Oculus first-party game featuring the Marvel license. 12 playable heroes in 4-player co-op. Looks arcadey like Robo Recall rather than something campaign/story driven.
What have you played, and what do you think makes it bad for gaming?
I think even in the 16 months or so since VR launched there's been a lot of evolution as far as game design goes. There have basically been three distinct phases of VR game design so far:
Phase 1: This is when designers had no idea what they were doing, and they would just try anything. Some of it worked, but a lot of it didn't. Games like Adrift, or some of the VR conversions of 2D games (e.g. Vanishing of Ethan Carter) were making people violently ill.
Phase 2: As a reaction to these failed experiments, designers pulled waaaay back. Until problems like locomotion were solved, they were content to just avoid them entirely. This meant a lot of really limited room-scale games, as well as games with disorienting teleport mechanics. These games were comfortable to play, but led people to feel like VR was more limited than traditional gaming.
Phase 3: Designers actually sitting down to solve these problems and figure out the right way to handle them in VR. Onward is one of the first big breakthroughs. It pioneers a locomotion control scheme that is comfortable for the vast majority, by tying movement to hand-direction rather than head direction. This later gets patched into some existing games, like Arizona Sunshine. Lone Echo takes things even further, with comfortable locomotion that lets you move in every direction in zero-g, while making virtually no one sick. I'm still not totally clear on why/how it does this, but it's proof positive that these problems are solvable.
As a game history nerd, I've really liked seeing how the development community has identified and reconciled these issues. And as someone who doesn't suffer from motion sickness, I've had fun even with some of the failed experiments. But now's the time when it's really starting to get interesting.
Oculus first-party game featuring the Marvel license. 12 playable heroes in 4-player co-op. Looks arcadey like Robo Recall rather than something campaign/story driven.
Played Lone Echo for about two hours. It's an interesting game. From videos I couldn't really get a hold of what kind of game it was, but that's because it's basically an adventure game, which is interesting for the setting and subject matter.
There's only one other real character, the ship's captain, and they do a great job of humanizing her and building that relationship. Her facial animation is really incredible and manages to escape the uncanny valley. She is the most convincing human I've seen in VR.
So far most of the missions are pretty simple, mostly a matter of identifying what to do and figuring out whatever mechanisms you need to do it. That's not always 100% self explanatory but I haven't seen anything that elevates to "clever puzzle" yet.
So it's mostly about narrative and exploration,but I still got completely lost in this world for hours. It's the most immersive thing I've played.
@James, thanks so much for writing something about Raybeem! (http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2017/07...m-demo/265440/) Makes it feel so much more real to me! haha
Thank you so much for checking it out!
I'm starting to show Raybeem at some parties in Los Angeles. I exhibited at Garage Gallery LA over the past weekend, here's a video clip from that party...
It's been tricky trying to find a market for something like this, but it's definitely a hit on the dance floor. I'm scared of people not "getting it" when I release on Steam (hopefully in a few weeks) but I may just have to give it time. Planning to do more "touring" and getting it setup at different events, wherever I can get a booth.
BTW, if you're in Los Angeles, we're doing a show this Saturday, July 29th in downtown LA. ( http://www.futra.tv/futra-presents-super-future/ ) Come check it out! Music and local artists selling art and clothes.
Cross-posting here, but I'm getting ready to release the Horizon Vanguard demo (next month, a bit later than I hoped lol), and I'm wondering if anybody would be willing to give it a shot before public release (via Steam) and give me some feedback on it. Oculus or Vive. If so, post and I'll PM you some keys when I have them ready.
LinkOriginally Posted by HTC's Joel Breton via GameIndustryBiz
The problem is that the market isn't at a scale where it can support AAA games yet, or anything close. That means that for AAA content we basically have two options:
1) Games that are either ports of, or heavily based on assets from non-VR titles. Fallout and Doom both fall into this category. Also games like Resident Evil 7, Obduction, Elite Dangerous, Project Cars... Games like this can be great, but they're unlikely to really leverage the particular strengths of the medium in the way that made-for-VR titles do, and they make VR seem more like a peripheral than a medium.
2) Games that are designed to lose money. Which basically means exclusives, because there's no other reason to do this. That's what we're getting from Sony and Oculus, and the latter in particular is turning out some pretty impressive stuff this year. Lone Echo is likely the highest budget VR-original to date, and the best VR game there is, hands-down. But how long can they keep taking a bath before they expect the market to take over?
We're years away from true AAA original titles actually being able to make a profit in VR. The question is how to keep VR growing until we get there.
Last edited by Frogacuda; 25 Jul 2017 at 05:41 PM.
Welcome back from the commercial break. The interview ends with him saying that unannounced AAA games will hit before Christmas, so we'll see soon enough.
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