Session Name: | Designing for Mobile VR in Dead Secret |
Speaker(s): | Chris Pruett |
Company Name(s): | Robot Invader/ Oculus |
Track / Format: | Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit |
Overview: | Mobile VR, like desktop VR, comes with a set of unique design challenges. The playing field is wide open when it comes to designing VR-centric gameplay systems, but the stakes are high: poorly implemented designs often result in the player feeling sick. Good VR also requires competent 3D graphics running at a rock solid frame rate. Building an interesting and convincing virtual space on mobile hardware is a tricky proposition. In the summer of 2014, Robot Invader decided to rebuild its current project, a moody murder mystery called Dead Secret, as a mobile VR game. Originally designed for tablets, the title was rebuilt from the ground up to accommodate mobile VR. From the pacing to the interface, the sound system to the monetization plan, everything changed. After months of work, Dead Secret is not only playable on mobile VR platforms, it's a much better game. This talk will discuss the challenges and benefits of targeting mobile VR platforms, and discuss in detail how mobile developers can approach this new platform. This talk is focused on specific design considerations for mobile VR, the decisions we made in Dead Secret, tips and tricks we learned along the way, and how we might do it differently in the future. |