Rick and Morty is an adult-oriented sci-fi cartoon that airs on Adult Swim, created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. It has a cult following of sorts, has attained high critical praise, and acquaintances that I see maybe once a month are always telling me to watch it. I probably never will. But if and when I do, I might get the chance to enter the show’s world in an entirely other way—because Rick and Morty is now a scarcely-detailed VR endeavor, developed by the one and only Owlchemy Labs of the early quirky VR hit Job Simulator.
extracting the weird out of the mundane
“We’ve been working in secret for months, optimizing plumbus physics and working on the intricacies of Rick’s flask,” wrote the studio in the announcement for the game, properly entitled Rick and Morty Simulator: Virtual Rick-ality. “Now we’re ready to give you all a hint of what’s to come! (Spoiler alert: you can totally jump through portals in VR!)” Owlchemy wasn’t kidding about the first tease of the game being a “hint:” the first teaser is a mere 13-seconds long. It doesn’t show much, but it’s enough to raise an eyebrow or two.
Virtual Rick-ality is in development for the HTC Vive, but it’s unknown if it will appear on any other VR platforms. The teaser is as brief as humanly possible. There’s some picking up of objects, a bit of banter between the two titular characters. Yet, if Job Simulator is anything to go by, the developers are often successful at extracting the weird out of the mundane. The pairing of a zany, creative development team with an equally bizarre animated series that hosts a dedicated following is almost a dream come true—for both Rick and Morty fans, and the developers themselves.
“Working with Justin Roiland is hilarious, and he gets us,” wrote Owlchemy Labs of how the project first came to fruition. “In fact, we first met serendipitously over our mutual love of Job Simulator, got drunk, ate Indian food, and then decided to make a videogame together.” Sometimes, it’s the simple things in life that spur inspiration for creative projects. Like never-failing alcohol, good ol’ Indian food, and sweet, sweet, mutual admiration.
While more details are scarce, at the very least, Virtual Rick-ality will be on display at San Diego Comic Con this upcoming weekend in the Adult Swim: On the Green area.
