spatialcomputing.info

Townscaper is a clever little town-building experience that gained notoriety back when it first launched on Steam Early Access in 2020. Now developer Oskar Stålberg has taken interest in VR design, showing a prototype of the pint-sized town creator running in VR.

Stålberg took to Twitter today to ask some design advice from the VR developer community, offering a glimpse at Townscaper’s quaint little models being plopped down and manipulated in VR.

Looking at basic VR design. Current idea is to use a point on a stick for interaction (rather than a raycast) so that you can build in the air. Those points also serve as grabbig points for grab-navigation. Feels tactile. pic.twitter.com/QvqoJzkn9y

— Oskar Stålberg (@OskSta) March 3, 2022

It’s not clear whether Stålberg is definitely bringing Townscaper to VR at this stage. When asked what platform he was targeting, or whether this meant he was adding VR support to Townscaper, Stålberg answered he was “considering many things.”

Still, it appears the indie dev has gone fairly far with implementing basic VR support. It seems all major functions are there in the prototype shown above, including building placement, color selection, modification, and a grab-style locomotion scheme—something the developer says “[f]eels tactile.”

It’s decidedly an early prototype; color palette placement, button labeling, how to rotate the world, and many other finer points are still in the works.

Although it’s unclear whether it means VR support is a sure thing, Stålberg has historically been very transparent throughout the design process however, so we’ll be following along on Twitter to see just what comes next.

And yes, we’re definitely hoping for a Quest version.