Read more: "Dreams on demand: Virtual reality finally delivers"
DON'T 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. "Right now we're on the precipice of a new wave of video games," says Robin Arnott, a sound designer based in Austin, Texas. "The Rift is such a gift for us."
Around 75 existing games are being adapted to work with the goggles, including classic first-person shooters like Half-Life 2 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 SoundSelf , 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.
Without full immersion, the game probably wouldn't work. But players trying the demo at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles reported getting lost in the kaleidoscopic visuals and forgetting where they were. "You get into a trance, it's very trippy," 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. "We can make these abstract, unreal environments feel real," 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.
"I'm fascinated by the concept of lucid dreaming," says Los Angeles-based game developer Julian Kantor. His E3 game was called The Recital , 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. "When you take off the headset at the end of the play session, it's as though you are waking up from a crazy dream," he says.
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 guillotine simulator, while a firm called Sinful Robot is working on "immersive erotic encounters".
This article appeared in print under the headline "Mind-bending games let you live your dreams"
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