Reality-bending VR Puzzle ‘Transpose’ Coming to Vive, Rift & PSVR Next Month

Secret Location, the studio behind Blasters of the Universe (2016) and Sleepy Hollow: VR Experience (2015), announced last month that they’re heading back into VR territory with a new first-person, time-bending puzzle game. Dubbed Transpose, the game is said to take place in a dreamlike universe where players record multiple overlapping versions of themselves that need to cooperate to solve increasingly intricate puzzles.

Update (October 23rd, 2018): Secret Location today announced that ‘Transpose’ is headed to PSVR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift on November 6th. Transpose will be available on Steam (Vive, Rift) and the Oculus Store  (Rift). The original article announcing the game follows below:

Original Article (September 4th, 2018): The studio says in a press statement that Transpose will feature three unique worlds containing over 30 levels, which is said to take nearly eight hours to complete. Using multiple recordings, players must collect and sacrifice energy to power up a mysterious ancient machine.

While not much else is known about Transpose at the moment, it’s said to feature:

  • “Echo” Time Loops: Players must solve puzzles by recording their own actions to create multiple instances of themselves, called echoes, and coordinate their echoes from various time loops to sync up and solve puzzles together;
  • Real-time Motion Capture: Transpose records players’ every action, allowing them to see copies of their characters mimic their actual movements almost immediately after being enacted;
  • Perspective Shifts: Set in a mesmerizingly surreal world, Transpose allows players to rotate the environment around them to walk on walls and ceilings, experiencing perspective shifts and multifaceted puzzles in ways only possible in VR.

Transpose is slated to arrive on PSVR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift this Fall (see update) with a $20 price tag. Secret Location says the game will be localized in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Korean.

The post Reality-bending VR Puzzle ‘Transpose’ Coming to Vive, Rift & PSVR Next Month appeared first on Road to VR.

Blasters of the Universe Dev Unveils new VR Puzzler Transpose

Blasters of the Universe and Sleepy Hollow: VR Experience creator Secret Location has revealed its next virtual reality (VR) experience, a surreal puzzler called Transpose, due to launch this Fall.

Transpose

The world of Transpose may look a bit weird and mysterious but that’s only just the start when considering that the puzzles  require players to clone themselves while making time loops of past actions to solve them. Granted the power to manipulate time, players create multiple, overlapping versions of themselves, to solve puzzles which become ever increasingly complex. Players record and layer these past “echoes” of themselves to traverse paths and collaborate across time.

“VR is all about wonder, and we wanted to encapsulate that in a game that extends our perception of what’s possible in VR through a lengthy and fully-realized experience,” said Ryan Andal, President and Co-Founder at Secret Location in a statement. “Transpose’s heavy surrealism is our attempt to, literally and figuratively, completely turn you on your head and transport you into a warped reality you’d never be able to experience otherwise – this is when VR is at its best.”

There are three worlds to play through, with over 30 levels to complete. Secret Location estimates gameplay to be over 8 hours. The main challenge is to collect energy from each puzzle which is then given to a mysterious ancient machine which requires powering up.

Transpose

To ensure complete comfort for all players Secret Location has included multiple locomotion and comfort options. So players will have the choice of room-scale, standing and seated play depending on preference.

Currently, the studio has given a Fall 2018 launch date for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, priced at $19.99 USD,  available in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Korean. As further details on Transpose are released – including when this Fall the launch will happen – VRFocus will let you know.

Philip K. Dick Story The Great C Comes to VR

Renowned sci-fi author Philip K. Dick became known for his odd, and often twisted narratives which covered near-future and themes that became popular in cyberpunk. One of his short stories, The Great C, has been adapted into virtual reality (VR) and will premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

The Great C short VR film is described as a cinematic VR narrative, which takes the viewer to a post-apocalyptic future where the remnants of humanity are ruled over by an all-powerful computer known a The Great C.

The story of The Great C concerns a young woman called Clare, who lives in a village under the control of the almighty computer. Each year, the village is forced to send a young person on a pilgrimage to appease the machine. Clare finds herself faced with a bitter choice when her fiancé is chosen for the pilgrimage and she must choose whether to accept the brutal rules of her society, or try and fight back.

The story has been adapted into VR by Entertainment One’s studio Secret Location, who are trying to use The Great C as a test bed for pushing the boundaries in VR editing, composition and structure.

“Philip K. Dick’s wonderfully forward-thinking stories have always felt primed for telling in equally forward-thinking mediums. Secret Location is highly focused on ushering in the future of storytelling, so pairing The Great C‘s provocative themes with our VR development prowess is helping us redefine how we consume sci-fi stories,” said Ryan Andal, President and Co-Founder of Secret Location. “Authors have long adhered to the ‘show, don’t tell’ technique. We’re hard-pressed to find a better way to ‘show’ a story than in VR – adapting Philip K. Dick’s The Great C only makes our ability to ‘show’ even stronger.”

For further information on the Venice Film Festival, check out the official website. Future coverage on new and upcoming VR projects will continue to be covered here on VRFocus.

Secret Location Set To Release Two New Products For VUSR Platform This Summer

Leading virtual reality (VR) content creator and distributor for emerging platforms, Secret Location, have announced that they are launching two game changing products this coming summer which will take advance of location-based experiences (LBE). These products will expand Secret Location’s VUSR publishing platform and will be built to further support the growing LBE industry.

Secret Location's VUSR

The two new products will be titled VUSR Spark and VUSR Venue and will join the VUSR Publisher tool, which already powers VR applications downloaded by more than one million users around the world to date. The platform offers creators and publishers a simple ssolutioin for sharing both 360-degree and interactive VR content created within the Unity engine. It allows for seamlessly distribution of content across all major head-mounted displays (HMDs) though a single application.

The new VUSR Spark application will provide a solution for rights management, giving operators a chance to better manage their content sublicensing utilizing blockchain technology. At launch, titles that will be using VUSR Spark will include Fruit Ninja VR, Richie’s Plank Experience, Smash Party VR, and Sairento VR.

Meanwhile, VUSR Venue has been designed to connect VR content creators with audiences through commercial venues by offering a worry-free experience to both operators and consumers. Everything required to run a business smoothly from one centralized content management system will be possible with the application, which will include all the tools needed to do just that.

Blasters of the Universe Bullets

Secret Location are also the creative minds behind the VR wave shooter title Blasters of the Universe which VRFocus’ Senior Staff Writer Peter Graham reviewed saying: “For those that’ve become rightly bored with wave shooters Blasters of the Universe offers that spark of light, reminding us why this genre became popular in the first place. The entire theme, visual aesthetics and gameplay make Blasters of the Universe a joy to play, just be prepared to swear and curse – possibly throw a controller – as that heart disappears because you didn’t see that one laser bolt soon enough.”

Both VUSR Spark and VUSR Venue are planned to release this summer and VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on the products and more from Secret Location in the future, so stay tuned for more.

Surviving Bullet Hell in Blasters of the Universe Gameplay Video

There is something comforting about the sharp neon colours of Blasters of the Universe, something that calls to mind hours spent pouring coins into arcade machines in the 1980s. Of course, any sense of comfort or complacency is quickly blown away in a hail of weapons fire.

Developer Secret Location originally brought Blasters of the Universe to life on Steam Early Access for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Though at its root a wave shooter, Blasters of the Universe did a few things differently from the rest of the genre to set it apart.

Blasters_of_the_Universe_PSVR_Screenshot_5

With the development team admitting that they drew considerable inspiration from the ‘bullet hell’ shoot-em-up sub-genre, you can expect to see a vivid array of different gunfire types and patterns, which players will quickly need to learn how to respond to, either by dodging, ducking or deploying your energy shield.

Another way that Blasters of the Universe differs is that it does not offer dual-wielding, instead giving the player a rechargeable shield for one hand, and a customisable gun for the other. The latter point is one of the titles stand-out features, as the gun customisation options are vast, allowing players to carefully tailor the gun’s abilities to suit a particular play style or fight a particular enemy.

For those who have sharpened their aim and their reflexes and are seeking a new challenge, the release of Blasters of the Universe may offer something that PlayStation VR sharpshooters can get their teeth into.

As VRFocus noted in its review of the PC version: “For those that’ve become rightly bored with wave shooters Blasters of the Universe offers that spark of light, reminding us why this genre became popular in the first place. The entire theme, visual aesthetics and gameplay make Blasters of the Universe a joy to play, just be prepared to swear and curse – possibly throw a controller – as that heart disappears because you didn’t see that one laser bolt soon enough.”

Stay tuned to VRFocus for more upcoming gameplay footage of newly released and exciting VR titles.

Neon Carnage Comes to PlayStation VR With Blasters of the Universe

Wave-based shooters maybe commonplace on virtual reality (VR) headsets yet every so often one pops up that makes you take notice. That occurred last year when Secret Location fully launched Blasters of the Universe for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, having spent the previous 12 months in Early Access. Today, PlayStation VR owners get to play the bullet-hell experience for themselves, transporting themselves into a neon rich, 80s inspired universe.

Blasters_of_the_Universe_PSVR_Screenshot_3

Much like other wave shooters such as Space Pirate Trainer, Blasters of the Universe is all about surviving an onslaught of enemies by ducking, dodging and deflecting their way through several challenging levels. One place where Blasters of the Universe differs is through the weapon customisation system. There’s no dual wielding guns in the videogame, instead you have an upgradable shield in one hand and upgradable gun in the other.

There are over 130,000 ways to customise and tweak loadouts to match offensive or defensive preferences, with the gun in particular offering different ammo clips, rapid fire, shotgun, or grenade style projectiles and much more. Alongside the normal single-player campaign Secret Location has added a new Casual mode giving players a far less abrasive and difficult experience. While true opposition addicts can also play the strenuous Endless mode in a race to high-score heaven.

“We’re huge fans of bullet hell and wanted to make a game that encapsulates its infamous mayhem and difficulty through modern VR,” said Josh Manricks, Technical Director and Project Lead at Secret Location in a statement. “VR adds layers of challenge by making players use quick full-body reactions to survive the relentless barrage of enemies. It’s also a great way to hash out lingering resentment over bullies from the past – if anyone needs to be put in his place, it’s Grand Master Alwyn.”

Blasters_of_the_Universe_PSVR_Screenshot_2

Blasters of the Universe is available now on PlayStation VR for $14.99 USD with limited time discounts from 27th February through 6th March, 2018. PlayStation Network users in the Americas can purchase the videogame for 10 percent off, while PlayStation Plus users in the Americas and Europe get a 15 percent discount. For any further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

Secret Location Expands Vusr Distribution Platform For VR Apps

Secret Location Expands Vusr Distribution Platform For VR Apps

The virtual reality industry is fragmented. Secret Location, a VR tech company, wants to address that with Vusr, a white-label distribution platform for VR apps. It’s getting an update that makes it easier to publish, distribute, and monetize 360-degree video and other VR content on any VR headset.

Vusr can now support real-time rendered content, including room-scale VR (like on the HTC Vive VR headset) and augmented reality content. Vusr is already being used by big publishers to distribute content to the masses. Much of VR and AR technology is applied to gaming, but software developers can push beyond games to offer applications from entertainment, news, social issues and business-level operations.

“Allowing publishers to incorporate real-time rendered VR and AR content, and go beyond just 360 video, opens up endless possibilities,” said Secret Location president and founder James Milward in a statement. “Removing barriers and simplifying distribution is going to accelerate the amount and quality of content we’re seeing in the industry, which is really what we need in order to grow it.”

Toronto-based Secret Location is addressing the problem of fragmentation, and it believes that content creators and publisher need a centralized platform to cost effectively distribute and market their apps. Vusr enables a large number of apps to be accessed and experienced from within a single unified app.

Vusr was incubated by Secret Location and is backed by Entertainment One, a global independent studio that specializes in full-service publishing focusing on the development, acquisition, production, financing and distribution of world-leading entertainment content. Secret Location debuted in 2009 and it was acquired by Entertainment One in 2016.

This post by Dean Takahashi originally appeared on VentureBeat.

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Review: Blasters of the Universe

If there’s one thing virtual reality (VR) headsets aren’t short of it is the odd wave shooter or two. Titles such as Space Pirate Trainer were there from the beginning, offering intense gunplay action without having to walk anywhere. Since then its seems as if every VR developer has tried its hand at the genre – some with more success than others – and now it’s the turn of The Secret Location with its 80’s inspired shooter Blasters of the Universe. Where others have failed this videogame might just succeed.

Originally launching as an early access title way back in July 2016, The Secret Location has used this time to craft a videogame that aims to offer more than the rest, intermingled with humour, a retro visual theme, and plenty of guns.

Blasters of the Universe Bullets

For a wave shooter Blasters of the Universe does actually have a storyline to back up the bullet hell gameplay, involving a nerdy arcade gamer who’s that good on a particular title that no one can beat him. When VR enters the arcade he laps it up, actually entering the digital realm – Tron anyone? – creating his own universe. Its here that you must do battle against hordes of different enemies as you work your way to finally face Grand Master Alwyn.

So the basics. For those that’ve played wave shooters before – there’s sure to be a few – most of the gameplay will be very familiar. There’s no dual wielding as such in the campaign – the challenge mode is somewhat different – with one hand holding the gun whilst the other holds a shield/reload tool. While most videogames of this ilk will provide you with a selection of weapons, sometimes swappable mid-level, Blasters of the Universe takes a different route with a highly customisable gun in the armoury.

This is one of the title’s biggest and best features, with a massive selection of options to tailor your gun exactly how you want it – once you’ve unlocked the parts that is. The Frame is the base for every weapon, each one has different attributes and a unique ability to unleash when things get really tough. Then there’s ammo attachments, barrels, ammo and more to change to your hearts content until finding that perfect combo that just works.

Blasters of the Universe

And it needs to, because once a level starts that’s it, you can only head back to the armoury once you’re dead. And you will die a lot. There’s no hand holding in Blasters of the Universe and don’t expect the first level to be an easy walk through, this isn’t a title for the casual gamer. And that’s probably where the hook in Blasters of the Universe lies, its unforgiving difficulty. There are five hearts which equate to five hits, more than that and it’s over. Using the shield will help but it’s not indestructible. Should it receive too many hits then it’ll disappear to recharge, usually at the worst moment when all you can see are incoming neon bullets.

One thing Blasters of the Universe makes you do is move – it’s essential. If too many enemies appear on screen then it’ll become a deluge of incoming fire, with each hostile having a particular style of projectile. Some might be a single shot, while others are swirling vortexes of death that’ll deplete the shield rather rapidly. Just stand there trying to shoot everything and it’ll be game over quite quickly. Dodge, duck, crouch, and learn the patterns, then surviving becomes that little bit easier but it’s certainly not easy.

For those that’ve become rightly bored with wave shooters Blasters of the Universe offers that spark of light, reminding us why this genre became popular in the first place. The entire theme, visual aesthetics and gameplay make Blasters of the Universe a joy to play, just be prepared to swear and curse – possibly throw a controller – as that heart disappears because you didn’t see that one laser bolt soon enough.

(Reviewed on HTC Vive)

80%

Awesome

  • Verdict

Secret Location’s Blasters of the Universe Leaves Early Access

In July 2016 The Secret Location released its bullet hell title Blasters of the Universe on Steam Early Access, an 80’s inspired shooter for HTC Vive, adding Oculus Rift support later on. Today the videogame sees a full release for both headset on Steam and the Oculus Store.

Featuring four campaign missions and a challenge mode, Blasters of the Universe tasks players with defeating Grand Master Alwyn’s legions of digital creations, facing wave after wave bullets in a neon virtual world.

Blasters of the Universe Boss

Blasters of the Universe allows players to use hundreds of weapon combinations, whether they prefer rapid fire designs, explosive, slow with high damage or anything in between.

“We are thrilled to announce Blasters of the Universe is arriving on the Oculus Store and Steam as a full title on August 31, 2017,” said Josh Manricks, Blasters of the Universe Technical Director and Project Lead in a statement. “Our team is passionate about making VR a reality and Blasters of the Universe is the latest example of Secret Location’s commitment to creating next-gen original content.”

For today’s launch Blasters of the Universe will have a limited time discount available, knocking 15 percent off the regular price of $14.99 USD until 7th September 2017.

For any further updates to Blasters of the Universe, keep reading VRFocus .

Blasters Of The Universe Exits Early Access Soon, Dramatically Expands Game

Blasters Of The Universe Exits Early Access Soon, Dramatically Expands Game

If you want to see a great example of a game that’s grown a ton from its time in Early Access, then look no further than Blasters of the Universe from Secret Location. We’ve written about some of its major updates in the past, but now it’s finally making the jump from “Early Access” to full release on August 31, 2017.

As it stands right now the Early Access version of Blasters of the Universe plays out like a more extended and robust demo than most Early Access titles. All of the mechanics are there and they feel great. There’s a lot of different things to do, weapons to use, and enemies to fight. Just playing through missions multiple times shows how varied and diverse the gameplay can be as enemies approach you from different angles and you use different weapon combinations.

When the game finally releases next week, it’s only going to get even more intense. You can see a glimpse of that in the Launch Trailer below:

The prepared press release Secret Location sent me regarding the game’s full launch puts it perfectly: “get ready to duck and dodge your way through a shit-ton of bullets in this nostalgic – and nerve-wracking – VR Bullet Hell shooter.” That’s about as accurate a description as you’re gonna find anywhere.

The term “bullet hell shooter” is usually reserved for top-down shoot-em-up style games that have cascading lines of bullets that fly at the player on a consistent and sometimes endless basis. Recognizing patterns, avoiding danger, and nimbly slipping between shots is the name of the game with those titles. In Blasters of the Universe you do all of the same stuff, but in VR this time through a first-person perspective. The result is something that feels like part Matrix and part Lethal Weapon. The retro-futuristic vibe and synthesized soundtrack all helps channel that sense of an 80s-powered action movie persona.

Specifically, the full release is bringing a ton of new features. There will now be a full narrative-driven campaign against the key bad guy (shown in the trailer above) named Alwyn and Endless score modes for each of the levels adding lots of replayability. The challenge modes are also getting consistent updates to help keep them fresh and full of unique objectives. Weapon customization is getting an overhaul too with even more ways to choose how you’ll commit your brand of mass robot murder.

There are lots of first-person shooters, wave shooters, and other similar games in VR right now, but having played the majority of them, I can say that Blasters of the Universe truly does find a way to stand out.

You can download Blasters of the Universe right now in Early Access on Steam with support for both Rift and Vive for $14.99. Once it releases out of Early Access your version will automatically update if you own it already and if you wait to buy it, then you’ll get it with a 15% launch discount. It will be coming to Oculus Home for Rift as well. Let us know what you think of the game down in the comments below!

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