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Vertical Shift is a multiplayer VR game where you fly through a city using grappling hooks, jetpacks, wings, and other innovative locomotions. The game features hand-crafted maps for the players to swing around and fly through, emphasizing the unique variety of gameplay mechanics. The game types emulate competitive sports, such as Tag, Infection, and Racing. We aim to create a new and engaging experience that will keep players coming back to play with their friends.

This project started as an idea between my colleague Ben Snowden and I, who were interested in pursuing exciting ways for VR players to move around a virtual space. Our first version of the game, where you could swing and jetpack around a basic city map, was so exhilarating that we knew this game was worth pursuing. Although we had no experience in it at the time, we made the determination to build this into a multiplayer game so that we could compete with our friends online.

I began working on the multiplayer component of the game using Photon to allow players to compete against each other and interact with each other in VR. Ben pursued developing the levels and creating engaging designs that highlight the strengths of our unique locomotion mechanics. During this time, I became very familiar with multiplayer basics, such as synchronization, host migration, and RPCs. I also focused heavily on ensuring our game included lag compensation, server-side calculations, and reconnecting mid-game.

Since then, we have continued the development of Vertical Shift in our free time for the last couple of years. In that time, I have been able to learn, design, and develop a wide range of features, including Custom Game Rules configurations, Player Avatar Customization and Cosmetics, Dynamic Contextual Announcements and Shoutcast, and more!

Today, we have an active Beta available on Oculus App Labs and Steam. Our main game mode is freeze tag, where two teams face off 5 v 5 and try to catch and eliminate the other side. Teammates can untag each other to get back in the game, making this a fun, team-driven competitive experience.

Vertical Shift is the property of Corrupted Media, an independent VR Game Development Studio I co-founded while I was a student at Kennesaw State University.

Join our Discord for updates and tournaments: https://discord.gg/xDbK7rs