Dec 20, 2022
X8 VR Developer Blog with Executive Producer Nogi
I would say that I am one of the biggest VR enthusiasts today, as I’ve spent most of my life in VR over the past several years. I’ve continuously reviewed newly released VR games over the past several years. Although, it wasn’t that long ago when I first tried VR in my life — it was at CES in Las Vegas back in January 2015, which was almost a year after Facebook acquired Oculus. I knew what VR was and how I could experience it, but I just didn’t have any opportunities to try it until one day when I waited almost two hours in line at the Oculus booth. What I experienced was called Oculus Dreamdeck, which provides several experiences in different virtual environments, and I was really impressed with the experience. I felt super afraid of what I was experiencing in VR, standing at the edge of the top of a really high building. I have a bit of acrophobia so that experience was really shocking. It was in this moment of fear that I knew this immersive experience would be the future and that this was the new generation of entertainment.
How I originally started into the VR business was by investment in early 2016. We participated in one of the earliest VR focus funds, which targets startup companies. We also established incubation/accelerator programs in Japan, South Korea and Nordic countries. Then I started traveling the world to find investment and business partnership opportunities and we invested in more than 100 startups. Luckily, I could meet a lot of world-renowned VR enthusiasts and founders in the momentum of the new VR tech market and then we invested into many VR startups. Many of them are really successful, including Beat Saber, Rec Room, Job Simulator, and Wave.
I’ve visited more than 20 countries in the past several years and reviewed thousands of demos of VR products, which were developed by startups around the world. I also discussed the future of VR with global VR enthusiasts. This experience grew my VR production review skillset and helped me fine tune my criterion for what are the most important elements in developing VR products, especially VR games.
The major differences between traditional and VR games are the inputs and outputs. There are tons of video gaming developers who don’t understand this concept and tend to develop video games the traditional way. VR is a 360 view experience. VR is not an experience through a 2D monitor such as home TV in the living room, PC monitor or mobile phone screen. People have been experiencing video games through those output display devices, which hasn’t changed in the past 40 years. Players are viewing video game environments through a 2D monitor while existing in the real world. In VR, players are inside the video game environments.
Regarding the input mechanics, traditional video games require a mouse and keyboard, controllers that have many buttons, or tap and flick on the 2D monitor controller, and a character in the game as a third person. Those mechanics make perfect sense for traditional video games, which are displayed with 2D monitors. But, the concept of the VR experience is that players will turn into the game character itself. Players see the game as the game character (first person), so players will walk in the game and grab any objects in the game.
That means players themselves control games with their body movement, I would say the player’s body itself is a controller as an input device.
What we at Thirdverse are focusing on as a VR gaming developer is the Only Possible Experience.
Only Possible VR Core Mechanics:
1. Interactions
2. Gestures
3. Combination of Haptics, Visuals and Sound Effects
1.Interactions
2. Gestures
3. Combination of Haptics, Visuals and Sound Effects
I am personally into traditional video game features, such as the narrative and multiplayer game mechanics, as well. Those features definitely increase the immersive experience level, and our dev team is well experienced in the best ways to implement them.
VR Shooter Games
Shooter games are always popular across all video gaming devices and there are already several successful and great VR shooters in the market. When I started making the X8 plan, I investigated the Only Possible VR Core Mechanics of other existing VR shooters. What I found out was that most of them simply had players with guns in their own hands and that makes it feel realistic enough for players. I totally understand that grabbing a gun is just a simple and normal action, but it’s insanely impressive compared with people who only experience letting their game characters hold guns on a 2D screen and control them by mouse and keyboard.
Beyond this, some newer shooter games implemented more VR Core Mechanics such as juggling guns, catch and throw back a bullet and VRness locomotions.
Another factor of successful VR Shooters is something first and unique. I understand as a major VR enthusiast, VR game players are always expecting new impressive features that they have never experienced before and each successful VR shooter provides new features to this end. I also investigated non-VR Shooter gaming history further and ultimately determined what we would make, and that is X8.
VR Shooter Trends
Non-VR Shooter Trends
We’ve been developing this game for almost 2 years now, and finally it’s getting close to the beta test. This game is an online multiplayer PvP shooter and we know much of it cannot be completed by ourselves without feedback from the community. We keep saying among the project team members that this game is community-driven and we will make this game with those additional team members. So we would really appreciate it if you can give us your feedback as much as you can.
We are also really happy to have so many closed beta applicants, which is both humbling and motivating for our team to make you the best VR game possible.
Please join or refer our Discord and Twitter
- Discord: https://discord.gg/x8vr
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlayX8VR
Thank you very much for your support.
Executive Producer Nogi
