Pixel Ripped 1989, a new VR game for PSVR, Oculus, and Vive, is among the cleverest virtual reality titles I've ever come across. Rather than simulate a fantastic new virtual world, the game simulates the experience of being in virtual worlds you've experienced as a child. Specifically, Pixel Ripped simulates playing classic videogames from the 80s -- a virtual reality game, in other worlds, about experiencing games. Lead designed by Ana Ribeiro, the idea for Pixel Ripped sprung out of her own childhood back then, when she fought with her three brothers for playtime on the family console:
"Marketing for video games was very much focused on boys and I was the only girl fighting amongst them to have some playing time when they weren’t using it," she remembers. "Afterwards we got a Nintendo 64 and played together a lot; as always I enjoyed those precious moments so much, so I’ve always kept a very vivid memory of how gaming was back then." Also the just as vivid memory of not being able to play, when you wanted to play much, but couldn't: "During my childhood it was hard to get time to play and only play. Always had to do something else or had a limited time before my brothers came back from school, or my parents called me to help with some errands!"
Recreating that experience -- that moment when we first encounter virtual worlds we can be immersed inside, and change the experience through our play choices -- has had a profound experience on early players and playtesters.
"Once, a guy took off the Rift and started crying his eyes out, telling me that he had been ready to give up on games entirely," Ana recalls. Playing her game, however, "had rekindled what he liked and remembered about games from his youth." Reactions like that helped her and the team keep going through long sessions of coding and debugging.
As you might have guessed (and as the trailer above suggests), the games played within the game will infect the "real world":
"There will be moments," as Ana puts it, "when the video game characters you are controlling actually jump out of the handheld console and use the real world as a scenario, creating kind of a hybrid world made of pixel and 3D objects around you. The player uses a look-based mechanic still underused in VR, that along with controlling the handheld game within a game feels natural, as players strive to address challenges in multiple realities (the classroom, the handheld game)."
To put it another way, Pixel Ripped has two levels of virtual reality that interact with each other: "You have the most common VR world-type of immersion," says Ana, "but also you get to be inside the handheld game you are playing itself, changing that retro game reality from within, as a player with your old-school pixelated 'magic' gamepad."
Much more about the game here. It's been generating quite a lot of buzz, and I have a feeling it could be among the few big indie hits in the VR market. As the success of Beat Saber suggests, most of us hunger less for new worlds to escape into, than retro experiences we cherish, recreated in a new context.
Hat tip: Jazmin Cano.
WOW! @pixelripped is awesome 🙌🏽. There's no other game like it! Reminds me of being back in school playing my game boy color on the yard. I even had a cassette player with me like I do here 😆. I love this so much! Thank you for this wonderful #VR game @Anagamedev & team 💖 pic.twitter.com/gKJ49kqrOn
— Jazmin Cano @ SIGGRAPH (@JC_3D) August 7, 2018
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