Josh On Design

It's not a secret that I am unimpressed by most VR games. While I am excited about the potential of VR & AR for education and enhancing human cognition, games simply bore me. Or the did. Now I stand corrected. Beat Saber rawks!

During my (very productive) work week in Chicago I was forced by my evil co-workers to play Beat Saber. The concept is simple: a rhythm game where you smash blocks using sabers made of light. but not lightsabers because that would be a violation of trademark

Despite this simple concept it is insanely fun. Here is a clip of me wailing around like a mad man. Fortunately, when immersed in VR you don't notice how ridiculous you look. Instead you merely enjoy the thrill of smashing things in time with music, and the occasional duck under a surprisingly solid feeling virtual block dive bombing your head.

One thought I had, after a rousing 15 minutes session, is how physical the game is. Yes, I'm standing in one place moving lightweight controllers, but I almost broke into a sweat. I bet with some wrist and ankle weights I'd burn off some serious calories. I wonder if my insurance would cover a VR headset as exercise equipment.

I'm looking forward to playing more when I get home. While the graphics are simple enough to work on mobile, I'm pretty sure the game requires two 6dof 6dof = Six Degrees Of Freedom, meaning the game can see both the angle / orientation and position of the controller. A 3dof controller, which is what all mobile systems currently have, only sees the angle/orientation. Plus most mobile devices only have one controller.) controllers so playing on my Oculus Go while flying across the country will have to wait for another year of technology advancements.

The only problem I see with Beat Saber is the inability to share it with spectators. Apparently I can play the music both inside the headset and through the main speakers, but I don't think I can have a large external monitor connected at the same time as the headset. Even better would be two player mode where two headsets and four controllers could play as a team!

Have a good weekend!