Those of us rubbing our game-toughened thumbs together awaiting Oculus Rift’s release got some good news today. Lucky’s Tale, a platformer made for VR by Playful Corp will come with Oculus Rift for free.
The hardest of the hardcore may turn up their noses at the adorable fox named Lucky and his tail — or rather, tale, but it could be a lot of fun. Think of the first moments watching a third-person character traverse a 3D world — Mario 64 is a prime example — and you will be able to glimpse the awe Lucky’s Tale could inspire.
“It’s all about the interplay of the way the camera engine works, which is always to design first and foremost for comfort, and then the ways we can push that to do interesting things with the level design.” The director of Lucky’s Tale, Dan Hurd, told PC Gamer. Hurd wants to keep it “simple and accessible.”
As expected from any platformer, collectibles will be scattered throughout, and the platforming will be broken up with minigames delivered via clever management of a tight camera angle to keep nausea at bay. The usual VR experience is first person, which generally makes for a poor platforming game. Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey seems to think Lucky’s Tale is proof that the third-person perspective, connected to the traditional platformer, will fit nicely into the still-developing VR medium.
“We always believed there was an opportunity for platformers in VR, but it wasn’t until playing Lucky’s Tale and working with the Playful team that we truly realized its potential to change how people view this genre of gaming forever.” Palmer said. “Lucky’s Tale delivers on everything you want in a next-generation VR game — it’s thrilling, full of adventure, and incredibly fun to play.”
The founder and CEO of Playful, Paul Bettner, was one of the original five grand backers of the Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign. He knew Oculus was going to be something great, and had Playful Corp. run prototypes of 40 games in VR before even starting to work on Lucky’s Tale. Bettner plans to include some of the better prototypes as mini-games in LT.
Oculus Rift is still set to release sometime in the first quarter of 2016. According to the company, it will open for pre-orders “soon,” whatever that means. If you want to be one of the first players, make sure you follow the firm on social media or have some news alerts set up.
