Michael Gschwandtner’s free fitness app VRWorkout recently released on Oculus Quest via the unofficial SideQuest VR storefront and now it’s coming to to additional platforms. A Steam release is set for July 6 and the game will then support Valve Index, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift. While it’s in Early Access, it won’t be priced differently once it is finished and you can wishlist it today.
The gameplay revolves around hitting cues (with both your head and your hands) to the beat of music and players are recommended to play with open palms to improve tracking as it uses hand tracking rather than using controllers. Running in place will give players point multipliers and exercises havethree included difficulty levels. Exercises can be swapped out to give you a more difficult or relaxed workout.
While it isn’t finished, VRWorkout isn’t lacking in activities for fitness enthusiasts to do. It’s essentially a home gym as it allows players to do a variety of workouts. Currently supported are sprinting, pushups and planks, crunches, squats, ducking, jumping, and burpees. Players can also play custom music while they workout and there’s an in-game groove detector and a freeplay mode.
There are a variety of additions planned for VRWorkout down the line. These include multiplayer support, slower exercises such as yoga and warmups. Vive Tracker support, exercise presets and adaptive gameplay are also on the way eventually. These will be available by the end of the year, as that is when it will exit Early Access.
Gschwandtner compares VRWorkout to a calisthenics workout and says that VRWorkout will activate more muscle groups compared to other fitness rhythm games like Beat Saber and BoxVR. He attributes this to players having to regularly switch stances as they go from standing to squatting and doing other exercises.
The developer does note that the game doesn’t currently check for your surroundings, so you need to have a workout space without objects you could bump into. There’s also a Discord community to join if you want to chat with other VR fitness gamers and want workout tips.
