Raising a Rukus, a virtual reality (VR) experience that debuted at the flagship IMAX VR Centre in Los Angeles this month has now been made available for Samsung Gear VR.
Created by The Virtual Reality Company, Raising a Rukus is an animated magical adventures with twins Amy and Jonas and their mischievous pet dog, Rukus. Produced by two-time Academy Award winner and co-founder of VRC, Robert Stromberg, the experience transports viewers into a prehistoric world, as they chase Rukus with skeletal versions of dinosaurs appearing, braving a raging river, to discover it was all part of Rukus’ magical plan.
“The vision for the Rukus franchise is to create stories built around universal themes and relatable truths that not only educate and entertain, we want audiences to connect emotionally with these endearing characters, and learn and take something away from their stories,” said Stromberg in a statement. “We are in the early days of unlocking the power of this new medium. It’s similar to my time working on Avatar, VRC is in a constant state of invention and innovation, testing and pushing the artistic, storytelling and technical potential of VR.”
The experience isn’t just a film you watch as it uses branching narratives that viewers can choose. Each character can be followed on their unique path through the adventure by merely gazing in the direction of Jonas or Amy at a particular point in the story.
“VRC set a milestone in VR on our work with ‘The Martian VR Experience‘ for 20th Century Fox Innovation Lab,” said Guy Primus, CEO and Co-Founder of VRC. “‘Raising a Rukus‘ sets several new milestones in VR production: location-based experiences through the cinematic release with IMAX for its IMAX VR centres, and now on mobile making it available on the Oculus Store for Samsung Gear VR.”
Raising a Rukus can be downloaded from the Oculus Store for $3.99 USD. VRFocus will continue its coverage of The Virtual Reality Company, reporting back with its latest projects.