2022 - 2023

IMMERSEUK AWARDS FINALIST!

DESCRIPTION

Sandboard is a PC VR sand surfing and grappling game for Oculus Quest (2) and HTC Vive. With a sandboard at your feet and two grapple hands at your disposal, zip down sandy slopes, fly off boosts, and use your grapples to propel yourself through the Arverre badlands.

The game currently includes four levels:

- Arches, the rocky passage into Arverre

- Sandstream, a massive racetrack inhabited by Chrinu (huge sandworms)

- Tephrenne, a tight, twisting ravine town with a hard-to-reach shortcut

- Grapple Course, a target-packed training course for honing your grappling skills

LATEST UPDATE

Update 1.1.6 is here with lots of bug fixes, polish, and general improvements. No new level this time since it's a minor update.

RECEPTION

This project received a 1st mark, earned my place as an ImmerseUK Awards finalist in the Best Overall category, was selected for the 2023 Aesthetica Short Film Festival, and won the Spotlight Award at the 2022 University of York Interactive Media Showcase.

DEVELOPMENT

This was a 1st year university project initially developed over the course of four months in Unreal Engine 4 with an Oculus Quest 2 headset, now in continued development as a personal project. I made 3D assets in Blender, textures in Gimp and Photoshop, and sound effects and music in Logic Pro (mostly with the Massive synth).

Sandboard draws inspiration from sand surfing in games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Journey and grappling in VR games such as Swarm and Spider-Man: Far From Home Virtual Reality. Other visual influences are Dune (2021), Monster Hunter 4, Shadow of the Colossus, Raised by Wolves, Mad Max, and the Borderlands series.

Development is indefinitely on hold as I have moved onto other projects, but may resume in the future.

SETTING

Sandboard takes place in the rural Arverre region of Ronetto, a desert planet in the Hierre System (the same universe as Gata Guressi, Regin's Grip, etc). Arverre is untouched by the Regin corporation, making it a refuge for outsiders willing to face its dramatic terrain and dangerous wildlife. Some groups settle down in discreet villages like Tephrenne while others patrol the desert for travellers to raid.

Arverre is also popular with daredevils (like the player) looking to hone their sandboarding skills. Relatively low-tech transportation like sandboarding is popular due to the planet's lack of resources — hence there aren't any spaceships or androids flying past. However, future levels may see some off-world tech come into play ;)