Lucky’s Tale developer re-created Mario and Banjo-Kazooie levels to figure out VR level design

Most virtual reality games will put you into the action from a first-person perspective, but a few are going for the classic third-person viewpoint of something like the revolutionary Super Mario 64. Only it turns out that getting that kind of game working in VR is tough.

Playful is an Oculus Rift developer making the upcoming platformer Lucky’s Tale, which has players controlling a cute fox through a cartoon world. It is reminiscent of 3D Mario games as well as something like the Nintendo 64’s Banjo-Kazooie. And that’s partially because Playful designers Dan Hurd and Evan Reidland rebuilt levels from those games in VR to see what would translate to VR and what would break. Playful has raised $25 million in funding to help it move into VR with a platforming game, and it has learned a lot during development that could make Lucky’s Tale a standout launch game for Oculus Rift later this month.