Having created the rather good murder mystery experience Invisible Hours in 2017, virtual reality (VR) developer Tequila Works has recently announced its next project which is due for release later this year, a sequel to classic 90’s comedy Groundhog Day.
Called Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, the videogame doesn’t feature comedy legend Bill Murray as TV weatherman Phil Connors, instead, you’ll play as his son, Phil Connors Jr. who is naturally caught in his own time loop, repeating a single day over and over again.
The story twist where Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son is concerned is that Phil Jr. trapped back home in Punxsutawney, the small town from the film, and one which Connors thought he had escaped. So he’s now reliving the worst day of his life until he learns the true value of friends and family.
The title isn’t just one story, however, with Tequila Works expanding on the intertwining narratives found in the Invisible Hours by giving the player greater control, allowing the story to diverge in multiple ways. “For this VR project, we wanted to go a step further by making the player an active, disruptive element in the story, giving them more narrative choices to have a key influence on the storyline,” explains Raul Rubio “Not only will the player have a much stronger sense of physical interactivity, but a deeper emotional connection to the non-playable characters.
The studio enlisted the help of James Siciliano of Rick and Morty and Joshua Rubin of Telltale Games to craft the story around the Groundhog Day world, whilst retaining the films dark humour.
Published by Sony Pictures Virtual Reality (SPVR), produced by SPVR and MWM Immersive, Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son will be released later this year for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Check out the first teaser trailer below, and for further updates as the launch nears keep reading VRFocus.