Indie virtual reality (VR) developer Metanaut launched its puzzle title Gadgeteer back in April on Steam Early Access, supporting headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Recently, the team took to Reddit for community feedback, revealing that an Oculus Quest version is also in the works.
The Reddit post pertained to improving sales of Gadgeteer and when asked about an Oculus Quest version the studio responded: “It’s coming out in just a few months!” Then in a later response regarding an Oculus Quest port, the launch window became a little more specific: “It’s coming out by the end of the year :)”
Offering a mix of physics-based puzzle challenges as well as the complete freedom to build whatever you want with the myriad building materials available, Gadgeteer is all about creating chain reaction machines. A single-player experience, Gadgeteer has a 60 puzzle campaign which also interweaves a narrative surrounding the disappearance of a brilliant but mad scientist and her daughter. Set inside an apartment the campaign is a great way to understand the basics of Gadgeteer’s gameplay before taking on the heady task of creating your own elaborate Rube Goldberg machine.
When it comes to building your own, three tool heads help to create, edit and destroy creations. The sandbox mode has over 50 objects in the inventory to play with, allowing for near-infinite combination possibilities.
Since that initial release, Metanaut has added plenty of improvements to Gadgeteer such as player profiles so multiple people can use the same PC, MixCast support and support for more languages: French, Danish, Japanese, German, Chinese (Simplified/Traditional), Korean, Spanish and Russian.
VRFocus really enjoyed the title, saying in the preview that: “This isn’t a videogame for those who don’t have the patience and time. It’s for those that do. And if that sounds like you then Gadgeteer is well worth a look. Plus, Gadgeteer could be on track to be one of the best VR puzzle titles in 2019.”
Available through Steam Early Access for £11.39, if you’re only interested in fully released VR experiences then Metanaut does expect to leave Early Access sometime in Q1 2020. As further details regarding the Oculus Quest version are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.