Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders is an upcoming shooter for Magic Leap One, and while not much is really known about Weta’s AR game, a recent job posting searching for a Networking Programmer at Weta Workshop could mean the company is pushing to make it a multiplayer experience.
The posting lists a few responsibilities that have piqued our interest, namely the job of designing real-time multiplayer architecture for the game, developing the networking layer for a shared multiplayer AR experience, and working with game and level designers to conceptualize and create adaptive and scalable game-level network features. In short, it appears the Magic Leap One shooter is going to be a multiplayer game.
You can check out the full job posting here.
Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders was first teased back in 2015 in a Magic Leap concept video produced by Weta Workshop, Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based conceptual design and effects studio. Dr. Grordbort is an original IP developed by Weta Workshop’s Greg Broadmore in 2009 that tells the story of an anachronistic colonialist named Cockswain who is armed to the teeth with retro-futurist ray guns as he conquers the galaxy.
Recently Magic Leap and Weta Workshop together founded a 50-person gaming-focused team dubbed Weta Gameshop, which is comprised of half Weta and half Magic Leap staff set in a warehouse at Weta’s site in Miramar, New Zealand.
Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders is said to feature the voices of Stephen Fry and Rhys Darby, and be chocked full of robots that you have to fend off from all directions with a host of weapons including a grappling gun, and laser pistols dubbed the ‘Saboteur 66’ and the ‘Wave Blaster 6000’.
It’s possible if Weta and Magic Leap are only now looking to include multiplayer as a core feature of the game, that it may be a ways off in terms of launch. The posting however maintains that launch will be sometime this year.
We’re hoping to learn more at Magic Leap’s L.E.A.P. developer conference next month.