Rovio has been quietly showing off two Angry Birds VR games, but when will they be released to the public?
Back in May we learned that Rovio, the studio behind the popular series of Angry Birds games, showed a demo of Angry Birds VR at the Rock in Rio festival to select attendees. Since then, not another peep.
Now Rovio is showing off an entirely new Angry Birds VR demo that takes you on a comet ride around the solar system, VRScout has learned.
The latest experience, dubbed Angry Birds Space VR, is being demoed at select events on Gear VR headsets. The roughly 2-minute long space journey places you atop a giant comet – riding behind Red who sits in an oversized slingshot. As you soar in space, the comet follows a path through the solar system, letting you look around in all directions.
Exploring all the planets, you must keep a close eye out for any astronaut pigs floating around the solar system – they are not your friends. Utilizing the touchpad on the Gear VR, you can aim and shoot the pigs out of their space suits.
Developed by Brazil-based VR studio IMGNATION, Angry Birds Space VR is being privately demoed at a few events in the U.S. and Brazil. For the initial launch, the team had 40 days to get the demo up and running for a July reveal at NASA headquarters for a New Horizons event, a historic celebration for the first-ever flyby of Pluto, according to Orlando Fonseca Jr., Founder at IMGNATION Studios. Both the ISS and New Horizons spacecraft are depicted in the VR demo.
Subsequently, Angry Birds Space VR was demoed in October at the Brasil Game Show, a yearly South American video game convention, as well as last month at Campus Party, a week long technology festival in São Paulo, Brazil.
Floating ice particles from Saturn’s rings. Watch out Red!
Angry Birds Space VR improves upon the first VR experience that was created for the Rock in Rio festival. The Rock in Rio VR demo placed you behind Red as you navigated him through glowing rings, all while using your head to steer him straight through. There was one drawback – it was difficult to look around and admire the surrounding 360° environment since your head was so busy acting as a controller.
For Angry Birds Space VR, the comet is set on rails, allowing you to follow a set path and soak in the beautiful solar system around you. The giant sling shot in the foreground adds a stable point of reference, helping to reduce motion sickness as well.
A portion of initial storyboards for Angry Birds Space VR
Even though Angry Birds Space VR was originally intended for the NASA New Horizons event, Rovio has been showing both Space VR and Rock in Rio VR together at their most recent events. With the upcoming release of The Angry Birds Movie in May, you would think that Rovio would make their VR demos more accessible to the public, or at least demo at more events globally.
As for the big question on all our minds – when will we ever get to try this?
Rovio responded that “they don’t have plans to make the VR experiences publicly available.”
So it looks like both Angry Birds VR experiences will be left to die in that sad but often true “demo/marketing purposes only” bucket.
More Early Images of Angry Birds Space VR
Red shoots out of a wormhole between the Sun and Mercury, riding a comet with a slingshot on top.
Ice particles float by and a blazing sun can be seen just around the corner.
Oh hey International Space Station.
Watch out Red, those don’t look too friendly!
Even the New Horizon spacecraft, on its way to Pluto, makes an appearance.
Just made a leap towards Neptune, it’s getting cold out here. Save me Rovio!
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