Mixed Reality Game: HitMotion Reloaded
New Technology Walkers has released on Viveport “HitMotion: Reloaded”, the first mixed reality fitness game for the Vive Focus Plus. It has been developed by NTW with the help of Whitelabel Foundation and the support of HTC.
“HitMotion: Reloaded” is a fitness game aimed at making people stay fit while having fun. In this, it is similar to other titles like Box VR or PowerBeats VR. But it has some peculiarities that are in this moment unique in the VR market:
- It is available for a 6 DOF standalone headset like the Vive Focus Plus. This means that the user is able to move completely in his room, and punch the targets without having the hassle of the cable typical of PC VR headsets. Furthermore, since there is no tether, the user can move freely in all the room, while for instance with games like Box VR, the user move his body rarely and always facing one direction. In HitMotion, the player will be forced to move and rotate in the whole environment;
- It exploits pass-through Mixed Reality. Thanks to a proprietary algorithm that exploits the frontal cameras of the headset, HitMotion: Reloaded is able to make the player see the reality around him/her. This may seem a cool technical gimmick, but it is actually very useful to guarantee the safety of the player. Since he/she sees his/her surroundings, the user is very aware of what he has around him/her and so will avoid punching monitors and people that are around.
Because of this innovative features, the game has been selected as one of the 20+ launch titles of the Vive Focus Plus and it has been announced directly at the Vive Ecosystem Conference in Shenzhen, China.
Regarding the gameplay, HitMotion: Reloaded is a game about punching and dodging. It will make the player see targets all around him/her and he/she will have to hit them fast and hard to destroy them. The targets will have a color that will determine with which hand they will have to be hit to be killed. If all blocks will be destroyed before the time runs out, and the score will be above a certain threshold, then the player will win the level, otherwise, he/she will have to try again.
Every level will increase the difficulty of the game, and soon just hitting won’t be enough, and the player will also have to dodge the attacks of the enemies. Moving around the room, punching and dodging all the time in this action title will make the player stay fit and have a healthier life, all with a lot of fun and without the hassle of going to the gym.
The title has currently been released as a free demo, because the studio wants to get the feedback of all people that want to stay fit in an innovative way. Using this feedback, it will make the game grow into a full release that will happen around Q2-Q3 2019 on Viveport M.
