A-Tech Cybernetic
SynthesisVR is now in use in over 100 locations worldwide and our VR and online services are used by thousands of people on a daily basis. Few of those locations are actually running under our own VR Territory arcade chain (recently featured in a Hell’s Kitchen episode). As arcade owners, we also pays our fair portion to the “out-of-home” VR ecosystem and that includes licensing fee for all the games we offer to our customers. At the same time, it is obvious that what is “fair” in specific regions comes as being too expensive in other regions and, when you have to pay 30 to 50% of your revenue just for content licenses, you might make certain shady business practices. We know all you want is to show the world how awesome is VR and to do that, you should not live in fear and suffer in your marketing efforts. We realized that long time ago and we took actions by allowing the VR studios to offer fair, country specific, license rates. Today, we are thrilled to announce XREAL GAMES has taken further action in bringing A-TECH CYBERNETIC to everyone! We are happy to announce we extended our partnership with XREAL GAMES, which resulted in base rate of 5 cents per minute. Even further – A-TECH CYBERNETIC has joined Synthesis VR’s fair rate initiative. This is a great breakthrough as there has been popular demand from our partners in South America, Asia and Africa for A-TECH CYBERNETIC at an affordable pricing. A-Tech Cybernetic is a first-person shooter built from the ground up for VR. It features two separate game modes: a classic swarm mode to put your shooting and survival skills to the test and a story mode that takes you to a futuristic biomedical company overrun by mutants. Control everything with real-life movements, interact with your surroundings as if they were actually there, experience a new kind of gameplay that’s more immersive than ever before, thanks to VR. Be the badass guy you always wanted to be. For more information check out our A-Tech Cybertic Page on our market place. For information on all the experiences available on Synthesis VR please CLICK HERE
8th Shore Games – Now Available on SynthesisVR
We are thrilled to bring three new games from 8th Shore Inc, now available for commercial licensing through SynthesisVR. 8th Shore, Inc. is a Seattle-based VR/AR content development company formed in May 2014, by an interdisciplinary group of industry experts and experienced game developers. 8th Shore – TEAM CULTURE: Bridging Eastern and Western culture Industry experts and comprehensively trained game professionals from world’s top game university Innovative, creative and dedicated Connected with game technology and talent Worldwide game market awareness Invoker VR – Command the elements and fight your friends! inVokeR is a one versus one wizard dueling game for VR platforms. Challenge your friends in strategic magic combat, casting spells to turn the tide of battle!. CAST SPELLS TO GAIN THE ADVANTAGE! Use a combination of offensive and defensive spells to turn the tide of battle! Spells are cast using simple gestures, meant to be easy to understand for newer players. For the more veteran and hardcore players, changing up the timing and combinations of spells in battle creates and ever-changing flow of battle which allows for deeper strategic game play! Click Here for more information about Invoker VR NIGHTMARE GROTTO – VR (Survive an onslaught of monsters!) Nightmare Grotto is a horror-themed monster wave shooter for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. How long can you survive?. Fight for your life against a never-ending horde of monsters in this action-packed horror wave shooter. Use dual pistols or an assault rifle (requires PP Gun peripheral, sold separately) and aim for a high score! Click Here for more information about Nightmare Grotto VR SANTA SLING – VR (Christmas is here early!) Have you ever dreamed of helping Santa deliver all the magically crafted toys to the children of Earth? With our game the most wonderful time of the year is now the most wonderful VR time of the year! Click Here for more information about Santa Sling VR SYNTHESISVR is a premium location based management and content licensing platform for VR. We enable clients in 30 countries to enrich their business, achieve their goals and effectively solve any obstacles.
Affected The Manor
SynthesisVR is now in use in over 100 locations worldwide and our VR and online services are used by thousands of people on a daily basis. Few of those locations are actually running under our own VR Territory arcade chain (recently featured in a Hell’s Kitchen episode). As arcade owners, we also pays our fair portion to the “out-of-home” VR ecosystem and that includes licensing fee for all the games we offer to our customers. At the same time, it is obvious that what is “fair” in specific regions comes as being too expensive in other regions and, when you have to pay 30 to 50% of your revenue just for content licenses, you might make certain shady business practices. We know all you want is to show the world how awesome is VR and to do that, you should not live in fear and suffer in your marketing efforts. We realized that long time ago and we took actions by allowing the VR studios to offer fair, country specific, license rates. Today, we are thrilled to announce Fallen Planet Studios has taken further action in bringing Affected The Manor to everyone! We are happy to announce we extended our partnership with Fallen Planet Studios, which resulted in decreased base rate of 8 cents per minute. Even further – AFFECTED: The Manor has joined Synthesis VR’s fair rate initiative. This is a great breakthrough as there has been popular demand from our partners in South America, Asia and Africa for Affected The Manor at an affordable pricing. AFFECTED has been commended as one of the best Virtual Reality experiences to date and thus far has over 200 million YouTube hits and countless features worldwide. The most popular horror experience in VR is now available at an even greater pricing. For more information check out our Affected The Manor Page on our market place. For information on all the experiences available on Synthesis VR please CLICK HERE
On Focus: Overkill VR – a talk with Marc Perez
We are pleased to present you Marc Perez, Director of Production at Game Troopers – the studio behind the hit game “Overkill VR”. The game has a Bronze medal in the Steam’s “Best of 2017 Virtual Reality Games”. Today, we are taking a dive into his vision on VR, the LBVR sector in particular and how it will evolve in 2019. Marc is also sharing some news on the commercial license options for Overkill. Tyler: Hi Marc, thank you for taking the time for this interview. I believe it is safe to say Game Troopers is one of the pioneer studios focused on VR games. Could you share how you got the idea, when and how it all started for you? Marc: Thank you so much Tyler, I’m really glad to share my personal and professional insight of the VR industry for all the Synthesis blog readers. Hopefully, they learn from some experiences and may realize what VR represents for a company like us. It all started from the idea of our CEO, Jesús Bosch, in 2016, he is a visionary in the videogame industry and always likes to be the first if an opportunity appears, we had the title Overkill 3 published in the Microsoft Store and seen it can become a hardcore game for VR users, where there was a clear lack of hardcore shooter games. T: Are you a gamer and what games has inspired you to create Overkill? – For sure I am! I have been playing video games since I was 3 years old, I started to play Sonic in the MegaDrive with my mother (she was really good playing it!) and since then I couldn’t stop. I have grown with The Legend of Zelda, Prince of Persia, Rayman, Kingdom Hearts and many more. Regarding what games inspired us to create Overkill VR. I would say Time Crisis has been the main influence, because we wanted that 90’s arcade feeling, so you can hide behind the walls and shoot the enemies without the necessity of a pedal to cover, we felt that VR will fit really well to this kind of cover-based shooter. T: What was the feeling when Overkill got released back in 2016 and, then, when the game made it out of Steam’s early access? – It was really exciting when we first release Overkill VR in early access, although there was still a long way before the game was complete. Thanks to the community we could see what people like, what is needed, and consequential update and finally deliver a really good title, where external people can always add something. Once we released it, we were really happy we got positive feedback from media and the people were excited to play our game. T: Your company always been very supportive to the LBVR industry. What are your insights on how it evolved over the past few years? – We have realized that many LBVR companies have appeared in the past few years, I believe this trend will continue for the next years and will increase according to the VR improvements, there is a long way to go yet. It all started with basic features, send Steam keys and receive the payments, now, there have been a lot of changes, we have a lot of insights about the sessions and performing of our title which let us improve the current version of the game or even create a new dedicated version for arcade owners. T: Overkill is indeed one of our all time favourite games. It made it to our list of “Recommended Games”. What are the game’s strengths ? – Overkill VR has many strengths but if I have to choose one, it would be the amazing weapon upgrade system and the generator level. You have so many options to customize your weapon and upgrade it to make it more dangerous, this makes it very unique and everyone can customize his/her gun to best fit him/her ending up with something unique and very deadly. On the other hand we have the generator level, which adds a lot of replayability because it’s an infinite level where enemies won’t stop appearing and your accuracy and skills are proved, getting the best score and trying to beat it is one of my favourite parts of Overkill VR, if not the main one. There are more strengths like more than 20 levels to play and enjoy. In those levels there are machine gun levels where you can aim and shoot with a static machine gun with the feeling that you have the capability for massive destruction, which makes them really fun to play. You also have support items, like grenades, rocket launcher, air support and more which adds different gameplay for other users who likes explosions and see their foes flying away. T: What are the game’s downsides? As a home user, I love all the missions, the various weapons and game options, but how would that fit for the arcade customers? – As an indie studio and being into VR since the beginning, we couldn’t take the risk and come up with an arcade exclusive game. We had to make our path to players hearts and Overkill VR is the result – power-ups, multiple kills, wombo-combos, headshots and more. Our initial focus indeed had some impact on our LBVR adoption, but I believe we found the right formula. Thanks to the progress tracking functionality available in your platform, the arcade customers are able to play Overkill through all the missions and have all the fun the game have to offer. This is what converts the first time customers to regular ones and it is really awesome how easy you made it for everyone. Your voice chat adds to this, as playing Overkill in a group and in a location running SynthesisVR adds the competitive element that we have been asked for by many arcade owners. T: What can
2019 – Taking LBVR to the next level
Hi Folks, The past few months were quite of a journey for us and we are happy to finally share some news with you! We are pleased to announce SynthesisVR 3.6 is out now! With versions 3.4 and 3.5, we brought a good number of updates to further polish SynthesisVR and make it work great with all the challenges that arrived on Windows 10 and SteamVR. All your support and feedback was tremendously helpful to get us to the top of such a competitive ecosystem as the LBVR is. The result of all our recent efforts is summarized in 3.6 and brings: Updated support for Uplay Basic support for the KATVR platform Our own content delivery platform (codenamed “SynthesisVR Engine”) Extended support for our “LBVR League” marketing initiative A new stylish look for our desktop app New content development tools Heading into education So, what really all that means? We teamed up with Ubisoft to bring you Arcade Exclusive games through Uplay. Please welcome Space Junkies Arcade! Gear up with insane weapons, from Sunblasters to Bioguns, and use both of your hands to combine weapons with equipment when stalking and taking down your opponents. SynthesisVR Content Delivery It never been easier to distribute or license VR games and content. Words cannot express our excitement, so you better take a look on Virtual Arctic Expedition Virtual Arctic Expedition is a virtual reality experience involving up to 4 people at the same time. The users are immersed together in the same virtual environment. They find themselves in the Arctic seabed where everyone embodies a scuba diver. The SynthesisVR empowered “LBVR League” grown by one more title: Shooty Fruity Arcade Scan, serve & pack produce whilst shooting guns to defend your store from mutant fruit! You won’t find those 3 titles on Steam! Education Content In December, Kamen (our CTO) flew to Rome and met with Bernard Frischer – Professor of Art History and Classics at the University of Virginia. As long Bernard and his vision for VR are remarkable, his work in the field doesn’t fall behind. Rome Reborn VR speaks for itself! All the 3 experiences are now available on SynthesisVR and we are working closely to provide all VR location owners with detail instructions on the best ways to present them to the customers. We love to think about SynthesisVR as the main innovation driving force in the LBVR field, so we do love the perfectly voice-controller game Starship Commander: Arcade From Mass Effect, Tomb Raider, and Saints Row industry veterans, comes a never-before-seen VR experience. Inject your own style into the story, as you command Sergeant Sarah Pearson, and the XR71—the galaxy’s most advanced fighter—on a top-secret mission. Trinity VR is not falling behind, as it is one of the most well polished cinematic VR experiences. Who am I? What role do I play in the story? You will want to experience Trinity more than once in order to explore the full VR world and make sure you don’t miss any of the interactive elements! And that’s not all. We have 3 more excellent suggestions. Escape into a world of peace, calm and relaxation. Watch your surroundings react to the soundscape or play without music to experience the soothing sounds of nature all around you. Nature Treks VR is alive with animals, birds and other life. Sam & Dan: Floaty Flatmates is a co-op VR game where communication and teamwork is key. Your buddy is trapped in a different building across the street, work together to get supplies to build a bridge towards a boat. Find tools to make communication easier, like a tin can, that can be used as a can phone. Also avoid falling in the water, there’s a big shark! It’s been six years since the Undead War shattered the world. Nightmares stalk the land, and sickness and death pervade the world. At the center of this nightmare, the Witching Tower’s Queen directs the chaos, feeding, and growing stronger. KATVR Owners SynthesisVR now automatically recognizes your games catalog and let it start the games through SynthesisVR. Yes, 2019 is here and the evolution of LBVR is inevitable. Stay tuned on how to make the most of it! For questions and comments, please shoot us an email to info@synthesisvr.com
The “Fair Rates” initiative now supported by Survios
SynthesisVR is now in use in over 90 locations worldwide and our VR and online services are used by thousand of people on daily bases. Few of those locations are actually running under our own VR Territory arcade chain (recently featured in a Hell’s Kitchen episode). As arcade owners, we also pays our fair portion to the “out-of-home” VR ecosystem and that includes licensing fee for all the games we offer to our customers. At the same time, it is obvious that what is “fair” in specific regions comes as being too expensive in other regions and, when you have to pay 30 to 50% of your revenue just for content licenses, you can fall for certain shady business practices. We know all you want is to show the world how awesome is VR and to do that, you should not live in fear and suffer in your marketing efforts. We realized that long time ago and we took actions by allowing the VR studios to offer fair, country specific, license rates. Today, we are thrilled to announce Survios has partnered with SynthesisVR into our efforts for a friendly VR ecosystem. Here is what Sam White (Survios Partnerships Director) said for SynthesisVR: As one of the first developers to develop games exclusively for VR and one of the first supporters of VR arcades as a breakthrough in location-based entertainment, Survios is thrilled to make all of its industry-leading VR experiences available through Synthesis to arcades worldwide. From our debut title—the now-classic shooter Raw Data—through our latest, the critically-acclaimed CREED: Rise to Glory, we’ve worked to accommodate the unique needs of arcade operators by building arcade-specific settings into all our games, including simpler player onboarding, streamlined menus, and custom game modes to allow for more enjoyable single- and multiplayer experiences. Whether your customers want to feel like an elite athlete with the physically intense CREED or Sprint Vector, become badass cyberpunk heroes in Raw Data, or just channel their inner superstar DJ with the music creation experience Electronauts, Survios’s self-developed titles are sure to add fun and variety to your arcade library. We’re similarly dedicated to publishing third-party VR titles that we feel are fantastic fits for our arcade partners both in their content and functionality. Our initial publishing pickup, Smashbox Arena, is a madcap dodgeball-inspired battle arena that’s sure to be a hit with parties, while our just-announced offering Just in Time, Inc. combines the mind-bending fun of bullet time with easy, family-friendly gameplay. Finally, Survios is proud to partner with Synthesis to offer country-based rates on all our current and upcoming experiences, ensuring your arcade gets the best price no matter where you’re located. Thanks for supporting Survios in your arcade, and we welcome all Synthesis partners to get in touch with us at arcades@survios.com with any questions you may have. Quick links to all games distributed by Survios: Raw Data Arcade Sprint Vector Arcade CREED: Rise to Glory Arcade Electronauts Arcade Smashbox Arena Jumanji: The VR Adventure Just In Time Incorporated
Status of virtual reality arcades
VR Now and Tomorrow Working closely with hundreds of developers and location based entertainment centers (LBE) , virtual reality arcades and family entertainment centers (FEC), Synthesis VR will be publishing a series of articles on How we help arcade (#HOWVHELPVR) topics based on our talks, analytics and the data collected with these above mentioned entities. Current Status of LBEs & VR Arcades Virtual reality dedicated arcades popping up everywhere in the world from a minimum of 2 stations and in some cases 20 or more stations Arcades and LBEs using VR dedicated hardware such as treadmills, fitness equipment and various other apparatus to enhance the user experience (does always enhance the experience) Larger LBEs and FECs adding VR as an added attraction to their existing venues Theme parks like six flags embracing VR and having VR roller coasters and other R Attractions Large scale VR theme parks such as VOID and the up and coming Spaces. Also attractions like VR Zone in Shinjuku, Japan. With theme parks and large venues having investors and a big budget in marketing behind them, it is very easy for them to attract customers, we on the other hand want to take a look at small to medium location based entertainment and virtual reality arcades. Running a successful Business Certain points to consider in this new business. There are NO DEFINED OUTLINES It is a new industry Local community outreach is very important. Attracting new customers is hard but retaining customers is the hardest part. Creating programs within the local community, schools and colleges is your best bet in customer retention Hold events and parties Hold events based on holidays & religious days Try multiple methods, this is a new industry and no one has cracked the “so called code”. If someone says they know how to run a successful vr arcade, run as far from them. don’t be afraid to try new methods and if nothing works GIVE FREE ICE CREAM or COFFEE. Remember this! Best Practices If the things aren’t going well during the weekdays, specially during the months of September, October, January and February. Studies show these are some of the slowest months for LBE and VR Arcades in North America, it is time to try a differently approach: Daily weekday (1pm to 6pm) discounts Kids specials and after school special discounts Night discounts (every Wednesday or Thursday 7 to 10pm) – Times may vary by community. Be consistent with events. Hold weekly or monthly events and stick to a consistent schedule so your customers can plan around it and plan for it. Other ways to attract customers: Group discounts Feedback option with discount High school reunion discounts Gift cards Creating your own Coupons Marketing with Groupon Synthesis VR supports real time discounts online and for walk ins, group discounts, multiple experiences catering to a wider audience and different pricing. Best Practices – Continued Do Not Provide any weekend or holiday discounts Customer Retention As mentioned above, retaining customers is the hardest part in any business. Using some of the cool features provided by Synthesis VR, this can be achieved with ease: Arcade membership options Weekly and Monthly events based on local community activity, themes and holidays Providing multiple experiences, different pricing targeting different customer base Pay Per Game option – A popular new feature we found talking to various arcades is the new interest in certain games. With Synthesis VR you can provide experience based on certain games. The main key to running a successful business is not just a good VR experience but a GREAT Overall experience. Keep yourself tuned and we will be adding more great practices, how to minimize expenses and key features that can help run a profitable and successful business in this new and emerging market. For more questions on how we can help and other features please do not hesitate to email us at info@synthesisvr.com At Synthesis VR we are at the forefront of introducing new features, creating an ecosystem that helps arcades and developers thrive in this fledgling but exciting industry.
Great games for Halloween!
Top Games to offer during Halloween Halloween is almost here. Synthesis VR has some great virtual reality games for VR Arcades and location based entertainment centers just in time for Halloween. Escape Bloody Mary Though there are a few scary title out there, Escape Bloody Mary is an old fashioned escape room scare game that will keep you tensed and in constant fear. Figuring the puzzles before she takes your soul is a good way to start your Halloween No confusing gameplay, combat, or puzzles to explain Keeps the player tensed and interested Easy to start Short and sweet experience AFFECTED: The Manor! AFFECTED has been commended as one of the best Virtual Reality experiences to date and thus far has over 200 million YouTube hits and countless features worldwide. The most popular horror experience for arcades and location based entertainment is available on Synthesis VR. Take advantage of the Halloween season by offering Affected: The Manor at your location. AFFECTED: The Manor is a horror walk through that only takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. With 2 routes to choose from and multiple endings…can you make it through! The Haunted Graveyard Visit the Haunted Graveyard — if you dare! This spooky fun walk through a magical haunted graveyard is suitable for all ages. Meet the ghosts, explore their world, and learn their secrets. But you’d better keep moving — if you’re still in the Haunted Graveyard at midnight, you’ll be trapped here forever! Made for VRcades and location based entertainment. Kartong In a twisted world best described as ”a miniature cardboard city turned into a malicious science experiment”, you find yourself captured against your will by an oddly charming but mysterious YouTuber that goes by the name “Sven” in the deadly city of Kartong. What makes “Kartong” unique is that it is a horror experience for kids with a twisted take. Odd and Fun experience Stealth Gameplay Death by cardboard Ghost Town Mine Ride and Shootin’ Gallery “Ghost Town Mine Ride & Shootin’ Gallery” is a thrilling new interactive VR horror experience designed for a spooky and fun Halloween experience. Ghost town offers a new virtual reality experience by taking players on a ride exploring an abandoned and haunted tourist attraction. Both on-foot and on-rails experience Easy to start plenty of jump scares for create social sharing Based on extensive feedback provided by SynthesisVR, the game would be optimized for VR Arcades. LA Deadzone The west coast has fallen. An army of undead roam the streets. Your only chance of survival is to retaliate. Not everyone will make it out alive. LA Deadzone is a virtual reality cooperative fight through the streets of Los Angeles. Specifically built for VR Arcades and location based entertainment Multiplayer support Easy to use controls Fun shoot em up game play A Cool feature With Synthesis VR is you can create your own experience for Halloween and target customers based on this experience. This gives you greater control over the reservations without changing your existing experiences. You can also add special games for Halloween as mentioned above and customize your Halloween experience by adding these games. Features like this is why Synthesis VR is the number #1 platform when it comes to managing your virtual reality games, arcades and location based entertainment centers. Please check this tutorial on how to adding your own experience:
SynthesisVR 3.4 and October Newsletter
As we are getting closer to the end of one very extensive October and we would like to recap on what has happened. SynthesisVR 3.4 is out We added a static desktop timer functionality (turn it on from the desktop settings). During the VR sessions, the timer would stay on top of all your games, helping the spectators and people waiting in line to know when the station is going to be free. As usual, some code optimizations are in place, keeping Synthesis up-to-date with the latest SteamVR changes. The SynthesisVR desktop border is now hidden when playing videos in the “Idle Playback” mode. Along with that, the initial setup of the “Idle Playback” mode got much more intuitive We managed to add better shutdown detection, which gets rid of the email alerts when abnormal usage is detected. Addressed issues with the latest AMD drivers. Head to our download page and update today. The new SynthesisVR web administration interface takes preference over the legacy one. The old one would remain available for at least few more months, for all of you who got used to it. However, our advise is to switch, as the new interface offers a wide range of extras: You can easily change the game for multiple stations at once. You can take a single VR station out of a multi-station session, This is vital during extending a session for certain members of the group. Wider NFC integration – you can assign customers with a quick tap of a NFC card (a standalone NFC reader app would be released before the end of October) Take a look in “Your Games” – a new games administration page. Thanks to the new advanced filters, you can easily find games missing on specific stations or games that you no longer use, but that takes unnecessary SSD space :). Helps concentrate on fine tuning your offerings. A new scheduling logic is now in place for partitioned Free Roam installations. Better menus – the system administration became much more organized. Subscribe for our YouTube channel, highlighting key administration functionalities: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFotz447dZmL2ilIMAZURrA/playlists Stay tuned for a lot more cool stuff coming out of our lab. We also got some new games for you: The Great C – a perfection in cinematic VR experience. Karnage Chronicles – now with multiplayer support, great for arcades. V-Racer Hoverbike – fast-paced racing competition in VR. Creed: Rise to Glory Arcade – Train. Fight. Win. Humble Pie – Throw pies at the most powerful man on earth. The Haunted Graveyard – another great experience, in tact with Halloween. Shortly after the release, the developers brought great improvements. Take a look on the full update notes. Mad Factory – A fast-paced, and infinitely replayable VR experience, Mad Factory is five minutes of frantic fun for everyone. Holopoint – another well known title arrived on SynthesisVR. Big Breezy Boat – a simplified and more arcade-friendly version of VR Regatta. Even better – BBB is on a $10/lifetime license. DoodleVR – the first VR pictionary game. Great games are in work – don’t forget to regularly check our games catalog! Mad Factory has been created specifically for VR Arcades. It is a fun, visually delightful, and highly replayable 5 minutes of intuitive gameplay with a ticking clock. Set in a retro-future world where you bake and frost cookies, Mad Factory is uniquely positioned to appeal to a wide audience of players – from newcomers to more experienced gamers seeking to score high on the leaderboard. So don’t miss out on this highly addictive and polished game! We are delighted to list few notable game updates: We have got a good feedback about the game and we passed that to the VR studio. The result – a game update bringing significant improvements. Unlock them by following the instructions – https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791462402480/announcements/detail/1705066227224796778 Now: 4c/minute NEW! LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY – There are currently three levels of difficulty to choose from: VERY EASY, SUPER FUN and EXTREME. You should ALWAYS be playing on SUPER FUN or EXTREME. The easiest option is very easy and really intended for small children only and does not include powerups or several other key features. NEW! DEATH MODE – This is selected after you choose your level of difficulty. Death mode has been really popular to play with more hardcore gamers and is super addicting and fun to play . If your score drops below the threshold, or if you have 3 collisions you can not complete the level. NEW! BONUS LEVEL – When you select DJ Johnny ‘Beast’ song and choose your level of difficulty, you will see a new Bonus level has been added above Extreme in the menu. This level is fast-paced and super extreme. TIPS & TRICKS: ADJUST SFX – You can adjust the SFX feedback levels from inside the Hotel Transylvania lobby or by pressing pause mid-game. If you set them too high it does become distracting (FYI) Please have a look at the manual HERE on page #14. OBSTACLES – When you are playing, you will see these large pink rotating walls. You must get your head and controller thru them without touching any lasers. Your feet/body doesn’t matter just get your head and popstic/wands through. GREEN POWERUP – When you hit a green powerup (green orb), you can blast thru obstacles by quickly pushing your Popstic/Wands forward right before the obstacle. Link to updated game instructions here: http://bit.ly/PlayHotelTransylvaniaPopstic The team behind Electronauts was very generous letting us all use such AAA experience for free. With the upcoming multiplayer update, starting from November, the game no longer would be free for commercial use.
Commercial Licensing
2016 – An unforgettable year where the landscape of reality became virtual. An year where it began with virtual reality dedicated arcades, a new industry even Nostradamus couldn’t have predicted let alone Google. Everyone jumped in and naturally we took the dive as well. During the early stages, there were not too many content for VR. The content developers were looking at Arcades with suspicion in terms of licensing their content. The arcades were finding it difficult to come to a price point to attract customers, the customers were trying to wrap their head around what is VR? Everything was a big unknown. Through all this confusion there was one thing that was certain, VR is cool and it is here to STAY. Slowly with the proliferation of arcades and the push from big players in VR, developers started emerging with great VR content and coming to terms with commercially licensing their content, there was a realization among LBEVRs, Arcades and Developers, the need to co-exist in an ecosystem, which is important for the industry to thrive. 2017 – The big questions were, what sort of experiences to offer? how much to pay for licenses? finding the right price point? Educating the customers in VR?, and the developers were having a hard time wrapping their heads on how to price their content. Do they collect a one time fee, monthly or usage. How to track the time? etc. Fast forward to 2018, there has been quite a lot of development in this and we believe in creating an ecosystem that helps arcades and developers thrive. Consumers have also gained considerable knowledge about virtual reality and are seeking out this form of entertainment. With the proliferation of arcades all over the world, the developer community has embraced this surprisingly new development. At Synthesis VR we have been thinking on how we can make the existing license model even better, a solution that can truly help arcades and developers and provide the best experience for consumers. We had to take into account that arcades are popping up not just in North America and western Europe but everywhere in the world. Places like Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Hungary and various other places where it would be impossible for an arcade to pay the same price as arcades in the USA. We came up with the obvious solution and introduced our Fair Rates Plan in early May 2018. The developers now have the ability to set different rates for different regions, this helps everyone in three ways: Developers are able to monetize in regions where they couldn’t possible monetize before Arcades in these regions are able to commercially license games and offer the latest updates to consumers Reduce Piracy and illegal usage As developers and arcades have geared towards the PPM model (pay per minute), At Synthesis VR we wanted to do more. Our commercial licensing platform is tailored to provide a solution that can be feasible and flexible, hence we also introduced the fixed monthly fee model as well as the PPM model. We didn’t stop here – in July 2018 we introduced the Floating License Plan. An ingenious way to license games combining pay per usage and fixed monthly fees. With our state of the art tracking and analytics we found arcades that use this model, profits have increased by 32%. A model that tracks the concurrent usage of the gaming stations and then calculates according to their licensing model. At Synthesis VR we are at the forefront of introducing new features, creating an ecosystem that helps arcades and developers thrive in this fledgling but exciting industry.