How Proton Pulse Inspired ZeroTransform’s Start
Proton Pulse was the catalyst in creating ZeroTransform LLC. It’s founder, Justin Moravetz, was developing the game as a fun home project while working for a big name company. A known virtual reality enthusiast, he originally created Proton Pulse for virtual reality. Unfortunately, at the time, VR headsets were not in mass production. With the idea of how a VR would work as the foundation, Justin Moravetz focused on making Proton Pulse compatible for the iPhone and iPad.
While Proton Pulse was in production, Oculus begin their KickStarter in summer of 2012. Moravetz contributed to their funding within the first hour of posting. Due to this, he received his first VR headset from Oculus in April of 2013, signed by Palmer Lucky.
It became the first official game on the Oculus Rift
It took Moravetz exactly 43 minuets to put Proton Pulse into it’s rightful home; virtual reality. It became the first official game on the Oculus Rift. After uploading it into a developers forum with positive feedback, he decided to take his game a step further.
Following in Oculus’s footsteps, Moravetz began a KickStarter for Proton Pulse. It was funded within 12 hours of posting. Unfortunately, due to his ties with Sony, he was legally forced to refund all contributions without explanation. Moravetz reached out to Oculus at this time in hopes of being backed for a four person team. Oculus was happy for content to be created, but could not agree to his terms at the time.
Justin Moravetz
Because of these events, Proton Pulse ultimately became the spark to start ZeroTransform. In fact, the moment Moravetz made the conscious choice to leave Sony is embedded on video at the ending of the game.
On March 22, 2014, Danimal Cannon and Jake Kaufman were playing live in San Francisco. Both musicians gave Moravetz a shoutout to a crowd of 200 people and performed music they had contributed for Proton Pulse. (Listen to the Proton Pulse album here) That moment confirmed what Moravetz felt about ZeroTransform and Proton Pulse. He wanted to create his own content, his own games, in his own studio. He describes the moment as “surreal”.
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Danimal Cannon
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Jake Kaufamn
[/one_half_bg]Moravetz left Sony in May of 2014. He left work that Friday and was speaking along side top indie virtual reality developers at the SVVR Expo the following Monday.
Proton Pulse represents more than just a game to the team at ZeroTransform. The history of the game’s origin leads into the beginning of our company. Look for it on PSVR, Steam, and Oculus.