Realiteer, a virtual reality company with a unique control mechanism, has released its first educational game, Wizard Academy for iOS and Android devices.
I’m mentioning it here because it has a couple of game play mechanics I haven’t seen before, that could be useful for other developers.
Walk-in place locomotion
Most virtual reality games I’ve seen handle movement either by teleporting players from place to place when they look at or otherwise activate a destination spot or arrow, or by activating a movement option and then moving in the direction they’re looking. For example, some games have a “move” button on the floor under the player’s feet that they activate by looking down at it.
This particular game track movement by having the player physically walk in place. The downside is that you wind up having to stand up to play the game, which can cause problems if you have, say, pets walking around trying to trip you.
But if you’re alone, and the area around you is clear, it’s a nice mechanism.
I didn’t play the game long enough, however, to see whether it causes motion sickness if you’re walking in place while your avatar is walking forward.
Funky controller
Many games use Bluetooth controllers as clickers, but the controllers are expensive, and don’t have built-in positioning — the game doesn’t known where the controller is pointed.
This game has you print out a page of graphics, glue it to a piece of cardboard, then cut it into a controller shape. Then you hold it out in front of yourself and point it in the direction you want to point your in-world gun.
It does require a headset that doesn’t block your your smartphone camera.
It’s an interesting approach that’s worth playing around with, though I wasn’t particularly impressed with the game itself.
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