VR ice hockey training company Sense Arena announced that it’s closed a $3 million investment round, something the startup says will be used to support continued development on its ice hockey training platform as well as expand to new sports.
A new squad-based online battle game called World of Mechs is coming exclusively to Meta Quest 2 on May 26th, and it’s promising a bevy of mechs to pilot.
Apple is a notorious black box when it comes to internal projects, although sometimes details based on supply chain rumors shed a sliver of light on what might be happening with the company’s AR/VR headset behind closed doors. Much less common coming from Apple are direct internal leaks, however a report from The Information alleges that 10 people on Apple’s mixed reality headset project team have detailed some of the past design challenges and possible direction the headset may take moving forward.
Fixing up an old tower without tools sounds like hard work, but much less so when you have an army of robotic clones at your disposal. That’s the idea at least behind The Last Clockwinder, a VR automation-puzzle game from Pontoco which is slated to hit Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets next month.
The Last Clockwinder is officially slated to land on Meta Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets on June 2nd, 2022, Pontoco announced.
In addition to tossing out a new trailer, the studio has also confirmed that playtime is estimated to be somewhere between 4-6 hours of gameplay. We’re looking forward to learning more about the game soon as we dive in for review.
In the meantime you can also now wishlist the game on Quest 2 in addition to Steam. Check out the new trailer below, which reveals a little more of the narrative aspect to gameplay.
The Last Clockwinder developer Pontoco announced today that it has signed on with Cyan Ventures (the publishing arm of Cyan Worlds, ,the studio behind Myst, Obduction, and more) for publishing support, affirming plans for a Summer 2022 release date on Quest and SteamVR (though a specific date has yet to be announced).
The studio has also partnered with “boutique video games consulting agency” Robot Teddy (which has backed projects like SUPERHOT VR and Among US) who has contributed an unspecified amount of funding and will assist the studio with business development.
Speaking to the inception of the project, studio Pontoco said that it hadn’t specifically set out to make a VR game, but it found the tech was a natural fit for the mechanics they began to explore.
“We didn’t set out to make a VR game, initially. But we stumbled on this mechanic, and the more we played with it, the more we realised we had to make this game. We wanted to make an automation game, but where you were the machines. Unlike traditional automation games which have cumbersome programming steps, we worked hard to make the action of cloning effortless. You do normal tasks with your hands, and the clones are kept in perfect synchrony. Everything just works, every time.”
The original article, which overviews the game, continues below.
While on your mission to repair the ancient tower, which the team reveals is built into the trunk of a colossal tree, you find a pair of gloves that essentially lets you record your movements and spawn an army of clockwork automatons.
It ends up feeling like a mini steampunk version of Factorio crossed with an immersive take on the cleaning montage from Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).
Automatons help you grow plants, harvest resources, and “find a way to save the clocktower,” Pontoco says.
What is it being saved from? We’re still hoping to find out, as the game’s world-building looks already so mature that there must be some lore behind it all.
As it is, The Last Clockwinder seems rich with possibility, as you no doubt need to learn recipes and craft increasingly complicated things in your effort to get the old tower back in shape—something that definitely looks like a labor of love.
The Last Clockwinder is slated to arrive natively on Quest 2 (re: not the original Quest) and SteamVR headsets sometime in Summer 2022. You can wishlist the game on Steam here.
First time VR studio MikeTeevee is soon to release Shores of Loci, a 3D puzzle game backed by gorgeous and fantastical visuals. The game is set for an Early Access release on Quest 2 via App Lab and SteamVR on May 24th.
Meta rolled out a new Quest update that brings to the headset some previously revealed stuff, such as app-based locks and tracking support for more keyboards, but also some new features too which the company hopes will instill more confidence in user privacy, including encryption for text and voice chats through Messenger and in-headset 3D Secure payments.
While Oculus doesn’t offer much publicly in the way of understanding how well individual games & apps are performing across its Quest 2 storefront, it’s possible to glean some insight by looking at apps relative to each other. Here’s a snapshot of the 20 best rated Oculus Quest games and apps as of May 2022.
If you’re looking to jump into either Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017) or Resident Evil Village (2021) on a PC VR headset, you’ll need a mod to get your kicks. Now modder ‘Praydog’, who has developed a number of unofficial RE mods, says a new controller update is coming to both games soon which will bring full 6DOF support, which means you’ll soon be able to take on the universe’s myriad of wicked creatures mano a mano.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked a bit about the company’s upcoming high-end VR headset Project Cambria today and what it can do. The headset is still basically under wraps, however Zuckerberg showed off a bit of the experience of using the device, giving us a good look at Cambria’s color passthrough function, which allows it do some pretty convincing augmented reality tasks.
In an effort to help PC VR developers bring their content to Quest 2, Meta has ported Showdown, an old UE4 VR graphics showcase, to the headset as a case study in optimization best practices.
VR glove creator Manus has launched pre-orders for its latest device, Quantum Metagloves, an input solution targeted at enterprise users. The Netherlands-based company is looking to offer up more precise finger tracking than not only its past VR gloves, but also optical trackers current used in the industry.
Electronic Arts is bringing VR support to the PC version of F1 22, the upcoming Formula One racing game developed by Codemasters. Although the game isn’t due out until July, the studios have tossed out a few codes to YouTubers to show off just how the game will look in VR.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated a practical system for full-body tracking in VR using cameras mounted on the controllers to get a better view of the user’s body.
We now have the opportunity to come face-to-face with the myriad eldritch horrors that lurk within Elden Ring (2022). One of the most well-known names in the VR modding community, Luke Ross, has released his Elden Ring VR mod for the PC version of the game.
Horizon Worlds is Meta’s social VR platform for Quest 2 and Rift which includes ways for users to explore together, create their own rooms, and play mini-games. The company is making good on its vision to mold the social platform into more of a monolithic metaverse app by folding its live event app Horizon Venues entirely into Worlds.
