Developer Hyperbolic Magnetism has released a new gameplay video for the virtual reality rhythm game Beat Saber, and it looks promising.
Posted on Twitter by lead designer and programmer Ján Ilavský, the trailer boasts futuristic sci-fi graphics, and the fast-paced gameplay is backed by an intense beat by musician Jaroslav Beck.
The gameplay is simple: players use their hands to slash the beats (represented by cubes) as they move towards the screen. The cubes indicate the direction they need to be slashed, and correctly slashing several beats in a row builds up a combo. The developer describes the game as “a mashup of Guitar Hero and Fruit Ninja in VR”.
Each level is handcrafted by the developer, to “emphasise the music rhythm”, and the game is designed to be played in both long and short sessions, using the career and quick play modes, respectively.
Hyperbolic Magnetism, an independent developer based in the Czech Republic, was founded by Ján Ilavský and Vladimír Hrinčár in 1997. The duo originally worked on PC games for several years, but later switched their focus to mobile, developing the games Lums and Chameleon Run. The developer began working on Saber Run in 2016, after discovering a lack of VR rhythm games. Beat Saber is scheduled to release in early 2018 for the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and PlayStation VR.