Spellbound is a virtual reality game where you can be a wizard and throw fireballs at zombies! At least, that’s what it appears to be at first glance to the uninitiated eye but there’s much more lingering below the surface, waiting for you to discover it. Spellbound is intended to be a rich story telling platform where players get to select a fable and become the active protagonist in the story. Each story is a creative exploration into a particular topic / theme designed to explore and discover the capabilities of virtual reality.
The first story is a three part tale about a red wizard who has suffered from a lifetime of loneliness after being chased away from his home village by villagers scared of his magical abilities. He grew up in a hidden tower deep in the dark forests, never meeting another person, always fearful of his own magical abilities. One day, he meets a strange crow on a tree which somehow knows how to speak. They become friends and the crow becomes his mentor on all magical things. What the wizard doesn’t know is that his feathered friend isn’t just any old run of the mill talking bird, there is something deep, dark, and sinister lurking beneath the surface…
Spell Casting in VR:
Within Spellbound, you use your hands to cast magical spells. Each spell has a different way of interacting with hands in VR. Fireballs can be thrown like baseballs and fly depending on how hard you throw them. A “cone of cold” will freeze your foes, but the focal angle and length of the cone is based on the distance between your hands. Frozen foes can be punched, causing them to shatter. Spells may seem a bit basic at first glance, but there is a lot of underlying complexity with the combinations you can create from the basic elements. For example, spraying sticky grease all over the ground may appear to slow down anyone passing through it, but it’s flammable as well. If you ignite it with a fireball, you create a wall of fire. You can continue spraying grease into the fire but it becomes a dangerous flame thrower…
VR Features and Capabilities:
1. Room scale: You can walk around in your play space and your character does as well! When you duck and dodge, so does your character.
2. Full Body Avatars: You’re more than just a pair of floating hands and a head, you’re a full wizard. Expect some really cool uses of this in the future.
3. Object Collision: You can’t phase through solid objects in VR, even though you can physically try to walk through it in your living room.
4. Locomotion System: Swing your arms side to side to walk. Jogging motions sprint for a moment. You don’t have to leave your play area to walk across a meadow.
5. 360 degrees of freedom: You can throw a fireball from behind your back or under your leg. That wraith never saw it coming…
6. Pets: Every story will have magical pets you can interact with directly. Red wizard gets a crow; Sorceress of light gets a unicorn. After experimenting with pets in VR, I almost wanted to just stop everything else and make the game about interacting with pets.
Hardware Support:
Display Support:
HTC Vive: Full Support
Oculus Rift: Full Support
Traditional Monitor: Limited Support
Inputs:
Vive Motion Controllers: Full Support
Mouse & Keyboard: Limited Support
Game Pad: Limited Support
Oculus Touch: Full Support
Leap Motion: Coming Soon
Comfort & Suitability
Motion Sensitivity: This is a comfortable VR experience for a majority of people, but very motion sensitive people may experience brief moments of nausea. I strive to limit this. Also, I recommend not drinking alcohol prior to doing any VR.
This game may not be appropriate for young children: I discovered this the hard way when an eight year old girl tried my game for the first time and saw a life sized zombie. She immediately started crying and was very traumatized. Parental discretion is advised!
No jump scares: There aren’t any intentionally added in.
Romance & Intimacy. There may be suggestive themes in future installments of content.
Heart Warning: Beware: To my surprise, this game has been scary for many people. If you have a heart condition, play at your own risk and discretion.
Game Discussion
Steam User 10
Spellbound is definitely one of the most charming VR games to date.
Among the things it does well include:
Music: The soundtrack is composed perfectly for a fantasy game and invokes a sense of whimsy
Environment Design: The library, crypt, and forest are varied, detailed, and memorable.
Graphics: Moonlight effects in the forest are jaw-dropping. Looks fantastic with supersampling
Story/dialogue: The the story is fully voice acted, and definitely leaves you wanting more
Locomotion: This flavor of arm-swing locomotion is tons of fun, and you can run in place for immersion
Replayability: You'll want to replay it just because it's mechanics are fun, but there are also acheivements and easter eggs to unlock
Which leads us to the bad:
It's an early access game. You should expect all the little things that remind you that the title is still in development, but don't affect enjoyment or completion of the game at all. Things like stray text floating around after you die, or frustrations with the auto-aim on spells. All the sort of stuff you expect to smooth out as the next episodes and acts come out.
Which leads to the final point:
Spellbound is, for now, a prelude that creates a world you want to return to. Though it's fun to replay and show to friends, what you should really be excited for are the coming levels. You're buying into the oppurtunity to see those take shape.
Steam User 5
I think that this game is pretty awesome. The spells look amazing. The way you move is pretty inventive and engaging - although I'm not sure for how long this kind of movement will be fun.
The only major issue I have with it as it stands is the stamina. after 3-4 seconds of walking, I don't want to slow down. IF there was a sprint function, which I honestly wouldnt want anyway, then maybe i could understand it, but it is currently really annoying and gets in the way of exploring because i come to a halt every few seconds.
This lack of stamina also results in hearing panting near constantly. I think that the panting also overrides other audio, because when there was narration, usually it cut out after a couple seconds. Again, I think that this was because of the panting audio replacing it, but I'm not 100% sure.
Definitely one of the better VR games going around, even if it is short at the moment.
Steam User 5
Thanks for an interesting and unique experience! Some constructive feedback:
1) Most of the time, the fireballs didn't go where I intended. More often than not they would go downward into the ground instead of forward. I found aiming to be quite difficult. Maybe the alignment was off somehow?
2) The locomotion actually worked surprisingly well, but it was annoying when the avatar kept getting out of breath and stopping. It felt like I had to stop to catch my breath every few feet.
3) I couldn't figure out how to switch between spells.
4) Please let me skip the beginning voiced intro. It went on for way too long, and I'd rather be able to quickly read something like that instead of having to sit there staring at a bookshelf and listening to a voice slowly read it.
Excited to see the next version!
Steam User 5
So cool and immersive.
best movment so far and you have hands and body, the spells looks great too.
the cons:
Very short and early acess, the is only one chapter right now.
The price is a little spicy, but its a potential game for those who like RPGs and immersive movment, I want this game to be supported to grow, but thats up to you. I had a lot of fun with this and for me worth it, first rpg I saw with this movment.
Steam User 2
I absolutely love the ideah for this game, and it has been done well so far. I do have a few complaints though. 1 I HATE the movement system. I would really like an option for trackpad movement or even teleportation. and second. The body being visible at the moment is very hard on the eyes. when im looking straight im clipping into the characters upper torso, and the arms get in the way so much and dont reach far enough that it really took me out of character. If there was a way to disable the body and change movement system im going to have to find a new job because this game will be all im playing!
Steam User 1
It's really short right now, but the atmosphere and gameplay are amazing.
Powering up a spell and shooting it at enemies is extremely satisfying. I think the graphics are very impressive as well.
Your character is very powerful, but your movement is impaired because you are a physically weak mage. AKA glass cannon, which feels really cool.
Steam User 0
Seems like such an amazing game, but actually swinging arms back and forth seems like a waste of stamina compared to just holding down a button! ... -<or what?
Getting tired in my arms by doing that jerking motion all the time, and its annoying. Ruins the fun for me. Gotta wank my way to anywhere!
You might shit yourself.
Good story, gamedesign overall, graphics are very nice, interaction with enemies well balanced and proper scary with haptic feedback!
My downstairs neighboor thought I was being beaten up the last time I played, but that was with full haptics.
Tried both Hardlight and bHaptics. Hardlight was more accurate but bHaptics had more realistic sensation.
BUT DE PLEASE: No need to make this otherwise awesome game a wanking simulator. Requested this be changed over a year ago but still no "press-button-to-move" option.