The gaming world is pivoting towards virtual reality as more and more conferences and festivals begin playing with VR. This momentum was extremely prevalent at this year’s IndieCade in Southern California as about a quarter of the booths contained virtual reality headsets. There were approximately 25 DK2s stationed throughout the entire event. Most were showcased out front ready for the public to take hold, while others were hidden away for select individuals to try out. We rounded up all the experiences during the four days of IndieCade. Below are the areas that had the largest concentrations of DK2s. VRLA Brought the VR Revolution to Culver City Out of all the tents, VRLA's attracted the most attention in the virtual reality space. They brought together developers from all around Southern California for the festival. Here are brief descriptions of all the ones that were found there: Sixense’s Lightsaber Demo This experience uses a wireless, modular motion tracking system for natural and intuitive interaction while wearing a VR headset. Two 3D printed controllers are held in hand as a lightsaber game is played. A robot shoots lasers at the player who blocks incoming beams of light by moving the controllers around. When the lasers make contact with the lightsabers, a vibration is felt making it seem like an actual deflection occurred. Dozens of people continuously lined up waiting to try the Sixense demo at the VRLA booth. See Also: Three New STEM VR Controller Videos Show Incredible Lightsaber and Gun Interactions A Night at the Roculus Flash back to the 1990’s with this hilarious SNL skit recreation that will keep any game player’s head bobbing the entire time. This was especially true at IndieCade 2014 as Haddaway’s classic Eurodance track What is Love was blasted through the speakers on repeat at the VRLA tent. Gamers who put on the Oculus Rift would bounce to the rhythms of the music as crowds gathered around to enjoy the fun. Control VR Virtual Reality gloves are an obvious form-factor for implementing real-time hand tracking into virtual reality. Seeing your hands recreated in full with fidelity down to each individual finger can help make players feel more present within the game. Control VR’s setup addresses those issues as several inertial measurement units (IMU) sense the movements of the body which in turn translates the data into the virtual reality experience. People who tried it at the VRLA tent could put on the DK2 and and jump into a simulation where they could pick up objects and throw them around. They could even press buttons and move sliders. See Also: Control VR Gloves – Interview With CEO Alex Sarnoff and CTO Ali Kord Continue Reading on Page 2... VR Typing Trainer This educational game surfaced during an Orange County Virtual Reality (OCVR) hackathon. It tests the touch-typing abilities of the people by flinging letters at the user which must be correctly spelled out by the user. Once the words are typed, lasers are shot at them causing explosions of red pixelated spheres. This game is perfect for those who want to increase their touch-typing skills. Temple of Shadows Another game created during the OCVR Horror Hackathon was Temple of Shadows. It was developed within 48 hours by Alex Moro and his friend Brittany at a coworking space called PeopleSpace. At IndieCade, it was shown along with a pyramid exploration simulation at the VRLA arcade tent. Temple of Shadows was the only horror-themed game there. Classroom Aquatic If you have ever wanted to feel like a dolphin taking a test in an underwater school, then this Classroom Aquatic is perfect for you! It was developed by a group of students from USC and integrates elements of education and ridiculousness to create a uniquely fun stealth experience. Players must resort to cheating without being caught to pass the exam, which is quite exhilarating. The questions are ridiculous and innovative. There's even a reference to Sixense hidden in one of them. Stampede Another exciting game in the VRLA VR zone was a first person tower defense demo called Stampede. Moving around the DK2 would aim the weapons at the animals that would run right at the screen. The game had elephants, zebras, rhinos, and antelope that all stampeded during the experience. If players didn't kill them in time, they'd run right through the town, smashing it to pieces. The Oculus Airstream Trailer This year at IndieCade, Oculus VR drove up to IndieCade in a brand-spanking new silver trailer that was decked out with DK2s. It was gas powered and contained four headsets that people at the event could don. The experience shown on the DK2 was made by an independent game development company called Zero Transform. Their 3rd person perspective game called Vanguard V utilized the positional tracking of the DK2 which would control the directions of the virtual character that was flying through space based on head movements. Oculus also showed off the Gear VR as well with a game that was created in-house called VR Quest. The ‘hack and slash’ underground crawler was paired with a handheld Samsung controller that was attached via bluetooth to the headset. See Also: Oculus Drives Into IndieCade in a Shiny New Airstream Trailer Perception Neuron For the most part, Perception Motion was showcasing their 'Neuron' motion capture gloves at IndieCade. However, occasionally they would bring out a DK2 for those who really wanted to try combining the two. The gloves, consisting of IMU sensors, would pick up subtle hand gestures giving the wearer the ability to hold virtual objects. See Also: Perception Neuron More Than Doubles Kickstarter Goal for VR Input Suit at $572,000 The Leap Motion Effect Wherever virtual reality headsets are found, there is a good chance there will be Leap Motion controllers nearby. Leap Motion's new VR mount makes it easy to directly connect the company's motion controller to the front of the Oculus DK2, allowing the sensor to track user's hands and bring them into the virtual world. These movements can be programmed to interact with virtual reality experiences in a variety of different ways. In addition, the controller has two cameras embedded into it and can capture the real-world environment, opening the door to AR experiences. At IndieCade, Leap Motion had their own tent and were demoing simple experiences that let the users get a feel for what the technology could do. A few DK2s + Lead Motion headsets though made their way into the VRLA tent through an audiovisual experience was called Collider. This project was made by Funktronics Labs in collaboration with an award-winning Japanese multimedia artist named Baiyon who was responsible for the sound design and music for the experience. Continue Reading on Page 3... Other Notable Experiences In addition to the main VRLA tent, the Oculus trailer, and the Leap Motion booth, there were many more demos that were embedded into IndieCade scene. Private Eye As their website states, "Private Eye is a cinema, psychological thriller for the Oculus Rift, where voyeurism meets mystery, played out against a 1950's New York city backdrop." The opening starts out by fading in from black with the player is sitting down in a wheelchair with a bottle of Jack Daniels on the table after losing memory from a drastic accident. The gamer must find clues that trigger memories and flashbacks to explore. The demo was located in the IndieCade Firehouse along with a whole bunch of other games. Private Eye was originally an entrant in Oculus' 2013 'VR Jam' and has evolved quite a bit since then. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes Another VR experience that was in the IndieCade Firehouse was an interesting co-operative bomb dismantling game called Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. One person wears the DK2 and a friend nearby flips through a bomb manual in an effort to help stop an impending explosion. The catch is that each individual has no idea what the other one is seeing, which makes the simulation very tricky. Communication is key to dismantle the bomb in time. Use of Force – An Immersive Journalism Experience Most of the virtual reality demonstrations at IndieCade used the Oculus Rift. There were the occasional Samsung Gear VR demos that were seen in the wild where local developers would stealthily show off what they had been working on. There was one additional project that stood out way beyond the rest that utilized their own custom made virtual reality system. The experience was called Use of Force and was created by a group of hard working people led by Nonny de la Peña, CEO of Emblematic Group. The virtual reality experience is an expansive re-creation of a moment in history that shook the journalism world in 2010. It was a moment of police brutality that occurred along the border of Mexico and the United States. As reported by the New York Times, a man named Anastasio Hernandez was beaten viciously with batons and tasered by several officers. Video footage of the incident was recorded on cellphone cameras by those watching nearby. Hernandez died shortly after the event due to the injuries sustained by the beating. The footage captured was digitally re-created for virtual reality using special headsets, custom code, and lots of motion capture cameras. It was unlike any VR demo that was at IndieCade in that it offered a standing experience that was based on a real event. This experience depicted an actual event that occurred allowing people to step inside and see what it was like from the perspective of the person that saw it happen. It evokes emotion, it produces empathy, and it does this all while allowing the individual wearing the headset to walk around. Use of Force received IndieCade’s 'Impact Award' during the Thursday night ceremonies.