Today, we’re excited to announce that Sneaky Bears—the delightfully charming FPS—is now available for Rift on the Oculus Store!

Evil teddy bear mastermind Frank and his minions have taken control of a toy factory to build a deranged bear army. Your mission: Defeat Frank and rescue his adorable panda hostages.

To celebrate the cuddly arcade-style action, we sat down with WarDucks CEO Nikki Lannen for some behind-the-scenes details.

What was the initial inspiration behind Sneaky Bears?

Nikki Lannen: We had a brainstorming session in the office, and, as usual, our office dog Fred—aka Freddy Bear (he’s super fluffy)—was in the meeting room with us. We were throwing out ideas and talking about doing an FPS and wanted to build a theme around it. We were laughing about the possibility of an evil teddy bear who had taken over a factory and thought it was a really fun idea. We asked Freddy what he thought—his opinion is always taken into consideration. He gave a little bark, which we took that as a thumbs-up from him, and the wheels were put in motion!

What motivated you to bring Sneaky Bears over to PC VR from Gear VR?

NL: It’s actually very different from the Gear VR game. We totally redesigned and rebuilt it. We realized from the mobile VR version that people liked the concept, so we decided to go much bigger and better with that original idea.

Any crazy stories from your playtesting process?

NL: We did have a couple of members of Hozier’s band in to test the game in the office—they’re massive gamers. Alex, the bass player, played it consistently for two-and-a half-hours, so we were pretty chuffed about that!

Who did you work with on the soundtrack? How about the overall sound design?

NL: We based the soundtrack on an ’80s theme and worked with a composer called Sarah Lynch. Sarah’s very knowledgeable about VR as a platform and so a dream to work with. She’s an unbelievably talented composer and has completed a thesis that sought to understand how to compose compelling VR music.

For sound design, we worked with James Latimer—also a genuine pleasure to work with and very focused on the VR space. Being able to work with two professionals who are really experienced in this area was very important to us, as music and sound are a critical part of a VR product.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Nikki.

Sneaky Bears clocks in at about two-and-a-half hours of gameplay, and with three unique game modes and multiple weapons, replayability is a plus. Check out the full game on Rift and its earlier Gear VR iteration today!

— The Oculus Team