With version 13 of the Oculus software, the Oculus Quest now automatically tracks your hands when it can’t find any Oculus Touch controllers in range. While it’s a novelty to browse through the Oculus menus with just your fingers, playing games is way more fun. To get started, sideload apps to your Oculus Quest using Sidequest before you begin. Also, for the best results, always play in a well-lit room for optimal hand-tracking performance. The brighter, the better.
[vimeo 390843695]
★ Featured favorite
Tea for God
Staff Pick
If you’re looking for the best example of what hand-tracking can bring to an already amazing experience, the oddly named Tea for God is the first step you should take. Tea for God is a never-ending procedurally-generated experience. The game creates its world as you play, and it’s different every single time. On top of being one of the best room-scale experiences available, Tea for God utilizes the hand-tracking feature in a wholly natural way. It makes guns out of hands, brings enemies close so you can punch them, and has lots of buttons and doors to open with your fingers.
Free at SideQuest
Pulling worlds apart
Interdimensional Matter
Interdimensional Matter is a puzzle game that appears to be simple on the surface; take the object apart, insert the “cores” into the correctly shaped slots, and put the object back together. Even a preschooler could do it, right? In this dimension, sure, but between dimensions, there’s no telling what’s going to happen to matter as it bends and moves in ways you won’t expect. It doesn’t feel the same without your hands, and that’s what makes this such an excellent experience!
Free at SideQuest
Tetris in the fourth dimension
Cubism
Tetrominoes get a three-dimensional enhancement in Cubism, a puzzler that has you placing funky-shaped pieces inside a larger puzzle. The trick here is that, like playing Jenga, you’ll be utilizing your primary digits to grab these pieces and put them in the right place. It’s a great way to relax while keeping your brain active, and using your fingers to grab virtual puzzle pieces feels amazing.
Free at SideQuest
Craft and mine all the time
Voxel Works Quest
While the Oculus Rift has an official version of Minecraft, the Oculus Quest is without its own port of the venerable voxel survival game. Voxel Works Quest attempts to recreate the magic of Minecraft with the bonus of letting you use your actual hands to interact with the blocky world. It’s still got a long way to go before it has all the features of Microsoft’s incredibly deep title, but it’s darn fun to play, given the new level of interaction present.
Free at SideQuest
An aptly-named experience
Hand tracking demos
While the title is a bit ambiguous, it perfectly describes the experience you’ll find inside. The developer took the Oculus trains demo and added hand-tracking to it, including some neat modifications that’ll make you feel like you’re 6 years old and playing with trains again. The developer has taken to Reddit and unveiled plans to continually update this app with additional demos, including concepts like Rocket Punches, Rubber Stretchy Arms, Finger Guns, and Hand grenades.
Free at SideQuest
Giving beast mode a new name
VRWorkout
VRWorkout is designed to be a way to get exercise rather than playing a game that happens to accelerate your heart rate. It’s better designed for hand-only interaction than games like Beat Saber or Pistol Whip, which rely on ultra-precise controller aiming and movement. It’s actively being developed and has seen several updates since its debut in late December, and the developer has been very responsive with feature requests and additions.
Free at SideQuest
Make happy trees
Mr. Scribbles
Mr. Scribbles is a unique drawing game that aims to create a completely natural way of interacting with virtual elements. Utilizing a set of gestures and hand movements, virtual artists can create lines and shapes out of thin air. These shapes can then be manipulated in several ways, including resizing, changing the color or material, and just about anything your mind can concoct. It’s still early in the prototype stage, but the potential here is massive, and the development is very active.
Free at SideQuest
Toys come to life
Kaput Commander
If you’re at all familiar with table-top games like Warhammer, you’ll immediately fall in love with Kaput Commander. Kaput Commander is a tower defense demo that was set up for the Global Game Jam. While it’s light on features, the feeling of picking up toy tanks and watching them go to war with each other satisfies some deep childhood desire. The developer is also working on several other hand-tracking demos that will be rolled into this game, as well.
Free at SideQuest
A god-game on a smaller scale
Sun Shard: Hand Tracking Demo – Might of the Gods
Gamers familiar with the Black & White series will know that god games can be incredibly rewarding to play. While Sun Shard doesn’t encompass all the qualities of a full-fledged god game, it does put you in the shoes of a rather large deity who’s goal is to defend a totem against an invading hoard. Grab, smack, pummel, and shoot magic at your enemies as they head wave-after-wave into your sanctuary and try to dismantle the totem that gives you power.
Free at SideQuest
Rock, Paper, Scissors
RPS Championship
It’s rock, paper, scissors in VR. There’s little in the way of extras here, and, at the present moment, you can only play against a computer-controlled opponent. It looks like the developer will be adding several new features and a possible multiplayer mode but, until then, it’s a fun distraction for a few minutes.
Free at SideQuest
Hand-tracking 101
Hand-tracking is still early for the Oculus Quest, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it with any of these fantastic games. While there’s something for just about everyone here, there’s something well worth noting: all of these titles are in early development and likely will look and behave very differently (read: better) in the months to come. The nice part is that they’re all free, so you won’t have to worry about wasting your money on an experience you may not fully enjoy.
The most fleshed-out experiences here are Tea for God, Interdimensional Matter, and Cubism, without a doubt. These titles will give you a few good hours of fun, and they won’t cost you anything more than your time. Setting up SideQuest is a breeze, and once you have it down, you can enjoy all sorts of titles and mods for your existing games that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day on the Oculus Store.
Oculus was quick to roll out automatic hand-tracking to the Quest after just a month of testing, and we expect significant improvements to hand-tracking just as we saw significant improvements to controller tracking just a few months after the release of the Oculus Quest. That being said, expect a few bugs but go into the experience expecting to have fun. After all, that is the entire point of gaming, and the realism of VR only makes that fun more palpable.
