I’ve spent the last year and a half building stuff in VR with our incredible team at Fierce Kaiju alongside some great friends who came along for the ride. We have one published title in “Viral” on the Gear VR and a bunch of fun playable prototypes with some big plans up our sleeves. More on those in due course.

I’ve learned a thing or two about designing games in VR and I’d like to share some of my thoughts with you. Chances are if you’re knee deep in VR development most of this material will be familiar to you, but if you’re new to VR or considering trying out VR development then I hope this article is of some use to you.

I should add that developing in VR is moving incredibly quickly, so anything I say simply reflects my thoughts and findings at this point in time. It’s likely that these opinions will change as we move forwards and it’s more likely that someone much smarter than me will rubbish this as soon as I press “Post”. :)

Solve Problems, Try Not to Make Them.

In short a designer’s job is to solve problems, this must be at the forefront of your mind when designing games for VR. I’ll give you an example, first person games in VR bring along some major design headaches which many of us are contending with. One of the biggest is stick yaw control! Yup the simple act of rotating to your left or right like we have done in FPS games for over 20 odd years is an issue. Specifically for many people it gives them what is often referred to as “simulation sickness” this is very similar to motion sickness only in a simulated environment.

One common and obvious train of thought is that our actions in VR should closely mirror our actions in the real world. Now of course we can still cheat and try new ideas and in some cases you will find solutions that totally trample on that statement, but at the very least we need to be more mindful of how the human body moves and works, more so than we would previously need to with traditional console, PC or mobile games.

With the yaw control issue think of it like this; is it normal for your body to turn in that way? The obvious answer is no and our very clever bodies know this, in particular the vestibular system which informs our brain of our spatial orientation, our motions and equilibrium understands that this motion is wrong. Our eyes are telling our brain that an event is happening but the vestibular apparatus deep within our ears isn’t buying what our eyes are selling.

So what am I saying? This great hope of entertainment, industry and science won’t let me play Call of Duty or Battlefield in VR, isn’t that the whole point? Take me to cool places and let me shoot stuff in the face damn you!

This great hope of entertainment, industry and science won’t let me play Call of Duty or Battlefield in VR, isn’t that the whole point?

Well yeeeeah, and no. VR at this point can take you absolutely anywhere the creator wishes you to go and do what they see fit, but we have to design our games to suit the platform. Currently stick yaw control in VR is problematic, doesn’t really work and consequently is best avoided, think of alternative method’s of traversal through environments. Epic Games the masters of Unreal Tournament and other incredible games; pioneers in VR development chose to avoid stick yaw control with their first public facing VR shooter experience “Bullet Train”.

In Bullet Train you have a system similar to what we used with our first VR title “Viral” you choose pre-determined points to warp to with the action taking place around those areas. You don’t have stick yaw control and these experiences really don’t need it. Bullet Train along with Sony’s The Heist are two of the best experiences I’ve had in VR so far. Admittedly in the case of the former this was largely down to the amazing use of Oculus’ Touch controllers but the experience itself had to hold up, and for the most part it does.

It’s important to consider the core component of your game, what it is you want the player to be doing? what’s the key feature? Whether that be shooting monsters, floating in a zen like state through space and time, jumping over platforms, whatever. At first it can be tempting to brute force through with most of the old tropes intact, this wont work. Pay close attention to new issues such as the stick yaw control, screen shake and camera transitions that we’ve taken for granted for quite some time.

Consider how you can pull off the fundamental parts of your game in VR. If your game is first person how do you intend your protagonist to move through the world? Adapt your thinking to understand the limitations of the platform and look for innovative solutions that deliver the best possible experience for the player.

“What we agree with leaves us inactive, but contradiction makes us productive.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Contradictions are a wonderful thing, having said all of the above it’s important that you push boundaries, take the advice and understand the complications that these challenges may cause, but don’t be scared to be disruptive by actively looking at ways to resolve such issues. The VR development community is rapidly starting to narrow down what produces a more comfortable experience, in many cases it’s difficult to definitively state that you can or cant do this or that, as developers we’ve simply got to keep trying new things, even if that means breaking a few rules that appear to make sense.

I’ll give examples, over the last year and a half we’ve experimented and found that a combination of techniques together can significantly remedy the effects of simulation sickness with traditional stick yaw control in a first person game. In many cases removing the sensation of simulation sickness completely for people otherwise susceptible to such issues. This was a big win for us and it’s helped us make decisions for our games as we move forwards.

So what did we do? We found that sim sickness effects with yaw control are significantly reduced when in specific environments, such as zero G, underwater or when flying through the air. Essentially any environment where your feet don’t touch the ground.

We also know that people seem to feel more comfortable when you have a solid frame of reference for your place within the virtual space, that might be the inside of a helmet, the cockpit of a space ship or a car interior. So thinking of ways with which you might include a model built around the player can be beneficial.

We also know that people seem to feel more comfortable when you have a solid frame of reference for your place within the virtual space

On top of this we found that reducing the movement seen in the players peripheral vision can be another good move if it’s available to you, with one of our projects the model around the player reduced how much that you could see in your peripheral vision with good results.

For us this collection of tests and ideas was a massive boost for the project. However moving about on foot in first person as you would traditionally is still proving a tough egg to crack, but we’re often seeing people come up with innovative new ideas.

Hopefully this helps to show a little insight into the level of thinking required on the part of game developers working in VR, but this really is just the tip of the iceberg and VR developers face many more challenges of varying shapes and sizes.

I’ll be looking to share more thoughts soon, in the mean time I’d love to hear any thoughts on the article.

So me and my best friend, we’ve known each other for years. We’ve seen each other through incredible times, both happy and sad and in some cases to extremes.

When I’m sad this person knows how to pick me up, I’m a creative character and my brain is constantly busy with new ideas, and sometimes this must be infuriating, especially when my mind wanders mid conversation. But I get nothing but support in everything that I do.

We’ve worked together, we’ve traveled to some amazing places in the world and we’ve had so much fun together. We’ve drank many beers, often heavily and paying for it the next day, but these days not so much. We share an incredible circle of friends and a close family who often make our time together even more special.

We love similar movies and TV programs, though this person wouldn’t admit it to you, usually suggesting that all of the stuff I like has too much action and violence in it. I refute those claims and besides which this person’s favorite movie is True Romance, so you can talk!

Sometimes I can be a little materialistic, but this person isn’t. Instead focusing on moments and experiences, and this helps keep me grounded too.

My best friend is by far the kindest person that I know, lifting the vibe of a room with little effort, but being so blissfully unaware of that effect at the same time.

My best friend is beautiful in every way that a person is able to be, but never gloats and in fact would rather do the opposite and point out another person’s positives

My best friend helps me to raise my children, and does an incredible job doing so.

I love my best friend unconditionally and today we celebrate 8 years of marriage.

Happy Anniversary Jodie.

It’s been a very long time since I last wrote a blog post, at least a personal one. I’ve been a very busy boy since my last post almost two years ago.

Being Dad to my girls, husband to my wonderful wife and co-founding a new Indie dev start up with my colleagues.

I have to be honest,  I’ve been massively inspired by seeing my wife’s excellent blog “eloiseriver” you should give that a read too.

This is likely the last blog post that I’ll put up in the current guise, I have some plans to spice things up that will allow me to improve posts of my personal experiences and thoughts, be that being a parent, gamer, developer or whatever spraff comes to mind on any given day.

Fierce Kaiju

So in my absence I co-founded Fierce Kaiju alongside a bunch of incredibly talented friends who also happen to be game development veterans. We’ve all been doing this a long time and we felt it time to do our own thing.

With Fierce Kaiju we’re primarily focused on VR games and experiences, though we love gaming in all it’s forms so don’t be surprised if we turn out a more traditional PC, console or mobile game at some point.

At the end of July we celebrated the first year anniversary of the formation of the team. It’s been a great year and we have a lot to be happy about, one such thing being our relaxed working practices, I’ve never felt more productive and we’re able to back that up.

In our first year we’ve been amongst the first to market in this new era of VR gaming. Our first VR title “Viral” was released on Samsung’s Gear VR in April. Viral is a purposely simple game at it’s core, but it’s built on a solid foundation of fun gameplay. We have big ideas for Viral moving forwards.

We’ve also developed of swathe of prototypes learning a great deal along the way. Building a range of control methods that work nicely in VR, building a 3rd person multiplayer experience with the warmly named “Fierce Kaiju Working Prototype 3.5″ as well as atmospheric tests with space and color among other things that I really cant be talking about just yet.

In short we’re feeling well prepared for the upcoming launch of the various VR devices, be that Oculus Rift, Sony’s Morpheus or HTC’s Vive. All of these excite me very much and I cant wait for us to be a part of that revolution.

All that said, it’s not been without it’s obstacles, some easier to navigate than others.  I will say this, running your own business requires serious dedication, yeah like that’s a surprise to anyone…I know it’s an obvious thing to say, but doing it yourself certainly puts a lot of things into perspective, especially with regards the people and friends I worked under or alongside before. My respect for those guys has quadrupled.

This might sound a little over the top, but the time, love and dedication required in making your business develop can feel similar to be being a father, only with your business people are more likely to be honest about how it looks.

I’m all for crushing it, crunching, slamming it when necessary, and yes I am talking about working hard here, you filthy reprobates. But your personal life and your own health is incredibly precious, you need to ensure that your work/life balance is…balanced.

There will be more from me soon. I feel like I have a lot to say, so if you fancy hearing it keep an eye out for new posts.

So I finally completed Deus Ex Human Revolution after getting it as a gift for my birthday back in September, thanks @ivorlonglegs. I’m going to come right out with it and say that this is possibly the best game I’ve played in a number of years.

I mean sure I’ve played many good games in recent years and even weeks, before I started Deus Ex I stormed through Gears 3, loved it and thought it was an excellent addition to the stable, but Deus Ex is something else and had me gripped entirely.

Of particular interest to me was the way that multiple choices we’re handled, there were many in the game, and their consequences though often not massive, we’re usually enough to make me feel like I had actually made an impact on this immersive game world. A situation with a friendly NPC called Malick being a good example, achievements/trophies were also tied in to add some weight to these decisions.

Not only that but the general feel of the core mechanics felt pretty solid throughout, sure you get the odd hiccup, as you do in most stealth based games, but for the most part if I screwed up I felt it was my fault. Which for me is one of the most important things to get right in any video game.

I think the overriding positive was having my stamp on Mr Jensen’s abilities, the character development was very compelling both with the upgrade system and throughout the plot line.

On the negative front I would say that the energy system felt a little bit limiting, it felt a little harsh to stop me performing cool take-down maneuvers at will. I suspect and can understand that this was likely a level of difficulty issue, though I’m sure it could definitely be worked around.

I would have liked some sort of storage system which would allow the player to stash favorite items etc. This would also have made me more inclined to play with different weapons. I often felt overly precious about a weapon, only to later find I really didn’t need it. The game did seem to remember wherever you dropped an item but I think half the problem here is human error and remembering where you actually put stuff.

Still, amazing game, I hope we get more I’m getting withdrawals already.

Kish is a brand new club night launching in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Expect a spectacular show with massive line ups. Tell your friends.

I’m 30 years old and happily married to my beautiful wife Jodie, we live in the midlands in the UK with our daughter. I’ve been involved in making video games for almost 12 years and I love my work just as much now as the day I started.

I’m also a DJ with nearly 14 years of experience, I held the house residency at Hotdog as well as playing at events like Hed Kandi amongst others. These days you can usually catch me at a monthly event I co-promote called Kish in Mansfield, England.

Additionally I occasionally attempt to produce my own music, which I tend to post here. I hope you enjoy visiting the site.

Paul