Fans of Myst can visit the mysterious island with friends almost 30 years after release of the original game to play a round of mini golf together.
The course inspired by Cyan’s landmark puzzle game is slated for release later this year as paid downloadable content in Walkabout Mini Golf. It’ll come with all the same features as other DLC releases, including cross-platform multiplayer from Quest to Steam and a guest pass that allows just one player with the purchased course to bring along their friends for a round. For developer Mighty Coconut, the partnership adds considerable momentum to its efforts to license properties for adaptation into theme park-like multiplayer mini golf courses following the previous announcement of a course inspired by 1980s Jim Henson film Labyrinth.
Myst, of course, was born in 1993 as a puzzle game set on a beautiful island players advanced through one click at a time. The title has been rebuilt multiple times, first as a real-time 3D environment and most recently for VR. Mighty Coconut’s head Lucas Martell sat down with us in our studio and shared some details about the upcoming release and the status of development at Walkabout.
“Our goal is not to recreate Myst itself and we need a different sort of set of things for physics and everything. So it’s going to be fairly accurate to the original, but we are going to have to be recreating a little bit of it and also there’s a few changes that we’re going to have to make to the island just to make it work as a mini golf course,” Martell explained. “So I think that that’s something that fans will get and understand, and we’re trying to be respectful and reverent of what was created, but at the same time, it is the mini golf theme park version. So there are some times where we need to move some rocks around and we need to open up a couple of spots to let people have the fun, but it’s still gonna be very, very recognizable as the island from the game.”
He confirmed the course will start on the dock — the same entry point for Myst since its start.
“We reached out to the folks at Cyan and it just happened to turn out that they had all been playing Walkabout anyways, so they knew about us, we obviously knew about them, and as soon as we started talking about it, it was clear that just like they have such a great mindset around it,” Martell told UploadVR. “It was great because they’re like, ‘oh no, we want you guys to have the freedom, make a few of those tweaks, it doesn’t have to be exactly the same thing.’ And we’ve all said that we don’t want it to try to step on the toes of what Myst did. We want this to be an homage and just a love letter to the game.”
Check out a 5-minute cut of our interview in the video embedded above. We didn’t include it in the Myst-focused video, but Martell confirmed to us that active work continues on an iOS and Android port of Walkabout Mini Golf that will feature cross-platform multiplayer with other versions. Mighty Coconut have more than half a dozen courses in development and are beginning to work on ideas that won’t release until 2023.
As gmw3continues to grow and expand our coverage so too does our team of writers, all of whom love tech, videogames, Web3, and anything else with a digital signal. We’re all continually playing videogames for fun (and for work) so now seems like the ideal time to see what everyone has been passing the time with; from epic blockbusters to fringe virtual reality (VR) titles, here’s what we’ve been playing during March.
This month I’ve mostly been playing Elden Ring. Although playing might be a strong word for someone whose play style mostly involves summoning spirits then dodging around frantically until they kill the boss for me.
That generous summoning mechanic is partly why I find myself getting much less frustrated with Elden Ring than in previous entries in the Dark Souls series. It’s also because, being open-world as the game is, Elden Ring encourages you to bypass the tricky bits.
Indeed, one of the first enemies you meet once emerging into the game proper (Tree Sentinel for those in the know) seems designed to ram home this message by ramming your face into the floor, repeatedly, until you learn to simply walk around them. Cue many happy hours of running past enemies, whether on foot or on my trusty steed Torrent, taking in the many wondrous sights of the Lands Between. Except Caelid. We don’t talk about Caelid.
Tunic
If you’re interested in playing Elden Ring but wish much of the eldritch horror was replaced with cute foxes, the charmic Tunic is surely the game for you. While it takes much more than a leaf out of the Elden Ring book, with unlockable respawn points, nail-biting boss fights, and one opportunity to recover your experience points upon death, the best thing it replicates is the sense of mystery.
You’re dropped into the game with almost no information and, in a very meta twist, are required to work everything out for yourself by finding pieces of the manual scattered throughout the world. Even these are mostly written in a mostly indecipherable language, so establishing exactly what you are being told becomes a puzzle in itself.
There are doubtless people who will be put off by Tunic’s obtuse nature, but it is skillfully designed to (mostly) avert frustration and make you feel smart for figuring out its secrets. Tunic has served as an excellent side dish to the Elden Ring main course this month.
Walkabout Mini Golf
In VR, meanwhile, I’ve been whiling away the hours in the supremely relaxing Walkabout Mini Golf VR. This is undoubtedly the VR game I find myself coming back to more than any other.
Why? First, there’s the music, which is much better than mini golf game music has any right to be (particularly the theme for the pirate world, which is pretty much playing non-stop inside my head at all times).
Equally as good are the gorgeous environments, from wild west saloons to Japanese gardens to weird candy fantasias. Every time I look up to curse the heavens regarding my latest triple bogey, I’m distracted by some lovely piece of detail and all is once again right in the world.
Pair all this with some lovely swinging physics that ensure the ball always seems to go where you intended it to and you have a supremely enjoyable package. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to play crazy golf in space?
Like much of the games playing public, I’ve spent tens of hours playing Elden Ring. I chose a sorcerer, it’s dope. But you all know how great it is, so I’m going to tell you about Gran Turismo 7, AKA the best racing game for years that is being abysmally handled by creators Polyphony Digital. Gran Turismo is known, for one thing, gorgeous car models. There’s something wonderful about starting the GT journey in a clapped Mini Cooper and working up to a Ferrari F40. But that’s damn near impossible for casual players since Polyphony is only interested in our micro-transaction money.
Want that Aston Martin? Grind this race multiple times. Fancy hopping into a McClaren and tearing through the countryside? Well, open your wallet and make it rain. Recent news shows that the developer, and Sony, are willing to shift this balance. Apparently, we’re getting better rewards for finishing races, which is handy because, despite all the drama, Gran Turismo 7 really is the best racing game to emerge for many years.
The actual driving is a delight and, as expected from the PlayStation 5, it looks bloody glorious. A special shoutout must go to the DualSense controller which elevates the experience beyond a basic rumble of tires and picks up the smooth changes in asphalt and dirt in America, or chatters over storm drains in Tokyo.
The Binding of Isaac
The Binding of Isaac is my favourite game. No other game holds a candle to this McMillen masterpiece, so I’ll preface this entry with some useless stats. On PC I’ve played 846 hours. On PlayStation (across Vita, PS4 and PS5) I’ve stacked up over 500 hours. Now playing on Nintendo Switch my total currently reads 921 hours. I’m a fan.
Isaac has become a comfort game for me. That’s right, a game about religious institutional murder, Munchausen’s syndrome, faecal matter and gore, is a comfort. I’ve played this game in my low times, my high times and those moments in life when nothing made sense. The addictive gameplay loop of discovering items, pairing them with others to create an overpowered character is, to me, as moreish as crack cocaine.
With the latest DLC, Repentance, the game has become a whole new beast. It’s maddeningly difficult, features intricate routes to secure success and some of the new character variants are punishing. Many times I’ve wanted to launch my Switch across the room as I pick up an item that breaks my progress. But I still love it. It’s still my comfort. My favourite.
The metaverse has pretty much just been born — and yet we’re already fantasising about its collapse. In this fun-filled, brightly-coloured comedy-adventure game adapted for Meta Quest 2, it’s easy to forget that the premise sits on top of some dark undertones. With that being said, however, the juxtaposition is perfect — and the tongue-in-cheek humour featured throughout the game is also on-point.
The game starts off with, well… basically your character dying and being recreated inside a new mech body situated inside the fictional realm of Scottsdale. In short, you are tasked with using your new body to save avatars and digital identities from a metaverse on the verge of collapse. It poses the important question: “When a metaverse shuts down, what happens to the avatars left behind?” After spending the last few months creating a surplus of avatars inside various games and ecosystems, it’s a fitting inquiry.
Through becoming more acquainted with my Meta Quest 2, it’s been exciting to start a game with a great metaphysical backstory. These types of things are my bread and butter — as a fan of other storylines like Ghost in the Shell and Fullmetal Alchemist, I love a good cyborg storyline. However, what’s more notable is that VVR2 also does a great job at poking fun at the absurdity of our current transition into the metaverse and the fragility that could follow it. If we’ve one day put all of our stock into virtual worlds, how catastrophic might it be to see them collapse? At this point in time, I suppose the best thing we can do is laugh.
Pokemon Shining Pearl
I’ll admit, I was a bit late to the Nintendo Switch party. However, making a move from Canada to the UK and being subjected to steep baggage fees meant I was best off leaving most of my consoles behind. It was also the perfect time to finally get my hands on the one, more portable device that would overcome a transatlantic barrier.
Pokemon Shining Pearl was an easy choice. A remake of Pearl and Diamond for the Nintendo DS, it’s a formidable reinvention of the 2006 fan-favourite and a perfect bridging gap between classic and modern games, equipped with the right level of nostalgia. The reinvented Sinnoh region looks bright and crisp on the Switch’s display, with a simplistic and colourful art style that doesn’t feel too bloated.
The gameplay mechanics are also great, with just the right amount of additions to differentiate it from its predecessor. Amongst the coolest new features are definitely the Hideaways — areas where players can find more powerful and exclusive Pokemon. These can be accessed through the Grand Underground — a reworked version of the Sinnoh region’s more challenging underbelly seen in the earlier titles.
Now, this was one of those random picks from Xbox Game Pass. You know how it goes, you vaguely recognise the name and might take a look at a screenshot or two but in reality, I wanted to pick something at random to while away a few hours.
What I got was this epic roguelite dungeon crawler from Supergiant Games that I’ve been ploughing hours and hours into during spare moments when I’m not reviewing VR games or heading to events like GDC. And it has got me hooked, easy to master gameplay mechanics allow quick access to the rich world of Hades and the huge amount of lore the developer has put into it. I almost love simply unlocking all the narrative and info on each character as I do storming through the underworld killing wave after wave of monstrous creatures.
Plus there are plenty of upgrade options to play with, altering my character each time to try a push that little bit farther. I’ve come to realise that I’m a bit of a roguelite fan having enjoyed VR versions such as Outlier, YUKIand In Death: Unchained. I’ll likely continue playing Hades for quite a bit longer.
Cosmonious High
There had to be a VR game in here somewhere as I do spend a fair amount of time using the tech. I’ve spent a fair chunk of time in Owlchemy Labs’ latest project Cosmonious High – of which you can see the full review here – because it’s quite a laid back experience in all honesty.
Sure it’s a brightly coloured intergalactic high school with daft students, and even dafter names for everything but that silliness offers a welcome break from things. I can use my hands to paint the walls, freeze random objects or step into the chemistry lab to mix up random ingredients to see what they do. There’s no time limit on anything and I find completing some of the side challenges more enjoyable than the main campaign itself.
The only downside is that there isn’t a proper challenge to be faced. As a veteran VR player, I appreciate the technical achievement when looking at aspects like the water effects but I honestly don’t see myself playing it much longer; unlike Hades which has hooked me.
The tease was dropped at GDC by Lucas Martell from Mighty Coconut, while speaking to Alex, one of our UploadVR Correspondents from Between Realities, on the show floor:
Martell: Yeah, so we’ve got a course coming up this summer, it’s based on Jim Hensen’s Labryrinth. So it’s been announced and yeah, we’re hard at work and we’ve almost got it finished but we can’t wait to show it to everybody.
Alex: That is a quite popular IP from yesteryear. I imagine… did you have to jump through a lot of hoops to pull something like that together? What’s the process been like, securing an IP like that for your game?
Martell: We’re very unique and very lucky. I come from an animation background so I know a lot of folks in Hollywood. Also our head of licensing Michele Martell — not actually a relation [to Lucas], confusingly – she actually was Business Affairs at Hensen for a long time.
So we luckily just have a lot of ties to folks in the Hollywood world, and other movies. And yeah, so this is the first in what we hope to be many very, very cool licensing things, that we’ll start to announce more soon.
Fingers crossed, but that sounds pretty promising. Personally, I’d love to see some Marvel or DC-inspired courses in the game — an Avengers Tower map or Gotham City course would be pretty cool, but perhaps that’s wishful thinking on my part.
Day 1 of GDC 2022 is done and dusted and we have interviews straight from the show floor, talking to developers about titles like Walkabout Mini Golf, Zenith VR and more.
This year, the team from Between Realities are our UploadVR Correspondents at GDC — Alex and Skeeva are on the show floor for us, talking to developers about the latest and greatest in VR titles.
Our Day 1 Wrap-Up video features talks with Mighty Coconut (Walkabout Mini Golf) creator Lucas Martell, CEO of Ramen VR (Zenith VR) Andy Tsen, CEO of MobX Games (Everslaught) Gihad Chbib, as well as Jonathan Ovadia and Albert Ovadia from AEXLAB (Vail VR).
A few spicy tidbits were dropped in the interviews. Most notably, Walkabout Mini Golf developers Mighty Coconut seem interested in going further with licensed content in the future, hinting that there might be more IP-themed content to come after the upcoming Labyrinth course.
Andy Tsen from Ramen VR also gave a bit of clarity on the schedule that Zenith players can expect for content releases. “We’re really excited about the next major content update. I can’t give you guys an exact launch date on that yet. What I can say is that we plan to push our major content updates roughly once a quarter, and minor updates monthly. So you should start to see some news coming out about that soon.”
He also spoke about the philosophy towards future dungeon designs, indicating the want the environment to be more of a focus compared to traditional MMO dungeons.
“We really want the dungeons that you guys encounter in the next major content update to really embody that same sense of open exploration that you felt when you’re seeing Zenith for the first time or gliding around. So more environmental puzzles, more parkour things, and we want it to feel different from what you might get in a traditional MMO.”
Keep an eye out for more GDC news over the following days.
Walkabout Mini Golf (2020) consistently ranks among the top games on Quest for good reason. Now developers Mighty Coconut announced they’ve lined up the game’s first licensed DLC for release later this year which is set to bring the world of Jim Henson’s ’80s classic fantasy film LABYRINTH (1986) to life.
Mighty Coconut announced the studio has signed a deal with The Jim Henson Company to develop a 36-hole course based on LABYRINTH, which will be released in Summer 2022.
There’s no trailer out yet, but we’re hoping to see more than a few of our favorite characters. Granted, David Bowie has already been officially immortalized in VR, but never before as Jareth the Goblin King—glam metal hair and all.
The infectious, well-made mini golf game features loads of levels, and also the option to tack on more via themed DLC. The base game comes with eight 18-hole courses, all of which is playable in the optional ‘night mode’ for added difficulty. The studio has also released three paid DLC packs, all of which feature 36 holes: “Gardens of Babylon’, ‘Shangri-La’, and ‘Sweetopia’.
Image courtesy Mighty Coconut
Since it was released on Quest in 2020, Walkabout Mini Golf has consistently stayed in the top 20 Quest games by user rating. It’s one of those surprising little titles that not only looks like it belongs on a much more powerful headset, but is such a consistent and well-made experience that it actually feels like playing mini golf—not an easy task since golfing relies on good hand-eye coordination along with the sort of proprioception that you take for granted outside of VR.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for trailers in the coming months—summer is only around four months away—so we’ll be tuned to Walkabout Mini Golf’sYouTube channel and Twitter in the meantime.
Walkabout Mini Golf has a new DLC course available now with a sickly sweet theme and 36 new holes to play.
Sweetopia, the new paid DLC course for the popular VR mini golf game, is available now with 36 new holes included. As you can probably tell, this level is all about candy and sweet treats. It’s a world of sugar and golf – what a pairing!
Discover our brand new #WalkaboutMiniGolf DLC course Sweetopia: impossibly fun mini golf in a sugary fantasyland of enormous confectionery favorites.
Walkabout confirmed recently that Sweetopia would be a paid DLC release but is not part of the Lost Cities series of maps, which began with the Garden of Babylon DLC last November. So while Sweetopia is a brief reprise away from that theme, we can still expect more city-based DLC to arrive at some point in the future as well. Here’s the official description for the Sweetopia DLC from developer Mighty Coconut:
Discover a fantastical world of decadence where you and up to four friends can frolic in a sugary fantasyland of enormous confectionery favorites. Putt your way through gooey, colorful, and mouth watering obstacles across 36 holes in Macaroon Meadows, the Mallow Marsh, the Garden of Gummi Delights, Hard Candy Mountains, and more!
While Sweetopia and other recent DLC releases have all been paid, Walkabout’s social media account also didn’t rule out more free content at some point in the year. “[Sweetopia] is a paid DLC course, yes,” said the account in a recent reply tweet, “but 2022 may have base game additions and other DLC courses too. Who knows what we have in store!”
Walkabout has consistently pumped out new free and paid content since release and we’ve rated it as one of the best multiplayer experiences available on Quest. That being said, the game is also available on PC VR with crossplay, so you can hit the green with your friends across different platforms.
The Sweetopia DLC course is out now for Walkabout Mini Golf on Quest and PC VR.
Article substantially updated from its original version that was published on February 9, 2022, to mark the release of the Sweetopia paid DLC.
Walkabout Mini Golf has become one of the highest-rated titles on the Oculus Quest store and the videogames’ recent release on Steam is doing just as well. Today, developer Might Coconut has announced the launch of Walkabout Mini Golf’s eighth course, a mixture of rocky terrain and lush green pastures, Quixote Valley.
The landscape and towering windmills also give a hint at what to expect from the course, some blustery conditions where the wind will alter the ball’s trajectory in some areas. That new wind mechanic should greatly increase the complexity of the course and give veteran players a proper challenge. Just like all the other courses, Quixote Valley will feature a full 18-holes to complete as well as a new custom club and, of course, many lost balls to try and find.
Quixote Valley joins the likes of Bogey’s Bonanza, the previous course addition which was released in June. This has a Frontier aesthetic with skulls on the course and dramatic sunset lighting.
If you’ve not played Walkabout Mini Golf just yet it’s currently available for Oculus Quest and Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. With solo and multiplayer modes, you’re able to create a quick online match or create a private room for you and four mates for a bit of friendly competition. After you’ve putted your way through all the standard courses you can ramp up the difficulty by activating Night Mode.
When you’re not playing golf you can always hunt down those hidden lost balls or literally fly around the courses, great for admiring the view or for learning their hidden secrets.
See Quixote Valley in all its green splendour in the trailer below and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.
Walkabout Mini Golf adds a new course today called Quixote Valley, available on all supported platforms in a free update.
The course is the game’s eighth, with both a day and night mode available. As you can see from the screenshots and teaser trailer, Quixote Valley is set among a rocky cluster of quaint windmills, a classic staple of most real life mini golf course. In Quixote Valley, you won’t just be dealing with one or two flimsy windmills though — there’s a whole fleet of them to contend with here.
However, the new map also brings with it some appropriate new mechanics. You can’t have windmills without wind, so you can expect to face a bit more resistance from the forces of nature on this map, thanks to the new wind mechanics. In select areas of the new map, players will now have to account for wind potentially affecting the trajectory of the ball when lining up their shot.
Walkabout Mini Golf started its life as a mobile game, before being ported over to Oculus Quest for release in late 2020. A SteamVR release followed this year in July, with support for cross-platform play. Starting with just four courses at launch, this latest content update rounds out the selection to eight maps, with normal and hard variations for each.
Welcome to VRFocus’ regular Friday roundup of the virtual reality (VR) videogames set to launch over the next week. Here are five new titles for those who love puzzle games, sports games, open-world adventures and more. If you’re after some freebies then definitely check out the VRFocus free VR game selection.
Gravitational – Studica Solution
Gravitational is a physics-based puzzle videogame set in a future where gravity can be manipulated. You play Sebastian, a scientist at GraviCorp, one of many companies developing gravitational travel and control systems. After an incident, you have to solve the various puzzles on route with all your locomotion being entirely wheelchair-based. The digital launch is on the 13th whilst the physical retail version will arrive on 16th July.
Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
Launch date: 13th July
Walkabout Mini Golf – Mighty Coconut
Originally an Oculus Quest title, Walkabout Mini Golf is now heading to PC VR headsets. There are seven 18-hole courses to try and master, from snowy, rocky peaks to beautiful, cherry blossom-filled valley’s, with an unlockable Night Mode to ramp up the difficulty. It supports both solo and online PvP multiplayer with cross-platform gameplay.
Making its way from PC onto Oculus Quest (no cross-platform support), A Township Tale is an expansive co-op adventure designed for up to eight friends to team up on one virtual server and go on quests. Everyone has to choose a profession (blacksmith, woodcutter, miner, archer or warrior) to aid the group and make use of the crafting materials found exploring the dangerous landscape to build new equipment and improve their gear.
Love rhythm action videogames but wish more had a rock/metal vibe to them? Enter Ragnarock, a PC VR title that launched late in 2020 and is set to leave Early Access next week. Providing both solo and PvP multiplayer modes where the former allows you to race against your ghost, the soundtrack features the likes of Alestorm, Gloryhammer or Wind Rose.
Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing – UNIVRS Inc.
Based on Studio TRIGGER’s anime, Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing hit Oculus Quest last year and now it’s time for PC VR headsets and PlayStation VR. Featuring a new storyline within the magical universe, you’re a guest student at the famous Luna Nova Witchcraft Academy. Grab your flying broom and compete across more than ten tracks whilst unlocking customisation options.
After launching on Quest back in September of 2020 and “coming soon” to Steam ever since, the well rated VR mini golf game Walkabout Mini Golf finally has a July 15th release date on Steam, supporting all PC VR headsets and cross-play with the Quest and Oculus PC versions. The game was recently updated with its seventh course which will be included in all versions of the game.
Walkabout Mini Golf is… pretty much what you imagine: mini golf in VR. What makes it one of the best rated games on Quest is very likely its multiplayer capability which allows up to five players to play the game together, offering a pretty authentic feeling of hanging out together, chatting, and bragging about who’s in the lead.
While the game has been available on Quest and Oculus PC since September 2020, Steam users have been staring at the words “coming soon,” on the Walkabout Mini Golf Steam store page ever since then.
Today the studio finally announced a July 15th release date for Walkabout Mini Golf on Steam, and affirmed cross-play with all other versions of the game.
Joining friends on other platforms is easy thanks to a room system which allows you to make a private room with a given name. As long as other players (on any platform) have the name, they can join to get their putt on at any time—even if the round has already started.
Walkabout Mini Golf Screenshots
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Image courtesy Mighty Coconut
Image courtesy Mighty Coconut
Image courtesy Mighty Coconut
Image courtesy Mighty Coconut
Image courtesy Mighty Coconut
Earlier this month Walkabout Mini Golf was also updated with a new course—the Western-themed ‘Bogey’s Bonanza’—bringing the count to seven 18-hole venues, including an unlockable ‘hard mode’ for each course which modifies holes with more difficult terrain. The game also offers a fun little scavenger hunt on each course by hiding a unique golf ball near each hole; each ball you find gets added to your custom ball collection. ‘Hard mode’ courses get their own version of this where players find clues which eventually unlock custom putters.
