British Company Launches Epic VR Experience

Today sees the full release of SteamHammerVR - The Rogue Apprentice, a steampunk themed virtual reality game experience developed by GamestormVR, a division of entertainment specialists Showstorm Ltd.

Available initially for owners of the HTCVive it is distributed on Steam and through HTCVive's own Viveport service.

Synopsis

Your adventure takes place in Victorian London 1892, but dark deeds are afoot, aside from the distant cries for help in the fog, the streets seem eerily quiet but you are soon to realise why, the dastardly Professor Rattwurm is attempting to enslave the fine English folk with his army of clockwork automatons raging havoc all over town.
Using this new-fangled steam power, some ingenious state of the art 19th century gadgetry along with the guidance and expertise of Doctor Obadiah Springhorn you should be more than capable of victory.

From the safety of Springhorn's elaborately furnished command centre in the Airship 'Horndenburg' the story unfolds as you plan your strategy and practise with the all the weapons which will be at your disposal. 

Your steam powered Exo-Suit has only two hands but your load out contains six unique and upgradable weapons which you can switch between during battle:- The Steam Hammer, The Steam Cannon, The Magnet Beam, The Rotor Saw, The Tesla Ray and The Rail Gun!

With some experimentation, a little strategy and a modicum of skill you should be able to complete all the missions and reveal the full story of 'The Rogue Apprentice'...if not you will be hauled back into the 'Hordenburg' for essential suit repairs and you can try again!

Showstorm

Whilst many companies embrace some kind of remote working, Showstorm have operated as a virtual company since being founded back in 2009. SteamHammerVR was developed entirely by a remote working team.

The core team live in the UK and Poland, but the credits for SteamHammerVR show a truly global involvement with contributors based in the USA, India, Thailand, Serbia, Egypt, Pakistan and Ireland.

Martin Rowe, the writer and Artistic Director for SteamHammerVR said "We have proven that using modern technology you can for a fact make something like this without commuting into an office every day...or in fact, any day. It has been a delight to work with so many great creative people from across the planet."

Seeing virtual reality is something that when you experience it for the first time, you immediately realise why you were told that it was impossible to explain and that you just have to experience it to understand it.

This is the dilemma that faces any virtual reality developer, how do you really explain your creation? the team at GamestormVR believe that the key to adoption of high end VR like the HTC Vive, starts with people experiencing VR through the more accessible mobile phone based headsets.

Managing Director, of Showstorm Ltd and SteamHammerVR's Executive Producer, Mark Bellinger said "I don't think we should underestimate the importance of low end VR, for sure the experiences do not come anywhere close to the quality and interactivity of high end VR, but it does open up accessibility to the mass market to taste just enough of how great VR is to influence the growth of people migrating to high end VR"

To give mobile headset users a feel of their experience, GamestormVR recreated the opening cinematic sequence to their game SteamHammerVR - The Rogue Apprentice in 360° video.

"Historically, game development companies struggle to make profit, only time will tell if we also fall onto the scrap heap of dashed dreams and unrewarded genius, but we have kept the overheads on this development ridiculously frugal, mainly by design but partly by necessity" - Mark Bellinger

Mark, went on to say "We are really excited to feel the reaction to our game, we have already achieved our ultimate goal to make something that we are proud of, in truth it is much bigger and much more ambitious than the experience we originally set out to make but we are over the moon with the result and we think those who venture into our story will love it as well"

Story Mode

'The Rogue Apprentice' contains Eleven Missions which take you on a story based adventure staged in some of the most iconic locations around Victorian London, including, The Tower of London, Limehouse Warehouse, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, St Pauls and even the famous London Sewers. It's a hugely engaging and immersive experience with several types of challenging gameplay.

As the narrative unravels you will unlock each mission. more of the story and more powerful weapons, there are plenty of twists and surprises to enjoy as you discover the truth about your recruitment as 'The SteamHammer'

Seek & Destroy Mode

Seek & Destroy mode gives you Four full on 'Arcade Wave Shooting' versions of SteamHammerVR, with a mass of combos to boost your score, see how far you can battle your way to the top of the Global Leaderboards! Try your hand at 'Panic on the Streets of London' , Have a pint in the Skillington Arms for the hilarious 'Bar Room Brawl', keep an eye on the time in Westminster for the 'Big Ben Bash' or go to the Tower of London for a 'Kick in the Crown Jewels'!

Exceptionally Community Driven Features

• Unique VR Combat: With six different weapons and two hands you have over 36 weapon combinations with an amazing amount of physics to master.

• Voice Commands: Want to keep you finger securely on the tigger? No problem, you can use several one word voice commands to instantly switch your weapon load out mid battle

• 4 Camera Angles and Auto Camera Switch for Monitors: See all the action from several angles or just let 'auto cam' switch between them

• Challenging and Not so Challenging: Easy, Medium and Hard settings available for all modes

• Testing Range: Before you go into the fray you can test all the functionality of your Exo-Suit and weapons

• An Amazing Original Soundtrack album from Polish sound Magician Przemek Kasperski is included with the game

SteamHammerVR will also be available for owners of the Oculus Touch and PlaysationVR later in the Summer.