Someone from the Alakazam Dev team reached out to me, inviting me to check out their platform, Alakazam. It’s a web XR based platform that allows users to enter VR environments directly from their browser. It’s got a lot of similarities to Mozilla Hubs.

Going to the Alakazam website, you can quickly jump into worlds by pressing “explore now”. Unlike Mozilla Hubs, it’s much easier to jump into and everything seems to be much smoother. As far as my first impression went, it all seems to be much smoother. There are a lot more options when it comes to avatars as well. They even have Ready Player Me avatars implemented. If you don’t have a Read Player Me account, you can make one right there, which I think is a feature of Ready Player Me. Regardless it’s nice for first time visitors to pick something unique to them.

Unlike Mozilla Hubs, Alakazam allows you to travel between worlds without leaving the virtual environment. They also have Unity support, which gives creators a ton more freedom. I haven’t tested  what the creation process is like, but if it uses Unity, its probably much more pleasant then using an in browser game engine like Mozilla Hub’s Spoke.

The biggest downside I found, upon first impression, is that it’s not a completely free platform. Anyone can join for free, but to be able to create, you’ll need to pay. This may bar a lot of people from using the platform. But if the platform really is more superior than alternatives, this may be a great option for corporate clients, or other specific use needs where several new people to VR are expected to join.