It’s Double Trouble in the Wands Dual Wielding Update
It’s testament to the popularity of PvP spellcasting videogame Wands that Cortopia Studios has continued to support the title for so many years, originally launching for Gear VR back in 2016. Today, the studio has announced its latest update, fundamentally changing the combat gameplay in the process.
As the name suggests, the ‘Dual Wielding’ update does just that, doing away with the single staff system in favour of a dual wand setup. The studio has done this to suit more modern 6 degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) controllers, whilst also changing the pace of the combat. Now, players have two spells on each wand, activating their offensive or defensive capabilities using the face buttons.
“We have spent a lot of time talking to our players and refining the new controls with the help of beta testers. Previously, players had to select and fire spells with different buttons, which many new players found cumbersome,” says Elliott, QA & Community Manager at Cortopia in a statement. “The new system allows for more intuitive gameplay while also taking advantage of both hands. We believe this fundamentally improves the game because it’s now easier to learn but harder to master. This sets the foundation for more content coming in future updates.”
This new approach also signals the end of any further updates to Wands’ original platform Gear VR, mainly due to the headset not supporting new Oculus SDKs.
“It’s sad to drop updates for Gear VR since it was the very first platform for Wands, which we developed the game for during 2015 and launched in August 2016, almost four years ago,” Ricky Helgesson, creative director of Cortopia Studios comments. ”That was early VR days, when 3DoF was still cool. Now, VR has taken leaps and Wands now plays best with 6DoF and a proper room-scale environment for the player to dodge spells and tactically use two wands instead of one. Both the team at Cortopia and the closed group of testers agree – this is an amazing update for the game and it will be awesome to see the great Wands community start playing it.”
In addition to the dual wielding, the update also includes improved roomscale support with the tiles enlarged so that players have more room to move around – great for dodging incoming projectiles or casting a spell over a ledge. Plus the locomotion system has been made easier and faster.
The ‘Dual Wielding’ update goes live today for Oculus Quest, HTC Vive, Valve Index, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. The Oculus Go and PlayStation VR version will get the update, just without the dual-wielding feature.
For further announcements from Cortopia Studios, keep reading VRFocus.
https://www.vrfocus.com/2020/07/its-double-trouble-in-the-wands-dual-wielding-update/
