Still wondering what Innerspace’s Maskmaker is all about? We’ve got over six minutes of gameplay to fill you in.
Creative director Balthazar Auxietre is on hand in this exclusive gameplay clip, talking us through the core mechanics of the game. The clip shows us the game’s swampy environment, and how players can navigate it by possessing strange figures wearing masks you can replicate in the game’s workshop. Match a mask you see out in the world, put it on, and you’ll be transported into that body of that figure to control it.
In the clip, the player needs to follow a recipe to make a concoction that can help them advance further in the level. This involves seeking out different ingredients and solving challenges to get them, like miming certain poses. Alongside puzzles you’ll encounter in the world, you’ll also need to craft masks with natural resources. Auxietre also talks about the game’s mysterious central character, Prospero, and the role they play in the experience.
This is one of our best looks at the game yet so make sure to take notes.
Maskmaker arrives on April 20th for PC VR and PSVR headsets. We’ve got plenty more on the experience as part of our Upload Access spotlight this month. That includes a deep dive on the origins of the game as well as a retrospective on Innerspace’s past work. Stick with us, because we’ll also be talking to publisher MWM Interactive and chatting with Auxietre inside out virtual studio. The full line-up for the month is below!
Whether it’s the intimate theatre of its Firebird series or the unforgettable assault on reality that is A Fisherman’s Tale, the studio is in constant search of invigorating new ideas for VR games and experiences. In this respect, the Paris-based team feels ahead of the pack. But, in fairness, it had a bit of a head start.
Normally, when I ask someone what their first VR experience is, I already know the answer. For many it was the Oculus Rift DK1 or, more recently, maybe the Quest or PlayStation VR. Innerspace co-founder and creative director Balthazar Auxietre’s first experience is a fair bit older than that, though.
In 2010, Auxietre was attending a different kind of film school. Rather than lectures and camera loans, he was given a year to produce an innovative project, one that looked beyond the framing of traditional cinema. He chose to focus on something quite unknown at the time – VR technology.
“I was super interested in how videogames could tell stories,” Auxietre tells me over a call. “And how videogame technology could be applied to create different kinds of movies and obviously [make it] more interactive and engaging.”
VR Before Oculus
For his project, Auxietre didn’t want to create a game so much as a game world, one that emulated our reality but brought users closer to the experience. “My project started with the idea of creating an intimacy between the user and the story,” he says. “Instead of making a movie when you sit down in the screen and have plenty of people around you, you are alone in front of the screen. And the only way to do that, really, was with a VR headset.”
So Auxietre searched for the lowest-cost headset at a time when Palmer Luckey was only beginning to envision the Oculus Rift, and Sony was still taping Move controllers to employee’s heads as a means of head-tracking. He came across the Z-800 3D visor from eMagin. By today’s standards, it was a pretty primitive offering; 800×600 per eye resolution and a 40 degree field of view, not exactly what you’d call premium VR.
But, for what Auxietre wanted, it was more than enough. “Even with this pretty crappy technology, the promise of VR was pretty incredible already,” he says, “And I was really swept into this new realm as soon as I tried new stuff. I felt like I was discovering new territory.”
An Industry Is Born
People that saw his piece agreed, and their reaction gave Auxietre the fuel to keep digging. He got involved with a French enthusiast group named VR Geeks, where he found out about the Oculus Rift DK1. As soon as he got the developer kit, he started experimenting with different ideas and also got to show Oculus itself his early work.
“They were quite excited by it because, even if they were in to making games, the storytelling stuff was quite new to them, and we were one of the first to show them an advanced work in this field,” Auxietre explains. This, in turn, led to the Auxietre and his colleague’s first full VR projects for the Samsung Gear VR, which was made in partnership with Oculus.
These took the form of experimental 360 degree films. One of was The Fifth Sleep, a VR movie inspired by The Fantastic Voyage that’s still viewable on Gear VR. In the piece, viewers enter the mind of a character in a coma, playing on both biological and fantastical aspects. From there, Auxietre and partner Hayoun Kwon — at the time both working out of South Korea — decided to make it official. Innerspace VR was born.
For its next, more ambitious projects, the team turned to the HTC Vive. This, finally, was a headset approaching the real potential of VR, with full room-scale tracking and hand controllers. But Innerspace was still a young team that didn’t have the knowledge or resources for game development that other VR creators did. Its first piece would need to be something within its relative comfort zone whilst sowing the seeds for something more ambitious down the line.
Looking back, Firebird: La Peri, a Fantasia-inspired performance, fit that bill quite nicely. It was limited in interactivity compared to other content releasing alongside the Vive in 2016, but its take on immersive ballet, in which the user wasn’t simply looking on from the audience but instead rooted right in the center of the performance, felt like a powerful expression of the platform’s new possibilities beyond gaming. But could non-gaming experiences work on hardware that was primarily marketed towards gamers?
The response was encouraging. “Something we discovered quite rapidly is that the VR audience is different from the gaming audience,” Auxietre said. There was an openness to new experiences that Innerspace hadn’t quite expected, and La Peri — if not one of the best-selling apps of VR’s launch — performed quite well. Well enough, in fact, for Innerspace to investigate the idea of a series. Could that work?
“In a way the response was no, not in the same way.”
Unfinished Business
Firebird: The Unfinished was a similarly excellent piece of work, pushing Innerspace further in terms of interactivity whilst retaining the core, hypnotic central performances. But its development was long and costly, and it didn’t release until two years after La Peri at a time when VR was doubling down on gaming content.
“People were getting used to VR and they wanted to do more stuff,” Auxietre says. “I think the storytelling side of things is its own debate and why it doesn’t really grasp the audience still today, I think it’s difficult. There are many reasons why it hasn’t worked but from my point of view it’s mostly because VR is a difficult medium to work with. It’s costly. So even making a 15 minute project costs [a lot] if you want to get something published. So getting a return on that is super difficult.”
This speaks to a problem many VR storytellers have encountered, releasing experiential apps on gaming storefronts with meagre runtimes that compete with similarly-priced, hours-long games. Auixetre hopes that, one day, VR will have a diverse and large enough audience to really help foster the scene, but it’s just not there yet. “We’ve moved forward, and I’m still optimistic. But I would say pure storytelling for VR is not ready for primetime.”
Firebird, then, remains unfinished business.
Fishing For More
If Innerspace was to survive, then, it had to adapt. “For us, the natural next step was going further into the interaction road,” Auixetre says, “Also because the further I understood VR, the further I realized at its core it’s an interactive medium. And even if you want to tell a story it needs to be fully engaging in many different ways, not only if you can choose the outcome.”
A Fisherman’s Tale was born from that thinking. Director Alexis Moroz had an early idea for playing with recursion — a means of working with a simplified version of a problem in order to solve a wider one — early on. “Instantly both our eyes lit and we started to imagine what a game could be based on this concept of being trapped inside a recursion.”
The idea, you might have seen, went pretty far. A Fisherman’s Tale has one of the most instantly-astonishing premises of any VR game, allowing players to interact with smaller and larger versions of themselves through a scale model in the center of their play environment. Pick up an item in the game world, hold it up and then you could reach down into the model to pick up a smaller version of it. Or poke your finger down into the diorama and you’ll see a gigantic version of it trying to prod at you.
For Auixetre building out a full game with over an hour’s worth of content was an exercise in moving out of comfort zones, but Moroz helped lead the charge on gameplay ideas. The actual puzzles for A Fisherman’s Tale — which include resizing keys, removing barriers that are giant in one world and tiny in another, or even travelling into the larger world with the help of a fish — were set in place quite quickly. It was the linking of these puzzles to the game’s thematic tone and narrative, which played on the role of fatherhood and succession, that proved difficult.
Innerspace navigated that stormy sea, though, and came out with something truly special. A Fisherman’s Tale was one of the first games to get a 5/5 score at UploadVR and it won best game at the 2019 VR Awards. Critical reception aside, Auixetre says the game has kept selling overtime, if not launching to massive sales.
“We were quite proud of having — it’s too early to say a cult classic — but I think the game is placed in the stuff you need to try at least to see what VR can bring as a medium,” he says.
For it’s next trick, Innerspace is taking more logical steps. It wants Maskmaker to be a bigger, longer game than A Fisherman’s Tale (which some said was too short) and something that keeps exploring ideas that are contingent upon VR itself. We also spoke with Auixetre about the game’s origins ahead of its release on PC VR and PSVR on April 20th.
Going beyond Maskmaker, though Innerspace seems ready to keep going. It might be too early for a return to more experiential content like Firebird, but the team is interested in exploring even bigger ideas than Maskmaker (though Auixetre jokes that its next title won’t be a giant open-world). The team isn’t likely to return to its purely storytelling-focused roots anytime soon but, in a way, that chapter seems better left in the past. Innerspace is one of VR’s most interesting developers precisely because its a team of artists and filmmakers taking increasingly promising steps into the world of gaming, and that’s reflected in a truly eclectic body of work.
One of the key elements to Maskmaker, which hits VR headsets this month, is the crafting mechanics.
But how do you actually make a mask?
This exclusive gameplay clip shows you exactly that. As part of our Upload Access spotlight, Innerspace VR takes us through making one of the masks you’ll use in-game to teleport to other worlds.
Maskmaker: Making A Mask Gameplay
Things start off simple – dye the mask a certain color and, if you want, hang it on a rest to carry out the next steps (though you can hold it in one hand if you prefer to craft that way). From there, you can use brushes to fill in different segments to match the reference image, located on a card. Make a mistake? Dip your brush back into the correct color dye and you can erase any issues with a few seconds.
Then it’s time for decorations. Maskmaker’s masks are organic in that the items you can stick onto them are literally found within the different biomes you explore. So here we have two shells placed atop the mask, and ornaments for the ears too. These can be colored as well.
Once the design of your mask matches one you’ve seen out in the game’s biomes, its eyes light up. Put it on and you’ll be transported into the body of the figure that wore the mask out in the game world. From there you’ll explore, gather new crafting items and solve puzzles as you edge closer to the mystery at the heart of the game.
Maskmaker releases on PC VR and PSVR on April 20th. We’ve got exclusive coverage of the game all month, including the debut of new footage last week and an interview with Innerspace on its origins. Stick around, because next week we’ll look back at the history of Innerspace itself and debut yet more gameplay footage with commentary from the team itself. There’s plenty more where that came from; check out our full Access schedule below!
For a game with such philosophical aspirations, Maskmaker’s inspirations are surprisingly literal.
For starters, one can feel the steady guiding hand of the Metroidvania genre in the game’s branching paths and come-back-later road bumps. Maskmaker lets you travel between worlds by putting on masks that match those worn by lifeless figures dotted throughout its biomes. Putting on a mask allows you to embody the character wearing a matching design. Having seen this mechanic in action, it’s definitely easier to trace Maskmaker’s design influences back through time than it is A Fisherman’s Tale. But, for Creative Director Balthazar Auxietre, there are two other more important touchstones.
Behind The Mask
“My father was a collector of traditional masks from all over the world,” Auxietre tells me. “But it was in his workshop. So when I was able to sneak into his workshop when he was painting or doing other stuff, I was quite astonished by all the different personalities of these masks.”
Fuel enough for a VR adventure that calls back to his childhood roots, but Auxietre’s other influence is even more direct – a 1975 mime performance from French actor Marcel Marceau named, believe it or not, The Maskmaker.
The short piece sees Marceau silently navigate his way through a range of expressions, each worn with striking exaggeration as he mimes appropriate actions for each emotion. As the piece develops, Marceau switches between emotions with remarkable pace before landing on a fixed, faintly terrifying smile he can’t seem to remove. Watching him try to fix it becomes increasingly uncomfortable and yet oddly identifiable.
“So the piece was super intriguing and mysterious because the actor plays with masks and changes faces,” Auxietre says. “And at some point he’s stuck with a mask on his face. The impossibility of taking off the mask and this feeling of being trapped inside a mask connected with the idea of playing with masks to explore the world.”
But it wasn’t just Marceau’s performance that stayed with Auxietre. The actor’s opening introduction also offers a key hint into the themes behind the upcoming game: “For me the Maskmaker is the man who represents humanity, who is all the faces humanity can possess.”
“It’s a sentence that I kept close to my heart during all the production because I think giving this power to someone is a pretty a pretty strong endeavour,” Auxietre says. “And even if it’s for a few hours in a game, I thought this could be quite amazing to play with this idea of embodying a lot of different characters, playing with the faces of humanity.”
Typically lofty concepts for developer Innerspace VR, then. But Maskmaker, Auxietre explains, takes these inspirations in a much more “concrete” way than you might be expecting.
His father’s work, for example, informs more of the game’s setting and crafting than it does the story. At any time in the game, you can head back to your own workshop to craft new masks with a variety of tools. It’s here where Auxietre’s childhood really takes center stage. “Even more than the masks, the atmosphere you had in the workshop was something pretty exciting for me,” he recalls. “Because it’s almost creepy when it it’s not completely lit. You have all the tools around. And, at the same time, it’s a place of opportunity because you can make anything and it’s a place also to lose yourself in because you close the door and you cannot the see the light of the day passing by.”
You’ll see more of that element in some of our Upload Access coverage to come but, for now, Auxietre teases why it made sense for the game: “It felt like a perfect place to tell a story and a perfect place, in VR, to make stuff.”
Masking Metroid
Building out those memories into a concept for a game didn’t actually come about until Auxietre became involved in VR, though. The mechanic of navigating worlds by putting on different masks was something the team even began to investigate with its last game, but ultimately set aside, deciding it needed more attention paid to it. Maskmaker was pitched to publisher MWM Interactive around the time A Fisherman’s Tale reached Quest.
In fact, the game is aiming to directly address some of the key criticisms levelled at A Fisherman’s Tale, namely that it wasn’t long enough. But the team also didn’t want to just deliver on length for the sake of it, which is why Innerspace built out larger environments with multiple paths to take.
“Metroidvania was really kind of a role model for us, even if we didn’t exactly follow the rules by the book,” the developer explains. “I think it’s an attempt of making a Metroidvania with masks, but it’s a pretty modest attempt. Because even if the game is much more open than A Fisherman’s Tale, it’s not as open like a Metroid game is.”
Don’t expect a big sprawling map that will have you getting lost around every corner, then, but Maskmaker does offer players some of their own agency in how to progress. For the team, building out a bigger game meant giving in to some of the concessions of current VR game design, like offering different locomotion styles — none of which feel particularly immersive — to navigate environments.
“We choose our battles,” Auxietre explains. “We knew that if the game was larger scope and we wanted to created environments the player could explore and we didn’t want to spend too much time reinventing the wheel of VR locomotion.”
And, while it may play to some conventions that its predecessor avoided, the developer stresses that this is in service of something completely unique to the platform: “Even if it’s a really different concept from A Fisherman’s Tale, which was really true to VR in a way, this is also something that feels really inherently VR experience,” Auxietre says. “And I think that the fact that you wear a mask from beginning to end and many masks is really a strong part of it.”
Exactly how Maskmaker juggles its inspirations, concepts and mechanics alongside its story (which we got a quick glimpse at least week) remains to be seen. Ultimately, Auxietre wants Maskmaker’s exploration of humanity’s many faces to help players find their own. He hopes that, at the end of the game when they take off the headset, “they feel even more themselves than before.”
Maskmaker is our Upload Access game of the month, and we’re kicking things off with an exclusive new look at footage of one of the game’s story segments.
Today’s exclusive debut gives you a deeper glimpse at the story behind Maskmaker, where we meet the mask of the game’s mountains environment. Is seems that throughout the game we could meet different characters like this, each of which may fill in more of a mysterious story about a master maskmaker and his apprentice. You can also see the player collect what looks like a piece of perhaps another mask at the start of the clip. What could that be for?
An interesting tease, but there’s still lots to learn about the game. Maskmaker is a puzzle adventure in which you yourself can make masks and use them to transport to different biomes. When we saw the game earlier this year we noted that it was a little like a VR Metroidvania game.
We’ve got plenty more to come on Maskmaker before the game launches on PC VR and PSVR on April 20th. Check back next week for a chat with Innerspace about the origins of the game, and a look at making masks in the game. Then, on the week of April 12th, we’ll dive into the history of the game’s developer and show another gameplay clip, this time with commentary from the team. Once the game’s released we’ll also be joined live in our virtual studio by the team at Innerspace for a Q&A, and we’ll round out the month with a look at the art of Maskmaker!
What are you hoping to see from our Maskmaker Access month? Let us know in the comments below!
Looking for all the best new VR games in April 2021? We’ve got you covered.
It’s been a pretty slow start to the year for VR content, but April promises to change all that. Make sure to keep track of our reviews page where we’ll be bringing you impressions of all the latest content.
After a long stint on SideQuest this set of unique minigames and technical demonstrations for Oculus Quest hand-tracking is getting an official release. It’s not a game as such, but there are 80 different experiences to showcase the tech, and it all work with Touch controllers too.
Floor Plan 2 (April 1st) – Turbo Button, Quest, PC VR
Turbo Button returns with a follow-up to its eccentric VR puzzler. In Floor Plan 2 you travel between worlds using an elevator, solving puzzles in crazy environments. Turbo Button is promising a much bigger game this time around with fully explorable levels. Expect a PSVR version later down the line.
Unique puzzles, accessible gameplay and fantastical visuals await you in Starcaller, a PC VR puzzler that’s built around immersive VR interactions. There’s over 30 different puzzles and three difficulty levels to master.
Traffic Jams (April 8th) – Little Chicken, Quest, PC VR
Little Chicken’s zany VR puzzler finally gets the green light. In Traffic Jams you need to control the flow of traffic without causing any unfortunate mishaps. With a full campaign and a party mode for up to four non-VR players, we’re hoping Traffic Jams is one that will keep us busy for hours to come.
Another active VR game that wants to emulate the feeling of swinging, Swarm is an arcade inspired shooter in which you swoop through arena-style levels. Developer Greensky Games says it’s a comfortable experience but, as always, we’ll need to put that to the test for ourselves.
Alvo (April 12th) – PSVR
It’s been a while since PSVR has had a big multiplayer game. Alvo hopes to fill the void with a modern military setting and support for the PSVR Aim controller. PC and Quest versions are also due a little later down the line, and take note that this release date could slip.
Carly and the Reaperman (April 15th) – Odd Raven Studios, Quest
A local co-op platformer gets a Quest version published by Resolution Games. Carly and the Reaperman used to work by having one player in VR, guiding a flatscreen player through levels. The game is the same inside Quest, except now both users will be wearing Quests. We’ll be eager to see how it holds up.
Maskmaker (April 20th) – Innerspace VR, PC VR, PSVR
The developers of A Fisherman’s Tale are back with a brand new puzzling adventure. In Maskmaker, you craft and wear masks that transport you to different worlds. Some light Metroidvania elements and a deep focus on the process of making masks suggest Innerspace is making its biggest VR game yet.
A new VR sculpting software that comes with all the tools to let users make 3D models. It features tools for both professionals and those only just starting out in VR modelling. You can export your creations for 3D printing too.
Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife (April 22nd) – Fast Travel Games, Quest, Rift
Fast Travel Games is back with its latest effort, a VR horror game set in the World of Darkness universe. In Wraith, you step into the afterlife and explore the haunted halls of Barclay Mansion, investigating the mysterious circumstances of your death.
Star Wars Pinball (April 29th) – Zen Studios, Quest, PC VR
Zen’s tried and true pinball games get the Star Wars treatment… in VR. Star Wars Pinball features tables from across the entire Star Wars saga, including The Mandalorian.
So that’s the new VR games April 2021 list. What are you going to be picking up? Let us know in the comments below!
The team behind A Fisherman’s Tale is back – Maskmaker is coming to VR this month. But what lies behind the mask? Find out in this month’s instalment of Upload Access.
Note: This article was originally published on April 1st.
Developer Innerspace is on hand to talk about about its ambitious VR puzzler. In Maskmaker, you become the apprentice of Prospero, a mysterious figure that teaches you to make masks. Well, actually, they’re magical masks.
Maskmaker Upload Access Month Is Here
Maskmaker’s core hook is using these items to teleport between worlds. Every time you put on a mask, you’ll find yourself in one of the game’s unique biomes which you can explore and solve puzzles in. Along the way, you’ll discover new types of masks that you can collect materials for, then head back to Prospero’s workshop to craft for yourself. Put that mask on, and you’ll assume the position of that item in the given world, allowing you to progress through it.
Maskmaker itself is releasing on April 20th on PC VR and PSVR, so we’ve got lots to cram in before release! Check back tomorrow for never-before-seen footage.
Next week, we’ll be talking to Innerspace about the origins of the project and debuting another clip focusing on the actual crafting of a mask. Come back on the week of April 12th, where we’ll dive into the history of Innerspace itself and jump into the game with a walkthrough from the team. We’ll top that off with a chat with publisher MWM Interactive on its decision to fund unconventional VR games like this.
Then it’s launch week! After the game’s out, we’ll be getting the team into our studio for a live Q&A you can join in with, while we’ll round out the month with a look at the art of a pretty gorgeous game.
Plenty of stuff to be excited about, then, and you won’t want to miss it. Bookmark this page right here, which we’ll update with links to our content as it goes live.
There’s less than a month to go until InnerspaceVR and MWM Immersive launch Maskmaker for multiple virtual reality (VR) platforms. Occasionally, PlayStation VR owners are treated to a physical edition usually thanks to Perp Games and that’s going to be the case again. It’s been revealed that Maskmaker will hit retail locations in June.
Maskmakeris gearing up to be one of the more interesting VR puzzle titles to be released in the first half of 2021, with a decent narrative weaving the various mechanics and worlds into a cohesive whole. As VRFocus has previously reported, you play mask maker Prospero’s apprentice, learning the craft and the magical abilities it brings. Inside his workshop you’ll be able to carve masks before applying them with paints and other adornments. These have to be found in the different biomes which can only be traversed by making new masks.
Naturally, the masks form an intrinsic part of the puzzle process as you locate various level guardians to copy their masks and possess them. All the while learning about the mysterious Prospero and the truth behind this identity.
“The team at Perp Games are some of the most passionate people we’ve encountered in the gaming industry, and it was a natural fit to partner with them to publish a physical edition of Maskmaker,” said Ethan Stearns, executive vice president at MWM Interactive in a statement. “For many gamers, there is something special about being able to collect physical discs of their favorite games, and we can’t wait for players to get their hands on Maskmaker.”
“A Fisherman’s Tale is such an amazing game and worthy winner of all the acclaim and plaudits,” said Rob Edwards, Managing Director at Perp Games. “InnerspaceVRhave proved that they are one of the best VR development studios around, and it is with great pride that we are working with them and MWM Interactive on their new title, the wonderful Maskmaker.”
The physical edition of Maskmaker for PlayStation VR is due to be released on 18th June 2021. The digital version for HTC Vive, Valve Index, Oculus Rift (Oculus Quest via Link cable) and PlayStation VR arrives on 20th April. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Maskmaker, reporting back with further updates.
Looking forward to what InnerspaceVR has in store for its next virtual reality (VR) title Maskmaker? The studio has been revealing a wealth of information about this upcoming puzzler and today there’s a little more, with the second part of its ‘Behind the Mask’ series in collaboration with publisher MWMi.
With part one setting the scene with a little bit about the studio’s history and what inspired Maskmaker, part two properly steps into the videogame. As the title suggests Maskmaker core gameplay dynamic revolves around the creation of masks by finding new designs as well as the various resources to create them. This idea evolved from the fact that InnerspaceVR wanted to move away from the linear narrative of A Fisherman’s Tale, allowing players a degree of freedom and creativity.
The masks are able to transport you to different six biomes, from snowy peaks to lush green forests. As InnerspaceVR has previously shown some locations can’t be accessed without scanning the inhabitant’s and their masks. You then reproduce them to embody those characters and explore further. These all have their own unique mask components such as shells, feathers and flowers so gameplay will involve nipping back and forth as necessary.
The video gives you a good idea of the mask process and the depth you can go to with the designs. InnerspaceVR has ensured the various steps make use of VR’s capabilities, so for instance you have to use a hammer and chisel to carve the wooden block which creates the base mold. A large sink provides all the colours you’ll need, mixing base paints up to create new colours to make each mask more vivid than the rest.
Set to become InnerspaceVR’s biggest VR title to date, Maskmaker‘s single-player story is estimated to take around 5-6 hours, with replay value added by way of the maskmaking sandbox and hidden secrets to find.
InnerspaceVR will launch Maskmaker for HTC Vive, Valve Index, Oculus Rift (Oculus Quest is compatible via Link cable) and PlayStation VR on 20th April 2021. For further updates keep reading VRFocus.
A Fisherman’s TaledeveloperInnerspaceVR is due to launch its next virtual reality (VR) puzzle title Maskmaker in a couple of months, offering a bigger, more elaborate experience. Today, the studio and its publisher MWMi have released the first in a series of short documentaries going behind-the-scenes of Maskmaker’s creation.
Part one of ‘Behind the Mask’ is narrated by InnerspaceVR’s Balthazar Auxietre, revealing a little bit about the studio’s history from his background as a film student to seeing the potential in VR as a storytelling medium.
After founding the studio, Auxietre and his team created their first title Firebird: La Peri in 2016. Inspired by Walt Disney’s Fantasia, this cinematic short is a motion captured ballet experience with interactive elements, receiving plenty of praise at the time.
Continuing to explore story-driven VR experiences InnerspaceVR created the award-winning A Fisherman’s Tale. Published by Vertigo Games, the puzzle title put players in the role of a fisherman called Bob, a small wooden puppet who lives alone in a tiny cabin attached to a lighthouse oblivious to the outside world. Released in 2019, the unique element in A Fisherman’s Tale was its use of scale for the puzzles.
Soon you’ll be able to play Maskmaker, InnerspaceVR’s most ambitious project to date, exploring both story-driven gameplay and deeply interwoven puzzle mechanics. If you’ve been following VRFocus coverage of Maskmaker the title looks like it’ll offer a sizable experience where you learn to craft masks to move about the various worlds, collecting useful items to adorn them. Taught by Prospero the mask maker, you’ll eventually learn about his identity.
Maskmaker will be available for HTC Vive, Valve Index, Oculus Rift (Oculus Quest is compatible via Link cable) and PlayStation VR from 20th April 2021. For further updates keep reading VRFocus.
