HTC’s internal development and publishing arm Vive Studios has announced two new games coming to Vive in early December. Physics puzzler Super Puzzle Galaxy from 2 Bears Studio and multiplayer WWII shooter Front Defense: Heroes from Fantahorn Studio will both launch with promotional pricing.
As detailed in a recent entry on the official Vive blog, both games are second entries from Vive Studios development partners 2 Bears Studio and Fantahorn Studio, creators of Arcade Saga (2016) and Front Defense (2017) respectively. Although Arcade Saga was updated with Oculus Touch support, both games were originally designed to take advantage of the Vive’s room-scale VR capabilities, and the new games Super Puzzle Galaxy and Front Defense: Heroes have also been described as ‘room-scale’ experiences.
Super Puzzle Galaxy will be available in early December on Steam with 75% off the standard $9.99 price at launch “for a limited time”. This physics-based puzzler involves terrain and object manipulation and will contain 48 levels and an in-game editor to create more.
“Super Puzzle Galaxy was born out of a passion for creating compelling and engaging VR content for the whole family that challenges the player’s problem solving and creative abilities,” said David Sapienza, Executive Producer of 2 Bears Studio. “Adding user-generated content was a core tenet of creating something that empowers the community, and Super Puzzle Galaxy delivers a unique room-scale VR experience. We’re excited to see the levels and Rube Goldberg contraptions the community is able to come up with.”
Front Defense: Heroes aims to build on the strengths of the first Front Defense title, but with a focus on multiplayer – a feature missing from the original. Launching on Steam and Viveport in early December at a promotional price of $4.99, the new game will feature multiple maps, offering 5v5 multiplayer across capture the flag, deathmatch, and defense mission modes. As described in our Front Defense review, its room-scale game design was the highlight, as you could only physically move around a predetermined space (no artificial locomotion was possible), taking cover behind your virtual defenses. Front Defense: Heroes appears to be expanding on this concept, introducing a new locomotion system called ‘V-Move’, described as “unique” and “innovative” on the Vive blog.
“With Front Defense: Heroes we’ve built upon our experience with Front Defense to engage the community and offer new challenges with every match,” said River Ho, producer at Fantahorn. “As a dynamic multiplayer shooter, Front Defense: Heroes lends itself perfectly to the competitive ethos of VR e-sports, an important feature as VR gaming matures.”