Dylan Fitterer is the maker of Audiosurf. He’s one of the first indie devs to really get significant success on Steam, back when the platform wasn’t littered with indie titles every day.
Today he’s got a new game. It’s called Audioshield. It’s a virtual reality game. And it might just be the way forward for rhythm games in a VR world.
If you’ve played Audiosurf, you’ll be familiar with a lot of the elements. You’re standing on what looks like a track. There are streams of alternating colours. You’ve got two shields (one for each controller) and you have to block the music in time with the beat.
It’s easier to see in action than it is to describe, mind you, so check out the video.
Having played a semi-reasonable chunk of Guitar Hero Live, as well as previous Guitar Hero/Rock Band games in the past, it’s difficult not to see the future of the major rhythm games going down this path.
Can you imagine selling this to people with PlayStation VR? You don’t need an additional controller, just the bits and bobs you’d already have to get VR going.
The extra fun part of this is the green screen used for the trailer. According to the video description, it’s a technique by the makers of Fantastic Contraption who is also making a game for the HTC Vive.
Audioshield is due out next month to coincide with the release of the HTC Vive. As for rhythm games going forward, I’m betting we’ll see something for PlayStation VR or even Gear VR before too long.
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5 responses to “Rhythm Games Are Meant For VR”
And by the end, he knew Kung Fu.
This reminds me of the old(?) Para Para Paradise games which was like DDR except you used your arms and hands to interrupt beams arranged around you instead of jumping on arrow panels.
I’d love to see the green screen version of this with no audio. Just some dude with a headset and controllers punching the air randomly
I dunno about the future of all rhythm games being VR.
I mean one of the main drawcards of games like Rock Band is it’s a party game. I don’t foresee 4 players all wearing VR headsets while playing it.
pfft, people with friends are just people who can’t afford vr
Exactly. Why have friends when VR can create myself a room full of thousands of copies of me, all talking about me and how wonderful it is to be me while giving me pats on the back as I tell everyone else on the internet how awful and pathetic their existence is for not being me. It’s like Being John Malkovich but with more e-peen.
Rhythm games like Audiosurf could work well on any VR system with accurate hand trackers, which is currently the Vive but could include Playstation VR (with the Move wands) or the Oculus Rift (with its forthcoming Touch controllers) . But they’re unlikely to ever get far on GearVR without hand tracking.