Our virtual reality arcade platform, VRcade, real-time demo

[JamieVRcade]

We also need all of your help and feedback to know what current VR devs want and use outside of our small team,

Arena style first person fighting & dueling games. Think of the old VR games like Virtual On (but not 3rd person).

Not like Hawken either, make it more agile game and have more devasting attacks & transformation abilities. Virtual on had fairly small maps too.

This is an arena style RPG concept. It isn't mechs, though.

http://www.vrcade.com/2013/03/03/vrpg-t ... of-vr-pvp/

[STRZ]

Putting a VR arcade system into something like this with nicer looks would be interesting:



Instead of waiting until people come to your arcade, you bring it to the people.

[DaveRuddell]

It's funny you show something like that. One of our original ideas to raise capital was to build a "mobile VR" space. Then we could set up in the middle of a mall or travel to events or parties and set up for a premium. It's not too unlike that picture. We're still going to have a mobile solution to take to trade-shows and conventions, but our equipment now is so small and easy to transport we only need some blackout curtains, a truss and a handful of gaming rigs. The whole mobile setup would fit in the back of a van and sets up in about 1.5-2 hours including calibration and fine-tuning.

Perhaps one of our crowd-funding prizes can be a VR day, where we come to you and setup a mini-VRcade for a day. Seems like a fun prize, assuming we have a bunch of games to play by then too.

[STRZ]

Something like this could be easily the most interesting attraction for young people even at big events. I'd prefer this to any autoscooter or other fun rides anytime. And this by using only a minimal space and having low maintainance and setup cost compared to other massive installations.

[TheHolyChicken]

There are various redirected walking techniques, and spacial awareness manipulation techniques, that I'm sure are extremely relevant to this project (I also find this area of research simply fascinating):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Zrjz_hu8I
http://cb.nowan.net/blog/2008/12/02/red ... ns-limits/

The goal is obviously to increase the possible size of the virtual environment, ideally to infinity, even though the physical tracking area is finite size.

[boone188]

There are various redirected walking techniques, and spacial awareness manipulation techniques, that I'm sure are extremely relevant to this project (I also find this area of research simply fascinating):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Zrjz_hu8I
http://cb.nowan.net/blog/2008/12/02/red ... ns-limits/

The goal is obviously to increase the possible size of the virtual environment, ideally to infinity, even though the physical tracking area is finite size.

I think the problem with using redirected walking is that the games will be predominately multiplayer. It's easy enough to trick 1 person into walking in circles, but when you have multiple people running in all different directions, that isn't really possible (think about it, you and your teammate take off running in different directions, and then end up running into one another). You're simply going to need a very large play space. I'm imagining something the size of a basketball court. If it's big enough for basketball, hockey, indoor soccer, etc.. it should be good enough for a lot of interesting e-sports.

[DaveRuddell]

That's exactly the kind of size we are looking to build out. Multiplayer experiences will offer a space between 25'x50' up to 50'x90', which definitely fits the basketball-court sized realm of possibilities.

We'll still have limitations due to space and having a single flat surface, but we will also be offering sit-down VR games, which might make use of the rift and the leap or hydra for input. People can "try" the games and hardware and if they like what they are playing and seeing, then we give them the opportunity to buy them (at home or from us).

Another good story for this is that you have a game you've been playing and it's linked to an online account and you REALLY want to play it with the Rift and Hydra, but you don't have the $500 to drop on the setup. Come in, pay a few bucks, log into your account and play the game with our hardware and get the experience you've been wanting.

[JamieVRcade]

Here is some footage of twitch fps gameplay in the VRcade. Please forgive the annoying eating in the background. The offender was promptly punched in the face.

This video is designed to show how fast our response time is. It allows for very fast gameplay. This was this users first experience. You can see him get better as he plays.

http://youtu.be/DTUNR3-SvbI

[boone188]

We'll still have limitations due to space and having a single flat surface, but we will also be offering sit-down VR games, which might make use of the rift and the leap or hydra for input. People can "try" the games and hardware and if they like what they are playing and seeing, then we give them the opportunity to buy them (at home or from us).

Another good story for this is that you have a game you've been playing and it's linked to an online account and you REALLY want to play it with the Rift and Hydra, but you don't have the $500 to drop on the setup. Come in, pay a few bucks, log into your account and play the game with our hardware and get the experience you've been wanting.

I definitely see a lot of cross-play possibilities. I'm imagining a game like pokemon (as I often do) where you explore the world catching monsters and honing your skills at home, on your mobile, etc.. Then come Friday night, you grab all your friends and head down to the VRCade, where you can battle it out in a fully immersive arena. Very similar to your VRPG idea I suppose. This could totally take the second screen idea to a whole new level.

When I go play whirlyball, I spend a lot of time waiting for my next match. They have arcade machines set up to help pass the time, and that's nice. But I find myself watching the ongoing matches more than anything. It's fun watching people have a good time. For the VRcade you could obviously have monitors set up that allow people to look in on the matches. But what if you could put on a Rift and enter spectator mode? In competitive e-sports, I could see this being incredible. You could even have some level of interaction (helping keep people supplied, collecting loot, etc.)

[JamieVRcade]

We'll still have limitations due to space and having a single flat surface, but we will also be offering sit-down VR games, which might make use of the rift and the leap or hydra for input. People can "try" the games and hardware and if they like what they are playing and seeing, then we give them the opportunity to buy them (at home or from us).

Another good story for this is that you have a game you've been playing and it's linked to an online account and you REALLY want to play it with the Rift and Hydra, but you don't have the $500 to drop on the setup. Come in, pay a few bucks, log into your account and play the game with our hardware and get the experience you've been wanting.

I definitely see a lot of cross-play possibilities. I'm imagining a game like pokemon (as I often do) where you explore the world catching monsters and honing your skills at home, on your mobile, etc.. Then come Friday night, you grab all your friends and head down to the VRCade, where you can battle it out in a fully immersive arena. Very similar to your VRPG idea I suppose. This could totally take the second screen idea to a whole new level.

When I go play whirlyball, I spend a lot of time waiting for my next match. They have arcade machines set up to help pass the time, and that's nice. But I find myself watching the ongoing matches more than anything. It's fun watching people have a good time. For the VRcade you could obviously have monitors set up that allow people to look in on the matches. But what if you could put on a Rift and enter spectator mode? In competitive e-sports, I could see this being incredible. You could even have some level of interaction (helping keep people supplied, collecting loot, etc.)

The Rift spectator mode idea is a good one. Since they don't need to move, we can use the sensors built into the Rift for head tracking.

[boone188]

Here is some footage of twitch fps gameplay in the VRcade. Please forgive the annoying eating in the background. The offender was promptly punched in the face.

This video is designed to show how fast our response time is. It allows for very fast gameplay. This was this users first experience. You can see him get better as he plays.

http://youtu.be/DTUNR3-SvbI

Wow this looks super fun, even in such an early state. I can't wait to try this.

[JamieVRcade]

Here is some footage of twitch fps gameplay in the VRcade. Please forgive the annoying eating in the background. The offender was promptly punched in the face.

This video is designed to show how fast our response time is. It allows for very fast gameplay. This was this users first experience. You can see him get better as he plays.

http://youtu.be/DTUNR3-SvbI

Wow this looks super fun, even in such an early state. I can't wait to try this.

If you are in Seattle, we will be having a public demo on the 12th of April at the Redmond Library. Come in and play!

[boone188]

Here is some footage of twitch fps gameplay in the VRcade. Please forgive the annoying eating in the background. The offender was promptly punched in the face.

This video is designed to show how fast our response time is. It allows for very fast gameplay. This was this users first experience. You can see him get better as he plays.

http://youtu.be/DTUNR3-SvbI

Wow this looks super fun, even in such an early state. I can't wait to try this.

If you are in Seattle, we will be having a public demo on the 12th of April at the Redmond Library. Come in and play!

I'll be there! It's crazy how long 9 days seems when you are in waiting-for-oculus-rift mode.

[DaveRuddell]

We'll still have limitations due to space and having a single flat surface, but we will also be offering sit-down VR games, which might make use of the rift and the leap or hydra for input. People can "try" the games and hardware and if they like what they are playing and seeing, then we give them the opportunity to buy them (at home or from us).

Another good story for this is that you have a game you've been playing and it's linked to an online account and you REALLY want to play it with the Rift and Hydra, but you don't have the $500 to drop on the setup. Come in, pay a few bucks, log into your account and play the game with our hardware and get the experience you've been wanting.

I definitely see a lot of cross-play possibilities. I'm imagining a game like pokemon (as I often do) where you explore the world catching monsters and honing your skills at home, on your mobile, etc.. Then come Friday night, you grab all your friends and head down to the VRCade, where you can battle it out in a fully immersive arena. Very similar to your VRPG idea I suppose. This could totally take the second screen idea to a whole new level.

When I go play whirlyball, I spend a lot of time waiting for my next match. They have arcade machines set up to help pass the time, and that's nice. But I find myself watching the ongoing matches more than anything. It's fun watching people have a good time. For the VRcade you could obviously have monitors set up that allow people to look in on the matches. But what if you could put on a Rift and enter spectator mode? In competitive e-sports, I could see this being incredible. You could even have some level of interaction (helping keep people supplied, collecting loot, etc.)

It's good that you bring up the idea of the spectator. We've actually been designing a spectator network (SpecNet) as part of the VRcade experience and even the VRDK. People at home can spectate the game from their own computers and cheer/jeer/talk among themselves, just like a real crowd. The person playing can turn on/off the communication between themselves and the crowd depending on their preference.

I hadn't really thought about people wearing the Rifts as part of the SpecNet service, but it makes complete sense. Imagine sitting at home and participating in an "e-sport" event like you were actually there. You could even add Hydra support so people could throw things at you in VR. We'll talk next Friday boone, it sounds like you're vision and excitement are aligned with our own, and I look forward to meeting you in person.

[NiceGuyAndersson]

Had a look through your whole wiki yesterday (I think you caught that cause my account no longer has access to any pages?)
I really like how in-depth it was and I think you've got everything under control! Really rooting for you guys!
However, If you're shooting for fully funding everything through your Indiegogo campaign, you're gonna have a bad time cause that was a whole lot of money. There were some things that you probably shouldn't aim to have on opening day to keep costs down (not going to mention anything in particular in case the info on your wiki is meant to be private). And I hope you try to find some other way to get a bit of money (loans etc).
I reeeeally hope you're successful though so that maybe I (or someone) can open a VRcade (or affiliated establishment) here in Stockholm!

[JamieVRcade]

Had a look through your whole wiki yesterday (I think you caught that cause my account no longer has access to any pages?)
I really like how in-depth it was and I think you've got everything under control! Really rooting for you guys!
However, If you're shooting for fully funding everything through your Indiegogo campaign, you're gonna have a bad time cause that was a whole lot of money. There were some things that you probably shouldn't aim to have on opening day to keep costs down (not going to mention anything in particular in case the info on your wiki is meant to be private). And I hope you try to find some other way to get a bit of money (loans etc).
I reeeeally hope you're successful though so that maybe I (or someone) can open a VRcade (or affiliated establishment) here in Stockholm!

We were wondering who that was.

As for the money, what we raise is scalable, so we get to keep whatever we raise and we can build from there. We are confident that we can make good on all of our backing prizes with the money we raise. The amount doesn't scare us. We won't base the entire design and potential of the VRcade on whether or not this kind of money has been raised before. Perhaps we will set new records. Perhaps we won't. Either way, we can't let history dictate how much we should ask for. In addition, we can launch multiple campaigns over time, so this amount doesn't have to be raised all at once.

We don't know what will happen, but we think we live in a geographic area with enough interest to make this a reality. Hopefully you will be able to have a VRcade near you in no time!

In addition, we just met and demoed the VRcade for Gamespot in the US at their corporate office. Expect a write-up and video soon from them.

[NiceGuyAndersson]

Had a look through your whole wiki yesterday (I think you caught that cause my account no longer has access to any pages?)
I really like how in-depth it was and I think you've got everything under control! Really rooting for you guys!
However, If you're shooting for fully funding everything through your Indiegogo campaign, you're gonna have a bad time cause that was a whole lot of money. There were some things that you probably shouldn't aim to have on opening day to keep costs down (not going to mention anything in particular in case the info on your wiki is meant to be private). And I hope you try to find some other way to get a bit of money (loans etc).
I reeeeally hope you're successful though so that maybe I (or someone) can open a VRcade (or affiliated establishment) here in Stockholm!

We were wondering who that was.

As for the money, what we raise is scalable, so we get to keep whatever we raise and we can build from there. We are confident that we can make good on all of our backing prizes with the money we raise. The amount doesn't scare us. We won't base the entire design and potential of the VRcade on whether or not this kind of money has been raised before. Perhaps we will set new records. Perhaps we won't. Either way, we can't let history dictate how much we should ask for. In addition, we can launch multiple campaigns over time, so this amount doesn't have to be raised all at once.

We don't know what will happen, but we think we live in a geographic area with enough interest to make this a reality. Hopefully you will be able to have a VRcade near you in no time!

In addition, we just met and demoed the VRcade for Gamespot in the US at their corporate office. Expect a write-up and video soon from them.

Fair enough! I don't think there's any doubt that if you manage to put up a VRcade the way you want it, you'll be successful. The only problem is getting to that point, but you seem to have it under control

Will you have any rewards for backers who aren't in or can't come to Seattle?

Looking forward to the Gamespot write-up! Did it go well?

[JamieVRcade]

Had a look through your whole wiki yesterday (I think you caught that cause my account no longer has access to any pages?)
I really like how in-depth it was and I think you've got everything under control! Really rooting for you guys!
However, If you're shooting for fully funding everything through your Indiegogo campaign, you're gonna have a bad time cause that was a whole lot of money. There were some things that you probably shouldn't aim to have on opening day to keep costs down (not going to mention anything in particular in case the info on your wiki is meant to be private). And I hope you try to find some other way to get a bit of money (loans etc).
I reeeeally hope you're successful though so that maybe I (or someone) can open a VRcade (or affiliated establishment) here in Stockholm!

We were wondering who that was.

As for the money, what we raise is scalable, so we get to keep whatever we raise and we can build from there. We are confident that we can make good on all of our backing prizes with the money we raise. The amount doesn't scare us. We won't base the entire design and potential of the VRcade on whether or not this kind of money has been raised before. Perhaps we will set new records. Perhaps we won't. Either way, we can't let history dictate how much we should ask for. In addition, we can launch multiple campaigns over time, so this amount doesn't have to be raised all at once.

We don't know what will happen, but we think we live in a geographic area with enough interest to make this a reality. Hopefully you will be able to have a VRcade near you in no time!

In addition, we just met and demoed the VRcade for Gamespot in the US at their corporate office. Expect a write-up and video soon from them.

Fair enough! I don't think there's any doubt that if you manage to put up a VRcade the way you want it, you'll be successful. The only problem is getting to that point, but you seem to have it under control

Will you have any rewards for backers who aren't in or can't come to Seattle?

Looking forward to the Gamespot write-up! Did it go well?

Oh yes, it went very well. We ran about 30 people through it over 7 or so hours. They loved it. Everyone loves it

For backers that contribute a certain dollar amount, we will fly them out to Seattle to play. Above a certain price, backers get the ability to play the VRcade immediately, without having to wait for the retail space to open. Also, any earned time from backing will remain on the backer's account to be used in any location on the planet. It's the biggest challenge of fund raising to have a physical location.

For VR enthusiasts, we are building a VRDK so developers and hobbyists can use our state of the art software with a wide range of consumer friendly technologies to make their own experiences. That is another reason to back the campaign, even if you aren't in Seattle.

[snorelab]

Have you tried archery yet? Are there / would there be tracking issues using a bow as a prop and input device?

Also, do you plan on having single player "booths" that are smaller and meant for target practice games and the like? It would be nice to be able to go by yourself for some single player games or dueling type games that did not require a group.

Some smaller room or seated ideas:
Holographic table games (chess, table top battles a la strategy games)
Holographic magic the gathering, pokemon, whatever the kids are playing these days, etc
Standard card games
Dueling (pistols, swords, magic)
Fishing

I'll stop there. The possibities for a VR arcade are limitness. We need about a dozen of these in the Chicago area please.

[JamieVRcade]

Have you tried archery yet? Are there / would there be tracking issues using a bow as a prop and input device?

Also, do you plan on having single player "booths" that are smaller and meant for target practice games and the like? It would be nice to be able to go by yourself for some single player games or dueling type games that did not require a group.

Some smaller room or seated ideas:
Holographic table games (chess, table top battles a la strategy games)
Holographic magic the gathering, pokemon, whatever the kids are playing these days, etc
Standard card games
Dueling (pistols, swords, magic)
Fishing

I'll stop there. The possibities for a VR arcade are limitness. We need about a dozen of these in the Chicago area please.

We haven't tried archery. The arrows would be virtual but the bow could be real. Because we are tracking fingers, I think it could be done.

We will have sit down VR rooms which act as both traditional PC and console gaming stations as well as smaller VR experiences.

The capture volume is called the Grid because it is segmented into 8 different sections. When you go to play a single player game, you play in your section, which can be up to 37.5' by 37.5', which is huge for one player. You can practice all you'd like in there against AI and choose to not have your game broadcast.

Games like VR air hockey, which can be WAY cooler than it sounds, are possible as well. It all depends on available space and demand.