Arizona Sunshine developer Vertigo Games announced today that Skyworld, a top-down strategy game built for VR is coming to the Vive, Rift, and Windows VR headsets. The game was shown way back in 2015 as one of the first demos made for the HTC Vive, and it’s now finally resurfacing this Fall.
It was back at GDC 2015 when Valve revealed their (at the time) crazy new VR headset, the Vive. It was the first consumer VR headset to introduce motion controllers and a ‘room-scale’ tracking area, a huge step forward in immersion compared to what was seen before.
Prior to the Vive’s reveal, Valve collaborated with a number of indie developers to create the first set of VR demos that would be shown at the Vive’s GDC unveiling. It was there that now classic demos (and some future titles) like Aperture Science Robot Repair, Dota 2 Secret Shop, theBlu, Job Simulator, Google Earth VR, and more, were first shown.
Among that early batch was a demo called Skyworld, which presented players with a fantasy diorama in polygon style atop a circular table. Players held a wand in one hand and a spell book in the other, and used the tools to direct miniature units to build buildings, collect resources, and defend territory. It was an intriguing look at how a strategy game could be developed for a VR system with motion controllers.
Despite its promising presentation, the demo slid into the shadows as developer Vertigo Games would go on to focus their energy on the now well known VR zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine (2016). Now Skyworld has finally resurfaced and is set to launch this Fall.
Vertigo Games in collaboration with Wolfdog Games announced today that Skyworld is coming to the Vive, Rift, and Windows VR headsets. The game’s Steam page describes it as a “turned-based strategy and management” game, and also lists cross-platform multiplayer functionality (it isn’t clear if that means between different VR headsets all running the Steam version of the game, or between Steam, Oculus, and Windows VR platforms; we’ve reached out to clarify. Update: Vertigo Games confirms that Skyworld multiplayer will function across all three VR store platforms.):
Step into intricately animated fantasy worlds where you are king and watch your battle maps come to life around you. Skyworld reinvents classic strategy gameplay for VR without compromising on gameplay depth by using intuitive VR controls and providing player feedback right on the VR battlefield. Built in gaming sessions optimal for VR, conquer and reunite all Skyworlds in the full-size campaign and challenge friend or foe in online cross-platform multiplayer mode.
Accessible Gameplay
Innovates traditional UIs with intuitive VR controls and in-world feedbackHighly Interactable Fantasy Worlds
Puts highly interactable, animated fantasy worlds at your command, which you influence with every decision you makeFull-feature VR game.
Offers a story-based single player campaign, skirmish mode and online cross-platform multiplayerReinvents Classic Strategy Gameplay for VR
Combines accessible, turn-based strategy and management gameplay with fast-paced real-time tactical battles
The studio is only teasing the game for now, with recent gameplay footage not yet revealed, however a very old (two years) teaser trailer for the game was shown back during the Vive reveal, and gives an idea of the game’s style and a bit of gameplay, though you can see from screenshots (above) that it’s evolved quite a bit since then: