VR exclusive online military simulator Onward has been wowing room-scale VR audiences since its inception and now lone developer Dante Buckley has been invited to continue development under gaming giant Valve’s roof, at least for a short time.

One of the most abmitious virtual reality titles to appear since the HTC Vive’s release, military simulator Onward from solo developer (aka Downpour Interactive) Dante Buckley has consistently provided a glimpse at the potential of the first person shooter genre in virtual reality. The game has been revered by the VR community for some time but now the developer has received an altogether different accolade, the endorsement of Valve and the chance to go and work at the gaming giant’s offices – although not full time.

In an update to Onward‘s Steam page, Buckley says “The past few months have been amazing. Onward has grown a lot since August 30th, and will continue to progress even more in 2017!” thanking the community for their continued support. He goes on to say ” I do have one big announcement for you today: Valve has invited me to work on Onward at their offices in January, this means that many more awesome developments are coming in Onward’s future!”

The announcement is worded in such a way as to indicate Buckley will be enjoying Valve’s hospitality and presumably office resources through January, but is unclear as to the full nature of the arrangement. Clearly Valve has deemed Onward a key title for SteamVR and it would seem a fair assumption to make that it might provide input and more substantial support to see the title mature.

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Either way, it’s great news for Buckley and of course fans of Onward as it seems inevitable the title’s development will see a significant boost from his close proximity to the heart of the gaming giant, now heavily focused on building a compelling content catalogue for its growing SteamVR audience. Congratulations to Dante! We look forward to seeing where Onward goes from here.

Onward is available via Steam’s Early Access program here and you can keep up to date with the game’s growing community here.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Damien Wilson

    I hope this dude gets treated accordingly in this deal. Onward does what most of these other developers still refuse to do. This refers to full in-game movement without the use of teleportation.

  • ummm…

    id love to see onward do a single player campaign, or just any ai; i.e. bots etc.

    • user

      sounds horrible. current ai sucks in games.

      • cefizelj gnom

        No it doesn’t. What a weird thing to say. We’ve had competent multiplayer bots since quake 1, and they only got better since.

        • user

          well, some people need a bigger challenge than others i guess.

        • not weird at all. I think many gamers find AI not nearly as enjoyable as PVP.

    • Broken Jamz

      I’ve owned Onward for a couple months now but haven’t had a chance to play it. Sounds fishy I know, but I wanted early access, the game looks awesome, wanted to support the devs, yadda, yadda, and I really have plans to play it when time allows.

      That being said, I like arcade military shooters like Battlefield 2, vehicles are awesome! So if the devs aren’t taking Onward that way and keeping it more sim, maybe developing another game along those lines would be cool.

      Also, low grav shooters like Unreal would smoke.

      • ummm…

        try the new serious sam vr game. that may be more your style.

  • Mane Vr

    Good I’m glad to see a developer who has a form of full locomotion in there game get this kind of support

    • Pistol Pete

      Not just full locomotion, but probably the most comfortable use of it I have seen to date. The game is just freaking awesome!!! A must have game for any VR owner!

      • Mane Vr

        meh I personal hated it but I give them credit for not punking out like most devs do. right know I think Serious Sam: fe has the best shooter control setup

        • Pistol Pete

          Matter of opinion I guess. Everyone that tried Onwards movement loves it that I have talked to. It’s very intuitive. I haven’t tried SS:FE though.

  • ✨EnkrowＸ✨

    Good move from Valve. Hopefully they’ll extend and expand this offer to more developers, so we’ll get more good games. Oculus has been funding devs since day 1, why Valve has taken so long to lend a hand is puzzling.

  • Jona Adams

    Developers who wonder why people don’t want their game, that have teleportation, that’s why. Teleportation sucks.

  • Raphael

    Lettuce hope this leads to Onward becoming the new Valve counterstrike for the VR age.

    • PrymeFactor

      Why is storefront or PC exclusivity something to cheer about now?

      • Raphael

        Yawn. If you’re too dumb to understand, I ain’t gonna explain it to you (and it has nothing to do with steam exclusivity).

      • Sketchy69

        CS:Source also came out on XB 360 and PS3 so it wasn’t PC (or Steam) exclusive even it was certainly superior on PC. All Raphael was trying to say was that he hopes Onward goes on to become as popular as CS was, in that it was a game that had a large community following for many many years. CS:S only died out because CS:GO took over.

  • NooYawker

    I see this melding into counter strike.