Although the Oculus Rift HMD won't be available to consumers until sometime in 2014, on Monday, Oculus VR launched Oculus Share, a place where visitors can self-publish, discover, download and play VR games and other Rift-ready experiences. Talk about a tease!
"Oculus Share (or simply, Share) is the first of many steps we’re taking to build the best virtual reality platform," the company states on its blog. "With Share, you can host Oculus-ready games and experiences that you’ve created, browse and download content from other developers, rate experiences on quality and VR comfort level, provide feedback to devs on what you enjoyed (and what you didn’t), and tip fellow developers for their work in cash, should you feel so inclined."
Content is broken down into six categories: Full Game, Demo, Experience, Alpha, Beta and Mod. The Experience section currently only features two entries: Alone in the Rift, which is a horror game demo made with Unity where users walk around in a dark forest with a flashlight in their hands; and Trial of the Rift Drifter, which has players interact with virtual characters using communicative hand gestures.
For now, the Demo section is the most populated, offering six games to test: AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaCULUS!!!, Oculus Tuscany Demo, Rift Rush, Ghost in the Machine, Proton Pulse Rift, and Undercurrent. The Alpha section offers only one demo, Bouncer VR, which seems to be a spin on Pong that adds power-ups, a first-person perspective, and allows the user to move the shield/paddle with only their eyes. All other categories are currently vacant.
"Experimentation, iteration, and actual playtesting are at the heart of pushing virtual reality forward," the company states. "One of the main goals in building Share was to help developers on all these fronts by creating a centralized community portal for Oculus content. And while it’s simply a sharing service today, over the coming months we’ll work toward making Share an incredible marketplace for Oculus-ready games, experiences, and applications."
Initially, Oculus VR will be vetting submissions to make sure developers aren't uploading offensive content or malware. The whole submission and approval process is still new, so developers will need to be patient as the team improves and streamlines the process. The site was designed to be community driven, meaning this Rift marketplace should explode once the HMD gets into the hands of consumers.
