DESIGNING FOR INNOVATION: SHIPPING YOUR FIRST VR GAME

Laralyn McWilliamsChief Creative OfficerSkydance Interactive

@laralyn

DESIGN IS MORE THAN JUST DESIGN

WE’RE THE ARCHITECTS

INNOVATION & DEVELOPMENT IN THE

TRADITIONAL SPACE✦ Innovation

✦ Look at current market, competing

products

✦ Identify important features/systems

✦ Innovate on each feature/system or

genre blend

✦ Add one key novelty

✦ Development

✦ Create a rough roadmap with time

estimates

✦ Identify any risks

✦ Pre-production and prototype

✦ Develop vertical slice

✦ Execute against production goals

MAKE NO

ASSUMPTIONS✦ Working in VR changes many paradigms

✦ You can’t anticipate what’s different

✦ What makes players nauseous or

disoriented

✦ What’s too intense

✦ What players won’t notice

✦ What limits performance

WALK IN EXISTING

FOOTPRINTS✦ Identify comp titles

✦ Competitive

✦ Feature examples

✦ Whole team should play them

✦ Analyze what works and doesn’t

✦ Be willing to use as a starting point—or

end result

PROTOTYPE

EVERYTHING✦ Use comp games as shortcuts

✦ Start with highest risks and biggest

unknowns

✦ Work in quick, rough, playable iterations

✦ Don’t worry about production pipeline yet

✦ Consider what needs context or a

cohesive setting

FOCUS ON ONE

INNOVATION✦ Innovation in VR is more challenging

✦ Assess difficulty based on comp games

✦ Consider your team’s experience,

strengths

✦ Pick a single new element as your focus

✦ Work until you get that one element

working well

✦ Use that element in context before you

start another innovation

EXPECT DELAYS

✦ Everything takes longer in VR

✦ Either:

✦ Prototyping is more extensive OR

✦ Multiple re-dos on most features

✦ More iteration is required

✦ Iteration takes much longer

EXPECT TECH

CHALLENGES✦ Many many many (x100) unsolved or

difficult problems

✦ Different quality expectations

✦ Multiple platforms, different hardware

✦ Performance

✦ Performance

✦ Performance

EXPECT PROCESS

CHALLENGES✦ High-spec PCs, headsets and

controllers…

✦ …for everyone on the team…

✦ …including QA!

✦ Reviewing builds is challenging

✦ Working with remote team members

requires extra coordination and hardware

✦ More need for in-engine performance and

iteration tools

DESIGNING

INTERACTIONS✦ Wildly variable ability levels

✦ Wildly different levels of patience

✦ Requiring new skills

✦ Harder to get player attention/focus

✦ Harder to do anything on a timer

✦ Wildly different controllers and sensors

DESIGNING UI

✦ Completely different way of thinking

✦ HUD vs. in-world vs. “on screen”

✦ Resolution is challenging, especially for

text

✦ Transitions can be much more jarring

✦ Camera movement AND object

movement can make players nauseous

DESIGNING

LOCOMOTION✦ Good luck with that.

✦ Study an array of other VR games

✦ Prototype, prototype prototype…

✦ …but do it IN CONTEXT

✦ Don’t get lost down a rabbit hole.

✦ Good luck with that!

DESIGNING

ENVIRONMENTS✦ Figure out your arc of view before building

“final” levels

✦ Test every environment in greybox, in

headset, in context

✦ Funnel and direct the player’s attention

✦ Design for performance

Make no assumptions

Walk in existing footprints

Prototype everything

Focus on one innovation

Expect tech challenges

Expect process challenges

DESIGNING FOR INNOVATION: SHIPPING YOUR FIRST VR GAME

Questions?

Laralyn McWilliamsChief Creative OfficerSkydance Interactive

@laralyn