Those who have been following along will remember Proton Pulse as one of the best early demos for the Oculus Rift. After being mysteriously shut down over what seemed like intellectual property concerns, the game may have a chance of being resuscitated.
Proton Pulse was an early Oculus Rift demo made by developer Pushy Pixels. The game, which was like virtual reality Breakout, was heralded as one of the best demos for the Rift because of how simple it was to pick up and play (thanks to being controlled only with head movements). From my own experience giving dozens of Oculus Rift demos, Proton Pulse demonstrates virtual reality superbly for first-timers. You can get an idea of the gameplay here.
Its excellence made it all the more sad when, after having more than doubled their Kickstarter goal to turn the demo into a full game, Pushy Pixels announced that they had canceled the project. The reason was ambiguous, but the most popular hypothesis by far was that it had to due with intellectual property disputes.
In December, 2013 an image was posted on the official Proton Pulse website with nothing more than the headline “Beep.”
The image, which looks like a flat-lining ECG readout, seems a clear allusion to the ‘Pulse’ in Proton Pulse.
Then, earlier this month, our own Cymatic Bruce had a teaser to share with his livestream audience which featured the same ECG readout, but this time it was a video and set to escalating Proton Pulse music. You can see it at 1 hour and 7 minutes in the video below.
It would seem that whatever issues led to Proton Pulse’s untimely demise may have been settled. So far there’s no official word from Pushy Pixels’ lead developer, Justin Moravetz. We’re looking forward to what will hopefully be the revival of this great game!
