Insomniac Games has officially launched its new game for Magic Leap One, called ‘Seedling.’ Throughout the game, you can nurture your very own plant life form wherever you are. In our demo, we got to check out what it feels like to take care of a virtual plant using a very expensive machine.
Taking care of a plant is a great introduction into learning how capable you are of caring for a living thing. But rather than starting with a real plant, why not start with a virtual one? With Seedling on the Magic Leap One, you can nurture your very own artificial life form whether you’re at home or work.
Created by Insomniac Games, the studio behind Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PlayStation 4, Seedling is a game that tasks you with growing a “seedling” in real time. You’re given a virtual plant to check in on from time to time to make sure it’s thriving, not unlike taking care of a Neopet. We spent some time with the game on the Magic Leap One mixed reality headset to see if taking care of a mixed-reality plant worth the time and investment.
The Magic Leap One has been under development for years, but it officially launched this past summer. It’s a mixed reality headset, meaning you can see computer-generated images in the physical space in front of you, while also seeing the rest of the real world. In Seedling, you will be placing these virtual plants around your work space or home, and the game will remember where they are placed. While you won’t have control over the type of plant you get, each time you successfully bring one to life, you’ll be able to start nurturing a new plant to add to your collection throughout your space.
But you need a little more than a headset to get Seedling going with the Magic Leap One. It’s powered by a puck-shaped Lightpack miniature PC, which we clipped onto the pocket of our jeans after putting the headset on. Then there’s the controller, which comes equipped with a circular touch pad that supports haptic feedback — it’s what you’ll use to access the variety of tools provided to help take care of your plant (which we’ll get to later). Since there are cameras placed on the front of the goggles, you can interact with the graphics using your free-hand, but only in certain parts of the game. For instance, in the beginning there was a book laid out and we turned the page by touching the virtual page with our free hand and flipping over to the next one. You can touch parts of the plant, which will trigger reactions, movement, or noise.
In short, Seedling takes place in a galactic ecosystem where all plants have been destroyed. Taking on the title of “Seedling Cadet,” you’re tasked with bringing plants back to life and making sure they don’t fall victim to the diseases that now exist in the atmosphere. In our demo, we experienced the accelerated version of the game so it went quicker than usual.
