Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” has apparently been spending time with Valve’s new Index headset and the recently released Boneworks. Now he’s flirting with the idea of starting up a new VR game studio to revisit some game development ideas.
Recent tweets from Persson tell us that he’s been playing Boneworks with Valve’s new Index headset and having quite a bit of fun with it. Across a handful of tweets, he’s called the game “incredible” and “super immersive.”
An emergent moment born of the game’s dedication to physical simulation—where he nearly fell but used a hook-shaped tool to cling to a ledge at the last moment—led him call it “the greatest game of all time;” a bit of hyperbole, I’m sure, though it’s clear how much the interactivity in the game has wowed him.
“Boneworks is what really sold me on VR again. It was the first time I played through a game in VR like I do when I get really absorbed by a game,” he wrote in another tweet.
The experience has got Persson once again flirting with the idea of making his own VR games.
“All the things I want to try to make in VR keeps gravitating towards a game quite similar to what I was planning with 0x10c,” he tweeted on Monday. “[…] I’m going to need someone driven to help me start up a studio, but I’m afraid to ask anyone I know. So now my plan is to get hunted by dream.”
Whether or not Persson actually goes for it remains to be seen, but this is far from his first foray into VR.
0x10c was an ambitious sci-fi space and survival sandbox game project that Persson had been working on back in 2012, and after a demo of an early Oculus Rift prototype, he said he was “100% impressed and will make 0x10c compatible with it.” Unfortunately the game never came to fruition.
Even beyond 0x10c, Persson has been curious about VR since its inception. He supported the Oculus Kickstarter way back when to the tune of $10,000, and though he had some choice words when the company was sold to Facebook, he eventually claimed he was “officially over being upset” about the acquisition not long after. He even made a key introduction between Oculus and Minecraft studio Mojang (after he had sold the studio) which led to VR support being to Minecraft.
In 2016, Persson also experimented with building web-based VR experiences with a project called Unmandelboxing, a ‘fractal’ renderer that runs in the browser with WebVR support.
From his recent musings, it seems like its been a while since he took a good hard look at the state of VR, but his renewed interest could be the motivation that brings him back into the fold.