‘Return to Grindelind’ a world-scale VR prototype for Vive Focus

‘Return to Grindelind’ is a first person worldscale RPG set in medieval England. You play a petty lord who returns from a religious pilgrimage to find his village deserted. You must discover why and collect 3 keys to unlock the chest that contains your sword and shield.

Although, yes, Worldscale VR games require the player has access to a large open space, the user experience and ‘feel’ is transformatively different than conventional 6DoF. Walking tetherlessly is more than just a mechanical capability. Through our prototyping, we’ve identified that exploration games are a great fit for the medium. The ability to see a far off thing and simply go toward it makes the virtual feel all the more real. When you take off the headset, you almost feel that the virtual environment is still there, albeit invisible. As long as the playspace is empty, playing a well-designed worldscale VR game on a soccer field is no more dangerous than playing roomscale at home.