Xing: The Land Beyond releases E3 "Rainforest" demo

Xing: The Land Beyond is a Myst-like adventure that hit it big on Kickstarter last year—"big" in the sense that it more than doubled its goal of $15,000. There's no doubt in my mind that one of the reasons for its success was the release of a demo in the middle of the campaign; it was clunky and unoptimized but did some interesting things with day/night transitions, and more importantly proved that the small indie team at White Lotus Interactive was actually making a game. Now an even better look at Xing has been released to the public in the form of the Oculus Rift-enabled "Rainforest" demo the studio showed off at E3.

Xing is about "crossing the threshold between life and death," as the description on Oculus Share puts it, although in fine Myst-like fashion, details are scarce: Discovering the nature of that afterlife and your place in it is the central goal of the game. "Our idea is to take players on a beautiful, fantastical and spiritual journey through the afterlife. It is non-combative and there are no time-restraints," it states. "We want players to feel intrigued by the story and puzzles presented, but also relaxed in the lush environments we create."

The new demo is playable with or without an Oculus Rift headset, although White Lotus warned in its most recent Kickstarter update that it's still in an alpha state and thus subject to a certain amount of wonkiness. For those who'd prefer to check it out without any fuss or muss, a short walkthrough video has also been posted on YouTube .

It's no secret that an awful lot of people don't care for adventures in the style of Myst , but I do, and what I've seen of this one looks very promising indeed. And hey, it's a free demo—you can't go wrong at that price. Xing: The Land Beyond, which also made it through Steam Greenlight last year, is currently expected to come out this winter.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.