How to make a virtual reality game before the market even exists (hint: you don’t)

Oculus VR is only a few weeks away from releasing the Rift headset. And while that kicks off high-end virtual reality on PC, it’s the end of an uncertain journey for developers building games for these devices.

One of the earliest games due out for the Rift this spring is a sci-fi explorer called Pollen from the newly formed developer Mindfield Games. Pollen looks like the kind of releases we’ve played for years on PC and consoles in terms of production values, genre, and style — and this gives it the aura that it is one of the most fully fleshed out experiences coming in the first months of the Rift. In a lecture at the Casual Connect Europe event in Amsterdam last week, Mindfield cofounder and project lead Olli Sinerma explained what led his team to create Pollen and why, in the end, he decided against making a VR-only game.