It’s hard to show someone what vr is like…

Since opening in late 2022 I’ve not really solved the conundrum of how to show a VR Escape room effectively in a 2D vid. Most VR venues use the “move the headset in front of the camera as if putting it on” move, but that really just says that you put on a headset and then shows what’s effectively a computer game. It relies on someone already having knowledge of what a VR experience feels like and them imagining what the “computer game” must be like in VR.

As anyone who has played at VR Escape knows - it’s not like a computer game!

It’s not even like playing a home VR game.

Yes, the immersion comes about because you’re in a virtual environment, but it’s being there with your team that makes the immersion as complete as it does. It’s chatting and interacting with puzzles together. Messing around with virtual objects. Throwing the rubber duck at each other. It’s all about the shared experience. Capturing that for a Facebook ad, or demo vid on the website.. is challenging.

The things I’ve had the staff do in order to get video! Poor Dylan and Lauren to start with - repeatedly looking through windows while i follow them round using the Quest 3 headsets cameras to record a transition from VR to real world. That vid has been on the website home page for a couple of years now. It helped get across the idea, but it still took a bit of prior knowledge and imagination from the viewer.

So now I’ve tried a new way of doing it. It’s not particularly polished, but then we’ve never pretended to be anything but the little folk with aspirations.

Take a look at these. I’d love to know what you think! Does it show you what it’s like at VR Escape?

Lauren, Bradley and Joshua meeting Alan the Alien and unlocking the fiendishly difficult Molecule Cube in Alien Infection. (Happy to show the puzzle as even knowing how it’s done it stumps us all the time!)

In fact, I’m happy to show it being worked on so I made a second vid.‍

If you’ve not played Alien Infection yet - ready yourself! It’s a belter.

Let me know what you think of this way of getting across how the games feel. Does it work for you?

Thanks

Craig