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.

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Northway Games Release Final Update for Fantastic Contraption, Adds Level Editor

Developed in partnership between Northway Games and Radial Games, Fantastic Contraption has been one of the most well received virtual reality (VR) titles of the past year – VRFocus gave it a respectable 4 stars. This week the studio announced the launch of its latest update, Anti-Oppenheimer 1.6.0 for the videogame, also revealing it would be the last.

In a posting via Northway Games’ blog, the team has unveiled new features as well as tweaks and improvements to polish off the title. The major addition has been the inclusion of a level editor, so that players have a whole new level of creativity to to explore. Puzzles can be created, named, then uploaded for anyone to play, and as an added extra Northway Games has included some extras of its own ‘that didn’t make the official cut, or that we’ve been inspired to create since trying out the new editor’, it said.

That’s it in terms of additional content, the developer has confirmed it doesn’t have any more major updates in the works, instead it’ll be moving on to something new – although no details have yet been released. Fantastic Contraption will still be maintained and support for PlayStation VR is incoming later this year.

Checkout the entire changelog and video below for all the update details. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Northway Games, reporting back with any further announcements.

Full Anti-Oppenheimer Changelog:

  • New Level editor! To use it, first put on the helmet, then put on the creepy mask in the corner and ring the bell for a tutorial. User-made levels can be shared online and loaded via the save table just like contraptions.
  • New Mouthmoth keyboard lets you name contraptions and levels, and search by contraption / level name
  • Added interactive art elements to side of maquette and Kaiju scale
  • Autohide the companion desktop menu and limit desktop display framerate
  • Show purple building bounds if cheating detected during tutorial
  • Hide black sphere during startup
  • Improve look of pins on Neko’s head
  • Adjust some sky characters
  • Sky color variation
  • Sounds for items including non-spinning green wheels and eyeballs
  • Disable musical sounds if you’re holding an item
  • Tweaked throw force for Kaiju scales
  • Improved haptics
  • Improved tutorial text font
  • Optimized first person companion view smoothing
  • Optimized avatar shadows
  • Optimized Twitch panel memory usage
  • Fixed some menus not updating when language changes
  • Fixed models disappearing after you drop them on a save table shelf
  • Fixed Button the Dog ghosting
  • Fixed disappearing Neko eyes and ghosting
  • Fixed obscure crash bug with some webcams
  • Fixed cat skin modding
  • Fixed sticky tutorial messages
  • Fixed laserpointer positioning for Twitch/camera menu
  • Fixed feedback form submission issues
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Fantastic Contraption Coming to PlayStation VR Spring 2017

One of the most well known virtual reality (VR) puzzle titles is likely to be Fantastic Contraption by Northway Games and Radial Games. The HTC Vive had it as a launch day experience, and it featured in a free content bundle for the system for several months. The developers then brought it to Oculus Touch for its launch day earlier this month, and while they maybe a little late to the PlayStation VR launch window, the studios have now confirmed support for Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) headset.

Radial Games’ Stephen Gray made the announcement via PlayStation.Blog, introducing a new trailer for the reveal as well as a release window, Spring 2017. The videogame is a quirky puzzle solver that requires players to do just on thing, get a pink blob from their location to a giant pink area that can be in front, behind, below or above them. This is achieved by building all manner of weird and crazy inventions that can roll, spin, flip, catapult themselves and the pink orb towards the target. Just as the original title, the PlayStation VR version will feature 50 levels to work through, as well as the most recent Kaiju update.

Fantastic Contraption PSVR_2

The Kaiju update arrived last month bringing with it a new scaling option for those building in restricted areas. This allows users to scale from 50% of regular size all the way down to 10%, which makes everything look like a miniature set of contraption pieces. This should be especially beneficial to PlayStation VR owners who don’t get the freedom of movement that HTC Vive users get with Room Scale. Due to the single camera system that PlayStation VR uses, Fantastic Contraption will most likely be a sat down experience for players, with the Kaiji update allowing them to build directly on their laps.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Fantastic Contraption, reporting back with any further updates.

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Fantastic Contraption ‘Kaiju’ Update Adds New Scaling System, Eye-Cam and More

If you want something different to all the shooting titles available for HTC Vive a good place to start is quirky puzzle videogame Fantastic Contraption. Developed in partnership between Northway Games and Radial Games, it originally came supplied with free with every purchase of the headset until August when its was swapped out. This week the developers have announced a big update for the title, called ‘Kaiju’, which should give players an indication of what to expect.

There are several major features added to Fantastic Contraption, the first being a new scaling option to allow new ways to play. This allows users to scale from 50% of regular room scale size all the way down to 10% room scale which makes everything look like a miniature set of contraption pieces. When using scaling the controller flowers shrink down to smaller precision buds so that players can easily see what they’re doing.

Fantastic Contraption_scale_fling

Northway states on its update listing: “If your VR hardware is configured for a small space, the Room Setup menu will appear automatically the first time you play. You can force Fantastic Contraption into Kaiju Scale and reconfigure your space via the companion menu on your monitor.”

Then there’s the Companion Eye-Cam. Now players can take their eyes out attach them to a contraption then switch on the companion-camera to follow the eyes around. This essentially means viewers watching on a monitor get an even better perspective.

Rating contraptions has got easier with a new way to keep track of them. Now users smooch their favourite contraptions both local and online. Smooching them now adds hearts, causing the to rise up the ranks on the “Online Contraptions for this Level” shelves.

Check out the full changelog below for all the improvements the developers have made, and keep reading VRFocus for all the latest VR news.

Full ‘Kaiju’ changelog:

  • Kaiju Scale: full support for playing in smaller spaces including seated. (Re)configure world size and orientation via the companion menu on your monitor (settings > standing scale > configure standing). Config will automatically run once if SteamVR is set to “Standing Only”.
  • Steam Workshop support for modding Neko skins. See our Steam Workshop and Modding Instructions
  • Workshop support for other languages. See our Steam Workshop and Modding Instructions
  • Japanese language support. Change language via the companion menu on your monitor. Other languages coming eventually and/or create your own using Steam Workshop.
  • Rate and fave saved contraptions by giving them a smooch
  • Throw level from maquette to frog to delete autosave and revert
  • New avatars and improved avatar model physics
  • Change avatar by using the touchpad while grabbing maquette
  • New avatar hats and improved existing hat models
  • Twitch chat voting on avatars and hats with “!avatar wolf” or “!hat 5”, defaults to 60 second rounds. Twitch mods can disable, trigger rounds, or force a change immediately.
  • Avatar shadows
  • Command-line arguments to run in demo mode, eg “-demo”. Contact us for full list
  • Rearranged things in dark world
  • Combined level and contraption save tables into one
  • New look for Neko
  • Highlight Neko’s parts when you’re close enough to grab them
  • Improve Neko animation performance
  • New look and animation for victory spheres
  • Improve stereo shader rendering
  • Tweaks to tutorial messages
  • Hourglass loading indicator
  • Fade out effects
  • Selection highlighting on camera bug and some other things
  • Sound tweaks
  • Tweak and tune all haptic responses
  • Added arrows to tutorial umbilicals
  • Minor tweaks to several levels (must delete autosaves to see)
  • Hide online contraptions made with newer incompatible game versions
  • Fix helmet obstructing first person companion view
  • Fix error on loading corrupt save files
  • Fix Twitch panel error and bloat
  • Fix SteamVR init crash
  • Fix physics issues caused by variable framerate
  • Fix respawn delay after taking items from Neko
  • Fix hitting start/stop while loading
  • Fix several levels so they’ll break less
  • Fix snaps disappearing or being where they shouldn’t
  • Fix and tweaks to camera bug
  • Fix Neko’s missing eyes on blink with helmet
  • Fix spelling “comfortably”