"Virtual reality," a term once used in science fiction books to depict the possibilities of the future, is now taking hold as a reality in its own right. From Samsung and Microsoft headsets, to developers like Turkey's own RealityArts, virtual reality headsets, games and technologies are entering the field of military, education and medicine to train, educate and heal in new ways.The premise is to be able to experience a digitally created three-dimensional world, in either 2D or 3D. After placing the headset on, you enter into the world of the designer with the ability to look around and interact with objects digitally. As you move your head left or right, the high resolution screens inside the headset imitate the same movements, giving the user the experience of being there.Early versions of the virtual reality experience were created at MIT in the late 1970s, where a user would experience walking around Aspen, Colorado. The researchers manually took photos of the area and digitally stitched these together, creating a virtual experience of traversing the region.In the 1990s, Sega and Nintendo released the Sega VR headset and the Virtual Boy, both of which tracked the user's head movements on LCD screens inside the visor, furthering the technology for use in the gaming industry.However, arguably the best indication that virtual reality had hit the mainstream was with the $2 billion purchase of Oculus VR by Facebook in 2014. The Oculus Rift was a 2013 Kickstarter project funded by tech enthusiasts that aimed to finally bring a high quality headset to the masses at an affordable price. While initially targeting a lower launch price, the product controversially launched for US $600 by Facebook in mid-2016.Not to be left behind, in March 2015, HTC and Valve, a Taiwanese phone manufacturer and one of the largest PC gaming storefronts in the world, announced the HTC Vive. A virtual reality headset utilizing "base stations" that would track a user's movement in a room, pushing the technology further again.One of many Turkish developers to enter the VR industry are independent developers RealityArts, a team based in Istanbul making noise around the world with their new game Voidrunner. Established in 2016, both Ismail Çiftçioğlu and co-founder Bahar Baziki were previously working in the production and animation industry and decided to enter the VR gaming world with their multiplayer flight/shooter game Voidrunner. Having already received financial backing from one of the largest gaming engines in the world, Unreal Engine, and funding from Turkish angel investors through StartersHub, RealityArts are looking to get the game into the growing multi-million dollar world of eSports after an impressive showing at Gamescom 2016.When asked about choosing VR as a development platform Çiftçioğlu said their initial focus is on developing the game to its best as an eSports contender, then at a later date integrating the industry's latest genre, VR, hopefully as a free update to the game. RealityArts has chosen to develop its VR technology on the HTC Vive headsets. Unfortunately as regulation and taxes are still very tight in Turkey, he says it is not the most developer friendly environment. While European and U.S. consumers can purchase a headset for around US $600, a Turkish developer or consumer ends up paying nearly 4 times that amount due to customs duties and taxes. Luckily RealityArts has received backing from Valve and HTC, which sent the headsets to them to assist in the development of the game.Çiftçioğlu mentioned that as with other countries, VR is still a new technology in Turkey and he expects that while many industries are experimenting with the tech, in the next 12 months we should start to see more products coming out of Turkey utilizing VR. His prediction is that architectural companies and the medical industry will be the leading industries to take advantage of the new technology with Turkeys gaming scene following suit after.When asked if Turkish developers were ready to hit the world stage with VR and gaming, Çiftçioğlu said he thinks Turkish game developers still have some work to do. In order to compete in the global arena, Turkish developers first needed to evolve their vision of the world and how they perceive life around them. Gaming is one genre that has the ability to unify all kinds of people and cultures. So before resources, funding or abilities come into effect, Turkish developers would need to ready themselves to be a part of a bigger world.Unfortunately finding developers and artists, dealing with their wages and the taxation system is already hard enough for game developers. More so as the current taxation system has not evolved to assist the growing industry locally. Çiftçioğlu hopes that the government can recognize the input from independent game developers and startups such as themselves and put in place laws and incentives that can assist in getting more Turkish developers exporting to the world and in the process bring more technology and gaming jobs to Turkey.Voidrunner is currently open to beta testing for gamers around the world and hopes to launch in 2016 for PC, Mac, Linux and consoles.