We’ve always thought of The Torus Syndicate as a manifestation of our love for the kinds of rail shooters one would find in the video arcades of yesteryear. From the very beginning, we really wanted to capture the subtle relationship between motion and action that forms the genre’s hallmark. We think that the game, as it stands now, incorporates that essence while bringing it into the 21st century as a fully immersive VR experience. However, another big part of the style — and, really, arcade games in general — is the social aspect. As good as The Torus Syndicate may be now, we can’t call it a faithful addition to the on-rails world without multiplayer. But we do have some good news; that’s exactly what we’re working on now.
Our goal is to build out the game’s campaign with full support for cooperative multiplayer. No longer will Lucas Lawson have to fight alone; instead, two players will be able to team up to take on the Syndicate. We have some interesting ideas involving AI allies and seamlessly transitions between the single-player and cooperative campaign to help ensure that players can more readily find an partner to jump in with. The first task, however, is to retrofit the current game for multiplayer use. That means updating Act I to support two good guys side-by-side and adjusting the current backend code to operate over a network. One of the biggest tasks, however, is to figure out what Lucas actually looks like in game. As you can see below, we definitely have some work to do on that front.
There’s something off about Lucas, shown here as a simple white capsule shooting at an enemy. Is it because he doesn’t appear to actually have a gun? Or is it something else?
Keep an eye out for later updates as we work to build out multiplayer and cement The Torus Syndicate’s place as one of most faithful and enjoyable adaptations of an old play style for virtual reality.
Hurray! The Torus Syndicate is now on Steam.
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