Here’s the best news we’ve heard in a while: it sounds like the makers of Superhot VR are working on a new experience for headsets.
Development lead Piotr Iwanicki seemed to confirm as much in a recent interview with Destructoid. Speaking about the chances of a sequel to not just the smash hit VR shooter, but the entire series as a whole, the developer spoke about the importance of making something that represented a “proper evolution”.
“This is something that really didn’t click in Superhot VR because the animations were all made for a 2D game and it was kind of hacked together to be a VR game,” Iwanicki said. “It’s a hack, it’s not like an animation system that was designed from the ground up. There’s some legacy from the flat-screen version. What we’re developing now is making an even more core VR experience.”
Well, that last bit certainly comes as a surprise. It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a brand new game on the way, but it definitely seems like there’s more to come. Could we see a new Superhot VR experience that starts from the ground up, without any DNA from the older entries? When asked if VR was integral to the team right now, Iwanicki also noted that it was a “huge part” of his work, though the studio as a whole as “branching out” too.
We’ve reached out to the Superhot team to ask if it is indeed working on a new VR game.
Superhot VR is arguably still the best first-person shooter (FPS) in VR, tasking players with wiping out rooms filled with enemies without being hit. The catch is that time moves only when the player does; if they hold still then bullets will pause in mid-air, giving you time to contemplate your next move. This unique mix of physical movement and strategy made Superhot VR something that really came to life inside headsets.
Elsewhere, Iwanicki spoke a bit about the complexity of VR, and his interest in the standalone headset category. “More devices are coming,” he said. “I’m especially fond of all the ideas for standalone devices. You just buy one thing and it works. That’s an interesting product. So we need a standalone device with hand controllers and room-scale tracking.”
Superhot on Santa Cruz, anyone?
