VRFocus speaks to co-founder Samantha Gorman of Tender Claws, the indie team behind the comedy satire virtual reality (VR) experience Virtual Virtual Reality. It’s a commentary on the VR experience as a whole and is available on the Google Daydream store right now. All you need is a compatible phone and controller to enjoy it.
This three hour game was made for the Google Daydream and was released in March 2017 winning the Google Play Award as best VR experience. Tender Claws were also behind the interactive novel and game PRY, which was selective as the top apps of the year. Samantha’s experience in the interactive field of VR in 2002. Virtual Virtual Reality is therefore a culmination of Sarah’s eight year experience in VR. She tells VRFocus that she is both an optimist and cautious critic. “We need to be careful about hype and how we need to develop for long form content that is meaningful in the form of VR right now.”
VRFocus‘ Nina Salomons asked what the best tip Samantha could give for artists and writers, “One of the things I see is the danger of thinking that you can make something in 2D or think of a game or even a screenplay and import into VR I think you really need to think about what the medium can do, and design for the space and think about the user experience in VR and what it does best accordingly.”
The game will also be available on Google’s new stand alone headset as well as other platforms at the start of 2018. Samantha says that Tender Claws is working on two other VR projects, with one of them being the spiritual successor of Virtual Virtual Reality, whilst the other project would combine video and CG to create suspense. Watch the video below to find out more.