I was a guest on the Game Ready podcast, in an episode called VR Game Development, Market Trends & Solo Dev Life. We covered a lot of ground: how I got into game development, the state of the VR market, where VR games actually sell, refunds and piracy, VR design, and why I work alone. The full episode is above. Here are the parts I think are most worth your time.
How it started
It began with a C++ calculator in a computer science lesson when I was 11 or 12. My thinking was simple: if you can make a calculator, you can make a game. That led to free mobile games on Google Play, most of which passed a thousand installs and a few passed five thousand. Then, at university, a practical VR course and my first headset changed the direction completely. Being inside a game instead of watching it on a screen was something new, and seeing how few games there were on Meta's store made me want to contribute.
Where VR games actually sell
This is probably the most useful part for other developers. In my experience, and in what I hear from the indie VR developers I talk to, a VR game can sell more than ten times as much on the Meta Horizon Store as on SteamVR. The Steam hardware survey puts VR headsets at under 2% of Steam users. If you want a VR game to succeed today, you need a standalone version. Pico is a much smaller store, but if you already have a Quest build, porting to it is quick, so my advice is to target as many devices as you can.
We also talked about why big-budget VR games struggle. Many of them actually sell well. The problem is that the VR market is still small compared to consoles, and a large studio needs far more sales than the VR audience can provide.
Refunds and piracy
Both of my games can be finished in under two hours if you play fast, which puts them inside Steam's refund window. I'm fine with that. As a buyer, I'm more willing to take a chance on a game when I know I can refund it, and an indie developer without ten previous hits needs people to take that chance. I'd also rather someone refund the game than leave a bitter review.
On piracy: because my games have speedrun leaderboards, I can see that there are more player profiles than sales. That's part of selling software. My view is that people who enjoy a game will support the developer, and someone who pirated it today might buy it, or recommend it to a friend, tomorrow.
Designing for VR
A lot of VR design is about the body. Don't make players reach down to the floor every few seconds, especially if they might be seated. But don't put everything at eye level either, or searching a room becomes monotonous. And use what VR is good at: real physics and real hands.
My favourite example is a puzzle from my first game, Escape Room: Bank Robbery Gone Wrong. There's a button you need to press that you simply cannot reach, no matter how far you stretch. The solution is to grab something long and use it to push the button. You could fake that on a flat screen, but it isn't the same as actually reaching for it and realising you need a tool.
If you're making a VR game, do your best to actually use the VR aspect. Otherwise, make a flat screen game.
Starting your first VR game
My advice: use Unity if you're starting out with VR (if you already know Unreal, stay with it), begin with tutorials and small projects you don't plan to publish, and then change them to make them your own. And whatever time you think a game will take, it will take longer. If you think two months, plan for six.
Why I work solo
I treat my games as a creative project. Working alone lets me choose the direction, set my own pace, and keep the game close to what I imagined. Cost matters too: I don't currently sell enough to hire a full-time team. I do work with freelancers, mostly for 3D assets, and if funding or sales allowed it I'd be open to a small team, but I'd want to keep it small.
Learning without homework
We ended on something I care about a lot. My bachelor thesis was about gamifying learning, and Oldest Golden Treasure is where I put that into practice. You play a detective investigating a colleague who disappeared while searching for a treasure, so it makes sense that the clues around you include the real historical facts he was researching. You can read them and learn about Bulgaria's real gold and caves, or ignore them and just enjoy the puzzles. The best learning is the kind you don't notice you're doing.
Jump to a topic
- 1:17 How I started making games
- 4:24 Why small games are the best way to learn
- 7:10 Why VR is different from playing on a screen
- 8:50 The state of the VR market in 2026
- 12:14 What players actually want from VR games
- 14:15 Why AAA VR games struggle financially
- 16:35 Meta Quest vs Steam: where VR games sell
- 20:44 VR games and Steam refunds
- 24:11 Refunds, piracy and making short games work
- 28:12 What makes VR game development different
- 35:28 VR fitness, Beat Saber and physical gameplay
- 38:31 Why I chose escape room games
- 40:28 How to start making your first VR game
- 47:31 Making interactions truly immersive
- 50:15 AR, passthrough and new possibilities
- 55:15 VR for education, training and real-world uses
- 1:00:15 The future of VR: users, age groups and gaming
- 1:03:06 Why I work mostly as a solo developer
- 1:06:13 Learning through games
Thank you to Game Ready for having me. If you have questions about anything we covered, leave them in the comments under the episode on YouTube.