half·way
/ˈhafˌwā/
adverb
adverb: halfway; adverb: half-way
- at or to a point midway between two others.
"he stopped halfway down the passage."
Similar: midway, middle, center
- in the middle of a period of time.
"We are halfway through the year 2022."
Halfway. The point where you are just as close to the finish as you are to the start. In the case of 2022, halfway is now, at the end of quarter two and the beginning of quarter three. So, with the first half of 2022 officially behind us, we think it's a great time to reflect on the exciting and awe-inspiring happenings of the past three months in our Quarterly Andromeda Entertainment Update Blog.
SolarBlack is available now!
We are excited to share news of SolarBlack's successful launch on both Pico and iQIYI platforms. When we first met Niel Widy, the solo developer and creator of this out-of-this-world action-rhythm game, back in 2021, we knew what he was building from scratch would make a stellar fit for our third transformational title.
Over the last six months, we have worked closely with Niel through countless iterations, sometimes receiving new builds with new features, bug fixes, and breakthroughs daily! I cannot think of a harder-working developer and watching the title evolve thanks to Niels’s countless efforts was inspiring! We, and Niel, absolutely can’t wait to hear what our new batch of interstellar travellers have to say about SolarBlack.
SolarBlack launch event in partnership with iQIYI.
SolarBlack developer Niel Widy at devcom
Want to learn more about the development of SolarBlack and its creator? Join Niel Widy at this year’s devcom for his session, “Iteration in Isolation: Finding Success as a Solo VR Developer During a Global Pandemic”
Session Description
When Niel began working on SolarBlack at the start of the covid-19 pandemic, it was little more than a dream. Something to occupy the newly available at-home time between his full-time job and something which could tie his other passions of creating art, music, and programming into a sort of covid opus. Two years later, SolarBlack has launched globally on multiple major platforms and has found backing from a VR publisher. In this talk, Niel shares what that two-year journey looked like for him as a teacher in Austria. He will discuss the skills which helped him find success with SolarBlack–even those he didn’t possess–as well as what went right, what went wrong, and lots of things he wishes someone had told him before he started.
Andromeda at devcom + gamescom
Andromeda Entertainment will also be at devcom! I am thrilled, nervous, excited, and humbled to be back at devcom to speak for the second consecutive year, this time in person! Established in 2017, devcom is the official game developer event of gamescom, the world’s largest computer and video games event, and Europe’s annual developer’s conference.
In 2019, 3,000 attendees from 75 countries – 65% of them game developers – gathered in Cologne, Germany, to attend top-notch talks & panels, round tables, workshops, and in-depth master classes delivered by more than 140 industry professionals, with 2020 and 2021 taking place digitally.
Learn more about my session below. To learn more about the other speakers, devcom, or to buy tickets, visit the official website.
Making Feedback Fun! Tips for Parsing Player Reviews
Learn how to make player feedback more fun and informative for your entire team with this one simple technique. Join me, Ashley “ashleyriott” Blake Chief Operating Officer, as I break down some simple tips for tagging and interpreting player feedback about your IP into quantifiable priorities for your production teams using examples from games being showcased or spoken about at devcom.
Andromeda Entertainment Begins Platform-Specific Publishing
Over the last few years, Andromeda Entertainment has seen a tremendous amount of success and support for our IPs through our platform partners in China such as Pico, iQIYI, Huawei, and YVR. As this continues to ramp up, we have decided to expand our services in order to offer specialist publishing for porting support to titles looking to launch in these new markets.
Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok
It is on this topic I would love to share with you the first title to join our ranks in this capacity: Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok.
Created by Virginia-based game studio, Zojoi, the first book in the Shadowgate Saga, Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok brings the hit adventure series to virtual reality! We are super excited to work with Zojoi and allow players to step into the fantasy world of Kal Torlin like never before! This exciting action/adventure game is available soon for iQIYI and Pico platforms.
Get Shadowgate now for Steam and Meta Quest platforms.
About Zojoi
Zojoi is a small gaming company, tucked into the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia and led by industry veterans Dave Marsh and Karl Roelofs. The two created Shadowgate on the upstart Apple Macintosh in 1987 and became an instant classic, helping to define the first-person adventure genre. They went on to port Shadowgate and the other “MacVentures” (Déjà vu, Déjà vu II, The Uninvited) to no less than 15 platforms including the NES and Color Gameboy. Zojoi is devoted to bringing both the original games and new games based on these and other exciting properties to many gaming platforms!
Andromeda Entertainment expands: new hires include naming of COO and addition of developer relations
Ashley “ashleyriott” Blake, Chief Operating Officer
It is with great joy and honour I accept the position of Chief Operating Officer for Andromeda Entertainment. Having worked alongside this team in various capacities over the years has proven to me this is truly a company whose brand, mission, and heart I align with. I have never felt so empowered in any position to make a difference, not just in my own life, but in the future of the industry for which I have an abundance of passion. I am committed to making that difference, and being the change I wish to see in the world, for my colleagues, investors, partners, and for myself.
Eric Masher, Developer Relations
As we expand our offerings, we have also decided the time has come to increase our headcount. I am thrilled to welcome Eric Masher to the team in the role of Developer Relations and Business Development. Eric is the founder of the nearly 200k member Quest 2 Community on Facebook, and co-host of three podcasts focused on VR-related news and updates: Q2C VR Gamer Live, Virtual Strangers, and Reality Bytes. We are excited to welcome him to our team.
Roadmap check-in: accomplished goals, the future, and more
In closing, we would love to share with you our updated timeline for 2022. In it, we have highlighted some major goals and accomplishments Andromeda Entertainment has already achieved this year, including success in our pursuit of accolades and awards and the launching of our second title in China.
We have also included some additional goals we are working towards for the remainder of 2022. These goals are mainly focused on helping developers pursue and obtain opportunities in China while helping our Chinese partners find amazing games for their platforms and communities. We hope to have helped launch a total of six games in China by the end of 2022, and have already met our halfway mini-goal of three titles by end of Q2, putting us right on track!
Excited about the future of VR? Us too! Be sure to subscribe to this newsletter to keep in the loop of all Andromeda Entertainment, and to connect with us on socials, Discord, and more!
See you in the Metaverse,
Ashley “ashleyriott” Blake, Chief Operating Officer
Timeline 2022
- February: Audio Trip certified as a “VR Healthy Game” in the categories of cardiovascular exercise (high intensity), and range of motion.
- February: Andromeda Entertainment and Kinemotik Studios become AIXR members
- March 20: GDC, Rank 1 Session Community Management Summit, “Was This Review Helpful? Translating Feedback into Priorities for Production.”
- April 27-28: Games Beat Summit by Venture Beat
- April 05: Andromeda Entertainment wins NYX Silver award in the category of Best Publisher
- April 05: Kinemotik Studios wins NYX Gold award in the category of Best Indie Developer
- April 11: Audio Trip Quest Giveaway
- April 22: SoundSelf second anniversary
- May 04: Audio Trip Choreography Contest
- May 08: Audio Trip Quest anniversary
- May 26: Audio Trip launches on YVR
- May 31: New platform partner YVR launches Audio Trip
- June 03: Audio Trip wins Auggie Award for best indie creators
- June 17: Audio Trip Hotfix/patch — Predevelopment for Full Release finalized
- July 01: Ashley "ashleyriott" Blake named COO
- July 01: SolarBlack launches on iQIYI
- July: SolarBlack launches for Pico
- Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok is Andromeda Entertainment’s first platform-specific publishing title
- Aug 22-23: Devcom Global 2022
- September: Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok launches in China
- October: New IP Launch China
- End of 2022: Six IPs launched in China
Links in this blog
n.d. SolarBlack VR: Action-Rhythm Game. https://solarblack.net/ .
n.d. PixoXR. https://www.picoxr.com/my/software/pico-store .
n.d. 爱奇艺应用专区-爱奇艺视频官方最新版下载. https://www.iqiyi.com/appstore.html .
n.d. Zojoi – An Adventure Game Studio. https://www.zojoi.com/ .
n.d. AIXR | The Academy of International Extended Reality. https://aixr.org/ .
“ATCD Choreography Contest.” n.d. Twitter. https://twitter.com/atchoreography/status/1521903185065095168?s=20&t=CsouJvnjrsJpbDMBHCk62A.
“Audio Trip certified as VR Healthy.” n.d. Twitter. https://twitter.com/kinemotik/status/1501575729896636419?s=20&t=At0lVRJaOWLUMw_PSOnKSw.
“Auggie Awards 2022 - Kinemotik Studios.” n.d. Auggies / AWEXR. https://auggies.awexr.com/gallery/qljjXGlx/OGLEMDaQ?search=51d5f54620fcea24-1.
“Community Management Summit: Was This Review Helpful? Translating Feedback into Priorities for Production.” 2022. GDC scheduler. https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/community-management-summit-was-this-review-helpful-translating-feedback-into-priorities-for-production/883860.
Marsh, Dave, and Karl Roelofs. n.d. “Dave Marsh (game developer).” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Marsh_(game_developer).
Marsh, Dave, and Karl Roelofs. n.d. “Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok on Steam.” Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1822970/Shadowgate_VR_The_Mines_of_Mythrok/.
Marsh, David, and Karl Roelofs. n.d. “Karl Roelofs.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Roelofs.
“NYX Gold Awards Winner - Kinemotik Studios.” n.d. NYX Game Awards. https://nyxgameawards.com/winner-info.php?id=1148.
“NYX Silver Awards Winner - Andromeda Entertainment.” n.d. NYX Game Awards. https://nyxgameawards.com/winner-info.php?id=1145.
“Oculus Quest 2 giveaway.” n.d. Twitter. https://twitter.com/AudioTripVR/status/1513577620067209219?s=20&t=CsouJvnjrsJpbDMBHCk62A.
“Program - devcom Developer Conference.” 2022. Devcom. https://www.devcom.global/ddc-2022/program/.
“Q2C VR Gamer Live.” n.d. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5uoWEKL848&list=PLLUK5YIyd3O9LMuMODVlpVX9tu2o-BRQg.
“Quest 2 Community.” n.d. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/345692809808462.
“Reality Bytes.” n.d. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jluh8q1P10&list=PLLUK5YIyd3O-HKfwJl8EYH1qAD5rw_LZD.
“Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok on Oculus Quest | Oculus.” n.d. Oculus VR Headsets, Games & Equipment - Meta Quest. https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/3878215958952165/.
“Shadowgate VR – Zojoi.” n.d. Zojoi. https://www.zojoi.com/shadowgate-vr/.
“SoundSelf 2nd anniversary.” n.d. Twitter. https://twitter.com/SoundSelf/status/1517550612472336387?s=20&t=CsouJvnjrsJpbDMBHCk62A.
“Version [1.0.3398] Patch Notes - Audio Trip.” n.d. Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/826540/view/3007833468604472684.
“Virtual Strangers - VR Podcast on Apple Podcasts.” n.d. Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/virtual-strangers-vr-podcast/id1474306759.