Open-world 2D RPG Cat Quest launching on PlayStation 4 and Steam this summer.

Well here comes a game that would make me take a break from VR! Since you guys and gals asked for more cat content check this out. 

PQube has announced that they will be teaming up with developer The GentleBros to release the pawsome new catventure game, Cat Quest, for PlayStation 4and Steam in Summer 2017.

Cat Quest is an open-world top-down 2D RPG set in the wonderful world of cats. Engage in intense real-time combat and explore a massive continent and experience the ultimate catventure. Relive the good old days of exploring an overworld map as you raid dungeons for epic loot, complete quests and meet the many furry denizens of the world of Felingard.

After your sister is kidnapped by a mysterious cat known as Drakoth, you come face-to-face with your destiny as part of a long-lost race of dragon slayers called the Dragonblood. Joined by Spirry, your guardian spirit, you set off on a grand catventure to not only save your sister, but also the world that Drakoth has brought to chaos!

Check out #CatQuest on social media! For more information and the latest news, follow us on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/PQubeGames , and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pqube .

Follow Cat Quest on Facebook at w ww.facebook.com/catquestgame and the The GentleBros atwww.twitter.com/TheGentlebros .

Today is the one year anniversary of CatsAndVR.com and also Respect Your Cat day. Here are the best Cat moments of Year One.

Today is the one year anniversary of CatsAndVR.com and also Respect Your Cat day.  Here are the best Cat moments of year one.  Check out the videos and links to some of my favorite cat related things I have covered during that year. Shoutout to all the people who have helped me this year and also too my very own cats, Vampire Bill Poopton and Donut "Knute" Hartman.

http://www.catsandvr.com/contact/

 

Chocolate VR

The experience is called Chocolate, named after the Giraffage song that it is actually a VR music video for. Chocolate is being called the definitive Cats And VR experience. Executively produced by Viacom NEXT, Chocolate made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival and is following that up with being a major part of SXSW VR Selections. https://www.sxsw.com/film/2017/sxsw-film-festival-reveals-midnighters-shorts-inaugural-vr-program/

http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/catgod

Tracking Cats in VR.

To be honest the first time I actually thought of the possibility of a Vive Tracker attached to a cat is when I was crawling on the floor playing Unseen Diplomacy at the opening of the new Unity office in SF.  The advancement of Cat VR tech could not be in better hands. At Triangular Pixels, all the employees have cats!

http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/vrcait

SUPER FURRY NEON CAT HEADS!

Well thanks to my super RADD day job I only got to spend one day on the GDC floor this year. Knowing how amazing GDC has been for me in the past and now finally going in with some development experience it made me a bit sad to only be at GDC for one day. Much Sad, Very SMH...until I saw my true reason to be at GDC was to cover SUPER FURRY NEON CAT HEADS. If there is one VR game this year that obviously speaks to a site called CatsAndVR.com it would be SUPER FURRY NEON CAT HEADS! http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/superfurry

LIFE OF LON

Life of Lon has no lives, no experience points, no health bar, no pointless quests, no grinding. Instead, your journey will take you through brainy and involving environment puzzles as you find your way back to the stars.  Life of Lon is being developed by a small team of passionate people and I really want to see their vision come to fruition. I really hope they get the funding and if you read this and believe games and interactive stories can be art please support them.

http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/2016/lifeoflon

CatsAndVR.com

If there was only one game CatsAndVR needed to play at GDC17 it was SUPER FURRY NEON CAT HEADS!

Well thanks to my super RADD day job I only got to spend one day on the GDC floor this year. Knowing how amazing GDC has been for me in the past and now finally going in with some development experience it made me a bit sad to only be at GDC for one day. Much Sad, Very SMH...until I saw my true reason to be at GDC was to cover SUPER FURRY NEON CAT HEADS. If there is one VR game this year that obviously speaks to a site called CatsAndVR.com it would be SUPER FURRY NEON CAT HEADS! Check out my review above and additional gameplay in the videos below. 

Super Furry Neon Cat Heads was designed by group of game developers in Lexington Kentucky who created it during an exhausting drive to the MIT Reality Virtually Hackathon. Led by Shylo Shepherd - Lead Cat Lady, Designer, and Motivation Generator the team set out to build a rhythm game about a cat imagining themselves as the DJ in a group using their cat tower as a means of acting out their fantasy. 

The game not only had an interatcive Cat Tower but also literally turned the Vive Headset into a Super Furry Neon Cat Head.

"As children, and for many in adulthood, role play and pretend are entertainment staples. We hope to evoke feelings of nostalgia and whimsy as players let go of themselves to play a game that requires putting on a furry neon…well actually LED...cat head, and swat at a cat tower covered in LED’s to the rhythm of a meow-mixed dance beat. Role playing the cat with the cat head and immersion through VR are important to assist with the feeling of pretend. Wearing a furry cat head that changes color also helps the game feel lighthearted and fun for the sake of fun. Besides, it looks cool."- Shylo Shepherd, lead designer on Super Furry Neon Cat Heads

CatsAndVR.com will be looking forward to what this team puts together in the future. Word on the street is that Purrody Games will be coming out with a Punch Out Style Cat VR game in the future. 

http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/

Tyler Hurd made the best Cat VR experience out now and the Cat Gods have not let me check it out.

Ex Double Fine Art Director Tyler Hurd made an amazing Cat VR experience and apparently I am not cool enough to try it. You get to shoot metallic kittens from your mechanical kitten hands and the world is soooo cruel they wont let me play. 

The experience is called Chocolate, named after the Giraffage song that it is actually a VR music video for. Chocolate is being called the definitive Cats And VR experience. Executively produced by Viacom NEXT, Chocolate made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival and is following that up with being a major part of SXSW VR Selections. https://www.sxsw.com/film/2017/sxsw-film-festival-reveals-midnighters-shorts-inaugural-vr-program/

Tyler Hurd’s previous VR works include the Ren and Stimpy inspired BUTTS (2015) and Old Friend (2016).

There is no release date for Chocolate, but it’s likely to come out sometime this year for the HTC Vive. Hopefully the cat gods will allow me to check it out soon. 

Will Pokemon Go be coming to VR headsets?

Though it may make it hard to see when traveling, but Pokemon Go may be coming to VR headsets.  Opening the games licenses sub-menu will bring up a list of the licensed software that Niantic used to build Pokemon Go. This includes the Google Cardboard SDK.

Perhaps this is an indication that some VR features will be coming to go as I feel that Niantic would not want to take away from the AR experience. This could also be an interesting first step for Nintendo VR and could lead to a Killer VR app for Google's new Daydream platform.

CatsAndVR.com

Virtual Reality music sandbox SoundStage hits Steam Early Access on 7/7

If you look at old rock concerts, you’ll see these HUGE synthesizers that the musicians connect together to make electronic sounds. These instruments are literally enveloping the player. SoundStage attempts to capture the feel of those epic music machines then take it to the next level with tools only possible in a virtual environment. All in a world inspired by the airbrush paintings and computer graphics of the 80s. 

Available 7/7 on Steam Early Access: http://store.steampowered.com/app/485780 SoundStage is a virtual reality music sandbox built specifically for room-scale VR. Whether you're a professional DJ creating a new sound, or a hobbyist who wants to rock out on virtual drums, SoundStage gives you a diverse toolset to express yourself.

Cats And VR

Please support Life Of Lon, cause I really want to experience more.

How can you say no to that cute creature above? Funny enough that creature is called Yep, I like to think of him as an underwater space cat cute thing. Yep is your companion in Block Intervals upcoming VR immersive experience Life Of Lon. My impressions of my demo on Life of Lon reminded me of Journey, a beautiful well crafted indie hit from thatgamecompany. It also reminded me of one of my favorite films of my childhood, Flight Of the Navigator.

Walking away from the demo I wanted more, I feel this is not a game that a demo will be able to show the true scope of what the team wants to bring to the VR world. Just take a look at the site for Life of Lon and you will see that this is to be a collaboration of art, movement, emotion, and music. Everything is being developed to be a potentially moving experience. Right now people are saying VR is starting to get saturated with content but I say no, the more voices the better.

I hope Life Of Lon takes it's place as a successor to companion games of the past such as the seminal classic A Boy And His Blob and the aforementioned Journey.

Even going as far as looking into Block Interval's own blog I see that they are reaching for something more than a "good game bro". 

Life of Lon has no lives, no experience points, no health bar, no pointless quests, no grinding. Instead, your journey will take you through brainy and involving environment puzzles as you find your way back to the stars.  Life of Lon is being developed by a small team of passionate people and I really want to see their vision come to fruition. I really hope they get the funding and if you read this and believe games and interactive stories can be art please support them.

Here is some additional content including a 360° video I did with Daniel David Allen, a making of Life Of Lon video from the Block Interval team, and some of the amazing music that will be in the game. 

This was written by Neranjan Bobby Venom who loves his companion cats and is a A Boy With A Blog....and a dream.

Excedrin Unveils "The Migraine Experience" - World's First Augmented Reality Migraine Simulator.

Excedrin unveils The Migraine Experience, the world's first augmented reality migraine simulator, to unlock a new level of understanding around migraines and the impact they have on the daily lives of the 36 million sufferers in the U.S.

"Migraines are more than bad headaches – the pulsing pain can be debilitating, and the associated symptoms like nausea and extreme sensitivity to light and sound, really impact people's lives," said Dr. Elizabeth Seng, a New York based psychologist. "Migraines interfere with work, with people's social lives, emotional health and relationships. Unfortunately, migraines are largely misunderstood, often leaving sufferers feeling isolated and stigmatized."

Those around migraine sufferers often find themselves wondering what a migraine feels like. Excedrin® built the world's first migraine simulator, so sufferers can now receive the empathy they deserve. 

The Migraine Experience is the first simulator designed to give non-sufferers the chance to safely experience symptoms of a migraine including disorientation, aura, sensitivity to light and blurred vision. By using augmented reality, a non-sufferer experiences his or her everyday scenario while the migraine symptoms alter what they're actually seeing or trying to do.

"We created The Migraine Experience to foster a new level of understanding between migraineurs and non-sufferers," said Scott Yacovino, senior brand manager, U.S. Pain Category. "We're simulating the symptoms of a migraine – everything but the pain – because experiencing is believing. Using technology to drive human emotion to help migraineurs feel better understood – allowing non-sufferers, for the first time, to see what it's like to have a migraine."

As one of the first brands to leverage augmented reality technology to conceptualize a health condition, Excedrin® is proud to be driving the category toward fostering a more understanding, empathetic environment for sufferers.

Excedrin® is partnering with Andy Cohen, NY Times Best-Selling Author, TV personality, producer and expert in navigating relationships from housewives to reality stars, to help spread awareness and discuss the impact migraines can have on relationships with friends, spouses and co-workers.

"Growing up with migraines, I experienced firsthand how debilitating an episode can be and how much it can affect relationships with loved ones," said Andy Cohen. "In my experience, both personal and professional,I've seen how migraines can become a third party in relationships – creating tension in, sometimes, already murky waters."

To bring The Migraine Experience to life, Excedrin® brought together real sufferers in different types of relationships with non-sufferers – mother/daughter, girlfriend/boyfriend, co-workers and friends.

Each migraine sufferer explained the symptoms they most often experience during an episode, including aura, disorientation, and blurred vision. The symptoms were then replicated for their non-sufferer counterpart, conducted in a controlled environment, using augmented reality technology to alter their experience of everyday life – from riding the subway to going to a restaurant.

Cats And VR.