wands – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

February 8, 2022

Spellcasting VR Game Wands Is Getting A Quest 2 Sequel

Multiplayer VR spellcasting game, Wands, is getting a full sequel in Wands Alliances.

Set to arrive on Meta Quest 2 in the first half of 2022, Wands Alliances doubles down on the original’s multiplayer focus, now pitting two teams of three against each other in magical battles. Check out the first trailer for the game below.

Wands Sequel Announced

As with the original game, players will build out their own arsenals of attacks, whilst also taking cover to defend themselves. The game is set in an alternate-era Victorian London.

And that’s about all we have to go on for now. Expect to see more from the game in weeks leading up to reveal, though there’s currently no confirmation of possible PC VR or PSVR versions.

We reviewed the first Wands when it released for Gear VR all the way back in 2016. “There are lots of different maps to battle on, an inventive spell customization interface, and some truly intense duels waiting to be had in the depths of this mysterious and mystical world,” we said, giving the game 7/10 (yes, we used to do those). Let’s hope the sequel can build on what the first game delivered, then.

Alliances will be the core Cortopia team’s third VR release after the original game and the enjoyable Down the Rabbit Hole. The studio itself is part of VR publisher, Beyond Frames, which also recently put out Spacefolk City.

Are you looking forward to Wands Alliances? Let us know in the comments below!

February 8, 2022

‘Wands Alliances’ is a 3v3 Spellcasting Battle Arena Coming Soon to Quest 2

Image courtesy Beyond Frames Entertainment, Cortopia

Beyond Frames Entertainment and developer Cortopia announced a new spellcasting VR battle arena called Wands Alliances, touted as the spiritual successor to 1v1 magic dueler Wands (2016).

The studios say Wands Alliances is bringing the original’s high-paced magic and wand wielding to a new team-based 3v3 format, which is set in an alternate Victorian era London.

Like the original, Wands Alliances is looking to bring a wide array of spells and arcane gadgets to the table; the team says players will need to carefully choose loadouts and “tactically utilize their play space and covers to achieve victory against their opponents.”

There’s still plenty to learn about Wand Alliances. It’s not clear whether the game will feature timed exclusivity, however Beyond Frames says Wands Alliances is launching on Quest 2 sometime in the first half of 2022.

First launched on Samsung GearVR in 2016, the original Wands eventually made it to all major VR platforms over the years, arriving most recently on Quest in 2019. This could point to a similar rollout in the future, although we’ll just have to wait and see.

We also haven’t gotten a glimpse of any gameplay. Beyond Frames says we’ll be hearing more about Wands Alliances soon, so stay tuned.

Headquartered in Stockholm, Beyond Frames is an XR games publisher with its development studios Cortopia, Moon Mode and partner Odd Raven. Besides Cortopia’s Wands, Beyond Frames is also known for publishing async co-op game Carly and the Reaperman, narrative adventure Down the Rabbit Hole, and city simulator Spacefolk City.

The post ‘Wands Alliances’ is a 3v3 Spellcasting Battle Arena Coming Soon to Quest 2 appeared first on Road to VR.

September 17, 2021

Humble Bundle’s Fall VR Emporium Deal Includes $154+ of Games

2020’s Humble Bundle Fall virtual reality (VR) offer arrived a little late in the season but that’s not the case in 2021, a little early in fact. The Fall VR Emporium Bundle has just gone live where you can get up to seven titles for an incredibly low price for a limited time.

This year’s VR bundle features quite the crop of VR videogames with Arizona Sunshine, House Flipper VR, Until You Fall, Zero Caliber VR, A Fisherman’s Tale, Paper Beast and Wands all featuring. As always there are various options depending on how much you want to spend and which titles take your fancy, it isn’t quite pick ‘n’ mix but it is close.

You can go for the one item bundle which is Wands, where you have to pay at least £0.72 GBP. Then there’s the four-item bundle with Zero Caliber VR, A Fisherman’s Tale, Paper Beast and Wands for a minimum of £10.64, But is you don’t have any of these titles then you may as well go for all seven at the minimum purchase price of £10.83.

If you’re new to Humble Bundle the whole point is that this is a charitable offer, encouraging you to pay a little more – why not round up to £20 for example? – for a good cause. It’s not a solitary cause you might not be interested in either, you can select which organisation receives your funds (there’s GamesAid, Women in Games International and many more) and how much is split between the publisher, Humble Bundle and the charity.

There are definitely some choice titles in the selection such as Schell Games’ roguelike sword fighter Until You Fall and Pixel Reef’s delightfully out there puzzler Paper Beast. Both are VR experiences everyone should have a go at.

The Fall VR Emporium Bundle is available now through to 1st October 2021. For further updates on the latest VR deals – like the Oculus Quest Larcenauts one tomorrow – keep reading VRFocus.

November 4, 2020

Wands Latest Update Makes Them Even More Powerful

Whilst many virtual reality (VR) titles from 2016 have long since been forgotten as the technology has continued apace, Cortopia Studios spell casting PvP videogame Wands going with a continual stream of updates. The latest to arrive this week is the Wands Powers Update, significantly changing the nature of the titular magic item.

Up until now, all the wand designs were purely decorative, the only change being the spell combinations players chose. They’ve now had a major overhaul so that they to include unique properties, with most having two whilst a select few have three. The Classic which is good for beginners features XP Gained +25% and Mana Regen +10%. More advanced wands feature good and bad traits, the Invicta, for example, has Points Won/Lost +25% but -25 to Max Health and Max Mana.

In addition to the new powers Cortopia Studios has introduced five new wands to the game: Aspis Claw, Ophidian’s Vigil, Celestial Spine, Ortus Armament, and Dead Master’s Staff. Making for a total of 15 wands to experiment with.

“The new wand powers add an extra dimension of fun and strategy to the game. Some of the wands will offer simple bonuses, and others will provide the opportunity for innovative playstyles that have never been seen in The Beyond. All players will benefit from this update, even if they never change their currently equipped wand. The five new wands that we’ve added to the game are as interesting as they are beautiful since they possess some of the most unique powers on offer. We’ve balanced every wand so the ones you choose are a matter of preference, not an easy path to victory. With this update, we’re happy to finally make the wands a bigger part of Wands!,” says Elliott, QA & Community Manager at Cortopia in a statement.

Alongside the wands, players will also have the chance to select a new character, The Templar. She is no ordinary character as she cannot be bought, instead only the top three players in a monthly event can attain her.

Wands last big update came during the summer, adding dual wielding so that it made better use of 6DoF controls, in the process halting further updates for older headsets like Gear VR.

The update is now available on the Oculus Quest platform and for PC VR headsets. It’s coming soon to PlayStation VR. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

November 3, 2020

Wands Is Making Its Wands Much Cooler In New Update

Some four years after its initial release, Cortopia Studios’ Wands keeps going strong.

The multiplayer wizard sim today introduces the Wand Powers update. Headlining the free drop is a new system that adds properties to each type of wand in the game.

Wands Update Adds New… Wands

Previously the type of wand you choose was purely cosmetic and was then customized based on the spells you loaded into it. But Wand Powers, as they’re called, introduce subtle buffs to change the experience somewhat. The Classic, for example, gives players boosted experience and mana regeneration, while The Inductor deals extra electric damage and increases your maximum mana.

Not only that, but Cortopia is adding five new wand designs to the game, bringing the total number of weapons up to 15. These feature some of the game’s coolest designs yet, including one rifle-shaped wand and another that looks a little like a mace. I don’t think you’ll be clubbing anyone around the head with it though, sadly.

Players can also expect a new character to embody named The Templar, and a host of other improvements to the game. Among those are an Impossible difficulty setting when fighting AI, new titles to earn and changes to the game’s HUD. Overall there’s plenty to check out for the game, then.

The updates just rolled out to almost every version of the game across Quest and PC VR, though Cortopia says it’s “coming soon” to PSVR. Will you be checking out this new Wands update? Let us know in the comments below!

November 3, 2020

Wands Is Making Its Wands Much Cooler In New Update

Some four years after its initial release, Cortopia Studios’ Wands keeps going strong.

The multiplayer wizard sim today introduces the Wand Powers update. Headlining the free drop is a new system that adds properties to each type of wand in the game.

Wands Update Adds New… Wands

July 13, 2020

Wands Gets Roomscale, Dual-Wielding, Discontinues Gear VR Support

Cortopia’s Wands is the second VR game this month to discontinue Gear VR support.

The developer will no longer issue updates to one of the original versions of the game as it rolls out significant improvements to other platforms. “Unfortunately, we have to discontinue updates for Gear VR, as the Oculus SDK Wands uses is not supported,” a note on the game’s website reads. Last week we reported the Mojang’s Minecraft was also discontinuing support for Gear VR. The headset, which launched in its original form in 2014, is now all but dead after Facebook removed support in its Oculus SDK and Samsung stopped making phones compatible with it.

But Wands is far from done; in this month’s update, the game finally gets support for major features like roomscale and dual-wielding.

Wands originally launched on Daydream and Gear VR, where roomscale tracking isn’t available. But with Daydream dead and Gear VR left behind, Oculus Go is the only three degrees of freedom (3DOF) platform the game still supports. The roomscale update allows players on 6DOF platforms like Quest, Rift, Vive, Index, Cosmos and Windows Mixed Reality to navigate wider physical spaces in the virtual environments. No PSVR support is mentioned, though the kit isn’t really capable of roomscale tracking.

Dual-wielding, meanwhile, lets players load up spells in two hands for new combinations out on the battlefield. To top it all off, Cortopia has overhauled some of the game’s other stats and features to account for the new play options.

Will you be checking out the new Wands update? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Wands Gets Roomscale, Dual-Wielding, Discontinues Gear VR Support appeared first on UploadVR.

July 9, 2020

It’s Double Trouble in the Wands Dual Wielding Update

It’s testament to the popularity of PvP spellcasting videogame Wands that Cortopia Studios has continued to support the title for so many years, originally launching for Gear VR back in 2016. Today, the studio has announced its latest update, fundamentally changing the combat gameplay in the process.

As the name suggests, the ‘Dual Wielding’ update does just that, doing away with the single staff system in favour of a dual wand setup. The studio has done this to suit more modern 6 degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) controllers, whilst also changing the pace of the combat. Now, players have two spells on each wand, activating their offensive or defensive capabilities using the face buttons.

“We have spent a lot of time talking to our players and refining the new controls with the help of beta testers. Previously, players had to select and fire spells with different buttons, which many new players found cumbersome,” says Elliott, QA & Community Manager at Cortopia in a statement. “The new system allows for more intuitive gameplay while also taking advantage of both hands. We believe this fundamentally improves the game because it’s now easier to learn but harder to master. This sets the foundation for more content coming in future updates.”

This new approach also signals the end of any further updates to Wands’ original platform Gear VR, mainly due to the headset not supporting new Oculus SDKs.

“It’s sad to drop updates for Gear VR since it was the very first platform for Wands, which we developed the game for during 2015 and launched in August 2016, almost four years ago,” Ricky Helgesson, creative director of Cortopia Studios comments. ”That was early VR days, when 3DoF was still cool. Now, VR has taken leaps and Wands now plays best with 6DoF and a proper room-scale environment for the player to dodge spells and tactically use two wands instead of one. Both the team at Cortopia and the closed group of testers agree – this is an amazing update for the game and it will be awesome to see the great Wands community start playing it.”

In addition to the dual wielding, the update also includes improved roomscale support with the tiles enlarged so that players have more room to move around – great for dodging incoming projectiles or casting a spell over a ledge. Plus the locomotion system has been made easier and faster.

The ‘Dual Wielding’ update goes live today for Oculus Quest, HTC Vive, Valve Index, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. The Oculus Go and PlayStation VR version will get the update, just without the dual-wielding feature.

For further announcements from Cortopia Studios, keep reading VRFocus.

April 14, 2020

SpellPunk Is A Vibrant Magic-Dueling VR Game Coming This Month For PC VR

SpellPunk is a newly announced magic-dueling VR game with a bright, neon-tinted art style featuring vibrant magical effects and immersive hand-gesture gameplay that tasks players with drawing runes in the air to cast spells.

Incineration Productions is a new indie game studio established in 2018 and SpellPunk is set to be their first release and it’s coming exclusively to PC VR headsets via Steam and Viveport in Early Access on April 24th.

SpellPunk is a magical dueling game. In many ways, it looks and seems similar to both The Unspoken and Wands, except with a very heavy and specific focus on drawing particular runes in the air to cast spells at your enemy. There is no spellbook and no menu, you’ve just got to master your magic and use it to win in battle.

Notably, Penka Kouneva is in charge of the music, she is best known for her work as the composer on AAA games like Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, World of Warcraft: Legion, Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. Her talents should help make SpellPunk feel even more distinct and magical than its already abstract and vibrant art style.

Rather than your typical fantasy sounds though, Kouneva is employing a more modern musical style with hip-hop and EDM tracks instead to mirror the Jet Set Radio-style cel-shaded aesthetic.

Check out these amazing screenshots to get a feel for the impressive art style:

You can get a glimpse of what the game is like in the reveal trailer up above and keep an eye out for our impressions of the game closer to its Early Access launch on April 24th on Steam and Viveport.

The post SpellPunk Is A Vibrant Magic-Dueling VR Game Coming This Month For PC VR appeared first on UploadVR.

January 29, 2020

Get Oculus Quest Versions Of Accouting+ And Wands Cheap Thanks To Cross-Buy

Here’s a weird one. You can get the Oculus Quest versions of Accounting+ and Wands for cheap if you buy the Oculus Rift edition instead.

Both of these games are currently on sale on the Oculus Rift store. Accounting+ is down to $4.95 and Wands is down to $10. If you look on the Quest store, both are their usual full price. But because both games support cross-buy between Rift and Quest, buying the former version will net you the latter one for free.

It’s a very strange state of affairs. You might think cross-buy games would feature price parity between stores but, unless the discounts for the Quest versions are delayed, that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s especially curious given that, in recent weeks, Facebook has finally been running sales on Quest titles on its native store; there were no such sales for much of 2019.

Anyway, weirdness aside we’d happily recommend either of these titles on sale. Accounting+ is a short but memorable adventure in which you dive ever deeper into a maddening set of VR worlds. It’s developed by Crows, Crows, Crows in collaboration with Rick and Morty developer, Justin Roiland. That should give you an idea of just how eccentric the experience can be. We still think it’s one of the most unique experiences you can have in VR.

Wands, meanwhile, is a fun magical duelling game in which you can kit out your very own magical weapon and take it into battle. It’s a little on the old side by VR’s standards, but still one of the better wizard offerings on Quest.

Hopefully we’ll have another set of Oculus Quest weekend deals to share with you towards the end of the week, but no confirmation of that just yet.

Will you be picking up either Accounting+ or Wands on Oculus Quest? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Get Oculus Quest Versions Of Accouting+ And Wands Cheap Thanks To Cross-Buy appeared first on UploadVR.