People keep thinking up ingeniuous worlds to explore in the Oculus Rift. As more and more desigeners get their hands on the dev kids we're seeing more and more unique experiences, although typically it's all places we're familiar with. We've been able to explore the original The Legend of Zelda, for example, or Metroid Prime.
This weekend lucky SXSW attendees were able to play the Ascend the Wall game (ride?) at the "Game of Thrones" exhibition in the Austin City Music Hall. The game was designed by Framestore, a visual-effects company, and is set up to make you feel like you're a member of the Night's Watch. You walk into a bank of booths which are dressed up like the elevator that brings soldiers of the Night's Watch from courtyard of Castle Black 700 feet into the air to the top of The Wall. Unlike the usual Oculus Rift experiences, this incorporates outside elements to better immerse you in the experience, which is why they called it a "4D experience".
The floor and walls of the booths were equipped with rumble packs that made it feel like the elevator was shaking and moving, as well as a set of air vents that flicked on to howl cold wind at players. Visitors stated that it was hard not to instinctively move back as the elevator comes to the top and you see the full view of the expanse below, despite knowing perfectly well that you're standing in Austin.
The reactions of people in this Forbes video are priceless. It's just another example of how inventive game developers are getting with the Oculus Rift.
A project that led to more joy than fear was a recent demo of Jerry Seinfeld's Apartment from "Seinfeld". This comes from graphic designer Gregory W. Miller, who purchased the developer's version of the Oculus Rift and tried to do a simple project to familiarize himself with it. Why not with recreating one of the best-known sitcom apartments of all time?
His attention to detail is pretty incredible- the shelves are full of breakast cereal, Jerry's got his shelf and Superman figures and even his bike hanging on the wall. Unlike Ascend the Wall this demo is fully available to download for anyone who owns the Oculus Rift- check out what it looks like below and get excited to see what these amazing designers keep thinking up next.
