The Caretaker featured by The Independent

My VR Horror Experience – The Caretaker was featured by The Independent, a national newspaper in the UK! It’s wonderful to have got some recognition from such a respected publication – and it’s equally great news that VR is featuring more heavily in the mainstream media.

The Caretaker is an unofficial homage to one of the greatest horror films created, The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick. I hope that in some small way it captures some of the atmosphere of the film and source material. Here’s the intoduction from the article:

Have you ever watched The Shining and thought Jack Nicholson’s character was overreacting a bit?

Well, should you want to put that to the test, you can now tour the very hotel from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film in virtual reality.

Developed by Franbo, this VR experience uses Oculus technology that’ll permit you to run loose around the Overlook Hotel also featured in Stephen King’s source novel.

If you’d like to download the experience itself, click here and follow the instructions. While the experience is developed specifically for VR, one can still play-through on a conventional screen.

If you’d like to take a look at others reactions to the experience, check out my list of play-throughs here!

Oculus Rift’s pricing and the future of VR

After a lengthy period of development (for lengthy read glacial), the first major milestone on the road to widespread, high quality VR was reached today with the launch of Oculus Rift pre-orders.
A growing community of developers and enthusiasts have been waiting and learning; hoping to shape an exciting future for this new medium (I’d proudly count myself among them).
I’ll admit that today’s announcement of the price-point – $599 (USD), £499 (GBP) did cause my heart to drop, as it did for many others. The cost is rather higher than was expected, and the reaction on-line was almost solely focused on this. What effect will this pricing have on the adoption of VR in 2016, the fortunes of Oculus’ competitors – and those of developers? Here are my thoughts. Continue reading “Oculus Rift’s pricing and the future of VR”

The Caretaker VR Experience – Update 1.1

I’ve just released an update for my VR release – The Caretaker, a VR experience inspired by The Shining, following feedback from users. It’s currently being validated by the Oculus team, but temporary download links can be found here. Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to check it out; I’ve been so pleased to see the positive reaction. Download the latest version of The Caretaker here, or read on for the change list.

Continue reading “The Caretaker VR Experience – Update 1.1”