Project Arena, a prototype game now in development from CCP, was teased today by CCP Games at Fanfest 2016, the company’s annual gathering in Reykjavik, Iceland.
We first saw a rudimentary prototype of Project Arena at Fanfest 2015. It was found among a handful of other VR experiments from the company. At the time it was built for Kinect, which put a damper on the experience due to the device’s sluggish and inaccurate nature. This year, CCP appears to have taken the prototype into production, and is now targeting the much more agile Oculus Touch and HTC Vive controllers.
Project Arena has advanced visually compared to the old prototype and now looks significantly more responsive. With the motion controllers in hand, the gameplay resembles the Half Life mod Ricochet (2000) or the battle scene from the Tron remake (2010).
New mixed-reality footage surfaced of the prototype showing ‘brawl mode’, which requires the user to dodge and return discs to kill the other opponent. With the disc in-hand, you can use it as a shield to ricochet the enemy disc back at the other player.
“It’s amazing how accurate to feel how accurate it is. We’re kind of hoping this becomes an eSport, but it’s more like an eSport-sport, because it’s an actual sport. I don’t know, it’s kind of a VR-sport,” said CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson when showing the game on stage at Fanfest 2016.
We have feet on the ground in Reykjavik, so we’ll be bringing you previews and demos throughout Fanfest 2016. Check back for more VR-related news in the coming days.
Disclosure: CCP Games provided airfare and lodging for Road to VR to attend Fanfest 2016
