What it is: A mixed-reality puzzle game for Apple Vision Pro
Who it’s for: Vision Pro owners after something novel to show off
Cost: $3/£3
What makes it special: It mixes 10,000 year old art with cutting-edge tech
Philipp Stollenmeyer is one of the developers we’ve written about the most over the years, perhaps rivalled only by Zach Gage. What they both have in common, beyond being prolific game designers, is that you can never guess what they’re going to do next. Stollenmeyer especially seems to rocket from one genre to another, changing art styles, genres, and mediums – but there’s always a trademark zaniness as his calling card.
If you’d asked me to guess 100 game ideas, I wouldn’t have come close to his next release, Cueva de las Manos, which dials back the wackiness while keeping the je ne sais quoi he brings to every project.
This time he’s gone extremely niche, building an immersive experience for Apple Vision Pro based on ancient cave drawings from Argentina. Stollenmeyer says he was excited to build something for such a young platform, free of existing design standards, and he’s crafted something quite unique for the relatively small number of people who actually own one of Apple’s expensive mixed-reality headsets.
The game – or should that be experience? – echoes some of his earlier work, centring on using your own shadow to interact with a cave painting. Moving your hands into specific shapes helps you solve each puzzle, and while the interactions look relatively simple, it looks wonderfully immersive, with your surroundings morphing into a virtual cave that mirrors the exact layout of your room.
In the dev’s own words: “To ‘enter’ the cave, you have to walk around the virtual rock in front of you – this may seem like a shamanic ritual, but is actually to scan the world from every angle. To see your space transform to a cave after this short hike, with everything from your chairs to your plants looking bulky, and realistic cave paintings on your wall, really is a cool moment.” It’s worth checking out the gameplay video for a better idea of how it works.
So while most of you reading this won’t be able to try it out any time soon, this is a neat exploration of what’s possible with mixed reality, and a very cool project. Cueva de las Manos is available to preorder now.