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The folks at Oculus are looking to fuel game development for the Samsung Gear VR. To do this, they thrown together a little contest they’re calling Mobile VR Jam 2015. The contest promised more than $1,000,000 in prizes in exchange for developers’ hard work, with the top dog being awarded a $200,000 cash prize. Yeah, that can buy a lot of ramen.
More than 1,000 developers from all over the world contributed and after 4 weeks, Oculus is ready to announce their top picks. If you’re looking to try out some exciting new content on your Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition, you came to the right place. All 27 winners have supplied a download link to their apps where they can easily be downloaded and manually installed to your Android device. Let’s take a look at the top 27 winners.
SteamCrew VR
SteamCrew VR is a unique steam punk themed game that requires 2-player co-op to pilot an underwater submarine. You’ll need to download the game on each Gear VR (hopefully you have a spare laying around) and yell out commands to the other player to avoid terrain or fire torpedoes. The title wont Oculus’ top award for VR game, netting the development team a cool $100,000. Sounds like a wicked good time.
The Night Cafe: An Immersive Tribute to Vincent van Gogh
This one won the award for best “app experience” meaning it’s not really a game, but definitely worth checking out. Basically, you traverse a world brought to life by Vincent van Gogh’s unique artistic style. It’s a lot like an acid trip without all the long terms effects. Groovy.
DRIFT
DRIFT is a self-proclaimed bullet simulator. Player take control of bullets as they search out their target: the elusive green man. To make things easier (or more dramatic), players can slow down time to a crawl in order to guide a bullet around obstacles. With a unique visual style, this one’s got VR written all over it.
Daydream Blue
Because not every game is all about action, Daydream Blue takes players on a relaxing fishing trip to the lake. With your pet robot by your side, you’ll catch fish, watch the clouds from your boat, or play fetch with your robot. Sounds like the perfect weekend getaway.
Colosse
https://youtu.be/mMiC-K9Qi4w
VR is a great medium for telling stories. Colosse brings rich storytelling to the Gear VR in something that reminds of the game Shadow of the Colossus. Users need only to direct their gaze in order to make sense of everything going on around them. Simply put, it looks fantastic. Just keep in mind this is a preview version and not the full game.
Along the Trail
Another VR experience, Along the Trail takes users on a visual journey across past memories. It does this by connecting to social network like Facebook, allowing users to “relive” past moments — only in trippy VR kinda way.
Scorched Battalion
If you’re looking for some slower paced action, Scorched Battalion has got you covered. It’s basically a VR version of the classic Scorched Earth turn-based game tank game in a table-top, WWII setting. Sound intriguing? Check out the video above to see how it works in action.
Neuralgia VR
If you’re looking for something more out of your VR headset than just mindless entertainment, Neuralgia could be exactly what you’re looking for. An “asymmetrical co-op game,” you and a friend team up to make sense of clues and solve puzzles. Just don’t pull each other’s hair out.
Panopticon
If you’ve always wanted to experience the life of a warden, Panopticon finally makes it happen. You’ll need to keep a careful eye on inmates to ensure their captivity, and make sure no one escapes on your shift. You even get to use a whistle!
Bazaar
In Bazaar, players travel down canal on a magic carpet, matching colors of object with others hidden in the environment. Once an object has been cleared, it travels up to the sky where it becomes a consolation. Yeah, doesn’t make sense, but it looks like some good clean fun.
Soundscape VR
In Soundscape VR, you and an anonymous player team up for a futuristic jam session. Players are brought together using Soundscape’s online matchmaking system, or there’s always the option to simply play alone.
Speech Center
Speech Center is an incredibly unique VR experience that looks to help you master public speaking. It does this by putting you in a huge room full of people while a coach provides you with tips on improving your speaking skills. It’s honestly pretty genius.
Atop the Wizard’s Tower
What platform would be complete without a good old fashioned tower defense game. In Atop the Wizard’s Tower, players must fight back an oncoming horde of enemies — all while sitting comfortably atop their tower, out of harm’s way.
Maiden Chaos VR
https://youtu.be/oZsqpOje8cI
Maiden Chaos is a top-down, run n’ gun shooter set in the future. You basically control a little woman in a red jumpsuit as she blasts robots in a military compound. This one requires the Samsung Gamepad controller, so hopefully you have that handy.
Audio Arena
Audio Arena is a music game that requires players to hit targets to the beat. You’ll need to stay on beat to clear out enemies that surround you, building up sync bonuses for combos. It’s actually pretty fun looking and the soundtrack is a nice touch.
PhaseShift
PhaseShift is a “cinematic platformer” with twist. Players must guide Dr. Hoffman as he jumps around between dimensional portals controlled by the player’s gaze. It’s a lot like Prince of Persia but with an entirely unique take on the platforming genre. We think the retro 3D pixel art was also a nice touch as well.
Captain Clark Adventures
If you were a fan of look-and-tap adventure games like Myst, Captain Clark Adventures is essentially a VR title in a similar vein. You’ll basically need to solve puzzles in an effort to escape the dastardly pirates that have taken you prisoner. The trailer looks pretty epic, so have a look see.
Technolust: Thought Crimes
Technolust transports players to a dystopian future where they take control of a security professional who must maintain order while fueling his obsession for ramen noodles and VR apps. Players do this by tracking down suspected criminals and preventing crimes before they even do them based on their AI profiles. You’ll only have a limited amount of time to do so, so you’ll need to act quick.
Polo
Polo is a 2-player, asymetical game of cat and mouse. Whoever is wearing the VR headset will take control of the mouse (Polo) while someone else uses an Android phone or tablet to control the cat (Marco). If you don’t have any friends, there’s also a single player mode where you go up against the CPU.
Download: Player 1 (VR) | Player 2 (phone)
Wendy
Wendy is definitely one of the more lighthearted titles on this list. Players basically assume the role of a witch named Wendy who must learn how to make potions and magic through a variety of puzzles. Oh, and she’s got a pretty cute cat too.
Blind Swordsman
Blind Swordsman is the most graphically intense, visually impressive VR title you’ll ever see. The only problem is you’re a blind man, so you can’t really see any of it. Basically you get faced up against opponents and must use your senses to attack opponents as they near. One false move, and you’re done for.
Double Destruction
Double Destruction is another 2-player co-op game in which communication and teamwork are vital to success. One player controls a shrunken down version of themselves who must escape a tabletop dungeon while their friend keeps enemies at bay with a lantern using their Android smartphone or tablet.
Download: Player 1 (VR) | Player 2 (phone)
DMZ: Memories of No Man’s Land
DMZ is another VR experience, but one that’s arguably more impactful thanks to being based in reality. Directed by Hayoun Kwon, DMZ is an interactive documentary on the secrets behind the Demilitirazed Zone on the North Korean border. You’ll hear a firsthand account of one soldiers memories, brought to life in virtual-reality.
NeoS: The Universe
Because what good is VR if it can’t actually teach us anything, NeoS: The Universe is an educational experience meant to showcase the power of scientific communication by way of VR. It’s more or less a technical demo of the things you can build in NeoS VR (formerly World of Comenius).
House of Languages
In House of Languages, a cute and friendly language instructor — named Mr. Woo — takes you around a room full of everyday objects in an effort to teach you a new language. English, German, and Spanish are all covered, and you must identify objects to help Mr. Woo find what he’s looking for.
Tana Pura
An audio-visual experience, Tana Pura takes players on a journey on what happens after death, all set to music from Jonny Greenwood. Since it’s more of a passive experience, you wont have to do too much, but there are small interactions in the app making each play through slightly unique from the last.
The Bouncinator
https://youtu.be/ucivr4WkFJ4
Bouncinator is Oculus’ Community’s Choice Game winner and involves taking control of a bouncer who must inspect party goers for any dangerous objects before entering. There’s all kinds of weapons tools at your disposal, from x-ray specs, to flame throwers. Whatever you do, don’t get fired. It ain’t easy out there for a robot.
cardboard compatible?
I’d like to know as well.
Only one way to find out…
I actually tried to download an APK to the Galaxy S6 Edge and it made me jump through some hoops for downloading the Oculus Gear VR app. Once I did, I tried to load up the APK and it said my device needed to be docked in the S6 Edge.
I didn’t try anything beyond that but it seems feasible you could bypass this somehow or trick the APK into thinking you’re docked by somehow editing a file to force the detection of a persistent state.
TLDR: I’m not smart enough to figure it out but I bet someone else can. Or maybe not.
Actually there are multiple ways to find out.
Someone could tell me, I could test it, it could be written somewhere for me to read, it could come to me in a vision and last and not entirely sure, I think in the future there will be such technological feats that I’d even be able to taste it along with the rest of the news while eating my morning cereal. Boy that will be a great invention: New(s) Cereals! Taste the news as you fill up on your breakfast! :P
Best place to find out if it is compatible with cardboard would be XDA.
The guy in the first photo has to be Rob Jackson. He’s the Chuck Norris of VR headsets.
They should have more of these competitions. I’ve been looking for a woman that can birth me a super athlete to fund my retirement, but a super dev child would work too.
Hi just downloaded those games/experience then moved them to sd card but can’t see them in my gear vr. Please how do i install them p.s in not very tech savey
Hi. I downloaded only one game. It downloaded separate as an app. I was able to play it with the Gear VR. Check were all your apps are. However I couldn’t transfered it to the SD card. How did you transfered them?
Oh cheers I just assumed it would need to be placed on the sd card so I went to files downloads and moved the game to oculus that is probably why I couldn’t see them I’ll download again but leave em on device storage
Not being able to move to SD card stinks because the device’s storage fills quickly. The app itself won’t allow to be move to SD card. They need to fix this. I had to delete some of the VR’s apps because of this. It slows down the phone and you run out of device storage. Most of the 16gb of phone storage is dedicated to bloatware from samsung, at&t, and google. It’s ridiculous. I feel like my phone is hijacked by them leaving me with very little storage.
Yeah i have them download now. The reason I was having problems was because my note 4 wouldn’t allow me to install until I allowed downloads from unknown sources! But got em in apps now…been playing audio arena it’s fun? gear vr is class but getting most use out of oculus cinema because most games so far are demo’s
anyone get this to work on s6 i just get crashs bact to main screen
Great collection of games. Just started downloading.