Over the next several weeks, we’re spotlighting the top 20 3D Jam experiences chosen by the jury and community votes. These spotlights will focus on game design, interaction design, and the big ideas driving our community forward.

Finishing in 5th place, Storm Bringer Studios’ Magicraft lets you play as a powerful mage in a land of swords and sorcery. While Magicraft is designed with VR in mind, a desktop version is also available – download it from our 3D Jam site or from the Steam Community.

What were your design inspirations in developing the enemies and atmosphere of Magicraft?

It all started when we received the DK1. Since then, I’ve been experimenting with binaural sounds and different inputs, because it was clear from the beginning there’s no place for keyboard and mouse in VR. I wanted to make a game where you could craft spells, and later use gestures and play the game with your bare hands.

Navigating worlds in VR is a real design challenge. How did you develop Magicraft’s locomotion scheme?

We tried different schemes and are still experimenting with those. Finally, we stopped with the hands-in-front navigation, and it worked quite well for the demo. We are still improving that.

At first, I was very excited when I began implementing image passthrough mode with hand isolation. Sadly, it was not stable enough to include in the demo. Seeing your own hands in VR is an extremely exciting experience. I remember the Plasma Ball demo, when I tried it for the first time, I could swear I felt when I was touching the ball. I showed the same demo to several friends and each of them said the same. This shows how easy it is to actually trick our brains and how important is to have the right controls in VR.

What are your plans for developing Magicraft further? Will we ever be able to destroy that ghost at the beginning?

(Laughs.) That was some old school gaming trick – showing the main boss who sets traps and finally in final level you’d encounter and defeat it. Currently, you cannot defeat him, as you need to use his attacks to proceed.

First, we’re going to release a mobile title on all mobile stores: Magicraft: Balance. It will set the mood for the future series. After that will be Magicraft: Elementals, another mobile title where players can craft spells. Imagine Minecraft for spell creation and using them in randomly generated dungeons. So expect more innovative puzzles and new monsters.

At the same time, we will start a Kickstarter campaign for the PC version, Magicraft: Arena, supporting VR and Leap Motion. So it will be a whole ecosystem – you can craft spells on mobile in your free time, and then test them against other players in VR using your bare hands!

Want to follow the world of Magicraft as it continues to develop? Like Storm Bringer Studios on Facebook.

Alex Colgan

Alex Colgan is the senior director of marketing and developer community at Leap Motion. By transforming how we interact with technology, he believes we can make our world feel more human.