Category: Radial Games

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Backed by $4.4M in Funding, Devs Behind ‘Job Simulator’ & ‘Fantastic Contraption’ Announce New XR Startup

Developers behind critically acclaimed VR games Job Simulator (2016) and Fantastic Contraption (2016) today announced they’re founding a new studio dubbed Absurd Joy. To give them a big push along their quest to “invent entirely new ways to interact, play, and experience immersive technology,” the company today announced it’s raised $4.4 million in funding.

The new studio (stylized as absurd:joy) was founded by Alex Schwartz and Cy Wise—both formerly of Owlchemy Labs—and joined by Andy Moore of Radial Games as a core team member.

Absurd Joy says its working directly with Valve and Oculus, and is being supported financially by Ed Fries of 1Up Ventures, WXR Fund, and Jaroslav Beck of Beat Games.

As its advisors, the studio counts Patrick Curry of FarBridge, Anna Sweet, and Chet Faliszek from Stray Bombay.

Schwartz, Wise, & Moore – Images courtesy Absurd Joy

Schwartz and Wise, the former CEO and studio director at Owlchemy Labs respectively, developed Job Simulator and Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality (2017) before its acquisition by Google in May 2017. Schwartz and Wise left Owlchemy in June 2018 to “pursue new opportunities.”

Moore, a 20-year industry veteran, is known for his programming and design work on Fantastic Contraption and The Museum of Other Realities (theMOR).

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Absurd Joy hasn’t unveiled a project yet, and says that the process of experimenting and honing new interactions will be made public in some sense.

“The plan is to post GIFs, experiments, stories, videos, examples, and other random peeks into our process. It’s wacky, we know. But secrets are dumb anyway,” the studio explains.

Although there’s nothing to show today, Absurd Joy has outlined a few principles it wants to follow in its future experimentations, namely making AR/VR interactions more naturalistic and not forcing people to learn ad hoc concepts like unnatural gestures, making it fun, and breaking from the mould of using AR/VR as a games-only medium.

The post Backed by $4.4M in Funding, Devs Behind ‘Job Simulator’ & ‘Fantastic Contraption’ Announce New XR Startup appeared first on Road to VR.

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Fantastic Contraption is Bigger Than Ever With New 2.0 Update

In January 2017, Northway Games and Radial Games announced the Anti-Oppenheimer 1.6.0 for Fantastic Contraption, revealing it would be the last for the puzzle experience. As it turns out that’s not the case, with the developers releasing version 2.0 this week.

Fantastic Contraption ThanksForTheFish

The major addition in the update is its expansion, with the studio’s adding double the levels. In a blog posting Radial Games said: “We’ve put a ton of work into our puzzle-set and have created a whole new “B-Side” playlist for you to enjoy! The game now boasts over 100 levels, smoothing out the introductory learning curve and adding some high-end challenges for those Contraptionistas that find the late-game too easy.”

Every version of Fantastic Contraption is now faster, with version 2.0 improving the experience for PC users with min-spec or below minimum spec PC’s. “What we’ve done in Version 2.0 is merge all of our performance fixes into one master build, states the team. “This means that if you have a computer that is below min-spec on any platform, you should still be able to play without our physics engine grinding your CPU to dust! This also means that if your CPU is heavily loaded with other tasks (Twitch streaming, mixed-reality compositing, etc.) the game will keep chugging along at a comfortable 90+ FPS.”

For those Fantastic Contraption experts that have been playing since day one the new update adds a bunch of new gameplay mechanics on those B-Side levels. Now players have access to Cactuses that destroy bits of contraptions on touch and Balloons that give their Contraption buoyancy to float over Cactuses, gaps, and other challenges. These two additions were in the original version before being cut. Players can access these in the Level Editor as well.

Fantastic Contraption PSVR_1

Lastly, version 2.0 comes with a 33 percent permanent price drop making sure Fantastic Contraption is available for $19.99 USD everywhere. For any further updates from Northway Games or Radial Games, keep reading VRFocus.

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Second PlayStation VR Demo Disc Arrives, Full List Of Videogames Revealed

Yesterday we brought you news of the second PlayStation VR Demo Disc which would be available for PlayStation VR users as of today. At the time we weren’t sure what exactly we would get by way of videogame titles baring an announcement from developers Polyarc confirming that virtual reality (VR) action platformer Moss would be amongst the titles on offer. (Much to the delight of the VRFocus team.)

The listings for PlayStation VR sampler has now been revealed and includes titles from across the genre spectrum.  The full list of titles joining Moss can be found below.

Battlezone by Rebellion

A regular on VRFocus’ lists relating to the best VR videogame experiences out there, the tank-based shooter takes the series classic roots and updates them for the virtual stage. Battlezone gained a 5-star review on VRFocus, where it was described as “intense and addictive”.

Battlezone image

Dino Frontier by Uber Entertainment.

Cowboys meet Jurassic Park by way of Sim City, Dino Frontier lets you capture and tame dinosaurs in the Wild West to help build and manage a virtual town.

EVE: Valkyrie by CCP Games

CCP Games might be packing up the big top as far as their involvement in VR is concerned but that doesn’t stop EVE: Valkyire continuing to be one of the best VR experiences out there, and now VR and non-VR players can enjoy dogfighting in spaceships together.

EVE Valkyrie_wormholetubelaunch
Fantastic Contraption by Radial Games

Another title commonly amongst those VRFocus recommends: “Easy to begin with, Fantastic Contraption lets you get accustomed to the intricacies of what does what before throwing the real challenges at you. And there’s a lot, the title features 50 levels to get your head around.”

Job Simulator by Owlchemy Labs

A multi-award winning videogame, Job Simulator was so good Google brought developers Owlchemy Labs into the company. The title continues to get development and content as well, with the recently revealed ‘Infinite Overtime’ update.

Job Simulator - Twitch Chat

Raw Data by Survios

A highly popular virtual reality (VR) shooter, Raw Data sees players equipped with both firearms and a katana, and have the simple object of taking out the enemies before they themselves are overcome.

Rez Infinite by Enhance Games

Another PlayStation VR title that received a full five stars in its review, Rez Infinite is the spiritual successor to the original Rez, which first appeared on SEGA’s Dreamcast console.

Rez Infinite 12

StarBlood Arena by Whitemoon Dreams

The only title on the listing specifically requiring additional downloading, a demo of Starblood Arena was initially made available back in August. Starblood Arena allows the player to take control of one of nine available ships, each with its unique pilot, features and weapon loadout. Allowing would-be players the combination that suits their preferred style of play.

StarBlood Arena new screenshot

Star Child by GameTrust

One of a crop of PlayStation VR titles to receive a share of the spotlight recently during Sony’s press event at Paris Games Week, which included the reveal of a brand new trailer. Star Child is takes place on an alien world full of fantastical Martian creatures and creations in a homage to platformers of the 90s while also being something entirely new.

The Persistence by Firesprite

Originally revealed back in March this year, The Persistance comes from the developers behind The Playroom VR. Awaking from cryosleep, it’s up the players to kill the undead and take back control of the ship before it plunges into a nearby black hole.

The Persistence screenshotThumper by Drool

The self-described “rhythm violence” videogame was announced in March last year and by the time it hit the show floor at 2016’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) it had already made an impact. Drool said in their announcement that Thumper was “unlike anything you’ve seen, played or heard – a cocktail of kinetic action and aggressive acoustics. It’s the kind of game that inhales you, spits you out and leaves you yearning for more.” And they certainly aren’t exaggerating.

Tiny Trax by FuturLab

Slot car racing get a new twist. Tiny Trax features a drifting/boost-recharge mechanic, alongside lane switching and epic jumps across twelve tracks that’ll take players to tropical islands, volcanoes, ice caves and outer-space. It’s developer, Brighton-based studio FuturLab, recently revealed a new PlayStation VR title in Mini-Mech Mayhem.

Tiny Trax screenshot

The PlayStation VR Demo Disc 2 is now available on the PlayStation Store, it requires 15.2GB of space and several titles within it – Raw Data, Rez Infinite, Job Simulator, Dino Frontier and Fantastic Contraption – do require PS Move Controllers in order to play them.

VRFocus will bring you more details on developments with the PlayStation VR very soon.

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‘Fantastic Contraption’ Gets PSVR Release Date & Price – Exclusive Levels, Native 120 FPS Rendering

Fantastic Contraption, one of the first (and still one of the best) VR puzzle games out there, is finally coming to PSVR on July 11th and has been specially tuned for the platform, including unique levels not seen elsewhere and graphical enhancements for PS4 Pro.

Fantastic Contraption (2016) is a physics-based puzzle game made from the ground up for VR that will challenge your creativity by tasking you with a simple task: build a machine to deliver a purple orb into the goal zone. With a set of basic building materials—rods, wheels, and the like—you’ll be creating some surprisingly complex contraptions to beat the increasingly challenging levels.

Launching July 11th for $20

Originally launched on the HTC Vive and eventually Oculus Rift, the game has been well received on both platforms, and now it’s coming to PSVR. Announced via the Official PlayStation Blog, Fantastic Contraption will release on July 11th for PSVR priced at $20, including an additional 10% launch-week discount for PS Plus members. That’s $10 less than the Rift and Vive version.

Scale to Taste

Developer Radial Games says they’ve given special care to make the game work well with PSVR’s more limited tracking ability and computing power. While the Vive version has players building their contraption at life-size (thanks to a room-scale tracking area), the PSVR version of Fantastic Contraption is designed for seated play, giving players more of a workbench-like scale to craft their machines. The PSVR version will however allow players to resize the world at will to see it at any scale.

PSVR Exclusive Levels

Fantastic Contraption on PSVR will also get a “handful” of exclusive levels. “Try your hand bouncing around some moguls, attacking a big-bricked wall, and more! We’ve designed a few challenges specifically around seated play, and we know you’ll enjoy them,” the developer teases.

Native 120 FPS Rendering and PS4 Pro Enhancements

The game has been specially optimized for PS4 and PS4 Pro; Radial Games developer Andy Moore tells Road to VR that both consoles will render the game natively at 120 FPS which means it’ll look awfully smooth when you play (most PSVR games run at 60 FPS but interpolate to 120 FPS). The PS4 Pro version will see a range of enhancements, according to Radial Games:

  • 8xAA – We averaged out all those sharp corners for smoother looking curves!
  • Higher-resolution textures – you can almost smell that wood-grain!
  • Improved backdrops and scenery
  • Additional special-effects and visual flairs
  • Extra island decorations
  • 125% resolution oversampling – A fancy way of saying that things look real sharp in there.

The post ‘Fantastic Contraption’ Gets PSVR Release Date & Price – Exclusive Levels, Native 120 FPS Rendering appeared first on Road to VR.

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Fantastic Contraption Gets an Official PlayStation VR Launch Date

If you love virtual reality (VR) puzzle experiences then Northway Games and Radial Games’ Fantastic Contraption has to be one of the best. An original launch title for HTC Vive and then arriving on release day for Oculus Touch, the lighthearted building title now has a confirmed released date for Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) PlayStation VR.

Back in December 2016 Radial Games’ Stephen Gray announced that Fantastic Contraption would be coming to PlayStation VR in Spring 2017. After that not much else was heard until today, when Radial Games’ Christopher Floyd revealed on PlayStation.Blog that the videogame now has a launch date of Tuesday, 11th July, 2017.

Not only that, but PlayStation VR users will also get exclusive levels found nowhere else and special headset only features that allow players to resize and position their gameworld at the press of a button. “We have a handful of brand-new, PlayStation-exclusive levels in the release,” said Floyd. “Try your hand bouncing around some moguls, attacking a big-bricked wall, and more! We’ve designed a few challenges specifically around seated play, and we know you’ll enjoy them.”

And it doesn’t stop there. If you happen to own a PlayStation VR Pro as well, there are a load of additional enhancements. These include: higher-resolution textures; improved backdrops and scenery; additional special-effects and visual flairs; extra island decorations and 125% resolution oversampling for improved sharpness.

At launch Fantastic Contraption will retail for $19.99 USD with a special launch-week promotion of 10 percent off available for PlayStation Plus users.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Fantastic Contraption, reporting back with the latest announcements.