Four virtual reality game ideas from the creator of Oculus Rift

According to Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey (pictured left), there are about 20,000 Oculus Rift developer kits out in the wild. That means there are an awful lot of developers who are certainly hungry for fascinating virtual reality game design concepts. Luckey knows a thing or two about VR, and he was happy to share a few game ideas he's had.

"You talk to developers, right?" I told him that I do. "Some ideas. I'm going to give you some ideas. You can give them to whoever you want." So here we go: Four ideas for VR games straight from the man who created the Oculus Rift. If you happen to be a developer, feel free to take one. Oh, and with the exception of Crazy Cops 2, all the title suggestions are mine. Just remember, credit where credit is due.

MesmerEyez!
"It's a game where you hypnotize people. You have to look them directly in the eye to hypnotize them, and imagine if you have multiple people coming at you, and you have to hypnotize them by looking them in the eye and that's your super power."

Potential marketing hiccup: Some developers are experimenting with self-hypnosis via Oculus Rift. Be sure to get your messaging as clear as possible.

Medusa's Follies
"Also, I'd love to see a game where you could play as Medusa." The player would have to chase people around, forcing characters to look them in the eye and be turned to stone. The player would also have to be careful not to look directly into mirrors. (The mirror bit was my idea. Please keep that in mind when making attributions.)

Potential marketing hiccup: It looks like at least one developer is already working on an Oculus Medusa game.

Crazy Cops 2
"The other is a buddy cop game, because why are there so many buddy cop movies and TV shows, [but] no buddy cop co-op games? LA Noire didn't count." Nate Mitchell, Oculus VR product VP (pictured right), suggested Army of Two, but Luckey shot it down because it's not about cops. "I want, like, an actual buddy cop movie. Like, where you could play good cop and bad cop and interrogate people. Have one guy – oh, I guess cops don't do this – but you could have like one guy driving and just shooting out the window. It's just crazy cops. There we go: Crazy Cops 2."

Potential marketing hiccup: Okay, so this one doesn't sound particularly centered around VR, but it's hard to deny the appeal.

Possession Obsession
A game about spiritual possession. Look characters in the eyes to possess them, after which your physical presence will zoom into their body, so you're now controlling a character from a completely different point of view. Chain possessions together in order to reach the boss character. Once you confront the boss, you have to possess it and then kill yourself, thus killing the boss. Morbid ... yet intriguing.

Potential marketing hiccup: Urban legends about what happens if you kill yourself in Virtual Reality.

And there you have it, four free VR game ideas just waiting to be made. Have fun, and if anyone out there actually makes one of these, let us know!