‘Pixel Ripped’ Studio Announces ‘PAWBALL’, a Free-to-Play VR Soccer Game with Cats

ARVORE, the studio behind the Pixel Ripped VR game franchise, announced it’s currently developing a VR soccer game called PAWBALL, which aims to get you leaping around and scoring goals like only a feline can.

On the studio’s Discord (invite link), Arvore Community Manager Freddy Pavão reveals the idea initially came from wanting dinosaurs to play soccer, although the team eventually settled on cats, which can move around in interesting and dynamic ways.

“With the change to our feline friends, the main idea for the game (and all the prototypes that came after) got a whole new range of possibilities,” Pavão says. “The game is still about soccer, but now using verticality, as the cats can jump super high, climb, hit the ball in aerial attacks, and so on. It is by far our game with the most possibilities for gameplay diversity, as players can do basically whatever they want to hit the ball and score a goal.”

Developer Ana Ribeiro shows off a peek at an early build:

So we decided to make a cat soccer game and this is how it is going. 😸🤘
We are posting the devlogs and will release the upcoming access for testers on our @arvoreimmersive discordhttps://t.co/ELKq8uxYxy#vr #MetaQuest3 #vrsport #vrmeme pic.twitter.com/pMgecKxvBQ

— Ana Ribeiro 🔛 Meta Connect (@Anagamedev) February 22, 2024

Like many free-to-play games, the studio says it will be providing cosmetic upgrades. Granted, it’s still early days, however hopeful testers could also soon get their chance with early builds, which the studio says it will provide without the need of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) like many studios tend to do with still-in-development betas. That could arrive as early as June, Arvore says.

There’s no indication yet on what platforms the game is targeting either, however you can bet the free-to-play game will be searching for the widest possible distribution in hopes of replicating the sort of viral success of an obvious analogue, Gorilla Tag.

The primate-focused game of tag reported early last year it had garnered $26 million in revenue since its 2021 launch. That’s a tall order to fill, although if a pretty simple game of immersive tag can do it, maybe cats playing soccer can too?