VR publisher and developer Vertigo Games and newly formed VR studio Anotherway have released a brand new video for their upcoming VR music game Unplugged (*working title), revealing a behind the scenes look into the development of the game and sharing more details into their vision for the gameplay direction.
“Unplugged is a VR music game that puts you in front of a crowd,” Ricardo Acosta says in the video. “It's not about learning to play guitar, it’s about feeling like a rockstar, it's about immersion. We want you to feel like you are there, you are a rockstar in front of a big crowd and you're interacting with them.” The video shows a first glimpse of what that interaction looks like as we see the development team in VR headsets, using hand tracking technology to play air guitar and wave to the virtual audience, which then waves back.
A publishing partnership between Vertigo Games and Anotherway was just announced last week, where Vertigo Games stated they had big plans for the title and would be “elevating the gameplay concept in exciting ways”. “With Unplugged, Anotherway applies novel and high-quality hand tracking technology to VR gameplay in the best way possible and creates a whole new level of immersion that really impressed us,” said Richard Stitselaar, Managing Director at Vertigo Games. “We are excited to bring Anotherway’s unique vision to VR in 2021.”
Unplugged is developed by Anotherway, a newly formed VR studio led by Ricardo Acosta and Julia Casal, developers with roots at Microsoft Hololens and Activision. During lockdown, they started working on Unplugged as a passion project, which seemed to really resonate with the VR community. “At that point we realized we had something worthy in our hands,” Ricardo Acosta says in the video. “By partnering with Vertigo Games we have the resources to create a great game.”
Unplugged is a VR music game that uses novel and quality hand tracking technology to make you feel like a musical legend on a virtual stage. Published by Vertigo Games and developed by Anotherway, Unplugged is coming to VR in Q3 2021. For more news about Unplugged, find Unplugged on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and sign up for the newsletter at unplugged-vr.com.
About Anotherway
Anotherway is a newly formed VR development studio, founded in 2020 by Ricardo Acosta and Julia Casal. For many years, Ricardo and Julia worked as developers for major clients and agencies such as Microsoft Hololens and Activision. While these environments were ideal for learning and skill development, the two always felt a need to build something of their own, on their own terms, away from the corporate grid. During lockdown, they started working on their own passion project “Unplugged”, which seemed to really resonate with the VR community. Realizing the potential Unplugged held, Ricardo and Julia decided to break their corporate chains and chase their ambitious dreams. Anotherway was finally born. unplugged-vr.com.
The group’s publishing activities, marketing and distribution extend throughout Europe, America, Australia and Asia. Koch Media has more than 25 years of experience in the digital media business and has risen to become a leading global publishing partner. The Koch Media Group runs a multi-label strategy with fully owned publishing units such as Deep Silver, Milestone, Vertigo Games and Ravenscourt which publish games for consoles, PC and VR platforms across all physical and digital channels.
Additionally, as global publishing partner Koch Media has formed long-term multi-national publishing collaborations with numerous game publishers including Bethesda, Capcom, Codemasters, Konami, Koei Tecmo, Sega, Square Enix, Warner Bros and many others. With its parent company in Höfen, Austria, and the Publishing HQ in Munich, Germany, Koch Media owns local publishing companies in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, the United States as well as Japan and Hong Kong.
The Koch Media Group owns seven game development studios: Deep Silver Volition (Champaign, IL / USA), Deep Silver Dambuster Studios (Nottingham / UK), Deep Silver Fishlabs (Hamburg / Germany), Warhorse Studios (Prague / Czech Republic), Milestone (Milan / Italy), Voxler (Paris / France) and Vertigo Games (Rotterdam /The Netherlands). Additionally, the Koch Media Group collaborates with numerous independent development studios around the world.
Part of the Koch Media Group is also Koch Films, a European independent film distributor with business primarily in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy as a cinema, TV, online and Home Entertainment distributor. The Koch Media Group also owns Gaya Entertainment, a leading video game merchandise company in Munich, Germany, and the Quality Assurance Facility in Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Koch Media is an Embracer Group company.