Between Raw Data and Sprint Vector, Survios is already one of the most established and successful VR game development studios around. Though those two titles are very different from one another, they're both competitive games with recognizable mechanics: shooting, tower defense, and racing.

Electronauts, the studio's next VR title, will be their most experimental game yet. It's a music game, but without the competitive or rhythm-matching aspect of games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band. It might not even be a "game" in the technical sense. But for those who want to strap on a VR headset and chillout while creating and re-mixing some killer electronic music tracks, Electronauts is going to offer a satisfying and highly polished experience.

Make music, and never sound bad

There's no story mode or campaign planned for Electronauts. Instead, players jump into psychadelic virtual environments tailored to fit particular electronic tracks, then play along with and re-mix the song as they like, with the world around responding to the music in perfect sync. Players will be able to transition form one song to another without ever leaving the action, making it a perfect experience for party play, especially since the game is full of legitamately great electronic music.

The version of the game on display at the 2018 Game Developers Conference had roughly 25 tracks in it (all vocal-free, looping beats, from what I heard, but I only had a chance to sample a few), but more are planned for the launch version of the game. The soundtrack is a mix of licensed music and tracks produced just for Electronauts, and some big names in the electronic music world are already involved, including Steve Aoki's studio.

The gameplay of Electronauts consists of interacting with three separate pods in front of the player, each of which can be swapped between different functions. The most actively musical of the different functions is a set of colorful orbs that can be struck to make sounds, and which can themselves be swapped through a selection of different tones that fit well with whatever song you are listening to (and which aren't necessarily the same from one song to the next)

The best part of Elecronauts for music fans who just want to have fun experiencing their music is that you can never actually sound bad. No matter how off-beat you are when you strike the musical orbs, for example, the game adjusts automatically, using slight delays and modifying the pitch of your notes to keep the sound flowing smoothly. During my hands-on time with the game I did my very best to screw up the music, smacking obnoxiously at the orbs in front of me and dragging my virtual drumstick through them at high speeds, and never encountered so much as a single sour note or awkward beat.

This "always sound great" aspect of Electronauts is also likely to be an issue for more competitive music game fans, the kind of people who enjoy racking up high scores in Audiosurf or VR's own Audioshield, or those looking for a serious music creation engine. There don't seem to be any "points" or objectives to be found in Electronauts, and your ability to express yourself musically is limited to playing along with and warping existing tunes, rather than creating anything from the ground up.

Trippy co-op fun

Aside from the orbs, different functions you'll be able to play around with include "sound grenades" which can be thrown to create audio and visual effects, sci-fi interfaces that allow you to loop, mute, or emphasize different portions of the song, and visualizer options that give you control over the world around you.

These virtual worlds deserve special attention, because Survios is clearly well aware of this game's potential popularity with fans of the Outrun/retrowave/whatever you want to call it aesthetic. One of the game's "levels" has a sun in the sky (which you can see in this article's header image) that's clearly intended as a nod to FM-84's Atlas album art, or something very much like it. It's very easy to imagine Electronauts visuals on a TV at a party, bouncing along to the ever-changing music.

Electronauts will have online co-op play that will make it easy to live out your Daft Punk dreams, and everything sounds just as good and in-sync with two players both interacting with the music at the same time. With two players you're able to capture and loop the music coming from your partner, which adds a new dimension to things. You can also throw music grenades at each other and watch each other dance around, which has its charms.

Electronauts will be releasing sometime in 2018, and is likely to follow Survios' previous title Sprint Vector in releasing on the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PSVR platforms.