Eye of the Temple – Page 2 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

January 4, 2021

Room-scale Puzzle ‘Eye of the Temple’ Aiming for Spring 2021 Release on PC VR Headsets

Eye of the Temple is an upcoming room-scale puzzle game that basically turns you into Indiana Jones—torch, hat, and bullwhip included. Now developer Rune Skovbo Johansen says the full game is aiming to release on SteamVR headsets sometime this spring.

Until recently, Rune Skovbo Johansen worked at Unity as a senior software engineer, working on Eye of the Temple as an indie developer in his spare time. Although originally hoping to release in 2020, since leaving his position at Unity’s Copenhagen, Denmark offices Johansen says in a tweet that he’ll have more time now to focus on getting the game out.

We went hands-on with the Eye of the Temple’s demo back shortly after it was released on Steam in August, and we were really impressed with what we saw. The demo hosts a vast temple complex where you dodge and duck your way through perilous traps and genuinely head-scratching puzzles.

In the impressively large demo (it took us 45 minutes to complete), you use your bullwhip to grab out-of-reach levers, which control everything from moving platforms to giant stone puzzles. The level design is extremely dense too, so much so it feels like standing inside of manual watch.

One of the most unique features of the game is the room-scale based locomotion style. You move through the game primarily though moving platforms, which sometimes are simple stone pavers that navigate above death pits, and other times on rotating stone cylinders, which require you to physically back up in your space so you can stay on top of them—sort of like a real-life log roll.

If the finished game is half as impressive as the demo, it’s clear we’re in for a room-scale treat the likes of which we haven’t seen since the early days on consumer VR. The demo is still available for free on Steam too, supporting SteamVR headsets including Valve Index, HTC Vive, Windows MR, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest via Link.

The post Room-scale Puzzle ‘Eye of the Temple’ Aiming for Spring 2021 Release on PC VR Headsets appeared first on Road to VR.

September 3, 2020

Hands-on: ‘Eye of the Temple’ is a Clever Room-scale Puzzler That Lets You Become Indiana Jones

Eye of the Temple is an upcoming VR game that takes full advantage of the room-scale abilities of your VR headset, letting you walk, dodge, and duck your way through a vast temple complex. You use your own two feet to make your way through, which really brings you closer to the feeling of truly being Indiana Jones. Oh, and there’s a torch and whip. And a hat.

The game’s ‘First Steps’ demo, which is available for free on Steam, offers a pretty generous amount of gameplay. It took me about 45 minutes to finish, of course with a few deaths and back-tracking to account for. There’s an almost overwhelming amount of extra things to do and pathways to explore, and that’s just the demo.

If the full game, which is said to arrive on PC VR headsets sometime in 2020, can manage to serve up the same level of wonderment in a bigger package, we may have a really interesting and well-realized game on our hands. Moreover, we’ll have one that really pushes the capabilities of room-scale locomotion.

If you’ve ever been to a large-scale VR attraction like The Void, the principle behind Eye of the Temple is essentially the same: even though you’re physically walking in a 2 m² area (20 ft²) in your house, you’re shuffled around the in-game world in such a way that you never leave your playing area. This is done in a number of clever ways.

Firstly, the game makes heavy use of moving blocks which are just big enough to stand on and transport you through the world. These can take you horizontally through the puzzle-like configuration of multiple blocks to reach specific goals, but also up and down to different levels within the game. It’s a good way of getting you to travel longer distances than you normally would with only so much space in your living room, office, or bedroom.

And believe me: you’ll need all the space you can get, lest you want to violently bump your desk, closet, or priceless Ming Dynasty-era vase.

The second method is even more clever, although it definitely felt the weirdest in terms of overall comfort. Rolling pillars are there to move you forward in game while you physically move backwards, as if you were trying to balance on a cartoon tree trunk spinning in water. This, in practice, lets you reset your standing position while moving forward in the game, although it really just felt like another cool skill-based trap to traverse.

I also saw a minecart track which wasn’t accessible in the demo, so you might consider that three really fun and engaging ways of moving around so far.

As for non-block based locomotion puzzles, the most difficult of which is a room with a very Indian Jones-themed ceiling drop, you’re also given a torch and bull whip, the latter of which unfurls automatically when you reach a far-away lever or other puzzle element. The whip will definitely take you a while to get used to; I flailed around and missed targets more than I care to admit.

Eye of the Temple Reminds You How Amazing Room-Scale VR Is, Demo Available Now

It sometimes feels like we’ve forgotten something about the magic of room-scale VR. The need to traverse bigger worlds has given way to the fine, if unconvincing means of smooth movement, but there’s real power in putting your own two feet in front of you.

Eye Of The Temple doesn’t forget that. In fact, it embraces it with open arms.

This long-in-development PC VR title from Danish solo developer Rune Skovbo Johansen finally has a free demo to try. And, in a strange way, it’s Indiana Jones antics are both a nostalgic trip back to the early days of PC VR and a potent reminder of the physicality that can really root you in the experience. Check out some of our demo gameplay below.

First things first: you need at least a 2mx2m meter space to play Eye Of The Temple. Even then, a little extra wouldn’t hurt to give you peace of mind when stepping across chasms. Inevitably, this will place a strict limitation on the number of people that can actually play the game, but the trade-off is necessary. You sheepishly side-step between moving platforms, flaming torch in one hand, whip in the other. Across the campaign, you’ll need to negotiate various obstacles as you progress through each environment, with evolving challenges and ideas (hopefully) keeping things fresh.

It’s an idea we’ve seen elsewhere, like in the excellent Tower series, but four years of development has left Eye Of The Temple polished and tactile. Some platforms, for example, are actually rolling blocks that you’ll need to walk backwards on to avoid falling off. It’s a brilliantly clever idea to keep you moving, making great use of the space around you.

I haven’t played the whole demo but even from about 30 minutes of playtime I was introduced to a steady flow of new ideas, like stone pillars obstructing moving platforms that I’d need to dodge. There’s also some light combat with the whip, which is a tough thing to master. I suppose with some authenticity in mind, it never quite does what you want it to do, though I spent longer that I’d like to admit trying to get it to wrap around levers.

At times I inevitably found myself getting tangled in wires and, naturally, longing for the freedom of Oculus Quest. Unofficial streaming from Virtual Desktop is obviously one way to go, if you can, but I’m holding out hope for a native port too. Johansen says he will investigate a port after full release, but doesn’t have any concrete plans at this time.

A throwback to those more limited days of VR accessibility, then, but in all the right ways. Eye Of The Temple can be dizzying and unnerving, but if you’ve got the space you should absolutely check the demo out. You can head over to Eye Of The Temple’s official Discord to request access to the demo via Steam.

The post Eye of the Temple Reminds You How Amazing Room-Scale VR Is, Demo Available Now appeared first on UploadVR.

November 8, 2019

Solve Adventure Puzzles In Upcoming VR Game Eye Of The Temple

Eye of the Temple is an Indiana Jones-esque VR game that sees you solve puzzles using just your physical body, a whip, and a torch – and frankly, what else would you need when exploring a treacherous ancient temple?

We originally covered the game when it was first unveiled early last year. The game is clearly lovingly inspired by classic adventures movies – even with the temple setting aside, your avatar uses a whip and a torch while also wearing a fedora… One might say it looks suspiciously like the previously mentioned 70s era adventure movie protagonist you might have heard of before.

But that’s not the main focus of the game – what makes Eye of the Temple unique is that you won’t need to use any controller buttons during the experience. It’s a roomscale experience that sees you “keep your balance as you step from one moving block to another, dodging traps and solving puzzles with your torch and whip in hand.” You won’t have to press any buttons at all, just use you hand and body movement, which should make it a super easy game for anyone to pick up if they have the space.

There will even be a speedrun mode for those who have mastered the game and want a bit more of a challenge as they keep their balance from block to block.

The game will launch at some point in 2020 on PC VR headsets, including Index, Rift, Vive, and Windows MR. There’s no word on Quest or PSVR versions of the game just yet. However, given that you don’t need to use any controller buttons, this game would be a perfect fit with the Quest’s upcoming hand tracking update in 2020.

Eye of the Temple is available to wishlist on Steam now, for a planned 2020 release.

The post Solve Adventure Puzzles In Upcoming VR Game Eye Of The Temple appeared first on UploadVR.

March 15, 2018

Eye Of The Temple Is A VR Game That Requires Room Scale Locomotion To Move Around

One of the most memorable VR experiences I’ve ever had occurred two years ago at GDC 2016. I was playing Unseen Diplomacy, a VR spy game, that required me to physically move through, crawl around, and explore my real world play space in its entirety. Because of the way the game adapted the map and funneled me in different directions, it always kept me moving without any need for boundaries or using any controllers at all.

Eye of the Temple, an upcoming Indiana Jones-inspired VR adventure game from developer Sanctum Dreams, is taking a similar concept and expanding it into a full game for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift in late 2018.

“In Eye of the Temple you explore a vast and treacherous temple using your own feet,” says Rune Skovbo Johansen, developer at Sanctum Games, in an email. “Keep your balance as you step from one moving block to another, dodging traps and solving puzzles with your torch and whip in hand.”

The teaser trailer above shows lite puzzle solving elements using a whip, plenty of platforming segments with moving stone tablets, and trapped corridors with swinging axes and blasts of fire. From what we can tell, it looks like you’ll never have to use any type of artificial locomotion or teleportation at all. As long as your play space is big enough, you’ll always have room to move around.

“The trick of the traversal in the game is to line up the moving blocks in just the right arrangement,” says Johansen. “Due to the very particular way the level design works, the gameplay can’t adapt and has a minimum play zone requirement of 2 by 2 meters, but this in turn lets you traverse the world indefinitely without ever going outside the boundary.”

Eye of the Temple is slated for a late 2018 release on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, but will require 360-degree room scale setups with at least 2 by 2 meters of space. Let us know what you think of the game so far down in the comments below!

Tagged with: Eye of the Temple, room scale