Strange Company`s Director, Hugh Hancock, died in 2018. Strange Company is no longer a registered Company. This site is part of his body of work, and as such it is hosted and maintained by a group of volunteers and as an archive of his work. A comprehensive list of the works being archived can be found here. If you have any problems with the site, please report them using this form.

Raft Game - A New RoomScale VR Experiment

It’s time for another VR experiment!

RaftGame is a rafting sim - as simple as that. Paddle frantically around a course, try and get the best possible time, and don’t capsize (it is possible, trust me).

This is a very minimal VR experiment - to a full-fledged indie game as Valve’s “Lab” experiments are to their full game releases.

However, if you like it, I’ll definitely be looking to develop it into a full-fledged VR game for Vive initially and Oculus Rift when Touch comes out. So do let me know if you’d like to see that!

Basic usage instructions:

  • You start off in the middle of the lake. To paddle, just stick your oar in the water and, well, paddle!

  • If you get beached, turned over, or otherwise stuck, press the Menu button to restart the experience.

  • The Lap Timer starts when you go under the Start bridge, and keeps on going until you get to the End bridge.

  • You CAN paddle through the raft. That’s a feature not a bug - otherwise I found that those of us with smaller roomscale setups tend to smash our Vive controllers off walls in an attempt to reach out and steer.

  • This is Roomscale for now, and Vive-only. You might be able to play it Standing too, not sure. Let me know if you try it!

Here’s the link to download it:

Download “Raft Game” For HTC Vive

And if you’d like to hear when I release future test projects (I’ve got a stealth game, a knife-fighting sim, a Dark Souls inspired RPG and more coming up), you can join my updates list. Updates are VERY infrequent, so don’t worry about too many messages coming through!

Find Out About Future VR Updates

Finally, I’d really love to hear what you think of “Raft Game”.

You can contact me on Twitter or Facebook, or join the discussion on Reddit or Hacker News.