House of Secrets, the Amsterdam-based studio behind acclaimed real-time VR music videos Surge (2015) and Apex (2017), have released their first full VR game, a puzzle platformer titled KIN. Now available on Gear VR for $10, the game will also be headed to Oculus Rift in January 2018.
Update (12/22/17): House of Secrets have just released ‘KIN’ for Gear VR. According to the game’s website, a Rift version is also headed to the Oculus Store, slated for January 2018 release. The Gear VR requires a gamepad controller, so it isn’t clear at this point which control scheme the Rift version will adopt.
Original Article (08/17/17): The studio calls the game a “VR puzzle platformer game with combat elements.” The game is due to launch “later this year” on both the Oculus Rift and Gear VR (Galaxy S6 or higher only). Catch the teaser trailer below:
From the looks of it, Kin is likely to be a third-person game. It’s unclear at this stage if it will be based on gamepad or motion input, though the studio says it is a “seated or standing experience.” As for gameplay, House of Secrets says that players will “traverse the remnants of an ancient civilization on a distant planet. Throughout your journey through alien landscapes, a story will unfold.”
The game holds an abstract aesthetic that has become characteristic for the studio through their earlier VR experiences such as APEX and Surge. Lively colours, intuitive gameplay and interesting level design set the tone for KIN, in which the player moves through the world as a mysterious, tiny girl with big hair clad in a bright dress. Defeating enemies and solving puzzles, she leaps from platform to platform, travelling through different landscapes.
Surge and Apex were headed by House of Secrets’ Arjan van Meerten; fans of those works will be pleased to know that Meerten is also heading Kin as the game’s Creative & Technical Lead, alongside the studio’s Sven Neve.
House of Secrets has formerly done VFX and interactive work, but Kin will be the studio’s first VR game proper. The studio says the game is “made possible by Oculus,” though it isn’t clear to what extent the company is involved; our guess would be that they will be publishing and/or funding the development of the title.