Oculus launched App Lab as a way for indie devs to easily get their projects onto Oculus Quest, and by all accounts, it seems to have been a success. In the early stages, 12 indie teams got together to create the “Waiting for App Lab” bundle as a way to offer gamers a deal and get their projects noticed. Earlier this month and with the help of more indies Lab Surprise was launched, a website offering big savings depending on how much you like a cheeky gamble.
Lab Surprise offers bundles of three App Lab videogames where you can save a massive 70% off the regular price. The catch is that to keep the 70% discount the titles you get are completely random – out of a selection of 19 for a total of 969 bundle combinations. Games include the likes of Sep’s Diner, Quest for Runia, Crazy Croquet, and Perpetuum Mobile.
If you’re not much of a gambler and want to know what you’re getting then you can easily click on each egg to reveal what’s underneath. However, you will forfeit some of the discounts. Reveal one videogame and it’ll drop to 50%, two titles drop the saving to 30% whilst cracking open all three will give you a 10% discount. This can easily take a bundle from under $10 to almost $30 if surprises really aren’t your thing.
Should you go down the revealed route and decide you want to try again then you can just reload the page and it’ll reset with three new hidden games (or maybe the same ones again!). Once purchased you’ll be sent three Oculus Store keys so you can redeem your purchase. It’s a novel way for VR indies to engage with the player community, especially considering App Lab videogames aren’t immediately accessible through the Oculus Store.
Websites like SideQuest do offer the easiest way to find App Lab titles, especially with its new Android app. But since its launch in February App Lab now features over 200 indie VR projects so competition is steadily ramping up.
Lab Surprise is time-limited as well. Launched on 16th April, it was supposed to end today but the developers have decided to extend the deal window until 8th May 2021, so get in there while you can. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.
