The advent of consumer virtual reality seems to have reignited the fire in independent developers. But, although many are rushing headlong into VR content creation, just how sustainable is the ecosystem they’re about to enter? In a preview of a full industry report due to be published next month, Greenlight VR take a closer look.
At GDC 2016 we got to take a look at the latest STEM VR controllers from Sixense. With units purportedly on track to begin shipping next month, the company is also committing resources to create a promising cross-platform multiplayer experience called Siege VR which could turn into something much bigger than a mere demo.
James Green is the creative director at Carbon Games, and he was inspired to create AirMech: Command from playing a 1989 game called Herzog Zwei, which was one of the first real-time strategy games that also used a gamepad as the primary control scheme. It’s usually recommended to design a game from the ground-up with VR in mind, but the VR port of AirMech’s tabletop aesthetic works really well in VR and gives you the feeling of being able to watch your childhood war toy battles come to life. I had a chance to catch up with James at the Oculus Game Days event at GDC where he talked about his inspirations and VR design process.
Now in its third year, the SVVR Conference & Expo represents one of the premier events on the virtual reality calendar. Tickets are now on sale with the conference to be held at the San Jose Convention Center between April 27-29, and early birds can save $100 by registering now.
Amazon have announced that launch bundles for the forthcoming PlayStation VR headset that include both the PlayStation Camera and Move controllers will be back ‘in stock’ and available to buy from 2pm PST today.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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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.
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Theme music: “Fatality” by Tigoolio
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.
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.
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
