While some developers are just finding their feet in the virtual reality (VR) industry there are those who are already well versed in creating immersive content, finding what works and what doesn’t. One of the biggest names is Supermassive Games which has released two titles for PlayStation VR, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and Tumble VR, with two more due for release, The Inpatient and Bravo Team. And the studio shows no signs of stopping as it considers VR to be an important part of its future.
In a recent interview with Develop-Online, Simon Harris, executive producer at the studio said: “VR is incredibly important to Supermassive. We’ve been lucky enough to have been involved in building VR content for four years now, starting with early demos for PlayStation VR, and by the end of the year we will have launched four games for PSVR – the most for an independent studio. Sony remains an important partner for us, but our VR ambitions stretch across multiple platforms.”
Looking at the current state of the VR industry Harris goes on to say: “There is a great deal of discussion and hype about the size and value of the VR business, but the bottom line is that we have to focus on delivering the best possible experiences on the platforms we are working on. Only great content is going to encourage people to buy headsets.
“From our perspective, VR is delivering on what we hoped, which is an incredible new way to experience games. We think that we are only starting with what we can do in VR, so we have really high expectations on what we can deliver.”
The studio also sees multiplayer being an important aspect in VR growth, hence why it’s created Bravo Team, its first co-op title. “Multiplayer experiences are going to be a great thing in VR,” states Harris. “With regards to co-op/social vs. competitive I think that they both drive different adoption markets. Competitive appeals to a lot of the existing player base on platforms such as PC and PlayStation, so it is a great way of bringing them into VR.”
The videogame industry and VR in particular is very fast moving, with new tech being developed and procedures for making experiences evermore immersive. So the studio is making sure it’s well versed in what’s happening: “There are some extremely interesting developments around tracking additional aspects, such as legs and eye tracking, which we make sure we are aware of and understand how they can improve our games,” Harris said. “As these developments are included in future headsets we will be ready to make use of them.
Both The Inpatient and Bravo Team have confirmed 2017 release dates with the former launching on 22nd November, while the latter will arrive on 6th December, both for PlayStation VR. As Supermassive Games continues its VR development, VRFocus will keep you updated.
via Mint VR