For today’s livestream we’re jumping into Rec Room — it’s been a while since we visited this free social VR application. Among its recent updates, including a battle royale game mode, there has been a new laser tag map, new Quests, and lots of custom rooms that community members have made. There is even a non-VR version in beta currently!
During the stream I’ll likely be joined by Ian Hamilton from UploadVR for some of the fun as we try out a bunch of different content and see what people are up to. The plan is to mostly focus on Laser Tag and Rec Royale but we’ll see where the most active players are located.
We’ll be livestreaming Rec Room today on HTC Vive and monitoring chat using OVRdrop while in VR. The stream will be starting soon at approximately 2:00 PM PT and we’ll aim to last for about an hour or so. We’ll be livestreaming directly to the UploadVR Facebook page. You can see the full stream embedded right here down below once it’s up:
Come join us with Rec Room, the free-to-play social VR world full of fun games and silly things to do. We're gonna hop into some Laser Tag, do some VR battle royale, and more!Rec Room is 100% free and cross-platform on PSVR, RIft, and Vive with a free non-VR beta version now live too.
Let us know which games you want us to livestream next and what you want to see us do, specifically, in Rec Room or other VR games. Comment with feedback down below!
A few different VR developers have tried to capitalize on the battle royale trend with their own iterations, but the reality of the matter is that neither the technology nor the player-base is really there for games on the scale of PUBG or Fortnite. But that doesn’t mean a smaller-scale version can’t work.
That’s where Rec Room’s new Rec Royale game mode comes into play. It joins the likes of the Quest games, Paintball, Dodgeball, and more as just one of several different totally free mini games for players to enjoy in cross-platform multiplayer on Rift, Vive, and PSVR.
We’ll be livestreaming Rec Room’s Rec Royale mode on PC using Rift with Touch starting very soon (which means we’ll start at approximately 3:45PM PT or so) and aim to last for about an hour. We’re going to use Restream to hit both YouTubeand Twitchat the same time!
Let us know which games you want us to livestream next and if you want to see more Rec Room: Rec Royale in the future. Comment with any feedback down below!
Having given virtual reality (VR) players a taste of battle royale goodness over one short weekend in May, Rec Room developer Against Gravity has now officially launched Rec Royale for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
With the ‘Battle Royale’ scene becoming increasingly popular thanks to videogames like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Epic Games’ Fortnite, Against Gravity’s little slice of carnage is free to everyone with the right VR headset.
Gameplay is simple enough. Rec Royale pits 16 players against each other in the wilds of a national park. With the landscape hiding summer camps, mountains, forests, outposts, ravines, and lakes, there’s plenty opportunities for ambushing and taking out other players. Plus there’s tons of loot for scavenging.
There’s no teaming up in Rec Royale, it’s every player for themselves at the moment with Against Gravity’s Community Designer Shawn Whiting saying: “We really wanted to get in a squads mode for launch but we weren’t able to make it. We want to support squads ASAP and we know players are eager to play in teams with their friends. Teaming up is not allowed at the moment since we don’t have squads. There is an exception for player created rooms where players are allowed to set their own social rules.”
As for what’s new since the public alpha test last month, Against Gravity has added new streaming and recording cameras for Twitch streamers, YouTubers, and other content creators, a Frontier season pass that allows players to level up and unlock rewards within Rec Royale, lots of level design work and map changes based on player feedback, the ability to walk and sprint over almost any terrain type, including off cliffs, easier holstering and drawing of weapons, and the option to toggle locomotion between head based direction or controller based direction in settings.
Just like Rec Room, Rec Royale is completely free to download, found via the doors in the Rec Center or by looking at your watch. For any further updates from the team, keep reading VRFocus.
Rec Room, the free multiplatform social VR app, just got its long-awaited battle royale shooting game, Rec Royale. Now live on all supported platforms, you’ll be able to engage in some PUBG-style shootouts as you hang glide down to the map below in search of weapons, ammo and health potions.
Update (06/08/18): ‘Rec Room’ is now live on all platforms, including PSVR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. We had a chance to go hands-on during the open beta late last month, and while we were hoping for squad gameplay at launch, it appears we’ll have to wait just a little longer. Against Gravity says teaming up outside of custom rooms will lead to bans.
Other changes at launch include the ability to walk and sprint over almost any terrain type, including off cliffs, and the ability to toggle locomotion between head-based direction or controller-based direction.
The original article follows below:
Original article (06/08/18): Rec Royalewill pit 16 players against each other in a national park setting, including “summer camps, mountains, forests, outposts, ravines, lakes, and tons of loot for scavenging,” Against Grav Community Designer Shawn Whiting says in a PS blog post.
Against Grav also created new backpack system for quick swapping and storing multiple weapons and power-ups—a must for a VR-only title such as Rec Room.
Rec Royale will be on offer beforehand via a public alpha test for players with a registered Rec Room account, available from May 25th – May 27th on all supported platforms.
Image courtesy Against Gravity
Rec Room already plays host to a variety of mini-games, including various co-op quests, disc golf, dodge ball, 3D charades, and an engaging paintball game that pits you against other community players in massive outdoor area sprawling with places to take cover. By the sounds of it Rec Royale will be much larger than the current paintball area.
In-keeping with the family friendly, cartoony vibe, we assume Rec Room has gone for a decidedly more Fortnite (2018) approach to Rec Royale, which will likely put various paintball guns in your hand as opposed to lifelike weapons.
With shooters like PUBG (2017) and Epic’s Fortnite (2018) taking the traditional gaming world by storm as of late, many VR developers have seen the success of the battle royale games and attempted to replicate the winner-take-all game mode in virtual reality. While far from the first to do so, Against Gravity’s social VR game Rec Room (2016)is diving head-first into the battle royale genre with its newest activity, something they dub Rec Royale. It’s currently in open beta until the end of today for PSVR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows “Mixed Reality” VR, and is slated for full release on June 7th.
If you haven’t played Rec Room before, here’s a quick primer:
Rec Room is a free social VR game set in a cartoony re-imagining of a YMCA, replete with activities like dodgeball and low-gravity racquetball, but also more fantasy-based multiplayer games, called Quests, that let you team up with other players to have mini-adventures. You can also style your avatar in a number of ways, with some default items like hats, clothes, hair (etc) on offer, but now players can also earn in-game coin by exploring the platform and completing Quests. The more you play, the more coins you earn, and you can buy items in the store—all of it for fun, with no microtransactions or real world currency implied. Although free, it’s also one of the highest quality VR experiences out currently, and offers many of the same features you find in other social VR apps like being able to make friends, host private chats, and although it lacks the ability to share photos and stream video not captured from within the confines of Rec Room, people usually come back for the insane amount of games on the platform.
Image courtesy Against Gravity
Now for Rec Royale:
This isn’t Rec Room‘s first shooter, as both paintball and a few other Quests feature guns too. Keeping with the game’s family-friendly vibe, Rec Room’s guns are modeled after either paintball guns or Nerf-style toys that let out varying degrees of splats and pops. Oh, and there’s a crazy number of kids on the platform too.
Putting a blanket mute on everyone in the game is an option if you don’t feel like chatting, trash talking, or dealing with kids under 13 (12 and under are officially limited to junior accounts, which prevent them from hearing and transmitting via voice chat and have other privacy restrictions). If you don’t mute everyone though, you’ll really only have to deal with about a minute of chatter before the game starts, and all 16 players are ready to hang glide from the giant flying gondola to the map below.
Image by Road to VR
Experienced battle royale players will instantly recognize what comes next. You have to scrounge for guns, ammo and health and duke it out with everyone on the map, all the while paying attention to the constantly shrinking barrier, called ‘The Swarm’, that limits the size of the play area, resulting in closer quarters combat until only one player is left. The map isn’t very large, but decidedly large enough for 16 players.
Image by Road to VR
You’re given two hip holsters for guns, and are allowed to fire only one at a time (no dual wielding). It took me a while to get used to the guns, and find out which ones were peashooters and which ones could land powerful shots. A mix of pistols, automatic rifles and sniper rifles fill the map, a big island which includes summer camps, mountains, forests, outposts, ravines and lakes—plenty of places to stock up and hunker down for when the Swarm begins. Drinkable health potions let you add health and armor, and of course you can loot your fallen enemy for anything they were holding.
Reaching to your back, you can also take out your map, which shows your position on the island, and where the Swarm is at any given time.
Image by Road to VR
Games are typically very quick thanks to the 16-player cap on player numbers. Since all players have an integrated mic, there’s a lot more teaming-up than I originally expected, as the beta only offered a free-for-all deathmatch. I don’t suspect there will be any real punishment for players caught teaming up, although a team switcher icon in the lobby leads me to believe there will also be eight vs. eight team deathmatch available too (see update below).
Rooms featuring both teleportation and ‘free’ locomotion are available, but I found myself playing in the free locomotion games for greater immersion. Variable snap-turning is available as well, letting users with 180-degree sensors setups engage in the fun too while seated or standing.
Image by Road to VR
Once the game is over, you’re tossed back into the lobby to either chat with other players, or restart a new game.
That said, optimization can definitely be improved in Rec Royale; UI objects like your healthbar can be jittery, and judder is pretty apparent in the beta overall—not a gamebreaking, or entirely uncomfortable occurrence, but definitely on the checklist of things to address before serious shooter fans can call Rec Royale a true winner (winner, chicken dinner). This is, afterall, a pre-release open beta, so there’s bound to be bugs.
In the end, Rec Royale has proven to be a really fun game in its own right, and is built on some very strong core foundations, that over time could become a big draw for the already successful VR social platform. Giving people a reason to come back and stay is fundamental to continued user engagement, and it’s clear Rec Room is hoping to land another big score with Rec Royale. I would personally love a larger map with more players, but as Against Grav makes continual strides to attract users, we can only hope for more, bigger, and greater things to come.
Update (6:00 PM ET): A member of Against Gravity reached out to us to clarify some points in the article. It was previously reported that children 12 and below weren’t allowed on the ‘Rec Room’ platform, but the studio has since updated the terms of service to allow children 12 and under, provided they signup with a junior account, which includes certain restrictions including the inability to transmit or hear voice chat.
Against Grav also reiterated via Reddit that the open beta was indeed intended for solo gameplay only, and that the inability to team-up was “a temporary pain that will be solved soon.”
Update June 7: Rec Royale is now live on all platforms and it’ll stay there indefinitely after an earlier beta test. The update includes a number of changes to level design based on player feedback, and players are now able to walk over almost any terrain type. Players can also toggle locomotion “between head based direction or controller based direction in Settings > Gameplay.”
Original story below.
Battle royale games are the new hotness. Your kids are playing them, I’m playing them, you’re probably playing them: we’re all playing them. Whether you prefer PUBG’s slow-paced realism or Fortnite’s fast-paced action and base building, or even H1Z1’s vehicular-focused Auto Royale mode, there is certainly a battle royale game out there for just about everyone.
A few developers have tried to capture that thrill for the VR market, but no one has really succeeded. The typical designs don’t carry over easily and there aren’t enough people in headsets yet. Rec Room developer Against Gravity is hoping to have a work around for those issues.
Simply dubbed Rec Royale, this new game mode will put 16 players (that’s a lot less than 100) against one another in an all-out war to be the last man standing. The setting is a national park’s forest, complete with lots of trees, mountains, and rivers — as well as “tons of loot for scavenging” according to a PlayStation blog post by Against Gravity’s Community Designer, Shawn Whiting.
Just like the rest of Rec Room this new Rec Royale mode will be 100% free and fully cross-platform across PSVR, Rift, and Vive. The new game mode will introduce a few new mechanics for the title as well, such as a backpack for quick swapping weapons.
The new game mode will host a public alpha test for all registered Rec Room players on May 25th (that’s this Friday) lasting until May 27th on all platforms in preparation for the game’s full launch on June 7th.
Despite the fact that this sounds more like a classic King of the Hill game mode with clever “Battle Royale” marketing attached to it, I’ll certainly be checking it out.
Let us know what you think of the news down in the comments below!
We’re only a few weeks away from this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles and one phrase we’re expecting to hear a lot of is ‘battle royale’. Made popular by the grittiness of the Bluehole published PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and cartoon combat extremes of Epic Games’ Fortnite. Both of these titles have, over the last couple of years, taken videogaming by storm (or blue, if you play PUBG I guess).
With there being so much revenue generated by the pair, particularly Fortnite which continues to ride high following its recent tie-in with The Avengers: Infinity War and concurrent records on Twitch it’s inevitable that everyone begins trying to get a piece of the battle royale pie. Though as we found out last week with the death of Boss Key Productions it is not a guarantee for profit or survival..
As you may have guessed the latest title to announce a battle royale mode is a virtual reality (VR) one. A new experience is coming your way courtesy of Against Gravity, the developers of popular social VR experience Rec Room. For those unfamiliar, Rec Room is described as a ‘VR social club’ which allows users to get together in the same VR space and engage in various social mini-games, such as paintball, disc golf or charades, as well as more adventurous quests. The title, which has been in development since 2016, is currently in Beta/Early Access across PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed reality.
Rec Royale adds exactly what you would expect to Rec Room, players parachuting in to a large wooded area full of rocky outcrops, dense forest, mountains, buildings large and small, loot and lots of weapons to off your rivals with including sniper rifles and pump shotguns – albeit ones that will apparenty fire paintballs.
Against Gravity’s Community Designer Shawn Whiting confirmed in a piece on the PlayStation Blog that the update will be both free and cross-platform, meaning the users on PC version will be able to wage war against their console cousins. A public Alpha test has been set for this coming Friday, May 25th 2018 until Sunday May 27th for all those with a registered Rec Room account. After which the team will be taking feedback from the community via Reddit and Discord before taking the next step.
VRFocus will bring you more developments on this as they are announced.
Romance in VR isn’t new. Ever since the dawn of instant messaging services like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) — which is where I met my wife over 10 years ago, by the way — people have been connecting and communicating via the web. But as VR becomes more and more mainstream, expect to see those connections get more intimate and become more widespread.
Just like falling in love online used to be a bit out of the ordinary, intimacy in VR is still in its early stages. As a related case we’ve seen people use VR to propose and have even heard about VR weddings already in apps like AltSpace. In fact, VRChat is very well known for fostering friendships and, in some cases, real romance.
Earlier this week, Wired reported on a couple that used the light-hearted social VR app Rec Room to stage a wedding. This case is unique though because it’s not just an IRL couple using VR for long distance connection. In this particular instance, the couple met in VR, used VR to become close, and then got married in VR. They had met in person prior to getting married, but have spent the vast majority of their relationship in cyberspace. That’s amazing.
We can’t wait to see more stories like this unfold over the years. If you want the full rundown, including some really touching revelations about human intimacy and connection, you should definitely read the full story at Wired. You can see a photo album of the event, which happened late last year, right here.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Rec Room, the social VR app, just updated to include the ability to create your own customized environments. To celebrate the new ‘custom rooms’ addition, developers Against Gravity are putting on a contest and offering up the grand prize of a Nintendo Switch, a copy of The Legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild (2017) and a few other necessary fixins to get the creative types out in force.
Against Gravity is kicking off the competition starting today and ending on March 12th at 12pm PST (your local time). Judging will take place from the end of submissions to March 19th when the winners will be announced.
Rooms will be judged on creativity and style, how unique and innovative the use of tools is, and interactivity/player engagement.
First place – A Nintendo Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, Travel Case, Two Rec Room T-shirts, and two Ready Player One (2018) movie tickets
Second place – A Nintendo Switch, Two Rec Room T-shirts, and two Ready Player One movie tickets
Third place – Two Rec Room T-shirts and two Ready Player One movie tickets
Check out the video at the bottom of the page to learn how to create your own custom room. Rec Room’s website has plenty of resources too on how to get started adding even more cool stuff like animated avatars (aka ‘Holotars’). There’s also a few rules to pay attention to, so make sure to give the instructions a look before starting.
Rec Room is a free app that supports cross-play for PSVR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift. If you haven’t already jumped in for a look-see, follow the links below.
Rec Room (2016), the social VR app from Against Gravity, now has a brand new Quest (a four player co-operative mission) alongside a number of other improvements thanks to a new update.
Update (3/2/18): It might not be Sea of Thieves in VR, but Rec Room’s latest Quest, the ‘Isle of Lost Skulls’, is now available for those looking for some pirate-themed fun in VR. The game has been updated via Steam, detailed here, including the new Quest. Developer Against Gravity warns that the Quest is challenging and best played with a group of friends. Players will find a Merch Booth in the Quest’s lobby, from which players can buy themed loot with gold found from the Quest.
Beyond the new Quest, the update brings a number of other significant changes. For one, the Merch Booth is replacing random loot packages. Instead of sometimes being randomly gifted a package to open after completely an activity, players can directly redeem loot with credits earned from the game’s various activities. The studio plans to continue to build on the reward system going forward.
Users can now ‘Subscribe’ to other players, meaning you’ll be able to see any Custom Rooms that they build in a new ‘Following’ section of the game’s menu. Custom Rooms can also now use a new ‘Holotar’ item, which lets players record their voice and movements to be played back at any time (great for explaining what’s going on in a Custom Room without the need for a live instructor).
Rooms can now be cloned, so that you can split them off to be altered as a separate copy, and rooms will now save their last 10 states so that you can revert changes if needed. Rooms can now also be instanced, to allow users to inhabit different instances of the room at once. The game’s Circuits system, which aids in the creation of user-generated content, now has a random number generator chip, a sound effect chip, and Circuits and now be connected to dice, opening up more options for user-generated content. The game’s Marker Pen tool also got a number of updates to make it easier to use.
Original Article (2/22/18): Rec Room is one of the leading social VR apps out there. While it offers plenty of games for VR users to play such as disc golf, paintball, and laser tag, the charmingly-styled Rec Room is probably best known for their multiplayer ‘Quests’, short cooperative missions that allow up to four players to fight their way through enemy-filled levels (usually a comically re-dressed, sprawling gymnasium where there’s plenty of atmosphere, loot to collect and an end-stage boss to battle).
Even through it’s all free and only a single level a piece, the production quality is above many paid games, giving users more of a reason to come back and populate the servers.
Now, the company released a teaser for its next big quest, a pirate-themed affair called Isle of Lost Skulls, which is due out March 1st, 2018.
Isle of the Lost Skulls will be Rec Room’s fourth quest, coming after Quest for the Golden Trophy, The Rise of Jumbotron, and The Curse of the Crimson Cauldron.
Rec Room is available for free on PSVR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
With there being so much revenue generated by the pair, particularly Fortnite which continues to ride high following its recent tie-in with The Avengers: Infinity War and concurrent records on Twitch it’s inevitable that everyone begins trying to get a piece of the battle royale pie. Though as we found out last week with 
