Snakes and Ladders VR is a small indie project developed by thundergamestudio and distributed via itch.io at $3.99. It brings the classic roll-and-move board game into a 3D virtual reality format for Meta Quest 1 and Quest 2. Players roll virtual dice using their controllers, move a playing piece around a 3D board, climb ladders, and slide down snakes in the time-honoured pattern of the game.

The game is not available on the official Meta Quest Store. It is distributed as an APK file through itch.io, requiring sideloading via Developer Mode on the headset. This is a meaningful technical barrier for school use: IT teams will need to enable Developer Mode and install the APK manually on each headset. The game does include multiplayer with voice chat, which was added in a March 2021 update.

The game covers the fundamentals: a 3D board, virtual dice rolled through controllers, playing pieces that move and animate, snake slides and ladder climbs. Multiplayer voice chat allows remote friends or students on separate headsets to play together. The ancient origins of Snakes and Ladders — originally Moksha Patam from ancient India, representing the journey through virtues (ladders) and vices (snakes) — give it natural curriculum connections to History (world games traditions), PSHE (moral choices and consequences), and Religious Education (Indian philosophical concepts of karma and consequence). These connections are worth drawing out in a teaching context even if the game itself is simple.