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 the moment obtainable 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 permits you to construct a house throughout totally different planets with the flexibility to terraform these worlds. Actions embody letting you create customized furnishings, collect wild sources, adorn, and extra.
Full launch date trailer
Every world has NPCs referred to as ‘Planet Friends’ who you should purchase numerous objects from, like garments from the style boutique proprietor or seeds from a flower professional. Gadgets may be saved inside a backpack you seize from behind you, whereas method 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 inventive 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 sport he needed to maintain making.
“No extra zombies for me; we’ve got seen sufficient zombies,” Huang jokes cheerfully.
Ultimately the group started exploring a social sport just like Altspace, and he thought-about the right way to create significant connections in VR. Although the life sim mechanics make Animal Crossing a pure comparability, Huang as an alternative factors in direction of 1943’s The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry as a serious inspiration. Particularly, Huang factors to when the prince finds a rose backyard crammed with similar 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 sport the place you nurture your world to make it develop.
Working with a group that is at the moment slightly below 20 individuals, an thought quickly emerged to create a comfy sandbox that finally grew to become Little Planet. Throughout this interview, Huang demonstrated to me points of worldbuilding alongside numerous occasions you’ll be able to arrange, similar to a fireworks pageant 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 determination due to how essential the social gameplay is. This selection was made to decrease the entry barrier with out proscribing the core premise, as an alternative providing in-app purchases.
“Take into consideration a state of affairs that if I informed my pal, ‘Hey, I constructed an incredible home and panorama in Little Planet, are you able to are available in?’ Some individuals will say no, they did not obtain it as a result of it prices $19.99… If it is free, you then decrease the barrier and get extra individuals coming in. You may encourage your folks to construct one other world, you’ll be able to go to there to take pleasure in it too.”
Like we regularly see with titles going free-to-play after being a paid sport, 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 price of in-game content material with in-game foreign money, outfits, furnishings, and extra. This consists of 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 the moment unconfirmed.
