Dimensional Double Shift sends you to a Texas-inspired dimension in its first paid enlargement at present on Quest.
Launched final September, Dimensional Double Shift has now launched its first ‘Dimension Pack’ after the co-op hand monitoring multiplayer recreation lately surpassed 500k downloads. As workers of Gasoline N’ Grill, you are now tasked with serving patrons throughout Hexas and that is full of “demonic patrons, outsized meals, and monster vans” that each one require your consideration.
Throughout GDC 2025, Don Hopper and I jumped into the enlargement for a multiplayer session with Owlchemy Labs. Gameplay stays unsurprisingly just like the ‘Treeatle’ dimension within the base recreation, with two new variations of the diner and storage ranges obtainable. Similar to earlier than, your group will serve the native residents by way of getting ready meals orders and fixing vehicles.
My earlier impressions cowl the core gameplay, and several other updates since launch have left Dimensional Double Shift feeling extra polished. The actions stay rewarding with buddies as you coordinate to organize meals or repair these vehicles, with sure elements solely being accessible in one other particular person’s station, and I recognize the sport’s relaxed nature with no time constraints.
Hexas affords some welcome twists that match the demonic theme completely, alongside different enhancements like a ‘Room Browser’ for creating public rooms. Whereas your targets largely stay the identical, the artwork type has been fittingly reworked for this new dimension. Between cooking in a cauldron of blood and new puzzles when fixing Monster Vehicles, there’s some appropriately themed new challenges.
What caught me without warning was the, uh… properly, the udder milking exercise. Sure, that is proper. Anybody else bear in mind that minigame in 1-2 Swap? I by no means thought I might write this, however the hand tracking-only controls make this really feel much more socially awkward. I needed to briefly cease as a result of I burst out laughing mid-demo; a recreation hasn’t tickled me this a lot since Thank Goodness You are Right here.
That is earlier than we talk about slapping hog butt. You do this to open the hog’s mouth in a distinct station after which spray it with barbecue sauce. One other process includes selecting boogers out of a large head earlier than including a recent mind. It is chaotic, extremely foolish, and these new actions stroll a advantageous line that is each appropriate for teenagers whereas being hilarious for adults.
“One of many large pillars of that is that it is hell not heck,” defined Owlchemy CEO Andrew Eiche in a post-demo interview, the place he was joined by COO Sandra Marshall.
“We did not wish to pull any punches, so we did that. We’re nonetheless a teen recreation and I can guarantee you that we have met the boundaries of that ranking, however we have at all times wished to say that the sport appeals to all ages. It is robust to attraction to all ages when all the things feels a bit youthful.”
At $4.99, I used to be happy to study that a whole social gathering will not have to all purchase the Hexas Dimension. Just one participant should personal it for different social gathering members to entry it, although solely DLC house owners will get Hexas-themed cosmetics just like the rhinestone cowboy and desert street warrior. Eiche cites Walkabout Mini Golf’s visitor move, Golf+, and Jackbox Occasion Pack as influencing this determination.
“It was actually robust to justify 4 individuals spending $20 sight unseen on a recreation. It is a lot simpler to say, everyone else will get it without spending a dime.”
As Owlchemy’s first free-to-play recreation, the studio’s studying from this expertise by following three streams of knowledge. Analytics, for which Owlchemy employed somebody who previously labored on Minecraft to help. There’s additionally what the studio itself thinks of the sport, and group suggestions.
“There are issues we thought would occur that did not. We do occasions as soon as every week, we do matchmaking, and we had been like, the second we do that, all of our gamers are gonna say, “simply depart the matchmaking on on a regular basis.” However they did not, they had been like completely content material with having or not it’s as soon as every week.”
Different classes embrace studying that folks do not typically respect the play areas they have been assigned, which noticed Owlchemy including a characteristic that’ll rely down from 5 as a warning to return. Marshall suggested that persons are making buddies by way of these occasions, and this led to Owlchemy implementing a button that permits you to add the particular person you are taking part in with as a buddy.
Owlchemy sees the VR market heading towards social and embodiment experiences, one thing Eiche beforehand touched upon in a earlier interview. The studio additionally stays totally dedicated handy monitoring in video games, believing this controller-free choice has confirmed itself additional with PlayStation VR2 including hand monitoring help.
“They’re the final ship out of the port by way of doing it, and that is not a knock on them. [Sony’s] focus is the hardcore of the hardcore, yeah. PlayStation is for the players, and in the event that they’re doing hand monitoring? Wow. We did not anticipate it.”
That does not imply hand monitoring help for Job Simulator is coming to PlayStation VR2 anytime quickly, nonetheless. On the time, Owlchemy suggested that Sony would not have a direct path by way of Unity for this, which means Aldin Dynamics needed to create their very own for Waltz of the Wizard. Meaning there are nonetheless some technical hurdles to beat.
Whereas Owlchemy would not touch upon Dimensional Double Shift probably reaching different platforms like Android XR, extra content material updates are coming past the Hexas launch. New gameplay options and extra dimensions are in improvement, and we’ll verify again in when these grow to be obtainable.
The bottom recreation for Dimensional Double Shift stays free in early entry on the Meta Quest platform, and the Hexas Dimension Pack prices $4.99.
Shortly after publication, we up to date this piece with a minor quote correction the place Andrew Eiche refers to Dimensional Double Shift as a “teen recreation.” We apologize for this error.
