Schell Games, the makers of the critically-acclaimed spy-themed escape room game I Expect You to Die (2016), recently announced that they’re currently developing a dual-wielding sword fighting game that has elements of what the studio calls “a lightweight dungeon crawler.”
Karnage Chronicles, the sword and sorcery VR adventure in Early Access from Beijing-based Nordic Trolls, recently received a long-awaited update that now includes multiplayer co-op for up to four players.
Transference (2018) is a single-player psychological thriller that takes place in a shadowy reflection of reality—the simulation of a family’s collective minds who’ve presumably been corrupted after the father, a scientist, tests his breakthrough procedure on himself, his wife, and child. While fairly short in length, the game’s intense themes and film-like quality will leave you reeling well after the credits roll.
Mozilla today launched its made-for-VR web browser, Firefox Reality. The company says the browser is “designed from the ground up” for standalone VR headsets, and today it becomes available for the Oculus Go, Lenovo Mirage Solo, and Vive Focus (and other Vive Wave headsets).
Oculus today announced it will offer an immersive livestream during the company’s annual Oculus Connect developer conference, including coverage of the opening keynote and several VR esports championships hosted during the event. Owners of the Oculus Go or Gear VR headsets can join the immersive livestream via the Oculus Venues app which is unfortunately not available to the company’s desktop-based users who own the Oculus Rift.
Sólfar Studios, the Iceland-based studio behind roguelike VR archery game In Death, has announced that the game is set to launch out of Early Access on October 2nd, accompanying the ‘Paradise Lost’ update which will bring new enemies and a new weapon.
As part of the company’s ongoing development of the Pimax “8K” headset, a select group of Kickstarter backers recieved pre-production units to aid in testing and feedback ahead of production. Today those backers are allowed to talk publicly about their time with the latest ‘M2’ units. A preview from one of those backers, Thomas “VoodooDE” Poersch, speaks glowingly about the headset’s wide field of view, but suggests that it’ll take ultra high-end rendering hardware to reach the headset’s true potential due to the high resolution displays.
Chiaro and the Elixir of Life (2018) is a single-player, story-driven adventure game with emphasis on puzzle-solving and some light platforming. Accompanied by your penguin robot pal Boka, you go out in search of the Elixir of Life, a special alchemical brew that brings life to machines like Boka. Grand Studio Ghibli-style set pieces, mostly fun characters, and some interesting puzzles are however hobbled by finicky object interaction and a tone-deaf script that doesn’t ever quite deliver the punch it promises.
Charm Games, the studio known for the critically-acclaimed VR puzzle game FORM (2017), today announced their upcoming puzzle-adventure Twilight Path is slated to release arrive soon on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
Synaptics, a developer of input and display components for computers, smartphones, and other devices, recently introduced a new version of its ClearView display driver chip which has been optimized for head-mounted displays with high density displays, including a specialized feature for foveated rendering.
The long-awaited Vox Machinae is almost here, as developing studio Space Bullet Dynamics Corporation recently announced that the multiplayer mech battle game is finally heading into Early Access soon, supporting traditional monitors, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows VR headsets starting in early fall.
Chiaro and the Elixir of Life (2018), a first-person VR adventure from Montreal-based Martov Co., launched today on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows VR headsets. The result of a successful Kickstarter campaign, which saw a complete funding total of $10,088 CAD (~$7,730 USD), Chiaro is the new indie studio’s first game.
Though there wasn’t much groundbreaking in the Daydream news shared at Google I/O this year, the company is growing its AR/VR team at an accelerated rate, suggesting Google has a number of things up its sleeve yet. One recent job listing which caught our eye suggests that the company is ramping up its R&D efforts for lenses, now hiring a ‘Diamond Turning Technician’ to assist with rapid prototyping of “new and novel” optics for AR and VR devices.
Elijah Wood’s studio SpectreVision and Ubisoft Montreal announced Transference at last year’s E3, a VR thriller-adventure that takes into something of a virtual reality inside a virtual reality. It’s only a few more days until the game is officially released, with the highly-polished Transference hitting all supported platforms next week.
I Expect You to Die (2016), the spy-themed puzzle game from Schell Games, generated $1 million in revenue between its late-2016 launch and August 2017. Now a little over a year later, the studio reports they’ve recently closed in on the $3 million mark.
