Why Early Access?

“Our aim is for Banter to become the number one destination for socialising in VR:

- To provide a seamless cross platform experience between PCVR and standalone.
- To build support for the latest technologies including body, face, lip and eye tracking.
- To grow a community around events, content creation and world building.
- To develop tools for streamers and content creators to be able to leverage Banter for professional recording/live streaming.
- To leverage existing tools along with the power of the open web to allow for gamified and connected experiences. We want to delight and engage our users with high replayability potential.
- To build some of the most technically impressive first party content with a strong focus on performance and optimisation.
- To work with our community, to collaborate and build together.
- To support our users, listen to their feedback and implement the popular features that they all want. Taking suggestions in every way possible through our discord ( over 3k members ), facebook, twitter and our steam community.
- To work towards interoperability with other apps in the space, to build the metaverse.

Our early access will allow us to build a community around our spaces and creators while constantly improving the user experience, adding support for more headsets and controllers and improving the tools that give creators the freedom to build their own worlds.

We are pumped!”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Approximately one year.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“Over the course of Early Access, just some of the things we plan to add include:
- More "flagship" spaces; that is, premium experiences created by the Banter development team
- Improved support for game creation, and launching our own game spaces: shooters, football, tag - anything is possible!
- Support for more VR headsets and controllers
- Improved creator tools - if we can build it in our flagship spaces, you can build it too!
- Streamlining of support for 2D players including an "easy" control mode for KBM and joypad to go alongside our current "simulated hands" controls
- Constant improvements to the user experience/UI”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“At launch, we have three of our own flagship spaces that users can explore with their friends and complete strangers: The Backrooms, Slipstream Island, and Winter Sports Resort

We launch with support for OpenXR headsets and controllers including first-class support for Index, Vive and Quest/Touch. If you don't have a VR headset, you can launch in 2D mode and join in the fun, but some of the more complex physics-based motion such as gestures and climbing will currently be difficult.

The User Interface is functional if a little clunky, but we think it's fine to use for now.

As a creator, you can already build your own spaces using AFrame and Unity, and we have basic documentation and examples available for that.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“No, Banter is likely to remain free.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We mostly coordinate with our community on Discord, but we will have some presence on the Steam forums too. We love our community and embrace creators and community-run events!”