The magic of VR

A few weeks back I was lucky enough to attend Steam Dev Days 2016. I was looking forward to learning all sorts of new lessons about launching a 2D indie game on Steam.

The keynote presentation spent a lot of time talking about Valve's Vive hardware. It was very obvious that Valve was all-in when it came to VR. I had tried out the Oculus before. It's pretty amazing, but it never really gripped me. My years as a game dev have made me into a skeptic when it comes to new tech. I have heard enough times how device X will "change the world!". And, so I had pretty much dismissed the Vive outright. I skipped all the panels about VR. I didn't bother looking at the Vive demo stations. I spent all my time at Dev Days focusing on my 2D game adventures. Dev Days had come to a close. I had enjoyed the after party, and was getting ready to head home when someone convinced me to try out one of the Vive demo stations.

It only took 10 seconds before I was converted.

The Vive's sensors and controllers give you a physical presence in the VR world that I hadn't experienced before. No longer was I just looking around. Now I was actually there in the world. I could walk around. I could pick things up. It was 100% mentally teleported to this new world.

2 days later I found myself upgrading my work PC, purchasing a Vive system, and starting out on my new adventure.

I am now making a VR game :)