VR game ideas brainstorming

[Mystify]

I am a developer who purchased one of the dev kits. I have started working with unity, and have been pleased with it so far, so I intend to use the unity integration to make a game. I have not settled on what this game would be yet, I'm still in the brainstorming stages. So, I am trying to get some inspiration. Anyone have a cool idea?
My limits:
No specialized hardware besides the rift. As cool as it may be to integrate alternative control schemes, I don't want to pursue that at this time. If I was to publish this, I would want the only requirement be that people have the rift(if that, depending on how necessary the VR is)
Low content demand. I am a good coder, but a lousy artist. I can handle creating some content, but I want the bulk of the work to be in coding.
Something immediately practical. I don't need ideas of the potential uses of the rift in the future, I need something I can make right now.

[rhinosix]

VR Missile Command

You play as a cyborg soldier - a human weaponized with MASER vision, similar to Cyclops' laser vision.
You stand on top of a skyscraper with the city in chaos below. You're basically a turret from Missile Command.

When you look up you can see alien ships firing missiles through the atmosphere, attacking the city.

Your vision is your aim. Your objective is to blast every missile before they hit the city, or you.

You have to lock on to a missile for a set amount of time before it explodes. Ideally you want to time your attacks so the blast from the exploding missile knocks out another one.

VR Paint

You stand in front of a giant canvas. Your vision acts as a paint brush.
Using a gamepad, the left stick controls brush size. The right stick controls colour.
Right trigger controls hardness (hold the trigger to make the paint flow).

Other buttons can be used to switch between different tools.

Alien Survivor

You play as a victim of alien abduction, trapped inside a sticky goo high on a cave wall.
Below you, you can see your captors going about their disturbing business. They occasionally look up at you.

If you look around a lot their suspicion meter will increase. If it reaches the maximum they will devour you. You have to stop moving in order for it to decrease.

Your objective is to find one specific alien, the Queen/ controller, by studying each alien's features and figuring out which one is different from the others.

When you find her, you only have one chance to lock on, charge, and shoot her with the last shot in your hidden skull-gun.

[drifter]

take a look here
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... 670#p92670
and welcome aboard (it makes me think we should create a general Unity topic)

[STRZ]

Have you a hobby or particular interest outside of tech computer stuff?

I'd try to bring that knowledge into your game design if possible and start with something where you can develop a vision of the final thing, and then break it down into the steps to get there.

[Mystify]

take a look here
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... 670#p92670
and welcome aboard (it makes me think we should create a general Unity topic)

I did read through that thread. Most of the ideas seem to violate at least 1 of my limitations.

VR Missile Command

You play as a cyborg soldier - a human weaponized with MASER vision, similar to Cyclops' laser vision.
You stand on top of a skyscraper with the city in chaos below. You're basically a turret from Missile Command.

When you look up you can see alien ships firing missiles through the atmosphere, attacking the city.

Your vision is your aim. Your objective is to blast every missile before they hit the city, or you.

You have to lock on to a missile for a set amount of time before it explodes. Ideally you want to time your attacks so the blast from the exploding missile knocks out another one.

VR Paint

You stand in front of a giant canvas. Your vision acts as a paint brush.
Using a gamepad, the left stick controls brush size. The right stick controls colour.
Right trigger controls hardness (hold the trigger to make the paint flow).

Other buttons can be used to switch between different tools.

Alien Survivor

You play as a victim of alien abduction, trapped inside a sticky goo high on a cave wall.
Below you, you can see your captors going about their disturbing business. They occasionally look up at you.

If you look around a lot their suspicion meter will increase. If it reaches the maximum they will devour you. You have to stop moving in order for it to decrease.

Your objective is to find one specific alien, the Queen/ controller, by studying each alien's features and figuring out which one is different from the others.

When you find her, you only have one chance to lock on, charge, and shoot her with the last shot in your hidden skull-gun.

I can go more complicated than this. I don't need to make a 5 minute game, it can have meat to it.

Have you a hobby or particular interest outside of tech computer stuff?

I'd try to bring that knowledge into your game design if possible and start with something where you can develop a vision of the final thing, and then break it down into the steps to get there.

I have many ideas for games, its just that most of them don't really work well for VR.

[rhinosix]

How complicated of a game do you want to build? What kinds of stories/ games are you interested in? What kinds of ideas have you had, and why won't they work for VR?

[Mystify]

How complicated of a game do you want to build? What kinds of stories/ games are you interested in? What kinds of ideas have you had, and why won't they work for VR?

I want something that is simple yet deep. Something where I can define a small set of things, and have it form an entire world. As an example, minecraft defines a set of blocks, and can generate an entire world with them. A space game can define how stars and planets work, and create a wide universe to explore with little art overhead.
I prefer science fiction, but I don't want to limit myself. I don't want to constrain myself on genre.
Most of my ideas don't require 1st person, or even mesh well with it. For instance, one idea involves a highly acrobatic character, so a first person VR experience would be very disorientating. Another has the emphasis on working with a bunch of virtual creatures. While that could probably work in VR, I don't know that it is actually well suited for it. Another is a fighting game, which also really needs 3rd person to work properly.

[STRZ]

Why not create a futuristic cyberpunked Double Dragon like beat'em up in first person view? Where you can fight with other VR gamers side by side as a "street gang" ?

[Fredz]

I'd say you should try game concepts that are known to be viable in VR. For that you'd need to have look at games that have already been implemented in VR (the ones from Virtuality mainly) and choose one that could be interesting to play in our more modern times.

I'd go there for a start : http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php ... diteur=622

And there to see how these games looked like in motion (you'll have to browse through the 200 videos though) : http://www.youtube.com/user/fronzel99?feature=watch

[Fredz]

VR Missile Command

Funny because there has already been a "Missile Command VR" game produced for the Virtuality platform some 20 years ago. It looked like this :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzthDazx4rM[/youtube]

VR Paint

There was a scene in the 2009 "Virtuality" TV pilot about that also. You can see it on this video, great use of VR :
http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ ... 2.mov/view

[drifter]

I did read through that thread. Most of the ideas seem to violate at least 1 of my limitations

so that are serious limitations, indeed

[Mystify]

I did read through that thread. Most of the idea
s seem to violate at least 1 of my limitations

so that are serious limitations, indeed

Well, lets look at a few of the highlights from that thread.
A. Porn
-no. Just no.
B. Stuff about body-capturing
-requires a lot of extra stuff that I don't have
C. Lets combine a lot of existing technologies at once
-again, that requires a lot of stuff, and would minimize the potential audience to near nothing.
D. An RTS
-I don't think I know enough of the subtleties in RTSes to actually make a good one.
E.Cool enviroments
-That is primarily an artistic endeavor
F. Red Dead Redemption Style Game
-that involves a lot of content generation.
G. Various sports ideas
-I have 0 interest in this
H.Complex Haptic feedback ideas
-More extra stuff

I could go on. There are some interesting ideas in there, but most of it is people drooling about what VR could become. I don't need VR 15 years down the road, I need VR that I can make right now.

[rhinosix]

VR Missile Command

Funny because there has already been a "Missile Command VR" game produced for the Virtuality platform some 20 years ago.

Cool! I hadn't seen that. I think some form of Missile Command with modern graphics could work well. The mechanics are simple enough to make a basic game - and if you want to go deeper you can add all kinds of enemies and more complex gameplay and environments. You could do things like lock-on to multiple enemies like Rez or Lylat Wars. And you could have co-operative multiplayer.

How complicated of a game do you want to build? What kinds of stories/ games are you interested in? What kinds of ideas have you had, and why won't they work for VR?

I want something that is simple yet deep. Something where I can define a small set of things, and have it form an entire world. As an example, minecraft defines a set of blocks, and can generate an entire world with them. A space game can define how stars and planets work, and create a wide universe to explore with little art overhead.
I prefer science fiction, but I don't want to limit myself. I don't want to constrain myself on genre.
Most of my ideas don't require 1st person, or even mesh well with it. For instance, one idea involves a highly acrobatic character, so a first person VR experience would be very disorientating. Another has the emphasis on working with a bunch of virtual creatures. While that could probably work in VR, I don't know that it is actually well suited for it. Another is a fighting game, which also really needs 3rd person to work properly.

I figure if you have a Rift strapped to your face then you're always forced to be in a first-person view. But that doesn't mean you're limited to only making first-person games.

You could make a lot of game with a RTS perspective, looking over the world, and be able to control an acrobatic third-person character with a regular gamepad. You just have to give the player freedom to look around the world.

Maybe an espionage game where you're looking down over a maze-like city, controlling a third-person character. You need to look around for threats up ahead, use EMP grenades at the right time so you can get past security cameras, etc.

Anything inside a forward-moving vehicle should work well. Ambient adventure/ exploration games could be set in the ocean, on a Mars colony, or an abandoned planet.

If you look at how people react when they put on the Rift, most of them are just content to look around, and observe the world, instead of jumping straight into fast-paced gameplay. I would just start with balancing a simple game mechanic that works and is fun.

You could do something with the mechanic from Portal, Flashback, or Abe's Odyssey, where you watch a character automatically running through a level. You could control switches, portals, etc. to get the character through.

I'd like to see something like Osmos done for VR.

Every idea is going to start out simple and cliche at first. And you are going to encounter problems with anything you build, but then you can redo, expand upon, and detail your basic concept into a complete game with a meaningful story.

[Leahy]

If you're a Sci-fi fan how about a remake of a star fighter like X-Wing. You give it your own name and if you open source it plenty of people will want to contribute I'd guess. You focus on your own set of parameters, for example you can slave the camera to the head tracker yet still define the cockpit very well so that others can still free look and use other controls should they wish to mod it.

Not sure about copyrights but Star fox could make a comeback if the rights-holder would be so inclined to re-develop it. I know there's plenty of others in the genre in development but if you find a creative limitation that suits you, you can still do something all the others are lacking without all the artwork and so forth

[backstaia]

Well as an Sci-Fi Fan I would also suggest on a new take on space combat. Make an FTL in VR. Ship (Think of Millenium falcon) jumping in different systems, getting attacked, run around fight invaders, fix computers, extinguish fires take care of the reactor. Could be quiet fun the more so in Coop. Should be doable, due to limited environment.
Give it an 80ies retro look (take a look at indiegame ROUTINE) and the game will get attention.

[drifter]

There are some interesting ideas in there, but most of it is people drooling about what VR could become. I don't need VR 15 years down the road, I need VR that I can make right now.

I see there many VR concepts doable right now, but ho well...
I dont think you will get here the brilliant-simple-but-deep concept à la minecraft you want (or people will keep it for them)

anyway, that was a pleasure to try to help !

[Kirito]

if ppl think about vr they think about the anime sword art online ppl would love play a vr game like that anime

[PasticheDonkey]

If you're a Sci-fi fan how about a remake of a star fighter like X-Wing. You give it your own name and if you open source it plenty of people will want to contribute I'd guess. You focus on your own set of parameters, for example you can slave the camera to the head tracker yet still define the cockpit very well so that others can still free look and use other controls should they wish to mod it.

Not sure about copyrights but Star fox could make a comeback if the rights-holder would be so inclined to re-develop it. I know there's plenty of others in the genre in development but if you find a creative limitation that suits you, you can still do something all the others are lacking without all the artwork and so forth

you know if it's scifi then the pilot might as well be using a vr system to pilot the ship in the game. so you can see through everything but essential controls.

[Libertine]

Hmm, maybe something vertical, like the colossal, wide open jumping/low gravity room levels in quake 1 and Unreal Tournament 1 or maybe the Ahhhhhhhhhhh game. If you never played it, they were just HUGE, were talking hang time of maybe 15 or twenty seconds. Maybe using simple white textures with ambient occlusion, like in AO renders. Somethings after you, or your after something. If somethings after you, you must maybe find weapons, but they have limited ammo, so you must also run away to find more and maybe whatever is chasing you increases in quantity pretty fast and your score is the time you survived. Maybe you can't maneuver in the air and must commit to the jump, increasing the difficulty. Or whatever.... Detailed in textures help lend a sense of scale and distance from the size changing, so maybe thats a better option for the environment. Rift users could compare scores for fun.

[Endothermic]

if ppl think about vr they think about the anime sword art online ppl would love play a vr game like that anime

I'd never even heard of sword art online till someone mentioned it on this forum and I use to be a big anime fan, so I don't see how general people (not anime nuts) would be thinking if that when they think about VR

[drifter]

I'd never even heard of sword art online till someone mentioned it on this forum and I use to be a big anime fan, so I don't see how general people (not anime nuts) would be thinking if that when they think about VR

Hmm, sword art online was one of the most successful anime in 2012... (the first season is really great)
If you a VR fan and anime fan, you truly missed something there...

[Zoide]

Simple, yet immersive and creative games like this one look promising: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/31/39366 ... ation-game

[laast]

VR is a unique and priceless opportunity to see the world through the eyes of someone -or something- else! I could imagine a game where you play as a mouse trying to save your life in a house guarded by a big cat. How many piece of cheese will you find before being eaten?

In the same way, playing as a bird flying and hunting to feed its progeny could be an unforgetable experience.

Yep, VR could be definetely an open window to the world.

[colocolo]

A James Cameron GODZILLA in NYC.
Or King Kong.
Ego Shooter as Transformer.

[zshulko]

Extreme Sports....
Heli-skiing (sking off a cliff would be interesting )
Skydiving (wing suits?)
HangGliding
Fishing.. errr ... OK maybe not this one.. I know i almost lost my lunch Deep Sea fishing in mexico when we hit a storm...
etc...

[moomin]

Maybe an application which will allow you to import a project of interior design and furniture of a home or a flat made in archicad?
Then the purpose of application would be to allow to inspect and see design proposal of your future home using rift and pad.
This way you don't need any specific fancy hardware (only rift and rumblepad/xbox controller), you don't need to create any content - this will be imported by an architect from his project.
This is not a game but I think very practical application and interior designers could be really interrested. You could even earn real money on your project.
Customer could have an opportunity to inspect the project and check if for an example cabinets are properly located. For regular people this could be much easier to understand the project, imagine how it will look like and suggest changes on early stages of preparation.
For designers it could be very modern way of presenting their projects and wow their potential customers.
???

[Mystify]

Maybe an application which will allow you to import a project of interior design and furniture of a home or a flat made in archicad?
Then the purpose of application would be to allow to inspect and see design proposal of your future home using rift and pad.
This way you don't need any specific fancy hardware (only rift and rumblepad/xbox controller), you don't need to create any content - this will be imported by an architect from his project.
This is not a game but I think very practical application and interior designers could be really interrested. You could even earn real money on your project.
Customer could have an opportunity to inspect the project and check if for an example cabinets are properly located. For regular people this could be much easier to understand the project, imagine how it will look like and suggest changes on early stages of preparation.
For designers it could be very modern way of presenting their projects and wow their potential customers.
???

That does seem like a very good idea with practical application.
However, it is not something I would personally be interested in doing

[squibbfire]

Games where you don't need a body with legs..Maybe bird or ghost....

[Marv]

As somebody has stated before: Oculus is about taking on a perspective of somebody/something else and actually feeling like it's your body that you control. From what Palmer and others have said, 1st person or cockpit views work best with OR.

An idea of mine that I've been joggling around for a while:
The player only exists as an AI (or human conciousness transferred to a computer). Since it's set in the future, most devices and robots in the world are connected to networks and are equipped with cameras, sensors and basic robotic abilities. (like Deus Ex)
Example: Automated cleaners like Rumbas are more advanced and have arms that allow them to remove obstacles by themselves.
In this world of interconnected computers and devices (and all kinds of robots and drones), the player will try to escape a research facility by hacking into various devices and security systems. That means the player will start out by "inhabiting" a simple cleaning robot and then move on to hack into more and more complex hosts. Every move to a new robot means hacking it (I could imagine a hacking process that would take advantage of the Rift) and then steering it from the new perspective (new HUD, new abilities).
Once the player has moved into weaponized robots he will have to choose to destroy opposing robots, or to take them out by hacking them and either moving into them, or to destroy them completely.
Now I know this sounds like a big project and it would be. But I think the first step would be to just work out different control schemes and cockpit "views" that each feel different. (or even procedurally created ones)

I think it would be really cool to enter such a new robot and then first try out the new "environment" and then use it's specific abilities to move on in the game. And the Oculus Rift would help to feel more immersed and less like you're remote controlling it!

[rhinosix]

I love that concept, Marv.

And it could work as a puzzle game, or as a complete action/ adventure.

[Mark2036]

Any idea if pterodactyl nightmare code is out there anywhere for someone to convert for the rift? Would be cool for the nostalgia

[Libertine]

Hmm, maybe something vertical, like the colossal, wide open jumping/low gravity room levels in quake 1 and Unreal Tournament 1 or maybe the Ahhhhhhhhhhh game. If you never played it, they were just HUGE, were talking hang time of maybe 15 or twenty seconds. Maybe using simple white textures with ambient occlusion, like in AO renders. Somethings after you, or your after something. If somethings after you, you must maybe find weapons, but they have limited ammo, so you must also run away to find more and maybe whatever is chasing you increases in quantity pretty fast and your score is the time you survived. Maybe you can't maneuver in the air and must commit to the jump, increasing the difficulty. Or whatever.... Detailed in textures help lend a sense of scale and distance from the size changing, so maybe thats a better option for the environment. Rift users could compare scores for fun.

I spent a bunch of time trying to find video of the level i mentioned, but I can't find any. This was sort of interesting though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB6En5VqItc

[mscoder610]

Wow, nice video, that would be really fun to try out in VR. Almost enough to make me download the UDK too.

[geekmaster]

Any idea if pterodactyl nightmare code is out there anywhere for someone to convert for the rift? Would be cool for the nostalgia

We have a member who reproduced the Dactyl Nightmare experience using the Quake 3 Engine.

Here is the "Dactyl Nightmare" thread:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=5255

Here is the "Virtuality Nightmare" code (levels):
http://devilmaster.altervista.org/vnightmare.html

[SaviorNT]

About body capturing, look at the Microsoft Kinect. There has been some work done with it for a DIY mocap suite. Microsoft has also made publicly available their SDK / drivers for it.

One particular idea that I've been leaning towards for several years now is a survival horror game, where you're armed with nothing but a flashlight, and its batteries are dying. Lots of baddies in the game, but you're not one of them. Objective: Get out alive!

[hal10000]

Everything I have read makes it sound like the Kinect is that the latency is too high and so it doesn't do a good enough job to be paired with the rift. Maybe the Kinect 2.0 will be better suited.

[Leahy]

One idea I had today while looking at steering wheels that would be absolutely awesome but certainly a very niche market is any sort of game that has independent weapon tracking while driving a vehicle at the same time. Imagine driving with one hand on a wheel and the other swinging a gun around shooting at stuff where you constantly look back and forth from where you're aiming to where you're driving.

It would have to be a vehicle with an open top so instead of motorcycles I think I'd go with a futuristic or sci-fi theme like the bikes in Star Wars or something that can accelerate fast yet turn on a dime so you can quickly switch from shooting over your shoulder to roughly in front of you as you do a 180°

[Kajos]

@Mystify:

Making any game is going to take a lot of time; using Unity will help you drag and drop a lot of features in, but making it fun and a new experience is going to be tough still. As someone else said here; make something you're passionate for

Any way; to contribute to the pool:
- a game about being a ghost (maybe anti luigi's mansion?) where you can travel through walls (this might be really fun in VR especially)
- a game where you have a pet/friend besides you throughout the story (the reactions in the Doom BFG level were great about the robot following you) or maybe even an entire army!

Also, VRPaint took me quite some time to work out and all. Not just 5 minutes of work! You, underestimator!

[TheHolyChicken]

One particular idea that I've been leaning towards for several years now is a survival horror game, where you're armed with nothing but a flashlight, and its batteries are dying. Lots of baddies in the game, but you're not one of them. Objective: Get out alive!

You should play Amnesia: The Dark Descent, or one of its predecessors such as Penumbra: Black Plague. Sounds like they would be right up your alley.

[Mystify]

@Mystify:

Making any game is going to take a lot of time; using Unity will help you drag and drop a lot of features in, but making it fun and a new experience is going to be tough still. As someone else said here; make something you're passionate for

Still, I find that approaches which allow me to generate content gives me a lot more bang for my effort. I could hand-craft a dozen maps, or write a program to get me an infinite number of maps.