Written by- Prachi Shah
Going mobile with Virtual Reality
After crushing it with Candy Crush Saga, it’s creator Tommy Palm decided that he wanted to do more with his life. This led him to co-found Resolution Games in 2015. The company’s journey began with the fishing game Bait - a VR game for mobile Virtual Reality.
Contemporary companies dealing with VR kept blending into the ‘crowd’ of attempters and VR/AR enthusiasts - but Resolution Games began to stand out by folding in AR into the mix. The company went on to raise a significant amount of capital and comprised of many teams with nearly 58 people. They brought many VR/AR games to the foray. Some highlights of the many games they have brought to the world include: Pigs, Wonderglade, Angry Birds for Magic Leap One, Narrows, Angry Birds VR, Acron: Attack of the Squirrels, of course, Bait! and many more!
Tommy Palm finds the VR industry’s pick up a bit slower than expected - but he continues to have faith because of the relatively blazing track record of Oculus Quest. He rides on this confidence with his company’s latest presentation - Acron: Attack of the Squirrels. The games involve let us say one player being a tree in the game defending the acorns against angry squirrels (who are other players in the game). This way everyone has a role to play. While this can be a solid game for online play - the way to get the most out of it would be to play as and with a group of friends.
The game is a substantiated experience for it’s ‘experiencers’ with better character definitions - including unique powers and abilities to each character. This enables interesting layers of teamwork with each player carrying out different tasks - making the game, not just fascinating but an awesome bedrock for teamwork.
Speaking of his idea of going mobile with VR - he justifies the decision by pointing out a distinctly different experience of playing freedom with going mobile. No doubt, that to begin with - there had to be a simpler version of the initially intended game expanse to successfully execute the mobile VR version.
Palm is very excited at the possibility of USB-C available for use to play XR games from one’s PC. This is hugely a possibility because of the new Oculus Quest. The device has been such a fertile ground for many game makers and gamers out there. The possibilities are endless with XR. The next big mini disruption within the industry is expected to come from eye-tracking and foveated rendering which will literally be game-changing for both the makers and the users.
Currently, the thing holding the fort for the XR industry is the Oculus Quest with superb retention rates. With such an encouraging piece of hardware in the picture, the onus is now in the hands of AR/VR software developers who have to pull up their socks so that they can push Quest’s boundaries - until the next big thing comes by.
However, given the current availabilities and scenarios - productivity building, training and on the other end of the spectrum, things like multiplayer games a.k.a. Social VR has a strong potential for value-addition to both users and providers.
On the note of Social VR - Facebook’s Horizon is an amazing participant to look out for. All said and done, the AR and VR industries are here to stay and grow like hell. The choice is only each of ours - as to where in the story do we write ourselves in. While you think about it - do join us on XROM for more exciting updates, podcasts, videocasts, audiocasts and other exciting content.