Don't Let Go!

Don't Let Go!
Information
VR/AR	VR
Developer	Skydome Studios
Publisher	Skydome Studios
Platform	SteamVR, Oculus Rift (Platform)
Device	DK1, DK2, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift CV1
Operating System	Windows
Type	Experience, Full Game
Genre	Horror, Indie, VR
Input Device	Keyboard (Oculus Share version), Keyboard / Mouse (Steam)
Play Area	Seated
Game Mode	Single Player
Language	English
Review	Mixed (Steam user reviews)
Release Date	August 23, 2014 (Oculus Share); 2016 (Steam)
Price	$2.99 (Steam, US)
App Store	Oculus Share, Steam
Website	https://skydomestudios.com/dont-let-go/
Infobox Updated	09/27/2026

Don't Let Go! is a VR App and short horror experience by Skydome Studios, the one-person studio of developer Yorick van Vliet. The player sits at a desk with both hands on the keyboard and has one rule: whatever happens, do not let go of the keys, while the game tries to scare, shock and otherwise persuade the player to let go.

The game was made for the Oculus and IndieCade VR Jam in 2013, where it was one of 20 finalists, and it was later distributed for the Oculus Rift DK1 and Oculus Rift DK2 on Oculus Share. An expanded version with a second experience, The Desert, was released on Steam in 2016 for SteamVR and Oculus PC headsets, and it remains on sale there.

Reviewed 27 September 2026. Checked the merge against both prior pages and every stated date, price, requirement, quote and attribution against the Steam page and API, archived Oculus Share listing, Skydome Studios pages, Road to VR, Engadget and Metacritic. About review dates.

Gameplay

The player is placed at a virtual office desk with virtual fingers resting on the keyboard and is asked to hold down both Ctrl keys for as long as possible. The game does not warn the player that a series of increasingly intense events follows, each one designed to make the player release the keys. The Oculus Share listing ended its description by telling players that all they had to do to win was "Don't let Go!". In the current release there are two short experiences, the original office scene and The Desert.

Features

• Single-player
• VR only: the Steam release requires a SteamVR or Oculus PC headset.

Development

Skydome Studios is run by Yorick van Vliet, who describes himself as the owner and solo developer of the studio and says he has used the Unity engine since 2009. Van Vliet created Don't Let Go! for the IndieCade VRJam 2013, and the Steam description calls it a VR experience first released in 2013 for the Oculus Rift DK1. VR Jam was a month-long competition run by Oculus and IndieCade in which developers built games designed for virtual reality; Road to VR reported that hundreds of entries were narrowed to 20 finalists, with $50,000 in prizes available. Engadget listed "Don't Let Go - Yorick van Vliet" among the finalists announced on 14 September 2013. The credits on the Oculus Share page state that the demo used assets from the Unity Asset Store and from freesound.org.

The game was later updated to work with the Oculus Rift DK2. The Oculus Share build shipped two executables: one for running the Rift in extended mode and one for Direct Mode. In an archived version of the studio's page, Skydome Studios called the game "one of the early VR hits on Youtube because of the explicit reactions the experience tends to produce", and said that the expanded version with the Desert experience was playable on both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive.

Release

Store	Date	Notes
Oculus Share	August 23, 2014	Download for DK1 and DK2; listing categorized as an Experience in the Horror genre, version 1.2
WEARVR	Listed by January 2017	Expanded version sold for $3.99
Steam	2016	Store page shows May 26, 2016; Metacritic lists September 13, 2016

On Steam the game is priced at US$2.99 and is listed as VR only, with support for SteamVR or Oculus PC and a keyboard and mouse required. It is also sold in the Skydome Studios VR Bundle together with the studio's Audio Arena and Adventure Golf VR.

Reception

Writing about the VR Jam finalists for Road to VR, Paul James described the premise as simple and said each event was "crafted with incredible care to induce a range of emotions, from fear to discomfort to outright terror". He praised the sound design, comparing its effect to binaural recording while noting he could not tell whether that technique had been used, and recommended playing with good headphones. He added that the production values were not always up to the game's ideals, but that it succeeded in challenging the player mentally.

As of September 2026, the Steam release has a "Mixed" user review rating.

System Requirements

Windows

Minimum

Component	Requirement
OS	Windows 7 (64-bit processor and operating system required)
Processor	Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
Memory	8 GB RAM
Graphics	NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater
DirectX	Version 11
Storage	750 MB available space

Source: Steam store page. The earlier Oculus Share build listed no minimum specifications and offered quality settings to improve frame rate.

Setup Instructions

For the Oculus Share build, the listing instructed users to unzip the download and run dontletgo.exe in extended mode or dontletgo_DirectToRift.exe for Direct Mode. Holding Alt right after launch opened a window for choosing quality, resolution and the display to launch on, and the developer recommended extended mode with the Rift set as the main display. The Steam version is installed and launched through Steam.