Meant to be Seen

Hi I am Gerald,

currently I am developing a game for the Oculus Rift called "Reality Rift". The past 2 months I have spend on it and it is shaping up little by little. All information etc. is still subject to change and I quite often change my mind on something because while trying I figure out something else works better.

It's gonna be an adventure with mostly anime styled characters (not showing them atm, since I am not sure how to integrate them with the Rift/stereoscopic 3D).

What I can share is a bit from building destruction. I will have many ways of destroying, exploding, manipulating ... different structures. And I will have these integrated into the story.
In the end I want a small world that the player is able to discover, not running like a modern FPS, but walking and really taking it in. I need a Rift for myself to finally make these decisions though (and at that point at least a dozen testers for feedback ).

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIabNND8i4Q[/youtube-hd]

just some features I will use in stories
- placing explosives (where YOU like)
- attack by catapult
- star wars force push (you know what I mean ^^)
- disintegration (fun!!)
- being inside of a collapsing structure (that's when I learned that every structure needs a light garden in the center when possible)

So what would you like to see? I would be grateful for ideas of what you would like to see!

The single stories/episodes are planned to be 45-60 minutes long on a not rushed gameplay. I am working alone and underfunded, so I rather complete just one episode/pilot than have a 20% finished bigger game that no one can use. And this will allow me to scale it up any way I like - my aim is a first season of like 10-20 episodes.

Why the episodes approach? I had to stop playing stereoscopic games every 30-60 minutes in the beginning because I got headaches otherwise. I expect the same for VR. And I hope with VR we will build the bridge between classic tv story telling and computer games. We all want to play those holodeck stories right?

Interesting concept, looks cool.

May I ask what engine you used, or what tools where behind this?

Thanks

This is Unity, I decided on it when the Rift integration was announced. Really love it. Compared to coding with XNA it is much easier and allows for cool stuff with little code.

Has someone moved the thread or have I posted to the wrong board? This was supposed to go into the Rift section, since I want it optimized for the Rift and want feedback from Rift enthusiasts.

I think there is room for all types of games. Textured or not, as long as the gameplay is compelling. Do you intend on having other characters in the game besides for the player?

Yes, and I am going for an anime look - not really easy to integrate into 3D. So I am mostly looking for ways to present the NPC to the player in positions where he can not walk around him.

One role in the story is taken by cats. They see into the other realities and they just know. They guide you, maybe, ...

Now the cats are always presented on a higher position or across a gap that is too far to jump or ... At least that is my plan, not sure how fast it wears of.
I guess it will be my job to be creative about that

But they are still flat! And it's not like I have a team of animators sitting here to make cat animations. So I developed a rather simple cat animation system. It's just a couple of 2d images so stacked together that you get a talking cat animation, or a cat that looks at you ...

The first ones looked terrible since I made the cat ... then I started ripping apart anime cats on the web. I can't show them, because they are copyrighted and I only use them for testing.
Next step will be finding an artist to remake the cat parts I need and just the way I need them (my professional anime cat still has a slight "Frankenstein" look since I had to add bits here and there ^^).
And then finally I want to see how to integrate the flat cat with the rift, but I will do that when I got a Rift

Just for fun ... I will upload the coder art version *g*. But please keep in mind I would NEVER use something like it in a game. That is just the first concept I used to define areas that I need to move isolated for animation.

Seeing huge buildings crash, using acurate physics has a lot of potential in VR. For exaple a chief blaster (Sprengmeister) simulation where you place explosives and watch the result of your "work". Less collateral damage = higher score

that is a big part of the game, but I don't think I will take the "less damage" road

Looks pretty cool. I'm thinking that something cool would be a Tron experience. You could incorporate mini games like a section of the original starfox SNES, Atari Lynx Hard Drivin, Steel Talons, etc. These all have pretty basic physics and gameplay.
I know it's probably not what you're thinking of... just a thought I had for a cool game that shouldn't take a huge game studio to create. It would be a real bast to play a re-imagining of the games in VR. The sort of thing that I had in my head when I was playing them so many years ago. Actually be IN the game universe that we were playing in.

I'm with you there android! I don't know Hard Drivin or Steel Talons, but I already have some Tron styled enemies (not done!) and I liked Starfox back in the days (even on the Gamecube ^^).
Having mini games to pay an homage to them is exactly why I go for the episode style. That way I can implement one mini-game / fun experiment into each episode

Thank you for the input!

I named our house rabbit Peppy (R.I.P), after the Starfox character back in 1994

You named your house? ... at least it is a good name!

9 against, 9 pro ... this is okay, I will go the oldschool road. I wish I knew the age of gamer on the pro and on the contra side.

I've always wanted a modern VR game to look like 90's vision of VR (Dactyl Nightmare, Homer3, even simple wireframe graphics). That way you can lower the requirements to run the game in the demanding conditions of VR (stereo 3D, 60 or moreFPS, etc.).



As for your game, I really like the idea of controlling destruction and using it in favor of the player, I imagine things like making a tower collapse to make a bridge and such kind of puzzles with tools similar to powder toy but in 3D. It has the potential to become the next portal.

If you want my advise, try to make it simple; simplicity is what made games like portal and minecraft so successful.

EDIT
Oh, I'm 24 and I'm on the pro side, btw.

Omarzuqo wrote:I've always wanted a modern VR game to look like 90's vision of VR (Dactyl Nightmare, Homer3, even simple wireframe graphics). That way you can lower the requirements to run the game in the demanding conditions of VR (stereo 3D, 60 or moreFPS, etc.).

I think that is an aesthetic that has some merit.

Yeah, gimme' some Tron game!! Think of a competitive racing game, each one riding his Light Cycle down the Game Grid! Palmer Luckey = Kevin Flynn (somehow) ^^

Where's my Lawnmower dress btw...

@Omarzuqo: I love that homer picture, one of my earlier scenes look almost exactly like that! I will have that style in the game

And collapsing a bulding to create a pathway/bridge ... that is a great, I have to try that. My current tile set is too small for such a task (it's physix - not easy to create dependable results ^^), but I will go now and see what kind of tileset is required and create it!! AWESOME!! Thank you.

PS: cool - so I don't have to worry that all my customers grow out of videogames before I finish

@Popopinsel ... you are German or at least speak it right? If not...

Now ... Virtual Reality, Oculus Rift, Tron ... have a look at the project of a friend of mine Positron: http://www.facebook.com/positrongame?group_id=0

That said ... I have not said that I won't add something like that to Reality Rift

GeraldT wrote:@Popopinsel ... you are German or at least speak it right? If not...

Germany? 12 points!

Cool game your friend is making. I found the following:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edZFP8NeTqQ[/youtube]

I think that the actual racing game like that maybe not quite suited since it would really make you vomit. If you slowed down the speed and had a first person perspective, it would be cool though. When I mentioned tron, I really meant the aesthetic for more of an adventure, possibly platform game, or even just have the environment as a hub from which you access the mini games from... Like you're trapped in a computer from the 80's-90's and acting as the player construct, going into the different games.
For those who don't know (too young, or just missed them), here are the games I mentioned in the last post:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6JC-HCNcio[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l-9Oxp0GfA[/youtube]

Also:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BndjvxlPzXk[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u93DOlL-oFg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FQnKxJtK78[/youtube]

... yeah, I love the Atari Lynx.

Oh, I'm 34 and vote yes for the concept.

@android: Okay I planed to NOT spoiler anything about the story and just share tech stuff. But since you are hitting some story nerves right where I plan to go ... game starts, you get a series of fast images (I have some ideas, but wait for the oculus to try them out), after that you are convinced you can't take the oculus off, or leave ... your body just won't let you ... you are hypnotized. And you know you need to eat or drink!! ....

You mean that kind of thing?

"even just have the environment as a hub from which you access the mini games from..." ... there will be a meta world layered over the adventure world.

here is a very early screenshot of it (I think it was the very first screenshot I took of the title).
This is very holodeck like and still very early work in progress. I stoped, because atm I have parts where you do platform jumps that are 10m or higher and I am not sure if you can do that comfortable with the Rift.

Yep. Always thought those old flat-shaded 3D games were cool.

Especially StarFox and Virtua Fighter. Not to mention Dactyl Nightmare at the Virtuality arcades.

@GeraldT - it's almost as if you're creating the game that I imagined.
The screen shot looks cool, I think you'll have to be a bit careful not to create too much movement at the one time though, unless you want the player to start the game feeling like they've just got off a theme park ride. ie. a bit sick.

Well, looks like I'm not the only one with this idea...I actually always loved the look of those old style games, especially having grown up with a Nintendo64 (not sure if that makes me feel old or young these days). It also seems a natural fit for a lot of sci-fi style games or stories, and you could do a whole 'going into the computer' thing, actually like all the jokes that are made on futurama/family guy/every tv show.

@Cyber Dactyl Nightmare was the first (and only) VR Game I played (the other I only had a look at, but they looked to boring given the expensive price and me still going to school).
Virtua Fighter was awesome, but I was never really good at it. I am afraid that style for NPCs would be to retro for too many gamers, but I do like it too!

@android very happy to hear that - you will get an Oculus right? I will need people to check it out and tell me if things are too slow, too fast etc.

@Additives - are you creating something or is it just an idea? I should open a "VR media reference" thread to be able to implement a lot of those things

@GeraldT - No work in progress as such, but tossing around some ideas. I'm likely to go with a non-textured art style though, with my personal reasons (I know some of them have been mentioned here already) being:

1) A general distaste with the current trend of graphics over game play. I'm not opposed to pretty or realistic graphics, I just don't think they need to be in every game.

2) Countered to 1), I actually think this kind of thing could look quite nice, especially if you added lighting effects etc in place of the textures and what not. This article has some really pretty polygon scenes up top, and a few more around the middle. Lots of arty stuff tho.

3) Working mostly on my own for now, it saves resources (my time) in not creating textures etc.

4) It seems like this art style is a natural fit for the currently low res dev kit, but a modern implementation won't hurt scaling up to the consumer resolution

5) It opens up some possibilities for easy procedural generation of content. Variations are much easier when there are fewer perameters, and while I guess a plain "re-texture = new enemy" wont work here, I think it would be cool to have each enemy slightly different. Also the possibility for a basic 3D in-game editor.

I'm sure the style must appeal to more people for similar reasons, and it would be kinda awesome to build up a library of polygonal art style assets to have available for people to make virtual places with.

GeraldT wrote:Yes, and I am going for an anime look - not really easy to integrate into 3D. So I am mostly looking for ways to present the NPC to the player in positions where he can not walk around him.

One role in the story is taken by cats. They see into the other realities and they just know. They guide you, maybe, ...

Now the cats are always presented on a higher position or across a gap that is too far to jump or ... At least that is my plan, not sure how fast it wears of.
I guess it will be my job to be creative about that

But they are still flat! And it's not like I have a team of animators sitting here to make cat animations. So I developed a rather simple cat animation system. It's just a couple of 2d images so stacked together that you get a talking cat animation, or a cat that looks at you ...

The first ones looked terrible since I made the cat ... then I started ripping apart anime cats on the web. I can't show them, because they are copyrighted and I only use them for testing.
Next step will be finding an artist to remake the cat parts I need and just the way I need them (my professional anime cat still has a slight "Frankenstein" look since I had to add bits here and there ^^).
And then finally I want to see how to integrate the flat cat with the rift, but I will do that when I got a Rift

Just for fun ... I will upload the coder art version *g*. But please keep in mind I would NEVER use something like it in a game. That is just the first concept I used to define areas that I need to move isolated for animation.

This concept sounds like a series of books I wrote a few years ago. About a girl who can see what only cats can see. The cats enlist her help to enter their extended reality and fight off creatures that threaten them from higher dimensions. I choose to make the cats different in their dimension, ie their true form is hidden from normal humans. In their world they are more human like. Think puss in boots if you like. The artist who illustrated the cover did a good job of capturing the cat and it's humanists side.

Happy to pass on his contact details if you like his work.

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&cl ... O_vLuopYJk

Cloverfield 3

@Additives - I share a lot of your reasoning about going untextured. I do love the current trend though, that gives us indies a much better chance to delivery something not seen everyday ^^

As far as lighting goes ... the collapsing building is grey, all color there is from lighting (and in that case I did not even spend any love into the lighting and all the lights are static). So I am with you there

Hurry up and give it a go, I want stuff to play on the Oculus

@Apotheosis

Given the reactions so far, I guess I will cut the cats now (and maybe pick them up for a different game) - gamer seem to want a tron experience. And I guess people going for a tron experience are the same as those happy with the untextured style. I would love to go that direction, so I will

This also means I can limit myself to most of the pieces I have build so far and start stringing things together, build the content, destroy the big evil central processor (I won't even try to put this in real life IT, this will be cheesy 80s movie IT!).

I do love what you write about the books, had I more time I would put em on my kindle right now. If I pick up the cat idea again, then I will have a look at them. Thank you!

@GeraldT - Yes, I'll be getting the Rift ... unless we've all been fooled into a scam by Palmer (It's a joke!!!).
If every you want to send over something for some feedback, I'd be more then happy to give it a look and provide constructive criticism where I can (or praise what is fantastic).

Just a side note; Does anyone know the copyright laws for simple graphics in old games (and movies)? I'm wondering how careful you would have to be with borrowing when making a game that is essentially a homage to the 80's.

Working on a new video update, here is a screenshot.
"@Omarzuqo: And collapsing a bulding to create a pathway/bridge ... that is a great"

I found a rather cool way to integrate that idea. At least I hope it is a cool way

matrix reference - check

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjyEW_ohguM[/youtube-hd]

now how to build a bridge ...

Nice work! Looks like you're making progress quickly!

I do ... I hope I will have finished and integrated some information elements tomorrow. That makes it look a lot more like a game ^^

It's so cool that you took my suggestion in consideration.

By the way, I really liked the second trailer, especially the explosion "pausing", is it a game feature (because it should!) or was it just for the trailer? I imagine pausing an explosion or maybe slowing it down and trying to navigate (and maybe even climb) a collapsing building in the middle of the explosion using the falling pieces as platforms (although I don't know how well would platforming work in VR).

No that totally is the game feature inspired by your "bridge".

Creating a controlled enough collapse to securely build a real bridge ... almost impossible. Especially to repeat and tweak for a game.
But stopping an explosion at a point where you can use the tiles to jump to an unreachable place ...

This is showing the bomb placed at the same place with different strengths. Repositioning the bomb is just a keyboard press - atm I am working on integrating a 3D onscreen element to change bomb type (explosion, implosion, shaker, antigrav ...), set bomb strength ...

In the end I want the player to be able to place a handful of bombs and detonate them in sequence or all together, and use combined mechanics to achieve the goal.

You might want to look into this handy script for your game: The Physics to Animation tool.

I know the idea of having baked physics kinda goes against the premise of the "blow it up where you want" idea of the game, but there are definitely going to be scenes (like the bridge one) where you want it to play out in a controlled (seemingly chaotic) manner. With this you could even make an animation where all of the objects are physics based, except for a few hidden among the hundreds that will be the key objects that you use to build the bridge.

Plus, you can pause, play, and rewind building destruction as it's happening in slow motion! Imagine jumping between pieces of falling rubble in slow motion to get to the other side of an area. Or even jumping on rubble and manipulating time forward and backward until certain pieces fall together enough for you to progress from one piece of falling rubble to the next!

Plus, it will be nicer on older CPUs, keep low that Oculus latency, and keep the destruction from looking like its happening on the moon (that is, the forced "slow motion/moon gravity" inherent in massive realtime physics simulations).

uhhhh ... Zalo that sounds fantastic, the idea of a slow-mo explosion to use as a bridge is fantastic.

At the moment I am not in the mood to try another add-in for Unity, they tend to be incompatible or otherwise not as plug and play as I want them. And right now I don't have the time to spend on another one ... have to figure out the ones I'm already using

I was thinking about scripted explosions etc. - but so far I decided to work without them. I might change my mind there (for example to create a mind blowing finish to the game), but at the moment I will skip them.

I think you could (and it looks like you're probably going to) use a lot of design principles from Shadow of the Colossus and Rez for this game.

- Each building could have a unique design, and be in an environment which follows the same theme/ aesthetic. The goal would be to make the building have its own personality. For example you could have Japanese/ German/ Greek inspired architectural shapes, tied together with your overall digital look.

- Give the player plenty of opportunity to first see the overall shape of the building from a distance, study details and the view as they make their way through the building. Then view it at a distance again before they are forced to destroy it. On one hand they want to find the weak points in the structure and find the best way to bring it down, and on the other hand they want to leave it standing.

- In the plot you could give the player two negative choices to grapple with. If they bring down the structures something beautiful will be destroyed, but if they don't something personal will be lost. Or you could turn it on them in the climax - make them hungry for destruction throughout the game, and then on the last level show them that the thing they've been destroying was trying to protect something of its own (you monster!).

It would probably be nice to keep the story minimalist. Just ambient sounds and graphics should work well.

What will be the main goal? To bring down the structure with a limited number of moves? Or to set up the right charges in the weak points to bring the whole thing down in one hit? Or to get points for achieving a certain type of destruction?

I think you should decide on a small number of mechanics that work well together instead of going overboard with having force push, or items that are too similar to each other.

Maybe a nice overall theme might be something like "We destroy the things we love".

Good luck!

rhinosix - there are a lot of great pointers in there! some I already have in mind, but others are new to me. I need to sleep over them.
This week should see another update that will give a lot of the potential game mechanics ... in the end I'm still in the sandbox phase where I try things out and see if they are fun.
Also I try to find out what is possible - I would love to have more physics power to create more objects, but if I want to go big, I also need to trick and I rather have everything build with real physics.

Thank you for the input! I'll be coming back to that

This would be good in the right...


http://player.vimeo.com/video/31481531?autoplay=1