While much of the focus on virtual reality in the past six months has been revolving around the products from HTC and Facebook’s Oculus, some attention was being thrown in the direction of Google, and rightfully so, after rumors started to spread that they may be looking to develop and produce their own VR devices in the future. Google ended up injecting truth to the rumors at Google I/O where they officially announced their Daydream VR platform for Android, which is due to see its first hardware later in the year. The team behind the development of the software experience, Daydream Labs, has been working quite a bit on different stuff and they have started to release a collection of videos that showcase parts of their progress.
A few of the videos have been touched on very recently, as the Daydream Labs: Puzzle and Daydream Labs: Bowling videos were highlighted in a blog post from the team yesterday when talking about the social aspect of VR and sharing the experience with others. The Drum Keys video was discussed just shortly after the Google I/O conference, displaying a perhaps unconventional yet fun way to type in the world of VR using the paddle controllers as drumsticks to hit the keys which were each acting as tiny drums.
The last two videos focus on Real-Time Acoustic Environment Simulation and Slides and Ladders, which, feels kind of like a play on the Chutes and Ladders board game that was popularized more than a decade or two ago, although less of a game and more just environment exploration demo. None of these videos are of full-fledged games or experiences, but rather small pockets of development meant to showcase what Daydream Labs is currently working on and have recently worked on. If you’re interested at all in VR and the future of Daydream VR, then the videos should get you excited for what’s to come, and that is likely part of the reason for releasing them into the wild. It’s also worth noting that only two of the videos are new, which include the bowling and puzzle videos, released yesterday, while the other three were published on the Google VR YouTube page a couple of weeks ago around the time of Google I/O.