French indie developer Olivier JT is finally getting ready to release his long-awaited musical sci-fi experience for VR headsets, Synthesis Universe.
As a VR pioneer, Olivier JT has been working on Synthesis Universe as far back as 2012. Shortly after the success of the Oculus Kickstarter later that year, he decided that the only sensible development platform for the futuristic VR experience was the Oculus DK1. And so Synthesis Universe was born.
The experience has been demoed throughout a few of its earliest stages, having made its first public appearance at SVVR 2014. If you’ve been around VR long enough to remember Oculus Share, you might have run across a playable demo there too.
As a narrative-based VR experience, Synthesis Universe tells the story of a musical civilization through four key sequences. The full playtime is said to take 30 minutes, although there’s no max time limit to the experience.
Olivier JT calls it a “VR cinematic experience [and] a hybrid between traditional movie story telling, music video and game, all happening in real-time using Unreal Engine 4.”
Beyond that, the experience is basically a mystery.
There’s no word on exactly when it’s due to arrive; according to the experience’s website, it was slated to arrive in Summer 2019. Although we’ve passed the prospective launch window, now Olivier JT says the full experience will launch on Steam sometime soon.
Synthesis Universe is said to be currently under review as a release candidate for the Oculus Store as well. Olivier JT is also eyeing PSVR support.
In the meantime, you can wishlist the experience on Steam here.
