Viral: Quarantine – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 18, 2022

Zombieland: Headshot Fever Studio Acquires Fellow British Team Fierce Kaiju

The Brits have always had a strong presence in virtual reality (VR) with one of the earliest pioneers being Fierce Kaiju, the Leeds0based team behind the Viral series. Today, fellow Leeds VR studio XR Games has announced the acquisition of Fierce Kaiju, its first-ever studio acquisition.

Fierce Kaiju was founded in 2014 by Dan Roberts and Paul Colls, both of whom were already videogame veterans thanks to working on titles including Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption and Call of Duty. They set up their studio with a focus on VR, originally creating Viral for Samsung Gear VR followed by Viral Quarantine and Viral EX for Gear VR and Steam.

Since then though, Fierce Kaiju hasn’t released any more of its own videogames, with most of its time spent as a full-service studio, helping game makers build projects from the ground up, or supporting other projects. XR Games, on the other hand, has created VR titles for some big IPs including Zombieland: Headshot Fever and The Angry Birds Movie 2: VR Under Pressure.

“From the first time I met Bobby and the team, I knew there was a shared vision,” says Dan Roberts, Fierce Kaiju co-founder. “At Fierce Kaiju we love experimenting with new and disruptive technology and turning it into something immediate, accessible, and fun, and It’s clear that Bobby and the team at XR Games share the same values. There’s a tangible sense of excitement and energy when you enter the XR Games studio after their huge success with Zombieland: Headshot Fever in 2021, and we knew we wanted to be a part of that.”

“For our first acquisition, we knew we wanted to bring in a team that shared the same vision as XR Games. The experience that Fierce Kaiju brings from working at places such as Rockstar Games and Activision Blizzard will be invaluable when it comes to supporting XR Games’ trajectory. As the studio grows in size and takes on multiple projects with larger budgets, this expansion will ensure we can scale safely and effectively. We’re fiercely proud of our roots, and while we’re still based in Leeds, our titles are sold around the world, so with Fierce Kaiju joining the family, we’re confident that our reach will grow even further as we continue developing exciting new gaming experiences for years to come,” XR Games Founder and CEO, Bobby Thandi adds.

The acquisition will see the Fierce Kaiju team join XR Games, with Dan Roberts joining XR Games as Art Director. The acquisition sum wasn’t disclosed.

Gmw3 will continue its coverage of XR Games, reporting back with its latest VR projects.

April 19, 2017

Fierce Kaiju Confirm Gear VR Controller Support for Viral: Quarantine

Last October VRFocus reported on British virtual reality (VR) developer Fierce Kaiju returning to Samsung Gear VR to update its Viral franchise. Viral: Quarantine is a remix of the original, this time adding less linear gameplay and more weapon options. The studio has also revealed to VRFocus that Viral: Quarantine will support the new Gear VR Controller.

Paul Colls, the Creative Director of Fierce Kaiju, confirmed the controller support at the recent VR World Congress (VRWC) event in Bristol, UK. While Viral: Quarantine can still utilise the headset’s touchpad to play, the controller adds that extra level of immersion by allowing players to move the shooting reticule quickly and completely separate from their head movements.

Viral Quarantine screenshot_7 “We took cues from pinball tables,” said Colls, on how the title differs from its predecessor. “We loved how one table provides many avenues to play and score. With that we decided to build huge feature rich arenas rather than smaller stages, but all the while still being instantly accessible and fun to play.”

On top of the controller support, Fierce Kaiju will also release an update soon after launch adding a new mode to Viral: Quarantine, designed specifically for Oculus Rooms and Parties for friends to compete against one another.

Viral: Quarantine once again puts players in the role of Ragnarok the Anti-Virus. Doing the bidding of the sentient AI known as E.V.E, Ragnarok has now been sent to quarantine – a place viruses are kept before deletion – and while waiting to hopefully return to the computer mainframe decides to kill some time in the usual fashion. The video game now features far more open worlds to play through, rather than the compact corridors of Viral. Players will also have the use of several new weapons, including a headset controlled missile and a telekinetic ability to pick enemies up and fling them into each other.

Checkout the new launch trailer below, and for further updates on Viral: Quarantine and Fierce Kaiju, keep reading VRFocus.

March 22, 2017

Viral Quarantine Expands Upon Early Gear VR Original

Fierce Kajiu was an early believer in VR, and one of the first to release a full game for Samsung and Oculus’ Gear VR in Viral. Since then it’s brought the original game to Oculus Rift with Touch support, but it isn’t forgetting its roots. UploadVR got an exclusive early look at Viral Quarantine, the upcoming sequel to the first game.

The UK-based developer is expanding upon the original Viral in its new title that takes elements of the gaze-based original and adds in new twists, like new weapons, and branching paths that let you pick your own route forward. New power ups include ‘Manipulation’ which lets you grab an enemy and throw them into walls. There’s also a lure allowing the player to “lead a virus on to a trap,” according to Fierce Kaiju.

Here’s the trailer outlining much of the gameplay:

The premise of the game, like the original, is that you’re inside a computer full of viruses you need to eliminate. You can point your head and tap the touch pad to fire a ball and take out these robot-like viruses. The first game was set mostly in closed spaces but the new one starts out in a much more open environment. It features the same satisfying physics that let you bounce balls off objects, and successful hits leave robots flying like ragdolls into the depths below. In a note, developer Paul Colls of Fierce Kaiju said they took inspiration from Pinball tables that allow “any avenues to play and score.”

“With Viral Quarantine we wanted to build on what we achieved with the original Viral game, we felt a need to open it up and go bigger,” notes Colls. “With that we decided to build huge feature rich arenas rather than smaller stages. Each arena is full of alternative routes, a multitude of secrets and scoring opportunities. We were able to explore ideas that didn’t quite make the first game as well as exploring new ones.”

Viral Quarantine is planned for release in Q2 2017 for Gear VR.

Tagged with: Fierce Kaiju, gear vr, Viral, Viral: Quarantine

October 10, 2016

Fierce Kaiju’s Viral Is Coming To Oculus Touch, Spin-off Heading to Gear VR

UK-based Fierce Kaiju was one of the first developers to support Gear VR when it launched as an Innovator’s Edition back in 2014, and it’ll be one of the first to support Oculus Touch too.

The studio today announced that it’s revamping it’s original game, Viral, for the position-tracked controllers. Named Viral Ex, the remastered game casts you as an anti-virus named Ragnarok that attempts to rid a computer system known as E.V.E. (Emotional Virtual Engine) of infections, simply by gunning them down. Touch support brings dual-wielding blasters and a deflector shield for defensive play.

“We’re very proud of the original version and the response it received, however we always wanted to bring it to Rift both to widen the audience, and also to really spice up the look and feel,” Fierce Kaiju creative director Paul Colls told UploadVR over email. “Then when Oculus got Touch controllers in our hands, we saw a golden opportunity to bring an extra layer to the actual gameplay and add real value.”

You’ll still be able to play the original version of the game with the head-tracked controls, but Touch makes the game more “edgy”, in Colls’ words. “It presents a quite different challenge, and we’ve offset some of the extra trickiness with a deflector shield on the end of the weapons, which can be activated to punch away enemy shots.”

Viral Ex will be out December 6th — the day Touch itself arrives for $199 — but it’s not all Fierce Kaiju is announcing today. It’s also revealed Viral: Quarantine, a spin-off heading to Gear VR later this year. You’ll take control of Ragnarok once more, though you’re now trapped in an area known as Quarantine.

“We see Quarantine is a spin-off rather than a true sequel, it’s definitely a Viral game in that it shares the same world and the same core physics based aim-shoot mechanic, but we’ve approached the stage design in a very different way,” Colls said of the project. The difference comes in level design. Viral features 50 short stages that the player travels through, but this is designed around five arena stages that players revisit to unlock secrets, improve skills and earn higher scores.

Interestingly, Quarantine will support Rooms, Oculus’ newly-announced social feature debuting on Gear VR this year before coming to Rift. It allows up to eight friends to meet in a hangout space and then launch into games. The game isn’t directly multiplayer, but when everyone launches the game they’ll be able to talk through Oculus Parties.

“Added to this, we’ve also fed in a cool multiplayer feature with Mario Kart style attacks known as ‘Glitches’ – these randomly spawn, and if a player collects one it will ‘glitch’ the other players with one of a number of temporary negative effects, such as under-powered shots or invincible enemies,” Colls explained.

October 8, 2016

Fierce Kaiju Returning to Gear VR with Viral: Quarantine

Yesterday VRFocus reported on British developer Fierce Kaiju announcing it would be remastering its original Samsung Gear VR title Viral for Oculus Rift, with additional Oculus Touch support. The studio hasn’t stopped there though, as it has also announced a new project for the mobile head-mounted display (HMD), called Viral: Quarantine.

An offshoot of Fierce Kaiju’s original videogame, Viral: Quarantine once again puts players in the role of Ragnarok the Anti-Virus. Doing the bidding of the sentient AI known as E.V.E, Ragnarok has now been sent to quarantine – a place viruses are kept before deletion – and while waiting to hopefully return to the computer mainframe decides to kill some time in the usual fashion.

Viral Quarantine Screenshot2

Featuring five areas to battle in, Viral: Quarantine keeps to the same gameplay style as the original but adds some new options for players to explore. There’s several new pieces of weaponry, including the Lure which attracts viruses in for an easier kill, and the Manipulator, allowing players to pick enemies up, smash them into the ground, and then throw them away.

Viral: Quarantine also includes support for the recently revealed Oculus Rooms feature. Rooms allows up to eight people to hangout together, so they can watch TV, listen to music and play mini-games. But it also enables those in the room to jump into another social app or videogame, which they can do with Viral: Quarantine. So players can jump into an arena and compete with friends to see who can achieve the best score.

Fierce Kaiju formed back in 2014 to focus on virtual reality (VR) development. The team is made up from several videogame veterans whose previous work includes Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption and Call of Duty among other titles.

Viral: Quarantine will launch later this year, and VRFocus will continue its coverage of Fierce Kaiju, reporting back with any further announcements.