NUREN: The New Renaissance has now obtained more than half of its crowdfunding goal, and with only a few days left until the close of their campaign they’ve also announced that they’ll be tacking on another big name in video game music composition to the project.

NUREN, a full-length VR rock opera, is more than halfway to its Kickstarter funding goal of $70,000, and as an added incentive to back the project, they’ve just announced that they’ll be collaborating with Chris Hülsbeck of Commodore 64 and Amiga fame to compose an entire track from the ground-up.

chrishuelsbeckHülsbeck is best known for his work on classic titles like The Great Giana Sisters(1987) and the Turrican series, but has written music for over 70 game titles throughout his career. Hülsbeck’s studio has also recently composed the score to the mobile game Doctor Who: Legacy, released just a few days ago.

This makes for two industry professionals composing for the project, with film soundtrack composer and ’80s synthpop extrodinaire Vince DiCola teaming up to create an entire segment of the project as well.

See Also: ‘[NUREN] The New Renaissance’ Oculus Rift DK2 Demo Now Available (video)

NUREN isn’t nearly as depressing as it sounds—the music certainly isn’t. The rock opera follows the awakening of two gynoids (female androids) that fall out of step in a dystopian world of regulated emotions, where humans are passive and the artificial intelligence of androids is shunted to serve the overall selfish interests of mankind. On the contrary, it’s actually very visually impressive and the soundtrack created by artist Jake Kaufman and vocals from Jessie Seely featured in the first downloadable chapter ‘Broken/Perfect’ is equally as masterful.

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[NUREN]: The New Renaissance Kickstarter

NUREN’s production studio, CSP Industries, is among the first recipients of Epic Games’ Unreal Dev Grant, and first VR experience to receive the grant coming out to $18,000 of ‘no strings attached’ funds. Epic’s confidence in NUREN serves as a powerful reminder of the experience’s potential, and will undoubtedly help them grow their VR experience further, but pales in comparison to the original Kickstarter funds requested by the team.

See Also: NUREN is First VR Project to Receive Unreal Dev Grant

So if you want to see more from NUREN, you can back them on Kickstarter, which if successful, will deliver $10-level access codes for the full experience starting in March 2016, and $25-level early access one month earlier. The team has also talked of porting the VR rock opera to a range of different VR headsets and other devices besides the Oculus Rift, so we’ll be keeping an eye out for any official mention of support for new headsets yet to get into the hands of eager developers and enthusiasts alike.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.