Catan VR is available on both Rift and Gear today, will be a Go launch title, and you can play as a CAT!

Asmodee Digital and virtual reality game developer Experiment 7 today announced the release of Catan VR, a new virtual reality experience which invites you to play a game of Catan on the island of Catan itself. CatsAndVR has been a long time fan of the work of Experiment 7 from their work on their Magic Table platform and the D&D table top game Dungeon Chess

Developed in conjunction with original Catan creators, father and son Klaus and Benjamin Teuber, Catan VR elevates the title with vibrant in-game environments and cross-platform online play that bring the tabletop to life, no matter where you and your friends are.

Catan VR is on the Oculus Store today for $14.99 and on Samsung Gear VR for $9.99. Catan VR will be available on Oculus GO soon. 

We had the opportunity to go hands on with Catan VR and came away very impressed with the UI of Catan VR. The VR adapation maintains the tactile, social fun of board gaming while adding to the experience with expressive in-game avatars, crisp voice communications and two intuitive control schemes: touch controls and gaze controls.

Speaking to the managing director of Experiment 7 Demetri Detsaridis and the creative director Geoffrey Zatkin gave me some great insight into how much the team has put into development of this game.  Catan VR has 6 different AI types all with different play styles. This  allows for different strategies and resource management styles. As a Catan player that generally tries to go for the Longest road it is great to see that one of the AI types plays that way as well. 

The team loved the AI in the XBox 360 version in Settlers of Catan VR so much that the actually bought the rights to use it from the state of Rhode Island.  Originally developed by Big Huge Games, and acquired by the state of Rhode Island during the 38 Studios fiasco, Experiment 7 went on to use this AI as a foundational tool kit along with notes from the developer of the tabletop game to create a virtual world around Catan. 

“Catan is about exploring new frontiers,” said Catan creator Klaus Teuber. “What better way to express that than by venturing into the exciting new world of virtual reality? The immersion made possible by this platform captures the boundless opportunity of taking that first step onto undiscovered lands.”

The above 360 video will give an idea of the layout of Catan VR but still you really have to play the game to see how good of an adaptation of Settlers Of Catan this is. As a fan of the game I hope people go out and purchase the game so we can eventually get Catan expansions and eventually that Catan cat game I want.