Teleportation or Sliding? Locomotion methods won’t stop room-scale VR.
Multiple locomotion methods can be used in room-scale, and none are stopping adoption rates. That’s just bad design.
Moving around in 3D space feels natural. Humans move around in 3D space every day. A well designed VR experience is accessible to new users because it mimics our natural movements.
Virtual reality games like Smashbox Arena are easy to jump into for new players. Their simple controls and straight forward game mechanics are all designed around current gen VR hardware.
Smashbox Arena’s in-game weapons match the look and feel of the Vive/Oculus controllers. This 1:1 relationship makes it easy to jump in and start playing for users who have yet to experience VR.
VR games are easy to jump into for new players.
Racket:Nx utilizes a natural extension of the controller to simulate a 3D racket sport. Sparc from CCP games relies on a natural throwing movement as its lead game mechanic. Audioshield has players punching and blocking colorful orbs. These games provide easy to grasp controls, keep a player planted in room-scale, and provide engaging experiences.
Some games us room-scale locomotion methods to free the player to explore an environment.
Many multiplayer VR games rely on either sliding locomotion, or instant teleportation. Room-scale VR has it’s limitations and many VR designers are working on the locomotion question.
When I first played VR, teleporting felt awkward to me, and sometimes jarring. Sliding locomotion gave me seasickness for the first 3 months. I felt stuck with teleportation style movement. It wasn’t until I discovered Smashbox Arena’s locomotion method that I changed my mindset towards teleportation.
Smashbox Arena has developed a teleportation method that not only works, it adds a layer of complexity to competitive play.
In Smashbox, players toss a teleport disk that will land on on flat surfaces and bounce off walls. Once it lands there is a short animation before the player teleports. This animation allows players to cancel their teleport, cancel enemy teleports, and keep an eye on where players will appear.
Locomotion is a core part of what makes room-scale VR compelling.
New locomotion methods like the physics based teleportation disc in Smashbox, the climbing and flinging of To The Top, flapping your arms like a bird, or just plain sliding around will are all just as valid as different controller mappings are for console players.
Players will use different methods and play different games that suit them and their individual styles.
Discrediting a room-scale VR locomotion method is akin to discrediting the D-Pad on a controller. Developers and designers can use a particular locomotion style, and design that locomotion style into their core gameplay, in order to create a compelling VR experience.
Many VR games today are closely related to 2D counterparts.
Many studios are developing games for VR, instead of developing VR games. It’s easier to take an old idea and shove it into a new medium than it is to build with that new medium from the ground up. When more VR games are created with their chosen locomotion method(s) at their core, we will see higher user retention and adoption rates for VR.
With well designed locomotion methods, room-scale VR can become a mass adopted technology. The number of engaging experiences possible is endless, and includes all forms of entertainment that came before it. Designers can and have created compelling ways to move around a virtual environment while being confined to room-scale in the real world. People only need to try these methods first hand to see the potential of room-scale VR.
It will take years before full body VR hardware is cheap enough for mass adoption. In the meantime, room-scale VR can fit in most homes and needs only drop in price to reach a massive market.
If a VR experience is compelling enough, users will learn to utilize the limitations of locomotion just as they’ve learned to master the thumb-stick.
Multiple locomotion methods will be used in room-scale VR, and users will learn which ones they like best.
Sliding doesn’t cause sickness in all players. Teleportation can be a jarring experience, or a key mechanic to game play. Climbing with just your arms can be awkward at first, but turns out to be quite fun.
So long as a designer has chosen a locomotion method that adds to the core experience of their game, players who enjoy the game will adapt to the chosen locomotion method(s). Consider how players learn multiple heroes in games like Overwatch. Each hero having their own movement style, albeit limited by keyboard and mouse input.
Individual players with different locomotion methods in the same game space will play together.
Games can be designed to accommodate and facilitate fair gameplay between players and their locomotion methods. Just as Blizzard balances the various aspects of their Overwatch heroes’ styles, VR designers can balance locomotion methods.
Today is Day 14 of my 90 day VR experiment. Join me here for a daily dose of VR design, gameplay, speculation, and most importantly: adventure.
