[Update]: Stormland: Neuer PAX East Trailer veröffentlicht

[Update]:

Oculus veröffentlicht pünktlich zur heute startenden PAX East einen neuen Trailer für das exklusive VR-Abenteuer Stormland für Oculus Rift. Innerhalb des Videos gibt es neue Einblicke über kommende Gegnerarten sowie die riesige versprochene offene Spielwelt.

(Videoquelle: Oculus YouTube)

[Originalartikel vom 4. September 2018]:

Entwicklerstudio Insomniac Games führte auf der PAX West erstmals das Gameplay zum kommenden Open-World-VR-Abenteuer Stormland für Oculus Rift in Form einer Demo vor. Laut Journalisten vor Ort soll der Oculus-Hoffnungsträger durchaus vielversprechend sein, auch wenn die erste spielbare Version noch einige versprochene Features außen vor lässt.

Stormland auf der PAX West – Insomniac Games führt Präsentation des Gameplays vor

In Stormland schlüpft ihr in die Rolle eines Androiden, der nach unzähligen Jahren aus einem Tiefschlaf erwacht. Grund für die lange Ruhephase war ein gigantischer Sturm, der den kompletten Heimatplaneten des Roboters überzog und dadurch die Oberfläche von Grund auf veränderte.

Entsprechend gilt es nun eine Erkundungstour anzutreten und die offene Spielwelt zu Fuß, per Klettereinheit oder mit eingebauten Flugantrieb zu erforschen. Dabei stoßt ihr auf feindliche Widersacher wie auch verbündete Roboter, die ihr reaktivieren könnt. Als besonderes Feature soll sich die Spielwelt zudem dauerhaft verändern und dadurch stets neue Inhalte präsentieren.

Auf der PAX West wurde nun erstmals das Gameplay zum Oculus-Exklusivtitel von Entwicklerstudio Insomniac Games vorgeführt.

https://www.facebook.com/insomniacgames/videos/2593807917303389/

Stormland auf der PAX West – Vielversprechende Demo-Version von Testern vor Ort angespielt

Laut den Journalisten von UploadVR, welche eine Demo-Version des VR-Abenteuers anspielen durften, scheint der Titel durchaus vielversprechend. Die vorgeführte Demo führte den Spieler ohne Waffen auf eine Art Sammelmission. Darin musste er zunächst Equipment sammeln, um sich zu verteidigen und einen verschwundenen Freund finden.

Dabei soll die Steuerung auch durchaus intuitiv sein. Die nötigen Gegenstände waren einfach zu greifen und Feinde konnten per integrierten Laser im rechten Arm oder im Nahkampf einfach ausgeschaltet werden. Interessanterweise können Teile aus feindlichen Robotern herausgerissen werden und neuen Einsatz finden. Dadurch könnt ihr Modifikationen für euren Körper oder Waffen erstellen, welche euch Bonuswerte offenbaren.

Insgesamt ist euer gesamter Körper in Form eures spielbaren Avatars komplett ins Spiel eingebunden. Entsprechend könnt ihr Granaten und Waffen an eurer Hüfte oder eurer Schulter befestigen. Nützliche Spielfunktionen sind durch eure linke Hand aktivierbar. Euer Inventar wird holografisch per Handbewegung der linken Hand dargestellt. Durch das Zeigen in die Umgebung werden nützliche Objektive visuell hervorgehoben und ein Kompass am linken Handgelenk sorgt für die nötige Orientierung.

Stormland-Oculus-Rift-Gameplay-PAX-West

Die Steuerung soll sich dagegen komplizierter angefühlt haben, denn der linke Stick des Controllers ist für die Fortbewegung zuständig, während der rechte Stick für Drehungen sorgt. Ein System, was zunächst offenbar etwas Übung benötigt. Auch das Klettern soll schwierig von der Hand gegangen sein, wobei laut Aussagen der Personen vor Ort eine schwache Batterie innerhalb der Controller dafür verantwortlich gemacht wurde. Eigentlich soll eine projizierte Hand auf einer Fläche dafür sorgen, dass die Spieler/innen weiter aufwärts gelangen.

Stormland-Oculus-Rift-Gameplay-PAX-West

Image courtesy: Insomniac Games / Upload VR

Im Kampf steht zur Verteidigung ein Schild aus der linken Hand sowie Feuerwaffen in der rechten Hand zur Verfügung. Das Schild ist in der Lage feindliche Projektile zurückzufeuern. In der Demo war neben dem integrierten Laser zudem eine Schnellfeuerwaffe nutzbar. Im Feuergefecht ist es möglich, hinter Objekten Schutz zu nehmen und aus verschiedenen Winkeln auf die Gegner zu feuern. Besonders begeistert war der Tester allerdings vom Schild, welches offenbar großartig umgesetzt wurde.

In einer Variante der Flugoption konnte der Spieler von Wolke zu Wolke surfen und dadurch Distanzen zwischen kleineren Inseln überbrücken. Sowohl Richtung wie auch Geschwindigkeit waren dabei per Controller adjustierbar.

Insgesamt war der Tester durchaus begeistert und dass, obwohl nur einige Features des kommenden Exklusivtitels vorgeführt wurden.

(Quellen: Upload VR | Videos: Oculus YouTube | Upload VR YouTube | Insomniac Games Facebook)

Der Beitrag [Update]: Stormland: Neuer PAX East Trailer veröffentlicht zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Hands-On: Stormland Feels Like It Could Be A Truly Special VR Adventure

Hands-On: Stormland Feels Like It Could Be A Truly Special VR Adventure

Insomniac spent the first day of PAX West confusing pedestrians. Several blocks away from the Washington State Convention Center, well outside of most of the nerd envelope that surrounded the show, Insomniac had rented a storefront and decorated its front windows with the Stormland logo and a picture of its robotic protagonist, shown above. People kept asking me what it was as I waited outside: was somebody getting ready to sell advanced robots on 3rd Street? Were we finally in the jetpack future we’d all been promised?

When I did get inside, I was told I was one of the first 20 people or so outside Insomniac Games to play Stormland. I got strapped into an Oculus Rift headset and dropped directly into the game.

I was surprised by how intuitive it was from the start. A big part of it, in retrospect, is how much it does with your avatar’s body. You can holster weapons on your hip or shoulder, attach grenades to a bandolier across your chest (and prime them to go off by wrenching one end of the grenade with your opposite hand), check your inventory by means of a holographic interface in your left palm, turn on a sensor array that highlights useful items in your vicinity by putting your left hand up to the edge of your visor, and keep track of your objectives with a compass built into your left wrist. I’ve played a few VR games that made a point of highlighting their interaction with your avatar’s body (even if it’s, you know, by chainsawing bits of it off), but I like how Stormland effectively builds its UI out of your character.

Most of what you’d want to know at a glance is communicated by a gadget or gauge that’s built directly into you, or failing that, your equipment.

The movement controls are a little harder to deal with, as it’s simple dual-stick navigation: the left one moves, while the right turns. It eventually faded into the background, but it does take a little getting used to in conjunction with the rest of the experience. I kept wanting to take a step forward, despite the fact it wouldn’t actually move me around. This is a remarkably immersive game from the waist up.

The playable segment of the game at PAX feels like it might be part of the tutorial, or maybe an illustrative vertical slice. The demo began with my robot empty-handed and unarmed. At the request of a friendly radio message, I set out to find the equipment and raw materials I’d need to defend myself, as well as catch up with a missing friend.

The raw materials in question are simple enough to grab. You can salvage bits of alloys from enemy robots, blast them off of usable rocks with a weak laser built into your character’s right hand, or strip down unnecessary equipment like extra guns by tearing them in half in-game. That alloy lets you make mod chips that you can slot into your character for bonuses or extra capabilities, such as climbing pads in your hands that let you ascend certain specific flat surfaces.

The climbing part, it has to be said, didn’t quite work right when I tried it. The working theory was that it was down to weak batteries in a controller, plus my own inexperience with the mechanic. You basically “project” a handhold onto the surface with each hand, then pull yourself up, let go of the previous handhold, and repeat the process (similar to The Climb or Robinson.) It’s laborious, but practice would probably speed it up.

Insomniac Live – Stormland First Playable PAX 2018

Special Insomniac Live from #PAXWest2018. Join us for a first look at Stormland!

Posted by Insomniac Games on Friday, August 31, 2018

Enemies in the demo mostly consisted of a handful of slow-moving drones, there to illustrate the combat more than anything else. You always have access to a biotic shield in your character’s left hand, which you can move about at will for portable cover, and which handily deflects incoming fire. The only weapon to speak of available in the demo, besides the hand laser, was a simple submachine gun that did the job: I pointed it, it fired bullets, things exploded. The shield was the interesting part, letting me move it freely to provide my own cover, and I could crouch in corners and fire over the top of it to dispatch enemies from relative safety.

The shield, in fact, was where I found myself having the most fun with Stormland; it’s intuitive and useful in a way that shields in games rarely get to be. In a typical non-VR game, it’d probably require timing your blocks to use it effectively, or it’d break given the slightest provocation. (When was the last really good shield in a first-person shooter, anyway?) Here, it’s just part of the kit, right at hand whenever it’s needed, and you can use it in a lot of the same ways you’d use a real one. I’m a little disappointed given Insomniac’s track record (Sunset Overdrive, the Ratchet & Clank series) that the starting weapon is so basic, but the shield almost makes up for that.

The final part of the demo that struck me as remarkable was the cloud-surfing. After a little initial fact-finding on a sturdier part of the island, I ended up navigating from small island to small island by skimming across the top of the clouds between them, which I had to be told I was able to do. Once you drop down onto the clouds, you control your direction and speed with both hands in something that feels halfway between skiing and driving a snowmobile. It’s surprisingly smooth and responsive, and it didn’t really take any kind of learning curve before I was out among the clouds racing around.

This demo was a very simple display of Stormland overall, from a company that I tend to remember the most fondly once its games go full-tilt insane. The early trailers show a lot of things that simply weren’t in this sample, such as stealth and better weapons, so this felt like more of an extended proof of concept. What’s here, though, is solid, and it’s a good foundation for something that could be truly special.

 

Thomas Wilde is a freelance gaming journalist. You can follow him on Twitter for more of his work.

Tagged with: , , ,

The post Hands-On: Stormland Feels Like It Could Be A Truly Special VR Adventure appeared first on UploadVR.

Watch 20 Minutes of ‘Stormland’ Gameplay

Stromland, the upcoming single player adventure from Insomniac Games and Oculus, came to PAX West this past weekend where the public got a chance to go hands-on with the open world game for the first time.

The demo, presented by Dutch YouTubers Cas and Chary, takes you through a number of mission styles as part of the tutorial. Basic missions include collecting alloy to build android upgrades, building your first weapon, collecting fruit for energy, and shooting down the patches of flying drones, and even a few land-based robots that threaten you as you hop from island to island.

The game’s locomotion scheme includes smooth-forward walking, climbing, gliding, and gliding out over cloudy ‘slip streams’, which accelerate you from one rocky outcrop to another. Everything in the game appears to be climbable, making it an exercise in getting a good vertical vantage point not only so you can complete missions like finding high-up positioning beacons, but also so you scope out the area and glide from spot to spot.

Image courtesy Insomniac Games

The environment appears to be partially destructible, with fallen enemies and exploded barrels offering up their own resources which are automatically collected once you get near them. We haven’t seen much of the crafting system yet, although Insomniac has maintained it’s a fairly important part of the game.

Stormland seems to offer both single-handed and two-handed weapon grip styles, and also provides a hand-held shield. We only get to see two real weapon types before the demo ends with a pretty nasty-looking android, the optional single/two-handed SMG and an explosive grenade, all of which can be holstered to your body.

The Stormland PAX demo certainly looks like the highly polished, open world experience we were hoping for, which is slated to release exclusively on Oculus Rift at some point in 2019.

The post Watch 20 Minutes of ‘Stormland’ Gameplay appeared first on Road to VR.

First Public ‘Stormland’ Demo to Debut at PAX West, Available One Day Only

Stormland, the upcoming open-world VR title from Insomniac Games and Oculus, will be playable at PAX West this week to the general public, and not just badge-holders.

The Oculus Stormland pop-up will be available for one day only on August 31st in Seattle, WA.

Oculus says in a blogpost that PAX-goers and the general public alike will get a chance to “[b]ound up cliffs, glide across chasms, and fly through the slipstream with velocity. Detonate explosives, harness electricity, and wield makeshift weapons to overcome titanium sentries and monolithic guardians.”

Demos will be taking place on August 31 at 11:00AM – 9:00PM PT at 1927 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98101.

In Stormland, you play as a peaceful robotic gardener until a mysterious storm called ‘The Tempest’ shatters your android body. After lying dormant for centuries, you must journey through an ever-changing cloudscape, augmenting yourself to become a heroic fighter, save your friends, and reclaim your world.

You have the ability to fly just above the cloud-like ‘slipstream’ using your hands, and shoot a laser in the cloud’s surface to create a sort of ramp to glide off of. You can also physically climb up a cliff side and glide back down. ‘The Tempest’ is said to rearrange everything each week, presenting the player with new playgrounds of movement, combat, and scavenging.

Stormland is slated to arrive sometime in 2019.

The post First Public ‘Stormland’ Demo to Debut at PAX West, Available One Day Only appeared first on Road to VR.

Insomniac And Oculus To Host Public Demo Session For Stormland At PAX

Insomniac And Oculus To Host Public Demo Session For Stormland At PAX

Editor’s Note: This story originally published on August 16th, but has been republished today to coincide with the event.

Original: If you’re attending PAX West later this month or happen to live in and around Seattle, WA then consider yourself one of the lucky few that will have the first-ever hands-on opportunity with Insomniac’s upcoming fourth Oculus Rift exclusive, Stormland. Oculus will be hosting demos only on August 31st as a one-time pop-up event with limited swag available.

For those interested, check out the event page on Facebook — it’s being held at 1927 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 on August 31st from 11AM PT – 9PM PT. That’s a huge block of time, so hopefully you’ll be able to get in if you want. The demos are totally open to the public meaning you do not need a PAX West badge in order to play the game.

This will be the first time anyone outside of either company is getting the chance to go hands-on with the game. In Stormland you play as a robot in an ever-changing world that’s engulfed in a constantly swirling and always changing massive storm. Every so often the storm shuffles the world, changes the environment, and resets everything — which lends itself very well to a dynamic, evolving game space.

Stormland is also a cooperative action game with full locomotion, climbing, flying, and a tremendously ambitious sense of freedom in movement. You can read more details about Insomniac’s vision for the game in our detailed feature from earlier this year. Watch more gameplay here.

Let us know what you think of the game and if you plan on attending down in the comments below!

Tagged with: , ,

The post Insomniac And Oculus To Host Public Demo Session For Stormland At PAX appeared first on UploadVR.

Neil Patrick Harris Wants More VR Videogames

Neil Patrick Harris is known for being an American actor, writer, producer, comedian, magician and signer, but did you know that we is also a fan of virtual reality (VR)? Taking to Twitter to talk about some of his wishes for an upcoming birthday Harris took the chance to mention his want for new experiences on both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Harris, most know for his role in shows like How I met Your Mother, had been making a series of tweets about what he would like for his upcoming birthday. He mentioned how he was hoping for a “newfound resolve to meditate and focus” before mentioning that “VR is soooo dope.” The interesting thing here is that both HTC and Oculus replied to the act, promoting a chance to not only engage with the celebrity but also promote some exciting titles that could deliver on what Harris was looking for.

HTC were first to get a reply in saying they could tick box boxes for Harries by recommending ReMind VR: Daily Meditation. The title is designed to help users repose and unwind with proven meditation techniques as designed by three experts within the field of relaxation therapy. Featuring a number of different scenario and exercises the title is designed to be used on a daily bases to help users relax and escape for their mind, body and soul.

Stormland screenshot2

Oculus turned up next with their reply recommending Harris have a look at the upcoming title Stormland from Insomniac Games, even offering up the chance to have a sneak peek at it. Putting players in control of as robot within an epic sci-fi adventure, Stormland is looking to be an exciting title for the Oculus Rift and for VR as a whole. In a recent interview about the title, Insomniac Games revealed a number of details about the release including some details on how the title was designed. You can read that interview here.

With a person of such popularity as Harris expressing the excitement and joy that VR has to offer it shows that the median is not just a gimmick, and has because a mainstream entertainment product. VRFocus will be sure to keep bring you all the latest on all things VR so for updates on titles and more stories like this in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

Neil Patrick Harris Wants More VR Videogames

Neil Patrick Harris is known for being an American actor, writer, producer, comedian, magician and signer, but did you know that we is also a fan of virtual reality (VR)? Taking to Twitter to talk about some of his wishes for an upcoming birthday Harris took the chance to mention his want for new experiences on both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Harris, most know for his role in shows like How I met Your Mother, had been making a series of tweets about what he would like for his upcoming birthday. He mentioned how he was hoping for a “newfound resolve to meditate and focus” before mentioning that “VR is soooo dope.” The interesting thing here is that both HTC and Oculus replied to the act, promoting a chance to not only engage with the celebrity but also promote some exciting titles that could deliver on what Harris was looking for.

HTC were first to get a reply in saying they could tick box boxes for Harries by recommending ReMind VR: Daily Meditation. The title is designed to help users repose and unwind with proven meditation techniques as designed by three experts within the field of relaxation therapy. Featuring a number of different scenario and exercises the title is designed to be used on a daily bases to help users relax and escape for their mind, body and soul.

Stormland screenshot2

Oculus turned up next with their reply recommending Harris have a look at the upcoming title Stormland from Insomniac Games, even offering up the chance to have a sneak peek at it. Putting players in control of as robot within an epic sci-fi adventure, Stormland is looking to be an exciting title for the Oculus Rift and for VR as a whole. In a recent interview about the title, Insomniac Games revealed a number of details about the release including some details on how the title was designed. You can read that interview here.

With a person of such popularity as Harris expressing the excitement and joy that VR has to offer it shows that the median is not just a gimmick, and has because a mainstream entertainment product. VRFocus will be sure to keep bring you all the latest on all things VR so for updates on titles and more stories like this in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

E3 2018 Pre-show Roundup – ‘Beat Saber’ on PSVR, Xbox Mum on VR, New Game Announcements & More

While E3 2018 didn’t technically start until Tuesday this week, much of the big news comes during the pre-show period from Saturday to Monday. Here’s a roundup of our coverage of E3 2018 before the official start of the event.

Beat Saber Coming to PSVR

Image courtesy Hyperbolic Magnetism

Indie studio Hyperbolic Magnetism announced ahead of the Sony conference that their VR rhythm game is on its way to PlayStation VR later this year. The game sold over 100,000 copies in its first month of availability on PC VR devices, and is set to launch on Sony’s platform with a new song, and potentially more content.

Read More

Microsoft Stays Mum on Xbox VR

Image courtesy Microsoft

During Microsoft’s main E3 2018 presentation, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer talked briefly on stage about the future of the brand, mentioning ‘future “consoles”‘ in development, but there was once again no sign of VR support for Xbox One. This follows the surprising no-show last year at the launch of Xbox One X. The hardware is more than capable of taking the fight to Sony, but for now it continues to be one-way traffic.

Read More

Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot Announced

Image courtesy Bethesda

Set two decades after the events of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (2017)Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot is a standalone VR game set to launch next year. Bethesda announced the title at their E3 2018 showcase; little information is known about the game so far, but we’ll report our findings once we go hands-on this week.

Read More

Prey (2017) DLC to Include VR Modes

Image courtesy Bethesda

Bethesda also announced their new Prey: Mooncrash DLC will soon include two VR-compatible game modes. This consists of a single player escape room game and a multiplayer game called ‘Typhon Hunter’ which, according to Bethesda, pits the series’ protagonist Morgan Yu against mimics that will stalk, hunt and hide in plain sight as they try to take Yu down.

Read More

Elder Scrolls: Blades is Bethesda’s First Mobile VR Game, Also Coming to High-end Headsets with Crossplay

Image courtesy Bethesda

Introduced by director Todd Howard as a smartphone-first title, Elder Scrolls: Blades was demonstrated to have touch-friendly controls, and is set to launch on as many platforms as possible later this year, including mobile VR all the way up to high-end VR. The game promises to include both handcrafted and procedurally generated dungeons, character customisation and levelling, and several game modes including an infinite dungeon.

Read More

Major Tracking Update for Leap Motion

Image courtesy Leap Motion

Leap Motion has released another major software update to their markerless hand tracking hardware – a product which hasn’t changed specification since it launched in 2012, but has seen dramatic improvements to the quality of tracking over the years. The new updates claim to bring major improvements “across the board.”

Read More

Transference Comes to PSVR, Vive, and Rift in Fall 2018

Photo courtesy Ubisoft

Psychological thriller from Elijah Wood’s studio SpectreVision was shown again at Ubisoft’s E3 conference, this time with a new launch trailer. The game blends live action and rendered environments in a perspective-shifting narrative. While it is built with VR in mind, the title is also launching in traditional formats sometime in Fall 2018, on PSVR, Rift, Vive, PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

Read More

Space Junkies Beta Announced for Late June

Image courtesy Ubisoft

Zero-G multiplayer shooter Space Junkies was another VR game announced last year to make a second appearance at Ubisoft’s E3 2018 presentation. The new trailer showed some new gameplay, and revealed the dates for the open beta: June 28th to July 2nd. Signups for the closed beta is already open on the official Space Junkies website.

Read More

Insomniac Reveals More Stormland Info

Image courtesy Insomniac Games

Insomniac’s CCO Chad Dezern appeared on stage at the E3 2018 PC Gaming Show to talk about upcoming open-world adventure game Stormland, which was announced just before the event. Dezern detailed some of the key movement mechanics optimised for VR motion controllers, as well as some of your character’s scavenging abilities.

Read More

Trover Saves the Universe Announced for PS4 and PSVR from Squanch Games

Image courtesy Squanch Games

Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland’s game studio Squanch Games enjoyed some time on the big screen at Sony’s main E3 2018 presentation with their new game Trover Saves the Universe, an action-platformer of sorts. In typical style, the haphazard trailer gave very little information, but it is targeting an early 2019 release for PS4 and PSVR.

Read More

PSVR Exclusive Ghost Giant Announced

Image courtesy Zoink

Detailed in a post on the PlayStation Blog just before E3, Ghost Giant is an adorable puzzle adventure from Zoink, creators of Fe (2018) and Flipping Death (TBA), coming exclusively to PSVR. The player assumes the role of the ghost, and can interact with the environment by lifting” furniture, vehicles and trees,” or even opening up “entire buildings to reveal the stories going on inside.”

Read More

Déraciné Announced for PSVR From Developer Behind Dark Souls

Image courtesy From Software

From Software, creators of popular RPG series Dark Souls, has revealed a game that is very different in tone compared to the studio’s most famous works. According to the description of the teaser trailer, which was shown just after the main Sony press conference, Déraciné is about a young girl in a secluded boarding school who summons a spirit. The game is said to task the player with proving the spirit’s existence and building “a unique bond with the students through clever interactions.” The game is set to arrive sometime in 2018 exclusively on PSVR.

Read More

The post E3 2018 Pre-show Roundup – ‘Beat Saber’ on PSVR, Xbox Mum on VR, New Game Announcements & More appeared first on Road to VR.

E3 2018: See Fresh Gameplay Of Insomniac’s Oculus Exclusive, Stormland

E3 2018: See Fresh Gameplay Of Insomniac’s Oculus Exclusive, Stormland

All eyes might have been on Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man at E3 this week, but the studio’s latest VR project is worth your attention too. This video shows you why.

The below clip features brand new gameplay of Stormland, Insomniac’s fourth VR game, which is coming to the Oculus Rift next year. Studio CEO Ted Price and Oculus’ Jason Rubin talk through the birth of the game as we see plenty of new footahe. Stormland has you exploring a giant open world as a robot that can hover across the landscape.

It’s safe to say this is one of the most promising VR games on the horizon right now. For starters, it looks absolutely gorgeous, with a vibrant world to explore. It also seems to take some of the best elements of existing VR titles, like climbing-based traversal and first-person shoot outs.

Look for Stormland to hit sometime in 2019.

Tagged with:

The post E3 2018: See Fresh Gameplay Of Insomniac’s Oculus Exclusive, Stormland appeared first on UploadVR.

Oculus and Insomniac Comment More On Stormland Development

Stormland was announced a short time ago, and described as an epic sci-fi adventure. During E3 2018, Jason Rubin, VP of Content at Oculus, and Ted Price, CEO of Insomniac Games teamed up to deliver a talk about the future of virtual reality (VR) and videogaming in general, where they spoke about Stormland and some of its features.

Stormland is being created as a collaboration between Oculus and Insomniac Games, who previously produced VR magic duelling title The Unspoken.

Stormland screenshot4

Ted Price briefly described what players could expect when they strap on the headset and load Stormland: “In Stormland you play an android, a gardener for this mysterious world who has been partially destroyed by a malevolent. His job is to journey up into the Stormland and ethereal place. You can do what we call slipstreaming across the clouds in this interesting version of flying.”

Price was enthusiastic about the leap forward in VR technology that Stormland represented: “What I love about developing this game is that anything you can see, you can climb or you can traverse. Our goal with this game was to go bigger, to really open things up for VR players.” he said, “We’ve learned a lot in terms of how to design for the VR audience with our first three titles and this is coming through now with what we can do on the platform.”

Rubin mentioned that Stormland was over three years in the making, seeing a very early proof-of-concept during his first trip to meet with Insomniac Games: “I remember visiting Insomnia to talk about VR and seeing a prototype of Stormland. It already existed three years ago. It didn’t have an android protagonist but the cloudscape and the islands were all there. I remember saying ‘This is awesome, but it is way too big for the first generation of VR’”

Players can expect a varied challenge as much of Stormland‘s content will be dynamic: “In Stormland we have a procedural system which is regenerating Stormland every week, so the idea is that you as the player and going back over and over again to find new challenges. You are assigned these bounties to go up into the Stormland and work with friends to take them on with friends.”

Stormland screenshot1

Asked about single player and multiplayer, Price replied: “We know that there are players who prefer to experience adventures on their own and we absolutely do tune the game for that if you decide to take on the Stormland solo. But if you have a friend join you, the challenges become more difficult and the loot you can earn is better.”

For future news on new and upcoming VR projects, keep checking back with VRFocus.