PvP Battler ‘Glassbreakers’ Gets New Champion, Steam Open Beta Coming in October

Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss, the 1v1 battler from Polyarc launched into early access late last month, is releasing a new character today which aims to “hook” players into returning for more tactical rat-bashing action.

Revealed last week, new champion ‘Mojo’ is now available for players on Quest, which for now is the only platform with an open beta.

Polyarc says can wishlist Glassbreakers now on Steam, with a planned open beta release slated to arrive sometime in October.

Mojo (aka ‘MJ22’) brings a few new ranged abilities to the 1v1 real-time battler, such as the ‘Free Hugs’ ability which lets Mojo launch a hook attack to pull the opposing squad’s Champions in towards them.

Leveling up, the hook not only launches farther, but it also applies a slowing effect to enemies. Besides grabbing enemies, Mojo’s hook can also snag high-priority targets that the other squad is trying to protect.

The studio announced it’s also hosting a special ‘Quest for the Chest’ event from now until October 5th, which is boosting the speed at which players level up their weekly chests. What’s more, for the next two weeks the top-tier chests will contain “extra special rewards including a chance at never-before-seen masks and emblems for players and their squads,” Polyarc says.

The game is slated to make the transition from App Lab game to the Quest Store proper  early next year.

To follow along with progress, take a look at the game’s Trello board to see how events are shaping up, and how bug fixes are coming along.

Following Single-player Successes, Polyarc Announces First PvP Game ‘Glassbreakers – Champions of Moss’

Following a tease earlier this year, Polyarc Games has announced its first PvP game, Glassbreakers – Champions of Moss, based on its acclaimed single player adventure games Moss (2019) and Moss: Book II (2022).

Moss and Moss: Book II exemplify third-person VR adventure games, giving the player control of a mouse named Quill which travels through the fantastical world of Moss. Uniquely to third-person VR, the player isn’t just the person behind a screen, but actually exists within the game and can interact with Quill and the environment to solve puzzles and aid in combat.

Alongside great design, art, and polish, the successful execution of this concept is what has kept Moss among the 20 best rated Quest games for years now. We went behind-the-scenes of Moss: Book II last year to learn more about what made the game shine.

Now developer Polyarc Games plans to translate the concept into a standalone PvP title, Glassbreakers – Champions of Moss, the studio’s first departure from single-player VR games.

Details on Glassbreakers is light as the studio is saving a broader reveal for an August 29th showcase at 9AM PT (your timezone here), but ostensibly the game will continue to focus on controlling small third-person characters, with some level of direct player interaction. A teaser image shows a few characters we already know from the games alongside some seemingly new faces that are likely to be part of the game’s roster for players to control.

We’ll be interested to see if the studio can amp up the game’s relatively simple combat to create a truly competitive game, and what direct interactions players will be able to have between themselves and their character, or maybe even themselves and the opposing player.

While a launch date for Glassbreakers hasn’t been announced, a holiday 2023 release date looks likely. While the game has been confirmed for Quest so far, there’s a good chance Glassbreakers will also make it to PSVR 2 and PC VR just like its predecessors.

Moss Developers Polyarc Announce Competitive Multiplayer VR Game

Polyarc, the developers behind the Moss franchise, announced a new in-development competitive multiplayer VR game today, sharing some artwork and announcing a playtest weekend for next month.

Polyarc Champion

The game’s title remains unconfirmed and there’s not a whole lot of specific details, however the artwork shared by Polyarc indicates it will continue the studio’s strong visual style established in Moss: Book I & II. The characters also look to be drawn from the same universe as Moss, with the second piece of art (embedded below) almost feeling reminiscent of a Smash Bros-esque fighting game.

Polyarc Champion

The untitled game will mark Polyarc’s first foray into competitive multiplayer in VR. This places them in the same bucket as other veteran VR studios, such as Schell Games and Owlchemy Labs, who have are now confident enough in the number of VR users to justify exploring online multiplayer projects. Polyarc co-founder and CEO Tam Armstrong touched on this in a prepared statement:

“We are happy to see that the audience for VR continues to grow, now counting in the tens of millions of players, with more user-friendly and accessible headsets being released every year. As a game development studio that aspires to create games for everyone, we want to find ways to reach more of the audience within VR and even create space for new folks to join us there. With that in mind, the greater number of players gives us the opportunity to try ideas we have for multiplayer gameplay that can offer more to competitive players.”

Armstrong also gave some small hints at the game’s direction, stating that VR “offers interesting consideration for multiplayer” such as “the ability to read the other player’s focus and intention as they move their head and hands.”

Polyarc Champion

Polyarc will hold a closed playtest weekend between April 14 and 16, which players can sign up for now.

‘Moss’ Studio Announces VR Competitive Multiplayer, Closed Beta Signups Now Live

Polyarc, the studio behind the Moss franchise, announced a new competitive multiplayer VR game currently in development.

Polyarc isn’t saying much beyond that—we still don’t even know it’s name—however a look at the game’s concept art shows a definite influence from Moss‘ style and characters, including the Reader and a number of plucky mice heroes.

Although we can’t read too much into it, retrofitting Moss’ third-person platforming view into a multiplayer battle game may mean the studio is pursuing something very similar in feel to Moss, albeit with multiple classes and weapons. In the concept art we see a gilded Reader and a number of different mousey classes: a tank, archer, knight, wizard, and even some evil leafy dudes.

“It’s apparent observing the community of players out there and receiving some of our own feedback that there are a lot of gamers in VR who are looking for and want to play more competitive multiplayer games,” said Tam Armstrong, co-founder and CEO, Polyarc. “We are excited about this opportunity, as VR offers interesting considerations for multiplayer games. The ability to read the other player’s focus and intention as they move their head and hands are some of the elements that make playing games in person so compelling. We are looking forward to sharing what we’ve been working on and the fun we’ve been having playing it.”

Coming off the success of Moss and Moss: Book II, Polyarc says a competitive multiplayer is “something the team has been excited to develop since the studio’s inception in 2015, but first the player base needed to grow large enough to support multiplayer games of this nature.”

The game, which is still unnamed at the time of this writing, is set to run closed playtesting on the weekend of April 14th-16th. Here’s how Polyarc describes the first round of closed beta testing:

We’re working on lots of cool, new stuff and want to see what happens when we get it in the hands of real players. Each playtest will focus on a different aspect of an in-development game and your feedback will be important to help us make the best final product(s) possible. And we’re here to test the game; we’re not testing you as the playtesters. So please don’t feel like you have to do anything besides play the game. If you are having fun, we want to know! If you aren’t having fun, then we also want to know. And we will ask you all about every juicy detail in a survey at the end.

The studio hasn’t announced target platforms yet, however playtesters will require a Quest 2 to participate. If you’re interested in joining, signups are available starting today.

‘Moss: Book II’ Behind-the-scenes – Insights & Artwork from Polyarc

In an industry as young as VR there’s scarcely any original IP that’s had the time to become truly iconic. But if there’s one today that looks well on its way, the world of Moss is a strong contender. With the release of its debut title, Moss (2018), developer Polyarc entrusted big ambitions to a tiny hero, Quill, a character so recognizable it’s easy to forget that it’s not her name on the cover. Four years after the original, Polyarc doubled down on its diminutive hero with the recent release of Moss: Book II which takes the tale of Quill to new heights, further cementing the studio’s IP as a staple of VR gaming. To learn about how the studio has continued to hone its craft of VR game design, we sat down with Polyarc Design Director Josh Stiksma to get a glimpse behind the scenes at the game’s development and the art that inspired it.

Editor’s Note: The exclusive artwork peppered throughout this article is best viewed on a desktop browser with a large screen or in landscape orientation on your phone. All images courtesy Insomniac Games; special thanks to artist Darren Quach.

Making a Seamless World

Image courtesy Chris Alderson, Polyarc

One of many things that sets Moss: Book II apart from many other VR titles is how seamless the game is—that is to say, everything that happens in Book II, from combat to narrative to environment, feels like it’s part of a single cohesive, believable, and beautiful fantasy world.

Book II takes players not just on a figurative journey, but a literal one too—you’re there alongside Quill’s every mouse-sized step; her adventure forms a nearly unbroken path both physically through the game world and temporally through the story.

Image courtesy Polyarc

As you can imagine, this didn’t happen by accident. But putting it all together would be a bit like trying to build a puzzle before you know what each piece looks like. Polyarc, however, was up to the challenge.

Design Director Josh Stiksma told me the studio started by drafting a rough, high-level map outlining some of the narrative and gameplay moments the team had in mind.

Image courtesy Josh Stiksma, Polyarc

“With a rough idea of the overworld mapped out visually, we fleshed out ideas for the individual areas and dungeons. With some concepts firmed up, we then went back and forth trying to massage the world pieces together with the narrative and gameplay beats. This took a long time to get all the connections between locations making sense and lined up with our pacing goals,” he said. “Admittedly, a lot of this isn’t unique to VR and came from our previous experiences in AAA [game development]—but there are many nuances along the way. One challenge that I’ll share is the amount of time we spent thinking about the complexity of the map and worrying about if the player will get lost. The design and art team worked together closely to ensure the different dioramas felt connected and the player could make sense of where they were in the world by looking around the beautiful environments.”

Indeed, the environmental art and direction is a highlight of Book II. The studio deftly wove the game’s golden path through a world full of iconic sights that are as beautiful as they are memorable, making them perfect landmarks help the player keep track of their place within the broader world.

For instance, there’s a huge castle that acts as something of a hub for the game. As you explore beyond its walls you can almost always catch a glimpse of it in the distance to remind you just how far you’ve traveled.

Image courtesy Polyarc

And there’s something to be said about the dichotomy of the game’s two scales: mouse-scale and human scale. The environments in Book II fuse both together in a skillful and meaningful way.

As Quill, you walk through individual blades of grass, tip toe across branches, and clamber up small rocks. But as the player (who exists in the world at human scale) you see the entire patch of grass, the whole tree the branch is connected to, and the hill where the rocks fell from in the first place.

Image courtesy Mike Jensen, Polyarc

The real magic of this formula comes when the game bridges those two scales. Throughout the game you’ll reach out to Quill to heal her, power her up, or help her change weapons. You’ll also push, pull, and twist various obstacles within the world that would otherwise be impassable by Quill alone.

Book II really hammers this synergy of scales home with what is perhaps its most iconic boss fight. If you haven’t played the game yet, the following includes spoilers!

Continue on Page 2: Forging a Fight »

The post ‘Moss: Book II’ Behind-the-scenes – Insights & Artwork from Polyarc appeared first on Road to VR.

Adventure Into the World of Moss: Book II This Summer on Meta Quest 2

PlayStation VR hasn’t exactly had a stellar lineup of videogames this year but one that certainly did was Polyarc’s Moss: Book II. The developer has been coy regarding the other platforms it would eventually bring support to but it was always assumed Meta Quest 2 would be on the roster. The Meta Quest Gaming Showcase has confirmed that today, earmarking this summer for launch.

Moss: Book II

Quill, the central character in the Moss franchise has always been one of the most beloved in VR. A plucky little hero fighting against small and giant monsters alike, she’s a mouse with personality, forming a bond with you – called The Reader – through high fives and other non-verbal actions.

Moss: Book II directly continues on from the storyline of the original, with Quill just having saved her uncle Argus but now facing an even bigger threat. So you’ll have to venture deep into the hexed castle of the Arcane to fight new enemies, solve clever environmental puzzles and unlock secrets hidden just out of sight.

Gorgeous to look at thanks to each area serving as a buzzing diorama filled with life, Quill not only has her sword for this adventure, she’ll also be able to wield a colossal hammer – big for her anyway – to smash open armoured enemies or utilise Chakrams to hit them from afar. Polyarc has also employed new mechanics to further immerse players in the world of Moss, pulling out vines so Quill can reach new areas or helping bring the hammer down on giant switches.

Moss Book II

In gmw3’s PlayStation VR review of Moss: Book II we said: “Whilst not particularly difficult, stepping into Moss and teaming up with Quill is a delight once again, with polished gameplay, more interactivity and visuals you can’t help but soak in. The main problem really is that Moss: Book II ends a bit too soon, as you won’t want it to be over.”

Having won multiple awards from organisations including The Game Awards, Bafta, and GDC, Moss: Book II is an exciting addition to Meta Quest 2’s summer launch lineup, when a date is revealed gmw3 will let you know.

‘Moss: Book II’ to Release on Quest 2 Next Month

Having received a strong reception on PSVR back at the end of March, Moss: Book II from developer Polyarc is now set to release on Quest 2 starting next month.

Update (June 9th, 2022): Polyarc today announced during UploadVR’s Summer Showcase that Moss: Book II is exiting PSVR exclusivity and coming to Quest 2 on July 21st.

In addition, Polyarc has today opened pre-orders for the Moss: Book II Official Soundtrack (OST), composed by two-time BAFTA award-winning composer Jason Graves. The original article announcing its summer launch window follows below:

Original Article (April 21st, 2022): Action-platformer Moss originally launched as a timed exclusive on PSVR back in 2018, but just four months later it made its way to PC VR too (eventually landing on the original Quest in 2019). And now it looks like the sequel, Moss: Book II, which first launched for PSVR on April 5th this year, is set for a similarly quick jump to another platform.

Today during the Quest Gaming Showcase, developer Polyarc announced that Moss: Book II is due for a release date on Quest 2 this summer (a PC VR version, however, has not yet been announced). The studio also showed the first look at the game as it will look on Quest 2.

Assuming that the trailer is showing an accurate representation of the game’s geometric and texture detail as it will run on Quest 2… it appears pretty darn close to what the game looks like even when backed by the more powerful PS4/PS5.

In fact, Moss: Book II is likely to look sharper on Quest 2’s higher resolution display (1,832 × 1,920 [3.5MP] per-eye) compared to PSVR’s rather dated display (960 × 1,080 [1.0MP] per-eye). That could be a boon for this game in particular, as Moss: Book II’s beautifully composed mouse-sized environments contain intricate details that could be easier to appreciate with the higher resolution display—though we’ll have to see if the game’s textures on Quest 2 can hold up to that added scrutiny.

Moss: Book II on PSVR picks up precisely where the original Moss left off—meaning, if you’re planning to play Book II, you should probably start with the original game first. Luckily, if you find yourself in that boat, the original Moss is conveniently 20% off on the Quest store.

In our review of Moss: Book II on PSVR we scored the game 8.5 out of 10 and summarized it as such:

Moss: Book II is a direct continuation of the first game in both story and core mechanics. Generally speaking, it’s a longer and better experience than the original Moss thanks to the introduction of new weapons, mechanics, and more intriguing puzzles. The game is polished to the brim with stellar art direction, with each segment of the game being its own detailed diorama with top notch composition. Sound is strong and animations are superb throughout, with one of the game’s enjoyable boss fights showcasing Polyarc’s animation prowess in particular. Though the ‘narrated book’ story structure may have hindered the impact of the story and characters, Moss: Book II is a well rounded adventure you won’t want to miss.

So when will it launch? Well, Polyarc has only given Moss: Book II on Quest 2 a “Summer 2022” release date so far (see update). However, the original game launched on its first non-PSVR platform exactly 120 days after its initial release. 120 days from the PSVR release date of Moss: Book II would put us out to August 2nd. Conveniently that’s also a Tuesday (a common day for major game releases), which happens to be the same day of the week that the original Moss and Moss: Book II both launched on. So until we hear a more specific date from the studio, that’ll be our best guess!

The post ‘Moss: Book II’ to Release on Quest 2 Next Month appeared first on Road to VR.

‘Moss: Book II’ Review – A Refined & Satisfying Sequel That Sticks With What Works

A whopping four years after its opening chapter, Moss: Book II is finally here to continue the story of Quill, a tiny adventurer destined for an epic journey. While the game doesn’t think too far outside the box compared to the original Moss, developer Polyarc has refined the best parts of the game to deliver a satisfying direct continuation of Quill’s story.

Quill Book II Details:

Available On: PSVR
Release Date: March 31st, 2022
Price: $40
Developer: Polyarc Games
Reviewed On: PSVR (PS5)

Gameplay

Moss: Book II builds on the same underlying gameplay formula that made the first a great game. The player controls Quill, an adorable and capable little adventurer, through platforming, light combat, and puzzling. The player plays seated using the PS4 DualShock 4 controller (PS5’s DualSense isn’t supported), and controls Quill with the thumbsticks and buttons, but also has some direct influence over the world thanks to a floating orb that represents the position of the player’s controller. Using the orb you can reach into the world to move specific puzzle objects, heal Quill, mind-control enemies, and more.

The story picks up immediately where the original Moss left off, so if you haven’t played it yet, you’ll certainly want to start there.

Moss: Book II is split up into small segments in which Quill usually crosses from left to right over the course of a few minutes. Polyarc has upped the visual ante, even against the already impressive scenes of the first game. Each segment is a beautifully detailed diorama with masterful attention to lighting and composition.

In fact, the scenes are so rich with detail that I actually wish the game provided more reason for players to look around the environment—if you stay purely focused on getting Quill from A-to-B, you’d be missing out on a significant part of the game’s charm. There are some hidden collectibles but they were generally too obvious to really encourage the player to breathe in each scene as a work of art. Astro Bot Rescue Mission (2018) had a simple mechanic where each level had a nearly-invisible creature hidden within it, which was effective at encouraging me to revisit levels and look in places I might not have thought to look on my first pass.

Moss: Book II continues to be light on enemy variety (which was already a critique from the original), but luckily it manages to spice up combat just enough thanks to the introduction of two new weapons (in addition to the original sword) and a special power to go along with all three of the weapons. To activate the special power, the player holds down the attack button to make Quill hold her weapon up, then the player must reach out and touch it with their controller to prime the power before Quill can use it.

Smartly, each weapon’s special power works as both an extra combat mechanic and a puzzle mechanic. For instance, players will get a ranged weapon which, when primed, can be thrown extra far and will stick into walls. Upon using the attack button again, the weapon will fly in a straight line back to Quill. Not only can you use this to hit multiple enemies in a row (both on the forward thrown and the return), but it is also essential to many of the game’s puzzles where the player is tasked with using the return to hit switches that would otherwise be impossible to reach.

Thanks to the new special powers of the weapons, and some new environmental interactions, the puzzles in Moss: Book II take a step up in depth over the original game. Like the first, I found puzzles hit that sweet spot where they occasionally felt challenging and rewarding to solve while steering mostly clear of frustration. There were a few head scratchers that almost had me thinking the game might have bugged, but reliably I would find the answer after retracing my steps and trying to look at the puzzle from new angles.

This was the case especially later in the game where several segments involving magical changing gravity will make you flex your spatial reasoning in new ways.

Moss: Book II started with a fairly slow pace for my taste; this is exacerbated a bit by how long it can take Quill to navigate around the environment even when it’s obvious where you need to go. But by the mid-way point, the game begins to hit its stride as you come to acquire new weapons and more is thrown your way in both platforming and combat. Granted, I don’t think I died once in combat, so the game might have benefited from adjustable difficulty options—like a cooldown on how often you can heal Quill.

Combat against the game’s basic enemies was satisfying but never felt terribly challenging, however the game puts your skills to the test with a small number of unique and well designed boss fights. One of those fights involves an enemy that’s much larger than Quill and features stunning animation that was a delight to see.

And animation isn’t the only place where Moss: Book II shines. Really the whole game is superbly polished both in visuals and sound. Quill herself is animated with such prowess that you really get a sense of her character from the way she moves. And while the music didn’t leave me with any particularly memorable themes, it played its role well in creating the right atmosphere throughout.

From a story standpoint, Moss: Book II has enough going on to carry the action along, but unfortunately the way the story is told hampers things a bit.

Sticking to the style established in the first game, the story is primarily told through sequences that take the player out of the game and places them in front of a book. As you turn the pages, the singular narrator reads the story points while you look at lovely illustrations of what’s happening.

However, several of the game’s key characters are only ever seen in the pages of the book—and they’re all acted out by the same narrator doing different voices—which I felt prevented them from taking on unique personas that were grounded in the world and central to the story.

Further, there was a key story point that wasn’t communicated clearly which robbed the game of the poignancy its ending otherwise could have had. Granted, I appreciated that the game opened up some new and interesting threads with regards to the relationship between the world of Moss and ‘The Reader’ (the name for the player-character), though it seems we’ll have to wait for another chapter still before we’ll see how that might play out.

Players play as ‘The Reader’, a mysterious entity that helps Quill through her journey | Image courtesy Polyarc

All in all, Moss: Book II took me just about five hours to beat, including collecting some 80% of the game’s optional collectibles (all of which was from my first playthrough). While that’s definitely on the short side, I’m happy to report that the game has very little fat, and there’s enough momentum in gameplay and plot that the game feels longer than those five hours alone. It’s just enough to feel like a satisfying adventure, whereas the original Moss felt like it ended too soon.

Immersion

Image courtesy Polyarc

Like the original, Moss: Book II creates excellent atmosphere with its many beautifully constructed environments. It’s a real shame the game lacks a ‘photo mode’ for taking high-quality photos of these lovely places (the default PSVR screenshots and captures produce extremely low resolution media that really undersells what the world looks like in the headset).

Each segment is its own diorama that’s coated in detail to look at up close, and if you back up and look further around you’ll realize that everything is taking place in a normal-scale world. Many of the game’s segments are set against a huge backdrop, like a massive tree, that gives beautiful context to Quill’s actual journey from one segment to the next.

In fact, you’ll occasionally see the relics of a human world in the backdrop—like a dilapidated human-sized building partly covering the mouse-size stage before you, or a long forgotten statue of a human. This environmental storytelling is highly intriguing, but unfortunately the game never directly acknowledges it, leaving any historical interplay between the human and rodent worlds a total mystery.

Through various mechanics like powering up Quill’s weapons or moving interactive pieces in certain segments, Moss: Book II seems to have the player generally reaching into the world for direct interactions more often than the original game, which helps make it feel a bit more real (save for PSVR’s occasionally wonky tracking).

Small details—like plants reacting to the touch of your orb—help sell the illusion further, and I appreciated that the game’s inventory system isn’t a mere selector but instead has players grab the item they want and then hand them to Quill.

One missed immersion opportunity returns from the original however: there’s never really any threat or interaction directed at The Reader (the player-character), and nobody in the world except for Quill interacts with you in a meaningful way. As I put it in our original Moss review, “I was able to reach into the world, but the world never really reached back at me in a way that truly mattered.” That’s a shame considering how central The Reader’s existence is to the story and game structure in general, and the effective ways in which Astro Bot Rescue Mission (2018) (to name one obvious example) showed how this could be achieved.

Another slight immersion breaker is that the game is very particular about where the player can navigate. Sometimes there will be a tiny fence that you frustratingly can’t jump over—even if it would be a shortcut to where you want to go—and other times there will be a tall ledge that doesn’t look like you could reach it, but actually you can—and it’s the only way to get where you need to go. That makes it feel a bit more like Quill inhabits a ‘course’ rather than a grounded world, and it can rob the player of some creativity in how they get around the environment or solve puzzles.

Comfort

As a seated game that never artificially moves the camera, Moss: Book II is nearly perfectly comfortable. The only critique to the comfort comes not from the game, but from PSVR’s tracking which isn’t always on point. When your head is just a few feet from a static scene, positional jitter is pretty obvious. It never rose to the point of making me dizzy, but for anyone who considers themselves very sensitive to VR motion it might pose a problem for long sessions or especially tough tracking conditions (remember to play in the darkest environment you can and make sure you aren’t back-lit!).

The only other comfort comment I have about the game is that on occasion I had to reach a little further into the game world than was convenient, simply because Quill was far away from me. This might be annoying depending upon how laid-back your seating arrangement is.

‘Moss: Book II’ Comfort Settings – April 4th, 2022

Turning
Artificial turning ✖
Movement
Artificial movement ✖
Blinders ✖
Posture
Standing mode ✖
Seated mode ✔
Artificial crouch ✖
Real crouch ✖
Accessibility
Subtitles ✔
Languages
English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
Alternate audio ✔
Languages English, French, German
Adjustable difficulty ✖
Two hands required ✔
Real crouch required ✖
Hearing required ✖
Adjustable player height ✖

 

The post ‘Moss: Book II’ Review – A Refined & Satisfying Sequel That Sticks With What Works appeared first on Road to VR.

The VR Job Hub: nDreams, Microsoft & Polyarc

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.

LocationCompanyRoleLink
UK, RemotenDreams (Orbital)Senior Prop ArtistClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Orbital)Senior Character ArtistClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Orbital)VFX and Lighting ArtistClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Orbital)Senior Technical DesignerClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Orbital)Senior Backend ProgrammerClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Orbital)Infrastructure EngineerClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Orbital)Senior Systems DesignerClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Studio Elevation)Lead ProgrammerClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Studio Elevation)Technical DesignerClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Studio Elevation)Lead ArtistClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Studio Elevation)Senior Gameplay ProgrammerClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Studio Elevation)Lead DesignerClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Studio Elevation)Technical DirectorClick Here to Apply
UK, RemotenDreams (Studio Elevation)Art DirectorClick Here to Apply
Redmond, WAMicrosoft (Mixed Reality)Technical Program Manager IIClick Here to Apply
Redmond, WAMicrosoft (Mixed Reality)Associate Art ProducerClick Here to Apply
Redmond, WAMicrosoft (Mixed Reality)Senior Software Engineering LeadClick Here to Apply
Multiple LocationsMicrosoft (Mixed Reality)Senior Technical Program ManagerClick Here to Apply
Redmond, WAMicrosoft (Mixed Reality)Software EngineerClick Here to Apply
Redmond, WAMicrosoft (Mixed Reality)Producer (AltspaceVR)Click Here to Apply
Redmond, WAMicrosoft (Mixed Reality)Senior Security Program ManagerClick Here to Apply
Redmond, WAMicrosoft (Mixed Reality)Partner Enablement Program ManagerClick Here to Apply
Seattle, WAPolyarcEnvironment ArtistClick Here to Apply
Seattle, WAPolyarcMid-Level or Senior 3D ArtistClick Here to Apply
Seattle, WAPolyarcMid-Level or Senior Character ArtistClick Here to Apply
Seattle, WAPolyarcQA Manager/QA LeadClick Here to Apply
Seattle, WAPolyarcSenior Product ManagerClick Here to Apply
Seattle, WAPolyarcSenior Technical ArtistClick Here to Apply
Seattle, WAPolyarcSystem/DevOps EngineerClick Here to Apply
Seattle, WAPolyarcTechnical AnimatorClick Here to Apply

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 Hub to 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.

Polyarc On What Project Cambria’s Eye And Face-Tracking Could Bring To Moss

Ahead of Moss Book 2’s debut on PSVR later this month, developer Polyarc reflected on what future headset technology could mean for its series going forward.

Specifically, we rasked engineer and designer Joshua Stiksma what he thought the arrival of eye-tracking in Meta’s Project Cambria and Sony’s PSVR 2, as well as face-tracking in the former headset could mean for the future of the series.

“That tech specifically is amazing,” Stiksma said. “I’m really excited to see what everybody’s going to do with that kind of technology, but I think you kinda hit it there on what’s exciting for Polyarc. The ability to try to communicate with the character through a language we can all understand.”

In the Moss games, players embody the role of a supernatural being that partners up with a young mouse named Quill. You control Quill’s movements and actions with VR controllers, but you also interact with her directly by reaching into her world or waving to her. Polyarc is looking to expand the ways in which you can connect with the character in the sequel, but future hardware innovations could hold yet more advances in this field.

“Smiling is a great example,” Stiksma continued. “That’s powerful. And as developers, that’s something that’s really exciting. And then the eye tracking, obviously, being able to know where you’re looking and she can understand, hypothetically she understands where you’re looking and can react in some way.”

Currently PSVR 2 and Project Cambria don’t have official release dates, but the latter is coming this year and PSVR 2 will hopefully arrive by early 2023 at the latest. When both are out, VR developers will have two high-profile headsets with eye tracking implemented. You can keep up with everything we know about Cambria here and everything we know about PSVR 2 here.

“If you’re having a conversation with anybody at all, those are key things that make that conversation real,” Stiksma concluded. “And with us being able to connect in that way, it’s only gonna mean that we’re able to have our experiences feel more real. And I don’t want to downplay how tough that probably will be for us to implement and pull off because there’s probably going to be a fine line between, oh, this is just a quick reaction and then skirting over it too, “Wow this is a real person or a real character that I feel is real.”

We’ll have more on our interview with Polyarc this weekend, so stay tuned.