Last year Epic Games announced the creation of its Unreal Dev Grant Award that would financially help projects using its Unreal Engine development software. The company also announced at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) 2016 last month that it would also be awarding virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) to studios as well. Now developer Donald Macdonald who’s currently running a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign for his exploration title Niten has revealed he’s been awarded a HTC Vive.

The developer said in an update: “Today I am proud to announce that Niten has been awarded a developer grant from Unreal-Engine in the form of an HTC VIVE VR kit!”

“This amazing act of generosity has convinced me to shake things up a little with our stretch goals. The VR stretch goal will now be removed from the campaign and a VR version of Niten will be released as a standalone edition of the game. And here’s the best bit; This will be given free upon completion to everyone who backs the minimum £15 release of Niten on Kickstarter.”

Macdonald then added that Niten would be built from the ground up for VR, but that the next three months of development wouldn’t involve any VR work. The Kickstarter campaign is currently seeking £15,000 GBP in funding and is currently sat on £2,052 with 23 days to go.

Niten is a story driven title set on a remote Japanese island. Players will be able to uncover the history of the island and its previous inhabitants; a Samurai master and his orphan-child student as they explore.

VRFocus will bring you further details of Niten VR as updates are released.