Puppet Play 🎬

sucks money back noew

This is a surprisingly fun game / tool / toy. There are a huge load of cute sets (backgrounds), characters, props, furniture, and attachable character accessories like hair, hats, helmets, facial hair, wings, etc. The dev really put a lot of care into making a wide variety of assets. The interface is fun and whimsical -- just really silly and enjoyable. The ways of creating animation takes a little practice but given all the stuff it can do it ends up being quite intuitive. It's a total playground that my sons (adults, autistic) will totally love playing with and making creative stories with. I'm thinking I'll use as well it to make teaching videos to help them do self-care, social interactions, or just build vocabulary. I'm super grateful for the developer who made this. Thank you. Puppet Play is fantastic. I wish every kid like mine had access to it.

This is a good app.
I want to make some videos for youtube.
But there are some problems.

The controls of eyes and mouth are not working like the making scenes.
I don't understand why the handlers are always shown in recording.

Please, upgrade these.

I want to recommend it, but I can't right now due to price, slow development, low audio recording quality, bugs, UI quality, and no camera zoom. I used a quest 3 when playing this.

maybe pick this up on sale if you know what you're getting yourself into.
i'm really hoping that a new update can come out soon so i can change this to positive.

rough around the edges. useful for storyboarding and making fast meme content when it works. some bugs make animating with certain puppets difficult. animation is fast and highly intuitive when it works properly. development is apparently still ongoing, but is slow. audio quality seems low when recording in the app. missing some quality of life features, such as undo. UI could use some tweaking.

animating

Inability to import custom models is highly unfortunate. they provide you with plenty of models, though. I also faced many difficulties while animating - undoing animations involved either removing the animation for a part entirely, or overwriting the animation. There's also no clear undo function or "remove animation from this part" button, which is a shame.

most puppets have mouths that you can animate. The mouth will open/close with your controller's trigger. It'd be cool if you could also link the mouth's animation to your mic activity, so you have one less thing to worry about.

Having issues w/ some puppets' rigs shifting once I let go of them. so the puppet will be where I want it while it's grabbed, then I let go and it moves like an inch to the side. this also seems to add an offset to the puppets when the animation plays back. doesn't seem to happen with all puppets. Makes animation nigh impossible at times. super frustrating. I don't want to create something that looks like a blockbuster, but i'd at least like the animations to happen the way i intend. could be that I'm on quest 3 and there's a bug with it.

I've also had difficulty doing things like keyframing a puppet picking up an object during a scene - it doesn't seem to work.

UI

Menus can be annoying to navigate due to the diegetic UI. when you open certain menus, a bunch of buttons appear in 3D space. These buttons can clip in other objects, making them hard to see and interact with. when you have a busy scene and need to edit a puppet, it can be annoying to have the button you want to hit be hidden behind something. it has charm, though. I especially like how you interact with the prop room - to switch between props and characters, you pull ropes like you're opening curtains at the theatre.

could maybe use an option to choose between diegetic and non-diegetic menus. there's nothing wrong with giving the player a tablet or something to click off of.

Audio

Audio quality is questionable. I'm no audio expert, but audio bitrates seem a bit low when recording in the app. Audio is way more important than visuals, so I'm hoping this can be fixed at some point. Removing audio tracks is at least convenient for when you need to do re-takes. Not sure how the app would handle MANY audio tracks, though. Haven't gotten around to messing with that.

camera

had issues w/ the camera not animating at times, for an unknown reason. maybe the app was having trouble with me overwriting animations or something. can be frustrating when I need a pan/tilt/dolly shot and it's unclear if it will work. Camera has a DOF option, but there doesn't seem to be an adjustable zoom which is very strange and disappointing. haven't gotten around to seeing if the DOF is animate-able since I was having general camera animation issues last time I used the app.

Outlook and Conclusion

Super rough around the edges. Don't expect to create super high-quality animations here. This is more of a storyboarding app than anything. but even that proved to be difficult with certain bugs.

The last update was 9 months ago. With this project being EA for almost 2 years, I wouldn't buy it for now due to bugs. definitely keep tabs on it - wishlist or follow. hopefully things will pick back up soon and the bugs will be ironed out. animating is very fast and highly intuitive when it works.

OH MY GOD AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GAME.Hello um this is a review about puppet play and oh my god u must give this a try this is the best game I played for a long time and I played the first like 10 min and I all ready fell in love with the game so yeah I recomend the game so much but the only thing is I dont like are 2 things and that is the lack of hand puppets (wich u use ur hand) and the tutorial the thing is with the tutorial it does not explane the best of stuff being honist just watch the thing on there youtube channle besides that I think the game is very VERY VERY good and thank you for making the game

fun to play with but the scenes are a bit meh and limited

Puppet Play is a virtual reality (VR) application that is highly beneficial for previsualization. The app's features are intuitive and user-friendly, allowing users to quickly and easily jump into the creative process. The application's design is well thought out, making it a valuable tool for any content creator. It is an essential addition to any professional's toolbox. Overall, I highly recommend Puppet Play for its ease of use and effectiveness in previsualization. Puppet Play rocks!

This is one of the best VR software purchases I've made yet! There is so much potential with all of the sets, puppets, and props that are included. The developer is also diligent in improving the software, fixing bugs, and adding content and features. In addition to the variety of included sets, there is also a green screen so you can take your performances and composite them into any scene you wish outside the program. There is a music video on YouTube called TerrorFunk 9000 that made good use of that feature.
If you are a creative content creator or storyteller, getting Puppet Play should be a no-brainer. The possibilities are limitless. This software is a great tool to have in your arsenal.

I just spent about 2 hours to make a short movie I did a good job and worked a lot on every detail and when I finished
1. the project cant be saved because the virtual keyboard they have isn't working.
2. The camera only moves for the first clip and then freezes at one place.
3. most of the characters freeze after a few clips, so whatever you do you can watch it in the preview but when you export you lose everything you worked on.
4. it will glitch and kick you out of the map so you won't be able to go back to where you were anyway.
I understand it's early access, but the glitches got me so mad and wasted a lot of my time.

I'll still recommend it because it's the only game with this idea so far.

This is such a amazing tool and its set up in a way that just makes sense to anyone. I'm surprised I found hidden deep in the early access pages. Could really see it blowing up given the right exposure. Look forward to seeing it get more features but as it stands you could really make some cool content. Once this gets workshop implementation to add our own scenes and models you really would have a full puppet animation studio tool here.

I absolutely love this game, a real gem. Controls are super intuitive and very practical with almost every action being tied to an in-game object instead of a boring menu. Animating works like a charm and its super easy and fast to realise your idea.
Also a great thing are the continuous updates with new assets and further improvements added regularly.

wow this is really great! im sure you will have it at 60fps exports and custom models soon right? hey everyone hurry up and buy this so the support gets them into a real good thing here! very good the recording was very easy to understand and start doing things. i can roll back and go forwards to control any aspect many at one time super cool!

This showed up in one of my Steam Queue's and it instantly drew my attention especially at the current price at the time of writing this review. Took me awhile to get used to the controls, it is a bit fiddly at first but I have already made 4 videos with it. I am only 4.7 hours in but the thing is I was only meant to try it out for an hour but it drew me in and now im close to 5 hours of play time first go. My first thought when I see this was 'Twitch stream intro's and content'.

This is fun once you get the hang of it all... a few things that I find a bit buggy though are the puppets with the hand sticks, I find that their hands go way out of control most of the time but this is in early access and hopefully something can be fixed with that unless I am missing something or doing something wrong.

There is quite a selection of puppets and characters you can use and a selection of add on items such as hats, hair ect... but would be nice to be able to import your own models and puppets, I think I did read somewhere that they do intend to do this sometime in the future. I have also noticed you can only film for around a minute... I have had on the odd occasion some of the audio not come out in the final video.

8/10, if they can fix the 2 glitchy bits I mentioned and add it so you can upload/import your own models then this will be 10/10.

Still in its infancy, but already an amazing creative outlet!
I've been having a blast making content for social media and the entertainment of friends with what this experiemce offers!

Its got some early run glitches, but the programmers are working their butts off to get it streamlined.

Can't wait to see how far this app goes!

Fun to play around with but with the ability to import assets this will be just a really handy tool to make actual content!

very intuitive design, reminds me of making animations in Garry's Mod a decade WITHOUT any of the hassle of turning the images into a video

only spent 15 minutes inside but i already made a tiny little video that makes me want to dive deep into it

It's great, but desperately, desperately, desperately needs an "undo last action" button. Also has a lot of jankiness with recording mouth movements - it often just looks like it records ~50% of the mouth movement and then awkwardly snaps closed or open for the other 50%. It records regular movement of the puppet a lot better, but there are still noticeable snaps/rubberbanding from time to time. If the devs are active about addressing bugs this could be transformative for content creation, but just be aware it's early days still.

THE GIST:
- no progress for 4 years...(no substantial updates or features. Only small fixes and polishing... unnoticeable).
- pointless for any practical purpose.
- a "fun... thing"(for about an hour or so).
- not worth your money or time.

(2021 REVIEW)
Okay, so i'm totally going to be suuuper cringe here... but this is absolutely the tool of my dreams. I have always wanted to make movies, and have wished for the ability to posses and act/record as my actor models. this answers that hope ten fold... I hope you guys keep improving it, it's soooo awesome already. I seriously cannot wait for the ability to import 3d characters and models. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH OMG.

(2025 REVIEW)
minimal progress in 4 years... no added features, and more importantly, NO CUSTOM MODEL IMPORTS STILL!

All updates have been fixes and polish, which for this... is unnoticeable since it launch in a pretty stable form.

DO NOT BUY THIS UNTIL CUSTOM MODEL IMPORTING IS A FUNCTIONAL FEATURE. this is virtually useless in a practical sense artist wise. Its just... a fun... "thing"(for about an hour or so).

What a great idea for a VR game! Super easy to use and I was able to make my first movie in a few minutes! Also being able to import your own images opens up so many possiblities! Can't wait to see how this develops furhter!

This is great
Got it as soon as it came online Lots of different puppets to play with.
Great for an early release,it just needs some tutorials on the basics to start with.
Cant wait to see what comes next.

an absolutely brilliant idea with the potential to really be huge for youtube content. imagine all the GAMES WORKSHOP fan videos, or MARVEL or STAR WARS or whatever that kids (and adults) can churn out with this?! normally any kind of animation is an IMMENSE time sink and laborious as hell at the best of times. this (imo) REVOLUTIONARY program has the potential to flip all that on its head. of course it's not going to replace Industrial Light and Magic or WETA but it's not trying to do that. but hell, it might give SESAME STREET a run for its money! and for quick gag videos and youtube channels? the possibilities are endless! there was a HUUUUUUUUGE opportunity and niche with something like this and these guys nailed the debut.

there's room for improvement and finessing at this point but i have high hopes that this will end up being a really shockingly capable PRODUCTION SYSTEM.

some quick tips that took me a while to get to grips with:

1. when you hit the red RECORD button on the left controller, that records the motion for WHATEVER YOU CURRENTLY HAVE IN YOUR HAND. i thought it was always just activating the recording on the camera but it's specifically to record the motions of what's in hand. when you have the camera in hand, then the camera records when you press that button. so grab a puppet, hit record and have it flop around. rewind the timeline to the beginning, grab the camera and hit record again and now, you can see your puppet performance as you're shooting the angles that you want with your camera. and when you have NOTHING in your hands, that button can be used to play back what you have recorded by either looking at the camera's display or just taking a step back and watching how the camera and the puppet are moving around in world space.

2. not all puppets have the same options. some will allow you to "remote control" others will allow you to "mocap". if you don't see the option to do it, it can't.

This Software is Awesome. It's basically exactly as it's advertised to be, despite being day one in early access. I'm gonna make some scenes to jokingly recapture some recent events with my friends.

SUGGESTIONS:
I think that a brief in-game tutorial, showing the different classes of puppets as well as how the different tools work, would be very beneficial for this software. That being said, I was able to easily figure it all out but a tutorial would've saved me some time. Only gripe was that it does not appear that you can adjust your height. Not sure if I missed something but it would be very beneficial that you add the ability to move up and down so that you can position yourself perfectly for the puppet manipulation.

Great Product guys/gals. I'm happy that I purchased it.