When Budget Cuts launched in 2018, Road to VR hailed it as “one of the smartest VR games to come out in recent memory.” Fans of the game’s humor and mechanics are in luck because Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency is now available on the Rift Platform!

In development for roughly a year, the latest title from Neat Corporation and Fast Travel Games picks up and expands upon where its predecessor left off. “The premise of Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency is undoubtedly on a much grander scale than the first Budget Cuts,” explains Neat Corporation CEO Jenny Nordenborg. “Now it’s not just your job, or life, that is on the line. You’ll delve into a dark future, but also uncover clues to the company’s past.”

We sat down with Nordenborg to celebrate today’s launch.

How does Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency build off the success of the original?

Jenny Nordenborg: The game shares a lot of internal tools that have been refined and expanded upon since the development of Budget Cuts. The same really goes for everything from the story to the characters and gameplay as well. Building a community around Budget Cuts and talking to our fans have helped shape our path forward tremendously! So not only is the game building on its preceding game, but also the community of players and developers who have been involved ever since the first game.

What’s your favorite part of the game and why?

JN: My favorite part of the game would be an absolute crushing spoiler, so I’ll give you my second favorite: riding the top of the train and shooting arrows while not getting knocked over in the tunnels. It doesn’t matter how many times I see it coming, my body will only accept ducking fast! I’m also a big fan of fast traveling with translocation through pneumatic tubes. When is this coming to real life?

My favorite moment is seeing people come out of VR with a big grin on their face—that’s when I really know we did something good.

How did you build upon lessons learned from your earlier work in VR?

JN: One is that the experiences that seem to awe players the most are a combination of freedom brought by spatial interaction and moments of personal creativity with what is otherwise a predetermined setup. I mean, it’s obviously a game, but that urge to duck, eat a taco, or throw an enemy off a rooftop—that’s not necessary to play the game, it’s just you, and it feels so real. So we have plenty of those opportunities.

If people take one thing away from the game, what do you hope it would be and why?

JN: Personally, that robots are like humans that take everything literally. Literally everything, literally. They will never be better than the instructions that we give them. “Solve this problem!” “Be like a human!” What is human, anyway? We prefer handling it with humor, but there is obviously a dark side to it as well. I’d love to see the game spark someone’s interest for the deeper implications of letting robots make decisions for us humans.

What does VR add to the game that wouldn’t be possible in traditional flat media?

JN: The way giving the player tools that they handle physically gives a lot more room to play around, rather than being restricted to buttons and one flat representation of the real world. Virtual reality also forces the player to take in scale and spatial sound and motion in a much more reptilian manner—the world is obviously all around you. You can display the tiny to the grandiose by scaling it to fit a flat screen, by moving and adjusting the camera. Here tiny really is tiny (and oh so adorable!) and huge is huge, overwhelming. A ravine can really be terrifyingly deep, and so on.

What’s next for you? Any exciting updates in the works?

JN: We are likely coming out with some fun updates for Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency in 2020, but also moving to our Early Access title Garden of the Sea. This game has been on hold as we finished Budget Cuts 2, but will resume in its normal manner together with our wonderful community, who help us test, tweak, inspire, and fill the game with warmth and fun!

Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

JN: Thank you so much for reading! We’d love to hear from you, so if you are inclined to share your thoughts on our games or VR or games at large, join our community on Discord.gg/NeatCorp.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Jenny! We can’t wait for players to dive into the sequel.

Take a break from your 9 to 5 with Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency on the Rift Platform!