HTC Vive launch titles Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption are no longer offered free when purchasing the VR headset. They’ve been replaced by atmospheric exploration game The Gallery – Episode 1: Call of the Starseed (review) and Zombie Training Simulator (so you can be prepared for the undead apocalypse).
Google’s creativity app Tilt Brush is still free alongside the two new games when you purchase the $800 headset, so everyone buying a Vive will still get to try the amazing audio-reactive brushes.
Job Simulator (review) and Fantastic Contraption (review) are both roughly $30 on Steam. The bundle was always temporary and the developers behind Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption say they are embracing the shift as they move onto a new phase of adoption for the VR market. According to HTC, the change is because “we like to keep things interesting and fresh.”
Owlchemy Labs, the developers behind Job Simulator, just raised $5 million on the strength of their team and the underlying interaction and physics technology they’ve developed. The Texas-based startup already announced another game built on this framework.
“It’s good for us as we want to establish a price point for our content and start getting actual sales,” Owlchemy Labs CEO Alex Schwartz wrote in an email.
Fantastic Contraption is developed through a partnership between Sarah and Colin Northway and Radial Games. In an email, Colin Northway wrote that being bundled offered “a great opportunity for us to reach a wide audience and it was incredibly flattering to be given such a central spot for the birth of modern VR. We are excited to be going pay though! We’re looking forward to a more focused audience of creative problem solvers and obviously we’re also looking forward to them trading money for the experience.”
“The bundle deal set us up to be able to continue to work on the game without worrying too much about money,” Northway wrote.
Fantastic Contraption is a trailblazer in VR design, leading the way for mixed reality capture to catch on and offering a platform for people to express their ingenuity. Most recently, the Northways have been exploring a level design tool for creators.
Check out the latest here:
