Last Week in AVP #18: WHAT IF…? An Immersive Story Officially Launches With Reviews and Walkthroughs, Job Simulator, Vacation Simulator, Demeo, Spatial Hockey Ninja Launches and More!
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WHAT IF…? An Immersive Story Officially Launches!
Marvel's What If...? on the Vision Pro Is a Free Taste of the Future (CNET)
It’s reassuring to see the resources and talents Disney is assigning to this project, including David Bushore, director and executive producer of Marvel Studios.
David Bushore, director and executive producer of Marvel Studios, and Ian Bowie, experience design director of ILM Immersive, admit that this new free app is also a way of starting to figure out what can be done in newer mixed-reality headsets with hand tracking. Bushore worked on Marvel's Disney theme park attractions at Walt Disney Imagineering, and helped create an AR iOS experience based on The Eternals that felt, a few years ago, like hints of how AR characters might someday appear in your home in a headset.
"We can start thinking about how things fit in your home in an actual present way. And now that opens up storytelling potential of things down the line that we're all very excited about," Bowie said to me in a Zoom conversation. "And this is just the first step in that direction. We have many, many ideas of how to take it to like further levels and be able to kind of expand all that. But hitting the high notes of it of being able to just think about your space as a location, something that other characters can come into, is really cool."
Screenshot by Scott Stein/CNET
Marvel’s What If…? Vision Pro app is an awkward mix of video game and movie (Verge)
No surprise here, Verge is very pessimistic about the experience
This stuff is actually fun to do, but it’s also very constrained by the fact that you can only do it at scripted moments, which sucks. That would be fine if the story was compelling, but it’s not given any room to be. It’s just a series of brief vignettes that serve as setup for the next interactive section, then you’re dropped in to get whichever stone you’re after, at which point you learn a new skill that you may or may not use again later. Each vignette basically follows the same pattern and ends up feeling like it’s building to something that never pays off.
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But for now, it will be worth a look after it goes live tomorrow if you have a Vision Pro but don’t expect anything revolutionary.
Hands On With ILM Immersive's Apple Vision Pro What If... Marvel Experience (uploadvr)
Meanwhile, an enthusiastic take from uploadvr:
While the arrival of Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator on Apple Vision Pro sees some of VR's best-selling games reimagined for hand tracking, What If... is the experience every Apple Vision Pro owner needs to see. This is the best example ever made of Disney showing its storytelling prowess using a VR headset in a way previous partnerships with Meta and The Void lacked. What If... was only an hour long, but my heart ached in the final moments of this story as I felt like I had personally closed the book on the characters.
I Spent an Hour in Marvel’s Apple Vision Pro Experience. I’m Still Not Sure Why (Wired)
What If…? is also only the beginning. Voris says part of the reason Disney invested in the project was to expand the notion of what’s possible. “We want to give our creatives a bigger toolbox and a broader palette to paint on,” he says. “I think sometimes you can’t see the second hill until you get to the top of the first hill, and this was our first hill, for sure. But we can see lots of hills beyond it, and we have lots of ideas of things that we’d like to do from here.” Marvel, he contends, has a vision. It’s just hard for everyone to see right now.
Co-writer of the Marvel What If…? Experience reddit AMA (source)
Some interesting tidbits from the co-writers of the experience. Here’s one question:
What IP/franchise would you like to see next in the same format as the What If immersive experience?
And if you could snap a finger and have any new immersive environment on the Vision Pro, what would it be?
where he answers:
That's a great question. Personally I think within Marvel, I'd love to see a bit more of Dr. Strange, because the platform is just absolutely built for hand gestures. I think it's just really nice if what the player is doing matches up with what the character is doing 1:1 and not a weird "play gun" substitute. When you are opening a portal it is -exactly- what it would be like in real life. If you were (say) Hawkeye, now you are -pretending- to hold a bow and arrow and that little "break" in reality vs imagination makes things harder for me.
Any new immersive environment? I'd be thrilled with the ones that are "coming soon" :) But umm... hmmm. As much as I love the ones based on real life I think I'd also be excited for more immersive environments that could not exist. Or one that plays with scale perhaps? It'd be interesting to be in an environment where you are microscopic, like a blood cell or something.
Marvel's: What If Experience On Apple Vision Pro Is A Blast! (Full Gameplay)
What If: Marvel's FIRST Mixed Reality Experience is HERE! Full Gameplay & Thoughts
What If Apple Vision Pro Full Experience From Marvel Studios - Spoilers (uploadvr)
The much awaited simulator family of games from Owlchemy is here on AVP!
VR role-playing game ‘Demeo’ now available for Apple Vision Pro
Demeo is “a cross-platform cooperative adventure for up to four players that recreates all of the magic and camaraderie of gathering around a tabletop with friends to do battle against the forces of evil.” There are four heroes available, each with different abilities. It mixes augmented and virtual reality, creating a unique gameplay where players can feel like they’re part of the game.
Demeo was originally released for Oculus Quest in 2021 and then ported to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR 2 in 2023. And now, Apple Vision Pro owners can also experience the game.
Spatial Hockey Ninja Has Been Released. Available for Free or at a Discounted Price for a Limited Time Only (source)
Spatial Hockey Ninja and Spatial Hockey Ninja Giant, as well as Spatial Pinball Ninja, which was released on February 2, 2024 as a launch title for the Apple Vision Pro, will be available at the following prices until June 7, 2024.
Spatial Puzzle Game 'Where Cards Fall' Now Available on Apple Vision Pro
Apple is continuing to add to its lineup of Apple Arcade games on the Vision Pro, today adding puzzle game Where Cards Fall.
Eternal Starlight: Oversee Space Battles On Apple Vision Pro
A new title to keep an eye on, releasing officially June 3.
The indie title from White Noise Games sees players given real-time command of an Ender's Game-like space fleet, faced with tasks FTL-style from multiple alien species as you "collect technology to upgrade your vessels and plot your next hyperspace jump while defending the remaining colonies of the human race."
How frequent do AVP owners use their devices? (Survey by XR AI Spotlight)
How often have you used your Apple Vision Pro in April?
Almost Daily
A few times every week
A couple of times or less
Don’t own it but curious
The survey ran for 7 days and at the end I reached out to everybody who responded “Almost Daily” and “A few times a week” asking “Could you share one or two sentences about how you use the Vision Pro, like what app or usecases?”
Free visionOS development series on youtube (source)
If you wish to get started on visionOS development, this is a short and brief overview.
Mt. Hood VisionPro Environment for Mac Wallpaper (download)
Tim Cook shares what people feel when they “try Vision Pro for first time” (source)
Apple Vision Pro was made possible by years of breakthroughs from our design and engineering teams. The result is so profound that people are often emotional the first time they try it. I’ve seen it firsthand.
That’s all for now, feel free to leave me any feedback and discussions! 🙏
