In a brief announcement made via the /r/oculus subreddit, developer Justin Moravetz says that the once troubled Oculus Rift project Proton Pulse will finally be released in full on the new Samsung Gear VR headset.
Proton Pulse is Back
Those who have followed the Oculus Rift story and the software that accompanies it will almost certainly know about Proton Pulse. It was an early demo for the DK1 which neatly solved one of VR’s most potent problems, how to control anything in VR, by simply doing away with all conventional controls. It was a modern, VR reinvention of the classic bat and ball video game which those old enough will doubtless will recall – and the only input required was the player’s gaze.
Proton Pulse was an elegant game, both in design and realisation. Its bright neon aesthetics were great for busting through the DK1’s lacklustre panel’s limitations and you could play it entirely intuitively, with no prior knowledge of gaming at all. It was a game primed for success as the community critical reaction was almost universally positive, including a very early review by me (see video above). It was an early example of VR software crowd funding success.
Unfortunately the project ran into legal difficulties, which you can read more about here, that ultimately forced Justin to shelve the project – at least publicly. In a recent podcast with our very own Reverend Kyle however, Moravetz alluded that Proton Pulse was very much alive and well and soon to see the light of day once again.
It seems the project was in fact quietly being ported to Samsung’s new VR platform Gear VR and, actually it seems like a perfect fit. Justin was short on words in his post, but you can see that finally getting to release this product was a joyous event for him:
The full version of Proton Pulse will be released for the first time ever at the launch of the Gear VR.
Over 50 levels of VR brick breaking action, 5 boss fights, Cinematic experiences
music by: Justin Moravetz [Rave-TZ] Jake Kaufman [Virt] Dan Behrens [Danimal Cannon]
And more emotively:
I’m excited to finally release the full game. It’s been a long time coming.
We can’t wait to finally be reunited with Proton Pulse on this new hardware platform. We’ll let you know as and when we learn more details.