Downpour Interactive

Downpour Interactive was a virtual reality game developer founded in 2015 by Dante Buckley in North Carolina. It developed Onward, a multiplayer tactical military simulator built around immersive weapon handling and coordinated squad play. The company grew from Buckley’s solo development project into an international, remote-first team.

Its development work focused on tactical first-person shooters, networked multiplayer and cross-platform VR engineering. Onward’s mechanics included free locomotion, manual weapon manipulation and aiming without crosshairs, with an emphasis on communication and tactical coordination. The studio also worked on ballistics, weapon interactions and community-driven content systems.

Development history

Onward entered Steam Early Access in August 2016 and reached Oculus PC VR in 2017. A standalone Quest version followed in July 2020, extending the game’s availability across PC and standalone VR hardware. Downpour continued developing and supporting the title through subsequent updates, including Update 2.0 in March 2025.

Facebook acquired the studio on April 30, 2021, bringing it under the Oculus Studios banner. Downpour continued operating as a remote-first development team within the group following the acquisition.

On June 17, 2025, Downpour announced that Update 2.0 would be Onward’s final content update and that its team had permanently joined sister studio Camouflaj. Dedicated development support and content patches ended, and the team moved to work on future VR titles. Downpour subsequently ceased operating as an independent development studio.