Read more: 鈥Dreams on demand: Virtual reality finally delivers鈥
DON鈥橳 think, just feel. Games-makers are embracing the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and using it to create an entirely new kind of gaming experience. They are also changing the idea of what a game can be. 鈥淩ight now we鈥檙e on the precipice of a new wave of video games,鈥 says , a sound designer based in Austin, Texas. 鈥淭he Rift is such a gift for us.鈥
Around 75 existing games are being adapted to work with the goggles, including classic first-person shooters like and racing games like Race Driver: GRIDrid. But Arnott wants to move beyond such games to create what he calls video dreams. He is part of the team behind , which he describes as a meditative trance experience. Players strap on the Oculus Rift and headphones, and sing a note. The game listens to your voice and sings back to you, shaping sounds and visuals in harmony.
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Without full immersion, the game probably wouldn鈥檛 work. But players trying the demo at the in Los Angeles reported getting lost in the kaleidoscopic visuals and forgetting where they were. 鈥淵ou get into a trance, it鈥檚 very trippy,鈥 says one.
Instead of looking at a screen and hearing sounds from external speakers, the VR headset shuts out all visual distractions and pushes the player into the virtual world. 鈥淲e can make these abstract, unreal environments feel real,鈥 says Arnott.
Other Oculus Rift games on show at E3 included If A Tree Screams In A Forest, in which players try to survive a short walk in the woods; Irrational Exuberance, described as a mix of stargazing and structure-building in a playground at the edge of reality, and Homework From Another World, a game about extraterrestrials and high school.
鈥淚鈥檓 fascinated by the concept of lucid dreaming,鈥 says Los Angeles-based game developer . His E3 game was called , in which the user moves from a realistic sequence playing the role of a pianist getting ready for a performance to a surreal environment of vast, illogical spaces with a soundtrack that adapts to your actions. 鈥淲hen you take off the headset at the end of the play session, it鈥檚 as though you are waking up from a crazy dream,鈥 he says.
鈥淲hen you take off the headset, it鈥檚 as though you are waking up from a crazy dream鈥
Arnott hopes the Oculus Rift will encourage people to make non-violent games that are more about exploring a new environment than completing levels. But more shocking experiences are certain to prove popular. For example, another early game made for the device is a , while a firm called Sinful Robot is working on 鈥渋mmersive erotic encounters鈥.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢ind-bending games let you live your dreams鈥
