Skera VR is a new puzzle-adventure game coming to Steam.
Developed by a three-person studio named after the game, Skera VR is described as a “single-player puzzle-solving action adventure” game. Imprisoned inside a colossal gateway tower and armed with a sword, you must work both alongside and against the tower’s resident AI to escape. Recent gameplay footage isn’t available but you can watch the previous trailer below.
Team Skera explains that Skera VR began as a third-year project when the developers studied at UCA Farnham before they began working remotely. Visually inspired by Arcane, Breath of the Wild’s shrines, and Halo’s Forerunners, the studio believed that a “combination of Sci-fi, Steampunk and magic is an underrepresented and appealing concept in the VR market.”
For more details, here’s an official story description.
The resident AI of the Tower, though your omnipotent jailer, is also your benevolent guide and your only chance to escape your imprisonment. Although they may not seem friendly, you share a common goal. Like you, the mysterious AI is plagued by questions and a desire to reawaken the dormant gateway and find out what happened to its creators, the Gate Builders. This would also give you and your people a chance to escape the decaying planet. Unfortunately, the AI is powerless to fight it’s hard coded responses and security systems… After all, you are an unforeseen and unwelcome intruder.
We enjoyed our brief hands-on at WASD 2024, playing a PC VR demo via wired link on Quest 2. An appealing art style caught my eye and I was tasked with finding six colored orbs, obtained by clearing puzzles, to bring them back to the AI. The puzzles were unsurprisingly straightforward for a tutorial segment, ranging from placing white orbs through tubes to placing weighted objects in the correct locations.
I appreciated the nearby reset buttons whenever I made a mistake, which put those objects back where they started. However, I believe some things could be made clearer. I didn’t realize that I could holster items or grab items from afar using the teleportation button until a dev told me, though I’d prefer a magnetic grab for the latter. I also enjoyed Skera VR’s swordplay. There’s an appealing weapon design and watching objects fall apart after slicing them feels rather nice.
An official release date remains unconfirmed but Skera VR is coming to SteamVR.
