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VR Indie Pitch San Francisco Winners

VR Indie Pitch San Francisco Winners

The first day of VR Connects San Francisco 2017 has now closed – and with it the latest VR Indie Pitch. The competition saw 10 indie devs take their turn to impress a panel of expert judges that included respected developers, journalists and business people in the hope of bagging a share of the $7,000 promotional prize package.

Let’s look at the winners and runners-up...


Click here to view the list »
  • First Place

    First Place logo

    The voting may not have been unanimous, VINDICTA by Game Cooks was the clear favourite for first position from the judging panel. It’s a First Person Shooter for HTC Vive that features arm-swinging locomotion.

    Players walk around UB Industries’ facilities and pick up weapons from hand guns to hand grenades to fight off incoming evil robots, mechanical spiders and a variety of other enemies.

    The game has a total of five levels with a focus on stealth, tactical movement and precision shooting, as well as in-game leaderboards.

    VINDICTA was released on the Steam Store on 20th June 2017.


  • Second Place

    Second Place logo

    Twobit Odyssey by Squidbeam Games was a firm favourite among the judges for runner-up. A sequel of sorts to Gear VR’s single level taster called Twobit, Odyssey incorporates a lot of player feedback into this upcoming VR puzzle-platform game for the Gear VR. Only using his or her sight, the player controls a little robot in a strange world, helping him tackle problems and puzzles, and ultimately unravelling the mysteries of this enigmatic place.

    From inception, Twobit was crafted to be an interactive VR experience and special attention was given to the gaze control system. The player doesn't move around the world - he or she explores their surroundings through the little robot named Twobit. Every feature of the gameplay was carefully designed and integrated to be an effortless extension of the user, and for Twobit and the player to ultimately connect and work together.

    Additionally, everything in the game was formulated to effectively prevent motion sickness, including the unique animation of the little robot Twobit. For instance, when he rolls, his head collapses back inside his body and players can't see what the robot sees, thus preventing them from feeling dizzy. Twobit was carefully constructed to safely get around the limitations caused by motion sickness, so the player is free to be fully immersed within a believable and coherent world. Finally, it was also carefully optimised for use on mobile devices.

    Squidbeam Games is a solo indie developer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. The studio consists of just Laurent Kermel, an award-winning Visual Effects artist who has worked on numerous Hollywood blockbusters.

    Twobit Odyssey will release first on Gear VR this year, followed by a version for Oculus Rift.


  • Third Place

    Third Place logo

    Rounding out the podium positions is Kartong - Death By Cardboard! by SVRVIVE Studios

    This ‘cute’ FPS stealth game puts you up against evil experiments inside a miniature cardboard city. The maze of traps changes with every game, paper cuts are deadly and Mr Chuckles is very ANGRY. But hey, who doesn’t love the smell of cardboard in the morning?

    This is the Swedish studio's sophomore entry after its eponymous debut, SVRVIVE: The Deus Helix that is now available on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

     

    Kartong - Death By Cardboard! will be released this year for PS VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Microsoft WMR.


Managing Editor

Steve is an award-winning editor and copywriter with nearly 25 years’ experience specialising in consumer technology and video games. He was part of a BAFTA nominated developer studio. In addition to editing TheVirtualReport.biz, Steve contributes to BeyondGames.biz, PocketGamer.biz, PCGamesInsider.biz and BlockchainGamer.biz, as well as creating marketing content for a range of SMEs and agencies.