As the software ecosystem grows, developers are starting to find a balance that allows them to create solid multiplayer experiences on VR platforms. The community is welcoming massive amounts of VR players, but the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) genre hasn’t really found a solid foothold just yet. Enter OrbusVR, the Kickstarter project looking to bring room scale combat, exploration, and crafting in VR MMO format.
You can see the trailer for it below, featuring a simple visual style and action-packed gameplay.
At the time this article was written, OrbusVR has accrued a funding amount of $23,997 on a goal of $10,000. Though this may seem meager by the standards set by other well known successful games funded on the crowd-funding platform, OrbusVR is no less ambitious with its plans. The gameplay teaser shows huge groups of players fighting in fields utilizing medieval fantasy weapons, exploring caves, teaming up against large boss characters, and even some fishing— the minigame that absolutely no MMO should ever go without.
“The support of this game by the growing community of VR enthusiasts continues to surpass our expectations at every turn,” says lead programmer Riley Dutton in a press release for the project. Dutton is also the Founder of Ad Alternum, the dev team making the game.
The game is adopting a low poly style that could be endearing to fans or a turn-off but, considering it was fully funded plus some, there are clearly fans interested in the project. The game is also not just in conceptual stages. The footage in the trailer is collected from 3 play tests in which 1500 players have played and things look to be quite functional from what we see.
“Our Stretch Goals represent things that we want to do in the game eventually, but didn’t have the resources to commit to doing before launch,” said Robert Dutton, Level Designer. “We’ve intentionally kept the scope of the project reasonable so we can meet our deadlines, but with the extra help from the community, we can do more than we originally planned, which is great.”
OrbusVR is slated to be released on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The Kickstarter is ongoing until March 13th and, while early bird funding bundles are taken, there are still many contributor awards available such as closed Beta and closed Alpha access.
