{"id":1361,"date":"2017-02-20T21:10:47","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T04:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/inside-the-vr-hit-rec-room-with-against-gravity-a-breakthrough-virtual-reality-startup-in-seattle\/"},"modified":"2017-02-20T21:10:47","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T04:10:47","slug":"inside-the-vr-hit-rec-room-with-against-gravity-a-breakthrough-virtual-reality-startup-in-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/inside-the-vr-hit-rec-room-with-against-gravity-a-breakthrough-virtual-reality-startup-in-seattle\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the VR hit \u2018Rec Room\u2019 with Against Gravity, a breakthrough virtual reality startup in Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nick
Nick Fajt, online<\/a> CEO and co-founder of Against Gravity, purchase<\/a> a virtual reality startup in Seattle\u2019s Belltown neighborhood. (GeekWire Photo \/ Kurt Schlosser)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is there a more universally accepted measure of \u201cDamn, drugs<\/a> that was fun\u201d than the high-five? For players of the virtual reality game \u201cRec Room<\/a>,\u201d there doesn\u2019t appear to be.<\/p>\n

Seattle VR startup Against\u00a0Gravity<\/a> has measured more than a million\u00a0high-fives among players of its signature game over the last several months. Judging by the popularity of the game, the enthusiasm of the small team that keeps improving on it, and my own joy after playing recently, millions\u00a0more high-fives are on the way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also translating into millions of dollars in funding. The company recently\u00a0raised $5 million from the likes of\u00a0Sequoia, First Round, Acequia, Vulcan, Maveron, Anorak, Betaworks, The Venture Reality Fund, and a host of angel investors to finance\u00a0its unique and popular take on interactive gaming.<\/p>\n

\"Against
Against Gravity developers play Rec Room, the company\u2019s signature game. (GeekWire Photo \/ Kurt Schlosser)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With brick walls and exposed beams, the\u00a0company\u2019s offices in Seattle\u2019s Belltown neighborhood look as if they were ripped from a\u00a0Startup Starter Guide. The\u00a015-person team at\u00a0Against Gravity moves around and communicates like work is indeed all play.<\/p>\n

The leader of the pack is co-founder and CEO Nick Fajt<\/a>, who is guiding the 10-month-old company\u00a0after spending several years at Microsoft, including as a producer and program manager on HoloLens.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of us had been working in the AR\/VR field for a while,\u201d Fajt said. \u201cOur belief was that social was really going to be the killer app, but it would take a lot of iteration and experimentation to get there. So that was kind of the approach that we took: Can we ship really fast? Can we iterate really quickly? Can we get feedback from people? Can we use that to shape and craft the experience moving forward?\u201d<\/p>\n

As the signature product, Rec Room\u00a0serves as a \u201cVR social club\u201d where users\u00a0get to play active games with people from all over the world. Picture walking into an animated \u2014 nowhere near hyper-realistic \u2014 locker room, changing into your outfit of choice and then choosing a game to play (ping pong, darts, paintball, disc golf, 3D charades, etc.) and friends to play it with.<\/p>\n

An \u2018internet-sized opportunity\u2019<\/h3>\n

Fajt, a young guy who looks like he just walked out of a real gym, is a firm believer in VR being the\u00a0next computing platform, and he calls it an \u201cinternet-sized opportunity\u201d that won\u2019t come this year, but certainly over the next decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we wanted to do was be\u00a0there early and use that time to learn as much as possible,\u201d Fajt said. \u201cWe think social is going to change shape \u2014 it\u2019s not going to be the way it works on mobile or the web.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u00a0theorizes that social on the web is very \u201casynchronous\u201d with timelines and likes and retweets, but it\u2019s not very real time. On mobile, everything is moving to a very photo\/video \u201cephemeral state.\u201d But VR and AR social, Fajt said, has the potential to circle back and involve more real-time interaction.<\/p>\n

The proof, as simple as it may seem, is in those million high-fives exchanged in Rec Room. Fajt said it\u2019s notable because there is no game-play consequence to the\u00a0action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does nothing,\u201d Fajt said about the hand slapping. \u201cIt\u2019s just normal humans being normal humans, and I think that\u2019s the kind of thing you don\u2019t see in a traditional console game. That\u2019s the kind of thing you don\u2019t see on multiplayer shooters. It just feels very different. It feels like you\u2019re actually standing in the room with somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rec
Rec Room paintball. (Against Gravity Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rec
Rec Room disc golf. (Against Gravity Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rec
Rec Room 3D charades. (Against Gravity Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fajt is taken aback by the quick progress Against Gravity has made with Rec Room in its short lifespan:\u00a0a 98 percent rating on Steam; one in three HTC Vive users have played the game; over 100,000 people\u00a0played in 2016.<\/p>\n

The \u2018magic\u2019 of social VR<\/h3>\n

He repeatedly uses the words \u201cmagic\u201d and \u201cmagical\u201d to describe his work and VR in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial VR is very magical, it really does feel different than playing multiplayer games,\u201d Fajt said. \u201cWe\u2019ve also found that there is an opportunity to create an app where people can make friends. This isn\u2019t like a traditional social network app where you\u2019re making connections with people you already know. A lot of what we\u2019re trying to do is take people who are really interested in VR, introduce them to other people\u00a0who are really interested in VR and hopefully make lasting connections there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fajt said Rec Room drew\u00a0a good amount of inspiration from Wii Sports, which he credits for\u00a0showing how active gaming could appeal to a very wide audience, from small children to grandparents. But the Vive as a device and VR as a platform are a whole other opportunity and Against Gravity is seizing on making it all feel unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way to extract the maximum amount of magic out of this is to focus on things that can only be done in VR,\u201d Fajt said. \u201cSo, not focusing on things that are kind of 2D in nature; not focusing on things that are ports of old content. We\u2019ve really tried to build things from the ground up that are meant for VR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fajt credits his time at Microsoft and HoloLens with shining a light on what was possible with new technology \u2014 and what he believes is still to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking at Microsoft was an awesome and amazing experience. Working at HoloLens was an especially amazing experience,\u201d Fajt said. \u201cAs a technological\u00a0achievement, it\u2019s really incredible what they\u2019ve been able to do with that. For us, just working on it for many years we felt like, \u2018We\u2019ve seen the future.\u2019 These sort of technologies are going to be ubiquitous and these sort of technologies are going to be mainstream consumer technologies. It\u2019ll probably take a number of years but I very firmly believe that. There\u2019s no doubt in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also thinks that Seattle\u2019s big gaming ecosystem, coupled with larger companies like Microsoft and Valve that are deeply involved in the VR and AR space, rubs off on the city\u2019s\u00a0smaller collective of companies. And combined it\u2019s all helped to position Seattle\u00a0as \u201cone of the poles of VR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where VR attracts tool makers which work on stuff that helps\u00a0people build things, and cinematically minded companies which view the platform as the future of movies, Against Gravity is intently focused on interactive gaming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the trick for VR and AR is that there are very few best practices in place,\u201d Fajt said. \u201cYou\u2019re kind of inventing everything. Everyone\u2019s just stumbling forward figuring out the best way to do these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

What it\u2019s like to play Rec Room<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

I spent nearly an hour inside Rec Room being shown around by Fajt. Within five minutes of \u201cgetting dressed\u201d in the locker room, I dismissed my previous reservations about the game\u2019s rather simple and playful design aesthetic. I just wanted to play.<\/p>\n

I shot some hoops and threw darts and played 3D charades with a can of spray paint. I played a couple holes of disc golf and fired multiple rounds on the paintball course.<\/p>\n

I spun around, jumped, tried to pick stuff up, drink water, drop stuff and get lost.<\/p>\n

I even attempted to high-five with Fajt.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy keeping the art style very simple, it makes\u00a0us able to do a lot of things really quickly,\u201d Fajt said. \u201cI think when people were starting to dive into VR, a lot of people thought that the only way you could\u00a0execute on the magic was to make photo-realistic avatars, photo-realistic environments. I think the thing that\u00a0you see is that your brain just accepts it, like, \u2018I\u2019m here. We\u2019re outside.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t need to look like a super-realistic tree. It can look kind of like that cartoony tree and you\u2019re just, \u2018Yup, I\u2019m here. I believe it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

I did, and I didn\u2019t want to leave.<\/p>\n

Fajt and I also teamed up to play Against Gravity\u2019s newest release in Rec Room, called Quest<\/a>. The game involves a more fantastical idea than, say, tennis, as users wield a sword or bow and arrow and work together against monsters in a \u201cdungeon.\u201d But even that dungeon is approachable and fun as it\u2019s set to look like a play put on by the school theater department, as players roam the hallways.<\/p>\n

\"Rec
Quest in Rec Room. (Against Gravity Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s also something entertaining about being outside the game, in reality, and\u00a0being in a workplace where any number of people are interacting on a much different level thanks to the devices on their heads and in their hands.<\/p>\n

Fajt again can\u2019t avoid noting how special it is to be constantly inspired to create and iterate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s something really\u00a0magical about being in a space where you\u2019re not pushing the rope, the rope\u2019s pulling you,\u201d Fajt said. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s happening for us, in terms of the number of ideas we have every day \u2014 \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be cool if we did this or that or this or that?’\u201d<\/p>\n

As I was putting on the Vive headset for my demo, I noticed it was raining hard against the windows of the brick office building. But inside the brightly lit game, the weather was quite different. I threw a Frisbee around a sunny course with green grass, trees and a mountain backdrop.<\/p>\n

When I was done some time later, I removed the headset and the afternoon Seattle skies were still dark with rain clouds. I couldn\u2019t help but remark on the contrast in weather reality vs.\u00a0virtual reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always sunny in Rec Room,\u201d joked one of the Against Gravity employees.<\/p>\n

Download Rec Room for the HTC Vive<\/a> and the Oculus Touch<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Against
Against Gravity workers cheer as they work, using time inside the game to identify bugs and make improvements. (GeekWire Photo \/ Kurt Schlosser)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Nick Fajt, online CEO and co-founder of Against Gravity, purchase a virtual reality startup in Seattle\u2019s Belltown neighborhood. (GeekWire Photo \/ Kurt Schlosser) Is there a more universally accepted measure of \u201cDamn, drugs that was fun\u201d than the high-five? For players of the virtual reality game \u201cRec Room,\u201d there doesn\u2019t appear to be. Seattle VR… Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[174,377],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games-media","category-gaming"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t