A Reddit user recently shared a single-player RPG he created based on the lore and characters from within Dota 2. According to the creator, he’s a recent college graduate with a diploma in game development. For his Capstone, he created a single-player VR experience using the world of Dota 2.
The gameplay he shared shows the player walking through an eerie rendition of the jungle as a Radiant melee creep. You pick up a torch and wander forward with Pudge’s Meat Hook in your other hand. Holding this weapon gives you the hero’s skill, hooking and dismembering enemies in the VR universe.
The creator answered questions in the
related Reddit thread, explaining that this is a project he completed during his final semester at school last September. In November, he had reached out to Valve’s co-founder Gabe Newell and asked permission to use Dota’s assets “to make the game come to life.”
He was surprised when Newell said yes.
“Since then, I have spent as much time as I can trying to turn my little mini-games into a full fledged Dota 2 RPG,” he said. “The vision that I have for what a full version of this game would be a single-player RPG, in which your spells, weapons, and overall progression are tied to the weapons (and hands) of heroes within the Dota universe. More specifically, you would progress through some storyline relating to the Dota world, and find weapons belonging to heroes from Dota 2, which would give you access to their spells. Then, through the gesture system I built, you could use them to fight creeps and monsters in typical RPG fashion.”
For the creator, this VR project is simply a portfolio piece. He has no intentions to sell the project and is instead hoping it will land him a job in game development, specifically working in VR. Meanwhile, he’s working full-time at a donut shop to pay rent. He was sure to mention that if Valve would let him, he’d love to create a team to help him make it into a full-fledged game.
Valve has also experimented with Dota 2 in VR
This isn’t the first time that Dota 2 has joined the world of VR gaming. The game developers had introduced a spectator mode where gamers could watch professional matches in VR. This was available in the Secret Shop along with an interactive demo.
RPGs are also not completely new to Dota 2. Valve attempted to convert Dota 2 into an RPG experience in 2017. The multiplayer campaign, called Siltbreaker, was part of Battle Pass owners’ exclusive rewards.
The role-playing and real-time strategy genres also share much in common with Dota 2’s origins as a custom map for popular RTS WarCraft 3.
Olivia Richman
About Olivia Richman
Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.
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