Runes: The Forgotten Path

Runes: The Forgotten Path is a story-driven VR game designed for room-scale play. You are Leth, a wizard who awakens from a long slumber inside Oblivion, a magical prison of the mind. With your spells forgotten, you fight enemies, solve puzzles and recover your memories as you try to escape and uncover the mystery of the world and the entities that inhabit it.

Leth and the Panopticon

Leth has strayed from the path of righteousness and been trapped within himself by the tyrannical order of the Panopticon. As you recover his memories, you learn about his past and the magical world around him.

Legends tell of the Makers, who gave mankind magic and taught people wisdom and love for all beings in the cosmos before leaving for other dimensions. Humans used magic to build a powerful civilization, but those who sought power became tyrants. The Panopticon, an order of powerful wizards, began regulating magic and restricting its use by their underlings. Those who broke its laws were sentenced to Oblivion: an eternal sleep that imprisoned their minds in endless limbo while their bodies remained alive.

This second age was one of dictatorship, fear and hatred. Centuries of oppression came to an end with the Great Cataclysm, whose cause is unknown. It scorched the world and unleashed forces of entropy, bringing mankind to the verge of extinction.

Spells and exploration

You cast spells by drawing them in the air with motion controllers. The game combines combat, puzzle solving and exploration across different environments, with worlds created using photogrammetry. You can answer yes-or-no questions by nodding your head.

Movement options

Interactions such as combat and puzzles take place in first person. For longer journeys, the 4th Wall system switches seamlessly to a fixed third-person camera, where you see and control your avatar while still moving in room-scale and observing the environment. This approach also allows for puzzle mechanics and narrative choices.

The available movement systems are 4th Wall, trackpad locomotion and teleportation. Smooth locomotion and front-facing gameplay are also options.