Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty is already being adapted into virtual reality by Owlchemy Labs, but the man who makes Rick say "wubba-lubba dub dub" is making his own moves into VR with the help of Tanya Watson, former executive producer at Epic Games.
The news comes not from a traditional press release, but from a hand-drawn comic by Roiland where a drooling character named Splzooshly introduces Roiland and Watson and their new studio Squanchtendo Games. (A not-so-subtle nod to a certain other game company.)
Talking to Gamespot, Roiland says he’s interested in both creating VR games that are exploratory experiences, while providing the same humor and personality he’s become known for with Rick and Morty.
“I love the concept of exploring worlds in VR,” Roiland tells Gamespot. “I want to do more of that desperately, but I've found that if you don't really have a reason to explore and you don't really have interesting characters and interesting things to do that are important to the player and the overall story of the game. It falls a little flat after awhile.”
For her part, Watson says she’s interested in pursuing more comedic games, which have tended only to come from developers like Double Fine in the past. “There's not a lot of them even in the traditional space where you have these ‘laugh out loud funny’ moments. There are bits and pieces here and there. But as a studio, those are the games that we want to make; that's our thing.”
Roiland and Watson’s full interview at Gamestop comes with some surprisingly thorough thoughts about designing comedy and narrative for VR, and is worth a read for developers interested in similar pursuits.
Meanwhile, here’s the full comic announcing the studio’s creation for your enjoyment.
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