Hand-drawn 2D platform title The Lost Bear was announced last month by UK-based independent developer Oddbug Studio, who confirmed it would be heading for the PlayStation VR. Now the developer has confirmed the title will be launched on the console sometime in August, 2017.
The title’s Game director Daniel Robinson announced on the PlayStation Blog that The Lost Bear would be available on the PlayStation Store some time in the coming month. An exact date was not specified, nor was a price point.
The Lost Bear tells the story of a girl called Walnut, who sets out on a journey to rescue her lost teddy bear, overcoming obstacles and her own fears along the way. The style of a title was heavily inspired by puppet show theatre and features hand-drawn animation throughout.
Robinson said on the Blog post: “The project started at Norwich University of the Arts and ‘Dare to be Digital 2013’ where myself and two close friends wanted to accomplish a dream by creating our very own game. We were inspired both by Limbo and Eastern European puppet shows (our art director Harry is from the Czech Republic) and we teamed up with Fabrik Games to create and release The Lost Bear on PlayStation VR.”
The Blog post goes into details about the challenges faced during the development of The Lost Bear: “The VR mechanics of the game took a lot of time to get right,” Robinson explains, “We didn’t want Walnut to be aware of the player and we wanted to avoid any mechanics that did not fit the feel of the experience or break the flow of the game. During the prototyping phase we tried many gameplay iterations, and other gameplay prototypes. The decision was made that if they didn’t ground the player within the experience, or feel viable to coexist between 2D and 3D, then they wouldn’t make the cut.”
VRFocus will bring you further information about The Lost Bear as it becomes available.
via Mint VR