Last week I found myself floating down a river in Middle Earth, paddling gently along in a wooden canoe, and sporting rather hairy toes. I have fairly hobbit-like toes In Real Life but am not good at rowing, so I could distinguish between what was me and what was ‘me’ quite well. Though every time I looked down at ‘my’ self I realised I was trying to move my virtual limbs through the power of thought, which wasn’t really working, I just kept stubbing my toe.

It seems I am a bit of what Dan Page calls a Grabber – someone who can’t help reaching out to grasp something they can see while immersed in an Oculus Rift-enabled immersive environment. I floated along happily for a few minutes, then, worried that some creature might erupt from the depths of the Middle Earth river, I took off the Oculus Rift headset. I did stay in there long enough to be convinced that yes, I would love Lux & The Shadowmaker to be an immersive experience.

I know that I need to make a version of the game that people without all the latest kit can experience, especially those who have pledged their support on the campaign page but a VR version would be wonderful and I am very excited. When I was trying to write the game narrative I found it really hard to put into words, but I could visualise it, which made me determined to make it as a 3D game in Unity.

When I explained Lux & The Shadowmaker to Ben Trewhella of Opposable Games he grabbed Dan to talk to me and the two of them have convinced me that a VR/Oculus Rift version of the game is a must. There will be more conversations as I work out the best way to take the screen-based version of Lux & The Shadowmaker and work out the effects of having to navigate and control in VR,  e.g. by using these nifty handled controllers that Dan showed me… so watch this space, it will happen.

And if anyone wants to share some expertise about building games for VR then do please email info[AT]prettydigitalDOTcoDOTuk