Vertical Robot
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| Vertical Robot | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Type | Private |
| Industry | Virtual reality video games |
| Founded | April 1, 2016 |
| Founder | Iñaki Hernández Gastañaga, Norman Schaar, Tatiana Delgado |
| Headquarters | Madrid, Spain |
| Notable Personnel | Iñaki Hernández Gastañaga (game director and programmer), Norman Schaar (game and art director, technical artist) |
| Products | Red Matter, Red Matter 2, Daedalus |
| Website | https://verticalrobot.com |
Vertical Robot is an independent virtual reality game studio based in Madrid, Spain. It was founded on April 1, 2016, and has released three VR games: the platformer Daedalus (2017) and the puzzle adventures Red Matter (2018) and Red Matter 2 (2022).[1][2] The studio's founders had previously worked on console games including the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series and Spec Ops: The Line.[1][3]
Press coverage of the studio has focused on the graphics of its games on standalone headsets.[4] A two-person team ported Red Matter to the Oculus Quest in 2019, and Red Matter 2 was announced in 2022 with the studio's claim of "the best graphics on mobile VR to date".[5][6] Red Matter 2 won two D.I.C.E. Awards in 2023, and UploadVR named Vertical Robot its Best VR Developer of 2022.[7][8]
History
Founding and Daedalus
Vertical Robot's press kit gives its founding date as April 1, 2016.[1] The studio's current press kit lists Iñaki Hernández Gastañaga (co-founder, game director and programmer) and Norman Schaar (co-founder, game and art director and technical artist) as its team.[1] Hernández, a computer engineering graduate of the computer science faculty in San Sebastián, had worked at MercurySteam on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and its sequel before helping to found Vertical Robot, where he was lead programmer on Daedalus and Red Matter.[9] Tatiana Delgado, the design director on Red Matter, was described as a co-founder in 2017 coverage of the studio and in her own speaker biography, which says she was in charge of game and narrative design for the game.[3][10] In October 2017 the Spanish magazine 3D Wire described the studio as four industry veterans who had worked at companies including Tequila Works, MercurySteam, Pyro Studios and Yager, on games such as the Castlevania series, Deadlight and Spec Ops: The Line. It named Hernández as head of programming and CEO, Delgado as design director and Manuel Fernández-Truchaud as game designer.[3]
The studio's first game was Daedalus, a VR platformer and exploration game in which the player, as the mythical architect Daedalus, boosts, glides and rides wind shafts through dream-like labyrinths to find the three platforms that open the gate at the end of each level.[11][3] According to Vertical Robot it was created for Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream, with an original launch trailer for Gear VR in 2017, and was later rebuilt for Oculus Go (release trailer in 2018) and Meta Quest.[11] The studio lists a 2017 win for Best Mobile VR at the Real o Virtual awards and a 2017 Audience Award at the Game Development World Championship, along with finalist places at the TIGA Games Industry Awards and Indie Prize USA and a Gamelab Barcelona nomination for best game design.[11][1]
Red Matter
Red Matter, a story-driven puzzle adventure set in a dystopian science fiction version of the Cold War, debuted at Oculus Connect 4 in October 2017.[3][12] It was released for the Oculus Rift on May 24, 2018, then on Steam on November 10, 2018, on PlayStation VR in December 2018 and on the Oculus Quest on August 15, 2019.[13]
The Quest port was made by two people over about eight months, starting around the time of the PlayStation VR release in December 2018; UploadVR interviewed Schaar, as co-founder and technical artist, about the optimization work.[5] One week after the Quest launch, Vertical Robot said that Quest sales of Red Matter had already passed the game's lifetime sales on the Rift, where it had launched 15 months earlier.[14]
Red Matter 2
Red Matter 2 was announced for the Meta Quest 2 at the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase in April 2022.[6] It was released on August 18, 2022, for Meta Quest 2, the Oculus Rift platform and Steam, followed by Pico on December 8, 2022, and PlayStation VR2 on May 18, 2023, with a regular price of US$29.99.[15] In its year-end awards, UploadVR said the game was among the best-looking Quest 2 titles of 2022, that its Pico 4 version ran at a higher resolution than on Quest 2, and that it was the first major title to support eye-tracked foveated rendering on the Meta Quest Pro, which raised its base resolution by 30 percent.[8]
In an October 2023 Reddit AMA reported by MIXED, the developers said Vertical Robot had two developers, that the team had grown temporarily to four full-time and two part-time developers for Red Matter 2, and that they did not expect significant growth. They credited Meta and its Oculus Publishing program with "invaluable" support and said neither Meta nor Sony had approached them about an acquisition. MIXED reported that the studio was taking a break after more than seven years of VR development; the developers said its next project was still in the "brainstorming phase" and that no decision had been made on a Red Matter 3.[4] The same report said the PlayStation VR to PlayStation VR2 port of Red Matter took the core team five months, and that adding PlayStation VR2 foveated rendering took about a month because of the studio's customizations to its heavily modified Unreal Engine.[4]
Later updates and physical editions
The original Red Matter was released on PlayStation VR2 on October 5, 2023, at US$20, as a free upgrade for owners of the PlayStation VR version. Vertical Robot stated that it runs at a "Smooth 90fps with no reprojection", with foveated rendering, 4K textures and revamped controls.[16] In April 2025, Limited Run Games and Vertical Robot announced physical PlayStation VR2 editions of both games, which had previously been digital-only on PlayStation 5. The pre-order window was to stay open until May 25, 2025, with prices of US$34.99 for Red Matter and US$39.99 for Red Matter 2 and shipping estimated for late September 2025.[17]
As of October 2026, the studio's website lists Red Matter, Red Matter 2 and Daedalus as its games.[2]
Games
| Title | Year | Genre | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daedalus | 2017 | Platformer, exploration | Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream, later Oculus Go and Meta Quest[11] |
| Red Matter | 2018 | Puzzle adventure | Oculus Rift, Steam, PlayStation VR (2018); Oculus Quest (2019); PlayStation VR2 (2023)[13][16] |
| Red Matter 2 | 2022 | Puzzle adventure | Meta Quest 2, Oculus Rift, Steam, Pico (2022); PlayStation VR2 (2023)[15] |
Awards
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Real o Virtual | Best Mobile VR | Daedalus | Won[11] |
| 2017 | Game Development World Championship | Audience Award | Daedalus | Won[11] |
| 2017 | Indie Prize USA | Showcase Award | Daedalus | Finalist[1] |
| 2017 | TIGA Games Industry Awards | Game by a Small Studio | Daedalus | Finalist[1] |
| 2017 | Gamelab Barcelona | Best Game Design | Daedalus | Nominee[11] |
| 2018 | Auggie Awards | Not specified | Red Matter | Finalist[1] |
| 2018 | VR Awards | VR Game of the Year | Red Matter | Nominee[1] |
| 2018 | Fun and Serious | Spanish Game of the Year | Red Matter | Nominee[1] |
| 2022 | The Game Awards | Best VR/AR | Red Matter 2 | Nominee[18] |
| 2022 | Road to VR Game of the Year Awards | Quest Game of the Year | Red Matter 2 | Won[19] |
| 2022 | UploadVR Best of VR | Best VR Developer | Vertical Robot | Won[8] |
| 2023 | D.I.C.E. Awards | Immersive Reality Game of the Year | Red Matter 2 | Won[7] |
| 2023 | D.I.C.E. Awards | Immersive Reality Technical Achievement | Red Matter 2 | Won[7] |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 "Vertical Robot press kit". Vertical Robot. Vertical Robot. https://verticalrobot.com/presskit/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Vertical Robot - Award-winning VR studio". Vertical Robot. Vertical Robot, Sociedad Limitada. https://verticalrobot.com/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Red Matter, el nuevo juego de realidad virtual del estudio español Vertical Robot, ha sido anunciado en el Oculus Connect 4". 3D Wire. 2017-10-17. https://3dwire.es/red-matter-nuevo-juego-realidad-virtual-del-estudio-espanol-vertical-robot-ha-anunciado-oculus-connect-4/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Tomislav Bezmalinovic (2023-10-06). "Red Matter studio says their next VR project is in the "brainstorming" phase". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/vertical-robot-future-plans/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Jamie Feltham (2019-08-09). "How Red Matter Devs Pulled Off A Near-Perfect Quest Port". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-quest-port/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ben Lang (2022-04-20). "'Red Matter 2' Announced for Quest 2, Promising to Deliver the "best graphics on mobile VR to date"". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/red-matter-2-meta-quest-announcement-gameplay-trailer/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Vertical Robot - 2023 Award Results". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. https://www.interactive.org/games/game_developer_details.asp?idAward=2023&idGameDeveloper=834. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Harry Baker (2022-12-21). "UploadVR's Best of VR 2022 - Game Of The Year & More". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/uploadvr-best-of-vr-2022/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ "Profesores". Máster en Desarrollo de Videojuegos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. https://www.videojuegos-ucm.es/profes.html. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ "Tatiana Delgado". Immersive Tech Week. https://www.immersivetechweek.co/person/tatiana-delgado/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 "Daedalus - Surreal VR Platformer". Vertical Robot. Vertical Robot. https://verticalrobot.com/daedalus/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Scott Hayden (2018-05-14). "16 Minutes of 'Red Matter' Gameplay Revealed - a Sci-fi Soviet Retrofuture Adventure". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/16-minutes-of-red-matter-gameplay-revealed/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Red Matter". Vertical Robot press kit. Vertical Robot. https://verticalrobot.com/presskit/sheet.php?p=Red+Matter. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ David Heaney (2019-08-23). "Red Matter's Oculus Quest Sales Surpass Rift After Just One Week". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-quest-sales/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Red Matter 2". Vertical Robot press kit. Vertical Robot. https://verticalrobot.com/presskit/sheet.php?p=Red+Matter+2. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Tomislav Bezmalinovic (2023-10-05). "'Red Matter' launches on PSVR 2 with cutting-edge visuals". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/red-matter-psvr-2-enhancement/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Henry Stockdale (2025-04-16). "Both Red Matter Games Are Getting Physical Releases For PlayStation VR2". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/red-matter-2-physical-release-playstation-vr2/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Henry Stockdale (2022-11-15). "Among Us VR, Bonelab & More Nominated For Best VR At The Game Awards 2022". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/the-game-awards-vr-nominations-2022/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ "Road to VR's 2022 Game of the Year Awards". Road to VR. 2022-12-19. https://www.roadtovr.com/road-to-vrs-2022-game-year-quest-pc-psvr/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.