Playstation's Paris Game Show event showed a continued dedication to VR from Sony.

Many gaming pundits have been saying the PSVR has been missing from Sony's long term battle strategy due to a lackluster presence at both E3 and Tokyo Game Show. Despite the over 1 million PSVR units sold and the acclaim of content like Resident Evil 7 it does not seem to get the credit that the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift get.  Well it looks like Sony's strategy may be to the go to VR platform for all of Europe given the multitude of content presented today at the Paris Game Show event today.  Along with announcements of games like the very Pilotwings-esq Ultrawings the show gave several release dates for games like the upcoming League Of War VR.

We also were able to get a better looks at the upcoming Blood & Truth from Sony London Studios. This action packed game is from the makers of the Heist demo on the Playstation Worlds game. That was a very fun demo and usually what I have people try on the PSVR first. It is great to see the team fleshing out the concept and this may be the PSVR game I am anticipating the most. 

More highlights include the announcement that the latest game from Survios, Sprint Vector is coming to Playstation. Survios is well known for their hit game Raw Data and looks to continue becoming a trusted name in VR with its cross-dimensional arm swinging racer. 

Also on this list is Star Child,  side-scrolling platforming experience from Playful Corp the makers of the AMAZING Lucky's Tale.

Resolution Games developers of the hit game Bait! announce a VR swashbuckling pirate adventure for Daydream

Resolution Games today revealed the details of their next project called Narrows, a game of swashbuckling pirate adventure. Coming soon on Daydream, Google's platform for high quality, mobile VR, Narrows will follow the studio's wildly successful VR fishing game Bait!.

"We've been ecstatic about how our first games have been received, but Narrows will be our biggest game yet," said Tommy Palm, co-founder and CEO of Resolution Games. "Pirate adventures have long been a part of our culture, from literature classics like Treasure Island to historical villains like Blackbeard and his contemporaries, the golden age of piracy is rife with legend and lore."

The highly successful Bait! has seen over 2 million players and the team is bringing a version of it to the Facebook Spaces social VR platform to capitalize on that success. 

Though the team will support their previous hit they are looking to utilize the $6 million dollars they raised in 2015 to grow into a trusted name in VR games. 

"While the idea of action and adventure may skew to a slightly different audience than our earlier games, we're confident that the intuitive controls and welcoming design will make Narrows an experience that the whole family can enjoy," added Palm. "With Bait! and Wonderglade, we managed to create fun and accessible games that appeal to the widest possible audience. In that same vein, Narrows is very much a product of the Resolution Games design philosophy. We're making VR games for everyone."

Narrows will offer players a unique, unmatched view of a pirate's life that they can step in and out of with a simple slip of the headset, while allowing players to explore numerous voyages on the sea, creating their own mariner myths in the process.

"While the idea of action and adventure may skew to a slightly different audience than our earlier games, we're confident that the intuitive controls and welcoming design will make Narrows an experience that the whole family can enjoy," added Palm. "With Bait! and Wonderglade, we managed to create fun and accessible games that appeal to the widest possible audience. In that same vein, Narrows is very much a product of the Resolution Games design philosophy. We're making VR games for everyone."

Resolution Games is anticipating a 2018 release for Narrows. For more information, be sure to follow Resolution Games on Twitter and Facebook, and visit www.resolutiongames.com .

Reality Reflection is looking to tap into the Rocket League audience with its VR Hoverbike game, Snatchers.

Snatchers,  launches on 26th October on PC for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, via digital download on Steam Store for 9.99 USD.

Developed by a South-Korean based VR content production studio Reality Reflection, Snatchers is a multiplayer VR game where players holding hook guns pilot hoverbikes to score goals in a virtual stadium.

Snatchers has two players assigned to each of the two teams, using two Vive or Oculus Touch motion controllers to control a hoverbike and a hook gun to snatch and throw a ball into the opponent’s goal, in a way that resembles a football game and also Rocket League. 

“We’re thrilled to launch Snatchers after so many prototypes and readjustments. Snatchers is a game designed for hardcore gamers who’ve longed for a true challenge in the VR world. We are sure that Snatchers will give players a totally futuristic experience," said Wooram Son, CEO of Reality Reflection.

The online pool of players will be from both Rift and Vive to maximize the VR eSport potential. 

Visit Snatchers page on Steam Store: store.steampowered.com/app/566380/Snatchers/

Futurlab looks to followup their hit PSVR game Tiny Trax with a game featuring Mini-Mechs!

Independent studio Futurlab is embarking on an expansion campaign, as it gears up for its next PSVR project Mini-Mech Mayhem, a robot battle game, where you play the big buddy and your Mini-Mech partner is the little buddy..

Futurlab enjoyed a hit with its debut PSVR title Tiny Trax this summer, which followed the firm’s critically-acclaimed and best seller Velocity 2X. Mini-Mech Mayhem will be released in 2018, with further details to follow.

“Mini-Mech Mayhem sees us return to our passion of sci-fi,” said Futurlab’s MD James Marsden. “Having made our debut on PSVR with Tiny Trax, we’ve learnt a lot about the format and we’re looking forward to putting these new skills to work in Mini-Mech Mayhem soon.

“We also see Mini-Mech Mayhem as a metaphor for our studio. Futurlab is PlayStation’s little buddy and we, in turn, play the role of a big buddy to our staff.

“Just as PlayStation cares about fostering our creativity, by helping us explore new ideas, we foster the creativity in our team. We shield their passionate enthusiasm from the turbulent mayhem of the games industry, so they can create something they care about, at a pace of challenge that is manageable.

www.futurlab.co.uk

CatsAndVR Chats With: Jennifer Dowding, Senior Producer on the recently announced Co-Op FPS EVASION.

Evasion is an intense VR bullet hell game, designed to immerse players in high intensity co-op multiplayer combat in the same vein as Destiny and Halo. 

Announced today from the Archiact development team in Vancouver BC, Evasion is looking to deliver cinematic destructible environments and intense bullet hell action with an AI enemy
behavior system designed to make tactical movement and teamwork critical to your squad’s survival.

“Archiact has been crafting immersive VR entertainment since 2013,” said Kurt Busch, Studio Head at Archiact. “With Evasion, the team is using everything we’ve learned and weaving our experience into a truly genre-defining AAA title. With innovative locomotive movement and intense FPS gameplay, we’re convinced Evasion will prove a stand-out VR experience and we can’t wait for gamers to play it themselves.”
 

I had some hands on time with Evasion at a recent event and though the team seem to be looking to conjure Destiny with the art style it also does an excellent job of creating the level of gameplay that is known from that franchise. Evasion has an excellent locomotion system and the frantic co-op gameplay never gave me any motion sickness or framerate drops. The demo I played was very polished both in art and gameplay. If someone had said this was a Destiny VR prototype I would have believed them, instead this is a nice addition to the VR FPS landscape by a ragtag Vancouver team. I had a chance to learn more about the game when I chatted with Evasion's Senior Producer, Jennifer Dowding .

From compelling mission objectives, to powerful player class combinations and blockbuster-quality FX and destruction, Evasion is looking to more than hold its on the the VR FPS battleground. 

For more information, visit www.evasionvrgame.com and be first to apply for Beta access & latest news.

For exclusive updates, follow the official Evasion social channels at www.facebook.com/evasionVR and @evasionVR on Twitter.

Florida based Outer Brain Studios has released their indie VR horror game just in time for the season

Florida based development studio Outer Brain Studios have released their VR survival horror adventure ORGAN QUARTER. The title is available on Steam (for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift) now.

Organ Quarter is a 5–8 hour adventure taking place across a large, nightmarish urban environment. It is a homage to the classic survival horror games of the ‘90s: players will fight off enemies in carefully designed encounters, manage their ammunition and resources and solve puzzles all while using their map to navigate and unlock the secrets of the city.

The game is being designed to leverage hand-tracked and room-scale VR to provide the most intense and unsettling experience possible. Organ Quarter will bring horror into the realm of the intimate. Horror in your personal space, as well as in the world outside.

catsandvr.com/blog/

Virtro Entertainment to bring their take on the Wizard Of Oz to PSVR with Run Dorothy Run

Virtro Entertainment – the female-led VR indie game studio out of Vancouver, Canada, today announced the release of  Run Dorothy Run – an immersive endless-runner and rhythm VR game, with a cheeky take on the classic novel, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." The game is being released on Sony PlayStation VR in the Fall of 2017, with other platforms to follow shortly after.

Run, jive, and bop your way through the world of Oz to an electro-swing soundtrack while the story unfolds. Explore fantastical lands in your journey through the Emerald City, the Scorched Plains, the Wicked Witch's castle, and more. Clash with enemies, collect magic crystals, and activate power-ups, all to an irresistible dance beat. Unravel the curious alliance Dorothy makes with the Wizard of Oz to settle a score with the maybe-not-so-Wicked Witch. But don’t take yourself too seriously—navigate the crazy plot twists with your tongue firmly in your cheek.

“Right from the early days of development, we brought in play-testers each week to give us insights we could use to evolve the game into the rich story and immersive experience we have today,” said Jordan Brighton, Virtro’s cofounder and CEO. “We’ve had hundreds of play-testers, ranging from total newbies to VR aficionados. They loved the actual VR experience, but just as importantly, they loved the zany story-telling. Let’s just say ‘Ozzy’ and ‘Effy’ – who we know from the book as the Wizard and the Wicked Witch – emerge as you never imagined.”

Run Dorothy Run is a physically engaging, hyper-energetic, action-packed adventure. It is Virtro’s first title, and is designed specifically for virtual reality.

About Virtro Entertainment

An independent VR gaming studio based in Vancouver, Canada, Virtro was founded by the female Aussie duo Jordan and Lee Brighton. Virtro designs Everyone-Rated VR game titles that blend excellent storytelling, effects, art, music, and VR technology.  Virtro values a culture of inclusion and diversity –  in both the team and in the titles the team designs. www.virtro.ca .  Follow Virtro on Facebook, Twitter, andInstagram.

Lifeliqe to work with Unity to support K-12 education.

Lifeliqe has announced a strategic partnership with Unity Technologies that will give K-12 students the opportunity to publish work made with Unity onto the Lifeliqe platform.

 Interactive content made with Unity reaches nearly 3 billion devices worldwide and it is Creatinggetting increasingly popular in K-12 schools. Lifeliqe will provide curricula for students andresources for teachers to help them learn how to work with Unity® in their classes. 

“I believe that the possibility for students to publish in VR and other platforms thanks to Unity will not only allow students to learn how to build 3D, but also bring students‘ interest about knowledge back to libraries,” said Sara Jones, Board member of Califa, a nonprofit library membership consortium representing 220 libraries in California. “We are opening three new chapters at once. Interactive 3D content is coming to prime time in K- 12 and will soon become mainstream.

"At Unity Education, our vision is to enable everyone to become a creator by giving them access to deeply engaging learning experiences,” said Jessica Lindl, global head of education at Unity. “Lifeliqe integration with Unity allows great access and engagement in learning to create VR experiences for all learners.”

Felix & Paul Studios and Just For Laughs Launch “The Confessional” VR Comedy Series on YouTube and Daydream featuring comedians like Trevor Noah

Felix & Paul Studios, the EMMY® award-winning creator of cinematic virtual reality experiences, and Just For Laughs, producer of the world’s largest comedy festival, today announced the launch of “The Confessional”, a seven-episode virtual reality comedy series available on Daydream, Google’s mobile VR platform, and YouTube.  “The Confessional” features leading comedians and YouTube stars, including Lilly Singh, Trevor Noah, Judd Apatow, Howie Mandel, Jim Norton, Moshe Kasher, Natasha Leggero, and Grace Helbig & Mamrie Hart.

“The Confessional” was conceived and produced by both Felix & Paul Studios and Just For Laughs in collaboration with Google, and was filmed over the course of 2017’s Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.  Headspace Studio, the leader in 3D positional audio processing, provided audio capture and end-to-end sound processing for the series.

In each episode of this first-of-its-kind 3D, 360-degree VR comedy series, viewers find themselves in a confessional booth, face to face with one or two comedians, who then ‘confess’ their most awkward, humorous and embarrassing stories to the viewer.  From a first date gone wrong, to an ongoing prank on a known comedian, to a nightmare car ride to Vegas, “The Confessional” features intimate stories from today’s biggest comedy stars.

“As a creator, I’m always looking for the newest platforms to tell stories,” said entertainer Lilly Singh, who stars in the first episode. “‘The Confessional’ provided an innovative opportunity to learn more about the technology behind VR and explore an even more intimate setting for storytelling. I loved working with Felix & Paul Studios, Just For Laughs and YouTube to share some pretty personal confessions for this series, alongside a group of such talented comedians.”

“When we approached Just For Laughs about creating VR’s first premium short comedy show, it was amazing how quickly we realized we had a shared creative vision - to create a new form of comedic experience by fusing VR’s capacity to create a strong sense of proximity and intimacy between viewer and talent, with the extraordinary quality of presence and performance of the best comedians. Think of ‘Comedians in Cars’ or ‘Between Two Ferns’, but in the highly immersive, intimate and personal medium of virtual reality where the viewer essentially becomes the host,” said Paul Raphaël, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Felix & Paul Studios. “We are thrilled to launch our first VR experiences on the Daydream platform and look forward to future collaborations with both Google and Just For Laughs.”

“Just For Laughs is thrilled to be working with Felix & Paul Studios, the premier VR company in the world. We share a desire to showcase brilliant comedians in new and innovative ways outside of the stand-up space. VR is defining the way we will experience entertainment in the future. We are excited to create content that introduces stand-up to the world of VR,” said Bruce Hills, COO of Just For Laughs.

"We're really excited to be partnering closely with talented creators like Felix & Paul Studios and Just For Laughs to bring innovative VR content to YouTube and Daydream. ‘The Confessional’ series pairs their VR expertise with popular comedians like Lilly Singh and Trevor Noah, resulting in a fun, compelling new VR format for comedy. It's an opportunity for viewers to connect with their favorite comedians like never before,” said Julia Hamilton Trost, Business Development Manager, Daydream.

“The Confessional” will be available for streaming on YouTube, and YouTube VR on Daydream.

About Felix & Paul Studios

Felix & Paul Studios is the industry leader in the field of high-end cinematic virtual reality with an unparalleled reputation for producing the highest quality experiences in this emerging new medium. The studio combines technological innovation with a unique, pioneering and in-depth approach to the new art of virtual reality storytelling—creating ground-breaking original cinematic experiences (MIYUBI, Nomads series, Strangers, The Confessional) and collaborations with existing franchises (Jurassic World, Cirque du Soleil, Fox Searchlight’s Wild) and world-renowned personalities and leaders (President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, LeBron James, President Bill Clinton).

The company is the world’s only full spectrum VR studio, showcasing end-to-end creative and technological know-how and proprietary tools within one company—including best-in-class spherical 3D camera systems, production and post-production software and processes, and specialized audio capture, design and processing through its Headspace Studios division.

With its headquarters in Montreal, Canada and offices in Los Angeles, CA, Felix & Paul Studios has a highly experienced team of over 60 VR specialists and is backed by Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, Comcast Ventures, Investment Quebec, OMERS Ventures, and the Phi Group.

About Just For Laughs

Founded in 1983, the Just For Laughs Group has had but one goal in its 30-plus years of operation: Make People Happy. To achieve this goal, the Just For Laughs Group has focused on four major products: Festivals in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney; television production including Gags seen in over 130 countries and on over 75 airlines and stand-up specials; live shows, such as Canadian tour dates for Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K., Jim Gaffigan and the Just For Laughs Comedy Tour; and talent management. The Just For Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival is the world’s largest and most prestigious comedy event welcoming on average 1.35 million visitors to Montreal each summer and generating approximately $80 million for the city’s economy. The Group has offices in Montreal, Paris, Los Angeles, Toronto, and London.

Transference from Elijah Wood's VR company SpectreVision is giving me nightmares.

"We want you take off the gear and still feel unsettled." -Lisa Whalen CEO of SpectreVision

I would say that Lisa Whalen is just doing her best to hype up the upcoming SpectreVision psychological horror title but then the nightmares keep coming back. Never has a game demo seeped into my psyche so much that I now dream using they layouts and elements presented in the demo. I talked in my post about LUNA is that I needed something like that to bring my heart rate down after playing Transference. http://www.catsandvr.com/blog/luna

Yeah I get it "Do you even horror game bro?" and yes I do.  I absolutely love horror games, from ClockTower to RE7 I have played many a horror game and consider myself able to handle them.

Transference is something else. The game feels like I am in David Cronenberg film staring Freddy Krueger in which I watch The Cell with them both. Transference is a psychological thriller and the first game collaboration between SpectreVision and Ubisoft looking to bridge the gap between movies and games.

Transference tells the destructive tale of a man’s obsession as you explore his digitally recreated memories and solve puzzles with a very unique art style to unveil the truth behind these troubled case subjects. The main puzzle that got my attention was a Jenga style puzzle to open a door, this puzzle made great use of the VR space and added to the nightmare. 

Spectrevision is actor Elijah Wood’s development company and they are bringing something special to VR when it launches for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR in Spring of 2018.

My issue is that I literally cannot get the game out of my head. I have been having dreams that use the level and art design of the demo and this is very disturbing to me. The game deals with PTSD and has triggered some of those elements in my mind. This is fucking mind fuck!

Lisa Whalen you have accomplished your goal with this demo. I'm hoping the rest of the game is as memorable. 

Transference is the CatsAndVR most anticipated VR game of 2018.

The whimsical VR game LUNA is a beautifully crafted calming experience that will make you feel like a child with their first toy.

LUNA IS A WHIMSICAL FABLE THAT TAKES PLACE IN A STAR TANGLED GALAXY WHERE A YOUNG BIRD MUST MAKE ITS WAY HOME.

I had my first hands on experience with Luna at OC4 and was blown away by the charm of its gameplay as well as the way the game made me felt calm. My demo was a bit interesting, I had just finished demoing the PTSD Psychological Horror game Transference and really needed a change of pace as Transference is quite literally a mind warping twisted experience. I needed something a little different and saw that LUNA was available to play. 

Luna is a magical fable about restoring life to a beautiful fairy-tale world. Luna is also game about untangling trauma by solving puzzles and creating miniature musical world to re-awaken the shadowy forest and discover its hidden secrets. This seemed like an interesting contrast to a horror game about PTSD. I was already interested in LUNA since it was developed by a company founded by Robin Hunicke. Robin is an amazing voice in the game development world and her talk to this years Oculus LaunchPad class was very inspirational. 

Robin's company Funomena has a uniquely diverse team of veteran developers who have worked on several critically acclaimed games( Journey, Flower, Boom Blox, The Sims 2) 

The team has crafted a pop up story book of a VR game that reminds me of the simple toys of my childhood that made me smile. Though the game had some simple but cute visuals and easy to pick up gameplay it was not until I started to truly interact with the tool set did I really start to smile. 

The three distinct element of game play are as followed. 

• Place, customize and interact with miniature, living terrariums.

• Solve celestial puzzles to unlock their plants and animals.

• Play musical flora and fauna to reveal the enchanting score.

It was fun to place trees and plants around but once I realized you could place them in water my terrarium started to come to life more than I expected. After placing several plants in the water frogs magically started appearing on the lilly pads and all the colors seemed to be more vibrant. This put an absolute smile on my face and it was that moment LUNA felt like the first time I ever drew a picture. I was creating VR life and felling life inside me. 

"We believe that as VR, AR and MR technology develops, more and more people are able experience just how magical and immersive games can be. We want to be there to welcome these new players, giving them an experience that is beautiful, soothing and engaging. We hope everyone out there enjoys this experience as much as we enjoyed creating it!"- Funomena CEO Robin Hunicke

The story does not end there however. That evening I had a nightmare that was so violent that influenced by the game Transference. It was at that moment I saw that Transference is a piece of VR cinema/game that is dangerous. I was intrigued that the game had that much of an effect. After a few moments my mind then automatically went to the happy moments of playing LUNA in a way that both games had wired themselves to my brain. LUNA had become a calming mechanism not just as a VR game but in the impact it had imprinted on to my mind and psyche.

That shows me what immersive VR really is. 

Oculus Connect Impressions: Dispatch from Here Be Dragons

Oculus Connect is perhaps my favorite VR event as it seems to be a point where people seem to get a recharge of VR enthusiasm. Last year I checked out some amazing games including ARKTICA.1 and the runaway VR hit Lone Echo. However, last year was a different time for me and after being with a VR company that dissolved a few months before OC4 and several projects not going the way I wanted I was looking for something to inspire me to love VR again.  

At the Oculus pre event mixer I met Will Cherry of Here Be Dragons who told me about their latest project Dispatch. I had heard about Dispatch when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival but figured I would have to wait until the consumer release to see it. Will was such a cool person I decided I would make sure to check Dispatch out when I had some time to demo. Here Be Dragons have created one of my favorite 360 experiences with their Mr. Robot 360 episode so I figured it would be good. 

Dispatch follows a small-town police dispatcher as he faces an all-night crime spree. The experience takes you inside the dispatcher’s perspective. There were 2 episodes of the Dispatch series ready to view at the event which created a 15 min experience. I did not go in expecting to much as it was a non interactive VR experience, how could it possibly blow me away.

Well my jaded understanding off what can be accomplished in a non interactive VR experience had to be completely thrown out the window. Dispatch is the closest thing I have ever felt to being inside a comic book, not as a participant but as the curious reader waiting in anticipation for what the next panel brings.  Dispatch made me feel like how I felt the very first time I read an X-Men comic book. This was not just a simple 360 experience this was a neo-noir cyber comic pop up book and I was the fly on the wall. I think of it as a popup book as it takes a flat medium and brings it to life in a unique way. Not a game but presence and true tension is created in the experience. 

Here Be Dragons took something I thought was simple and then gave me an experience I have never had before. The closest thing I can describe it as is a living breathing comic book. The jagged simplicity of the art style somehow created a sense of tension and danger that I shared with the characters in Dispatch. Dispatch put me in the mind of the police dispatcher and made me feel that I was the dispatcher. The lack of interaction in the experience actually added a level of immersion as it made me feel just as helpless as the dispatcher in this tale. Here Be Dragons have created a new work of art in this still fresh medium through classic filmmaking techniques applied in a new way. One scene in particular in where the camera pans back while a very intense scene takes place made me fell as if I was actually walking backwards trying to get out of this intense moment. 

Though the art style of Dispatch reminded me of the game Superhot it had the opposite effect on me. While Superhot made me think of it as a intense violence simulator that is not actually real the art style of Dispatch made me think of the things we do to mask the violence that is very real and present in the lives of many. 

Dispatch is one of the most unique adventures in storytelling I have had the chance to experience. I suggest you check it out when it launches on Gear VR and Rift November 21.

Dispatch is written and directed by Edward Robles and features Martin Starr, Julianna Guill and Graham Shiels.

“We created Dispatch to embrace the most compelling elements of virtual reality to make the experience as dramatic and entertaining as possible,” said Robles. “With a gripping narrative, immersive audio, and strong visual cues, Dispatch gives the viewer an up-close experience with what first responders go through on a daily basis.”

Dispatch from Here Be Dragons is our OC4 CatsAndVR Best Of Show: VR Storytelling.

Oculus Connect Spotlight: Improving Accessibility Across the Metaverse

If we want to make VR available to everyone, accessibility needs to be at the center of the development process. At OC4 Speakers from D.A.G.E.R. System and ILMxLAB discussed some best practices to create accessible content for more people around the world. I am sharing a few of the insights and resources that were presented in the hope we as the architects of the VR ecosystem can help to grow the platform to be as inclusive as possible. 

Speakers at the OC4 talk.

Much of the discussions came from when the ILMX team attened the Star Wars Celebration convention to share Trials on Tatooine with the fans directly on the show floor of the convention. Over the course of the convention we served thousands of guests at their booth, including individuals with conditions that exposed usability issues in Trials on Tatooine that created barriers for some guests. 

Despite the barriers at the time, VR still presented an amazing opportunity for the team to bring people joy and Ben was sent an email from a user that inspired the team to push this initiative. Here is an excerpt that was shared at OC4.

"Hi Ben, It was wonderful to meet yourself and your team at SWCE. I would like to thank your team for enabling X to enjoy the Game. X has [...] which is why he spends so much time in a wheelchair as he is unable to steadily stand for long periods [...]. This generally means that even though he is N years old, he misses out on so much. He is truly staunch Star Wars fan, having introducing it to him when he was only two. He was unable at this time to be mobile and had to sit still for long periods, I immersed him into a world that would take him away from all the tribulations he would go through on a daily basis! We would watch the original movies daily and interestingly when he eventually went to school they thought he would have difficulty with speech and spelling and yet he would spell out planets and names within the Star Wars universe that even the teachers had to check! In any case, we owe a great deal to both Lucas film and the world that is Star Wars. X enjoyed the game so much. He was able to enjoy it within the confines of his wheelchair and with the demo being one handed, he managed very well. He was in awe of the immersive aspect of the game and technology and has firmly placed it on his Christmas list! Some things were still a little out of his reach but that didn't stop him enjoying the game, we simply helped him where required. The wires trailing from behind also didn't prove an obstacle because as I was his support, I was aware of them throughout. The amazing thing about this experience is that X has to spend time standing and moving around each day, a tiresome exercise that most would find tedious if they were made to do it as opposed to choosing too. This game although designed for entertainment will also prove to be a supportive tool to allow X to exercise without realising or even being forced to do it. We cannot thank you enough"

The experience affected the team, and sparked an interest in researching what other industries and disciplines have done to address accessibility in physical and virtual spaces. The team did much research including a great survey that is linked in this post.  This research led the team to work with Starlight Children's Foundation for the Starlight Virtual Reality program and create a experience that could be accessed by people with disabilities.  

Link to VR Accessibility Survey PDF.  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0VwTVwReMqLMFIzdzVVaVdaTFk/view?usp=sharing

VR is a powerful medium and I was very happy to see that people understand this. I thank the team at ILMX and D.A.G.E.R. System for enlightening me to ways I can help make VR a platform for the betterment of the world. Once the video is posted I will be adding it to the post. 

catsandvr.com/blog/

Do cybercats dream of digital sushi? Ganbatte, a Multiplayer Cat VR Sushi Eating Game looks to answer this

Eating sushi can be a very social activity, but did you know it can also be competitive? Soon, gamers will be able to eat sushi in the social multiplayer VR game Ganbatte, currently being developed by Mimicry. In Ganbatte, up to 4 players take up the role of cats and challenge each other at a conveyor belt sushi spaceship restaurant in order to eat as much as possible.

Mimicry has just revealed its first early alpha gameplay trailer.

With the game still in development, the trailer shows in-engine footage of its early alpha version, mixed with real-life video. The core mechanics of eating sushi and provoking each other over voice-chat and through facial expressions are some of the things that the video depicts.

Ganbatte was recently selected as one of the 10 finalists for the contest Prémios PlayStation 2017 (PlayStation Talents program). As part of this contest the public will have the opportunity to try out Ganbatte for the first time at Lisboa Games Week, a videogames tradeshow in Lisbon, Portugal.

“We’re very excited to share our progress, and we look forward to keep improving Ganbatte with the feedback we receive from our players,” says Thomas Papa, founder of Mimicry.

Ganbatte is coming up to an early access release on Steam, in Q4 2017, for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. You can follow Ganbatte’s development on its official devblog at ganbattegame.com/blog.

About Mimicry

Mimicry (mimicrygames.com) is an independent game, VR and software development studio composed of Thomas Papa, Daniela Fontes, Artur Gomes, Pedro Oliveira and José Vieira. Mimicry is based in Coimbra, Portugal and creates virtual reality experiences and games. In addition, Mimicry also offers its expertise in the form of development services and consulting for VR.

Get ready for the spookiest Caturday yet with the new Mindshow Spooky Mansion Playset.

Just in time for the season the Mindshow team has released a spooky and cute Mansion Playset with new Halloween themed characters and props.

The new playset allows several ways to create some very scary yet cute scenes.

Oh my lord what is going on with this cat!? Get ready for the spookiest caturday yet!

Download the update and tweet your video to the Mindshow team with #MadeInMindshow!

Killing Floor: Incursion to debut new playable content at Oculus Connect 4

Tripwire Interactive is excited to return to Oculus Connect 4 on October 11-12 and will be participating in an exclusive talk discussing their recently released Oculus Touch exclusive action horror title, Killing Floor: Incursion. Key members of the Tripwire team will also be on-hand to introduce brand-new content – a new gameplay mode that is coming to the game in the future as a free update for owners of Killing Floor: Incursion. During the talk, titled Killing Floor to Shattered Ceilings: Leveraging Established IP to Break Into VR, the team will be discussing the challenges and key learnings in bringing their smash-hit Killing Floor franchise to virtual reality.

Show attendees will also get an exclusive chance to play new content coming to Killing Floor: Incursion later this year! The developer will be on the show floor in the “Oculus Anywhere” section with a demo of the upcoming Holdout mode. In Holdout mode players will experience arcade-like, over the top action as they’re dropped into a random location in one of the game maps and tasked to defend that position for as long as possible. Quick thinking and creativity will be required, as players will begin with a pistol and knife and must scavenge better weapons and ammunition to survive against increasingly challenging waves of Zeds.

Oculus Connect 4 2017 Details:

What: Killing Floor: Incursion show floor hands-on demos at Oculus Connect 4

Who: Tripwire Interactive (Creators of the Killing Floor franchise and Killing Floor: Incursion)

When: Wednesday and Thursday, October 11-12, 2017

Check out the winning gaming entry from the MIT Media Lab Reality Virtually Hackathon

Action Bear is a puzzle game set in a bankrupt 1950's toy factory where you play as an unfinished prototype trying to gather human body parts to become a person. The team of Lucas Rizzotto, Sam Barnes, Dulce Baegra, and Anselm Hook created this game in 24 hours during the MIT Media Lab Reality Virtually Hackathon. Dulce and Anselm are part of the SF based River Studios so I'm hoping to be able to demo this soon. 

The hackathon was held at the MIT Media lab and was a chance for many to showcase their capabilities of VR and AR in several categories. 

Category 1: Healthcare and Medicine: Allow physicians or medical administrators to improve care experiences.

Category 2: Entertainment: Make an audience member feel like they are part of the film with either virtual or augmented immersion in a story. 

Category 3: Education: Provide new tools to educators to help them accelerate the learning process or to reach those who do not have traditional instructional methods available.

Category 4: Sports: Help coaches and athletes fine tune their game through the use of augmented reality, virtual reality for practice, training, or game-day play needs.

Category 5: Architecture, Engineering and Construction: Provide new tools to enhance the scope of architecture and construction in traditional methods and also immersive means for specification development of projects

Category 6: Gaming: Design, architect and develop games to be played in an AR/VR environment including scene development and game logic including single / multi-player games. 

Category 7: Retail: Allows users to buy and sell goods within an AR/VR environment, potentially leveraging virtual store fronts and digital markets. 

CatsAndVR.com will be looking to following up several of the winners of the MIT Hackathon and bring you the ongoing development of the projects.
 

VR Film COLLISIONS Snags Emmy for Outstanding New Approaches: Documentary

Jaunt Inc., today announced the groundbreaking VR work COLLISIONS, a Sundance Institute New Frontier | Jaunt VR Residency Program project, has won an Emmy for the Outstanding New Approaches: Documentary category at Thursday night’s 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards in New York City. Director Lynette Wallworth, Producer Nicole Newnham, and Jaunt VR Producer Patrick Meegan were on-stage to accept the award.

Wallworth, an acclaimed Australian artist and documentary filmmaker, is known for producing immersive artworks that provoke profoundly emotional responses. COLLISIONS is a virtual reality journey to the land of indigenous elder Nyarri Morgan and the Martu tribe in the remote Western Australian Pilbara desert, living as hundreds of generations before them have, with no exposure to the Western world. Nyarri’s first contact with Western culture came in the 1950’s via a dramatic collision between his traditional world view and the cutting edge of Western science and technology, when he witnessed first-hand and with no context, the testing of an atomic bomb. COLLISIONS focuses on the need to consider future generations, as we dive head-long into the fourth industrial revolution.

Speaking immediately after the Award presentation Wallworth said, “This immersive technology allowed the impact of Nyarri's story to be felt in a way that other forms could not and the timing of the story’s release proved to be prescient. As the world watches a newly emerging nuclear standoff, Nyarri’s powerful first hand account, translated into our most contemporary of mediums, is a story that has waited over 50 years to be told. COLLISIONS is a story for this moment and it needed these technologies to deliver it.”

Newnham added, “It was exciting to leverage the technology of VR to realize Lynette’s vision. VR enabled the viewer to viscerally experience Nyarri’s homeland, and to witness the atomic test from his point of view. It’s incredibly emotional. The possibilities for storytelling in this medium are profound.”

This is the fifth Emmy nomination for Newnham and her first win. It is the first nomination for Wallworth.

Through the extraordinary visualization capabilities offered by virtual reality, COLLISIONS, takes viewers on a profoundly emotional, immersive journey—standing alongside Nyarri, as he recounts this life changing collision with the extreme edge of Western science and technology, and the impact it will have for generations to come.

“Working on COLLISIONS was an incredible experience,” said Meegan. “Lynette and Nicole were working in the VR medium for the first time, but worked tirelessly to harness its potential in order to tell Nyarri’s story in the only way it could properly be told, and Nyarri understood the technology from the moment we arrived.”

COLLISIONS premiered jointly at Sundance Film Festival and at the World Economic Forum, Davos. COLLISIONS was the first VR work to be commissioned by the World Economic Forum and the Forum is an Executive Producer of the work. COLLISIONS has gone on to provoke meaningful change on a global level forcing leaders to reconsider the effect of policies on the environment and health of the earth. Screenings have been held for decision makers at the Trimble Forum for Disarmament, Washington, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty meetings in Vienna, the Climate Action Summit Washington and the UN General Assembly meetings, New York. Viewers of this film represent some of the world’s major nuclear powers, heads of state, heads of industry, celebrities and more including the President of Argentina and the King of Belgium, cultural leaders including will.i.am, Olafur Eliasson and Yo-Yo Ma, as well as a large number of government ministers. Hans Blix who viewed the work in Vienna commented that the world needed immersive works like COLLISIONS to illustrate the truly corrosive power of nuclear weapons as they remain for most people”...an abstract concept.”

Find the full immersive experience here, on the Jaunt VR App and website.

TOKiMONSTA and TheWaveVR To Release First Full-Length Interactive Album in Virtual Reality on October 8th

LA producer TOKiMONSTA and social VR music platform TheWaveVR have announced a special interactive version of TOKi’s new album, Lune Rouge, which drops October 6th via her label Young Art Records. The VR portion of the album titled the Lune Rouge Experience will launch Sunday, October 8th at 6:00pm Pacific Time and will be available to any HTC Vive or Oculus Rift VR headset owners through TheWaveVR’s free app on Steam in the US. Programmed specifically for VR with art direction from Strangeloop, the experience will let fans explore a planet inspired by the album artwork, dance in an interstellar rave under an exploding sun, and remix a 3D world built out of  TOKiMONSTA's music.

Lune Rouge is TOKiMONSTA’s third full-length album, and the first since her recovery from a rare brain disease that forced her to relearn how to write music. “Being able to play Coachella three months after having the surgery was very significant to me,” she recently told Pitchfork.  “If I can do something like this, anyone can.”

The Lune Rouge Experience is the fifth flagship show to debut on TheWaveVR platform in a concert series aimed at pushing the boundaries of live music in VR. Previous shows included Ninja Tune artist Ash Koosha’s AKTUAL, as well as Strangeloop’s N-FOLD, which was released in association with BRAINFEEDER. “We wanted to do something special to support TOKi’s release, and create an entire world around the record,” said TheWaveVR’s CEO and Co-Founder Adam Arrigo. “Our goal as a company is to help artists create new experiences that let their fans get closer to their artistic vision. The Lune Rouge Experience lets fans literally step inside the album and experience her music in a new, interactive dimension.”

www.tokimonsta.com

www.thewavevr.com

Oculus exclusive ARKTIKA.1 from the the creators of Metro 2033 to launch just in time for OC4

With Oculus Connect 4 right around the corner I have to deliver the great news that the CatsAndVR OC3 Game Of The Show ARKTIKA.1 is also right around the corner from 4A Games the company best known for developing the critically aclaimed Metro video game franchise.

In ARKTIKA.1, barbaric raiders and mutated cannibals push humanity to the brink during the Great Freeze, a man-made ice age . Survival is far from guaranteed – and only customizable weaponry and tactical thinking stand between you and a very cold grave. From the creators of Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, and Metro Redux comes a new vision of the apocalypse. ARKTIKA.1 is a highly immersive, action-packed, first-person shooter designed exclusively for Oculus Touch.

STORY & GAMEPLAY
Nearly a century into the future – in the aftermath of a silent apocalypse – Earth has entered a new Ice Age known as the Great Freeze. Only the equatorial regions remain habitable, yet pockets of humanity still manage to survive in small numbers all over the planet. These regions of civilization sit on resource-rich, highly desirable territories to the north and south. As a mercenary hired by Citadel Security, you must protect one of the last colonies in the wastelands of old Russia from violent raiders, marauders, and horrifying creatures. ARKTIKA.1 is powered by the acclaimed 4A Engine and was built from the ground up for Oculus Touch. With breathtaking detail and superior shooting mechanics, ARKTIKA.1 is on a fast course to redefine the scope and graphical fidelity of VR first-person shooters.

KEY FEATURES
*   Immersive FPS action with full-body shooting mechanics.
*   Engaging combat featuring unique abilities such as touch, dodge and hide.
*   Some of the most impressive visuals ever seen in VR, thanks to the 4A Engine.
*   Intuitive controls for natural, realistic gameplay.
*   Atmospheric settings with a blend of post-apocalyptic and futuristic environments.
*   Advanced weapons with plenty of customization choices to suit your personal playstyle.
*   Visceral challenge with finely-tuned difficulty balance.
*   Deep, immersive storyline.
*   Available initially in English, Russian, and Ukrainian.

PRICING & AVAILABILITY
ARKTIKA.1 is set to arrive on October 10 and will be compatible with Oculus Touch. The game can be pre-ordered for $26.99 – 10% off the retail price.

Oculus Store:
https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/682000918570174