Star Wars will launch a free virtual reality game, Trials of Tatooine, on Steam on Monday, Lucasfilm announced at the Star Wars Celebration in London today
The experimental game, which finds players on Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine, puts a lightsaber directly into their hands as they're tasked with fending off enemy fire and protecting some of the most important characters in the Star Wars universe, including R2-D2. Polygon was able to play a brief demo of the game back in March and writer Brian Crecente said it felt "more like an experience you'd have in an amusement park than a game you'd play in your home."
Lucasfilm's chief technology officer, Rob Bredow, said the game was an experiment for the company to see if they could find the balance between storytelling and interactive design on the new platform. After working on the game, executives of ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm's VR department said they were confident moving forward in their understanding of how the technology best works when combined with storytelling to look into other ventures.
The division also announced today that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice writer David Goyer would be helming a canonical, VR storytelling experience focused on Darth Vader.
Trials on Tatooine will be available for free on the Steam VR store July 18 for those that have an HTC Vive.