TheBlu Refresh

Check out TheBlu on Steam!

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c) Wevr, TheBlu

Sharks are way cool. They are incredible creatures, some of the oldest on planet earth. Why do we think it is ok to chop off their fins, and kill them en masse? (The recent U.S banning of shark fin sales is a step in the right direction).

Director Steven Spielberg recently stated how he deeply regrets the negative impact that his 1975 movie “Jaws” has had on how humans perceive sharks. Yes, sharks are “scary” but far less life threatening than crossing the street or driving on the freeway… It’s past the time to change our perception of sharks and establish a friendlier relationship.

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In the latest edition of TheBlu (Yes! TheBlu is alive and well), we are introducing an all new encounter episode - the “Hammerhead Cove” experience. An opportunity to hang out in the serene sun-dappled warm waters of the Caribbean, communing peacefully with sharks - hammerhead sharks and a bunch of other species of sharks!

Allow yourself to be transformed as you float up close and personal with a family of these magnificent, powerful and yes, predatory, creatures - and experience first hand that they are not the bad guys. And you can do that in the safe comfort of your home. You’ll need a PC for now, but soon you’ll be able to enjoy TheBlu on stand-alone VR devices like the Quest.

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Cool! So, what else besides sharks?

A major update in this release of TheBlu is that this is now a free app with Down-Loadable Content (DLC). We re-architected the product from the ground up to make it easier for us to collectively make and share new episodes going forward, which can be accessed as DLC. The renowned original “Whale Encounter” episode is now available for free and three episodes are now available to purchase individually as DLC, namely - the colorful and teeming “Reef Migration”, the mysterious and enchanting “Luminous Abyss” and the all new episode “Hammerhead Cove”. We’ve also updated Navigation/Locomotion and Hand-tracking features to enhance the VR user experience. Stay tuned for more episodes coming soon!

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This edition of TheBlu was developed using our Wevr Virtual Studio (WVS) platform. WVS enables creators and remote dev teams to easily collaborate, iterate and orchestrate game development in the cloud. Led by Director and Executive Producer Jake Rowell, production was distributed across Los Angeles, Florida, and Netherlands-based VR developer Infinity Labs, using the latest version of Unity, all on the WVS platform. Check out WVS for yourselves!

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We’re sooooo excited about this “refresh” release, also because of what’s to come… Going forward, we’ll continue to develop new unique DLC episodes, and… we’re going to open up TheBlu to creators around the world developing all kinds of new ocean encounters with myriads of species and habitats. Wait, what? That’s right, WVS now enables us to collaborate with developers around the world to create more and more episodes in a globally connected immersive virtual ocean.

And you are invited to be part of it! We’d love to hear what ocean encounters you’d like to experience. And we’ll enable creators around the world to make them, together.

Check out TheBlu on Steam!

Thanks.

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