Wow. That was a magical experience I wasn’t expecting!
Waltz of the Wizard by Aldin was released on the Steam Store yesterday. It’s a free, let’s call it, ‘Wizard Simulator’, where you’re in your tower with a friendly talking skull. In front of you is a cauldron where you can mix a few ingredients to create spells, which you can then use on your surroundings with some helpful guidance from skullface.
Don’t put the skull in the cauldron, it’s just mean
First of all, this is amazing!
I’m not going to go into detail about what to expect as it will ruin the experience, but basically you can create spells which you can then use with your hands on anything within the room. The varied range of spells available are brilliant, ranging from the traditional fireballs which you can throw around, to the ability to draw in 3D, TiltBrush style.
Drawings come to life, it’s like a lite version of TiltBrush
Away from the spells, there are various objects around the room you can interact with, such as a crossbow, a xylophone and many, many more!
There are also a few ‘secret’ areas which adds even more to the experience. I need to play this more to see what else I can find, but one of the extra environments puts you on a bridge, which really gives you a ‘holey crap I’m high’ disorientation feeling. Even more so when you can throw stuff off the bridge and wait for it to eventually hit the bottom in the darkness below.
When I first appeared on this bridge, if gave me a feeling of height I’d not experienced in VR
Everything about this game is amazing. The graphics, the sounds, everything about this experience is really well done, and remember that the developer Aldin are giving this away free! No idea how or why, but thank you to them! Hopefully this is a taster for future full length game developments from them, and if so they have a very promising future in VR Gaming.
Mix your ingredients, but do it right or skullface will mock your stupidity
Conclusion
At the end of the day, this could be called a tech demo. A VR Showcase. It’s a sandbox Wizard Sim. Call it whatever the hell you want, but at the end of the day, it’s currently one of the most impressive VR titles out there. It won’t keep you playing for hours on end, but the time it does take to play through will be the best time you can spend wearing the Vive.
For a game in where you can experience so much without paying a penny, you would be crazy not to pick this up. If you’re still not sure, check out the trailer below.
Title: Waltz of the Wizard
Cost: Free. Yes, Free!
Link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/436820/
All images are borrowed from the Steam pages for Waltz of the Wizard
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