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Proton Pulse Google Cardboard?
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Popularity Score: 7
This app was mentioned in 12 comments, with an average of 2.92 upvotes
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Proton Pulse is one of the best VR apps available for Android, it is a well known port from the Oculus Rift, has been mentioned here and elsewhere quite a lot, and is the highest placed commercial app on the list of featured Cardboard apps, so it got a lot more publicity than the average VR app. The developer says all income will go to the development of Vanguard V, for which he started a kickstarter, trying to raise about USD 200K, but only got about USD 28K. This is just to give their estimate how much developing a game costs.
According to the play store page Proton Pulse has sold between 1000 and 5000 copies at EUR 1.61 (= USD 1.79 ???). 30% is a fee for Google, you end up somewhere between EUR 1100 and EUR 5600 for the developer. Proton Pulse has been available for the Rift since 2013, the developer has a lot experience, which shows. My guess is that this is probably the best selling VR app on the play store, many other apps are lucky if they sell more than 100.
If this is what the top VR apps earn for developers with lots of time invested, then developing VR apps isn't worth it financially, not even anywhere close. It will change over (a rather long) time, but right now you'll have to keep a day job to finance your VR development. The Apple App store could generate somewhat higher income, hopefully in a few months the Oculus Store for Gear VR too, but it is unlikely that many new developers will be able to make a living from it for some years, as the niche is just too small.
An alternative to pure VR development is adapting existing games to VR. Half life 2 still seems to be one of the most popular games for VR, and new software from established studios will more often include VR modes. The advantage is that they do not have to rely on the tiny VR market. Caaaaardboard!, another port from PC/Oculus Rift also sold 1K-5K copies. The regular Android version AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! sold 10K-50K, even though it costs 40% more, and development was probably already payed by several versions of it available on Steam for six times the price of the Cardboard version.
For now and the foreseeable future VR developers have to be in it for the long term, as only very few will even recoup their costs, let alone earn money. And there is no guarantee that there will be a first mover advantage for those who start now, as large companies like EA or established indies will have very little problems implementing VR support once they think it is financially viable. And due to their resources and experience they can compete on a completely different level.
Today hardly any indie developer can make a living from games. A few make a lot of money, most make nothing. It's a lot worse for indie VR developers due to the negligible market. If you do it for passion, fun, research or the learning experience, great. If you do it for money, run the numbers again.
Quoting my conclusion from 31 days ago:
I think this is still valid. Some updates.
- Proton Pulse (4.4 stars/158 ratings) still has 1K-5K installs, but they released Proton Pulse Cardboard free (4.5 stars/35 ratings) since then, exactly the same game, but due to sponsoring free for a month. The plan seems to be to continue with a similar model, kind of advertising without ads. Also 1K-5K downloads.
- Caaaaardboard! (4.4 stars/208 ratings) jumped from 1K-5K to 5K-10K.
These are both games that aren't Cardboard exclusives, they run on the Rift, GearVR and other platforms, have been around for quite a while and are well known. So how do other apps do? A kind of typical example for a game that isn't actively promoted:
- Sheriff School VR (4.7 stars/3 ratings) for EUR 1.79 was at 10-50 downloads on 2014-12-31, not it is at 50-100. The free version Sheriff School VR Demo (4.0 stars/21 ratings) is at 1K-5K. The same developer has a free Android Clock app with 5M-10M downloads, the donation version of the same app for EUR 1.96 that offers no extra features was bought 1K-5K times.
- And just to give an impression how many potential buyers there should be: the Google Cardboard app passed the 1M downloads milestone about a month ago, I made a separate post about the download development.
The Cardboard.app is sort of the standard entry drug: many people get a cheap Cardboard, the first thing they try is the Google app. But Cardboard is in many ways still a gimmick, nice to show your friends, but nothing people want to use for a long time. I'm not a gamer, but my impression so far is that the only people who spend a lot of time with gaming on Cardboard versions are those using Trinus Gyre. If money was the only reason, the download numbers for the free apps should be higher, but people just don't bother to even try them.
If you search for "Cardboard" on the play store, you currently get 255 apps, almost all of them VR apps, that would be more than enough to keep users busy trying. It also means that "release and they will find you" doesn't work (anymore), developers have to actively promote their games VR just like regular ones. It is not as hard as with general iOS (500 new ones per day) or Android (250/day) apps, but these serve a lot larger market.
In many ways this is a great time to develop Cardboard VR apps: We got a new Cardboard SDK, the free Unity 5 Personal Edition now includes render textures (barrel distortion correction), level of detail and occlusion culling (performance) and the profiler, all of which are extremely important to achieve usable frame rates. Before you would have had to invest USD 4,500 for Unity Pro plus the required Android and iOS Pro add-ons. Great new VR HMDs pop up and there is a lot of press and interest for VR in general, which will drive more people to try Cardboard. Late 2015 Mattel will release their VR View-Master for USD 30, possibly making it a popular Christmas gift, and it will be able to run Cardboard apps. VR is most likely going to be big, so getting in early will gain you a high market value later.
But for making money now? Still very doubtful. Not impossible, just doubtful. The numbers will get better, but getting recognized will get harder, and the bar for "interesting VR" will get higher. Much, much higher once Vive or Rift CV1 are out. Google gave a talk about a number of developments incl. Cardboard at GDC where they called it "bite-size VR", best used as an extra to regular apps instead of making it the main focus, and I agree in many ways. Many Cardboard app developers see it as a sort of cheap Oculus Rift, but even there with better graphics, headsets and gamepads or mouse/keyboard input games struggle. Yesterday a developer posted that his game is selling worse when he mentions that it has (optional) Rift support. And compared to reactions to the Valve/HTC Vive during the last days, Cardboard VR would have to be reduced to "very tiny bite-sized VR".
> Is it worth developing for android VR right now?
Yes, but you have to understand that Android VR has a lot of limitations that your design has to reflect: low FoV, not a lot of immersion, no good input solution, has to be held to the head. Short experiences make a lot more sense than full blown exploratory games. VR design is hard, Cardboard design is harder. BlazeRush is one of the best games for the Oculus Rift, and not what one would expect from VR. It's worth it in terms of learning experience and being able to create new, interesting things, and it just became a lot cheaper to do so.
> If someone invests money and creates a VR app, do you think the developer can earn his money back?
Short term: no. Long term: maybe. Depends a lot on how good you are, how much your time is worth and how well you are at promotion. Investing money is not really the problem, developing for Cardboard is cheap. Time is, or more accurately: time you'd otherwise spend to earn money elsewhere. I actually hope that I am wrong about this, but currently I don't see it in the numbers.
As this has gotten rather long (again) and my perspective seems rather negative: It isn't. If you are in anyway interested and have some time to spare, try developing for Cardboard. The tools have gotten much easier, you can create a simple VR in Unity within minutes with little training. Creating a usable app will obviously take much longer, but it is very fascinating to walk around in a world you have created yourself. You can get feedback early, and what you learn will be very valuable once the VR market really takes of. Just don't rely on this to happen soon.
Games
Proton Pulse - One of the most polished games I've seen for cardboard.
Vanguard V - Made by the same developers as Proton Pulse, not yet finished afaik but looks really well done.
Caaaaardboard - This is based on the game "AAaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity". It was ported on Android and now ported has a separate version for Cardboard. Great gameplay and induces the feeling of falling.
Thrill Rides
Roller Coaster VR - The best roller coaster ride for Cardboard. Still really underwhelming if you've tried similar apps for the Oculus Rift.
Crazy Swing VR - Good at demonstrating the sense of height in VR
Insurgent VR - A well made VR companion for the horrible movie
Horror
<strong>Insidous VR</strong> - A short but scary teaser for the
movie.
Sisters - A horror experience made for Cardboard
Video
Youtube - The youtube app for android has support for monoscopic (non-3d) 360 videos and now has a growing library of 360 content.
VR Player - The best for offline playback, and has a lot of options. Could play 360 videos and also normal videos projected as a huge screen. The 'VLC' for Cardboard.
<strong>VRSE</strong> - Has a few amazing 360 content made for VR.
If we can get the Unity plugin to work for iOS, this will drastically increase the chance that apps will be ported to iOS. This was an option in the past with the Dive SDK, but more developers are starting to work on VR now and with the iPhone 6 (plus) VR for iOS has become actually a lot more interesting from their perspective. For one it is sufficiently large and extremely fast, but primarily because iOS users spend a lot more money for apps than Android users, who usually expect things to be free.
So while it is not what you were hoping for, it will probably help to get what you were looking for. It's unlikely that everything will be ported, as iOS development has a much higher entry fee than Android development, but e.g. developers that have ported apps from the Oculus Rift to Cardboard like Proton Pulse, Caaaaardboard! or Eden River - VR Relaxation have already invested huge amounts of money and time, the better market would most likely justify the additional costs for iOS for them.
The description of the full version says "Limited time offer! Search for Proton Pulse Cardboard Free for your free copy today!". The free version was released on 2015-02-15, and if "today" refers to the intended duration of the offer, you better hurry. If you miss the free offer, buy it anyway, it is worth the low price.
Interesting model: the free month is sponsored by Nod who produce a motion controller, worn like a ring. As part of the sponsorship, Proton Pulse will be made compatible with the controller. Other sponsorships/free months may follow.
Sounds like you are well-on-your-way to being a full-blown game developer! Your procedural Android side-scroller sounds cool!
> I ended up quiting about halfway through when I went from the generic text font to my own custom font, which ended up rotating every text block, and not all in the same direction.
Ouch! I haven't seen that behavior before, but I might be able to help you fix it, or at least help you automate the rotation if it's not immediately fixable. I am quite familiar with Unity3d myself.
> Every now and then I'll look back at some of my first scripts and see how horribly written they are.
Hehehe, get used to this; it's a very common feeling and you'll be doing it your whole life if you keep making games. ;)
> But no finished products yet, what about yourself? Made anything I might have played?
Well, let's check, do you do VR stuff? Proton Pulse and Vanguard V are the projects that I have the biggest part in (Lead Programmer, 3 person team); Proton Pulse is available for Google Cardboard and will be available on the Oculus at some point too. There's a demo floating around for Vanguard V (It's still in development.)
As far as my professional history during my tenure at Sony Bend, I worked on:
- Syphon Filter: Omega Strain (PS2) (Tester)
- Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (PSP/PS2) (Lead Tester)
- Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (PSP/PS2) (Production Assistant)
- Resistance: Retribution (PSP) (Production Assistant)
- Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita) (Production Assistant)
My biggest role in the professional world was definitely Uncharted. I was responsible for converting the melee system from Uncharted 2, tagging all animation impacts for sound and decal work, and pretty much every time you see an object animate it's running through one of my scripts. I also had a large part in the implementation of the buddy climbs and finger swipe sequences, even though I didn't really care for them myself. ;)
<em>Proton Pulse</em> is pretty fun. Basically a VR reimagining of the old arcade game Breakout, with a nice soundtrack.
creepy voice Jooooooin uuuuuuus> https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleCardboard/
I think we've, finally, found headsets for around $20-ish with a high FOV, Iwown G1 & BOBOVR Z3. I'll be doing a comparison when I get my Iwown, this week.
Some people play PC games on theirs' with Trinus VR and their are some good Rift apps in Google Play.
Proton Pulse https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ZeroTransform.ProtonPulse&hl
Caaaaardboard (AaaAa... for the Awesome) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dejobaangames.caaaaardboard&hl
Halls of Fear (Dread Halls) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pernsteinersoftware.hallsoffear&hl
Titans of Space, InMind VR
Then, there's...
FPSE (PlayStation 1) is a huge screen on your face. 2D, but at least you can play PS1 games on the go. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emulator.fpse&hl
PPSSPP (PSP games in 2D) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ppsspp.ppsspp&hl
Good, free cinema that reads microSD cards https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.couchgames.apps.cardboardcinema&hl
Good, paid theater https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Cmoar.CmoarVirtualCinema&hl
EPIC swing and 1 of the first Google Cardboard apps https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fibrum.crazyswingvr&hl
Quick, fun zombie games (no controller) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fibrum.zombievr&hl, (controller) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fibrum.zombiewarfare&hl
Radial G Infinity https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Tammeka.RGICardboard&hl
Proton Pulse!
Proton Pulse is similar: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/gear-vr/804851589595263/
It's free- but due to Oculus SDK requirements the so called 'full' game was taken down from the Oculus store, see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GearVR/comments/494wam/what_happened_to_proton_pulse/
This may be a good replacement for that Danger Ball game- there is no exact clone or port for the Gear VR though, it is a PSVR worlds game.
Looking at online gameplay- it looks to have low quality textures and framerates in comparison to the PSVR Dangerball- but hey, it's a £50 headset vs a £349 (even more if you need the Playsation Camera and Move Controllers- assuming you already have a compatible Samsung phone or PS4 for each)
It's also on sale for cardboard: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ZeroTransform.ProtonPulse So hopefully the Gear VR version is better as cardboard is really mediocre in comparison to Gear VR.
Disclaimer: I have not played this game nor can verify its quality- but seeing as it's free I can't see why you can't at least try it. :)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ZeroTransform.ProtonPulse (Can be addicting. When drifting occurs, turn around 180 degrees to pause game, then turn back around and pull magnet to continue.)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fibrum.zombiewarfare
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fibrum.zombievr