As you’ve probably figured out from my PAX interviews, a big focus for me at this year’s show was VR. I had the chance to try the Oculus CV1, the HTC Vive, and the Sony Morpheus. Of all of the games on all of the headsets, the one I was looking the most forward to trying was Call of the Starseed: The Gallery, by developer Cloudhead Games.
They were able to sneak an appointment for me in on the last day of PAX, and I absolutely loved it. It’s one thing to play a game specifically designed for room-scale experiences, it’s another thing entirely to be able to explore an entire virtual world, and interact with real-world objects.
One of my favourite experiences of this demo was walking off of the edge of the level. Joel, who demoed the game for me, immediately knew what I was trying to do, and said over the mic “oh, we’ve got a gamer here” while laughing. He was actually quite happy to see me experiment with the game this way, and surprisingly, I think I was the first (and probably only) person to intentionally jump outside the level limits. I can honestly say the sensation of looking over a ledge is really hammered home by the room-scale experience of the HTC Vive. It’s disorienting in the Oculus, but it’s downright terrifying in the Vive.
That being said, the demo itself was calm and allowed for a lot of neat experimentation (I even sank two virtual baskets in a row on a basketball hoop). I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more from the HTC Vive, and Call of the Starseed: The Gallery.
Check out my interview with Joel:
You can check out Call of the Starseed: The Gallery, and learn more about the Cloudhead Games team at www.thegallerygame.com and www.cloudheadgames.com.
As always, thanks for watching, and thanks for reading.
Jake Carewick is a Contributing Editor to aybonline.com.
