/2001:_A_Space_Oculus

Once in a while, I take part on a game jam called Ludum Dare. On this friendly competition, developers all over the world spend a (frantic) weekend coming up with a game from scratch based on a mystery theme that gets announced the day before the jam starts.

The theme for Ludum Dare #26 was “Minimalism”. As as wanted to create a real-time VR experience for the (then) newly released Oculus Rift, I decided to re-create a scene of the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”; more precisely, the scene where astronaut David Bowman (the protagonist) has to rescue Dr. Frank Poole by maneuvering in space, outside of their spaceship (in other words, what happens right before the famous “I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that” scene). I reasoned that a solo experience in space was "minimalist" enough for the theme.

The result is an experience called “2001: A Space Oculus”. In this “game”, you have to rescue an astronaut that has been floating in space (represented by a ragdoll model) by taking him to the front of the spaceship using your pod's claws.

Other than creating a real-time VR experience, I had several additional goals with this project: to experiment with Unity's new VR support, with its physics features, and to create a simulator based on difficult controls (QWOP-style). As such, I ended up using third-party models based on the movie (with some small modifications) rather than creating my own, so I could focus on these aspects of the game.

The end result, to be fair, is not much of a game; it's more a challenge of one's patience than anything else.

Still, it this was again a great learning experience, and hopefully more people will enjoy floating around in space and simulating that scene from the movie. I was certainly overjoyed. There’s some things you can only experience with the Oculus Rift. For this reason, a noclip/free mode is included in case one just wants to float in space and look at the ship.