High on Life VR Is Coming to Quest: Here's What You Need to Know

Ever wondered what it'd be like to have a foul-mouthed alien gun yelling at you in VR? That's exactly what Flat2VR Studios is cooking up, as the team is working with Squanch Games to bring High on Life to Meta Quest 3 and 3S headsets.

High on Life first launched in 2022 and became a hit thanks to its bizarre humor, motor-mouthed guns, and polished gameplay. But porting that experience to VR is no small feat. I recently chatted with High on Life VR game director Emily O'Neal and Eric Masher, co-founder and COO for Impact Reality and Flat2VR Studios, about the challenges involved. And yes, Knifey made his way into the conversation.

So why VR? Masher pointed out that while VR might seem like a smaller, niche platform, the user base has grown considerably. "VR is a smaller market; it doesn't mean that it's a small market," he said, noting that Quest headsets are now in the 30-million to 40-million range. He also mentioned that Gorilla Tag, a free-to-play game, has done over $100 million in revenue. The audience that grew up playing Gorilla Tag is getting older and has disposable income, and Flat2VR wants to bring them high-quality games like High on Life. "We're not here just for a short snapshot in time; we're here to help grow this industry to where it will be in three to five years from now," Masher added.

Bringing High on Life to VR isn't as simple as pressing a "Convert to VR" button. O'Neal explained that the original game is massive, with tons of animations and wildly different worlds. Getting all that data to fit on a standalone platform is a big challenge. You have to load it quickly and run it in real time, ideally at 72 frames per second. A huge part of the technical challenge has been upgrading the game to a more modern version of Unreal Engine, which allows the team to perform the optimizations needed to get those massive, gorgeous worlds running on Quest.

O'Neal also said the team wants players to poke and prod the Gatlian firearms they collect. The Gatlians are the centerpiece of the VR adaptation. "Do you feel like you're holding a living creature in your hand, and when they speak to you, do you feel like you're truly interacting with them?" she asked. Since they serve as your weapons, gunplay is a huge focus, especially reloading. The design team has built reload mechanics before, but designing them for the Gatlians has been uniquely fun because of their distinct body shapes and personalities. Players will be able to fidget and interact with them while listening to in-game dialogue.

Out of all the Gatlians, Knifey is arguably the breakout star. O'Neal teased that the murder-happy melee tool is a big focus. "Yes, Knifey is 100% getting the most treatment out of the whole cast," she said. There's a huge gap between pressing a button to trigger a knife slash versus making that motion yourself, so the team is building new VR-specific systems to capture that visceral feeling of stabbing Knifey into flesh. It won't be a gory game, and the comedy and humor will remain intact. Most importantly, they want a Knifey-first strategy to be a genuinely viable way to play the entire game.

Motion sickness is another challenge, especially with fast-paced movement systems. Masher explained that the team is going all out on providing options that help players fine-tune their experience. While it's still early days for the project, it's clear Flat2VR is aiming to make a big splash on Quest. Will you be picking this up when it launches? Let us know in the comments!