No Brakes Games, the studio behind physics-based platformer Human: Fall Flat, has launched virtual reality (VR) puzzle game Tiny Flock on Meta Quest and PC VR (PCVR).
According to a release, players take on the role of an ‘all-seeing shepherd’ and guide a flock of sheep through 21 diorama-style levels. The studio said anything players can see in these miniature worlds can be interacted with, so sheep can be moved along by building bridges, smashing objects or pulling levers.
Tiny Flock runs on a physics engine that No Brakes Games built from scratch, which the company claims gives the game a tactile feel ‘unlike anything else in VR’. On Meta Quest, the game also supports hand tracking and passthrough, a feature that uses the headset’s cameras to show players their real surroundings. Other features listed in the release include achievements, collectables and an original soundtrack built around the cello.
Why No Brakes Games turned to VR
Tomas Sakalauskas, CEO and Co-founder of No Brakes Games, said the project came from a wish to try something new after the studio’s biggest hit.
“After the success of Human Fall Flat, and some early VR experiments along the way, we wanted to set ourselves a new challenge, so we thought we’d try something that made use of all of our favorite features from VR, like tactile physics, two-handed interactivity, and the interesting gameplay verbs you get to play around with in the space,” Sakalauskas said. He added: “With platform evolution, we also pushed hand-tracking and pass-through features to make this a future proof game.”
Part of the motivation was personal. “Selfishly, I also wanted to make a game my whole family could enjoy,” he said. “My kid even designed a few puzzles and recorded some voice lines during prototyping.” Sakalauskas said that “VR is still a niche platform,” but that the studio believes it has “huge potential as a creative tool.”
No Brakes Games is an independent developer based in Vilnius, Lithuania. According to the release, Human: Fall Flat has sold millions of copies across PC, console and mobile. Tiny Flock marks a change of direction for the studio. Its best-known game is available on a wide range of platforms, while the new release is built exclusively for VR headsets, a market Sakalauskas himself described as niche. Tiny Flock is available now on Steam and the Meta Quest store.
