In October, Epic Games invited seven European VR development teams to participate in a weekend-long game jam in Hamburg, Germany to develop mods for Nvidia’s VR Funhouse, which the company built to showcase its GameWorks VR features. Each team built a unique mini-game for VR Funhouse that leverages one or more of Nvidia’s proprietary rendering technologies, which simulate fluid, fur, fire, fabrics, and even haptics. (Nvidia made the entire package open source, so it’s easier for developers to build on top of it.)
The Game Jam participants managed to create seven unique mods over the two-day period. Dreampunks, a small developer based out of Breda, Netherlands, built Waiter Wars, in which you must balance a tray of drinks in one hand while shooting incoming projectile objects with the pistol in your other. Aesir, a team based in Munich, built a game based on the Bavarian tradition of Oktoberfest called Beer, Beer, Beer & Sausages, which tasks you with putting sauce on customers’ orders and sending them out when they are ready. The title takes full advantage of the fluid simulation effects from GameWorks VR.
The Waiter Wars and Beer, Beer, Beer & Sausages mods are available now through the Steam Workshop. The five other mini-games aren’t yet available.
Daedalic created Power Tower, which it describes as a “spooky, crazy roller coaster.” As you ride the roller coaster, you’ll be forced to dodge and defend yourself from incoming projectiles. Carbon Team built Wizard’s Funhouse, which lets you play with magical abilities. Team Grumpy built The Secret Ingredient, in which you must squash bugs so they don’t fall into the meat grinder and get minced in with the real food.
Kid In A Candy Store from Team Broad Strokes might be the most creative mini-game of the bunch. You get to live out every kid's fantasy: You're in a candy store, and your goal is to stash as much candy as possible without getting caught by security.
Pantumaca Barcelona created a creepy mod called Happy Clowns that places you in a dark environment with a flashlight that has weak batteries. You must shine light on ghostly clowns to keep them away from you. (If you don’t like clowns, steer clear of this game.) We recently played a game called Raptor Valleythat relied on a similar mechanic. From our experience with Raptor Valley, we expect Happy Clowns to be an unsettling experience.
The VR Funhouse Modkit is available for free through the Epic Games Launcher.
