polyarc

PvP Battler ‘Glassbreakers’ Gets New Champion, Steam Open Beta Coming in October

glassbreakers, glassbreakers champions of moss, moss, News, polyarc, VR Game / Mike M. / September 26, 2023

Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss, the 1v1 battler from Polyarc launched into early access late last month, is releasing a new character today which aims to “hook” players into returning for more tactical rat-bashing action.

Revealed last week, new champion ‘Mojo’ is now available for players on Quest, which for now is the only platform with an open beta.

Polyarc says can wishlist Glassbreakers now on Steam, with a planned open beta release slated to arrive sometime in October.

Mojo (aka ‘MJ22’) brings a few new ranged abilities to the 1v1 real-time battler, such as the ‘Free Hugs’ ability which lets Mojo launch a hook attack to pull the opposing squad’s Champions in towards them.

Leveling up, the hook not only launches farther, but it also applies a slowing effect to enemies. Besides grabbing enemies, Mojo’s hook can also snag high-priority targets that the other squad is trying to protect.

The studio announced it’s also hosting a special ‘Quest for the Chest’ event from now until October 5th, which is boosting the speed at which players level up their weekly chests. What’s more, for the next two weeks the top-tier chests will contain “extra special rewards including a chance at never-before-seen masks and emblems for players and their squads,” Polyarc says.

The game is slated to make the transition from App Lab game to the Quest Store proper early next year.

To follow along with progress, take a look at the game’s Trello board to see how events are shaping up, and how bug fixes are coming along.

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Following Single-player Successes, Polyarc Announces First PvP Game ‘Glassbreakers – Champions of Moss’

glassbreakers, glassbreakers champions of moss, moss pvp, News, polyarc, quill pvp, VR Game / Blake Jones / August 14, 2023

Following a tease earlier this year, Polyarc Games has announced its first PvP game, Glassbreakers – Champions of Moss, based on its acclaimed single player adventure games Moss (2019) and Moss: Book II (2022).

Moss and Moss: Book II exemplify third-person VR adventure games, giving the player control of a mouse named Quill which travels through the fantastical world of Moss. Uniquely to third-person VR, the player isn’t just the person behind a screen, but actually exists within the game and can interact with Quill and the environment to solve puzzles and aid in combat.

Alongside great design, art, and polish, the successful execution of this concept is what has kept Moss among the 20 best rated Quest games for years now. We went behind-the-scenes of Moss: Book II last year to learn more about what made the game shine.

Now developer Polyarc Games plans to translate the concept into a standalone PvP title, Glassbreakers – Champions of Moss, the studio’s first departure from single-player VR games.

Details on Glassbreakers is light as the studio is saving a broader reveal for an August 29th showcase at 9AM PT (your timezone here), but ostensibly the game will continue to focus on controlling small third-person characters, with some level of direct player interaction. A teaser image shows a few characters we already know from the games alongside some seemingly new faces that are likely to be part of the game’s roster for players to control.

We’ll be interested to see if the studio can amp up the game’s relatively simple combat to create a truly competitive game, and what direct interactions players will be able to have between themselves and their character, or maybe even themselves and the opposing player.

While a launch date for Glassbreakers hasn’t been announced, a holiday 2023 release date looks likely. While the game has been confirmed for Quest so far, there’s a good chance Glassbreakers will also make it to PSVR 2 and PC VR just like its predecessors.

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‘Moss’ Studio Announces VR Competitive Multiplayer, Closed Beta Signups Now Live

moss, moss 2, moss book 2, moss book ii, moss ii, News, polyarc, VR Game / Ryan Harris / March 22, 2023

Polyarc, the studio behind the Moss franchise, announced a new competitive multiplayer VR game currently in development.

Polyarc isn’t saying much beyond that—we still don’t even know it’s name—however a look at the game’s concept art shows a definite influence from Moss‘ style and characters, including the Reader and a number of plucky mice heroes.

Although we can’t read too much into it, retrofitting Moss’ third-person platforming view into a multiplayer battle game may mean the studio is pursuing something very similar in feel to Moss, albeit with multiple classes and weapons. In the concept art we see a gilded Reader and a number of different mousey classes: a tank, archer, knight, wizard, and even some evil leafy dudes.

“It’s apparent observing the community of players out there and receiving some of our own feedback that there are a lot of gamers in VR who are looking for and want to play more competitive multiplayer games,” said Tam Armstrong, co-founder and CEO, Polyarc. “We are excited about this opportunity, as VR offers interesting considerations for multiplayer games. The ability to read the other player’s focus and intention as they move their head and hands are some of the elements that make playing games in person so compelling. We are looking forward to sharing what we’ve been working on and the fun we’ve been having playing it.”

Coming off the success of Moss and Moss: Book II, Polyarc says a competitive multiplayer is “something the team has been excited to develop since the studio’s inception in 2015, but first the player base needed to grow large enough to support multiplayer games of this nature.”

The game, which is still unnamed at the time of this writing, is set to run closed playtesting on the weekend of April 14th-16th. Here’s how Polyarc describes the first round of closed beta testing:

We’re working on lots of cool, new stuff and want to see what happens when we get it in the hands of real players. Each playtest will focus on a different aspect of an in-development game and your feedback will be important to help us make the best final product(s) possible. And we’re here to test the game; we’re not testing you as the playtesters. So please don’t feel like you have to do anything besides play the game. If you are having fun, we want to know! If you aren’t having fun, then we also want to know. And we will ask you all about every juicy detail in a survey at the end.

The studio hasn’t announced target platforms yet, however playtesters will require a Quest 2 to participate. If you’re interested in joining, signups are available starting today.

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