YJM Games – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

April 28, 2018

New Screenshots Released For OVERTURN: Final Operation

Recently it was announced that the story of virtual reality (VR) action title OVERTURN would be containing in OVERTURN: Final Operation. A new multiplayer continuation that sees up to four players working together to save the day in this action packed title.

OVERTURN: Final Operation - Logo

OVERTURN: Final Operation picks up right at the end of OVERTURN and the down of the Beholder. Now, Magi is left alone without any of her abilities and it is up to the players as androids to battle the hordes of enemies that seek to defeat Magi for good. She might not be able to fight but she can use the last of her power in an attempt to escape with the help of the players. This is not a solo-rescue mission mind you as up to four players can work together to battle the endless hordes of enemies and rescue Maji.

Using either the HTC VIVE or Oculus Rift, players will step into the shoes of the mysterious androids sent by an unknown force to rescue Magi. With wave after wave of enemies coming to destroy her you will need to make use of every weapon and item you can find in order to keep her alive and lead her to safety. To mark the announcement a number of screenshots for the title have been released which give players a look at what to expect in this upcoming multiplayer title.

With plenty of enemies to take down, and some rather impressive looking weapons, players will want to work together and utilize their surroundings rescue Magi. If the enemies are getting to much to handle players can make use of items such as grenades to deal some massive damage in a wide area. The shield and healing items will ensure you have more of a fighting chance and for really dealing out the damage there is the Rapid Beam Rifle. This fully automated firearm is designed to fire high damage dealing enemy beans at rapid speeds, making it the ideal combat option.

OVERTURN: Final Operation is set to be releases sometime next month (May 2018) and according to co-developer and publisher oneIMMERS be a free release. VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on OVERTURN: Final Operation in the future and you can view the release screenshots below.

March 27, 2018

Multiplayer RPG Preta: Vendetta Rising to Find its way to PlayStation VR This Week

YJM Games, the publisher behind Smashing the Battle VR and OVERTURN, launched Illion Games’ RPG adventure Preta: Vendetta Rising into Steam Early Access last year for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Having been fully release for both platforms, Preta: Vendetta Rising is now scheduled to arrive on PlayStation VR this week.

Preta: Vendetta Rising screenshot

The story in Preta: Vendetta Rising puts you in the fantasy world of Akirion, a place that’s been ravaged by a virus turning everything into dangerous monsters called Pretas. Inspired by videogames such as Dark Souls, Diablo, and Monster Hunters, you play a mercenary hired to save the day. So its up to you (with the option of adding two friends) to head out on a hack’n’slash adventure with more than 50 hours of gameplay.

Featuring a fully featured crafting system to help you on your quest, you’ll be able to make powerful weapons, armour, accessories and other useful items. You’ll also be able to raise and train your own pets to help fight the myriad of monsters and boss battles.

Just like most RPG’s Preta: Vendetta Rising has three characters for you to chose from. Marcus is the traditional warrior type, big muscles, knight armour and a deadly sword. Then there’s Alicia a much more nimble close quarter specialist who’s weapon of choice is the chain sword. Finally, for those who like to wield magic there’s Reina; she maybe a child but she’s a force to be reckoned with.

Preta: Vendetta Rising screenshot

Want to know whether its worth picking up? Well its the only title coming to PlayStation VR this week, and it happened to be included in VRFocus’ “The Best Oculus Rift Games You’ve Never Played“, saying that: “Some may call it formulaic, others will invest 20 hours into the videogame before they realise it.”

Preta: Vendetta Rising will launch for PlayStation VR on Thursday, 29th March 2018 in both North America and Europe. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Illion Games and YJM Games, reporting back with the latest updates and announcements.

February 6, 2018

Taking on the Legions of Hell in Inferno: Deathfield

Arriving last month on Steam Early Access was Framing Inc.’s first virtual reality (VR) title for HTC Vive, a tough adventure title called Inferno: Deathfield. Of course VRFocus has previewed the experience and created one of our popular gameplay videos for you to see what the title is all about.

Inferno: Deathfield

Inferno: Deathfield is a mixture of hack and slash gameplay mixed in with wave shooter mechanics. Each area you walk into will spawn several enemies, once these have been killed another set will then appear. Once these have been vanquished the way opens up to continue your journey, so whilst fighting them you’re restricted to that particular area – there’s no running away and back tracking to find health.

This means that Inferno: Deathfield can be quite difficult at points, unrelenting in its attacks if you wade in all brazen. Think of the difficulty in a similar vein to Dark Souls, just this time you’re trapped in mini arenas. Obviously you don’t come empty handed. You can choose between a sword or crossbow in one hand with the other holding a magic shield or another crossbow. You also have the ability to slow time, giving you an advantage should you get surrounded.

As you’ll see from VRFocus’ gameplay video below the gameplay can be incredibly hectic, so it’s always best to plan how you move into a new area. While the sword is good, it’s not as powerful as the crossbow. But the crossbow only holds ten shots before needing to recharge. And the last thing you want is some hellish demon appearing when you’ve run out of ammo.

Inferno: Deathfield

Of course, to learn more about some of the finer aspects of Inferno: Deathfield you’ll need to read VRFocus’ preview. This goes into more depth about some of the issues encountered. For any further updates on Inferno: Deathfield and its Early Access development, keep reading VRFocus.

November 3, 2017

Hands-On: ‘Overturn’ is a Serviceable Fast-paced VR Shooter But Missing a Standout Feature

Described as an “action-puzzle adventure game”, Overturn’s puzzle elements play a secondary role; the game weighs heavily on fast, first-person action, combining projectile weapons and frantic melee combat with fists, shields, and blades. Overturn is available now on Steam for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift; it is also in development for PSVR.

Waking up in a laboratory complex, you’re immediately introduced to the game’s narrative design, which is text-based, describing your character’s thoughts in the centre of your vision. It’s a welcome choice in this case, as even the best voice talent would struggle to deliver this questionable script in a convincing manner. Once you begin exploring the laboratory, you’ll find the text ‘checkpoints’ already laid out across the level—similar in appearance to Valve’s ‘developer commentary’ text bubbles—hardly conducive to maintaining immersion.

Floating text aside, Overturn delivers a sharp presentation, with intuitive menu systems, useful tips placed logically in the game world, and slick environments, lighting, and effects. Production values aren’t sky-high, but there are atmospheric moments, particularly when it goes dark and you’re given a flashlight (I just wish it could be held it in both orientations), and levels have been designed intelligently to play to the strengths of VR. The anime-style character design might not be to all tastes, but it is less exaggerated than the work-in-progress footage (and the studio’s previous title that appears to be based in the same universe, Smashing The Battle VR) and works well with the overall aesthetic.

VR FPS locomotion enthusiasts will be pleased to hear the game offers both freeform ‘traditional’ movement input for those who want to glide around smoothly, and teleporting with snap turning for those susceptible to VR sickness. The teleport option is well-implemented, limiting the jump distance so you can’t ‘cheat’ the system too much, and the fuzzy visual blur on each transition is surprisingly effective. Snap turning is also welcome, but the rotation might benefit from being even faster, if not instant.

Overturn’s straightforward level progression is well-judged in terms of pacing, introducing the player to melee combat with fists on a few basic enemy types, before offering grenades and laser weapons. The blocking system works well enough, bringing your hands together to defend as you would in boxing, but the actual punching—and eventually blade-swinging—can quickly regress into wild hand-flailing, particularly on ‘Easy’. ‘Normal’ difficulty is challenging enough to warrant a more deliberate approach at times, but there is a distinct lack of nuance to the close-quarters combat, with little in the way of impact animation. Ranged weapons fare much better, and the grenade-throwing physics are intuitive.

Once you meet Magi, a mysterious girl with incredible powers, the game steps up several notches, and combat becomes more frantic and varied. Magi follows you around, offering a range of power-ups including ‘Time Slow’; as always, slow motion combat is endlessly enjoyable in VR. She can also craft health packs, which you consume by holding them up to your face, and you need to maintain her energy and health too. Battle arenas begin to introduce cover, which, as with all VR FPS games, becomes useful in a more organic way than traditional cover mechanics played on a flat display, as players will naturally gravitate to walls to physically hide/duck behind.

Enemy types and boss battles are also varied, and the game introduces new weapons and mechanics at an enjoyable pace. Since its recent launch on Steam, Overturn has grappled with enemy balancing, with the ‘Normal’ mode being rather too difficult at times. After a few rounds of updates, the game is in a better place, while still offering a serious challenge. There isn’t a stand-out feature, and its presentation is dripping with clichés, but Overturn is weirdly compelling enough to retain my attention.

The post Hands-On: ‘Overturn’ is a Serviceable Fast-paced VR Shooter But Missing a Standout Feature appeared first on Road to VR.

September 28, 2017

VRFocus Leaves a Trail of Destruction Playing OVERTURN

Earlier this weeek VRFocus reported that Studio HG and publisher YJM Games announced their next virtual reality (VR) title, OVERTURN, for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Whilst previewing the title VRFocus decided to capture some gameplay video showcasing some of the action.

OVERTURN is set in the same universe as Studio HG’s other VR experience Smashing the Battle, but this time you’ve got to escape a laboratory that’s been engaging in genetic experiments, upon you and your companion MAGI. While you provide the muscle, dispatching enemies at will MAGI provides support, with both offensive and defensive capabilities like grenades or HP boosts.

The gameplay video below takes place on the third level, with the first two gently easing you into the mechanics of OVERTURN before you meet MAGI at the end of level two. The reason for starting at level three is that it gives you a good idea how most of the gameplay works, with plenty of action dispatching foes with two blades and a couple of simple puzzles to break things up.

OVERTURN will launch for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift via Steam and Oculus Store on 17th October 2017, for any further updates keep reading VRFocus.

September 27, 2017

Preview: OVERTURN – Glorious Anime VR Mayhem

You may have heard of indie developer Studio HG before, with its first virtual reality (VR) title Smashing the Battle, a top down hack n slash adventure where players control one of two female characters as they try to escape a massive robotics factory. Well sticking to the same universe is follow-up OVERTURN, keeping its predecessors all out action, just this time you’re right in the middle of the fight.

OVERTURN’s story goes along the line of you playing someone who’s been imprisoned in a laboratory by some evil corporation that’s engaged in live genetic experimentation. So you need to escape and this can only be done with the help of MAGI, a fellow prisoner whose developed psychic powers from the tests. So using her skills and your brawn it’s a case of killing your way through as many enemies as possible – whilst solving some puzzles on-route – in a bid for freedom.

Being a hack n slash adventure most of the action unfolds as you may expect, enemies see you, then depending on their armament will generally shoot or charge at you. And so begins a lot of repetitive gameplay, with you just having fists to punch hostiles before eventually picking up grenades or limited use guns – there’s no inventory so if you can’t hold it you can’t take it. It’s just that once you get past the first couple of levels and begin unlocking all the items and abilities that repetition isn’t mundane, in fact it becomes a highly energetic challenge that’s very addictive.

Once you gain the energy swords and can start doing some serious damage to enemies, that’s where the fun begins, as each kill gains you more ESP to use MAGI’s abilities, such as healing you, giving you a grenade or activating Battle MAGI for a short period to unleash massive laser blast – although this does reduce her health.

As mentioned, OVERTURN does have a puzzle element to it, but from what VRFocus has seen so far it’s a very basic addition to a title that’s all about combat. To unlock certain doors you’ll need to find power buttons, or to pass a gap simply find a switch to make a bridge. As the levels tend to be fairly linear, with one way in and out, locating what you need to progress never tends to be overly difficult or faraway, it’s more about defeating the enemies in your path.

With this type of title movement is an important issue and thankfully OVERTURN has two options available, teleportation or free movement. If you’re new to VR or suffer from simulator sickness then teleportation works well enough, especially on the early levels when the enemies are spaced out. For everyone else you should be choosing free movement, no if’s, but’s, or maybe’s, because it makes OVERTURN that much better. On HTC Vive’s touchpad just lightly having your thumb on it will move you forward, with a press increasing the speed. Or press down both pads in the same direction to move even faster. When correctly applied, darting around the arenas and corridors becomes a breeze, dodging past incoming fire or going in for a sword attack then quickly moving back to avoid retaliation. It’s certain seems to be one of the best movement systems around for dealing with single or multiple enemies.

With this initial look at OVERTURN it’s a videogame that’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, just done well, offering players an action filled journey with swords, lasers, grenades and a very silent sidekick. Sure the puzzles aren’t that complex, and you spend a lot of time waving your arms around punching people in the face, sometimes that’s all you need. OVERTURN is coming out mid-October and VRFocus thinks this is one VR title that should be on your radar.

September 26, 2017

Check out the new Gameplay Trailer for OVERTURN

Yesterday VRFocus reported on Studio HG and publisher YJM Games announcing that their virtual reality (VR) title OVERTURN now had a confirmed release date of 17 October for both headsets. If you liked the look of the previous screenshots and cinematic trailer released then you’ll want to check out this new gameplay video.

As previously reported, OVERTURN’s adventure combines immersive puzzle elements with action gameplay across multiple hours of in-game levels, with the plot revolving around two subjects who are trying to escape from a deadly laboratory that engaged in live genetic experimentation.

Players are teamed up with fellow subject MAGI, together they must survive an onslaught of robotic enemies using an assortment of weapons, from beam rifles, energy swords and grenades, to mechanical robots and bare fists. MAGI has immensely powerful psychic powers, able to wield offensive powerups like Infinite Charge, Grenade, and Battle MAGI, and defensive abilities such as Time Slow, Shield, and HP.

Take a look at the frantic action in the gameplay video below, and keep reading VRFocus for the latest updates.

January 19, 2017

YJM Games Become First South Korean Investor in The VR Fund

Today South Korean developer YJM Games has announced a partnership with The Venture Reality Fund (The VR Fund), providing investment alongside building a network to expand their global virtual reality (VR) plans.

Through YJM Games’ US subsidiary, YJM Games USA, the company plans to make quick strategic investments in VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) specialised businesses, keeping up with the latest trends in Silicon Valley, as well as taking a leading role in its home Asian market.

“We are very pleased and honored to have YJM Games as our first partner in Korea,” says Marco DeMiroz, co-founder and general partner at The VR Fund. “In terms of the VR and AR market size, we believe that it is a good opportunity to communicate innovative VR and AR content through the alliance with YJM Games in major Asian markets, while also promoting Asian VR and AR content to the global market.”

Visualise launches Norwegian 360 experience_1

The VR Fund has become a major contributor to VR startups, having invested in Owlchemy Labs, developer of Job Simulator; TheWaveVR, which is currently in the process of developing an immersive music platform; and SLIVER.tv, a specialist in live streaming esports in VR, recently announcing 14 upcoming tournaments for 2017. The VR Fund is also a member of the Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance (VRVCA), a $10 billion USD global investment consortium of 30 members, featuring Softbank, HTC Vive, Colopl VR Fund, Immersion Ventures, Sequoia Capital to name a few, formed to aid long-term growth in the VR industry through sharing and investing in both technology and content creators.

“We have already participated in the investment of The VR Fund by leading companies in the US and Japan,” says YJ Min, CEO of YJM Games. “We have participated in this fund LP with the best expertise in VR around the world, I hope to grow together.”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of The VR Fund, reporting back with any further announcements.