Fast Travel Games and Trebuchet just announced multiplayer VR sword fighting game, Broken Edge, at the Upload VR Showcase.
Check out the first trailer for the game below. In Broken Edge, two players go head-to-head, selecting different characters and weapons and learning their unique fighting styles. As you duel, blades will chip and break, forcing you to rethink your approach until one player manages to hit the other.
Broken Edge Announcement Trailer
“We’ve worked really hard to create a seamless and impactful experience as your blades clash and break thanks to our cutting edge fencing mechanics,” Creative Director Guillaume Perreault Roy says in the video. The result is a game that looks a little like Ironlights, though Broken Edge appears to let you swing your blade freely and not slow down the action. Visually, the game boasts a striking, pastel color palette, too.
This will be Trebuchet’s fourth VR game following on from last year’s launch of Winds & Leaves and Prison Boss VR before that. It’s also the second announced publishing project from Fast Travel Games, who released Cities: VR themselves earlier this year and published VR music maker, Virtuoso. The company will have a few more reveals during the Showcase, so keep your eyes peeled.
Broken Edge is currently confirmed to be coming to Quest 2 and SteamVR later this year. No word yet on possible PSVR versions, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Stay tuned to the Upload VR Showcase; we’ve got plenty more reveals and headlines lined up for today.
Fast Travel Games today announced during UploadVR’s Summer Showcase its next VR title, a multiplayer sword-fighting game called Broken Edge.
Developed by Trebuchet and published by Fast Travel Games, Broken Edge is a multiplayer fantasy sword-dueling action VR game where you choose your fighter go head-to-head against another player online.
The studios say each weapon and fighter offers “unique stances and movement patterns that reflect the specific martial arts, which can be performed to activate temporary perks. Experience real fencing tactics in battle, while swords will break at the point of impact and eventually regenerate to help execute a winning strike.”
Broken Edge is slated to release on Meta Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets “later this year,” the studios say.
Here’s some more specifics from Fast Travel and Trebuchet:
Embody your fighter
All characters are equipped with unique weapons, coupled with their own distinctive martial arts style. Learn to master these ancient fighting patterns to awaken the energy of your blade and dominate your foes online.
Cutting-Edge Fencing Mechanics
Move and swing your sword freely as you would in real life, then apply tactical skills to block incoming blows and break your opponents’ weapon at the point of impact!
Anybody can pick a sword
The duels in Broken Edge take place in a dream-like surreal setting with vivid colors. It’s the perfect place to hone your skills and take part in the global contest to climb the ranks online!
During the summer, Prison Boss VR developer Trebuchet launched mystical gardening adventure Winds & Leaves for PlayStation VR. Today, the studio has announced that a PC VR version is on the way with a bunch of visual and gameplay enhancements.
Bringing Winds & Leaves to SteamVR has meant that Trebuchet has increased the graphical fidelity, expanded the draw distance so you can appreciate the beautiful scenery whilst improving the tree and vegetation density so those forests look even more luscious. Additionally, a new roomscale mode has been included alongside a 360-degree rotation setting. Employing roomscale freedom should make planting all those seeds even easier.
“We are thrilled to bring Winds & Leaves to Steam VR players, taking advantage of the PC power to make the experience even more captivating with the farther draw distance and higher vegetation density that we can now render,” said Alexandre Pernot Lopes, Trebuchet Creative Director and co-founder in a statement.
Winds & Leaves drops you into a barren world almost entirely devoid of life. You take on the role of The Gardener, a being who has a unique connection to the trees and plants, even being able to see their interconnecting lifeforce. With a few tools in hand, you need to explore the various biomes and plant trees most suited to the environment, combining seeds to make new varieties ideal for each new habitat. The eventual goal is to entirely restore life to the planet.
To ensure a comfortable walking experience Trebuchet puts you on stilts, rather unique for a VR videogame. That means you have to move the controllers just like walking with a couple of sticks, making for steady, gentle progression.
Reviewing Winds & Leaves for PlayStation VR, VRFocus found that: “Winds & Leaves has some nice ideas and for those looking for a nice tranquil VR experience with some light puzzles, it perfectly suits. The problem is Winds & Leaves can be a bit too quiet. Lush green grass and colour forests are all well and good but they’re still devoid of life, no animals suddenly return.”
Winds & Leaves is set to arrive via Steam on 8th December 2021, supporting Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. For further updates from Trebuchet, keep reading VRFocus.
As a videogame fan, there are moments where all-out action just feels a bit too much. Maybe you’re having a lazy Sunday afternoon or simply want to unwind after a long day? It’s in these moments where a slower, more peaceful type of experience comes into play. Where beautiful sunsets and methodical gameplay come into their own, you can’t get much more chill than Trebuchet’s latest offering Winds & Leaves, exclusively for PlayStation VR. However, can a VR experience that mainly involves planting trees be entertaining?
The Canadian studios’ previous title was Prison Boss VR making Winds & Leaves a polar opposite, offering beautiful wide-open vistas which go on for miles and a rich tapestry of colours. Freedom is most certainly on offer here, allowing you to adventure out into a desolate, mysterious land and bring it back to life.
Because you are The Gardener, a being deeply linked to nature who can see the bonds between plants and cultivate them using some powerful magical forces. Much in the same way that Paper Beastleft you to ponder and imagine your own story, Winds & Leaves does something very similar. There’s no direct narrative to speak of or real explanation of who you are, you’re on a once verdant planet that is now barren the only clues being rock paintings and unusual tree-like structures which have to be reanimated.
This natural link also means you can’t simply wander around as you wish, you generally need to stay near to greenery, setting up the core mechanic of Winds & Leaves, planting trees, planting a lot of trees in fact. Each tree you plant will create a lush green area which can then be expanded upon however you choose, going in one straight direction towards a point of interest or growing a lush forest. That’s one of the best parts about Winds & Leaves, looking back and seeing a once dry, harsh landscape transformed by all these trees you’ve planted.
You’re well kitted out with an extendable digging tool, a mysterious weather vane, seed pouch, an energy-containing tree stump and stilts. Yes, that’s right, locomotion in Winds & Leaves is entirely on stilts and works surprisingly well. The videogame is only compatible with PlayStation Move, having to hold the Move button down then waggling the controllers up and down to walk. It sounds a little unusual but isn’t too much different to the locomotion systems employed in titles like Sprint Vector, you’re just on stilts. They also give you the option to lower or raise yourself, great for picking seeds off the ground or moving faster respectively.
It’s not all plain sailing though. The same system for walking is used for climbing trees. So if you’re too close to one then it’s easy to find yourself going up rather than forward. And it soon became clear that picking the seeds off the trees – a vital part of the whole growing process – was far easier than trying to pick them up off the ground, which was finicky and erratic at times.
As for the whole gardening process, that all depends on how much you like continually digging holes. While that energy containing tree stump allows you to walk a short distance away from the life-giving forests, go too far and the roots will pull you back, so you need to get planting. The challenge in Winds & Leaves is careful management of your seed pouch which only holds a measly six varieties of plants, each one having three attributes making them ideal for certain soil conditions. Because of this, there’s a fair bit of seed experimentation and manipulation, planting two or three together to make a new plant, helping you venture further forward.
And this is where that mysterious weather vane tool comes in handy. Time does move in Winds & Leaves just very slowly so the vane greatly speeds this up, making the trees grow nice and rapidly. It’s one of the best effects during the whole experience, watching days flick by in seconds, cloud formations come and go, sunset and rises…you get the idea. While it was always easier to play during daylight, at night there’s an eerie magical quality as you can see the glowing, pulsating connections between the trees.
The end goal is to completely bring life back to this barren place by venturing into four areas and spinning up the giant windmills you find there, all of which point to a central garden that acts as a sort of hub. Once you’ve unlocked certain tree species these can then be found in the garden should you require a particular seed your pouch doesn’t contain. There’s no fast travel so heading back requires leg work until you unlock the glide ability. Essentially a quick dash, it does allow you to traverse the tops of the trees which is always fun.
So you’d imagine Winds & Leaves offers an idyllic world that’s all about being one with nature? Not initially, as VRFocus’ pre-launch review copy continually crashed, occurring six times in the space of an hour at one point. Thankfully, a day one patch does look to have solved that issue. But there are others, like the sheer amount of pop up, especially in the trees. Played on a standard PlayStation 4, once you’ve got a full-on forest going – the whole point of the game – it did start to struggle with all the foliage.
Winds & Leaves has some nice ideas and for those looking for a nice tranquil VR experience with some light puzzles, it perfectly suits. The problem is Winds & Leaves can be a bit too quiet. Lush green grass and colour forests are all well and good but they’re still devoid of life, no animals suddenly return. So you end up walking through your lovely forest world alone, it all feels a bit soulless. Winds & Leaves was enjoyable for the 7-8 hours it lasts yet there was no desire to return.
This week saw a flurry of videogame announcements for PlayStation VR including release dates for big titles like Sniper Elite VR. Canadian developer Trebuchet also joined in by revealing that its flora-building experience Winds & Leaves now has a specific launch date, 27th July 2021.
From the team behind Prison Boss VR, Winds & Leaves looks to be the biggest virtual reality (VR) project from the studio to date, offering you the chance to be a virtual gardener bringing life back to a barren planet. Coinciding with the launch date announcement Trebuchet has released the first gameplay trailer for Winds & Leaves, showing a vibrant world just waiting to be brought back to life.
A The Gardener you have a unique connection to the trees and plants around you, and they in turn help you explore the world. Awakening in a verdant valley with some basic tools you need to plant and harvest increasingly complex trees with techniques mastered over generations. In doing so each new forest you grow provides life-giving energy for you to venture further as well as becoming a safe haven to return to.
Exploration will reward you with ancient dormant varieties of trees, new climates, and diverse biomes. You need to find the Outposts littered around the edge of the world as each of these structures contains knowledge to learn new abilities. You also have your own private garden which supports all the plant species you find, offering a constant supply of its particular fruit.
The videogame also features a unique locomotion system for PlayStation VR where players are up on stilts. Trebuchet hasn’t quite detailed how this will ensure Winds & Leaves will be a comfortable experience for all, as there looks to be plenty of walking involved. In any case, it certainly looks gorgeous.
Winds & Leaves is exclusive to PlayStation VR when it arrives in July. Take a look at the new trailer below, and for further updates from Trebuchet, keep reading VRFocus.
Every weekend VRFocus gathers together vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe to help make finding that ideal job easier. Below is a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on immersive entertainment.
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hubto check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
Trebuchet, the Montreal-based studio behind Prison Boss VR (2017), announced its non-linear world-building game Winds & Leaves is coming a little later than its originally estimated Spring 2021 launch window, now arriving exclusively on PSVR July 27th. The studio also released a new gameplay video to tide us over.
Update (June 3rd, 2021): As a part of PlayStation’s VR game showcase today, Trebuchet announced that Wind & Leaves is coming to PSVR July 27th. The original article announcing Wind & Leaves follow below:
Original Article (February 3rd, 2021): Winds & Leaves is set in a desert planet which tasks you with taking it from barren to blooming. Trebuchet says you’ll be able to roam through various biomes and bring back life to the world “one seed at a time.”
At least from the announcement trailer, it seems to be less about garden management and more about casual discovery, as you find new seeds, biomes, and level up your gear. You plant trees, and it seems you’re given the power to speed up time, so you can see the forests and various contraptions take hold of the world.
Trebuchet co-founder and creative director Alexandre Pernot Lopes reveals that the game’s locomotion scheme is unique. Instead of walking around conventionally, you’re placed atop stilts, which aide you in reaching high places.
“Early in development, we started thinking of ways to make this engaging in VR. We wanted to make a peaceful experience, but not a passive one,” Pernot Lopes says in a PS blogpost. “There comes our unique locomotion system, the Stilts, allowing you to feel each step you take with your PS Move controllers. You can raise or lower them to adapt your pace, or to reach fruits higher in your trees. Stilts can also retract to let you climb at the top of any tree to survey your surroundings.”
Wind & Leaves is due out on PSVR in Spring 2021. The season officially starts on March 20th, so we’re hoping to see a more precise launch date soon.
Double good news for PlayStation VR owners today. After Joy Way revealed its title Stride is on its way to the platform, Canadian team Trebuchet has unveiled its latest project, Winds & Leaves, where a world of gardening and mysterious relics await.
Exclusive to PlayStation VR, Winds & Leaves is far removed from Trebuchet’s previous virtual reality (VR) title Prison Boss VR. Rather than being cooped up, in this sprawling new world you become The Gardener, the only one who can bring life back to these barren lands.
Walking around on stilts – a locomotion system Trebuchet has designed for the videogame – you have to explore the landscape crossing deserts and empty riverbeds looking for long lost dormant varieties of plant to regrow your own forests and grassy plains. Whilst doing so you’ll be able to uncover diverse biomes and stumble upon ancient, otherworldly monuments which can be awoken by returning the world back to its lush glory. In doing so you’ll learn the important part these imposing structures play.
“We are very excited about Winds and Leaves, as it is our largest project to date,” said Alexandre Pernot Lopes, Trebuchet Creative Director and co-founder in a statement. “We have welcomed a bunch of new faces in our team, and pushed our limits to create something unique and innovative. None of it would be possible without PlayStation’s incredible trust and support.”
As the world will feature player grown trees each will be unique in their design, create dense woodland however you so wish. This is complemented with a dynamic time and weather simulation so the climates will change, as well as a “living soundtrack that reacts to the world around you” the team explain.
Winds & Leaves will be released exclusively for PlayStation VR this Spring. For further updates on the project as the launch nears, keep reading VRFocus.
Winds & Leaves is a calming new game from the developers of Prison Boss VR set to release this Spring exclusively for PSVR that lets you embark on a mystical adventure to replenish a barren land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq3MDCVFnZw
Winds & Leaves – New PSVR Exclusive
In Winds & Leaves you take on the all-important role of The Gardener, a being whose sole purpose is to re-grow vegetation in barren worlds. A bit like a healer of sorts. From the looks and sounds of it, themes will likely be similar to those in other esoteric and evocative indie games such as Rite, Flower, The Unfinished Swan, and others. That’s very good company to be in if they can pull it off.
A key component of Winds & Leaves will be awakening the latent energy within dilapidated landmarks around the world by using your stilts and gardening tools. The press release also mentions a dynamic soundtrack that adapts to your actions as well as procedural player-grown trees.
If the production values can live up to the potential we see in the trailer above, this could end up being a great late-generation snag for PSVR players.
“We are very excited about Winds and Leaves, as it is our largest project to date,” says Alexandre Pernot Lopes, Trebuchet Creative Director and co-founder, in a prepared statement. “We have welcomed a bunch of new faces in our team, and pushed our limits to create something unique and innovative. None of it would be possible without PlayStation’s incredible trust and support.”
Winds & Leaves does not have a firm release date just yet, but it is slated for PSVR this Spring so it’s not too far off. I’d wager it will come to other platforms later on and is simply debuting first on PSVR.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Prison Boss VR is bringing its Job Simulator-in-jail gameplay to Oculus Quest on December 3.
The game originally released in 2017 for PC VR with “very positive” reviews after more than three years on the market. The port to Oculus Quest and Quest 2 is expected to sell for $19.99 with developer Trebuchet pitching the game as letting you craft a series of items like “cigarettes, alcohol and cookies for other inmates while avoiding being caught by the warden! Customize your cell as your reputation grows! Earn cash until you can’t store it anymore and become the Prison Boss!” Sounds charming!
“Prison Boss is a title that was really built for VR with the idea of the jail cell scaling with your VR space,” Vincent Brunet-Dupont, CEO of Trebuchet, said in a prepared statement. “I’d even go as far as saying that having it come to the Quest with its untethered headset makes it the ultimate VR contraband simulator available on the market.”
Check out the trailer:
Prison Boss VR
David liked the game when he reviewed it in 2017, writing that it is “a breath of fresh air. In a market that’s over-saturated with shooters, and blood, and gore, and zombies, it’s nice to experience something with a much more light-hearted and whimsical tone. Fans of Job Simulator and tycoon-style games will find a lot to love here and far more content than expected, but what it gains in breadth it sacrifices in depth. Even still, this is a VR game we’d happily return to as a reward for good behavior.”
We’ll of course have to wait and see how Prison Boss VR [official website] made the jump to the portable Oculus Quest and the new Quest 2. Lets us know in the comments if you’ve been looking forward to this one.
