Episode 1 - Quadrilateral Cowboy
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| Episode 1 - Quadrilateral Cowboy | |
|---|---|
| |
| Information | |
| VR/AR | VR |
| Developer | FOO VR, Inc. |
| Platform | SteamVR, Oculus Rift (Platform) |
| Device | HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, OSVR |
| Operating System | Windows |
| Type | DLC |
| Genre | Simulation |
| Input Device | Tracked Motion Controllers, Gamepad |
| Play Area | Seated, Standing, Room-Scale |
| Game Mode | Single Player |
| Language | English |
| Review | 1 user reviews |
| Release Date | Mar 13, 2017 |
| Price | $4.99 |
| App Store | Steam |
| Website | http://foovr.com |
| Infobox Updated | 04/19/2017 |
Episode 1 - Quadrilateral Cowboy is a downloadable episode of The FOO Show, an interactive virtual reality talk show made by FOO VR, Inc. and hosted by Will Smith, who left the technology site Tested, which he had co-founded, to start the company. In the episode, Smith interviews Brendon Chung of Blendo Games about Chung's cyberpunk heist game Quadrilateral Cowboy, with both men represented as avatars inside a VR recreation of the game's setting.[1][2][3] The conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at the XOXO festival in Portland, Oregon, on 9 September 2016, the first live recording of the show.[3]
Numbered Episode 1, it is the first of four episodes sold on Steam as downloadable content for the free base application, whose own included episode features Firewatch.[4] It was released on Steam on 13 March 2017, and Kickstarter backers received codes for it.[5] Viewers watch a recorded performance from inside the virtual set, where they can move around and handle objects while the conversation plays.[6]
Description
In this episode of The FOO Show, Will welcomes Brendon Chung of Blendo Games to the stage to discuss his new game Quadrilateral Cowboy, the benefits of planning heists in virtual reality, what may have been the first FPS fart joke, and a whole lot more. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at XOXO in 2016. Enjoy![2]
Content
The subject of the interview, Quadrilateral Cowboy, is a game by Blendo Games, the studio Chung founded, published on Steam by Blendo Games and Klei Publishing and released on 25 July 2016.[1][7] The episode's Steam page describes it as a discussion of "his cyberpunk heist game".[2]
For the broadcast, FOO VR rebuilt the virtual set of Chung's game in VR, and Smith and Chung explored it as avatars.[1] The FOO Show's Steam description refers to this environment as the "Quadrilateral Cowboy Lair" and lists it among the locations that can be explored in the show's non-VR mode.[4] A GameSpot article about the show printed an image captioned as showing Smith cleaning Chung's ear on set and, at the same time, inside Quadrilateral Cowboy.[6]
VR presentation
The FOO Show episodes are recordings rather than live streams. During a shoot, the host and guests share one physical space and wear HTC Vive headsets; GameSpot reported that a recording used three Vive headsets and six controllers. Head and hand movements tracked by the Vive hardware drive full-body avatars, and each person's position in the room maps 1:1 to their position in the virtual environment, so a person who reaches for another avatar also touches the real person. The movement data and microphone audio are synchronized and delivered to viewers for playback on demand. As of December 2016, each viewer watched alone; FOO VR had not added shared group viewing.[6]
FOO VR's Kickstarter page described each episode as an interview with creators "from inside the digital worlds that they've created". According to the same page, viewers could watch in standing or room-scale VR with hand controllers such as Oculus Touch or the HTC Vive controllers, or in seated or standing VR with a gamepad. The page stated that even the experimental 2D client, offered to backers, would let viewers explore the environment and pick up, rotate and take a closer look at objects. Work on the avatar animation began with a simple prototype by lead developer Andre Infante that tested inverse kinematics with a Rift DK2 and a Razer Hydra.[8]
Since Update 1.1 in July 2016, made after problems with SteamVR beta releases and the app's headset autodetection, the Steam version of the show has had separate executables for SteamVR and native Oculus Rift use; Rift owners launch the Oculus version by right-clicking the app in the Steam library.[9] Version 1.01, released later the same week as this episode, added rotation cues telling users with 180-degree Oculus setups to turn with the thumbsticks, changed thumbstick rotation from 90 to 45 degrees with adjusted sensitivity, and hid the controllers when the viewer picks up an object.[10] A May 2018 update made the 2D client available to everyone (it needs a gamepad to control the camera) and added beta support for Windows Mixed Reality headsets, with teleporting and rotation on the trackpad and the trigger for picking up objects.[11]
Development
Smith left Tested to found FOO VR and start The FOO Show. He brought the format to XOXO 2016, where the session was held on Friday, 9 September at 7 p.m. at Revolution Hall in Portland.[3] The Verge reported that the interview opened the festival's evening of storytelling: the audience could see the two men walking around the stage in head-mounted displays, while a screen behind them showed their avatars exploring the set.[1]
On 17 November 2016 Smith announced that FOO VR would charge for new episodes. He said the company had expected to fund the show with venture capital but chose instead to stay small, raising a little money from friends and family. He said the first episode of the season had already been shot.[12] The Kickstarter campaign sought US$50,000 to produce five episodes and stated that season one would feature Brendon Chung discussing Quadrilateral Cowboy. FOO VR estimated that the planned episodes would cost between $5,000 and $20,000 each, with an average of $10,000; building virtual sets, creating guest avatars and adapting art from other projects were the largest costs. Backers who pledged $20 or more received an Oculus Home or Steam code for the whole first season.[8][13] With about an hour of the campaign left, GamesBeat reported that more than 2,200 people had pledged $66,000.[14]
According to the Kickstarter page, after releasing the free Firewatch episode the team added the ability to animate and track the state of objects, improved the character animation, and built a rudimentary editor, an experimental 2D client and a VR-native user interface. The page named Sindre Skaare as FOO VR's lead artist.[8]
Release
FOO VR first planned to release the season's first episode in December 2016, followed by two episodes a month in January and February, on Steam and Oculus Home.[15] The Quadrilateral Cowboy episode went on sale on 13 March 2017.[5]
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 9 September 2016 | Recorded live at XOXO, Revolution Hall, Portland[3] |
| 17 November 2016 | Season one pre-sales open on Kickstarter; the campaign names Chung as a season one guest[12][8] |
| 13 March 2017 | Released on Steam as DLC for The FOO Show featuring Will Smith; codes sent to Kickstarter backers[5] |
| March 2017 | Version 1.01 of the app adds rotation cues for 180-degree Oculus setups and 45-degree snap turning[10] |
| 16 May 2018 | Update releases the 2D client to all users and adds beta Windows Mixed Reality support[11] |
As of October 2026 the episode is listed on Steam at US$4.99. It requires the free base application, runs on Windows only, and is tagged Single-player, Downloadable Content and VR Supported.[2] The show's other Steam episodes are Episode 2 - Total War: Warhammer II, Episode 3 - Making Nanomachines from DNA and Episode 4 - Inside Adam Savage's Shop.[4]
Reception
Casey Newton of The Verge included the XOXO taping among his favorite parts of the 2016 festival and wrote that "Watching a game designer explore his creation from the inside was one of the year's more indelible moments."[1] As of October 2026, the episode's Steam page shows one user review, too few for Steam to generate a score.[2]
Features
- Single-player
- Downloadable Content
- VR Supported[2]
System Requirements
Windows
Minimum
- OS: Windows 7 SP1 or newer
- Processor: Intel Core i5 4590
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 or better
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 2000 MB available space
Recommended
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5 4590
- Memory: 8000 MB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 or better
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 2000 MB available space
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Casey Newton (2016-09-11). "Our favorite discoveries from the internet's best festival". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/11/12881398/xoxo-fest-2016-best-of. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "Episode 1 - Quadrilateral Cowboy on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/593920/Episode_1__Quadrilateral_Cowboy/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "The Foo Show". XOXO Festival. https://2016-schedule.xoxofest.com/2016/projects/the-foo-show/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "The FOO Show featuring Will Smith on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/411820/The_FOO_Show_featuring_Will_Smith/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "New Episode - Quadrilateral Cowboy!". Steam News - The FOO Show featuring Will Smith. FOO VR, Inc.. 2017-03-13. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/411820/view/4249665521683315841. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Jason Imms (2016-12-01). "VR Talk Show Turns Game Creators into Virtual Tour Guides". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/vr-talk-show-turns-game-creators-into-virtual-tour/1100-6445865/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ "Quadrilateral Cowboy on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/240440/Quadrilateral_Cowboy/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Will Smith. "Go Inside Your Favorite Video Games with The FOO Show!". Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/willsmith/go-inside-your-favorite-video-games-with-the-foo-s. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ "Update 1.1". Steam News - The FOO Show featuring Will Smith. FOO VR, Inc.. 2016-07-09. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/411820/view/4249665521683316088. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Version 1.01 Released!". Steam News - The FOO Show featuring Will Smith. FOO VR, Inc.. March 2017. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/411820/view/4249665521683315743. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "2 New Episodes + 2D Version and Windows MR Support Out Now!". Steam News - The FOO Show featuring Will Smith. FOO VR, Inc.. 2018-05-16. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/411820/view/2391853754532667398. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Will Smith (2016-11-17). "The Next Steps for FOO". Medium. https://medium.com/will-smith/the-next-steps-for-foo-d6af052a2ee2. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ Billy Steele (2016-11-18). "Tech host Will Smith needs help funding his VR talk show". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/18/will-smith-vr-talk-show-needs-help/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb (2016-12-09). "You have 60 minutes left to preorder the first season of the Foo Show - VR's incredible talk show". GamesBeat. https://gamesbeat.com/you-have-60-minutes-left-to-preorder-the-first-season-of-the-foo-show-vrs-incredible-talk-show/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
- ↑ "The FOO Show Will Return in December". Steam News - The FOO Show featuring Will Smith. FOO VR, Inc.. 2016-11-18. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/411820/view/4249665521683315967. Retrieved 2026-10-09.