Update (8/15/17): The Kickstarter page for RoVR with a goal of $30,000 and deadline of 9/15/17 is now live! We’ve also updated the top of this article with the announcement trailer as well.
Original (7/27/17): I am the proud owner of a magnificent Pembroke Welsh Corgi. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably knew that already. I never really had pets growing up because I was (and still am) horribly allergic to cats and used to be just as allergic to dogs. Luckily, the latter affliction has passed and now I enjoy the companionship of Earth’s greatest animal every single day. But not everyone can be that lucky, which is where RoVR comes into play.
RoVR is a VR pet simulator much in the same vein as Nintendogs on the Nintendo DS, Hey You, Pikachu! back on the Nintendo 64, or even the old pocket-sized Tamagotchi devices that every 90s kid had at some point. Like this Buzz Lightyear-themed one I used to carry around with me everywhere that I went.
This little VR doggo, RoVR, that you can see in action up above is created by Ridgeline Labs (a company that’s part of the MIT Accelerator Play Labs) but is not to be confused with the Wizdish ROVR locomotion device of the same, although slightly different, name.
“In our game, players can play with, raise, and build an emotionally significant connection with a VR dog,” writes Henry Zhou, CEO of Ridgeline Labs, in an email to UploadVR. “Players can do many things in RoVR such as feeding, playing with, going on walks with, and competing in competitions with their VR dog – things that players could expect to do if they owned a real dog!”
To be fair, this isn’t the first VR pet game we’ve seen. There is of course Konrad the Kitten, Fantasy Pets, and My Own Pet, among others. But RoVR certainly seems to be the most feature-rich, polished, and charming of the bunch that we’ve seen. But I could be biased since the little pupper resembles a corgi. That’s the real key to my heart.
[gfycat data_id=”SparseSlushyFox”]
We don’t know much else about RoVR yet, but Zhou tells us Ridgeline is aiming to start a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the game’s development within a month from now. For more on the game make sure to follow Ridgeline Labs on Twitter.
