Dueling Game ‘Ironlights’ Coming to PC VR & Quest in April

Cross-buy for Rift/Quest confirmed

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E McNeill, the developer behind VR strategy games Darknet (2015), Tactera (2016), and Astraeus (2018), is launching a new VR title next month called Ironlights which aims to bring a strategic bend to the melee combat genre.

Update (February 12th, 2020): The Ironlights Kickstarter passed with flying colors late last month, and now developer E McNeill has announced the official street date for the strategy-based dueling game.

McNeill tells Road to VR that the game has now passed Oculus quality assurance and is currently slated to launch on Quest, Rift, and SteamVR on April 9th for $20, which includes cross-buy for the Quest & Rift versions. All version are said to include cross-play multiplayer. The game will be available on Steam, and the Oculus Store for Quest and Rift.

The original article announcing the Kickstarter follow below:

Original Article (January 15th, 2020): Called Ironlightsthe still in-development game is setting itself apart from other physics-based melee titles by offering up a dynamic ‘back-and-forth’ combat scheme, which is designed to further eliminate careless controller waggling by way of a novel turn-based combat system. During a turn, only the attacker can land strikes while the defender must do their best to dodge or parry the incoming blows.

As a physics-based game, all weapons have weight and momentum. However striking an enemy automatically enters you into slow motion, forcing you move your body in slow-mo in order to maintain “optimal control” of your weapons.

In Ironlights, you’re also only allowed one hit per swing, as weapons shatter after each hit instead of bouncing off. By design, this is meant to side-step the sort of disconnect you might feel when you strike a virtual enemy and your physical controller keeps moving. McNeill says to think of it “sort of like a VR version of Street Fighter or Soul Caliber, mixed with SUPERHOT and maybe a dash of Beat Saber.”

Although Ironlights is said to be nearly finished, with launch slated for Spring 2020, the studio is searching for $15,000 in extra funding via a Kickstarter campaign, which promises a 25% discount off the full game ($20 MSRP) when it goes live later this year on Oculus Quest, Rift, and SteamVR headsets. The funds, McNeill says, will help bring to the game more armor models; backers at the $30 and above will get early access to the game.

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The game is set to include five classes at launch, which includes the Knight (two-handed greatsword), Duelist (rapier & buckler), Monk (staff), Ninja (dual katar-style daggers), and Crusader (flail & shield). And while it promises a single-player campaign, which will include duels, tournaments, and exhibition matches, the game is also targeting cross-platform multiplayer, featuring online and LAN-based modes.

Starting out in VR development is 2013, McNeill has since produced four VR games, including the early Gear VR hit Darknet. He’s been secretly working on Ironlights for some time now with Rockstar Games veteran Geoff Barber, something he calls his “biggest game yet.”

In addition to McNeill’s VR development chops and Barber’s programming expertise, much of the 3D art was built by SuperGenius, a high-caliber art studio which has worked with Blizzard, Double Fine, and Oculus. The game’s thumping soundtrack was composed by EDM artist Jordan Aguirre (aka bLiNd), who also created a few of the game’s sound effects.

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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.
  • JesuSaveSouls

    I liked boneworks so will give this a try.

    • Trenix

      I love pizza so I’ll give ice cream a try.

  • Immersive Computing

    Thoroughly enjoyed this developers work on Daydream, look forward to trying this on PCVR.

    Darknet is an excellent title (it’s on Steam for PCVR) and well worth trying if you haven’t yet.

  • 15000$ is nothing to develop such a game. This is just a way to marketing the game, of course

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  • They did it!

  • Matteo Valles

    Looks like the kind of game that will destroy friendships haha. Can’t wait to play it

  • david vincent

    yeah..nah I will stay with Blade & Sorcery