Kickstarter campaign eyes gaming future

By Jason Winders, MES'10

Imagine playing Super Mario Bros. or Super Monkey Ball, but instead of following the action on a screen, you are part of the action, immersed in the landscape.

If you liked the above mentioned platform games, you’ll love MushroomBallVR. But first, the new virtual reality game, developed by recent Western graduates, needs your help with its Kickstarter campaign, which launched Nov. 4.

Blake Stone, HBA'14, who graduated from Ivey Business School last year, and Colton Kadlecik, BESc'15, who just graduated with a Software Engineering degree, co-founded Vitruvius VR, a virtual reality (VR) gaming company, last year. After a summer in Western’s Propel Entrepreneurship incubator, the pair is ready to launch its first game – MushroomBallVR.

“We are getting ready for the virtual reality gaming market revolution – coming next year,” Stone said.

In 2014, Facebook bought Oculus Rift VR, a VR company, for $2 billion. In 2016, the social media giant will release its new virtual reality headset – called, appropriately enough, the Oculus Rift – which will work directly with Windows 10. Next year, you’ll also see Google, HTC and even PlayStation release VR headsets.

“And you will be able to buy these VR headsets at Best Buy, or online, and we’re building a game that will work with these headsets,” Stone said. “We see this as a pretty big market coming up in the next couple of years.”

MushroomBallVR will appeal to anyone who enjoys video games, he added, and especially early adapters who want to be up with the latest technology.