Dimensional from UK developers is a built-for-VR puzzle platformer for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift which leverage’s experimental locomotion ideas to tackle nausea and enhance presence. The project has just hit Kickstarter, so we thought we’d take a quick look at it.
Winner of this year’s VRTGO pre-show Competition to highlight new UK VR development talent, Dimensional is the work of lone developer Brett Jackson from the UK. It’s described as an “experimental VR game with innovative movement mechanics” and it’s got some interesting ideas on how to move around and interact with virtual environments.
The title is primarily a puzzle title, but includes platforming and action elements. The title started life as an experiment by Jackson who wanted to test his “strong opinions” on what makes a great virtual reality experience. Jackson therefore decided to take a year off, so five into game development. Although Jackson is an experiences software developer of some 27 years, building a game – let alone one for virtual reality – presented somewhat of a challenge.
Jackson’s goal, was to let the player of Dimensional “explore like you would in real life”, including ducking, leaning, walking about and reacting to life-threatening situations realistically. But the majority of people don’t have room for dedicated VR play-spaces, therefore Jackson’s goal was to achieve all of the above, and still let those with smaller living spaces enjoy the game.
Jackson’s new VR locomotion concept requires an area from just 1.2m x 0.5m in size, just enough to take a step or two. The player defines the play-space by walking around the available free space, marking out the boundaries as a user-defined area. That area is permanently visible on the floor of the virtual world, allowing the user to move around with confidence. Movement through the world is achieved by ‘teleporting’ that grid to visible locations ahead of you.
With this mechanic in place, Jackson then can introduce localised action elements into the game, requiring the player to sidestep through doors, duck under obstacles and explore the virtual spaces as suited.
A lot of your actions within the world are carried out on your behalf by your floating, robotic companion Digby. He’ll help you complete puzzles, or perhaps wreak havoc inside the physics-enabled gameworld depending in the requirement (and perhaps your mood).
The visuals for the game are, as the developer admits, only a place-holder. Jackson is currently hunting for an artist to help him bring his story of buried alien life forms and burrowing invaders to life. But you can see the promise in some of Jackson’s ideas, as shonky as some of the gameworld currently looks.
The title just hit Kickstarter with a conservative goal of just £1000 and backers pledging just £4 and up will receive an early access copy of the game, expected to be ready around May this year.