Nutty Putty Cave is open for exploration … if you have a virtual reality set

SALT LAKE CITY — The Nutty Putty caves are open for exploration, but only in a virtual setting.

The caves are well known in Utah for a tragic accident 16 years ago, where 26-year-old John Edward Jones was trapped upside down and, after a 27-hour rescue attempt, died. The Deseret News reported that the cave was sealed in 2009 to avoid anyone trying to recreate the accident.

Related: Susan Powell can’t be in Nutty Putty Cave, investigators say

Game Developer 3R’s CEO Pioter Surmacz said the idea for a VR game began with his interest in the 2011 movie “Sanctum.” After watching that he started watching caving videos on YouTube which led him to Nutty Putty.

“I’ve tracked everything I could about the story because I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, to be honest,” Surmacz said. “It was really imagining, emotionally … what John Edward Jones had been through, what his family has been through, what the rescuers have been through when everybody was there … and I think it’s only natural you’re starting to think ‘what would I do if I were in such a situation?'”

Cave Crave’s usual games involve some real-life caving problems. Gamers can run out of batteries or fall to their death. They can also include some fantasy elements. However, developers at 3R Games say they have no intention of gamifying the disaster.

What the Nutty Putty game entails

Players can crawl, crouch and climb through history. Facts about the cave are shared via audio. Players can’t die, and their flashlight will never run out of batteries. Surmacz said the experience resembles something closer to a tourist destination or a very narrow museum.

“Considering the whole emotional weight of Nutty Putty … we didn’t want to put gaming mechanics into it,” Surmacz said. “(You are) following the steps of probably many people before you. You’re learning (about) some interesting facts about Nutty Putty through audio cassette tapes that are scattered around the cave.”

They even got an expert to weigh in.

Brandon Kowallis is extremely familiar with the caves. He is a cave cartographer and created the full map of Nutty Putty. He was also called in to help with Jones’ rescue.

Kowallis said that after the events of the rescue, he was asked so many questions he just turned a rescue report into an article that he hoped would help answer most questions. Still, many people still can’t wrap their heads around it.

“There are a lot of … questions like, ‘I don’t understand how you couldn’t get them out. I don’t understand what the cave is like,’ all these kind of questions that came up,” Kowallis said. “Having a 3D model and a VR system of the cave gave people a chance to kind of go in and get a sense of what it was like (and it helps them) to wrap their mind around why it was so difficult to get John Jones out of the cave.”

Developers at 3R used publicly available photos and first-hand accounts to make their most realistic-looking cave ever. It’s the only real-life cave they have modeled so far.

What gamers won’t see in the Nutty Putty VR game

The section of the cave leading to where John Jones was trapped is not accessible in the game. Surmacz said they have done all they can to keep the game a respectful experience. 

At the end of the day there is very little about the accident in the map. There’s only a single note in the audio tour when you get close to the section Jones would have gone down.

Surmacz said he wants the VR experience to be so much more than then just games or movie watching.

“There are so many simple things that are enjoyable in VR for like 5 to 10 minutes. But when you’re pretty tired and you’re like asking yourself, is this it? Is this is all about the technology?” Surmacz said.

He said when he first pitched the idea of the Nutty Putty game he was met with some opposition.

“I said the gameplay will be really slow, really dark, really atmospheric, no monsters, no shooting, no all these cheap jump scares from horror peaks, and the team was like, ‘We don’t really know,'” Surmacz said.

To Surmacz, the VR experience is about providing a place not just for entertainment, but also as a place to rest or learn. The idea of a cave seemed the perfect atmosphere for a slow exploration into the unknown.

“When you try to transfer the whole idea of being there just with your thoughts, all your fears are really providing all the atmosphere and all the challenge … then you might find it terrifying. But some people also find it very peaceful and probably even like freeing themselves from (the) burdens of everyday.”

Despite the careful approach to Nutty Putty, some still have concerns

Kowallis was given an advanced copy of the Nutty Putty game and he said that, overall, it’s a pretty good representation of the environment and cave. But he does have a couple of concerns.

In the game you can write on the walls with chalk to mark your way, throw stones, break formations and collect fossils — none of which you can do in a real cave.

“Cavers live by the motto take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but carefully placed footprints and kill nothing but time,” Kowallis said.

Surmacz acknowledges these points and said they may make the game more conservation-friendly in the future. Other future updates will include the audio tour being voiced by Kowallis — something developers wanted in the original release, but were not able to get the recordings done in time. Kowallis said he is working on them and should have those finished within the week. 

To further avoid profiting off of tragedy, the map is available as a free update on MetaQuest.

“Our goal is to give VR explorers access to a place that can no longer be visited in reality — nothing more, nothing less,”  Surmacz said. 

---

Contributing: Simone Seikaly, KSL NewsRadio