Title

Virtual Reality gaming: analysis of Yon Paradox developmentAuthor: Fabio Mosca AnotheReality

MILAN 25-26 NOVEMBER 2016

About me

CTO at AnotheRealityGame designer & programmerVR designer & addictedUsed the Oculus DK1 for 45 minutes at the first time, without suffering sickness

Summary Today well talk about:

Summary Today well talk about:What seated VR implies for your design

Summary Today well talk about:What seated VR implies for your designUnderstanding simulator sickness

Summary Today well talk about:What seated VR implies for your designUnderstanding simulator sicknessCase history: Yon Paradox

Summary Today well talk about:What seated VR implies for your designUnderstanding simulator sicknessCase history: Yon ParadoxSupporting both VR and normal PC

Summary Today well talk about:What seated VR implies for your designUnderstanding simulator sicknessCase history: Yon ParadoxSupporting both VR and normal PCDesign choices in Yon Paradox driven by VR

Summary Today well talk about:What seated VR implies for your designUnderstanding simulator sicknessCase history: Yon ParadoxSupporting both VR and normal PCDesign choices in Yon Paradox driven by VRPerformance issues

Summary Today well talk about:What seated VR implies for your designUnderstanding simulator sicknessCase history: Yon ParadoxSupporting both VR and normal PCDesign choices in Yon Paradox driven by VRPerformance issuesResults: what went well, what didnt

Summary Today well talk about:What seated VR implies for your designUnderstanding simulator sicknessCase history: Yon ParadoxSupporting both VR and normal PCDesign choices in Yon Paradox driven by VRPerformance issuesResults: what went well, what didntTakeaway

What seated VR implies for your design

What seated VR implies for your designSEATED Fixed position

What seated VR implies for your designSEATED Fixed position

No movement (both inside and ouside the game)Actions strictly bound to your gaze (or hand controllers)

Limitations come from head movements and arms tiredness

What seated VR implies for your design

SEATED 1 person movement

What seated VR implies for your designSEATED 1 person movement

No movement outside the game, movement insideAutomatic movement or directed by controlelrs

This mode is subject to simulator sickness, expecially if not well handled.Movement is key both to succeed and fail

What seated VR implies for your designSEATED 1 person movement

No movement outside the game, movement insideAutomatic movement or directed by controlelrs

This mode is subject to simulator sickness, expecially if not well handled.Movement is key both to succeed and fail

Also 3 person movement

What seated VR implies for your designRoomscale experiences

Lo sviluppo di Edge Guardian VRMarco Giammetti, Maurizio Tatafiore

Understanding simulator sickness

Understanding simulator sickness

To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy Sun TzuHuman specs: 3 motion-sensing systemsVisual ( eyes detect vection )Vestibular ( inner ear )Proprioceptive ( body sensation )

Normally, the three systems agree.

Understanding simulator sickness

Simulator SicknessIn VR theres only visual illusion- Room scale with real locomotion GoodVirtual locomotion VectionVection: visual cues, but not the other 2

Body interprets sensory mismatch as poisoning and reacts by purging.

PLEASE DO NOT FIGHT IT.

Understanding simulator sickness

Until we get those, we have to find our workarounds!

Understanding simulator sickness

Eletric signals to your vestibular system?

Case history: Yon Paradox

Case history: Yon Paradox

Case history: Yon Paradox

Yon Paradox is a survival puzzle game where the hardest puzzle is yourself. Set in a cyber dimension, an antimatter-powered time machine broke, causing periodical time rewinds. You will have to solve riddles to repair the time machine, while avoiding your past alter-egos to not create paradoxes.Released on Steam from 06 May 2016. It supports Oculus and HTC Vive, as a seated experience

Case history: Yon Paradox

Yon Paradox is a game born for VR: we were able to make it run on a Sapphire Radeon 7850 at 90 FPS on the Oculus CV1. You can imagine then how smooth is without an headset

Supporting both VR and normal PC

Supporting both VR and normal PC

Supporting both VR and normal PC

Market & Revenue:130M users on Steam150K 200K VR users ( estimates of Oculus and HTC Vive)Gameplay Design: Experience needs to be good both in VR and on PCUsually VR has more limitations and problems: better to start from VR design and then migrate to desktop version.

User testing: Double testing: need to test both in VR and desktopVR testing is troublesome: needs lot of time for check simulator sickness, requires bulky and expensive hardware).

Supporting both VR and normal PC

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

The problem: performanceVirtual reality is performance hungry. Target is 90 frames per second, 2160 x 1440 resolution, without frame drops.

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

The problem: performanceVirtual reality is performance hungry. Target is 90 frames per second, 2160 x 1440 resolution, without frame drops. Our solution: aesthetic

A graphic style that does not require lights (all is unlit)

Close to no textures ( 130MB download from Steam)

Worked only on shaders

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Our solutionWe started to design the graphic style starting from this.

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Our solutionBefore: standard toon shaders, with static light

Now: custom shaders, no lights.

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Our solutionAntichamber:Prevalence of white / light colors.

In VR means more pixels turned on, more strain on the eye

This isnt a real problem, but having the screen darker is a bonus for who plays in VR extensively

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Results

The aesthetic initially thought for performance saving has turned in a strong selling point of the game.

Players who tried the desktop game naturally think that this is a VR game

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

The problemAs a first person game in a large space, locomotion is required. The game is prone to cause motion sickness, and we cannot really use teleport since it breaks the core gameplay of the clones and paradoxes.

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

The problemAs a first person game in a large space, locomotion is required. The game is prone to cause motion sickness, and we cannot really use teleport since it breaks the core gameplay of the clones and paradoxes.Our solution

Movement with constant speed.

Rotation rachets to turn your head, simulating the eye blinking

Level design without any vertical movement

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Our solution

Confort mode / rotation rachets

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Our solution

Constant movement speed, without accelerations

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Our solutionLevel design of the environment tailormade, without using any external asset.

All the game is on the same height level. No uphills / downhills, and no ability to jump.

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

ResultsEven if during our playtests we had very few people that got VR sickness (less than 5 people on 100), on Steam all the bad reviews come from the ones who had nausea.

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

The problemHow do you show information in a VR UI? We do not have a screen with corners. Where would you put information?

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

The problemHow do you show information in a VR UI? We do not have a screen with corners. Where would you put information?Our solution

Diegetic UI

Menus made only with 3D elements

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Our solution

See the hourglasses? Theyre placed in the game context, and give you information about how much time before a time jump.Thats what diegetic means!

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

Our solutionMain menu, pause menu and [spoiler] credits are entirely made with 3D modelling, instead of 2D icons and text. This is to make the most of the Oculus / Vive, where you can lean forward and backward.

Design choices in YonParadox driven by VR

ResultsAfter a lot of iterations in all various levels, the UI is self-explanatory enough to be understood to all our target users.

The only UI not working well yet is in the astrolabium, probably due to the lack of animation.The UI works perfectly also for desktop gameplay

Takeaway

Takeaway

Takeaway

VR in games forces you to find workarounds for performance. Use them as a strong point. Games in VR does not require absolutely photorealism.

Users who get some motion sickness will surely write a bad review about this. People without sickness wont write a good review because of that.Tell your users very clearly about this, or give them various options to choose for the movement.

TakeawayThe experience you make developing games in VR, the constraints, the users is easily converted for B2B VR applications, which have a real market, NOW.

Consider to make games prone for commercial licenses (Arcades / VR caf), which is an exploding market right now.

Ready to join the VR Community?

Thanks!

MILAN 25-26 NOVEMBER 2016

All pictures belongto their respective authorsfabio@anotherealityvr.comwww.AnotheRealityVR.comTwitter: @GounemondFacebook: AnotheRealityInterested in VR? You can join the Virtual Reality Milano Meetup!