The Amusement ready to entertain on Steam VR and Meta Quest

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Demo also available for 1920s theme park drama exploring traumatic family memories

For many people, family time at the amusement park is the source of fond happy memories, filled with thrilling rides and lots of laughter. (Plus long lines, overpriced food and a bit of sunburn, but we tend to gloss over those parts looking back on them later.) For the star of Curvature Games' newly released VR adventure The Amusement, however, a trip down memory lane will result in a much different sort of emotional experience.

After the death of her father in the Great War, a young woman named Samantha Burkhart is sent by her mother back to the family's "derelict" old amusement park to inspect its condition before it can be sold. However, as she reacquaints herself with long-forgotten features like the "magnificent maze, the ruins of Atlantis… and of course, a roller coaster," Sam finds that "each attraction becomes an opportunity ... to recall fragments of her childhood, marked by the turbulent relationship between her parents, Bridget and Hans." Sam is still haunted by thoughts of her father, and her return to the old park unearths "complex childhood memories" her mother long sought to protect her from. And so, what begins as a simple inspection soon becomes "a deeply personal journey ... challenging players to restore both the rides and her family story" while uncovering the mysteries long kept secret. 

The Amusement's 1920s post-war setting is presented in a realistic art style and inspired by the actual Luna Parks of the period. Using "redirected-walking techniques," the game allows players to freely "traverse the park as the environment shifts seamlessly around their natural movements." But there is none of the usual fun and merriment to be found on these abandoned fairgrounds. Instead, the game aims to blend "melancholic beauty with gentle mystery," as each ride "echoes with memories of the past" and the unfolding story of troubled family relationships is one in which "sorrow and nostalgia are tightly intertwined." There will be physics-based puzzles to solve along the way too, requiring you to "pick up and manipulate many objects to search for clues and trigger intricate mechanisms to unlock new paths." 

Published by ARTE France and funded with support from Gamecity Hamburg and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection of Germany, The Amusement is now complete and available exclusively for Steam VR and Meta Quest headsets. If you'd rather take it for a spin first, you can do that as well via the playable demo on Steam.

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