New VR, Metaverse Flops, NSFW Squids, and AGDA Winners

Valve VR

Valve has posted a job listing. Nothing new, except that it gives us a hint of what’s to come, with the listing looking for someone to ‘prototype, ship, and support’ a virtual reality headset, saying “At Valve, we are pushing the boundaries of virtual reality experiences… The main scope of this position is to prototype, ship, and support consumer gaming products leveraging visual-inertial tracking, camera passthrough, environment understanding, eye tracking, and hand tracking.”

This certainly isn’t Valve’s first foray into VR, but it does signal a push to get ahead in the VR headset market.

Metaverse Isn’t Popular

Decentraland, a Metaverse project, hasn’t exactly been flourishing. It’s a sandbox environment where users can buy and sell virtual real estate, and has a market cap of $1.2 billion. The number of active users over a 24 hour period? 38.

Dencentraland do point out that active users are defined as unique blockchain wallet addresses, which leaves out users who just use it as a place to socialise and hang out, which may bring numbers up to 8000 users per day.

Doom’s On Notepad Now

You’ve seen Doom on PC, consoles, calculators, pregnancy tests, and more. Now get ready for 60 frames per second Doom gameplay in notepad, the very same notepad you have at home. It is playable, using text to create the visuals, much like ASCII art. In very quick, simplified terms, notepad is being used as a monitor, with other software running in the background doing the hard work.

Splatoon Gets a Bit… Rowdy

Nintendo had to release a public statement recently, reminding players of Nintendo’s streaming guidelines, and more specifically, how open streamers are to legal actions. Why? Streamers had started a trend of using chroma-key to superimpose explicit adult videos over the enemy’s ink, essentially treating it as a kind of greenscreen.

As it goes against Nintendo’s streaming guidelines, they can now take down posts, videos, and streams, and even pursue legal action.

AGDA Winners

The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association has announced the winners of the 2022 Australian Game Developer Awards. Judging goes through 70 game industry professionals, with winners from 13 categories announced, plus an additional 4 cultural awards, resulting in this year’s awards being filled with the highlights of what Australia has to offer.

Cult of the Lamb has left with four awards, including Game of the Year.

Julian Wilton, Creative Director of Massive Monster, says “After experiencing our success overseas, it was an amazing feeling to see our game really resonate with Australians as well. We received such strong support locally and we love that it’s being enjoyed, not just for the gameplay, but also for the art and music.”

Raymond Corrigan, the creator of Earthlingo, won the Rising Star award.

Ryan McMahon, art director at Playside Studios, won the Ambition award.

Clara Reeves, CEO of Hipster Whale, has been recognised for her ongoing contributions to the Australian games industry with the Adam Lancman award.

Gameloft Brisbane has come away with the last cultural award with the Studio of the Year award.

And now for some upcoming games!

October 13

• The Case of the Golden Idol – PC
• The Darkest Tales – PC, XBO, Switch
• The Eternal Cylinder – PS5, XSX
• Fueled Up – PC, PS4, XBO
• GOAL! The Club Manager – PC
• Kao the Kangaroo: Oh! Well DLC – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
• Lost Eidolons – PC
• Sunday Gold – PC
• Triangle Strategy – PC
• Trifox – Switch
• Winter Games 2023 – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

October 14

• Dragon Ball: The Breakers – PC, PS4, XBO, Switch
• NHL 23 – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO
• No More Heroes 3 – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO
• PGA Tour 2K23 Standard Edition – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO
• Saint Kotar – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
• Scorn – PC, XSX
• Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival – Switch
• Trifox – PC, XSX, XBO

October 17

• Destiny’s Sword – PC

October 18

• A Plague Tale: Requiem – PC, XSX, PS5, Switch
• Amberial Dreams – PC
• Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO
• Marvel Snap – PC
• Them’s Fightin’ Herds – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

October 19

• The Last Hero of Nostalgaia – PC, XSX, XBO
• The Last Worker – PC
• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection – PC
• The Valiant – PC

October 20

• Batora: Lost Haven – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO
• Hell is Others – PC
• The Jackbox Party Pack 9 – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
• Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope – Switch
• The Pegasus Expedition – PC
• Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch