Published , by Charles Singletary Jr
Published , by Charles Singletary Jr
One of the developers of the VR adventure Moss believes the virtual reality industry's slower growth is advantageous to smaller VR developers. That developer, Danny Bulla of Polyarc, also likened the current state of virtual reality to the early stages of mobile game development.
"It's developed much like other markets, if you pay attention to it closely," Bulla said of the VR market to GameIndustry.biz. "I think a lot of people had high expectations up front, and I don't think those were necessarily rooted in anything particular other than excitement for a new medium."
Moss, the hit VR game that started off as a PSVR exclusive before heading over to Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, is a solid example of quality VR. Thus, advice and perspective from the development team could be invaluable to any developer attempting to create for the VR industry.
"Developers are kind of getting their legs with VR," Bulla said. "They're understanding the mechanics that make the medium different from traditional gaming. They're understanding the things that are required to make it more like traditional gaming, the things that players expect. So I'm excited because we're seeing games like Beat Saber, Sprint Vector, and Moss now, too, this second wave of games that are coming out that we're hoping will encourage people to take the VR headsets that are tucked away in closets right now and bring them back and check it out. Because I think the content is getting better.
Bulla also likened VR development to the innovation that had to take place when mobile game development took off. "Touch-and-swipe was a new input mechanism, and we didn't have that before," he said. "So we didn't have Fruit Ninja right away when the iPhone came out. That came years later as people understood the medium. If you take that and look at VR, I think that's the trajectory where we're at right now."
The verdict is still out on what is the best way to interact in VR and that conversation will likely continue throughout the next couple generations of the platform. Todd Howard of Bethesda believes VR will blossom in its third generation, but it will even take that long? Take the conversation to Chatty and stay tuned to Shacknews for additional updates.