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Meow Wolf Enters the Mini-Golf Metaverse

Exclusive: Walkabout Mini Golf is adding a new VR course designed by immersive art pioneer Meow Wolf. The designers gave us hints of what’s to come.

Walkabout Mini Golf, one of the best multiplayer apps for VR headsets, is adding a course made by art collective Meow Wolf and based on the group’s real-world experiences. It’s Meow Wolf’s first big dip into virtual reality, and it’s scheduled to arrive later this year.

It’s not as strange a move as you might think for Meow Wolf, the group behind the cult hit House of Eternal Return, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a growing bunch of other in-person destinations (Omega Mart in Las Vegas, Convergence Station in Denver). 

Or maybe it is.

But in a VR/AR landscape that still doesn’t really know what a metaverse is supposed to be, this collaboration could point toward creative teams actually trying to figure this out ahead of a wave of new headsets coming later this year.

Let me back up a bit. I find well-built, custom-crafted VR experiences wonderful. I also love immersive physical spaces and theater experiences that take similar care with how groups of people explore strange new worlds together.

VR and AR’s metaverse push of the last couple of years, however, has tried to just create big open social tools with no real guidance or superstructure. These places — VRChat, the soon-to-be-closed AltSpace VR, Meta’s flailing Horizon Worlds, Rec Room — seem to either be spots where fun stuff emerges, or confusing and poorly run experiments that feel empty or alienating unless you know who you’re meeting with and where you’re going.

Sometimes, I find that it’s the in-person experiences that can craft what the virtual ones can’t yet. Meow Wolf’s in-person, multilayered, maximally dense art collective spaces struck me as the sort of way to guide more-elaborate social virtual worlds of the future. The Meow Wolf–Walkabout collaboration sounds like a bizarre and whimsical mirror-world experience that’s also a foot in the door for Meow Wolf’s future explorations in VR and AR.

meow-wolf-walkabout-vr-2meow-wolf-walkabout-vr-2

Meow Wolf’s course will involve an intelligent alien world called Numina that plays with reality.

Meow Wolf

Weird golf 

«We’ve been dreaming about making mini-golf forever,» Caity Kennedy, one of Meow Wolf’s co-founders and the group’s senior creative director, said to me during a Zoom chat. «Since a lot of our exhibits are a big thing compartmentalized with a bunch of little things, mini-golf is like a pretty hilarious and very accessible version of that.»

Another Meow Wolf co-founder, Vince Kadlubek, had been playing in VR games and experiences for years, which led to the collaboration with the team at Walkabout Mini Golf. Meow Wolf had made its own AR companion app for the House of Eternal Return installation years ago, but translating some of those designs into a VR mini-golf course is a different type of crossover experience.

Kennedy already uses some VR art tools, including Gravity Sketch, to work on designs for Meow Wolf’s physical installations. Gravity Sketch was also used as a collaborative place to dream up the VR course. «We have VR artists, we have VR developers that are working on things,» Kennedy hinted, suggesting that Walkabout’s relatively contained structure might be a good starting point.

If you haven’t been paying attention, Walkabout Mini Golf has already become one of the best social VR destinations if you have a small group of friends. This game, and Demeo, are where I tend to join a few old friends for a casual game that lasts about an hour, allows us to chat and explore, and then stop. It feels like going for a walk, or getting coffee, or going to a museum. Or playing mini-golf. Unlike more-intense VR games, or way too open social worlds with no real focus, it gives us something to do while we’re talking. It works.

«It aligned a lot with our sense of humor,» Kennedy said of the collaboration. «You can be good at golf, you can be bad at golf, you can just not play golf and go explore.»

Golf as a strange doorway

Walkabout’s golf courses have already been getting a lot more immersive over time, becoming more like walk-through theme parks or stories than just a bunch of golf holes. A course based on the classic Jim Henson film Labyrinth is like a tour of the film’s plot, and even has a side labyrinth to wander around in. There are Jules Verne courses. There’s a Myst course.

The Meow Wolf course, based on the living other-dimensional jungle world of Numina that’s part of Meow Wolf’s in-person Convergence Station experience in Denver, is meant to be a sort of parallel virtual visit, or maybe a golf course that ends up being visited by and mutated by Numina.

Kennedy hints that the way Meow Wolf’s course will work is a lot stranger and more whimsical than even previous Walkabout courses, which of course excites me. Also, the presence of Numina as a character will loom large over the experience, a «living universe that is curious about us simple animals that are wandering around, falling down stairs and things.»

«It’s not just a duplicate,» Kennedy said of the VR version of Numina versus the physical creation in Denver. «There will be a familiar experience that is twisted and freed by the mechanics of virtual reality. People who’ve been to Numina in real life [at Meow Wolf] will see a lot of things that they got to see in real life, but a lot of people who have only seen pictures will get to wander around something akin to the pictures they’ve seen.

«But, lots of differences: I mean, gravity doesn’t exist in VR. We can make things slip. We don’t have to have electrical wires, or speakers or a lot of the things that limit what we’re able to do. And we’re able to have animation that we can’t do. There’s so much fluidity that is really only possible at the moment in VR.»

A massive furry art creature sculpture in a dim jungle world roomA massive furry art creature sculpture in a dim jungle world room

One of the areas in Numina at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station in Denver. The VR experience will refer to the real-world place in strange ways.

Scott Stein/CNET

Virtual and real winking at each other

Disney has explored crossovers of the virtual and real. It’s created a Star Wars Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge VR game that’s set in the outer realms of the same planet Batuu as the real-life Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge parks. In theory, visiting the virtual game could inspire you to go to the actual park, or the game could be a living souvenir. 

Future planned metaverse-ish explorations could have a similar vibe. Meow Wolf’s own physical spaces communicate with each other via telephones, and a ton of merchandise already extends the stories into some take-home souvenir directions. You can buy Omega Mart merchandise from the alternate-universe store’s gift shop, for example, or get books and artifacts, much like you can at Disney’s stores in Galaxy’s Edge. In some ways, Meow Wolf’s virtual spaces may aim to do the same.

«Mini-golf is not a collective world, so there can’t be live feeds into anything, but having connections between the two, where people can at least see one from the other, or use something they found in one to affect the other… this is going to be kind of our test case,» Kennedy said. «This is our first foray into connecting a real world exhibit with virtual reality.»

Lucas Martell, the director of Walkabout Mini Golf, said the Meow Wolf course «is going to be much more of an experience,» admitting that the company is starting to flex out with more experimental designs that start becoming more like one-hour excursions for groups, as opposed to just a casual sport. 

Even though Walkabout is a VR game, the company has also released a phone-based version that’ll use augmented reality, sort of: Courses can be seen through the phone screen, and swings happen by moving your phone like a real putter. The phone version is arriving ahead of Meow Wolf’s course, meaning more people could try it out.

«The irony is that a lot of people playing probably haven’t even been to an actual Meow Wolf,» Martell said. Considering Meow Wolf is still an organization some people haven’t heard of, much less seen, a little mini golf game like Walkabout could be a chance to open up awareness to a whole bunch more people. As someone who’s been lucky enough to check out the real-world Meow Wolf spaces, I’m looking forward to visiting a small virtual shard of it in my home.

Meow Wolf’s course isn’t available until later this year, but I can’t wait to play it with a few friends. We could explore those strange spaces together in VR as we talk, just like we’d do in the real world, too.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, April 2

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 2.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.


Today’s NYT Mini Crossword includes a trivia question from the Apple TV Plus show Severance. I’m even watching that show’s second season right now, and I didn’t know the answer. Fortunately, the other clues were fairly easy and filled in the answer (6-Down) for me. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Source of Monopoly money
Answer: BANK

5A clue: Pizzeria fixtures
Answer: OVENS

7A clue: With 8-Across, magical substance that enables flight in «Peter Pan»
Answer: PIXIE

8A clue: See 7-Across
Answer: DUST

9A clue: «Keep it down!»
Answer: SHH

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Whack on the head
Answer: BOP

2D clue: Fervent
Answer: AVID

3D clue: Connection point
Answer: NEXUS

4D clue: Potato-filled pastry
Answer: KNISH

6D clue: Mr. Milchick’s first name on «Severance»
Answer: SETH

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

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Technologies

McDonald’s Launches Minecraft Happy Meals, Plus a ‘Nether’ Hot Sauce for Nuggets

The promotion is tied into A Minecraft Movie and is now available.

This is no April Fool’s trick — as of April 1, Minecraft players can pick up a Minecraft-themed Happy Meal, an adult-aimed A Minecraft Movie Meal or a McNugget sauce called the Nether Flame Sauce, the restaurant chain announced Thursday. It’s meant to tie in with the April 4 theater release of A Minecraft Movie, which stars Jack Black and Jason Momoa.

Read more: ‘A Minecraft Movie’ Trailer: Jason Momoa and Jack Black Go on a Magical Mystery Tour

There are 12 film-inspired figurines or Block World toys given out with the Happy Meals.  Every Happy Meal comes with a scannable code to unlock an exclusive digital game.

The Minecraft Movie Meal — the adult version — features either a Big Mac or 10-piece McNuggets, plus medium fries, a drink and one of six different collectible Minecraft items, each of which come with a matching card and a code that fans can redeem to unlock the corresponding skin in the game.  Toys include the Big Mac Crystal, Birdie Wings, Fry Helmet, Grimace Egg, Soda Potion and Zombie Hamburglar.

Buyers also receive a one-time redeemable code to unlock the McDonald’s Add-On pack in Minecraft, which adds McDonaldland characters, builds and tools to the game.

Read more: The 15 Best PC Games Right Now

There’s also a new limited-edition McNugget sauce, a hot sauce called Nether Flame Sauce, which features crushed red pepper, garlic and cayenne pepper. It’s named for The Nether, Minecraft’s hell-like dimension — hence the heat — and can be ordered with any food item.

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Technologies

3 Switch Games That Would Benefit the Most From Switch 2 Upgrades

Nintendo’s best franchises pushed the Switch to its limits. Here are games that could use better graphics and frame rates on the Switch 2.

There are a lot of questions about what the Nintendo Switch 2’s game lineup is going to look like upon the console’s launch, and there aren’t many answers just yet. Odds are good that we’ll see several massive first-party titles coming out very quickly followed by a staggered game release schedule after that. This will probably include popular AAA games from publishers like Microsoft that are already confirmed to be coming to the Switch 2.

However, we do know is that the Switch 2 is going to be backward compatible with the original Switch’s game cartridges, letting you keep your library intact. Nintendo’s official webpage explained the new virtual game card sharing system for the Switch also confirmed that «Switch 2 editions» of existing games are in development.

We don’t know how many Switch 2 edition games are in development, how many of them are first-party developer games nor which games are receiving the upgraded versions. But we do know that there are many older games that pushed the original Switch’s hardware to the limit.

These are some of the first-party games that could benefit the most from versions fully utilizing the Switch 2’s more powerful hardware.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Game Freak has struggled to make mainline Pokemon games work on the Switch. Sword and Shield’s toxic «Dexit» controversy largely overshadowed the fact that the game had some of the most mediocre graphics on the console, and Pokemon and NPC models frequently suffered from sudden pop-ins as players explored the game’s Wild Area.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet caught even more flak for its performance issues. The pop-in issue returned, but this time around faraway models you could see frequently skipped frames in their animation cycles.

While the game was larger and more ambitious with a grander open world, the game’s performance suffered as a result. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have both had a hard time reaching 30 frames per second (FPS) outside of most towns, and certain areas like Kitakami and Tagtree Thicket absolutely tank the frame rate.

The Switch 2’s presumably stronger hardware would likely support Game Freak’s more ambitious open world designs, and grant the developer a chance to give Pokemon the 3D graphical fidelity the franchise deserves.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

There’s no doubt that Tears of the Kingdom is beautiful game, thanks in large part to its strong art direction and cel-shaded models that make the world feel vibrant and alive. Despite that, the game doesn’t do much to improve on Breath of the Wild’s visual fidelity, and it suffers from blurry, low-texture terrain that muddies up the experience.

ButTears of the Kingdom’s true sin lies with its performance. While thegame fairly consistently reaches its 30 FPS cap, there aresections of the game that drop the performance to 15 to 20 FPS, whichmakes Tears of the Kingdom feel choppy and outdated. Areas like TheGreat Sky Island and the Depths, rainy days and even the core Ultrahand abilityall push the Switch to its limit and the game is drastically slowerwhen you’re in these areas or just trying to glue two items together.

Tears of the Kingdom is an iconic Switch game in one of Nintendo’s flagship franchises. It’s a perfect candidate for a Switch 2 upgrade with beefed up graphics and performance optimization to help it consistently hit 60 FPS on the stronger console.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Plucked out of Dream Land and plopped down into an eerily real world, the titular pink power puff stands in stark contrast from his environment in this 3D Kirby game. Kirby and the Forgotten Landcreates a world that in many ways visually clashes with the protagonistand his enemies, which makes it more interesting to explore. The new Forgotten Land is an analog to the real world, and it’s modeled very differently from the usual cartoony landscapes and character designs that players have come to expect from the franchise.

The issue with this new, realistic world is that the game is graphically inconsistent. Stages like Everbay Coast’s Scale the Cement Summit stand out as winners benefiting from the new artstyle, combining fantastic water lighting events with impressive graphics for the level’s waterlogged buildings. However, other areas like the Natural Plains and Winter Horns end up looking disappointing in comparison, with grass and snow textures that don’t hold up to the rest of the game.

The environment is incredibly important to the story of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, so it makes sense that an upgraded version of this game would buff out some of the weaker textures and deliver even more strongly on developer HAL Laboratory’s intended vision.

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