FOVE Raises $11 Million Series A Investment to ‘Accelerate Mass Production’ in Fall 2016
FOVE today announced a Series A investment of $11 million led by the Colopl VR Fund with participation by Hon Hai VC fund 2020, and Samsung Ventures.
Valve’s Jeep Barnett on Designing ‘The Lab’ for HTC Vive
Jeep Barnett is a programmer at Valve Corporation who has been on the VR team for the last couple year. He was at GDC showing off The Lab, which is a series of mini-games demonstrating different design principles within VR. I had a chance to catch up with Jeep after trying out four of their Lab experiments in order to learn more about how these came about as well as some of the VR principles that each one was trying to demonstrate. There are a lot more experiments left to be discovered when the Vive launches in the next couple of weeks, and these mini games and experiences definitely have a lot of replayable qualities and will make quite the impression as a lot of people’s first-time VR experience.
Unity’s VR Editor Lets You Create VR Content Like a God
At a special event at GDC this morning, Unity’s Principal Designer Timoni West showed off the latest prototype of Unity’s new Virtual Reality editor that lets you build VR applications and games as if you were a god.
PlayStation VR Pre-orders Sell Out in Minutes at Amazon, 4 Other Stores Still Taking Orders
Those hoping to board the early train to VR town were likely dismayed today when Amazon’s PlayStation VR Launch Bundle pre-order sold out within minutes of going live. Luckily it may not be too late. In the US, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart, all appear to be still taking pre-orders for the bundle.
Ben Gabbard on the VR Design & Gameplay of ‘Chronos’
Gunfire Games’ Chronos is an atmospheric RPG with over 10 hours of action and adventure, and it uses a satisfying combat game mechanic that’s very similar to their Herobound: Spirit Journey on the Gear VR. Chronos had a lot of buzz from GDC as being one of the more compelling launch titles for the Oculus Rift, and the promise of 10-12 hours worth of gameplay has many people looking forward to getting immersed within a grand adventure reminiscent of the Legend of Zelda. I caught up with developer Ben Gabbard at GDC talking about some of the gameplay design and VR design principles that they implemented with Chronos & Herobound: Spirit Champion
PlayStation VR Launch Bundle Pre-orders Opening at Amazon Today (Update: Sold Out)
Sony’s PlayStation VR headset is due to reach consumer homes in October and Amazon in the US are going live with PlayStation VR launch bundles today from 7AM PST for $499.
‘Defense Grid 2’ Proves How Compelling Tower Defense in VR Can Be
Jeff Pobst admits that it’s probably not a new Rift owner’s first thought to go out and buy a tower defense game, but Defense Grid 2: Enhanced VR Edition proved to me how compelling a tower defense game can be in VR. It’s a tabletop scale strategy & puzzle, building game where you’re trying to stop all of the waves of aliens before they steal all of your cores.
LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST
Hidden Path Entertainment has integrated a lot of really interesting information visualizations including a heatmap overlays and a point progression graph so that you can compare yourself to your friends. These are some very interesting visual cues that enable to track your progress and efficacy of your decisions over time, and one that was difficult to implement but dead simple to understand.
There’s also a very simple interface that even supports the minimalist input of using an Oculus remote, and Jeff said that they wanted to have a limited set of simple verbs and actions you could take. This allows you to get deeply immersed within this beautiful levels and while completely focusing on the strategic gameplay.
One of the more delightful surprises is that Defense Grid 2 integrates a hidden object mini-game that encourages you to fully explore and look at their beautiful miniaturized levels in great detail. You can switch between the third-person tabletop view and a first-person tower view in order to watch the action up close, but also get a lot of new perspectives on the different levels.
I had a chance to catch up with Jeff Pobst, the CEO of Hidden Path Entertainment, and the Oculus Game Days event. I was struck with how excited and passionate he was about this game, and it’s one of those games that actually works really well within VR even if it’s not a genre of game that you immediately associate with wanting to play in VR.
Jeff says that there’s anywhere from 14-15 hours worth of gameplay in addition to the many difficulty levels, and a variety of different puzzles and opportunities to cultivate your strategic decision-making skills. Defense Grid 2: Enhanced VR Edition is an Oculus launch title with a comfortable rating, and sells for $29.99.
Become a Patron! Support The Voices of VR Podcast Patreon
Theme music: “Fatality” by Tigoolio
Optimizing Gameplay and Fun with Fantastic Contraption
Fantastic Contraption is an amazingly fun and super compelling world building tool where you build contraptions that get from point A to B, and it was recently announced as one of the games that’s going to be bundled with the launch of the HTC Vive. I first caught up with the developers Sarah & Colin Northway at PAX Prime last August, and I just recently had a chance to get some updates from Sarah at the Unity Vision Summit. She talks about the updates to the gameplay including streamers that help you visualize the physics of your contraption better as well as how they’ve been optimizing for fun and play by making it possible to turn your contraption into a musical instrument. She also talks about the mixed reality Twitch streams, some of her favorite stories of people playing around as well as some of her own personal experiences of the effect of time dilation in VR.
Hands-on: Oculus Touch 2016 Prototype Brings Refinements to an Already Elegant Design
Oculus Touch won’t launch until the second half of 2016, but the company continues to iterate on the impressively ergonomic VR controller. We went hands-on with their latest prototype at GDC 2016 last week.
Poll: Buying One of the Big Three VR Headsets This Generation? Tell us Which
With features, prices, and launch lineups announced, it’s the home stretch for the big three VR headsets: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. If you’re planning to buy one (or more!) let us know which in the poll below.
Planning to buy one of the top three headsets this generation? Which will you choose?
— Road to VR (@RtoVR) March 20, 2016
Crytek and Basemark Accidentally Made the Most Spectacular Cinematic VR Short I’ve Ever Seen
At GDC 2016 I saw an early version of VRScore, a virtual reality benchmarking program created in collaboration with Crytek and Basemark. To test PC hardware performance to ensure enough power for running VR experiences, Crytek created a real-time cinematic VR short called Sky Harbor which quite unexpectedly blew me away.
Survios Launches Paid Internship Program for VR Game Designers
Survios is one of the few studios that’s been working on VR game design and motion controls since even before Oculus was shipping their initial Rift DK1 headset. Now the company is opening its doors with an internship program for aspiring VR game designers.
GDC Round Table: Valve’s ‘The Lab’ & Survival Wave Shooters as VR’s FPS
Road to VR co-founder Ben Lang and writer Scott Hayden join me in our third and final GDC round table discussion talking about our demo highlights including Valve’s The Lab and a series of different shooters. There is a theme that’s emerging in VR game play where you have to survive waves of enemies coming at you, or you might be able to teleport to different areas giving you some feeling of agency around locomotion. These demos include: Arizona Sunshine, Raw Data, John Wick: The Impossible Task, Bullet Train, Damaged Core, & Space Pirate Trainer. We also talk about the Basemark Cinematic VR benchmark demo from Crytek that blew his mind, The Climb, Manus VR gloves, the Optitrak demo, and the beautiful La Peri from Innerspace VR. We also give a sneak peak to the Unreal Engine VR Editor, Vanishing Realms, Budget Cuts, Audio Shield, & Unseen Diplomacy.
UK Retailer Currys Lets You Go Hands-on With the HTC Vive Right Now
We’re just a few weeks out from the consumer arrival of two major VR systems, the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The biggest problem with VR however, is that in order to understand it’s potential, you need to try it for yourself. Now, UK retailer Currys is the first in the UK to offer its customers high-end, in-store virtual reality demo with the HTC Vive.
