Flipping Tiles Between Platforms: 'Lost Cities' Getting Gear VR, Rift Cross Platform Play

Campfire Union released Lost Cities to the Oculus Store for the Gear VR earlier this year, and in July it became one of the first games to features Oculus’ Play With Friends social integration. Now, the developer is bringing the game to the Rift, too.

Campfire Union’s goal was to make a social game, something that people want to play with others. The company started from the get go with the intention of making Lost Cities multiplayer, and while moving it to the rift platform, Campfire Union decided it didn’t want to segregate its player base. When the Rift version of the game ships later this year, it will feature seamless cross-platform gameplay between Rift and Gear VR players.

Campfire Union tweeted that it has already gotten the cross-platform multiplayer function to work. We reached out to Lesley Klassen, Chief Innovation Officer at Campfire union, for a little bit more information. He informed us that Oculus updated its platform a few weeks ago to include cross-platform multiplayer compatibility.

“The platform allows you to integrate two app IDs, one for a Gear VR build, and one for the Rift build, and all the multiplayer functionality just works,” said Klassen. “It's been a really nice integration process.”

Klassen noted that there is at least one glaring issue that the team had to address: With the Rift, players have the freedom to walk around, which is a problem when your game revolves around not being able to see your opponent's board. Campfire Union is adding some anti-cheat mechanisms to prevent the dirty, rotten cheaters from walking around to the other side of the table.

Campfire Union hasn’t announced a release date for Lost Cities on the Rift, but Klassen said that development is on schedule for a 2016 release.