staff for current projects, like British studio Pixel Toys which is looking for staff to work on a new VR first-person shooter (FPS).
Drop Dead Dual Strike
Job listings can be a good way of finding out what a studio might have planned before any official announcements are made. Pixel Toys – best known in VR circles for its zombie shooter Drop Dead Dual Strike – is currently looking for a Lead Designer (VR) to help: ‘guide development of our big license FPS VR title,’ notes the listing.
Applicants need to be: ‘Well versed in all areas of AAA game design’, so this does sound like Pixel Toys’ biggest VR project to date. A little more info is revealed via the Executive Producer job listing which is looking for someone with experience within the VR shooter space. It goes onto say: “This is a fantastic opportunity to work on a cutting edge VR shooter game, closely partnering both with a major first party and a much sought after IP holder.”
At the moment there are no further details regarding which IP Pixel Toys is developing for but an educated guess may lean towards the Warhammer franchise. Having previously created Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade and Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realm War – with Freeblade also including an augmented reality (AR) feature – the chance of running around as a Space Marine in VR would be an enticing prospect.
The Drop Dead series began in 2016 on Gear VR followed by a launch on Oculus Rift in 2017. With the release of Oculus Quest, last year Pixel Toys updated the experience as Drop Dead Dual Strike for both of the headsets. The update added dual-wielding, melee weapons as well as cross-play and cross-buy support.
As the job listings are very new don’t expect any more news just yet. VRFocus will let you know when further announcements are made.
The launch of Oculus Quest is only a day away with (hopefully) lots of excited customers looking forward to receiving their headsets. With plenty of videogames and apps set to be available from day one, one of those is Pixel Toys’ new Drop Dead Dual Strike. Confirmed back in April, the studio has recently released details regarding the update to the franchise.
The original Drop Dead arrived for Samsung Gear VR in 2016, followed by Oculus Rift in 2017. For the launch on Oculus Quest the series is getting a major update with Pixel Toys adding dual wielding for the first time. Not only that but players will now have the use of melee weapons to slaughter the undead, with baseball bats, scythes, axes and pitchforks all on offer – they can even bat back projectiles.
Making use of that wireless freedom, Drop Dead Dual Strike will now allow players to dodge incoming attacks, ducking below spitter slime and dodging to the side of rocket attacks. And to increase the content further, there’s a new Horde mode map. Alongside the original horde mode arena, the new The Ultimate Showdown will be even tougher, suitable for solo or co-op gameplay.
The story remains unchanged, with the synopsis explaining: “Set amidst a zombie apocalypse, you’re the last agent alive able to stop Dr Monday and save the world! Slay zombie hordes using an arsenal of Z-shredding weapons, high-tech visor and sackful of insane gadgets. Team up with former CIA operative Billy-Bob and his daughter Celia-Jane as you delve deep into the true madness of Dr Monday’s nefarious schemes for world domination!”
While the release of Drop Dead Dual Strike is timed for the launch of Oculus Quest, if you already own Drop Dead for Oculus Rift then you’ll get all these new additions as a free update. Plus, there’s cross-play support between both headsets and cross-buy support as well – so no need to buy it twice.
Drop Dead Dual Strike will retail for $19.99 USD when it arrives tomorrow. Check out the new trailer below, and for any further updates from Pixel Toys regarding new content, keep reading VRFocus.
While not a major feature of today’s Apple Special Event, augmented reality (AR) still had a part to play with the company showcasing several AR apps, The Machines, an AR enhance MLB app and Warhammer 40K: Freeblade.
Created by Pixel Toys, Warhammer 40K: Freeblade isn’t a new title having been available on the App Store for several years. With ARKit however, the studio is giving the space marine combat title an AR boost enabling players to utilise the photo mode to bring the freeblade knights into the real world.
Few other details were released about Warhammer 40K: Freeblade including a possible release of the update. As it has now been announced that iOS 11 will be launched next week expect further details soon.
With developers keenly making apps with ARKit since its launch a few months ago, when the system update rolls out there’s going to be an influx of AR software for iPhone users by the end of the year. As that occurs VRFocus will bring you the latest AR content releases.
Independent developer and publisher Pixel Toys today announced the launch of virtual reality (VR) zombie shooting game Drop Dead on to Oculus Rift with Touch.
Drop Dead is out now on the Oculus Store for $19.99 (USD). The title is an action shooter with 40 single-player missions in story mode as well as competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes.
The title was originally released for the Gear VR, and is receiving a significant graphical upgrade for its Oculus port to take advantage of the additional processing power.
There will be full support for the Oculus Touch in all modes, so players can quickly get to grips with the large arsenal of weaponry and tech gadgets that are available with the motion controllers. Gameplay involves racking up huge combos by hitting the bullseye on every target. There will be full support for Oculus avatars, so players can play with or against their friends in Cooperative or Competitive mode with their own customised avatar.
Gear VR users are not left out, though, as the release of the Oculus Rift version coincides with a free update for the Gear VR version that will include new content included in the Oculus Rift version, such as new story missions, boss encounters and weapons.
VRFocus will bring you further updates on Drop Dead and new Oculus Rift releases as they becomes available.
When Gear VR games are ported to the Rift, you usually end up with is more of the same; a game with nicer graphics and the added benefit of positional tracking, but more or less the same experience. However with Drop Dread (2017), Pixel Toy’s port of their critically acclaimed Gear VR on-rails arcade shooter, the addition of Oculus Touch has brought the game to whole a new level of difficulty and hands-on action.
Drop Dead Details:
Official Site
Developer: Pixel Toys Available On: Oculus Touch (Home) Reviewed On: Oculus Touch Release Date: March, 23rd 2017
I can hear you saying it: “Great, another wave shooter.” But hold on just a minute, because despite a few gripes, this one is actually fun.
Gameplay
Drop Dead plays on some pretty well-worn tropes; the evil German doctor (also somehow a Nazi when required) wants to create a master race, blah blah blah. He’s evil. You’re good. There are Zombies. The rub is you’re actually traveling through one of three discrete timelines and the apocalyptic future set before you can actually be stopped before it even happens. Each trip forward offers a new spin on the overall objective of the game: Stop the evil Doctor Monday from raising his apocalyptic army of zombies, get new weapons along the way, and blow up massive, and I mean massive amounts of zombies.
So while Drop Dead sounds a pretty basic in that respect, Drop Dead surprisingly boasts 27 single-player levels (throughout the three timelines), a broad swath of enemy units, and multiple guns to use (read: not keep or upgrade) along the way—not to mention some pretty good voice acting and a level of cheesiness to the story that’s entirely self-aware. Besides the obligatory online leader boards, single and online multiplayer survival mode also extend the game’s playability.
Graphics aren’t incredible, with the art style wandering somewhere into mobile game territory, but it is visually cohesive and overall very likeable.
the evil Doctor Monday
As for the weaponry, all of the game’s buffs and guns can be found in-level and no market exists in the game, so guns, grenades and slow-mo power-up drinks (very Call of Duty Nazi Zombies-esque) are only obtained temporarily during the level.
Shooting zombies can be repetitive at times, but that may just be a relic of the arcade wave shooter genre than Drop Dead itself. Whether that’s good or bad to you, there are some definite flaws that start to infringe on my personal expectation of “fun”.
No dual guns, i.e. you’ll drop a shotgun automatically if you go for your holstered pistol
Exposition is non-skippable, meaning you will have to sit through Doc Monday’s diatribes over and over and over until you beat the level
Zombies sometimes “stack up” and clip through each other, making it tough to get a clean shot
You can’t bat away incoming Zombies to get an extra second before getting mauled to death
I was tempted to add too things to the list; Drop Dead’s reload mechanic because of how fiddly I found it at first—sort of a count down marker that you can jump if you hit it just right, giving you a quicker reload—but after a while it eventually fades into the background as you get the hang of it. The second is the difficulty level. If you’re a pretty good shot, this may not be an issue, but the game doesn’t provide any gun sight upgrades, so there’s no assistance for those long shots besides iron sights—on Gear VR it is as simple as gazing and taping a button, but Touch controllers require more tactility, which can be good or bad depending on your skill level. No variable difficulty level is available, so it’s either shoot the best or die like the rest.
Immersion & Comfort
Between having to hit the reload marker on time and prioritize running, trudging and flying targets, you really start to get into a certain flow with Drop Dead. Like all arcade shooters though, which by definition rely on scripted baddies popping up, it can lead to a certain predictability, making it less scary and more like a real-time puzzle, except the puzzle pieces are 8 screaming zombies coming at you while you only have enough time to fire off exactly 8 bullets.
Cowering from the hordes when you miss, which come at you in a little over 180 degrees (make sure to look to your extreme left and right!), is all but useless, so hitting the reload marker, executing headshots, grabbing guns and slow-mo drinks in concert really makes this game a fast-paced romp that immerses by sheer chaos alone.
This, however, is where the overall comfort of the game breaks immersion. Because this is an on-rails shooter, you’re necessarily swept from position to position across the map, and the game accomplishes this in two ways; ‘normal mode’, which automatically transitions your POV to each shooting position, or ‘comfort mode’, a removal of the sweeping camera in favor of automatic teleportation. Neither are really great in terms of immersion, one less so, one more so.
If you haven’t guessed where I was going with that, I’ll just come out and say it. Normal mode is downright sickening. Oftentimes I found myself being moved laterally, forward and being stopped without warning—a recipe for nausea if I’ve ever seen one. If you happen to have an iron stomach and a penchant for non-controllable locomotion, this may not bother you as much as it did me, but I could only play a two 10-minute levels before I gasped for the relief of comfort mode.
While the automatic teleportation of comfort mode also infringes on immersion by not giving you control over your own movement, it is much less jarring even though it left me feeling uneasy about when and where I would be whisked off to next.
That said, Drop Dead was surprisingly fun despite these flaws, and is an easy game to pick up for short excursions into zombie carnage. Take a look at our ’10 minutes of Gameplay’ for Drop Dead to get an eyeball-full of the intense action of this on-rails wave shooter.
We partnered with AVA Direct to create the Exemplar Ultimate, our high-end VR hardware reference point against which we perform our tests and reviews. Exemplar is designed to push virtual reality experiences above and beyond what’s possible with systems built to lesser recommended VR specifications.
Arriving just in time for Halloween 2016, Drop Dead was Pixel Toys first virtual reality (VR) release supporting Samsung Gear VR. Today the studio has confirmed the zombie shooter will be heading to Oculus Rift with Oculus Touch support this spring.
For the Oculus Rift version, Drop Dead will get a graphical upgrade to make use of the extra processing capabilities on offer. Players will have 41 undead filled single-player levels to work through, or if they wish to team up co-op and multiplayer will feature. There will be a co-op Horde Mode and a competitive four-person multiplayer on offer. Additionally, Pixel Toys will include support for Oculus Avatars, and several new weapons.
Samsung Gear VR players won’t miss out either. The mobile version of Drop Dead will receive a free update adding all the additional Rift content, bolstering the Gear VR’s single-player by an additional 14 levels.
February hasn’t been slow for Oculus Touch content, with Craft Keep VR, and Google Tilt Brush both supporting the controllers , alongside Carbon Games confirming support for AirMech: Commandshould be arriving soon.
For the latest updates from Pixel Toys on Drop Dead, keep reading VRFocus.
If you love a bit of Halloween fun and are waiting to scare trick or treaters in a few days, to pass the time you might want to tryout zombie shooter Drop Dead which has now arrived for Samsung Gear VR this week.
Created by Pixel Toys, Drop Dead was announced back in June at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2016 with only a few details being unveiled. Now there’s a new trailer to checkout and some more gameplay details.
Drop Dead is a first-person shooter which features both single-player and multiplayer modes. A tongue-in-cheek horror adventure, players have 13 missions to work through filled with zombies of all shapes and sizes. Players will be tooled up with all sorts of weapons, including pistols, machine guns, lasers and everybody’s favourite undead head remover, the shotgun. And gamers don’t have to go it alone as there’s a real-time multiplayer for up to four people.
“As both creators and players, Gear VR’s ability to take us to new worlds with comfort and convenience has been incredibly exciting,” said Andy Wafer, CEO at Pixel Toys. “Drop Dead takes full advantage of Gear VR’s cutting-edge design to deliver an experience unlike anything else on the platform for hardcore and casual gamers to enjoy alone or together.”
Pixel Toys is working on two additional chapters of single-player content, expected to arrive as free updates later this year, and an Oculus Rift version is planned.
Currently there’s a limited time 20 percent discount available until 1st November. This means Drop Dead is currently $7.99 USD/£5.99 GBP for the next few days.
For all the latest Gear VR releases, keep reading VRFocus.
