With its wonderful worlds, wacky characters and colorful stories, Double Fine is as good a developer as any to seek inspiration from. That’s exactly what Dead Bug Creek has done.
This is a charming new VR exclusive videogame that recently hit Kickstarter, looking for some $35,000. Developed by a two-person team named California Rex, it’s a first-person adventure in which you play as an alien explorer on Earth. Uncovering the titular town in your search for “The Ultimate Prize”, you’ll befriend a young girl named Flora. From there you’ll explore your surreal surroundings, meeting fantastical characters and taking in impossible sights.
https://youtu.be/Pa6rdKtAWM0
Taking a look at the announcement trailer above, it’s not hard to see where California Rex drew its inspirations from. The game wears its Double Fine fandom on its sleeve, specifically inspired by the developer’s cult hit platformer, Psychonauts. The developer also cites The X-Files and The Goonies in helping bring the project to life, as well as childhood memories of growing up in a town in the Sonoran Desert.
Gameplay is carried out through a gamepad and includes puzzle solving and exploration. Players are armed with a treasure-finding device named the P.W.O.P.P.L.E. that can find coins that are then used to operate gaming machines. Items can also be collected and sent back to your mother ship.
The game has already been in development for over a year. On the Kickstarter page, the developer reasons that it wants to help build a community through its campaign and give it more resources to help further polish the title, turning it into a more comfortable experience.
Dead Bug Creek could use a helping hand, though. Having launched its crowd-funding campaign a few days back the project has only raised a mere $331 at the time of writing. If it does reach its lofty target by July 15th, though, the game will release later this year for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive. If you want to pledge, backer rewards include digital downloads of the game, custom art, and even the chance to appear in the game yourself.
Of course, Psychonauts itself is coming to VR with a Double Fine-developed spin-off named Psychonauts: In the Rhombus of Ruin. The more wacky VR adventures out there the better, though.
