VR life simulator sandbox Little Planet goes free-to-play with this 12 months’s full launch, and we interviewed the developer to be taught extra.
At present accessible in early entry on Quest, Little Planet by VRWOOD initially arrived in November 2023 and has seen a constant slate of updates ever since. Playable alone and in multiplayer, this social sandbox enables you to construct a house throughout totally different planets with the power to terraform these worlds. Actions embody letting you create customized furnishings, collect wild sources, beautify, and extra.
Full launch date trailer
Every world has NPCs often known as ‘Planet Friends’ who you should purchase numerous objects from, like garments from the style boutique proprietor or seeds from a flower knowledgeable. Gadgets could be saved inside a backpack you seize from behind you, whereas formulation playing cards help you see what’s craftable from the totally different benches.
Talking to UploadVR over a video name, Frank Huang, founding father of VRWOOD and artistic director on Little Planet, defined in our interview that his journey with VR goes again to 2013. After releasing VR Horror Home for Google Cardboard, Huang realized this is not the kind of recreation he needed to maintain making.
“No extra zombies for me; we’ve seen sufficient zombies,” Huang jokes cheerfully.
Finally the workforce started exploring a social recreation much like Altspace, and he thought-about the best way to create significant connections in VR. Although the life sim mechanics make Animal Crossing a pure comparability, Huang as a substitute factors in direction of 1943’s The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry as a significant inspiration. Particularly, Huang factors to when the prince finds a rose backyard crammed with equivalent flowers, but his is totally different as a result of it was given love and care.
“That is my eureka second,” he tells me, stating the studio needed to make a recreation the place you nurture your world to make it develop.
Working with a workforce that is at present slightly below 20 individuals, an thought quickly emerged to create a comfortable sandbox that ultimately turned Little Planet. Throughout this interview, Huang demonstrated to me points of worldbuilding alongside numerous occasions you may arrange, equivalent to a fireworks competition and even an interactive basketball courtroom.
Having performed Little Planet earlier than this interview, I can see the place such occasions may very well be interesting with pals. With the upcoming transition to free-to-play, Huang suggested VRWOOD made this strategic resolution due to how essential the social gameplay is. This alternative was made to decrease the entry barrier with out proscribing the core premise, as a substitute providing in-app purchases.
“Take into consideration a state of affairs that if I advised my buddy, ‘Hey, I constructed an ideal home and panorama in Little Planet, are you able to are available?’ Some individuals will say no, they did not obtain it as a result of it prices $19.99… If it is free, then you definitely decrease the barrier and get extra individuals coming in. You may inspire your pals to construct one other world, you may go to there to take pleasure in it too.”
Like we frequently see with titles going free-to-play after being a paid recreation, Little Planet has one thing ready for early adopters. Anybody who purchases it earlier than the swap will obtain a ‘Founders Pack’ that VRWOOD states is equal to $200’s value of in-game content material with in-game forex, outfits, furnishings, and extra. This contains some Founder-exclusive objects.
Little Planet is out now on the Meta Horizon Retailer in early entry, and the complete free-to-play launch arrives on October 30. VRWOOD can also be promising a “wealthy roadmap of content material updates” deliberate into 2026 and past, although specifics are at present unconfirmed.
