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Designing immersive experiences: A guide to virtual reality game development for multiplayer experiences
The article explores the differences between VR and traditional gaming, challenges developers can face when creating VR experiences and how to overcome them.
Jerome Champigny
August 21, 2024
5 Min Read
Virtual reality (VR) continues to rise in gaming as an avenue for users to journey to new and sometimes familiar virtual realms. As developers, VR technology provides an outlet to create truly immersive and engaging experiences for users that transcend the traditional gaming experience. This is particularly true for multi-player, in-person experiences, for which we have ample experience in creating through our work at Tidal Force VR. This article will focus on the differences between VR and traditional gaming, the challenges developers can face when creating VR experiences and how to overcome them.
What Sets VR Apart from Traditional Gaming?
Having a game that fully captures users and envelops them in the developer’s creative masterpiece through immersive elements is what sets VR apart from the traditional gaming experience. One great example of VR done right is Half-Life: Alyx. While the Half-Life series originally consisted of two incredible PC games known for their fantastic storytelling and rich environments, traditional computer games, by nature, are often not truly immersive. The VR installment changed that and is one of the most immersive VR experiences available, allowing players to fully-engage with the game world. From using your entire body to navigate spaces to covering your mouth to stay stealthy, it’s a full-body experience that exemplifies what VR can offer.
In my experience creating immersive multi-player in real life (IRL) adventure experiences, our team strives to enhance VR mechanics by offering users an experience they can’t get at home or in a typical VR arcade. Our goal is to have users move and interact with the environment and each other in ways that feel natural and intuitive. We believe creating a space where users feel safe to move freely amplifies the immersive experience. By incorporating downtime and deep environmental interaction, we help users become fully absorbed in the experience, allowing them to forget that they’re not actually there.
Top Challenges Developers Face When Creating VR games and How to Overcome Them
Reaching the power and potential of VR does not come without roadblocks and hard work. The challenges a VR game developer may face are all dependent on the game’s objective. Here are just a few developers can expect to be faced with.
Realism: Realism in VR can be challenging and may easily come off as gimmicky if not executed properly. Selecting the right assets that are high definition and believable upon first look is crucial to overcoming this issue.
Computing Power: Another significant challenge is computing power, especially if the experience needs to run on a standalone headset. Optimizing the experience to make the most of the available processing power is essential. For in-person VR experiences, this can be addressed by using tower machines, which provide all the computing power needed, allowing experiences to be tailored directly to the hardware.
Continuity in Multi-Player Experiences: Multiplayer environments present a unique challenge in maintaining consistent physics and reality across different devices. For instance, if one player grabs an object and another tries to take it, determining who calculates the physics becomes complicated. Creating a healthy codebase and framework that enables smooth multiplayer interactions allows the game to be played with multiple users without having to rely on every player to be present each game. This challenge is what makes experiences truly interactive and is a key focus of our framework – now in its second iteration.
Story Telling & Narrative Development: A narrative’s role in a VR experience depends on its length and purpose. For shorter experiences, a complex story might slow down the pace as it requires time to develop. However, in longer experiences, a well-crafted story becomes essential, adding depth and keeping users engaged. It also helps developers create a cohesive and immersive environment.
Our latest experience, Room K, allows us to communicate complex story elements through layers of lies and deceit—something that written content alone might struggle to achieve. Additionally, voiceovers like radio feeds can significantly enhance the storytelling, driving the narrative forward and enabling developers to craft more intricate and engaging experiences.
Implementing User Feedback into VR Game Designs: For more general VR games, companies can get user feedback from sources like Discord, Google Form or direct reviews of the experience to get feedback on a game’s design. As for IRL VR experiences, getting direct feedback from patrons and gathering real time inputs on how they interact with the experiences is key. It’s important for developers to gather valuable data, quickly address bugs, and adjust puzzles or elements that may be too challenging or unclear in real-time.
Lack of Exposure: An added complexity is many consumers may be new to VR and your experience may be their introduction to the environment. Because of this, it’s crucial to observe how everyone, both gamers and non-gamers, engage with the VR experience you create to ensure they have an enjoyable and challenging experience.
The Future of VR Game Development
Virtual reality has and will continue to revolutionize consumer gaming. While VR has its complexities from a development standpoint, integrating real-world environments into gameplay will transform how consumers engage with technology. The real game-changer lies in leveraging the mobile computational power driving these headsets, enabling developers to create more immersive and captivating experiences. I strongly believe VR will not only capture the consumer market as it continues to evolve, but also become a major force in the entertainment industry and the standard for consumer gaming experiences.
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