Who wants a social community when you have a hand?
A brand new characteristic introduced on April Fools’ Day in Walkabout Mini Golf means you may by no means must be alone once more in VR. Simply flip your putter right into a sock puppet.
I examined grip-to-puppet for actual.
Double The Roleplay
Grip-to-Putt is the unique Walkabout Mini Golf characteristic that requires the grip button on a VR controller to be pressed with a view to hit the ball. It is a helpful method of making certain you do not by chance lose a stroke by hitting it once you did not imply to.
Grip-to-Putter, in the meantime, is an adjunct now in its third era that presses that button whereas giving the texture of a membership in your hand.
In Grip-to-Puppet, once you press that grip button/set off Walkabout’s builders entry one thing deep inside.
“The puppet has been inside you all alongside,” Mighty Coconut 3D artist Emma Mercado defined between heaves of laughter. “So you do not want a lot to entry it.”
I met not too long ago with Mercado and Mighty Coconut communications head David Wyatt, with three sock puppets that includes pink stripes round their necks speaking with us intermittently.
In 2017, I reported on the concept of Puppeteering in VRChat as a cool concept. Now once more in 2025, the concept resurfaces in Walkabout Mini Golf as a characteristic anybody can strive.
My sock puppet requested Mercado: “Am I going to have quite a lot of choices for illustration?”
“That is sort of a joke that ended up not being a joke,” she replied. “And so we’re ready to see how effectively it’s acquired, however we do produce other potential choices if of us prefer it.”
Throughout my temporary time testing this with professionals Wyatt and Mercado, our puppets made sounds I’ve by no means heard folks make in social VR earlier than. I additionally laughed greater than I ever have in social VR.
“You have received two ranges of separation from whoever you are attempting to be, and so it makes it simpler to only play,” Mercado defined. “And I feel that is an enormous a part of Walkabout is simply making play as accessible as doable.”
The characteristic has been on the again burner for years, Mercado steered, and Walkabout’s authentic creator Lucas Martell defined how the brand new exercise matches right into a collection of regular updates to the challenge over the past 12 months.
“A majority of gamers spend a good portion of their time doing an exercise apart from golf,” Martell wrote. “The misplaced balls and fox hunts have been two of the most well-liked elements of the sport from very early on. Even non-gamified parts like flying, using on transferring objects, or enjoying with the seaside ball on Welcome Island have confirmed to be huge hits. A few of the latest additions to the sport have given us extra methods to let gamers expertise these worlds, whether or not that is {golfing} in race mode, hitting some slingshot targets whilst you wait to your mates, or discovering the employees-only rooms all through the sport. Grip-To-Puppet particularly is a enjoyable social experiment, and we won’t wait to see what gamers use it for.”
You may take a tour of one in all Walkabout’s programs in our Design playlist or learn Don Carson’s ideas in fact design for a deeper look into the concepts which form the sport because it continues to develop.
Cultivating Magic: The Artwork And Ideas Of Walkabout Mini Golf Course Design
Mighty Coconut’s Don Carson shares the ideas for course design in Walkabout Mini Golf.
