Mixed Reality fitness game HitMotion: Reloaded slated for October release

“HitMotion: Reloaded”, the first mixed reality fitness game, whose demo has been one of the 20 launch titles for the Vive Focus Plus, has finally an estimated release date!

This is the game that all worldwide gaming communities are waiting for. Its hype levels are over 9000, as this graph (that I have not just made in Excel), clearly proves out.

We of New Technology Walkers are proud of our little product and want to share in this post some new info about the game, that is now finally close to the release.

What is HitMotion: Reloaded?

In case you missed the news some months ago, during the launch event of the Vive Focus Plus in Shenzhen, China, I took the stage to talk about developing mixed reality solutions with a VR headset, and at the end of my talk, I announced the launch of a mixed reality game dubbed HitMotion: Reloaded. The game went live together with the Vive Focus Plus, as one of the launch titles.

HitMotion: Reloaded is a fitness game, whose purpose is the one to let you stay fit while having fun. During the game, you will have to move across your room and punch the enemies that will appear there, while at the same time dodging their attacks. As the name suggest, it is critical to Hit the enemies fast, because the faster you will be, the more score you will get to win the levels; and to Move so that to get close to the enemy to hit them and to dodge the attacks.

Our purpose is to create a way of training that will be almost as effective as the one of the famous Dodgeball trainer Patches O’Houlihan.

What are its peculiarities?

Ok, so now you may ask yourself: what makes this game different from more famous titles like Box VR? Well, the answer is:

• It is in mixed reality, so you see the world around you. Apart from being just a cool feature, it means that you can play this game in full safety. You see your surroundings, so you can play it even when there are your friends and your precious glass vases around you. We play it every time in the office, and we had 0 accidents during the tests;
• It has been conceived for a 6 DOF standalone headset since Day 1. This is a game made for the Vive Focus Plus since the beginning: it even started with the 6 Dof Devkit for the Vive Focus. Most of other fitness games have started for PC, and when they port to standalone VR, they keep using a frontal setup. This game has been designed by our game designer Max Ariani to make you move all around your room and exploit the freedom of movement guaranteed by standalone headsets.

Isn’t the game already on the store?

On the store there is currently the free DEMO of HitMotion: Reloaded. It is a short version that we made for the Vive Ecosystem Conference. Now, we are going to release the actual game. It won’t be a AAA game, but we hope it will give people some fun anyway.

The demo, yet simple, has had great feedback. A month ago, Max and I went to Ubisoft Milan for a visit, and we took the Focus with us. We made a white-collar man try the demo of HitMotion, and honestly, I expected that someone that is working on projects like Watchdog 3, would have laughed at us. Instead, he started playing and he continued for minutes, continuing hitting replay because he wanted to win the various levels. He had fun, and this was a great satisfaction for us of NTW.

But honestly speaking, the demo has big limitations. First of all the graphics, that appear pretty rough.

Then the levels are too few (only 5) and too short. It lacks polish, replayability and some standard features that are expected in every modern game.

That’s why we worked hard in these months, parallely to our XR consultancy business, to take the game to a new level. And I think we have been able to create something fun.

What are the new features of the full version?

I can’t disclose much today, but let me tease you something. The new HitMotion: Reloaded will feature:

• An improved passthrough mixed reality;
• Completely renewed graphics;
• Completely renewed sounds;
• Completely new UI;
• Many more levels and replayability;
• A gameplay more tailored to boxing and fitness.

So, basically, we have improved everything!

When will it be out? For how much?

The release day will be at the beginning of October. The game won’t be free, but it will have an upfront cost. The price is still undisclosed, but we tease you that the game will be very affordable. We want everyone to stay fit in XR, so we chose a price that will let everyone to buy it.

HitMotion: Reloaded will be available in the beginning only on Viveport M, since it has been designed for the Vive Focus Plus headset. It has been made with the collaboration of HTC, so a first release on HTC native content distribution platform is the natural choice. Furthermore, I personally like a lot the Vive Focus Plus and it is the only standalone headset that at the moment gives us the possibility to develop a passthrough application.

Future porting on other platforms will be probably available in 2020. Let us know where ou would like this game to be ported on!

Are you ready for the fitness battle?

If you are intrigued by XR fitness games as us, then wait for HitMotion: Reloaded! You can follow the latest news of the game on various channels:

• Official HitMotion Instagram account;
• Official HitMotion Facebook account;
• This blog (you can subscribe to the newsletter here);
• My Twitter account.

We will share there new info and some gameplay videos in the upcoming days. We will be happy to show you what we have worked on in these months.

We can’t wait for you to try our game! And even if you haven’t a Vive Focus Plus, maybe we can meet at some XR events so that you can play it 😉