I was fortunate enough to attend Sony’s Project Morpheus panel and it was delight learning about the challenges developers face with VR. Normally when I hear developers talk about creating games it is about adding new features but this was something new. VR makes even a basic action such as picking up and interacting with an object a surreal experience.
Even though VR changes so much about how to design a game many of the basics are still important. Just like how motion control was really intuitive, looking around as a control is just as intuitive. It was so interesting seeing all the fundamentals that could still be used and all the stuff that couldn’t due to VR.
The developers openly talked about the restrictions of having the limited technology of the PS4. Morpheus you are not unable to walk around in your real body. That single restriction creates such a disconnect pulling many players away from the very immersion and presence that VR is supposed to provide. It was really impressive to see all creative ways the developers created solutions to try to keep players lost in the virtual world given their limitations.
Doing simple tasks in virtual reality can be really fun. It was really cool to see all the creative ways the developers created interactive worlds. Many of the demos they were showing were very simple but brought laughter and smiles to everyone in the room. That is exactly how companies need to think when introducing VR to the public.
It was really cool seeing PlayStation try so many ways of creating experiences. No one really knows how to fully utilize VR yet because we are just at the beginning of this amazing journey. It is so exciting to see the development of such game-changing technology and hearing from those leading the charge.