It’s been a long, long road for Golem, the upcoming PSVR exclusive title that’s been in development since even before Sony’s VR headset launched in 2016. After several major delays, Golem is finally due to launch, albeit a little later than previously planned.
Stormland, the VR open-world adventure from Insomniac Games, is set to launch tomorrow. The studio isn’t only offering the chance to unlock virtual collectibles for display in your Oculus Home when you actually play the game (a function made available to Rift platform titles some time ago), but in a bid to coax pre-orders, Insomniac is also offering exclusive collectibles to anyone who plonks down the $40 now before it goes live, raising a few important questions: ‘Are VR digital pre-order collectibles a thing now?’ and ‘Why the hell should I care?’
Legendary programmer and Oculus CTO John Carmack today announced he’ll be moving to a “consulting CTO” role in order to reduce his time spent at the company to a “modest slice.” This, he says, will make way for him to pursue new ventures outside of VR.
Already have some basic game dev experience and looking to get into VR? Then you may be interested in Oculus and Unity’s new intermediate level VR game development course, which is not only free, but can get you some valuable feedback from Oculus on your creation.
With Stormland, Insomniac Games set out to figure out if an open-world adventure game could really work in VR. The result? Not just ‘the new bar’, but a rather high one at that (not to mention one of VR’s first great co-op games).
Insomniac Games is no stranger to VR game development. Since 2016 the studio has created three Oculus exclusive VR titles—Feral Rites, Edge of Nowhere, and The Unspoken—but its next (and possibly last Oculus exclusive), Stormland, is unequivocally its most ambitious VR production yet. Stormland rewrites the rules about what a VR game can be by synthesizing & expanding many of the important lessons that Insomniac (and the industry at large) has learned about making compelling VR experiences in the years since first-gen consumer headsets hit the market. We spoke to the Lead & Principal Designers of Stormland, Mike Daly and Duncan Moore, to learn how they pulled it all together to create one of VR’s first truly native open-world games.
RGB Haptics is a new Unity-based tool that aims to make it easier for developers to create and implement haptic effects in VR games.
While Oculus doesn’t offer much publicly in the way of understanding how well individual apps are performing across its VR storefronts, it’s possible to glean some insight by looking at apps relative to each other. Here’s a snapshot of the top 20 Oculus Quest games and apps.
Boneworks, Stress Level Zero’s upcoming physics-based shooter, now has an official release date, which was revealed in a brand new gameplay video that shows off more of its creepy, but oddly familiar atmosphere.
The hit spy-themed VR puzzle game I Expect You to Die (2016) is getting a DLC mission soon, this time tossing you into a deadly encounter in space – the final frontier, and consequently the game’s final mission.
Microsoft today announced that its latest AR headset, HoloLens 2, is finally shipping. The headset can be purchased directly for $3,500 or rented for $125 per month.
Formerly known for its linear, story-driven VR adventure series The Gallery, Pistol Whip is a surprising shift for Cloudhead Games into VR’s rhythm and shooting genres. Surprising as it may be, the studio makes a strong case for fusing the two, with a ‘rhythm shooter’ that engages your body in a very unique and compelling way.
You might have had a chance to try the first two chapters of Wolves in the Walls when it came to Rift last year, which left users of the interactive VR experience on a pretty intense cliffhanger to say the least. Today, Fable Studio, a team made up of veterans from Oculus’ now defunct Story Studio, released the third and final chapter of the story. And it’s nothing short of masterful.
Beat Games, the Czech Republic-based studio behind Beat Saber (2018), is again making good on their promise to keep the fresh music flowing to their block-slashing VR rhythm game. Starting today, you’ll be able to download the newest paid DLC pack featuring some of the catchiest tunes to find their way into Rocket League (2015).
