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.
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.