Hungry for the next episode of The Gallery? So are we, and this week we’ve found out a bit more about it.
According to a blog update from developer Cloudhead Games, the second instalment in the VR adventure videogame series is now entering pre-production and is to be called Heart of the Emberstone. While Cloudhead Games didn’t reveal any more information here, an update to the first episode, Call of the Starseed, reveals that it will feature an “optional system” for height change within VR. “Call of the Starseed took you down the rabbit hole,” the team teased. “Heart of the Emberstone will show you just how deep it goes…”
For those that don’t know, The Gallery is a first-person adventure series that launched alongside the HTC Vive back in April. Players set out to find their twin sister, Elsie, on a journey that will take them to fantastical lands to meet weird and wonderful characters. On Vive the experience makes full use of Room-Scale tracking, allowing players to pick up objects and use them as you would in real life. Our own David Jagneaux absolutely adored it, labelling it an “awe inspiring mystery” in his 9/10 review.
There are some improvements we’d like to see in the second episode, though, mainly to do with length. We’re also looking forward to the upcoming ports for the first episode; Oculus Rift compatibility should arrive once the Oculus Touch controllers are released and there are also plans to bring the game to PlayStation VR. While both of these versions will be able to support hand-tracking, Cloudhead Games has some interesting challenges ahead of it when it comes to bringing a Room-Scale experience to platforms that don’t support the tech.
As for when we’ll see Heart of the Emberstone? Expect it to be a little ways off; Cloudhead has previously said that it’s aiming for a six month gap between episode releases. That would pit launch at around October time, with episodes 3 and 4 following in April 2017 and October 2017 respectively. Hopefully the developer can stick to that schedule.
