We’ll be live in our VR broadcast studio today with Hrafn Thorisson, the head of Aldin Dynamics, to discuss five years of VR development with Waltz of the Wizard and building toward Natural Magic.
The huge update for the game released this week on Oculus Quest and Steam and, with it, came a price increase to $19.99 reflecting the title’s scope and ambition.
First released as one of the earliest free VR demos on Steam in May 2016, Waltz of the Wizard emerged as magic-infused playground that’s reminiscent of Disney’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The developers have been building on this foundation for half a decade now while exploring precisely how they can make a player feel like a witch or wizard. First the game expanded to become the Extended Edition and, on Quest, it became one of the few titles that supported hand tracking throughout the entire game. Now, the title is known as Waltz of the Wizard: Natural Magic and while it doesn’t support hand tracking yet in the new areas, it seems pretty clear that the developers are aiming for a future where magic is real in virtual reality and you can control it with your bare hands. In this latest update you carry in your hands the ability to summon magical energy with a simple fist-clenching gesture and then propel it out into the world where you can direct its flight toward enemies, like you are Harry Potter or Wanda Maximoff. You can also put the magic in your mouth and yell out into the world with a kind of sonic scream of sorts.
We’ll be live at 1 pm Pacific time today in our virtual studio at the video linked below with Thorisson exploring what you can do with these new magical tools and what’s next for one of VR’s longest-developed titles.
