What we've learnt from creating games in VR blog - tiredandwired

VR gaming appears to be the next step and evolution in the gaming industry. With the release of the HTC vive and PS4 VR headset, this is proving to be a lucrative market with some great potential. From this, we as a team believed it would be a lot of fun to create a VR game and it is. The VR element unlocks a lot of potential within gaming but there are multiple things to consider when creating a VR game. So consider this post as a guide from some people who have gone through and played around with creating VR games.

Before you even begin

Play VR games, get your hands on every VR game you can. Connect to Steam and the Oculus store. Play with different VR headsets(HTC vive, Oculus, PS4 and Google Cardboard). This may seem like basic advice for creating a VR game but so many people just go into development without seeing what has already been done. This allows you to understand the capabilities of a VR game, so that you may go away and know what is possible and what could be possible.

Movement or No Movement

Movement in most games is an integral part of game play but with motion sickness being an issue, you have to decide what kind of movement if there is any at all. Are the players sitting or standing? Does the character move or does the player themselves move around the room move? Is it teleportation? With different hardware comes some more movement capabilities to aware of. Also another item to consider is if your movement is necessary.

Story and Visuals

One of the most important features of VR is most certainly visuals and stories. Player exploration is one of the fun gameplay experiences you can create in VR. Keep in mind that visuals, don't necessarily mean high poly. You can create stunning visuals with low poly models and even 2D sprites in VR, just make sure it's consistent and makes sense. Also story can be less of a direct narrative flow but more of the embedded narrative. Looking at more of the mise en scene than the overall game. Another important part of visuals is particle effects. Simple dust particles in a closed off environment can make a world of difference in a VR game.

Experimentation

In a final note, experimentation is key with VR games. As it is so new, there are still areas to explore within the hardware. Not everything has been made in VR so make mistakes and move forward

I hope this advice helps anyone else seeking to get into developing VR games for the future. Feel free to contact us and let us know what you think.