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In 2016, we introduced you to Gnomes & Goblins with a little Preview, which was so loved by fans. Now, the time has finally come—and we couldn’t be happier to announce the official release date for Gnomes & Goblins for PCVR: September 23, 2020!

Gnomes & Goblins began with a sketch by filmmaker Jon Favreau, who had gotten a chance to experience our VR product theBlu: Whale Encounter, and could hardly believe the sense of presence and scale offered by virtual reality. Building on Wevr’s learnings from TheBlu, VR Director Jake Rowell developed Jon’s sketch into an adorable 3D character within an interactive enchanting world.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Gnomes & Goblins is the biggest project Wevr has developed. Where the G&G Preview was a quick introduction to Buddy and his world, a bit like a tasting spoon of ice cream, this all-new, full-featured, multi-hour VR simulation game is like a full pint of your favorite flavor with new interactions and story moments to discover including new characters to meet, forest areas to explore, magical collectibles to discover and a range of open-world gameplay from climbing to paddle boarding to farming and brew-making.

Gnomes & Goblins pushes the boundaries of VR technology, introducing a new cast of characters in an expansive and richly detailed world. We created G&G to be a bit like a virtual theme park, where the experience evokes both the calming and thrilling potentiality of a lucid dream. Expect the unexpected with magic artifacts, mini-stories, and mini-games interweaving adventure and endless exploration as players discover the underlying myth and mysterious goings-on in the enchanted world of G&G.

As an indie studio, the Wevr team had to navigate through the tricky waters of the nascent VR industry and follow through on bringing a big vision to fruition. We’ve been on a journey of exploration and learnings and now, with this release, we look forward to hearing what our fans have to say about our indie project. And then we’ll continue on the journey of building more of the virtual world of Gnomes & Goblins!

We can’t wait to see how you explore the magical world of Gnomes & Goblins beginning on September 23!

With the release of Gnomes & Goblins quickly approaching, now seems like a great time to revisit some key points along the journey that led Wevr here – in particular, some of the key VR learnings from our original title, theBlu.


Follow the blog here to keep up to date with all Wevr news!
https://blog.wevr.com/theblu-vr-learnings-over-5-years-even-more-relevant-today-1541

Hola theBlu fans,

Celebrate the 1 year anniversary of theBlu: Season One with a 15% off Sale!
theBlu will be discounted on Steam until April 25th.
Happy Anniversary, theBlu!

Hola theBlu fans,

Today we shipped our 1.6 patch! This is a small upgrade designed to fix some older bugs and issues.

• Fixed a rare bug in the Reef Migration where users could hear the Giant Jelly before they could see it.
  
• Updated the end of scene credits to reflect contributions from the WEVR team post-launch
  
• Optimizations for better overall performance

As always, if you experience any technical or performance issues please contact us at [email protected]

Hola theBlu fans,

Today we shipped our 1.5 patch!

• The biggest addition is Oculus Touch support via SteamVR. If you have a Rift and Touch Controllers, theBlu now supports them and offers the same content as experienced through the Vive
  
  
• This patch also contains a number of bug fixes and overall performance optimizations.
  
  
• Fixes a crash when transitioning between The Whale Encounter and the menu
  
  
• This patch also introduces a number of shader optimizations that lead to overall better performance across the board

[email protected] .


To view the video, visit theBlu on Vimeo

Hola theBlu fans!,
We're excited to share our 1.4 release with you! This patch includes a new surprise for longtime fans, some visual updates in the Reef Migration and a few small bug fixes.

New Features & Content:

• Fans of the Luminous Abyss may want to take another trip to the deep depths of the ocean. Its been rumored that a new creature has made it's home there.
  
  
• Shortened load times by a few seconds.

Bug Fixes & Changes:

• The colors and lighting in the Reef have been updated to take advantage of changes in Unity's new lighting model. This brings it back in line with the original release
  
  
• Fixed a bug where some fish schools weren't playing audio
  
  
• Fixed a bug where jellyfish would not always appear in the Reef Migration's Ambient Scenes
  
  
• Fixed a bug where controllers would occasionally fail to appear or appear with the wrong models and textures.

As always, if you're having issues or see a bug, please write to [email protected] so we can help! Thanks and enjoy!

Hola theBlu fans!

We just pushed out the 1.3 Update to all users. This is a bigger update than usual with a new mode (Preview Mode), and a couple of fixes! We think you'll dig Preview Mode- a unique new way to demo theBlu to family and friends.

New Features & Additions:

• Preview Mode is now available on the menu. Preview Mode will give you a shortened, two minute version of the Reef Migration or Luminous Abyss. It has all the interactivity, audio and events from the full experience.
  
  • Please note that Inspector & Ambient Mode will NOT work with Preview Mode.
• To use Preview Mode, just toggle it "On" on the menu. By default, it will be off to avoid any confusion.
  
• When entering a scene in Ambient Mode you'll now see the Ambient Mode icon below the logo.

As per usual, if you see any issues or hit any bugs, don't hesitate to let us know-- email us at [email protected]. And keep sending us those amazing screenshots! We love seeing theBlu from a new perspective!

Hey all,

We just pushed a new version of theBlu to all users. It should be build ID 1171534. Nothing too huge, mostly quality of life improvements:

• Greatly improved performance across the board. You should see almost no frame drops. If you do, let us know ASAP!
  
  
• Reworked some audio scripting to greatly reduce clipping of nearby audio sources
  
  
• Slight adjustments to scene lighting + clarity
  
  
• Jellies now appear in Deep Ambient + some Reef Ambient scenes
  
  
• Ambient Mode now defaults to OFF to avoid confusion
  
  
• BUG FIX: Inspector Tutorial no longer shows up if you turn off Inspector Mode after unlocking it
  
  
• BUG FIX: Floating controllers should no longer be visible in the Encounter :)

Let us know if you see any issues/headaches etc.