Pillars of Making A 5X5 VR Multiplayer Hero Shooter Game and a Strong Community - The Journey of X8

Is creating a 5v5 VR Multiplayer Hero Shooter game and fostering an engaged community the same in VR as it is for console or PC?  Yes and no. Many elements are the same – making it fun, building a community, designing heroes with special abilities that can be mixed and matched. But a few things are different. This blog discusses the pillars that have defined X8’s path to launch in the Meta Quest Store on November 9:

Pillar 1:  Focus on Quality and Community Building From day one, we knew our game lived or died on fostering a thriving community of players. This is how we went about building our community:

VR has enormous growth potential as worldwide content, and we're determined to be at the forefront of this movement. We’ve hosted three VR esports events with X8, including an Early Access Invitational Tournament in May, and a tournament at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) in September. With over 500 participants in our event at TGS, this event marked the first-ever VR esports event in Japan, setting a precedent for the future. We also organized the Japan University tournament, which included ten top-tier universities from across Japan with thriving esports clubs. This event showcased the unique and sensational VR contest that left a lasting impression on the audience.

Pillar 2:  Choose the Correct Business Model to Match Gameplay

Pillar 3: Pay Attention to the Subtle Game Design Differences in VR

From a game development perspective, there are many similarities in developing a 5x5 VR shooter versus a 5x5 console shooter game. However, VR design can be delicate, and even minor design elements can be the difference between making your game fun or barely playable.

Here are a couple of key elements to pay attention to.

A critical example of this is the locomotion comfort setting of Snap Turn vs. Smooth Turn. Using a game stick to control where and how your head or body turns can be very dissociative, even for players who have played VR for years. A control scheme that works for one player can be downright nauseating for another. These are individual settings that must be modified by the player. Making a multitude of optional locomotion comfort settings is a must in good VR development. Providing an array of options can make an invaluable difference in creating a positive experience for the player.

Other options outside of locomotion settings can also make a significant difference in VR vs. console play.  Let's look at something as basic as pocket layout. Button mapping for what to grab in your player's hand in a console experience is a rather small change compared to what a user can experience in VR. Something as basic as grabbing an ammo magazine in VR starts to get complicated rather quickly. Is the player right or left hand dominant? Do they prefer to grab magazines from their shoulder pocket (games like Half-Life Alex use this motion)  or is their reload preference similar to other popular VR FPS shooters from the hip. With VR it may not be a simple button press, instead it's an actual body motion. An unfamiliar gameplay motion that doesn't "feel" right can turn from frustrating to satisfying simply based on quick optional preference setting - but the option HAS to be available.  In VR the more options you can give the player, the more likely it is that the player's brain will adapt to the space you provide them, and feel not only immersive but also comfortable and familiar.

For a multitude of reasons each hero's core abilities (and their hero item) rely completely on controller input and do not use real-world, motion-based interactions from the player.  There are however a number of movements, abilities and interactions that all players can employ, which do take advantage of physical world interactions. Movement such as throwing knives, climbing, tossing items to teammates, planting and defusing the Syphon, all require physical real world movements and interactions.These types of interactions make a VR game more immersive, but there is a limit to what the player can initially learn. Too many specific VR interactions (without ramp up teaching) can make the learning curve near impossible for a new player, and too few physical interactions can make the game feel like nothing more than a console port. VR immersion walks a fine line in crafting this experience.

A critical development pillar of X8 is designing a compelling VR experience, using a variety of gameplay options, an adaptive control schema, and various real world movements. The project has endeavored to evolve a playstyle from the shoulders of the 2D Heroic Shooter genre to create a unique immersive experience, unlike anything players have encountered before.