Guildford, U.K. — On October 18, Born Ready Games announces the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for its upcoming space combat game Strike Suit Zero. The money raised through Kickstarter is necessary to keep the game in development for a few more months, giving Strike Suit Zero the time to reach its full potential.

James Brooksby, CEO of Born Ready Games, explains: “Strike Suit Zero is incredibly close to being the game we want it to be, but we’ve realised that we need a little more time, which means that the budget needed to be increased. We hope that with the help of Kickstarter we can bring Strike Suit Zero to launch as the best space combat title the genre has seen for over a decade, and at the same time connect with space game fans around the world.”

As part of the Kickstarter campaign, Born Ready is offering exclusive PC beta access to early backers, who will help shape the final few months of development. The closed beta, which is a great opportunity to experience theStrike Suit Zero universe first hand, will run later this year.

Kickstarter supporters will be provided with a variety of valuable and unique rewards, and every backer will be named in the credits of the game. Corresponding to their pledge level, backers can receive the PC game itself bundled with a selection of extras including a Kickstarter exclusive art book, wallpapers, the soundtrack and additional in-game content.

Paintings and figurines will also be offered, as well as exclusive clothing from Insert Coin Clothing. On top of all this, there is a once in a lifetime opportunity for two backers to collaborate with Junji Okubo on bringing their very own ideas for a mecha to life in a 3D-printed model. For the complete overview, including one-off rewards for top-tier backers, please visit Strike Suit Zero’sKickstarter page.

In Strike Suit Zero, an atmospheric and adrenaline pumping voyage unfolds with exciting new game mechanics. Players participate in spectacular cosmic skirmishes and pilot a powerful transforming craft known as the Strike Suit in a bid to save Earth from destruction. With stunning music by Paul Ruskay (Homeworld) and Kokia (Tales of Innocence), and incredible mecha designs contributed by  Junji Okubo (Steel Battalion, Appleseed), Strike Suit Zero will be released for PC and consoles.

For more information, please visit http://www.strikesuitzero.com/.

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Palmer Luckey, a young upstart software enthusiast who started out working out of his parent’s garage is launching a Virtual Reality head mount called the “Oculus Rift”; a mind boggling virtual reality head mount that has sent the gaming industry buzzing. When Palmer recently posted the project on the funding platform “Kickstarter,” he quickly broke his initial goal of collecting $250,000 in funding, raising over $1 million in less than four hours.

Michael Abrash, developer at Valve software, a giant in the industry responsible for games such as Half Life 1 and 2, said in a recent interview that he tried out the Oculus Rift and concluded that it “could be the beginning of a whole new industry.”

The project has even drawn the attention of software wiz and iconic game developer John Carmack, the brains behind classic game series such as Doom and Quake. Carmack has recently developed an impressive head tracking device for the Oculus and made the game Doom III available on the VR device. Carmack concluded in a recent demonstration that the Oculus Rift is the best VR device “the world has ever seen.”

Palmer himself explained: “The problem was, there was nothing that gave me the experience that I wanted — The Matrix — where I could plug in and actually be in the game. I set out to change that with the Oculus Rift.”

What sets the Oculus Rift apart from other head mounts, such as Sony’s HMZ-T1 headset, is the technical aspects such as the higher resolution and most notably the extended field of vision. The field of view has previously been the main issue for most consumer level head mounts, with a tiny, 30 – 45 degree field of view as the maximum. John Carmack explains: “that’s like looking at the world through toilet paper tubes; it’s really not good for the immersion.”

The Rift has been able to achieve a 90 degree horizontal field of view and a 110 degree vertical: you are no longer watching a screen. The Oculus Rift has achieved complete immersion. The result: a VR device that, for the first time, puts you “in” the virtual world, removing the sense of separation via the extended field of vision and the head tracking device adjusting the in-game camera after your head movements.

The Oculus has reawakened the old hype and promise of Virtual Reality. An early prototype is projected to begin shipping in December for around 275 $. The product is still crude and under development, but the early demos have been described as “mind blowing.”  For now it’s only compatible with computer games, but will be integrated with other consoles such as Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, in the near future.

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