Remember Pilotwings? You know, the Super Nintendo flight game that had you soaring around in airplanes maneuvering through rings and obstacles? Well, the team at Bit Planet Games remember Pilotwings and took some inspiration from the Nintendo classic, as well as a surreal dream one of the creators had, when designing their upcoming open world flight game for Oculus Touch, Ultrawings.
“The original idea behind the game came some 25 years ago when I had a dream that I was flying an Ultralight over an ocean,” writes Chris Stockman on the Bit Planet Games blog. “I can vividly remember the wind and mist hitting my face as I came in for a landing on top of an aircraft carrier. The dream was so real that I was actually disappointed when I woke up and quickly realized I was in my bed! Fast forward to almost a year ago and this dream popped up when we were thinking about ideas for VR games. And now here we are today a very unique flying game that is unlike anything you’ve played before.”
One of the biggest themes you’ll see in Ultrawings is the concept of freedom. This isn’t a level-based experience with a handful of trials or missions to complete, but is instead being designed as a fully open-world game. While you will be tasked with flying a variety of hobbyist aircrafts to explore and complete challenges across tons of scattered islands, you’ll do so in a much more organic and empowering way than most other flight games.
“Challenges include flying through score rings, popping balloons using a dart gun, performing hot spot landings around each island, taking pictures of island landmarks using the interactive cockpit tablet, etc.,” explained Stockman in an email conversation with UploadVR. “The core loop is basically complete challenges to earn money and money buys you new islands / aircraft.”
You can see in the trailer above that, by using motion controllers, you’ll actually interact with the various parts of your plane, from adjusting settings and levers, to taking control of joysticks inside the cockpit. Those small types of minor interactions go a long way towards selling your mind on the presence of a virtual environment.
There aren’t many other details for Ultrawings at this time, but you can expect to learn more over the coming weeks. Ultrawings is currently in development for release on Oculus Touch and will be on display at VRLA later this week. When asked about platforms other than Oculus Touch, Stockman declined to comment at this time.
