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Panoptic Demo v0.13.0 is now available!
Oculus Rift support! Also, some experimental tweaks to the way the PC player interacts with NPCs and some other bugfixes.
Click here for the full change log!

Future updates to the demo will still become available on ITCH, but you can also add "Panoptic Demo" to your Steam library and update automatically when new versions are released!

Panoptic is an asymmetrical local multiplayer VR game, between a player wearing a VR headset, and a regular PC player. The VR player controls the powerful Overseer, while the PC player controls the Challenger, a citizen rebelling against the Overseer's oppressive reign, and seeks to destroy it. The Challenger must try to avoid the Overseer's scorching gaze, and to do so, they must often hide in plain sight among the other citizens.

WARNING - The version currently available is only a free, work-in-progress demo
The version of Panoptic currently available on this page is only a demo, based on the original game jam project. We are in the process of polishing this demo. The final version of this demo will remain free, here on ITCH, and on Steam.
Once we have completed work on this demo, we will start working on a full game version, with extended features, which will become available for purchase via Steam Early Access.

Any donations given, when currently downloading the demo from the ITCH.IO page, are greatly appreciated and go directly to helping us develop the game, but do not warrant access to the final, full game version, neither on ITCH.IO, nor on Steam.

To those of you who already payed for downloading the demo, with the intent of buying a full game: please contact us via email, and we'll see what can be arranged.

If you want to support us, but also get a copy of the final full game, we advise you to wait for the game to be released on Steam Early Access!
To keep updated on the full game's Early Access release, as well as other Panoptic news, please consider subscribing to our mailing list, and/or following us on Facebook or Twitter.

Panoptic was first designed for IGJam16 (16th-19th august 2016), a 48-hour game jam during GamesCom 2016, in Cologne. The game, originally named "Panoptes", won 3 awards at the event:

Best Game Feel
awarded by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) & Anchel Labena (Nordic Game Jam)
Best Dreamworld to dive into before someone annoys me ("Best VR")
awarded by Chet Faliszek (Valve) & Sara Lisa Vogl (VRnerds.de)
Best Game(s)
awarded by the IGJam organisation

As a price for Best Game(s), we got the opportunity to exhibit the game for the remaining two days of GamesCom, at the Indie Arena booth! (along with 3 other games, out of 39 jam entries)

You can download the original IGJam 2016 submission at its IGJam page.

We'd like to thank InnoGames, the other sponsors, and the IGJam16 organisation, crew and jury, for the wonderful experience and amazing prices.

Local Multiplayer only:
The game currently only supports Local Multiplayer, where the VR player and PC player share a single PC / physical location.
We would like to include an online multiplayer option at some point, though if this is the case, it would definitely be late in the development of the final game.

HTC Vive or Oculus Rift (CV1):
The game is made specifically for VR, and is designed for HTC Vive and Oculus CV1.
The game currently only requires one hand controller, so we advise to only use one, and keep your second hand free.

Notes for Oculus Rift (CV1):
Since the game currently does not use any Oculus Touch functionality, we designed the controls primarily for the Oculus Remote, the small controller which came with your Oculus Rift (CV1). You can also use one Oculus Touch controller instead, if you wish, but in our opinion, the Oculus Remote makes for a more pleasant experience.
The game was designed from the core as a 360° room-scale game, and some gameplay takes place low to the floor. The original Oculus Rift (CV1) single-camera setup will simply not work, and even the Touch's standard "2-point forward-facing 180° standing setup" will very likely not function correctly.
PLEASE make sure your Oculus Rift (CV1) is set up for 360° room-scale, before playing our game.

Windows only (for now):
At the time of writing, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift (CV1) are only supported for Windows.
HTC & Valve have announced earlier that Linux and MacOS support will come for their Vive / SteamVR in the future. When this becomes available, we intend to investigate what needs to be done to support these operating systems as well.

Panoptic [alpha demo] screenshots