Schlagwort: arcade

  • How Super Space Club Beautifully Pairs Hectic Arcade Gameplay with Pure Chill-Hop Jazzy Vibes

    How Super Space Club Beautifully Pairs Hectic Arcade Gameplay with Pure Chill-Hop Jazzy Vibes

    Reading Time: 5 minutes
    • Lo-fi arcade space shooter to chill to.
    • Stylized modern take on iconic classic arcade games that we all love.
    • Available now!

    Hey! Graham here, the Jamaican solo indie dev behind your next favorite space shooter, Super Space Club. I’m a big fan of the shoot-em-up genre, and I also have a ton of respect for classic arcade shooters. I’ve always wanted to make my own arcade-inspired shooter, while also making it my own — visually, sonically, and mechanically driven by my interests and my background. That’s how Super Space Club came to exist, and I’m not sure there’s anything that’s beat-for-beat akin to it.

    SSC animal face

    Your mission is to defend the galaxy by taking control of one of the five skilled anthropomorphic misfits known as the titular Super Space Club. Enemies are seemingly endless, profusely coming at you wave after wave, each wave increasing in difficulty and variety. You must skillfully dance around the sea of incoming attacks while launching your own, use your selected character’s ability to level the playing field, and if your ship runs out of energy, barely escape death by initiating your hyperdrive. This is the core loop of the game, and my homage to the arcade era of games where you could pick up and play a round or ten at any given point and thoroughly enjoy your time with it.

    From there, I brought it to the modern era of gaming with the art direction, certain gameplay mechanics, and most importantly, the music. I didn’t want to add to the seemingly infinite list of space-themed games set in a realistic dark and moody universe with intense electronic music as a backdrop to raise your blood pressure. Instead, Super Space Club takes the hectic moment-to-moment gameplay and pairs it with a funky, visually striking color palette and chill music with vocals to groove to.

    SSC Screenshot

    The heart and soul of Super Space Club is in fact the music. Thanks to the Missouri-based duo Fat Bard, the game truly sounds and feels one-of-a-kind. The soundtrack pulls from lo-fi, hip-hop, jazz, and reggae, and fuses them to make auditory butter. Laid on top of the tracks are vocals from African-American hip-hop artists, a Jamaican reggae artist, and a French hip-hop artist and singer, all of whom further elevate the music beyond your average “video game music.” It’s not just you, the player, that is listening to the tracks, however. The music is actually a part of the game as the characters themselves are jamming to it. When your ship takes damage, the track skips a beat. When you’re low on energy, the music becomes muffled so that you both can focus on surviving just one more wave. If you slow time, the music gets chopped and screwed.

    Utilizing color in the way I did allowed me to keep the game’s visuals minimal yet extremely readable and strikingly pleasant to look at for hours on end. Space should be a colorful place! Adding characters to the mix allowed me to have fun creating abilities that matched the animals’ personalities, and it allows you to find one that resonates with you both as a player and as a person. Each character has their own ability, look, and personality, and you’re sure to find your favorite of the bunch.

    Having various characters, weapons, and ships to unlock as you progress throughout the game, you’ll ultimately have over a hundred different loadout combinations at your disposal, each giving the game its own unique flavor — each combo changing how you play the game. Will you pair a slow yet sturdy ship, a character with a shield, and a low-speed, high-impact weapon to create a tank-like build? Or, will you pick a low-energy, speedy ship and combine it with homing missiles and a character who tosses out homing mines for a fragile chaotic run? There are so many combinations for you to try out and find which one suits your playstyle the most.

    Whether you decide to play Super Space Club as a zen wind-down experience, or as something to quickly dive into to try and get a new high score, I truly hope that you enjoy outlasting your enemies and vibing to the rhythm of the stars.

    Super Space Club
    Xbox Live

    Super Space Club

    GrahamOfLegend

    ☆☆☆☆☆ 4

    ★★★★★

    $14.99

    Super Space Club is a colorful endless arcade gunner set to the backdrop of chill, lo-fi music. As a club of skilled misfit pilots, defend the galaxy by taking on galactic forces and completing a series of thrilling missions. In space, everyone can hear you groove. Sling fireworks with the explosive Olly, or dish out ship-seeking shots with the stealthy Roscoe? With a variety of pilots, ships, and weapons at your disposal, choose the perfect build and soar across the stars through physics-based thrusting. As you’re taking down enemies and completing objectives, be wary of your ship’s energy. Depleting energy could leave you vulnerable to devastating damage. Don’t get too comfortable after coming out on top, as the next wave is always right around the corner. Despite the challenge that gameplay may bring, space can be quite dope. Missouri-based audio duo Fat Bard provides the backdrop of lo-fi beats and chill-hop tunes featuring vocal artists from around the globe. Paired with a vibrant and colorful cool-toned aesthetic, Super Space Club delivers a relaxing yet challenging arcade experience unlike any other.

    • Available now

    Website: LINK

  • Railbreak’s Free Time Korrisis Update Available Now and Upcoming Tailbreak DLC Expansion on Xbox Series X|S

    Railbreak’s Free Time Korrisis Update Available Now and Upcoming Tailbreak DLC Expansion on Xbox Series X|S

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Hello there, Survivors!  I’m Evan Wolbach, co-founder of Dead Drop Studios.  Today we’re excited to share more info about the present and future of Railbreak, our mind-meltingly entertaining on-rails shooter, which is currently available on Xbox Series X|S!  The new free Time Korrisis content update is available now, our ferocious Tailbreak DLC expansion arrives in October, and new players can save 20% on Railbreak via Deals with Game Pass from February 6th to February 13th.

    Railbreak screenshot
      Be Quick or Time Will Rapidly Expire

    The new features included in the free Time Korrisis update now available for Railbreak add a whole new dimension to the game’s variety! This feature changes the whole experience into a frenzied time attack game. Blast enemies and collect items to restore precious seconds to your timer; now on top of needing to survive, you also need to watch the clock. Running out of time in a mode will cost you a continue, and your rank will be determined by how much extra time you have remaining at the end of a round! This new twist on Railbreak’s ballistic on-rails arcade shooting is sure to provide a new challenge even for players who’ve already exhaustively blasted zombies!

    Railbreak new character
    Meet a Powerful New Character with the Most Outrageous Load out Yet!

    Another major component of Railbreak’s first free content update is the addition of playable character Korrine Joining the nine-character roster, Korrine’s play style is unique compared to the rest of the cast.  Korrine’s plasma cannon is a great screen clearing tool, but it costs a lot of ammo to fire. Her glitched sidearm causes all kinds of wild effects with each shot.  On top of the grenades that every character possesses, Korrine has a fourth weapon: the Katana. This weapon blasts sword beams that have a chance of dismembering your enemy, but using it also inflicts a Super Glitch; receive Korrine’s Blessing for improved score and damage output, but also be prepared for a significant nerf determined at random.  Korrine is the game’s first expert level character, so if you think you’ve seen it all, choose her for a spicy new challenge.  On top of the additions we’ve talked about today, Railbreak has also received a graphical boost on Xbox Series X|S and other tweaks to improve the gameplay experience.

    Railbreak Tailbreak dinosaurs
    Nature’s Most Ferocious Predators Join the Carnage this October

    Looking to the future, we recently confirmed that the Tailbreak DLC expansion will arrive for Railbreak this October.  If the zombie outbreak was bad, just wait until Cypress Ridge has to contend with fearsome dinosaurs, too!  The Tailbreak DLC expansion will include new voiced story content and levels, new modes, and more.  We hope you look forward to more ferocious details in the future as we stampede toward launch!

    If you haven’t leaped into the arcade madness of Railbreak, now is the best time to yet. With a total of two game types, six exhilarating modes, and nine characters with the free Time Korrisis update, the game has never been so exciting.  You can even enjoy a timed game trial on Xbox Series X|S before you commit to buying.  The newly announced Tailbreak DLC expansion coming this October also means there’s still plenty of thrilling content to come, so the fun has only just begun.  Save 20% via Deals with Game Pass from now until February 13th and show those pesky zombies you mean business today in Railbreak for Xbox Series X|S.  It’s a war against the undead….and the clock!

    Railbreak
    Xbox Live

    Railbreak

    Dead Drop Studios LLC

    ☆☆☆☆☆ 26

    ★★★★★

    $19.99

    Free Trial

    It’s Saturday night in Cypress Ridge which means the city is in ruins, hordes of flesh eating undead are on the prowl, and you have the arcade all to yourself! Grab your controller, select your survivor, and blast your way to safety as the city burns around you in this on-rails survival horror shooter. Oh, and don’t forget to bring a friend for zombie fodder, er, we mean multiplayer experience! Railbreak melds a classic on-rails arcade experience with the cutting edge Unreal Engine 5. In this prelude to Outbreak: Shades of Horror, you’ll get an opportunity to see the sights and sounds of Cypress Ridge and get chomped on by a zombie or four! Face the city alone, or bring a friend along with optional 2-player co-op supported across the entire game Featuring a wide cast of survivors each with their own loadouts and traits, you’ll find plenty of replayability in this absurd take of a survival horror game in a survival horror game. A full story mode experience awaits across six scenarios. Bonus modes include Score Attack, and the endless Onslaught Mode that keeps ratcheting up the difficulty until the undead finally seal your fate. Crack open your piggy bank, snag a fizzy soda, and take a trip back to the 1990’s arcade.

    ☆☆☆☆☆

    ★★★★★

    Website: LINK

  • Hide a huge arcade machine in plain sight with Raspberry Pi

    Hide a huge arcade machine in plain sight with Raspberry Pi

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Problem: I really want an arcade machine at home, but I don’t have the space for it.

    Solution: Build Alexandre Chappel’s giant two-player machine, which is sleek and hidden in plain sight on your wall.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB8VauGEvqg?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Subscribe to Alexandre’s YouTube channel

    Alexandre’s goal was to build something that looks like an ordinary piece of furniture, and that you’d have no idea is an arcade machine until you flip it open. It’s a fully functional two-player device and it requires no coding skills to set up.

    Big build

    It’s a big piece of furniture, so you’ll need a big space and a good table saw to get all the wood cut. Alexandre made the whole thing out of just one piece of oak plywood. He’s a woodwork perfectionist, and didn’t want any visible screws on the finished product, so he had to get fancy with biscuit joints. He also ironed on edge banding, to give an extra-smooth finish to the rough cuts of plywood.

    Maker cutting large piece of wood for the project
    Master carpenter in his giant workshop

    Hardware

    The electronics for the build arrived by way of a complete kit containing everything needed to make the joysticks and buttons. The kit came with a little circuit board which all the buttons and joysticks plug into, and the output is a simple USB which connects to the Raspberry Pi brain of the system.

    Back end of the arcade structure with raspberry pi and speakers and wires for buttons
    Raspberry Pi and wiring for buttons and joystick all tucked away in the back of the wooden frame

    Parts list

    (These are all links to the actual products used in this project)

    Software

    Alexandre had never used a Raspberry Pi before, but still found the electronics the easiest part of this build.

    finished hidden arcade mounted on wall
    Retro gaming easily accessible in your home

    This tutorial video made it easy to load up RetroPie software on the Raspberry Pi’s SD card and get some games onto a USB stick. And this video showed him how to run games from a USB device.

    Sleek design

    Everything is so neatly tucked away in this design. A slot for the USB cable and a Raspberry Pi reset switch are built into the wooden frame, so absolutely none of the electronics are on show.

    The design files are available to buy online

    Alexandre’s beautiful online shop allows you to buy full woodworking plans to recreate his projects. You can buy the design files for this project for $15.

    Website: LINK

  • Project CARS 3 Preview – So viel Arcade steckt im Sim

    Project CARS 3 Preview – So viel Arcade steckt im Sim

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Es gibt zahlreiche Rennspiele, Rennsimulationen und Games, die irgendwo dazwischen liegen. Aber Project CARS 3 ist anders. Warum das so ist und wieso der dritte Ableger mir echt Spaß gemacht hat, verrate ich euch in meiner Preview.

    Ihr kennt das bestimmt: Wenn ein MMO oder Rollenspiel einen gut durchdachten, sehr detaillierten Charakter-Editor besitzt, verliert man sich Stunden darin. Was bei Rust und Co. die Feinheiten der Gesichtszüge sind, ist bei Project CARS 3 die Felge, der Reifenhersteller oder das Muster eures Autos. Allein das Auswählen der Farbe für eines der über 200 lizenzierten Fahrzeuge hätte ich den halben Abend einplanen können. Metallic, Matt, Matt-Metallic… die Auswahl ist schier unendlich. Dazu kommen Felgen, Tattoos, Reifen-Hersteller und vieles mehr. Hier schlagen Tuning-Herzen höher!

    Erklimmt die Karriereleite

    Der neue Karriere-Modus lässt euch verschiedene Kapitel spielen, die jeweils aus vier Rennen bestehen. Ihr fangt dabei als einfacher Rennfahrer mit einem wenig spektakulären Wagen an und arbeitet euch hoch. Um das Abschlussrennen jedes Kapitels zu fahren und so mehr Ansehen zu genießen, müsst ihr zuvor allerdings einige Bedingungen erfüllen. Quasi eine Art Berechtigung erlangen, das Finale des jeweiligen Abschnitts zu fahren. Das gibt euch die Gelegenheit, die beliebig wiederholbaren Wettbewerbe als Übungsplattform zu nutzen, bevor es im nächsten Kapitel schwieriger wird. Gerade für Anfänger des Genres ist der Karriere-Modus optimal! Mit jedem Rennen sammelt ihr Erfahrungspunkte und steigt im Level auf – dazu könnt ihr euer Auto immer weiter aufrüsten. Doch Vorsicht:

    Seid nicht gierig!

    Wenn ihr nach den ersten (gewonnenen) Rennen neugierig den Upgrade-Bildschirm öffnet, gleicht es einem Tor in eine andere Welt. So viele Möglichkeiten! Jedes noch so kleine Bauteil kann verbessert werden, das euch zusätzliche Punkte in Sachen Beschleunigung, Handling und Co. gibt. Das ist eine gute Sache, vor allem Rennspiel-Neulinge könnten sich so einen kleinen Vorteil verschaffen.

    Direkt zu Beginn weist euch die KI darauf hin, dass ihr jederzeit auf- und abrüsten könnt. Sich zu verskillen, wie es im RPG-Jargon heißen würde, ist daher kaum möglich. Ich habe diesem Hinweis zunächst gar keine große Beachtung geschenkt und hatte ihn längst aus meinem Gedächtnis gestrichen, als mir die breite Weit des Tuning offen stand. Ein großer Fehler, wie ich später bemerken musste, denn: Tuning ist erlaubt – aber in Maßen! Wenn ihr es wie ich voller Eifer übertreibt und euer Fahrzeug bereits nach wenigen Rennen bis zum Optimum aufboostet, werdet ihr von vielen Rennen ausgeschlossen. Es funktioniert also nicht, eure Karre perfekt aufzuwerten, um dann mit Leichtigkeit ein Rennen der niedrigen Stufen zu gewinnen. Das wäre unfair und wird vom System direkt ausgebremst – cool!

    Braucht ihr Stützräder?

    Um den Einstieg zu erleichtern und gleichzeitig einen Anreiz für echte Skiller zu bieten, haben die Entwickler umfangreiche Möglichkeiten eingebaut, das Spiel den eigenen Fähigkeiten anzupassen. Neben den Grundeinstellungen, die euch entweder sehr viel Lenkunterstützung – oder auch gar keine – geben, könnt ihr im Menü zusätzlich selbst einstellen, welche und wie stark ihr einzelne Hilfen benötigt.

    Um die KI zu testen, haben ich mir eines der Rennen in verschiedenen Schwierigkeitsstufen angesehen. Auf dem leichtesten Wert fühlen sich die Kurven an wie ein Rennen im Schneckentempo – aber ganz ehrlich? Das ist PERFEKT, um in das Genre hineinzuschnuppern. Wer vorher maximal Mario Kart gefahren ist, schafft sonst diverse Herausforderungen, wie zum Beispiel die perfekten Kurven, nicht. Die richtige Steuerung und das optimale Timing wollen gelernt sein – und das am Besten gaaanz langsam. Die KI war entsprechend human, was sich in höheren Schwierigkeitsstufen allerdings ändert.

    Ihr sucht eine neue Herausforderung? Dann stellt euch den verschiedenen Wetterbedingungen und zeigt, was ihr bei Aquaplaning, Schneesturm und Co. drauf habt. Das dynamische Wettersystem und die Möglichkeit, euer Rennen nach eigenen Wünschen komplett anzupassen, machen aus Project CARS 3 eine Art Pippi Langstrumpf-Game: Bastelt euch die Welt, wie sie euch gefällt. Zahlreiche Spielmodi, von Karriere-Modus, über asynchronen-Multiplayer bis hin zu richtigen Online-Rennen gegen Gegner auf der ganzen Welt: Die Entwickler versuchen, alle Spieler glücklich zu machen und Rennfahrern jeder Erfahrungsstufe ein besonderes Erlebnis zu bieten.

    Grafisches Sahnehäubchen

    Project CARS 3 glänzt – Von Innen und außen! Die verbesserte Gamepad-Steuerung und viele kleine Details sorgen dafür, dass sich das Rennspiel in allen Händen gut anfühlt. Da aber niemand ein Gameplay-Highlight im verschwommenen Großstadt-Dschungel spielen möchte, haben sich die Entwickler auch bei der grafischen Umsetzung ordentlich Mühe gegeben. Vor allem die neuen  Strecken, wie beispielweiseb das Rennen durch Shanghai, kann sich sehen lassen. Zahlreiche Details rasen während meiner Fahrten an mir vorbei – von Spiegelungen an Häusern bis zu Plakaten und anderen Deko-Gegenständen.

    Apropos Spiegelung: Nutzt die unterschiedlichen Kameraeinstellungen unbedingt, um euch euren Traumwagen während des Rennens aus verschiedenen Perspektiven anzusehen. Allein die Spiegelungen in an der Heckscheibe sind einfach beeindruckend.

    Preview-Fazit

    Arcade-Sim at it’s finest

    Im Gegensatz zu den Vorgängern scheint Project CARS 3 deutlich arcadiger zu werden. Die bei vielen Fans beliebten Mini-Pausen in Form von Boxenstopps fehlen beispielsweise komplett. Auf den Tank achten und möglichst gut damit haushalten, bis er erneut gefüllt werden kann? Nicht mehr nötig! Diese Änderungen tragen stark dazu bei, dass Project CARS 3 sich von dem Genre der Hardcore-Simulation ein wenig entfernt. Ich persönlich mag die Kombination aus Arcade und Sim – aber wie kommt das bei langjährigen Fans des Franchises an, die genau solche Details wie Reifenabnutzung und Boxenstopp lieben? Verratet es mir unten in den Kommentaren!

    Viele Änderungen und Hilfestellungen tragen dazu bei, dass der dritte Teil deutlich zugänglicher wird. Während sich der erste Ableger des Franchises damals vor allem auf die Rennsimulations-Experten konzentriert hat, soll mit Project CARS 3 ein breiteres Publikum angesprochen werden. Im Karriere-Modus können sich auch Anfänger Stück für Stück hocharbeiten, während Veteranen im Custom-Mode wie gewohnt das Rennen ihrer Träume fahren. Zahlreiche alte Strecken, aber auch neue Orte wie Shanghai warten dabei auf das Quietschen eurer Reifen. Bis zum 28. August 2020 haben die Entwickler noch ein wenig Zeit, an auftauchenden Bugs und Schönheitsfehlern zu arbeiten. Dann heißt es: Auf ins nächste Rennen!

    Website: LINK

  • Clean up the planet with awesome robot arms in Trash Rage from Giant Lazer

    Clean up the planet with awesome robot arms in Trash Rage from Giant Lazer

    Reading Time: 8 minutes

    VR has the power to educate as well as entertain, but designing experiences that do both successfully is easier said than done. Luckily, the team over at Giant Lazer were more than up to the task when they created the sci-fi arcade experience Trash Rage. Tasked with cleaning up a planet ravaged with pollution and waste, you’ll use super cool robot arms to frantically sort a bevy of junk on your quest for a cleaner world and a higher score. 

    We sat down with the head of Giant Lazer to hear about what went into this addictive and enlightening experience.

    Interview by Nathan Allen Ortega, Viveport Staff

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlWQU5TxdBE?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    For those unfamiliar, tell us a bit about yourself and your team – your background in VR and game development and so on.

    Jakub Korczynski: I am the CEO at Giant Lazer. I have a technical, but also musical background. I worked on more than 25 VR/AR projects using various hardware setups and special features ranging from haptic gloves to A.I.

    My team consists of people with a wide range of skills. Together with have built the first educational VR game in Poland and we are the creators of Industry XR – a platform for easily deploying VR and AR in Industry 4.0. We like to get creative with VR that is why we love doing different types of projects: for education, industry or gaming.

    The first title that we decided to produce by ourselves and self-publish is Trash Rage – the environmental education VR game. The core Trash Rage team consists of nine people. Anita the cosplaying concept artist and developer, Ozi the programming wizz, Mahrcheen – 3D graphic artist and animator, Sebastian our sound designer, Matt our UX, Adam and Andrew, the photo/video crew and Ania which worked on organizing Trash Rage Game Days and marketing.

    Trash Rage is a post-apocalypse set arcade experience about the impact humans have on the environment – was making the game educational as well as fun a goal from the outset?

    Yes, it was our goal from day one. We wanted to create something that isn’t a typical educational game. Those tend to be very literal and in result not much fun. We wanted to take people somewhere, to tell a story and to make them sweat a little – the game is fast paced and can get intense.

    What were your biggest sources of inspiration when crafting the world of Trash Rage?

    Our inspirations came from many sources. I would certainly highlight Isle of Dogs – a Wes Anderson film. Others include: Love, Death And Robots: Three Robots, Elysium, Ready Player One, WALL-E, Suisei no Gargantia, Blade Runner 2049, The 100 and Gunnm: Battle Angel Alita. All these were strong visual inspirations.

    Most of these are considered post apocalyptic fiction, where the main culprit is a rogue A.I., genetically modified cats or global (nuclear) war.

    In Trash Rage we did include A.I., but the main theme is environmental destruction and trashing of the planet. The humans get a second chance after the A.I. goes haywire and destroys itself. In this post-post-apocalypse world it’s a fight for resources and a fight for survival.

    I should also mention other inspirations like The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. We also were motivated by things such as the less and zero waste communities and Extinction Rebellion.

    Were there any particular design challenges that your team encountered that you didn’t expect?

    One such challenge was overcoming the limits of human perception. It quickly occurred to us that the mechanic we had envisioned was generally too hard for people. Most of them, trying VR for the first time, didn’t have the coordination and memory required to play Trash Rage. It was just too overwhelming. We had to tune things down a bit and do a lot of testing before we achieved a good balance of the game. Some people say “it’s very easy to play”. It is! But this required many hours of trail and error to achieve. We’re proud of that characteristic – anybody can learn to play in seconds. Of course the game is hard to master. It requires a lot of concentration to stay focused till the end. We are yet to see people achieve the scores we are able to, knowing the game mechanics inside out.

    What are your thoughts on the role VR and other emerging innovative technology can play in regards to educating people – especially in regards to preserving our world?

    Stanford research has shown that VR is an excellent tool for learning. They also proved that learning about environmental issues is a great VR use case.

    I think that VR certainly has a future in education. When it comes to environmental education Virtual Reality can let people experience the consequences of our actions first-hand. This is in contrast to just reading some news or watching a video. We can learn by experience and really see our impact on the planet.

    What kind of research did you do to prepare to make this ecologically minded arcade experience?

    We first reached out to companies that work in the recycling sector. They helped us clear up common myths about recycling. We learned that unfortunately recycling isn’t the answer to all humanities waste problems. It works great in some cases like aluminium and glass. Other types of trash like plastic can’t be recycled efficiently, so only going to less waste or even zero waste is the real solution to reducing the amount of plastic in our environment.

    We even made a short video about how many single-use plastic bags one might use during one visit to the grocery. It went viral in Poland.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUV9SydDvYo?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    We later talked with environmental educators and also managed to get feedback from the Polish Ministry of Environment about the recycling scheme we used in the game. It turned out that the regulations and what is often implemented locally differ. That is why we are planning to upgrade the game with an editor for educators. They will be able to adjust the trash sorting rules to their local regulations. With this upgrade it will be super easy to use the app for educational purposes all around the world.

    Making something that people will want to play time and time again with lots of mechanical depth is no easy task. What was the design process like to craft this addictive and satisfying arcade experience?

    We had some previous experience with a “First Person Catcher FPC” mechanic with our production Pack Rage. It was an educational game about symbols used for logistic packaging of dangerous goods. It was our first commercial VR game for WSB University and the first educational VR game in Poland too. To make the mechanic work for Trash Rage, we had to rebuild the game from scratch, but we used Pack Rage as a prototype for testing new gameplay upgrades.

    We also managed to make some stuff a lot better. For example the Blob. The Blob is a bucket-sized piece of car oil goo that makes it harder for the player to see. In the first version this was something that blocked your sight. After tests with users it turned out that it wasn’t a good VR experience. Something sticking to your face makes you want to take your headset off. Finally it ended up being an LSD-like effect that changes the color of the world around you, so that it’s super hard to keep scoring points.

    Have there been any surprising bits of feedback from players since launching that you didn’t expect?

    A lot of very funny ones for sure. Some of this feedback is related to people trying VR for the first time. Besides that, we got a lot of love, though there were also those who didn’t like it. Because this isn’t your everyday zombie-shooter we expected some negative reactions. Fortunately the positive responses outweigh the negative ones, which keeps us motivated to keep pushing further. The best responses we got were from people that not only loved the game, but also were thrilled by our effort to educate about environmental issues using VR. That was the best feedback!

    What would you like to see from the VR ecosystem going forward in order to empower you to make even more engaging experiences?

    Easy content distribution, especially in the school setting is something that would push things forward and would allow us to reach more people with our message. Of course the development of hardware will further allow us to create better experiences for the end user.

    Trash Rage is an Early Access title – what has that journey been like, and how is player feedback helping shape the direction of the game as you update it?

    Before releasing the game, we gathered feedback on the ground during the many events we organised with Trash Rage. We gathered several hundred questionnaires and spoke with players. After the launch we have much more feedback – now worldwide. Based on this new feedback we are modifying our roadmap to better adjust to what the players are saying. What I can say, is that’s it’s very hard to make educational games. Especially if you really want to appeal to gamers and still have real educational value.

    One example I can give of responding to player feedback is that we changed the whole slow motion experience. At first it was a SUPERHOT style slow-mo effect. But because it was hard for players to get a hang of, we changed it to more traditional slow motion.

    How long have you and your team been working on this project?

    We have been working on Trash Rage for a year now with some breaks for other work.

    What do you ultimately want players to take away from their time with Trash Rage?

    We want them to have fun first of all, but also to take some time to think about our impact on the planet. It would be great if people considered how simple things that we can do everyday can really make a difference. When people open their eyes and see that they have the power to make change in their daily lives that has benefits for them and their loved ones they will also start to demand change from business and government. Trash Rage is just a small drop in the sea of educational needs, but it’s a start.

    Beyond updates to Trash Rage, what’s next for Giant Lazer?

    We are currently working on some educational projects like language learning in VR, Japanese business etiquette in 360, a geometry and geography app for school children and an educational app about forest habitats. We are also planning some new cool stuff for Trash Rage beyond just basic game updates. So stay tuned!

    Sounds exciting! Thanks for sharing this with us. 

    Trash Rage is out now on Viveport and Viveport Infinity. Start your free trial today and start warming up your robo recycling arm!

    Website: LINK

  • Become a virtual shinobi in the fast paced action experience Ninja Legends

    Become a virtual shinobi in the fast paced action experience Ninja Legends

    Reading Time: 8 minutes

    Ninjas are awesome. Silently moving through the shadows, they struck with precision and skill to take out their targets. From over-the-top action films, to Saturday morning cartoon heroes in the form of mutant turtles, we’ve always had a fascination with these stealthy assassins. The creative team behind recent Viveport Infinity release Ninja Legends spoke to us about what inspired them to create a frantic and addictive action experience that puts you in the Tabi of these historic warriors. 

    Interview by Nathan Allen Ortega, Viveport Staff

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9bW3yULJCg?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    Tell us a bit about yourself and the team at Coinflip Studios

    Co-Founder David Geisert: Coinflip studios is a small team comprised of 7 game industry veterans. We’ve been working together for many years across multiple companies. In 2018, we decided to get together and form a games company focused on new technologies. As we explored different markets and what was up and coming, VR was a huge interest of ours. As the market heated up, we realized that now was the time to start building for the up and coming space! Personally, I’ve been a huge VR fan since I was able to get my hands on the early Gear VR headsets. Since then I’ve upgraded to Vive and have been extremely passionate about all aspects of VR. Within the team, I have been a jack of all trades who fills in many roles with a focus on programming. Over time I’ve become a Unity development expert with a focus on the VR tool stack.

    What were some of your biggest inspirations (gameplay, art style etc) when creating Ninja Legends?

    We were heavily inspired by various films to maintain a high speed of 1 vs Many combat. Ninja Assassin, Ip Man, Kill Bill, and many others served as inspiration for the base feeling for the game.

    The cyberpunk classic Snow Crash is also an inspiration for the theme – in that book, the main character is a master swordsman in Virtual Reality.

    Each individual weapon and special ability in our game has a host of inspirations that we drew from. For example, the rope dart is heavily influenced by Mortal Kombat. We liked pairing it with the fist and yelling ‘Get over here!’ while playing.

    Talk a bit about your previous experience in mobile game development and how it influences what you’re making now in VR

    Some of the elements of Ninja Legends are influenced by our time as mobile developers. With mobile games, we learned how important it was to get players into the action with the most fun aspect of the game ASAP. We brought this thinking to VR, allowing players to jump into the action within one button click of loading the game.  The interest curve of the levels is an ascending wave, with new enemies and difficult waves mixed in with small breaks on easier waves. We also included the daily challenge mode, to allow for something new to play every day, and for something that you’ll miss if you don’t come back. In future games, we’re especially excited to bring over mechanics that allow for deeper player investment and engagement.

    How long did Ninja Legends take to develop, and how many people were on your team throughout?

    We started working on Ninja Legends in November 2018, making it approximately nine months from first concept to launch.  We have a team of seven that has worked on the game, although not all seven have been working on it the entire time. We had a few large pivots of what the game should be, from a rhythm based game, to the intense combat game we have now.

    Ninja Legends is your first title as a studio, and your first foray into VR. What were some of the biggest challenges in crafting this frantic shinobi action experience as compared to previous titles for other platforms?

    The input mechanics of other platforms make them much easier to deal with players trying to find bugs.  In VR there are so many degrees of freedom, which make it hard to keep the game working properly. You always have to worry about someone trying to stick their head through a wall or putting their hand somewhere it isn’t supposed to be.  We designed around theses extra hurdles instead of trying to solve them, which greatly reduced the development time. The action game is also something we hadn’t done before. It was a lot of fun and a great workout each day as we played.

    Ninja Legends gives players tons of fun and powerful weapons, including mystical shinobi powers. Tell us a bit about the process of designing these powers, the challenge of balancing, and if there were any left on the cutting room floor (pun intended lol). 

    We pulled a lot of inspiration from games, movies, and anime we liked.  There are a bunch of movies that have a single hero character taking on a horde of unnamed killers.  We took the best parts of those scenes and tried to replicate that feeling. Then we stuck in the weapons we liked from the best movies and games that did that.  I really like the rope dart, which was inspired by the character Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. I use the gauntlet, chain-dart combination and then uppercut the enemy when he gets pulled in, and of course I say “Get over here.”  There were a few that didn’t make the cut, either from being too complicated, or not being fun to use. One of the first powers was to slow time. It worked great, but we started adding it to the other powers and just slowing time started to feel boring.  One that we tried, but it was too different is a Godzilla beam, where you’d yell to have a beam come out of your mouth. The mouth beam was too close to the eyes and was bad for performance, and the trigger being sound was too different and didn’t fit with the rest of the game.  We also had a stun attack that would cause anyone you hit to be stunned for a few seconds. This one didn’t work because it was boring, and didn’t trigger like the other specials. The shockwave special was cut because it didn’t involve any element of skill. It was just a more powerful version of the hand blast.  We also tried to keep out weapons that would just duplicate the same play styles as other weapons. Sai are commonly linked to ninjas, but we thought they were too close to the claws. We also avoided any tricky physics chains or ropes as they tended to break. I’m happy with the specials and weapons we ended up with.

    What are your thoughts regarding the future of VR gaming, especially in the arena of action titles. Are there any improvements you want to see to the technology in order to help you make more engaging experiences?

    Two things I think action titles really need are more freedom of movement in real life and better haptic feedback.  The freedom of movement will allow for the clunky and motion sickness causing systems to be done away with. The better haptic feedback will eventually allow for more complex interactions with enemies.  I would love to be able to throw enemies around and have it really feel like I was throwing something.

    Who is your favorite ninja (real or fictional)?

    I really like Killua Zoldyck from the anime series Hunter X Hunter.  He’s a small kid from an assassin family who wants to make friends.  He just has a hard time making friends when he is this amazing killing machine.

    Ninja Legends launched on Steam not long ago, and now has arrived on Viveport. What has been the reception so far? Have there been any bits of feedback you received that surprised you?

    The reception has been great! It has been refreshing to start getting a stream of feedback from players. This helps us improve our game much faster. For example, one thing we heard was how difficult it was to deal with enemies surrounding you, especially in a 180 degree setup as many people have at home. We took that feedback and added arrows to the side of the screen in Novice and Ninja difficulties to indicate if there was an enemy off screen attacking you.  From the reviews after that update it seems to have made a great improvement in the experience. There have also been some hardcore VR fans that want a much larger scoped game, and we can sympathize with that. There are many more aspects to being a ninja besides pure melee combat. This is something we’re looking to build on through future updates.

    Are there any exciting updates to Ninja Legends planned that you can share with our readers?

    We are already working on the first update, and it will be a whole new play mode.  We haven’t fully finalized the concept. It is either going to be a stealth mode with locomotion, a tower defense archery mode, or a sandbox mode where players can load in their own levels, enemies, and weapons.  We’d love to get feedback and thoughts from any VR players out there on what we should work on to improve the game!

    What’s next for Team CoinFlip?

    We want to stay in VR, and look forward to the Ninja Legends launch to signal how to invest our time next.  One area we are very interested in is multiplayer in VR. Co-op gameplay is a natural fit for Ninja Legends, but we’d love to explore some competitive gameplay in VR.  Coming from mobile, and with the number of players in VR right now, we are thinking that an async multiplayer game would be the right move. This would be something along the lines of Clash of Clans with a construction and base management core, then an attack and action multiplayer component.  I think this could get over the problems of needing a constant large player base to get multiplayer competitive games off the ground. This is also something I’d love to player, as it should allow for rich interactions and gameplay with all the user generated levels.

    Smart thinking! You’ve got me more excited than ever for what you and the team having coming. Thanks for chatting with us!

    Ninja Legends is now available on Viveport and as part of your Viveport Infinity membership. Not a member? Start your free trial today and start honing your ninja skills!

    Website: LINK

  • SUPERHOT VR Gets An Arcade Upgrade

    SUPERHOT VR Gets An Arcade Upgrade

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Blurring the lines between cautious strategy and unbridled mayhem, combined with the latest points-earning and quality of life features, SUPERHOT VR: Arcade Edition is the critically acclaimed VR experience revamped, remixed and specifically crafted for VR arcade and LBE use.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHjWDgh4E-8?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    Months of design, development and testing have ensured that SUPERHOT VR: Arcade Edition is the best experience for those looking to deploy SUPERHOT VR in a public setting. Play SUPERHOT VR in full arcade style and earn points to take your place on the leaderboard, moving smoothly between levels without the need to ever touch floppy disks or stop the gameplay! Easily choose the exact level you want to play, try out the latest time modes including custom session length setting – and experience all of this in one of the 11 supported languages.

    Optimized specifically for Arcades

    The original SUPERHOT VR has gained a massive following with LBE and VR Arcade operators. We felt that it could be redesigned to fill the specific needs of arcades even better, so we took SUPERHOT VR for a spin and remixed it into SUPERHOT VR: Arcade Edition – a sleek, streamlined and VR Arcade friendly game that puts focus on pure gameplay while helping make arcade operators lives way easier.

    Scoring your gameplay into greatness

    One of the key and most obvious changes is the new points and leaderboard system. Slash, dodge and headshot your way through levels. Each action you take and each stunt you manage to pull off will be scored. After completing a playthrough, everyone will be able to compare their efforts on the leaderboards. Want to brag about your score? Now everyone will see it and you’ll get an objective proof of your awesome skills! Leaderboards provide that healthy dose of friendly rivalry which in turn encourages players to return for a third, fifth and even hundredth session.

    To streamline the flow of gameplay even further, we removed all the additional fluff that might get in the way of setting new high scores – no more floppy disks, hacker rooms or other distractions. Thanks to that, the game is more accessible. Getting directly into action a breeze! It’s pure, uninterrupted gameplay designed for the best, most streamlined experience.

    Showing some love for the VR Arcade operators

    Operators receive a sleek, new Admin Panel to easily change game settings and ensure players can devote all their focus to the game itself.  Now operators can select default modes and settings. Should a player experience any difficulties with a particular level, just reload it, go to the next one, or skip to the end of the game. All of this can be done without the need to reset the game.

    The new custom second screen lets spectators watch the action closer, stay immersed in the experience, preparing them for their own attempt. If the game has not been interacted with for some time, you can automatically roll the Attract Mode video – just enable this feature in the settings.

    Speaking of game modes – you can now pick and choose between new and optional time limited modes with 5, 15, and 30 minute session lengths. If that doesn’t suit your fancy, you can customize it to a specific session length. Additionally, returning players will be able to pick the exact level they want to play.

    Fun for all

    The team is super excited by the new features and fun things in SUPERHOT VR: Arcade Edition. We really want to make sure everyone can try them out and we’re thinking hard on how to do this. Our goal is to make sure our existing players can try out the best bits at home while ensuring arcades still have something cool just for them. We haven’t figured out how to do this best just yet, but when we do, we’ll let everyone know.

    SUPERHOT VR: Arcade Edition takes all the goodness of the original SUPERHOT VR gameplay, sprinkling it with new features and game modes while streamlining everything that might interrupt the gameplay itself. Empowering both the player and the operator to let them achieve the greatest VR arcade experience the game could offer was our pivotal goal in this project. When all is said and done, what we really want is to let you have unspoiled, uninterrupted fun that you will remember as a true, immersive, frantic experience. We cannot wait to see the high scores of people all over the world and check if we ourselves can beat them! Give us a challenge! Have fun!

    Cheers!

    Website: LINK

  • Citrus blasting mayhem arrives to Viveport Arcades

    Citrus blasting mayhem arrives to Viveport Arcades

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Shooty Fruity released late in 2017 for the home HTC Vive headsets worldwide to critical and commercial acclaim.  Developed by nDreams, it features addictive multi-tasking shooter gameplay – a mash up of the likes of Space Pirate Trainer and Job Simulator but with an anarchic and juicy twist! Recently, nDreams brought their creation to VR arcades in an all new exclusive version. Here, the team take us through the creation purpose of this edition of the game.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3m8rLc4aFI?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    Here at nDreams, we have spent the past 12 months carefully watching the VR Arcade sector grow from strength to strength and fast become one of the key areas of the VR market. However, from our extensive conversations with leaders in the field, we knew that if we were to bring Shooty Fruity to the arcades we would need to take a fresh look at how to make it as suitable as possible for what is very different to home VR – from different audiences and player behavior, to logistical set up, staffing considerations and business model.

    The original did the hard work…

    The first thing that became apparent is how the core elements of the game fit perfectly with things integral to the success of an arcade VR title.

    Firstly, Shooty Fruity has simple controls and intuitive actions, it’s addictive and fun with a real ‘just one more go’ feel… The simple shooting and scanning, along with a depth of mastery needed for shooting accuracy, multitasking, duel wielding and so on gives it a simple to learn yet hard to master feel, which is perfect for arcades.

    Additionally, an engaging and accessible premise is really important if you want to target a much wider audience beyond the home consumer. The humorous supermarkets-meet-guns and gratuitous-yet-juicy violence balance nicely between what appeals to adults and kids.

    Finally, the polished graphics, carefully balanced gunplay and a full games worth of guns, fruits and jobs gave us the breadth and production values that you see on many of the leading VR arcade titles.

    Despite all the strengths of the game there were clear areas where Shooty Fruity could be refined for arcade environments.

    How does that work for the arcade player?

    From our conversations with partners, there were three elements that kept coming up that were essential to finding success in VR arcades:

    1. Simple and immediate ‘onboarding’ for new and returning players. The staff room of the home version of the game is great for long play sessions, but not if you’re paying by the minute – you want to get in and be playing as quickly as possible.
    2. Scalable play sessions – even a 10 minute game should be fun, rewarding and self-contained. While individual rounds in the original game can range from a couple of minutes up to 10-15 minutes, it was designed to be played in longer sessions.
    3. Keeping players coming back again and again – the gameplay naturally had the depth to do this, but what else could encourage it?

    So, what did we do?

    We were confident there were design changes we could make that effectively addressed the above challenges, while retaining the strengths of the original title.  What resulted was an experience tailor-made for arcades with the following key additions:

    1. Simple instructions – onboarding takes less than 30 seconds and puts focus on the most important things – how to grab, how to shoot, what the objective is. No need for an attendee to set up, demonstrate or explain to the player!
    2. Branching arcade structure – across a roughly 10 minute play-through everyone plays three shifts with which ones you move onto being dictated by how you do. Getting your head around your first time in VR?  You’ll move onto more forgiving shifts.  A VR shooter pro on your 5th play-through? You’ll have the opportunity to play more complex and unforgiving levels.
    3. You want to play again and again – the branching structure isn’t the only reason to have that one more go, level challenges boost your high score and those high scores can be viewed in weekly, monthly and all time leaderboards, giving a reason to keep returning to try and top the boards.

    Test, test and test some more

    From feedback and data from our initial launch, we’re delighted with how this version has been received by partners and players. However, we see this as the first step along a long road for Shooty Fruity Arcade. The same feedback and data points to areas which can be expanded and refined over time to make an even more compelling experience for players to enjoy well into the future.

    Shooty Fruity is available now in both arcade and home versions on Viveport and via Viveport Subscription.  For more details about the game and nDreams’ future titles be sure to check out their Twitter.

    Website: LINK

  • Writing the (Hyper)book on arcade action with Regenesis Arcade

    Writing the (Hyper)book on arcade action with Regenesis Arcade

    Reading Time: 7 minutes

    The VDA award winning action shooter Regenesis Arcade – currently on sale 50% off during the Viveport holiday sale – is an electric experience. Blending immersive, fast paced gun combat with skill customization options, Regenesis gives players plenty of ways to change up their tactics as they wage war against an army of malevolent machines bent on our destruction. We talked to the developers at Hyperbook Studio to find out how the digital sausage was made for this essential Viveport experience.

    Interview by Nathan Ortega, Viveport

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwNrhD8yVhM?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    For those unfamiliar, tell us a bit about yourself and Hyperbook Studio

    Hi, it’s Adrian Szymański – Project Manager and Maciek Karbownik – Game Designer from Hyperbook Studio. Our development story had begun in 2016, when Hyperbook Studio has been created to bring innovative software to gamers and industry professionals around the world using VR technology. Our team members are passionate Unreal Engine developers with high ambitions to create stunning and interesting VR experiences.

    Where did the idea behind Regenesis Arcade come from?

    At the beginning, Regenesis was supposed to be a simple game that we used to promote VR technology at many Hyperbook events. Watching how people react, new ideas started flooding our heads like what we should to add or improve to deliver much more fun. We even had an extensive script with a long adventure story which would probably take some years and funds to make our dreams come true. Of course we chose the best elements and created the pure explosive VR shooter experience which you can play now.

    What would you say were your biggest inspirations when developing the game (world/art style/gameplay etc)?

    Each of us tried to add our personal favorites to the mix, but we certainly were all ultimately inspired by the most critically acclaimed first person games of the era – namely the Portal series, Half-Life 2 (hence the gravity gun in our game) and Doom 2016. When it came to art, we focused on working effectively and not over scoping with something that might break the convention of futuristic wave-based combat. The concept of evil AI-controlled drone came as an easy way to create a versatile archetype of an antagonist, which can have many visual and functional variations.

    Was Regenesis Arcade always intended to be a fast-paced and exciting arcade style experience, or did that direction evolve over the course of development?

    We went through the typical road of limiting the scope throughout the way, in our case from a story-driven puzzle shooter to the frantic trigger-happy madness we have right now. It wasn’t redundant to start with this different, narrative approach, since the background we created this way allowed us to capture a big picture of what can be possible in the future and put small details hidden beyond the obvious layer of a typical shooter experience. Why are levels arranged this way? What is the beam of red light on a Wasteland map? Why do we come back to the first location in the last episode? Where are all the other people? We know answers to those questions, and you may find out in the future.

    Were there any weapons/enemies/etc that you wanted to incorporate into Regenesis Arcade but for whatever reason just couldn’t find a place for?

    Our weapon we really wanted to work into Regenesis was a flame thrower. However, adding fire elements to the game creates a challenge in consistency – you should be able to set grass and trees on fire, which we’d prefer to avoid, since it will be a tough one to balance and optimize. The massive weapons pack came with one of the most recent updates, so we already had our maps and general environmental design in place. Also, we’d have to take some time to make sure it looks good and also doesn’t kill your PC. Another argument against it was the fact that we already have three general weapon categories and one for the gravity gun, each with a special set of perks. So if we add flamethrower, which doesn’t really fit into the current weapon types, we’d have to create a new one, with a bunch of new perks, which means lots of work for the whole team. It’s certainly possible, but wasn’t the best thing to do when you have lots of other critical development tasks at hand.

    What were some of the biggest challenges you encountered when developing Regenesis Arcade?

    Definitively the typical VR oriented development challenges. Not necessarily the technical obstacles and performance issues, but designing to optimize being on VR can be tough. Most of the similar games on the market are really safe – you don’t move around, don’t progress your character, there’s a very limited amount of enemies on the screen. But we went crazy with Regenesis: you can teleport or run around, there’s a shop where you can buy ammo, switch weapons and unlock perk upgrades, there’s 10-20 enemies on the screen all the time, behind you, above and under your feet. This game gets really tough because we made it looking for a level of challenge we would want to see in the genre. It’s absolutely merciless and I consider it one of the most hardcore VR titles on the market, which we are very proud of.

    Were there any surprises revealed through observing player behavior and getting fan feedback upon release? Any elements that people particularly responded to that you didn’t predict?

    We underestimated some of the elements in terms of their importance to players. For example, there are many VR games where you don’t move at all or just teleport. The movement wasn’t a focus in the early stage, so we thought this should be enough and players will focus on the shooting, treating this just as a way to dodge bullets, which we considered a must-have in this type of game. But most of people said it felt like a ‘cheat-y’ way to play a shooter – just to teleport around, they wanted the free movement. Our thought was there’s no way they could get too far with ‘cheat-y’ teleporting, ironically, because the game is even harder later on and you want to use every way you can to make it more managable for yourself, and jumping around is surely one of those ways. So then we added the free movement and tweaked it a bit, just for those few hardcore players who wanted to have the freedom that was already present in most popular VR games on the market at the moment: Fallout 4 VR and Doom VFR. Suddenly it opened a completely different way to play a game – right now we have two completely different experiences because of that. You might say that playing in one of those modes is ‘cheat-y’, but the thing is – which one? Each has it’s pros and cons and it’s up to you to pick your preference. Also, some people might have motion sickness issues, so for the teleportation will be the best option to play. We wanted our game to be hard, but also inclusive and accessible. So this movement mode selection was the most unexpected but also most exciting change we’ve made so far.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLykBsnhdlw?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    How many people were on the team during the development, and how long did it take to make?

    Our core team was 6 persons but in peak time there was involved around 15 people. Development time took about 12 months of hard work.

    What do you ultimately want players to take away from their time with Regenesis Arcade?

    We want them to escape from reality for some time and play one of the most engaging shooter experiences there is. Most of our team are avid FPS gamers, so we tweaked and balanced the game thinking about having a really good time killing drones and figuring out new strategies to do it more effectively. Just don’t get too serious about it, it’s all about having fun.

    What’s next on the horizon for Hyperbook Studio?

    We’re working on our next project called Hyper Arena VR is under development since 2017 and it’s in working alpha phase now. In HAVR we aim at creating the world’s first fully immersive active multiplayer PvP game with full body reproduction inside Virtual Reality playground. H.A.VR incorporates variety of different types of discs and power-ups available at player’s disposal. It could be also great workout for the body. You can watch promo trailers from HAVR on our website and YouTube channel.

    Awesome to hear! We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it as you and the team continue development. Thank you for chatting with us!

    Regenesis Arcade is on sale now on Viveport 50% off during the Viveport holiday event, as well as available via Viveport Subscription

    Website: LINK

  • All-ages arcade adventures with Attack of the Wompas

    All-ages arcade adventures with Attack of the Wompas

    Reading Time: 7 minutes

    Virtual reality continues to reach larger audiences, with sets landing in more and more homes, and VR arcades continue to pop up worldwide. Offerings for younger players, however, are still few and far between. The team at Rocket Worldwide, feeling that VR is for the whole family, want to change that by creating the first in a series of arcade focused all-ages experiences with Buddy Adventures: Attack of the Wompas! We sat down with them to hear what went into this hilarious and adorable title.

    Interview by Nathan Ortega, Viveport

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WunXuEcmFVc?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    Tell us a bit about yourself and the team at Rocket.

    Sure! We have a really diverse and eclectic group of folks who work at Rocket who come
    from different industries and backgrounds. Our core creative team consists of game designers,
    storytellers, a composer who writes original scores and songs, a principal character illustrator,
    modelers, and animators. Everyone has a personal stake in the game and wants to make it
    something unique and special. It’s a lot of time and energy to take into account all of the
    different perspectives and opinions of the team, but in the end we were able to deliver a much
    stronger game experience. I think what brings us together as a cohesive team are the values we share around friendship, community, and giving back that we hope make their way into our
    games and how we run our company.

    What inspired you to create the colorful all-ages experience Buddy Adventures: Attack of the Wompas?

    I think what really inspired our team from the beginning was the hope of seeing kids laugh
    out loud and completely enjoying themselves in a VR game experience that we created. We felt that if we could let kids play in a world that was completely disconnected from our own that was filled with colorful characters, had a zany storyline and used VR to deliver gags and surprises, kids would use their imaginations to create their own happy memories.

    Talk a bit about your previous experience developing VR experiences and how those
    projects helped inform the direction of Attack of the Wompas

    The first year at Rocket was spent researching and experimenting with various VR and AR
    technologies and thinking about their future in family entertainment. We then created our own
    tools and methodologies that we would later use to build our game. For example, we developed
    detailed emotion maps for the game which allow us to compare desired versus actual emotional
    responses to game features, challenges and characters. With these maps we could quickly see
    whether we needed to make a change to a game feature or get rid of it completely. We also
    worked hard to strike the right balance of humor, pacing, and game challenge to make it a full
    and satisfying arcade experience for kids.

    Were there any concepts (enemies, challenges, puzzles etc) that you wanted to work into the
    game but just couldn’t find a way to make it fit?

    Yes, there were quite a few actually. When we first started to develop our story, we
    anticipated that we’d encounter some surprises during development that would cause us to
    pivot and alter our course. I can think of several times where we had designed a game feature
    that fell out of scope because of cost or its entertainment value fell short of what we expected.
    We also created a number of weapons, such as a bow and arrow and slingshot, that aren’t used
    in our first episode because we felt it might take too long for some of our younger players to
    master the technique of using them in an arcade environment. There are some hilarious scenes,
    such as one that takes place in the Wack-a-Wompa field and another in the Wompa dormitory,
    that we designed which weren’t used in this episode because it was going to make the game
    too long to complete. We are planning however to use these in future episodes of the Buddy
    Adventures series.

    What have been some of the biggest challenges in developing an engaging, all-ages VR
    title?

    I think it was finding the sweet spot for our game that met the entertainment expectations of
    players in our target 8 – 15 year-old age demographic. We wanted to make it accessible for
    younger players while keeping it exciting and challenging for older kids. In fact, we realized that
    we needed to create an ensemble of Wompa characters so that we could appeal to a variety of
    ages and interests. Buddy, the main character in our game, is an anthropomorphic dog and was
    originally drawn to be about 9 years old. After some initial testing, we saw that players in the 11
    to 15 year old range were turned-off to the game because they felt the story and characters
    would be too young for them. We addressed the problem by redesigning Buddy and changing
    his wardrobe so that he now looks to be about 12 to 13 years old. What’s interesting is that
    we’re seeing younger players “project” the age they’d like Buddy to be and his revised design
    and look seem to enable this.

    Speak a bit about your thoughts regarding the role VR has in creating entertainment for the
    whole family now and in the future

    I believe we are just scratching the surface right now when it comes to fully understanding all
    the ways we can leverage VR for family entertainment. I think over the next few years we’re
    going to see an acceleration in the kinds of innovations coming from developers who view the
    medium as a revolutionary new way of creating compelling entertainment, as opposed to
    looking at VR as simply an incremental step in an evolution which extends conventional ways of
    thinking. VR as we all know has the ability to deliver an “emotional presence” for players that
    can be more challenging for other mediums to achieve.

    VR entertainment, and really any form of artistic expression, needs to engage at an emotional level for it to inspire and provide a meaningful connection with the audience. If the experience is shared, it can become a catalyst for creating a strong emotional bond between people as well. I think that this is ultimately the goal for all of the entertainment we produce. I also think we’ll see VR entertainment, and
    specifically VR games, spearhead innovation in the areas of user experience, ergonomics and
    human factors that will be leveraged by other industries and non-entertainment applications. 

    How many people are on your team and how long has it taken to develop the first episode in
    the Buddy Adventures series?

    We have 16 people on our team who contributed to the design and development of Attack of
    the Wompas. It has taken us a little over a year to complete our first episode. The next episode
    in our Buddy Adventures series is due out in the first quarter of 2019. With its new challenges,
    surprises and gags, we think kids will really enjoy playing our next episode!

    Attack of the Wompas is now out in VR arcades around the world. Did you
    develop the title with arcades and VR centers in mind?

    Yes, right from start, we decided to design Attack of the Wompas as a game to be
    specifically played in arcades. I think what drove us to go in this direction was a desire to offer a
    high-quality, kid-friendly game experience to families who don’t have a VR system in their home.
    I remember as a kid, my first experience playing video games happened in an arcade. The
    game was Space Invaders and I recall being so mesmerized that my parents had to drag me
    away from the machine. I think that arcades are in some ways like movie theaters, where the
    experiences are communal. You can definitely feel a different energy and vibe when you’re at
    an arcade than at home. Also, VR games developed specifically for arcade play are very
    different than games designed for home play. The game needs to engage the player as quickly
    as possible and eliminate or try to reduce the need for an attendant. Ultimately, the goal for us
    was to create a game experience in the virtual world that harmonizes with our real world and I
    think an arcade is the best place to make that happen.

    What’s next for Team Rocket? (hopefully blasting off again in the world of VR)

    As an organization, we will be focused on three things in 2019. The first is to continue to
    innovate and live up to our values and aspirations as a company that creates family-oriented
    games and experiences that promote healthy interactions between people. Our second goal is
    to create a world-class company that attracts the world’s most talented and committed people
    who share our vision of nudging the world into a better place through positive and healthy

    entertainment experiences. And lastly, we want to contribute and give back to the community of
    developers and players who have supported us and contributed to the development of Buddy
    Adventures. There’s little doubt in my mind that with the ecosystem of VR platforms such as Viveport,
    game developers, and the players themselves all play a vital role in ensuring that high-quality,
    family-oriented VR content is being created and finding its way to new markets.

    That’s exciting to hear! Thanks for taking the time to speak to us.

    Buddy Adventures: Attack of the Wompas can now be experienced at a VR Arcade near you

    Website: LINK

  • Narita Boy – 80s alpha Gameplay

    Narita Boy – 80s alpha Gameplay

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    Beat them up Narita Boy! Here´s our alpha gameplay trailer for our upcoming game, Narita Boy! it comes with a little surprise we were holding, the 80´s game mechanic, a renewed classic arcade mode designed for your enjoyment Follow us @ www.studiokoba.com

     

  • Blasting back to old-school arcades, with Operation Warcade

    Blasting back to old-school arcades, with Operation Warcade

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    For a period in the 1980s mounted guns on arcade cabinets were hugely popular, with the feel of those guns and the rapid-fire feedback giving players a real sense of immersion through the machine’s CRT monitor. Today, Ivanovich Games is bringing back the arcade experience inside your HTC Vive – literally. We spoke with Ivan Cascales, CEO of Ivanovich Games, on the creation of Operation Warcade. 

    Can you tell us what Operation Warcade was mainly inspired by?

    Taito's Operation Wolf arcade cabinet

    Taito’s Operation Wolf arcade cabinet

    In Operation Warcade we wanted to pay tribute to the golden era of arcades that I was lucky enough to experience in the 80s and 90s. (I’m now 41 years old.) If I must choose a single game, it would certainly be Taito’s Operation Wolf as the title that most marked the inspiration.

    What made you decide to create a virtual arcade inside the game, so that you stand in front of an arcade cabinet as you would have ‘back in the day’? Most developers would probably have put players ‘in the action’ immediately.

    I was convinced I didn’t want to do “another wave shooter.” I also wanted to get away from the classic use of teleport and unfortunately free movement tends to make many people dizzy.

    In Operation Warcade we tried to mix up a lot of gameplay mechanics that don’t get people dizzy, and that all of them can be played sitting as well as in room scale.

    The best way we found to offer this repertoire of different mechanics materialized in an abbreviated time was to emulate the arcade from outside with the so called “immersion points”.

    As well as that way of playing it, you can also go ‘inside the machine’ in Operation Warcade. What’s different between the two modes?

    Operation Warcade offers 2 totally different game modes:

    1. CLASSIC MODE: For those particularly nostalgic. We try to recreate the original gaming experience of the classic arcade machines: You play on a flat screen, with limited lives and limited ammunition and 6 screens to overcome. Of course, there are no coins.
    2. IMMERSIVE EDITION: It’s hard to explain, the screen is not flat here. It’s huge and in real 3D. The feeling is totally different. Here you have endless ammunition and infinite lives, but you cannot relax because you must overcome a total of 108 missions divided into 36 levels that also allow you to improve your arsenal.

    The original arcade games often limited you to one gun, but within VR you’re not so limited, obviously. So what will you be using in Operation Warcade?

    The aim of Operation Warcade is to surprise the player with different game mechanics in very short periods of time. To do this we make many changes of contexts and take advantage of most of them to make changes in weapons that bring freshness to the game.

    We have many weapons: the usual ones: shotguns, missile launchers, snipers, explosive arrows like Rambo, etc. But we also have very funny experimental weapons like the antigravity grenades or grenades that cause tornadoes of fire.

    One of the unique weapons in Operation Warcade is the gravity gun… tell us what kind of crazy stuff you can pull off with that!

    Yes! The gravity gun is a piece of work! It is clearly inspired by one of my favorite games: Half Life and allows you to attract anything from the stage and throw it freely. The feeling of freedom and madness it offers was fun and surprising.

    Tell us about your physics. A soldier gets crushed by flying debris in your trailer! What have you implemented here?

    Operation Warcade offer a strange mix between seemingly realistic graphics and absurdly exaggerated physics with the aim that everything is very spectacular and fun. The result is that when you play, fun things like the one you mention happen.

    You’ve also got vehicles which is a big change from the arcades… what can you pilot?

    Yes! The game not only offers several types of “immersion points”. Some are static, others travel inside a vehicle by sea, air or land that you don’t drive. But you’re also driving in many immersion points.

    You can drive several military land vehicles with one hand while shooting with the other.

    You can also fly both airplanes and helicopters and do it by taking the controls with your hands. The helicopter flying spots are my favorite. You can fire missiles and take advantage of the height. It’s cool : -)

    What’s next for Operation Warcade?

    The most immediate future is to release the PSVR version and a very special surprise: The augmented reality version of the game using ARKit for iPhone. It’s a blast!

    In the medium term we plan to launch something that many people are asking us to do: Cooperative multiplayer!

    Thanks for talking to us, Ivan!

    Operation Warcade is available on Viveport.

    Website: LINK

  • VR Weekly: Tower Tag in Tokio und Magic Leap One

    VR Weekly: Tower Tag in Tokio und Magic Leap One

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    In dieser Woche stehen in unserem VR Weekly hauptsächlich zwei Themen auf unserer Liste: Sega holte unser VR-Spiel Tower Tag in die riesige Arcade Joypolis in Tokio. Außerdem gibt es einige Neuigkeiten zur AR-Brille Magic Leap One, die Chris und Patrick diskutieren.

    VR Weekly Plus: Tower Tag und Magic Leap im Fokus

    In dieser Woche gab es gleich einige News zur AR-Brille Magic Leap One, die dieses Jahr als Creator Edition auf den Markt kommen soll. Dabei will der Hersteller nicht wie andere erst ein Entwickler-Kit verkaufen, sondern gleich Endkunden ansprechen. Magic Leap sieht AR nicht nur als Consumer-Gerät, sondern als eine völlig neue PC-Plattform. Daher leitet sich der Name Creator Edition ab, denn das Unternehmen wünscht sich, dass Käufer der AR-Brille aktiv werden und selbst Inhalte erstellen.

    Allerdings kommt auch der Entertainment-Bereich nicht zu kurz, denn Magic Leap kooperiert mit der amerikanischen Basketball-Profiliga NBA, um sportliche Events mit zusätzlichen Informationen anzureichern oder gar einen Spieler ins eigene Wohnzimmer zu bringen. Außerdem investiert Axel Springer in das junge Unternehmen, womit der Medien-Konzern weiter den digitalen Ausbau vorantreibt. Fast noch wichtiger ist eine Nebenbemerkung zum Preis der Magic Leap One. Das autarke System soll nicht teurer werden als ein High-End-Smartphone. Bei einem Preis zwischen 800 und 1000 US-Dollar wäre die AR-Brille ein echtes Schnäppchen – Microsofts HoloLens kostet – allerdings in der Entwickler-Version – derzeit mehr als drei Mal so viel.

    Zumindest die für uns VR Nerds wichtigste News der Woche war aber die Eröffnung von Tower Tag in Japan. Kein geringerer als Sega holte die im norddeutsch-kühlen Hamburg entwickelte Arcade-Erfahrung in die japanische High-Tech-Hochburg Tokio. In der gigantischen Arcade-Vergnügungsstätte Joypolis darf man unseren Arcade-VR-Titel seit dieser Woche spielen und sich hinter echten Acrylglas-Obelisken vor feindlichem Beschuss verstecken. Ein Besuch des Joypolis lohnt sich daher auf jeden Fall. Neben Tower Tag warten beispielsweise noch eine echte Achterbahn und eine Halfpipe auf Besucher. Ausschnitte aus unserem Spiel und Impressionen aus Japan zeigen wir euch diese Woche im VR Weekly.

    Website: LINK

  • MagPi 63: build the arcade cabinet of your dreams

    MagPi 63: build the arcade cabinet of your dreams

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Hi folks, Rob from The MagPi here! Issue 63 is now available, and it’s a huge one: we finally show you how to create the ultimate Raspberry Pi arcade cabinet in our latest detailed tutorial, so get some quarters and your saw ready.

    MagPi 63

    Totally awesome video game builds!

    The 16-page-long arcade machine instructions cover everything from the tools you need and how to do the woodwork, to setting up the electronics. In my spare time, I pretend to be Street Fighter baddie M. Bison, so I’m no stranger to arcade machines. However, I had never actually built one — luckily, the excellent Bob Clagett of I Like To Make Stuff was generous enough to help out with this project. I hope you enjoy reading the article, and making your own cabinet, as much as I enjoyed writing and building them.

    Projects for kids

    Retro gaming isn’t the only thing you’ll find in this issue of The MagPi though. We have a big feature called Junior Pi Projects, which we hope will inspire young people to make something really cool using Scratch or Python.

    As usual, the new issue also includes a collection of other tutorials for you to follow, for example for building a hydroponic garden, or making a special MIDI box. There are also fantastic maker projects to read up on, and reviews to tempt your wallet.

    MagPi 63

    The kids are alright

    Get The MagPi 63

    You can grab The MagPi 63 right now from WH Smith, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda. If you live in the US, check out your local Barnes & Noble or Micro Center in the next few days. You can also get the new issue online from our store, or digitally via our Android or iOS apps. And don’t forget, there’s always the free PDF as well.

    Subscribe for free goodies

    Want to support the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the magazine, and get some cool free stuff? If you take out a twelve-month print subscription to The MagPi, you’ll get a Pi Zero W, Pi Zero case, and adapter cables absolutely free! This offer does not currently have an end date.

    That’s it for this month! We’re off to play some games.

    Website: LINK

  • AMC The Walking Dead Arcade – Gameplay 4K High Quality

    AMC The Walking Dead Arcade – Gameplay 4K High Quality

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    AMC The Walking Dead Arcade – Gameplay 4K High Quality

  • Nintendo Switch DIY Arcade Cabinet

    Nintendo Switch DIY Arcade Cabinet

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    This Project looks so sweet ,we goota post some pictures we found:

    Nintendo Switch Custom Arcade Dock

    As you can see below it’s themed around Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, with the console forming the screen of a cabinet. The only ‚improvement‘ we could think of would be for the Joy-Con to be embedded into a front shelf like real arcade sticks and buttons. Sure, it’d be obnoxious to actually control the games this way, but it sure would look cool.

    Source: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/05/random_the_nintendo_switch_is_perfect_as_a_tiny_arcade_cabinet

  • Stern Pinball Arcade 600.000.000 Million Free Play

    Stern Pinball Arcade 600.000.000 Million Free Play

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    Stern Pinball Arcade 600.000.000 Million Free Play

  • Marvel vs. capcom: infinite SMASHES BACK WITH INCREDIBLE NEW DETAILS AND OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE!

    Marvel vs. capcom: infinite SMASHES BACK WITH INCREDIBLE NEW DETAILS AND OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE!

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Announced today, more new characters have joined the battle for survival against the forces of evil in MARVEL VS. CAPCOM: INFINITE including:

    – Ultron
    – Hulk
    – Thor
    – Hawkeye
    – Rocket Raccoon
    – Chun-Li
    – Strider Hiryu
    – Chris Redfield

    Each newly-added character will feature unique abilities, iconic special moves and will join other previously-announced characters, including Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Captain America from the Marvel side, and Ryu, Mega Man X and Morrigan from Capcom. The use of powerful, game-changing Infinity Stones further deepens the customized gameplay and allows players to equip and unleash elemental in-game powers, such as Time, Power and Space.

    In addition to the compelling cinematic story experience, single player Arcade, Training and Mission modes and vast multiplayer offerings will provide memorable experiences and infinite gameplay possibilities for players of all skill levels. More characters, stages, game features and story mode details will be revealed in the coming months.

    Pre-orders for MARVEL VS. CAPCOM: INFINITE are available beginning today on all platforms for the $59.99 MSRP Standard Edition and $89.99 MSRP Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition includes the main game on PS4 or Xbox One and a 2017 Character Pass, which contains access to six all-new additional post-launch characters including Sigma, the main antagonist from the Mega Man® X series. Pre-order bonuses for all versions in North America include Warrior Thor and Evil Ryu costumes. Check with individual retailers for details in Europe and Australia as some offers may vary. The pre-order bonus for the Deluxe Edition is the same as the Standard Edition, but also includes two additional costumes: Gladiator Hulk and Mega Man Command Mission X. For specific details, please check with individual retailers.

    Capcom also confirmed today that a limited MARVEL VS. CAPCOM: INFINITE Collector’s Edition, brought to you by TriForce, is available now for pre-order on PS4 and Xbox One. It will include four premium character dioramas of Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Mega Man X and Chun-Li, a case filled with six Infinity Stone replicas, as well as SteelBook packaging that contains the Deluxe Edition of the game, all for only $199.99 MSRP. Contents may vary depending on region and for European pricing please check with retailers. All editions and versions of MARVEL VS. CAPCOM: INFINITE will simultaneously release on September 19, 2017.

    Official Source: Capcom Press Release

  • Play Pacman and Donkey Kong on world’s smallest Arcade!

    Play Pacman and Donkey Kong on world’s smallest Arcade!

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    The tiny emulator has been created by Adafruit, a New York-based open-source hardware company, and can be seen playing Pacman in a video produced by the firm. The developers built the arcade machine with relatively few parts and it was completed over a morning of ‚hacking‘.

    „The idea came about while discussing a gaming „bonnet“ – a small accessory board precisely fitted to the Raspberry Pi Zero form-factor — which would include a few basic controls and a tiny monochrome OLED display,“ the company says in a blog post.

    The device has been built with a Raspberry Pi Zero, an OLED screen, a small amplifier, and a „few assorted odds and ends“, which are used to control.

    Unfortunately for gamers, it will take a little while to build and needs some technical knowledge. Adafruit also says the machine was „only marginally fun to play“ and a „lot of trouble to build“.

  • STERN Pinball VR Samsung GearVR – Galaxy S6

    STERN Pinball VR Samsung GearVR – Galaxy S6

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

     

    STERN Pinball VR Samsung GearVR – Galaxy S6

  • ALIENATION™ First Minutes – PS4 Gameplay

    ALIENATION™ First Minutes – PS4 Gameplay

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    [mbYTPlayer url=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7uWGu3dUMM“ opacity=“.5″ quality=“medium“ ratio=“auto“ isinline=“false“ showcontrols=“false“ realfullscreen=“true“ printurl=“true“ autoplay=“true“ mute=“true“ loop=“true“ addraster=“true“ stopmovieonblur=“false“ gaTrack=“false“]

    ALIENATION™ First Minutes – PS4 Gameplay

  • VREI Falschirmsimulator – Base Jumping VR Virtual Reality

    VREI Falschirmsimulator – Base Jumping VR Virtual Reality

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    [mbYTPlayer url=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZNUq7oxtWI“ opacity=“.5″ quality=“medium“ ratio=“auto“ isinline=“false“ showcontrols=“false“ realfullscreen=“true“ printurl=“true“ autoplay=“true“ mute=“true“ loop=“true“ addraster=“true“ stopmovieonblur=“false“ gaTrack=“false“]

    VREI Falschirmsimulator – Base Jumping VR Virtual Reality