Benjamin Lang · @benz145
4th Dec 2016 from TwitLonger
VR game devs still have so much unlearning to do from traditional game design.
Really unenthused with a lot of VR games I'm seeing lately. VR is about bringing the player into a game world in a way they never have been before. It's about richness through and through -- quality over quantity. If you're making a shooter, don't give me 20 of the same old FPS weapons to choose from. Give me three interesting, interactive, and highly visceral weapons. Let me touch them, feel them, adjust them, learn their intricacies, and make them my own. Don't make me pull the trigger 50 times to kill a basic enemy, make me pull it once or twice, and make it feel amazing.
Don't give me 15 different enemy types and 1,000 of them to kill. Give me three challenging, unique, and SMART enemies types that don't die in one shot -- fighting them is the experience, not just making them die to get points and go to a new level.
If you're gonna give me access to a nuke, don't let me launch 100 like it's NBD. Make me sweat before I even think about pushing that big red button. MAKE IT MATTER.
This same lesson applies to pretty much every single thing in VR that I can think of.
Levels -- don't give me 100 square miles to run through like a non-VR FPS. Give me a quarter mile of detailed environment which the enemies (AND I) can interact with in interesting ways.
Characters -- I don't want a platoon of throwaway goons, give me one character who directly interacts with me WITH MOTION CONTROLS NOT BUTTON PROMPTS, someone who looks me in the eye.
VR is about richness of experience and immersion, not points, kills, or moving through one non-interactive space to the next.
Man I really needed to get that out. Phew.