‘VR Skater’ Lands on Steam Early Access April 30th, Trailer Here

News Bits

By

-

Apr 14, 2021

VR Skater is a skateboarding game from indie studio Deficit Games; mark your calendars for April 30th, because that’s when it’s coming to Steam Early Access.

The developers call the game a “finely tuned mix between arcade and simulation,” as it promises a wide variety of realistic urban environments, but giving you plenty of gravity-defying lift and finesse to execute moves that would put most people in the hospital.

At launch, the studio says VR Skater will include custom-built environments, skateboarding controls designed especially for VR motion controllers, a ‘Skate Academy’ to learn all the tricks and complete challenges, and the ability to skate the game’s environments freely.

1 of 3

Throughout its time in Early Access, the studio hopes to add a career mode, more map challenges, an online leaderboard, achievements, skateboard customizations, more maps, more than 15 handpicked songs, and support for Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Deficit hopes to release the game fully sometime in Q4 2021.

Sequel to Quest's Most Popular VR Boxing Game Teases Release in New Trailer

You can wishlist VR Skater now on Steam. At Early Access launch, the game is said to support Valve Index, HTC Vive, and Oculus PC headsets at launch.

Foreign Devil

a game that would definitely benefit from foot trackers.
- DanDei
  
  not really, because jumping off and landing on your living room carpet is a hugely different feel from the skateboard you are seeing and would just increase the disconnect between visuals and actual body, tipping off your balance frequently and make you fall or get motion sickness very fast.
  - Aaron The Young
    
    It seems kind of silly to have a game that is trying to simulate skateboarding yet doesn’t track your feet. OF COURSE it would benefit from foot trackers.
    
    While the feel is indeed different than actual skateboarding, but being able to jump as see the environment track that seems to be a far closer step to really skateboarding than NOT.
    - Kunakai
      
      Why not just buy a skateboard?
      
      Skating is a difficult sport to learn and master and definitely not for most people. Video games like THPS got as popular as they did based on the fact that they make the sport easy and effortless. Making a digital analog of a sport which is already more accessible than the digitised version seems entirely senseless.
      
      Not to mention, most people are less likely to play a VR title if it means they have to strap more nonsense to themselves.
      
      Further: Trackers cost more money and are supported by very few titles.
      
      In any case, the debate is meaningless until native camera tracking is a widely supported feature for most HMD’s.
      - Tabp
        
        Why not just play a video game instead of dealing with the weather problems, difficulty, danger, possible illegality, and potentially greater expense of real skateboarding?
        
        Playing a skateboarding game with just your hands is obviously not ideal. Hip tracking alone would be huge. VRChat has created an installed base of trackers. You strap on safety gear if you just buy a skateboard, unless you want to get hurt.
        
        What does native camera tracking have to do with it? External cameras wouldn’t need headset support, internal ones are useless for skateboarding, and vive trackers already do the job.
        
        As for the other guy’s “tipping off your balance frequently and make you fall or get motion sickness very fast” stuff like that has been tried and most people can handle it. Wires would be a better reason to avoid using jumping for jumps.
      - Kunakai
        
        “Why not just play a video game instead of dealing with the weather problems, difficulty, danger, possible illegality, and potentially greater expense of real skateboarding?”
        
        Wouldn’t those aspects count towards immersion given the calls for authenticity? (I’m not sure what you’re referring to citing potentially higher expense of real skateboarding. Most third party trackers cost more than a decent set up from what I’ve seen)
        
        Not entirely sure I’d rely on VR Chat has an install base for trackers as a benchmark for developing systems for a game?
        
        “What does native camera tracking have to do with it? External cameras wouldn’t need headset support, internal ones are useless for skateboarding, and vive trackers already do the job.”
        
        Most VR users don’t enjoy the idea of having to strap extra peripherals to themselves. (Carmack has mentioned this many times). Improved native camera tracking would avert such concerns. (There’s still the fact that playing the game would be as much a chore as playing intensive wii/kinect games)
        
        Full body motion seems like something most people long for but in my experience it seldom makes something fun unless you’re specifically looking for an authentic experience (which is where the appeal of a sport sim differs from the appeal of a racing sim/aircraft sim, hence the rational pertaining to cost of the sport vs benefits of simulation).
        
        If I were asked to invest in a tracker based authentic skate sim I’d politely decline. You’re welcome to disagree with the opinion though.
david vincent

A skateboarding game without skater, hu…
Octo

Looks rigid, like each move snaps into place. I hope they blend in more physics..that may lead to more mistakes, but skating is difficult.
Foot trackers is a horrible idea. Try to jump blindfolded while flipping your feet around…would put as many in the hospital as actual skating.