Remember Waltz of the Wizard? It was a free VR experience that launches around the same time as the HTC Vive. Developer Aldin built a magical showcase of room scale and hand-tracked VR. Now, with the Vive semi-succeeded by the Valve Index, developer Aldin Dynamics is doing a remaster.
Waltz of the Wizard: Extended Edition is due out on July 10 and adds full support for the Index controllers. Not only that, but this edition adds brand new spells and interactive objects. It’s also had a visual tune-up and some performances improvements to bring it in line with 2019 standards. You can see them in the below footage, which focuses on the finger tracking afforded by the Index Controllers. Pure magic, we say!
Like a lot of Aldin’s work, this is very much a showcase rather than a full ‘game’, but its digital playgrounds have always been a treat to explore. Here you can try out different spells, resizing objects and firing fireworks from your hands. It’s a great way to test the limits of current VR technology.
With all the new additions, the Extended Edition won’t be free. It will cost $9.99, though Aldin is planning a heavy launch window discount of 40% (so about $6). This version of the app will still support other headsets like Rift, Vive and Windows VR, but obviously won’t include the finger tracking there.
Elsewhere Aldin has its VR tracking tool, Ghostline, to maintain. We’re not sure we’ll see any truly ‘new’ experiences from the developer in the future but we sure hope we will.
