Radial-G from Tammeka Games may have struck out on their recent Kickstarter campaign, but the futuristic ‘pipe’ racer is back by popular demand via Steam Early Access with new tracks, ships and all important Oculus Rift menu integration.
Whilst the sim racing genre has seen a healthy stream of official Oculus Rift support, those of us not obsessed with the minutiae of gear ratios and telemetry readouts aren’t currently quite as well served on the arcade racing front. So, given Road to VR’s penchant for classic futuristic racers like Wipeout and F-Zero, it probably wasn’t too surprising that Radial-G on the Oculus Rift made such a good impression.
In fact, after playing the DK2 demo earlier this year, Road to VR executive editor Ben Lang bestowed the grand honour of inducting it into his hallowed Oculus Rift demo collection. So, we were sad to see the game’s recent Kickstarter fall short of its goal, and were buoyed when the team declared that they’d be back.
See Also: Radial-G Just Earned Itself a Spot in My Oculus Rift Demos Folder
Another method of funding that has become quite popular amongst small game developer startups is Valve’s Steam Early Access platform. Valve provide slots on their hugely successful games portal for titles voted for by the community through ‘Steam Greenlight’. Radial-G received over 10,000 votes and were subsequently granted entry by the Steam gatekeepers.
This means that the team can give Radial-G fans access to early versions of the game as development progresses, whilst at the same time funding said development. Plus, Radial-G benefits from the extra visibility of being on Steam whilst leaving all the payment processing / DRM business to Gabe Newell and his clan of money counters.
To celebrate Radial-G‘s release on December 11th, Tammeka have debuted a brand new trailer (top) demonstrating what early access backers get for their money and what they can expect in the near future. Key enhancements include forking / split tracks, jumps, 3 tracks, 3 playable ships, and perhaps most important of all—at least for Oculus Rift users—fully VR integrated menus.
We can’t wait to get our hands on the new version, and if you can’t either, head over and bookmark Radial-G’s Steam Early Access page now.
