Today, as promised, we’re launching a free playable demo.

You will be able to pre-order the game at a discount before the full game launches on June 23 2023.

Our game is being crafted by a veritable dream team of developers, artists and musicians scattered all over our little blue ball spinning around in a remote corner of the galaxy – and your support means the world to us. In the meantime, allow us to tell you a bit more about what’s in store – both in the demo and in the full release.

What’s in the demo?

Tutorial

When you first load up the game, you are transported straight into the world of C-Smash VRS. The game is designed to be easy to pick up and play, so you can feel at one with your virtual body and at ease in a stylish space at the edge of time.

C-Smash VRS feels natural. In a few quick steps, the Tutorial gives you some guidance and general tips to play. Don’t forget to learn the Trick Smash, designed to attract the hard-to-reach high balls and hit the ball with larger-than-life power and precision.

A feature to note – if you want to switch hands, you can do so in the menu – left-handed, right-handed or ambidextrous, we’ve got you sorted!

Training

While most training modes are there to teach, this single player mode is a fun, engaging and absorbing challenge.

Smash blocks of different strengths, improve your score and enjoy the dynamic music.

The arena is built of a grid of dots that pulse and ripple with gameplay. This is reflected in the hand and head vibrations, making you feel the impact of a well-timed return as well as the ripple of a missed shot as it returns, ready to serve.

A crisp and beautiful cosmos awaits, the PSVR 2’s OLED display bringing the minimal but vivid color palette to life. Design has never felt more physical and present.

The Training mode gives you a small taste of the full release’s Journey mode, which you will also be able to play Co-Op with a friend. Which brings us to our Demo’s multiplayer mode:

Versus

Play with a friend or face off against players from across the planet.*

Using PlayStation Activity Cards, players not already playing the game, can jump straight in to join friends in multiplayer sessions. Hook up with a friend in the ‘Cosmic Shuttle’ and head out to play Clash, the fast-paced multiplayer VS mode included in the demo.

The aim is to smash the other player’s blocks and protect your own.

The power and speed of PlayStation 5 allows for instant transition into matches with your next rematch only seconds away!

You can play C-Smash VRS seated or standing – the game adjusts players’ heights automatically. We don’t want anyone to feel disadvantaged or left behind.

Unlike many other sports and online games, C-Smash VRS is designed to make you feel good, even when you “lose”.

The great Ken Ishii (Rez Infinite) and Danalogue (front man of The Comet is Coming and Soccer 96) have each written a great soundtrack with dynamic, totally transportive tracks for the game. Never have sport and music felt so good together.

In an ideal world, you’ll never realize you’ve just had the best workout – alone or with a friend – because it feels so much like a night out. In space.

What’s coming?

The demo is a small glimpse at our game, which will have an epic Journey mode, a sweat and joy inducing Infinity mode, and a variety of Co-Op and Versus modes.

We also have more features mapped for the full title, including a 3D audio soundscape and fully using adaptive triggers.

We can’t wait for you to see you in the demo – and look forward to taking you to new dimensions when the full game releases on June 23 2023.

* PlayStation Plus required for online play.

For people who may not be familiar with the game, let me give you a quick run-down. The Last Worker is a first-person narrative adventure we are creating with Jörg Tittel (writer, director) and Wired Productions (publisher) that balances light work simulation tasks with stealth gameplay and a deliciously dark and satirical story, performed by a star-studded cast (featuring the likes of Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Jason Isaacs, Clare-Hope Ashitey, David Hewlet, Zelda Williams, and Tommie Earl Jenkins).

You are Kurt, the very last human worker for Jüngle – the most profitable company in the world. Kurt is responsible for “delivering dreams” along with his co-bot assistant SKEW,  navigating a huge distribution centre (larger than the sunken island of Manhattan) on a gravity defying pod, and then using your “Jünglegun” to retrieve, analyse and then tag products appropriately before dispatching or destroying them.  Kurt is pretty happy with his lot, all things considered – that is until a contact from a shadowy organisation disrupts his day to day work and offers him the chance to peek below the surface of Jüngle and the dark secrets that built an empire…

The Last Worker will be playable in both traditional “flat mode” and PS VR2 compatible, with both versions of the game built independently to make the most of the strengths of each version of the game, and of course make the most of the unique features that PlayStation 5 and PS VR2 hardware brings to the table.

Hybrid game and Saves

The Last Worker will be available as a PS5 and PSVR2 title, but you won’t need to pay for an upgrade, when you buy the game you receive both versions – and the save files and progress carry over between them. This means if you spend the morning fully immersed in the PS VR2 world of JFC-1, but want to quickly get a shift in later without putting on your headset, you can simply play on your TV.

4K HDR PS VR2 visuals

The Last Worker features a gorgeous stylised world, that blends custom shading and art from concepts drawn by comic artist legend Mick Mcmahon (known for his work on 2000 AD characters such as Judge Dredd and Sláine) that have been lovingly adapted by our team hand drawing each and every pen stroke in 3D! This has led to a vibrant, colourful world that is brought to life in spectacular fashion with the PS VR2’s two 2000×2040 OLED screens.

3D audio

Wolf & Wood have previously released PS VR titles, and understand the importance of audio in crafting a believable immersive world, this is no different for The Last Worker, with crisp 3D audio implementation allowing every explosion, piece of dialogue from the cast or track from the OST (Which was created by Olver Kraus, known for his collaborations with Adele, Sia, Florence and the Machine, and others) to come through crystal clear regardless of your position.

Adaptive triggers and haptic feedback

As Kurt’s story progresses, so does the selection of tools available to him, from using the Jünglegun as a makeshift hacking tool to a powerful EMP gun – each tool you’ll use to complete your day job (or perform espionage) includes unique feedback through use of the adaptive triggers and powerful haptic feedback – whether you’re labeling a package or flinging rats into the face of a pursuing security bot.

PS VR2 headset feedback

One of the PS VR2 features we’re most excited is the feedback on the headset itself – and for The Last Worker we’ve ensured that they are responsive to the action on screen as you soar around JFC-1 to put you right in the hotseat of Kurt’s Jünglepod. The impactful chaos of flying debris, gigantic robots, and explosions are all simulated for the player with optional headset haptics.

We can’t wait for you to experience all this and more – no matter how you choose to play The Last Worker, you’ll become immersed in exploring the dark underbelly of Jüngle and the important story shared by Kurt. Until then, keep your eyes peeled on the Wired Productions and The Last Worker social accounts for more information, and we’ll look forward to your induction day on March 30.

A Chair in a Room: Greenwater is a horror mystery set in a bleak imagining of America’s Deep South. As Patient No. 6079 you must relive your memories to piece together the past and why you have awoken in the sinister Greenwater Institute.

The area of Greenwater is a mix of derelict towns, run-down motels and murky, decaying swamps, making the game an eerie and atmospheric thriller. But to make it as immersive as possible, we knew early on that we would need to design a world outside of anything you see in the game.

Scratching the surface

The game starts in The Greenwater Institute, a brightly lit, utilitarian facility that could be anywhere in the world. On the surface it looks clean and safe, with posters of stock models smiling under the guise of care and security. This is subversive by design, as the threat in Greenwater isn’t visible from the start.

Investigation of the clues is carried out by manipulating items using either the DualShock 4 wireless controller or PS Move motion controllers. This kind of ‘hands on’ gameplay means that getting up close is important. With that in mind, we’ve paid extra attention to the finer details. Looking closer, the clean white room reveals marks of the previous occupants, and scratched into the paint of the door are messages from another time.

Our own brand of corruption

Remember those posters in the institute? The ones with stock images of carefree happy people. They’re all branded Agkistrocorp, just like the medication packaging and stationery. These and all the other items in the game have been designed with all the detail of a real world product: from warnings, to chemical makeup, to barcodes, each item feels believable. These work twofold as the items are either story-related or contain information about gameplay.

Influences

A number of literary and cultural references are made throughout, and we feel that these ground the events happening around you, invoking a sense of familiarity in an otherwise unusual place.

George Orwell’s 1984, the widely known classic and a personal favourite of mine, is a big influence for the institute. As you explore you’ll notice that posters on the walls proclaim “We are always watching,” and that doctors observe your every move through two-way glass. Even the number given to the patient, 6079, is the same as that given to Winston, the protagonist of Orwell’s classic novel.

There are plenty more references and metaphors hidden throughout that don’t directly influence the gameplay but are there for those willing to look deeper.

Prepare for your descent: A Chair in a Room: Greenwater comes to PS VR April 23.

Late shift

It all starts on the late shift in the Boston Police Dept. with a narrative that picks up from The Exorcist III movie. Putting you in the role of detective, it is up to you to hone your skills by following clues and making deductions to build up a picture of who your character really is. Once you’re comfortable in the precinct, a call comes through on the radio: it’s dispatch, and you’re needed on scene at a local church to investigate the apparent murder of the resident priest.

Your case soon spirals from criminal to something more sinister: an inexplicable presence whispers from the darkness, you realize that statues and paintings are defaced, and eventually the whole chapter erupts as church pews are thrown up into the rafters. Someone, or something, is warning you not to continue.

Design and demons

Although the demons are trying to push you away from the investigation, as designers we’re doing everything we can to pull you in and lead you forward. Ultimately you are the protagonist: you control the camera and you decide where you want or don’t want to go. Our job is to guide you and we hide clues in everything, but we only take you part of the way; the rest is up to you.

The Devil’s in the details

Even the smallest clue is intricately detailed; a notebook once belonging to the priest is handwritten and held together by sticky tape, which combined with other evidence pertains to his wider story of unofficial exorcisms. Everything across the five chapters is meticulously placed to offer clues on both the ever present demonic threat and to reveal why the possessed would be vulnerable to the influence of malevolent forces.

The clues are embedded in a variety of ways across the six unique environments. If there are signs of a struggle and blood stains lead to a door you should take out your crucifix and be prepared for what awaits on the other side.

Idle hands

We feel that VR isn’t just a leap in visual technology: by using controllers that are tracked in 3D space (which is very exciting to develop for), simply reaching out and grabbing objects feels truly immersive. We’ve made much of the world interactive and items just beg to be played with. This opens up the story to be told through more unusual means, for example the toys in the dolls’ house of Chapter 3 pose questions about the home’s real occupants.

The interactions go way beyond inspection. Using the exorcism tools, and other interactive items found throughout the game, you will be throwing holy water capsules into the fiery pits of hell, dodging anything that the demon Baal in Chapter 4 can throw at you, or pulling a makeshift raft into the tomb of Chapter 5.

What you don’t see

A good detective can make deductions, fill in the blanks and build a picture of what happened; horror works much in the same way, but on a visceral level. With just the creak of a floorboard your mind can conjure up images of what might be lurking in the shadows. We use positional audio to make the world come to life: subtle sounds hint to the next objective and if you listen carefully you might hear a soft lullaby in the next room… but that’s enough from me – it’s really up to you to go in there.

Tuesday October 9 will see the culmination of the story when we release the final two chapters – with the biggest threats ready to be faced.

• Chapter 4 – Samaritan. A failed quarantine zone in Haiti has been racked by an unknown plague, and a slew of health worker deaths has led to the collapse of efforts to control the mounting victim toll.
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• Chapter 5 – The Tomb. Located deep in the mountains of Upper Mesopotamia, the demon Pazuzu lies in wait, and he’s prepared to test you on everything you’ve learned so far.
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In addition to these final episodes, we have implemented Spanish and Japanese localization, and made some upgrades to the calibration system, as well as additional comfort settings to give players the most immersive experience possible.

Chapters 4 & 5 can be purchased individually for $6.99 on October 9, or the Complete Series is currently available for $29.99.