VR Graffiti
I recently decided to jump into the world of VR and got myself a 2nd Gen Oculus Quest. I was excited to explore the creative side of the VR platform. I have never been completely into the gaming aspect of VR, to me, that seems kind of like a novelty aspect of it. I was always more interested in the content creation aspect of VR, and what the possibilities are with the platform. This is one of those ideas that seems like it was made for VR.
I personally grew up in a town that has a lot of gang activity, and graffiti tagging was just something that was normal to see in every street corner, walking home from school, going to work, etc. As a kid that loves to draw and sketch and paint; I always secretly wanted to try and make some sort of graffiti piece but I never brought myself to it. So when I saw that there was a whole game dedicated to graffiti on the Oculus store I thought it was the perfect opportunity.
The game is titled Kingspray Graffiti and I played it for a couple of hours. This was actually the first time I had ever played an art game in VR, and the first VR experience I had had in years. So I spent a few minutes trying to figure out the controls, how to change colors, type of spray paint, moving around, etc. My first impression was that this HAS to be one of the most realistic VR to real-world experiences. The feeling of shaking the can, the pressure control, the paint drips. It honestly felt like I was spraypainting in real life. This whole experience was made so much more real also with the shape of the Oculus controllers and the haptic feedback that they give. The controllers rumble when you shake the can, and they also have a little rumble when you are spraying, kind of like the recoil you get from the pressure being released.
I think that this application is perfect for all those people that like myself have always had the itch or desire to go out and tag a wall, but never actually wanted to damage property. Or also for current or professional mural artists that want to get more practice. I honestly think that it could be a suitable tool for artists to outline a future mural or piece. In the game, there are multiple different environments that you can choose from, and also there is a multiplayer option where you can collaborate with others online live. I think that in these COVID times this can be a fun way that artists can just quickly link up and start brainstorming or free forming different artworks.
Overall the experience was really fun and relaxing. I think that one addition that could be made to the app is that possibly they could develop a companion app for smartphones that allows others to see what you are painting in real-time if they are in the same room with you. I don’t know if this is a Facebook thing or if it is even possible to do it for a single app but I think it would be a very cool addition because I have a lot of friends that don’t have their own headset but still want to see what I am working on. It would be cool if you could use a phone as a sort of portal into the game world and see what the player is doing in real-time and even walk around the player as they are working to get many different perspectives.
Link to purchase game.
