Lucky’s Tale was the first game that I ever reviewed (Review: 9/10). It’s also one of the first VR games that most Oculus Rift owners ever played. Lucky was bundled right in for free with the Rift when it began shipping and as a result the friendly fox with a great big smile was ready and waiting to adventure with you from the moment you unboxed that long-awaited headset.

Lucky, in many ways, is the Mario of the Oculus Rift. He jumps, he saves his friends and his picture is on the box for the system that runs his game. It doesn’t get much more iconic than that when it comes to new platforms.

But how exactly did this happen? How did a small game studio like Playful Corp land one of the most coveted spots in the emerging VR marketplace? How did Lucky come to be and how exactly did he find himself bonded to the Oculus system as an exclusive? All of these questions, and maybe one more will be answered on this week’s episode of the Upload Download.

On this episode, Paul Bettner (Playful Corp’s CEO) and Dan Hurd (Game Director for Lucky’s Tale) stop by to tell the story behind Lucky’s Tale. They walk us through the early days of their relationship with Oculus and the gradual series of decisions that led to Lucky and his new exclusive home. The interview starts at [34:00].

In addition to the Lucky talk, we also take the first half of this week’s episode to wax poetic about all of this week’s biggest VR news. Today, that means Vive Studios, Tim Sweeney’s quote about the Robo Recall budget and, of course, the exit of Brendan Iribe as the CEO of Oculus.

Don’t forget to tune in again next week and let us know in the comments below what guests you’d like to see join us in the future! Thanks for listening.