3R Games began its “Real Caves in VR” initiative back in 2025 with the release of the Nutty Putty expansion. Then earlier this year, the studio revealed its next location, Thailand’s Tham Luang Cave. The time to start exploring is nearly here, with the new cave system arriving for Meta Quest next month.
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Tham Luang Cave
Thailand’s Tham Luang Cave gained media attention in 2018 when a local teenage football team became trapped inside the cave after sudden flooding, leading to an international rescue attempt.
Unlike Nutty Putty, which had to be recreated by way of public documentation and an official cave map, for Tham Luang the team has been able to recreate the cave by scanning it with LiDAR.
“Our goal remains the same,” says 3R Games CEO Piotr Surmacz. “We want to let players experience the scale, atmosphere, and complexity of iconic underground spaces from the inside.” The cave will arrive as the second real-life map in Cave Crave’s Tourist Mode, offering a faithful, non-gamified VR recreation.
Now You Can Swim
Tying in with the new cave system and the fact that it has underwater areas, 3R Games is implementing swimming in Cave Crave for the first time.
The update will allow players to dive into flooded corridors and navigate underwater passages. This adds further tension to the experience thanks to limited visibility and darkness, as well as restricted oxygen. The studio notes that: “To make their way through the submerged sections of the cave, players will need to stay focused and carefully orient themselves as they navigate the dark.”
Where Next?
Firstly, the Tham Luang Cave experience will be available for Meta Quest in July. Cave Crave is also available for PSVR 2 and SteamVR, with the addition coming to those platforms at a later date.
As for what’s next. If the reception to this new cave goes well, the “Real Caves in VR” initiative will likely be expanded upon. Countless areas around the world could be mapped out, although none are likely as infamous as the two 3R Games has already chosen.
Are you a Cave Crave fan? Looking forward to exploring Tham Luang? Let us know in the comments.
