I am making this game with a bunch of graduates from my CS department. This game is primarily a tech demo for the Oculus Rift VR Headset.
In RailRider the player is racing against the clock to complete a course in the shortest time possible. The player can not directly affect his speed. Speed is controlled by the energy of the rail the player is currently connected to.
The control scheme of the game is look, lock and act. Motion is carried by the direction of the rail giving the player full freedom to examine her environment. The head tracking of the Rift will allow the user to find an area of interest in the game, a rail with a higher energy level, for instance. To initiate a transfer the player looks at the rail, it glows to indicate it is within acting range. the player taps A and a the glow intensifies and shrinks to a localized area where the jump will land. If they wish to swing to the next rail they can tap A a second time. If the player wishes to cancel they can tap B.
The feel of this game should make the player believe that they are always on the verge of being out of control. Spiderman when he is first testing his web shooters in the city. A skier who accidentally chose a slope beyond his ability level. That final moment before your first plunge on a roller coaster you weren’t sure you wanted to be on.
The game draws its visual inspiration from every indoor paintball arena that is using neon in homage to Tron... though this is likely to change once the art team weighs in.
