Why (Not) Create a VR Game?

The first question to ask is whether your game would be relevant in VR. It's like with 3D. Not everything is interesting in 3D, and if it is not appropriate it can get worse in VR!

So why go VR?

The objective of VR is that you feel like you're present in another reality, whether it is realistic or not. For me, presence is the definition of VR. Without presence, there is no VR!

Obvious game genres that would be great in VR are all the first-person games, like first-person shooters. Imagine Mirror's edge or Call of Duty as VR games! Some third person games like Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, or Gears of War could potentially be converted to first-person, so we can actually be the hero. Of course, I'm sure we will see a revival of puzzle and exploration games. We will also probably see very different VR games in the future: God games? Guitar Hero?

But I think the games that will benefit the most from VR are those that try to generate emotions in the player.

Survival horror games would be extremely intense. Also take Heavy Rain, for instance. The game is great; I felt really present, and I experienced a lot of emotions while playing it. However, the game was sometimes ruined by non-natural interaction, and lacked half the presence -- the physical presence. And this is where VR can help!

VR as a New Medium

I should say a word of warning here before continuing: adapting existing games to VR is difficult if they weren't designed for this from the outset. VR is like radio or TV at their beginnings: radio was only used to broadcast opera, and TV was only used to broadcast theatre plays. Slowly, people started to create content specifically tailored for these new media. Camera movement, zoom, and cuts created a new grammar for film, for instance.

The same will happen with VR! At first, there will be a lot of adaptations of existing games that don't take full advantage of presence, and might even damage the field: adding VR will only marginally improve immersion, thanks to the display, but awkward controls and gameplay unsuited to VR could potentially make the experience poorer than it originally was.

I'm happy to see that a lot of indie developers are creating new games with VR in mind from the beginning, which is the right way to do it. And why wouldn't they? VR is the ultimate experience! Those of us with experience we will happily provide feedback for your game, so don't hesitate to contact me.

Presence

As I said, presence is, for me, what defines VR. Without this feeling of actually being somewhere else, your system is just an interactive 3D system, not a true VR system -- even if it costs millions of dollars. Trust me, I've tested a few of those, and it's a tragedy.

Once you get presence, your player will experience natural reactions and emotions: if you're on top of a high cliff, you will experience the fear of heights (guaranteed). If a virtual ball is thrown at you, you will try to catch it. If an avatar saves you from certain death, you might actually smile at him. True story!

Presence is a complex and subtle topic. Mel Slater is one of the scientists conducting some of the most interesting research on presence. In a well-known article, he splits presence in two: cognitive (mind) and perceptive (senses).

Most people report presence when playing a game, watching a movie, reading a book, or just hearing a story (the roots of VR!). This is actually cognitive presence -- where their mind takes them to another world.

Perceptive Presence

All of these experiences lack perceptive presence, which is in fact fooling your senses in a realistic way. Vision, but also sound, touch, smell, proprioception... Keep in mind that humans are not able to perceive the world perfectly: the human brain makes all sorts of simplifications. Knowing the limits of human perception, which is a fundamental part of understanding VR, allows you to create perceptive illusions, such as redirected walking or impossible spaces.

So how do you achieve that?

For me, the most basic way of creating perceptive presence is by using head tracking. Moving your head and, as a result of this movement, seeing the world from a different viewpoint, is the basis for the action/perception loop.

So you need to be able to move, and those moves must have an effect on the virtual world. Your body is engaged: as Antonio Damasio says, "the mind is embodied, not just embrained."

Breaks in Presence

This also means that if, as a result of your actions, you're not getting the result that you're expecting your brain will know something is wrong. This is called a "break in presence" (BIP).

If you have only one goal when creating a VR game, it would be to create and maintain presence. Feeling present in an empty room is VR. Not feeling present in Gears of War is not VR.