Dev diary

Gloves that hold on and don't sink in

WingGlide lets you fly with your bare hands. Put the controllers down and your headset tracks your fingers; reach out, close your hand on the stick, and you're flying.

What you see are two-tone leather pilot's gloves with stitching along the seams. Getting them to look right was quick. Getting them to feel right took much longer.

Nothing should pass through anything

Nothing breaks the feeling of being in a cockpit faster than your hand sliding through the panel. So every surface in every cockpit is solid to your gloves: the panel, the side walls, the switch boxes, the seats. Reach into the dash and your glove stops at its face, the way your real hand would.

A proper grip

When you hold a control, the glove closes around it finger by finger, each joint curling only until it touches the handle. That way the fingers wrap the stick, the yoke or the throttle instead of sinking into it, whatever its thickness. The same thing happens when you fly with the Touch controllers: your gloves hold them, rather than floating grey blocks.

Calm enough to enjoy

Hand flying turned out to be very responsive at first, and fast movements in VR are a quick route to an unhappy stomach. So the yoke and stick are now gentler near the centre and smooth out small wobbles in your hand, while still letting you bank hard when you mean it.

Blue skies, from the WingGlide hangar

P.S. Controllers or hands, you can switch any time. The game's controls tutorial walks you through both.