Since March this year, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift players have been enjoying flinging magic spells across a virtual reality (VR) fantasy realm using gesture controls in Carbon Studio’s The Wizards. Now the pleasure of downing enemies will a well-placed fireball will soon be available to PlayStation VR users, as demonstrated in the new trailer.
The PlayStation VR version of The Wizards is available for attendees at Gamescom 2018 to try out, where they can try to cast powerful spells using only hand gestures.
The Wizards was first announced in early 2017 and spent some time in Steam Early Access, gathering feedback from the community before its full launch earlier this year, where multiple improvements over the initial early access offering were clear.
In The Wizards, players take the role of a wizard, who becomes the only one capable of stopping a sudden and devastating invasion by an army of dark creatures, including orcs, ogres and goblins. In order to halt this threat, the protagonist must explore a castle filled with spellbooks and mystical artefacts in order to hone the magical craft ito something strong enough to save the land.
Carbon Studio confirmed last week that work on the PlayStation VR version began once the PC VR version was completed. It has not yet been confirmed if the additional content introduced since the title was launched will be included in the PlayStation VR version.
The PC VR version of The Wizards was previously reviewed by Peter Graham, who said: “What Carbon Studio has done is combine its knowledge from debut VR title Alice VR and the months of Early Access development and distilled it into The Wizards. If you want to feel like an all-powerful sorcerer then The Wizards is up there with the best, an entertaining adventure that will make non-VR players jealous.”
The PlayStation VR trailer is available to view below. Further coverage on The Wizards and other new or upcoming VR projects will be here on VRFocus.
Carbon Studio just announced last week its gesture-based spell-slinger The Wizards is coming to PSVR, so it was fitting the team was showing it off at this year’s Gamescom in Germany.
The PSVR game is pretty much the same as the PC version that was released earlier this year, with support for the Move controllers. And while I’m not a huge fan of Move, the Carbon team nailed the controls, and made the Move experience actually feel pretty darn intuitive.
If you haven’t played before, The Wizards sends you on a variety of quests in a fantasy setting. It’s basically a shooter with some puzzle elements, but you’re not shooting guns. As the name implies, you’re imbued with mystical powers that allow you to create shields, conjure fireballs, summon ice bows, and zap foes with powerful electric bolts.
To invoke a spell, simply perform specific gestures with the Move controller, such as twisting your wrist, pulling the trigger and moving your hand to the right to snatch a fireball from the ether, or pulling both triggers and crossing your hands to conjure an ice bow. It’s all quite fluid and elegant, and feels right at home in virtual reality.
The feeling and atmosphere of The Wizards also translates well to VR locomotion, and while there is fluid, direct movement by holding down the primary Move button, you can also just teleport because, well, you’re a wizard. I mean, if you got it, flaunt it.
The Wizards was a pretty game on PC headsets, and it looks beautiful on PSVR, as well. I made it a point to walk right up to the wall textures and check them out while playing the demo and was happily surprised by the level of detail such as pockmarks in the cut stone.
From what I played today, the team at Carbon nailed it with this PSVR port and it’s definitely going to be a must-play game if you have a PSVR. There just aren’t many games like it on that platform. The Wizards should offer up around five to six hours of gameplay, and while no specific release date has been set, it will be available sometime this autumn very soon.
If you want to learn more about The Wizards, be sure to read our Rift/Vive review from earlier this year.
Entwicklerstudio Carbon Studio veröffentlichte ein Spin-off zum VR-Titel The Wizards namens The Wizards: Trials of Meliora für Oculus Go und Gear VR. Der Mobile-Ableger tritt in die Fußstapfen des großen Bruders und bringt das magische Abenteuer in abgewandelter Form auf die mobilen VR-Brillen.
The Wizards: Trials of Meliora für Oculus Go und Gear VR
Im Spin-off The Wizards: Trials of Meliora dürft ihr mit dem 3DOF-Controller der Mobile-Brillen in ein magisches Abenteuer eintauchen und euch mit mächtigen Zaubersprüchen gegen fiese Feindeshorden stellen. Als Beschützer einer Stadt ist es eure Aufgabe, die bösartigen Monster vor dem Eindringen in die schutzlose Siedlung zu behindern. Entsprechend stellt ihr euch gegen zahlreiche Goblins und Trolle mit der Macht der Magie.
Dafür stehen euch vier verschiedene Zauber zur Auswahl: ein versengender Feuerball, destruktive Blitze, zielsuchende Kristallgeschosse und ein schützender Schild. Die einzelnen Fähigkeiten löst ihr mit unterschiedlichen Bewegungen des Controllers aus. Mit fortschreitendem Spielverlauf könnt ihr die Fähigkeiten aufwerten. Zur Veröffentlichung stehen drei verschiedene Karten zur Auswahl, die bereits aus dem Original-Titel bekannt sind. Dabei wird zwischen weitläufigen Landschaften und finsteren Dungeons gewechselt. Die Entwickler/innen kündigten bereits zwei weitere Maps an, die in naher Zukunft erscheinen sollen.
Insgesamt zwei verschiedene Spielmodi bietet euch der VR-Titel an. Im Trial of Fate müsst ihr euch unterschiedlichen Herausforderungen stellen und eine gewisse Anzahl an Feinden bezwingen. Dafür werdet ihr mit Punkten belohnt. Im Trial of Persistance stellt ihr euch im Wave-Shooter-Stil bis zum Ende gegen niemals endende Feindeswellen.
Wir haben das Spin-off bereits für euch getestet. Wenn ihr unsere Meinung zum Mobile-Ableger erfahren möchtet, dann schaut doch einmal hier vorbei.
The Wizards: Trials of Meliora für Oculus Go und Gear VRist derzeit zum reduzierten Preis für 3,49 Euro im Oculus Store erhältlich.
Independent creative studio Carbon Studio have announced their latest virtual reality (VR) videogame in the form of The Wizards: Trials of Meliroa. This VR title brings together the fun of casting spells with hand gestures and mixes it with a rich and detailed fantasy setting, offering an immersive gameplay experience.
Following the release of their VR title The Wizards back in March, 2017 for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, The Wizards: Trials of Meliora is the next step in this spellbinding adventure. The title is coming to Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR and takes full advantage of 3DOF motion controller’s potential and will introduce players to the rich and deep fantasy world of The Wizards.
In this new title, players are invites to take magic into their own hand and test their skills as a defender of the Realm of Meliora. With a whole new adventure to explore and a unique gesture-based magic system that will see you fight through challenging magical battles in three different locations with more to come. Face off against a host of malevolent creatures in scenic landscapes and dark dungeons all with four potent spells with which to destroy them with.
Powered by the Unreal Engine 4, The Wizards: Trials of Meliroa will stunning visual quality with highly detailed models, fluid animations and stunning special effects. This also means that the four elemental spells that players can use will not only be powerful but also be visually impressive. Using the motion controller, gesture-based gameplay will offer a unique gameplay opportunity that will immerse players within the world of The Wizards.
“Our goal was to explore how far we can get with the current generation of mobile/standalone VR headsets.” Explains Pawe Gajda, Biz Dev Manager at Carbon Studio: “We wanted to bring the fun of casting spells with hand gestures to those platforms, and it seems to work very well. Also, we were surprised with how well PC graphics translate to mobile VR in Unreal Engine 4.”
The Wizards: Trials of Meliora has not only been revealed but has also been released, meaning it is available to purchase right now on the Oculus Store for $3.99 (USD) with an ongoing 10% launch discount. Carbon Studio have also stated they will update the title with free content in the coming weeks as well. For more on The Wizards: Trials of Meliora, keep reading VRFocus.
Carbon Studio, the Poland-based studio behind PC VR games The Wizards (2018) and Alice VR (2017), just brought a new single-player game to Oculus Go, Gear VR, and Xiaomi Mi VR. Dubbed The Wizards: Trials of Meloria (2018), the game looks to replicate some of the spellcasting fun of its big brother, The Wizards.
Using Oculus Go or Gear VR’s 3DOF motion controller, you cast spells, deflect oncoming attacks, and battle against trolls and sword-wielding goblins. The game is a completely new magical adventure set in the same fantasy world, and is developed from the ground-up for mobile VR.
The game boasts four elemental spells ( Lightning, Fireball, Arcane Shield, and Arcane Missiles), each with their own unique conjuring gestures. A leveling and spell upgrading system allows you to become more powerful as you battle across the game’s three original levels, which take you to scenic landscapes and dark dungeons. Carbon Studio says two more levels are due out soon.
Image courtesy Carbon Studio
In the game’s ‘Trial of Fate’ mode, you’re given a number of enemies to slay, and have to complete various challenges set before you to earn points. The game’s other mode, ‘Trial of Persistence’, sets you against an endless stream of baddies until you’re eventually killed, and comes with optional objectives for extra points.
While it’s a single-player game, The Wizards: Trials of Meloria lets you keep tabs on the greater community with its online leaderboard.
Check it out on the Oculus Store for Oculus Go and Gear VR. The Wizards: Trials of Meloria is regularly priced at $4, but is currently on sale for $3.50.
Everyone likes a bit of magic. Conjuring up that which is not and then, presumably throwing at an enemy and turning them into some sort of toad, or a pile of ash, or both. Thankfully virtual reality (VR) has allowed spellcasting to almost get its own mini videogame genre. There’s a number of titles on the market where you get your magical ways on, and one of the very best happens to be The Wizards.
In the title, by independent developers Carbon Studio – who also created sci-f exploration experience ALICE VR – puts players into the shoes of a young sorcerer tasked with defending the realm from legions of rampaging monsters. A single-player title, The Wizards allows a player to cast all sorts of elemental spells, from lightning bolts to fireballs, alongside defensive spells like a shield, to attack and protect themselves from orcs and goblins.
VRFocus tried The Wizards out earlier this month, describing it in our review as “Beautiful to look at, The Wizards biggest draw is its spell casting gameplay. Rather than switching between spells in a menu the videogame employs gesture-based spell-casting in a similar way to The Unspoken, where you need to remember particular hand movements to be able to do anything. This mechanic works extremely well for magic-based experiences, grounding you in the world and the character, which Carbon Studio easily pulled off.”
We’ve teamed up with Carbon Studio to offer you a chance to pick up the title for free. We’ve got six Steam codes up for grabs – all you need to do is interact with our social media accounts – which many of you likely already follow. You’ll receive a draw entry for every one of the following actions below: Be a follower of us on Twitter, subscribe to us on YouTube, or visit our Facebook and Google+ pages.
The competition is open until the end of next week. Starting today, 16th March 2018, and will end at midnight UK time, the beginning of March 24th. Winners will be drawn and contacted after that period. The best of luck to all!
Well we couldn’t tell you the last time we could only find just one new VR experience worth talking about on PC, but that’s the case this week. Across Rift, Vive and Windows there really is just a single release that looks worth your time. Good thing Oculus is about to give you $15 to spend on some older Rift games, right?
The Wizards, from Carbon Studio
Price: $19.99 (Rift, Vive, Windows, currently discounted)
Alice VR developer Carbon Studio is back with a much more rounded VR experience this week. After spending some time in Early Access, The Wizards is ready for its full release. As the name suggests, this is a VR magic simulator that allows you to cast spells using hand gestures, taking on hordes of monsters. This is definitely one that fans of other magic VR games will want to check out.
There are some great magic-based virtual reality (VR) titles available for those who enjoy a bit of sorcery. From combat experiences like The Unspoken and Wands, to massive quests such as The Mage’s Tale or Left-hand Path. So for players to take notice of another videogame in the field it needs to look and play the part, and Carbon Studio has done just that with The Wizards.
Having initially arrived on Steam Early Access in the summer of 2017, The Wizards was your average stationary wave shooter, with set points of movement and waves of monsters to defeat. Thankfully in that time Carbon Studio has given the title an overhaul in places, turning it into a far more dynamic and enjoyable adventure experience.
You just so happen to play a wizard who’s the only one capable of stopping an invading army of orcs, ogres, goblins and other nasty beasties from taking over, killing everyone and raising your beautiful land to the ground. To stop the menace you get to learn a bunch of spells and go on a cleansing spree.
Beautiful to look at, The Wizards biggest draw is its spell casting gameplay. Rather than switching between spells in a menu the videogame employs gesture-based spell-casting in a similar way to The Unspoken, where you need to remember particular hand movements to be able to do anything. This mechanic works extremely well for magic-based experiences, grounding you in the world and the character, which Carbon Studio easily pulled off.
Weaker spells like the standard fireball or the shield use a quick and simple one-handed gesture. As you’d expect the more powerful spells such as the Ice Bow or Arcane Missiles require both hands to conjure, meaning careful use is required in battle. None of them are too convoluted however, so that you don’t waste valuable seconds waving those arms around to no avail.
What’s great to see in this fully released version is the freedom of movement. As previously mentioned The Wizards originally used a point to point teleportation system, so if monsters got too close certain areas would trap you, plus it greatly lessened the strategy element. That’s been dispensed with, sort of. Teleportation is still there and certain areas can only be traversed using it, however, there’s also full smooth locomotion for the wide open areas where a lot of the combat encounters take place. For one-handed spells this is great as it allows strafing whilst shooting off a few fireballs. Two-handed spells generally need a safe spot before moving on. Most of the time a liberal use of both methods is advised, teleportation is definitely nice and nippy for quickly moving about.
One slight disappointment comes from the restricted monster engagements. You wander into an area and all the entrances and exits lock down until all the enemies are defeated, adding that wave-based feel back into proceedings where the only challenge is surviving the set number of monsters. It does partially ruin the flow of the adventure – why can’t there just be enemies you encounter on the journey – but wielding those arcane powers is still mighty fun.
Carbon Studio has also ensured there’s some longevity and a keen eye needed to get the most out of the whole experience. There are collectibles to find that’ll upgrade your spells, Fate Cards to locate which will modify the gameplay settings in future play throughs, plus an Arena mode for those interested in continual battles.
What Carbon Studio has done is combine its knowledge from debut VR title Alice VR and the months of Early Access development and distilled it into The Wizards. If you want to feel like an all-powerful sorcerer then The Wizards is up there with the best, an entertaining adventure that will make non-VR players jealous.
If you own a VR headset like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, then there are tons of ways out there for you to get your spell-flinging fix. The Unspoken and Wands have great multiplayer-focused combat and a whole slew of RPGs like The Mage’s Tale, Skyrim VR, and Runes: The Forgotten Path expound upon the magical powers of wizards in single-player adventures.
Now with The Wizards, one of VR’s most promising magical adventures, we’ve got another experience solely focused on single player action with interactive gesture-based spell-casting and a decent length campaign to keep players busy. It’s not as polished or as varied as it could have been, but it does enough to be worth a look for fans of the arcane arts.
The Wizards is split into two game modes: the single-player campaign and the Arena mode. For the campaign you play through a linear grouping of levels, one after another, as you progress through the game. While there is a good amount of level variety in terms of locations and decisions, the flow of gameplay isn’t very original.
Most levels devolve into the same exact rhythm: explore the area until you find enemies, kill all of the enemies, and advance to the next area that’s waiting to be explored. Every now and then there is a bit of variety in terms of secondary objectives to worry about, but that’s really pretty much the entire game for a few hours until you reach the end. Boss encounters shake things up enough to keep things interesting, so it’s not entirely repetitive.
There is some great voice work, good sound design, and entrancing music to keep your ears happy while your eyes take in the blasts of color that constantly assault you from all sides.
The best part of The Wizards though, just like any good sorcerer game, is the spell-casting. Instead of drawing annoyingly complex runes in the air like we’ve seen several times in VR at this point (SoulKeeper and Left Hand Path come to mind) it’s all simply gesture-based.
For example, to ready a fireball in my right hand I just hold my left hand steady, make a fist out in front of me with my right hand by holding the trigger, then sliding my right hand to the side quickly. Boom, fireball. Just throw and release like any other object to send it flying across the level. Slide my left hand to the right and a shield pops up on my wrist for blocking attacks. Move each hand towards my chest and an ice bow appears with a quiver of chilling white arrows on my back.
And while the spell-casting is easily the best part, even that does start to grow old by the end of the journey. There just aren’t enough spells to really keep you engaged. You’ll unlock enhancements over the course of the game and find collectible cards that can be used to alter missions for replaying, but there should have been more original, different spells to cast.
If I had to pick a favorite though, it’s absolutely the double-handed blast of lightning. You can really feel the power of magic coursing through your veins.
The Wizards’ Arena mode is a nice change of pace, but ultimately doesn’t shake up the formula anywhere near enough. There are three environments to pick from and the only way it really differs from the campaign, on a functional level, is that you exclusively fight waves of enemies instead of breaking up the fights with moments of exploration.
By the end I was left wanting more spells, more variety, and more game modes. For example, a multiplayer mode would have been amazing to see — either competitive or cooperative — or at least some other way to use the powerful magical spells I’d been given. The core mechanics and ideas at work were so fun, I wanted to see it live up to its full potential.
I absolutely enjoyed my time with The Wizards and it’s definitely a step up from Carbon’s previous project, Alice VR, but with a few additions it could have been the definitive VR spell-casting game.
Final Score: 7/10 – Good
On the gamut of magic-based first-person action games, The Wizards is definitely one of the better ones. Its spell-casting system is interactive without being too cumbersome and the campaign mode packs a decent amount of content. Plenty of collectibles, a replayable Arena mode, and lots of mission augmentations add up to this being one of the best ways to live out your most fantastical magical fantasies in VR. We just wanted more and preferably multiplayer of some kind.
The Wizards is now available on Rift and Vive as of March 8th through Steam and Oculus Home. A PSVR version is planned for later this year. Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
Last month submissions opened for the 2nd annual Vive Developer Awards (VDA), seeking the best virtual reality (VR) experiences available on the platform. Now the ten nominees have been announced for the five different categories covering the breadth of VR entertainment.
The five categories are: Entertainment, Education, Arts & Culture, Enterprise and Arcade, with any app considered so long as it was available on Viveport.
The nominees are now inline for some significant prizes, with the first prize winner taking home $50,000 USD. They’ll also be featured in a studio profile video produced by HTC Vive, get priority access to new developer hardware and of course, a shiny trophy. For those that don’t snag first place, coming in second will still get them $20,000 to spend.
Winners will be announced at a special event on 19th March coinciding with the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2018.
Last years VDA saw Fantastic Contraption, by Northway Games secure the top spot in the Create category, Apollo 11 VR, by Immersive VR Education Ltd win the Explore category, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf by Futuretown won Connect, while Penrose Studios’ short animation Allumette secured the Experience category.
It’s been a busy year for HTC and HTC Vive, with the company launching its first standalone headset, the Vive Focus in China. While a western release date has yet to be confirmed, 2018 is shaping up to be the year of standalone head-mounted displays (HMDs), with Oculus Go and Lenovo Mirage Solo due out, and the Pico Goblin already available. In China the Vive Focus will have to compete with a new version of the Pico Neo which uses the HTC’s Vive Wave platform, and Xiaomi/Oculus collaboration Mi VR Standalone.
As for Viveport, the platform recently announced new membership benefits in addition to increasing the monthly subscription price from $6.99 USD to $8.99. When the winning nominees are announced, VRFocus will bring you all the latest details.
In the title, by independent developers Carbon Studio – who also created sci-f exploration experience 
