Tomorrow sees Flight School Studio release is first virtual reality (VR) experience for PlayStation VR, a story-driven, interactive narrative set in the afterlife called Manifest 99. Today the studio’s Game Director, Bohdon Sayre, has revealed some of the design choices the team made to do with locomotion.
As an interactive experience rather than a videogame, Flight School Studio was interested in providing a suitable way of moving through the environment whilst keeping users immersed. So it went for gaze-based teleportation. On the PlayStation.Blog Sayre wrote: “In Manifest 99, there is a certain level of emotional unease we want players to experience; but, the last thing we want is someone to take their headset off because they’re not feeling well!”
“We decided that we would use a teleportation technique to allow the player to move about their environment. We then thought, how can we pull this off without using a controller at all, and in a way that works harmoniously with our story?
“In Manifest 99, you are aboard a train that is full of crows, and you can teleport to any crow by peering into their glowing eyes. Connecting the gaze-based teleportation to the narrative meaning of locking eyes with another living creature created the marriage of mechanic and story that we were looking for.”
Manifest 99 is available for PlayStation VR tomorrow, 12th September, 2017, on PlayStation Store for $5.99 USD.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Manifest 99, reporting back with any further updates.
via Mint VR