Who wants a social community if in case you have a hand?
A brand new function introduced on April Fools’ Day in Walkabout Mini Golf means you will by no means must be alone once more in VR. Simply flip your putter right into a sock puppet.
I examined grip-to-puppet for actual.
Double The Roleplay
Grip-to-Putt is the unique Walkabout Mini Golf function that requires the grip button on a VR controller to be pressed so as to hit the ball. It is a helpful manner of guaranteeing you do not by accident lose a stroke by hitting it if you did not imply to.
Grip-to-Putter, in the meantime, is an adjunct now in its third technology that presses that button whereas giving the texture of a membership in your hand.
In Grip-to-Puppet, if you press that grip button/set off Walkabout’s builders entry one thing deep inside.
“The puppet has been within you all alongside,” Mighty Coconut 3D artist Emma Mercado defined between heaves of laughter. “So you do not want a lot to entry it.”
I met just lately with Mercado and Mighty Coconut communications head David Wyatt, with three sock puppets that includes crimson stripes round their necks speaking with us intermittently.
In 2017, I reported on the thought of Puppeteering in VRChat as a cool thought. Now once more in 2025, the thought resurfaces in Walkabout Mini Golf as a function anybody can attempt.
My sock puppet requested Mercado: “Am I going to have lots of choices for illustration?”
“That is form of a joke that ended up not being a joke,” she replied. “And so we’re ready to see how nicely it’s acquired, however we do produce other potential choices if of us prefer it.”
Throughout my transient time testing this with professionals Wyatt and Mercado, our puppets made sounds I’ve by no means heard individuals make in social VR earlier than. I additionally laughed greater than I ever have in social VR.
“You have received two ranges of separation from whoever you are making an attempt to be, and so it makes it simpler to only play,” Mercado defined. “And I believe that is an enormous a part of Walkabout is simply making play as accessible as attainable.”
The function has been on the again burner for years, Mercado prompt, and Walkabout’s authentic creator Lucas Martell defined how the brand new exercise suits right into a collection of regular updates to the mission over the past 12 months.
“A majority of gamers spend a good portion of their time doing an exercise aside from golf,” Martell wrote. “The misplaced balls and fox hunts have been two of the preferred features of the sport from very early on. Even non-gamified parts like flying, using on transferring objects, or enjoying with the seaside ball on Welcome Island have confirmed to be massive hits. Among the latest additions to the sport have given us extra methods to let gamers expertise these worlds, whether or not that is {golfing} in race mode, hitting some slingshot targets when you wait on your pals, or discovering the employees-only rooms all through the sport. Grip-To-Puppet specifically is a enjoyable social experiment, and we won’t wait to see what gamers use it for.”
You possibly can take a tour of considered one of Walkabout’s programs in our Design playlist or learn Don Carson’s ideas in fact design for a deeper look into the concepts which form the sport because it continues to develop.
Cultivating Magic: The Artwork And Ideas Of Walkabout Mini Golf Course Design
Mighty Coconut’s Don Carson shares the ideas for course design in Walkabout Mini Golf.
