Cyan’s spiritual successor to Myst is launching with all-new motion control support on March 22nd for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch. The game originally released on Steam in August 2016, receiving initial VR support for the Rift in October.

Following in the legendary footsteps of Myst and Riven, Obduction presents an ideal VR setting, taken at a slow pace, encouraging players to study the environments carefully, finding clues to solve puzzles in a curious new world. The original VR support for Oculus Rift began as a stretch goal during the game’s 2013 Kickstarter campaign, and arrived in October 2016, a couple of months after the standard game launched on Steam. The game received a free update and launched on the Oculus Store at the same time, and was praised for its visuals and puzzle diversity.

obduction2Using the ‘blink’ teleport feature, the game feels the most like Myst, although a freeform movement with snap turning was also available, which was then updated in November to include a smooth turning option for those unaffected by this contributor to VR sickness. Since then, Cyan have focused on bringing the experience to other headsets, announcing the game would come to PlayStation VR and HTC Vive in 2017, with the major addition of motion controller support.

SEE ALSO
'Obduction' VR Review, Now with Touch and Vive Support

The new version arrives on HTC Vive and Oculus Touch on March 22nd on Steam, GOG, Humble Store, and the Oculus Store for $29.99. Existing owners will receive the update for free. Motion control should be a perfect fit in a game scattered with detailed objects to study, and involves extensive button and lever interactivity.

“We have over 200,000 fans on our Steam wishlist, many who have been asking for hand controls for Obduction. As a VR-centric studio, we’re thrilled to be delving even further into these platforms, bringing ever deeper immersion to our worlds and pushing the edge of what’s possible”, says Rand Miller, CEO, Cyan.

obduction1Visitors to PAX East this weekend will have a chance to preview the Oculus Touch version in the Indie MEGABOOTH, and there is a further opportunity to try the game at the Indie Corner of the SXSW Gaming show floor, from March 16th to 18th, 12-8pm at the Austin Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 2 – plus Rand Miller will be taking questions on the SXSW Gamer’s Voice stage at 7:45pm on March 17th.

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The trial version of Microsoft’s Monster Truck Madness probably had something to do with it. And certainly the original Super Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. A car nut from an early age, Dominic was always drawn to racing games above all other genres. Now a seasoned driving simulation enthusiast, and former editor of Sim Racer magazine, Dominic has followed virtual reality developments with keen interest, as cockpit-based simulation is a perfect match for the technology. Conditions could hardly be more ideal, a scientist once said. Writing about simulators lead him to Road to VR, whose broad coverage of the industry revealed the bigger picture and limitless potential of the medium. Passionate about technology and a lifelong PC gamer, Dominic suffers from the ‘tweak for days’ PC gaming condition, where he plays the same section over and over at every possible combination of visual settings to find the right balance between fidelity and performance. Based within The Fens of Lincolnshire (it’s very flat), Dominic can sometimes be found marvelling at the real world’s ‘draw distance’, wishing virtual technologies would catch up.
  • nebošlo

    Cool, I stopped playing it once I got my Touch controllers, because I just couldn’t go back to playing that sort of game with a gamepad.

    • Get Schwifty!

      Yeah, only for pure arcade games (which are not always a bad thing) gamepads are fine, but after that you really want Touch controllers…

    • Inferor

      same here!

  • wheeler

    This one’s definitely on my list. But as with many others I was holding out for (1) smooth locomotion and (2) motion controller support. Great to see that it will soon become a proper VR game!

    • Raphael

      But it’s not bringing full locomotion is it?

      • wheeler

        Could be wrong, but I thought this is what the author meant when he wrote:
        “although a freeform movement with snap turning was also available, which
        was then updated in November to include a smooth turning option for
        those unaffected by this contributor to VR sickness.”

        • Raphael

          Aha… so hopefully full locomotion then. I loved the Myst games although I’m too dumb to complete any of them without a walkthrough (I solved maybe 10% of puzzles in Myst V).

          • Sam Illingworth

            Have we really settled on the term “full locomotion” to mean free movement using joysticks? It’s a terrible phrase for that. Being able to actually walk around in room scale is more what “full locomoation” sounds like it should mean.

          • J.C.

            That’s why I call it Hoverboarding, because you don’t feel like you’re walking around. You feel like you’re standing on a gliding platform. That said, it feels more natural in long distance movement than teleporting.

            VR has a long, LONG way to go to truly fooling you into thinking you’re “there”. We may never achieve it, and the sensors/suits it would absolutely require would be a tough sell to the general public. There’s already a ton of crybabies on these forums who think VR should be a pair of sunglasses and that’s it. Imagine the pushback from them on haptic suits/suspension systems.

          • Jason Mercieca

            Game ‘onward’ locomotion type is in my opinion the best solution available and makes you feel there…

          • Buddydudeguy

            “Onward Locomotion” is not a locomotion type and they didn’t do it first.

          • Sam Illingworth

            Yeah, that’s a much better name. It actually describes the system, rather than just being an emotive term designed to make it sound like the best solution.

          • Raphael

            I haven’t settled yet. Trackpad motion…

          • VR Cat

            Full locomotion means being able to ambulate in-game:

            1) Smoothly, i.e. not jumping between points
            2) In any direction the player chooses
            3) Only under player impetus, i.e. they start and continue at their intiative – not pick a destination and then drift towards it
            4) For distances that are only limited by level design, where those levels’ expanses are not limited by the expected real-world space of the player’s room
            5) At speeds not limited below normal human speeds for the purpose of reducing simulator sickness
            6) Without visual effects imposed to reduce simulator sickness, e.g. narrowing the field of view during locomotion
            7) With the use of the character’s legs, i.e. not dragging your character through the environment with their hands

            A movement scheme could be called ‘free-roaming’ or ‘free-movement’ and satisfy some of the above criteria without satisfying all. Such a scheme is still gimped in my opinion. If a scheme satisfies all of the criteria I listed, then I consider that ‘full locomotion’. That’s not to say it couldn’t be improved upon – I think a time will come when we no longer consider coupled head and ambulatory direction to be ‘full locomotion’. However, under the circumstances (so many gimped locomotion schemes out there), I think coupled games deserve this allowance.

          • Sam Illingworth

            I’m not arguing against those points, I’m arguing against the name. The name “full locomotion” doesn’t imply all the point you just specified.

          • VR Cat

            You’re right that ‘full’ by itself does not imply all the points I listed, but then it would be difficult for one word to encompass those seven characteristics. In comparison, terms like ‘on-rails locomotion’, and ‘teleport locomotion’ are more descriptive, because they’re just describing the one aspect that distinguishes them from other forms.

            With ‘full locomotion’ however, what distinguishes it from other forms is that nothing has been removed – therefore it still has all the features that describe the way we naturally move. Rather than list those features every time, it’s easier just to say ‘full locomotion’. Hopefully the context of its use among VR enthusiasts means there’s no confusion with other types of free-roaming content, such as cockpit games. I don’t think many of us would refer to cockpit games as having full locomotion – we’d just call them cockpit games! The same goes for any type of locomotion that deviates from normal free-roaming content – if it’s dashing from one point to another then it’s ‘dash locomotion’, if there’s a narrowing FOV when you move then it’s ‘blinkered locomotion’, etc.

            Full locomotion is basically what you get back once you deactivate all comfort modes!

          • Sam Illingworth

            J.C.’s suggestion above is the best I’ve heard so far – “Hoverboarding”. Much more descriptive and intuitive, and without the “this is the best system” connotations. Anyone who’s played VR games with the different types but hasn’t heard any of these labels wouldn’t have a clue what “full locomotion” means in this context, but I think they’d recognise “hoverboarding”.

          • VR Cat

            Hoverboarding would be a good term for free-roaming joystick locomotion where the player is unable to strafe – as you can’t strafe on a hoverboard. For movement schemes where the player can strafe, this term is less descriptive.

          • Sam Illingworth

            I assumed he meant sci-fi hoverboards, on which you can strafe.

          • VR Cat

            LOL

  • Sam Illingworth

    Nice! I picked this up in the sale but decided to wait for Vive support before playing it.

  • J.C.

    Please let this have actual “hand functions”, and not “use the controller as a laser pointer”…

  • Buddydudeguy

    Great! now fix the freaking LOD loading stutter. This game is terribly coded. I shouldnt have to use teleport mode instead of stick locomotion to cover up the loading transition stutter they couldnt bother fixing. To this day they play stupid and ask for your DXDiag.

  • DougP

    Motion controls = great news!
    Also, the game’s on sale right now on chrono (dot) gg.

  • indi01

    Will definitely buy.