Oddball hope to revive VR
Creeping and crouching your way through a cartoon world, exchanging ‘‘fart gun’’ fire with your mates who are firing back as giant pandas is surreal entertainment.
But if you have grown out of ‘‘laser strike’’ and don’t fancy the discomfort of paintball, Oddball may be the experience you are looking for.
The virtual reality game has been developed by Wellington company Beyond Fun Studio.
Until the end of February it can be played at a ‘‘pop-up’’ venue at its headquarters, near the Basin Reserve, at an ‘‘introductory price’’ of $10 per player for two games.
The 11-metre-square game room is nondescript. But don the goggles, and players are immersed in a series of colourful cartoon sets interconnected by ‘‘doorways’’ that provide the feeling of walking through a much larger game area.
‘‘We have created something that we call ‘stretch space’ which makes smaller spaces feel vast using portals that link you between zones,’’ chief executive Jessica Manins explains.
Beyond Fun has big ambitions in the real world, and hopes to establish a global franchise of 100 venues for Oddball and other VR games, in New Zealand and around the world, within the next two years.
Licensees had been found for a permanent venue in Wellington that will open at the end of January and another in Los Angeles that would also open next year, Manins said.
Oddball relies on advances in the Occulus Quest VR headset that enable players to move around a computer-rendered set while untethered by cables.
The location of other players and both ‘‘virtual’’ and real obstacles in the game area are tracked by cameras in each headset and viewable to each player in VR, to avoid collisions.
Wellington software engineer Krunal Bodiwala, who agreed to trial Oddball for Stuff as his first VR gaming experience, said the game was impressive.
‘‘It feels quite natural. It was much better than I expected – something I would enjoy, and something I didn’t know I would until I tried it.’’
Co-worker Catherine Capellen said she often experienced motion sickness in buses and cars but had no ill-effects from Oddball.
Rhys Davis, a more practised VR gamer, said the experience was hard to describe and he enjoyed the ability to ‘‘move around without feeling you were about to hit a wall’’.
Manins said new features would be added to Oddball next week, including in-game announcements that would help players keep track of individual and team performances, and clearer indications of when players had been hit.
‘‘The game itself is about having fun – non-violent joy for gamers aged 8 plus, no zombies or blood.’’
Beyond Fun has received seed funding from investors and a grant from Callaghan Innovation.
The company intends to seek about $5 million from a venture capital funding round within about the next six months.