The History repeats itself : Starting over.

We recently aquired an Oculus Rift for my office, a great piece of machinery which I encourage everyone to try. It DOES have its fair share of issues though, and it requires some reflection on what sort of game you want to make for it. My thoughts after trying it on for a week were:

-Realism is boring. In all examples Ive tried so far it falls too close to the uncanny valley. Stylized (TF2) or even all-out trippy is more exciting, take the chance to create what doesnt exist IRL.

-Cockpits especially and player body in a lesser degree helps with simulator sickness.

-Its impossible to drink tea while in the rift. 

-Towering architecture is cool

-In the contrast between things up close and far away is where the real VR magic happens. Exiting the starting building in TF2 badlands is prime example.

-Slow movement is best suited for VR.
After throwing some ideas around, and throwing my project I started up before I got my hands on the Rift out the window, my co-worker Patrik Liljecrantz reminded me of a project we started up when we were both going to game design school together. We called it Cetaceans:

Whales with guns! Deep sea combat, what could go wrong? We never finished the project back then in 2005, but after comparing it to my Rift notes I deemed it a perfect fit.

-Realism is boring = whales with guns is a pretty kooky concept as it is, but I want to add a more stylized, imaginative and colorful art style to this new iteration of Cetaceans.

-Cockpits help with immersion and nausea - These whales have cockpits...

-Towering architecture - The seabed can hold whatever architecture I can dream up. Skeletons from lost monsters you can swim through, sunken skyscrapers, not to mention the megafauna that will swim by your cockpit.

-Contrast between stuff close and far away - both the cockpit and every little thing that floats around in the sea will help with this point.

-Slow movement is best suited - the underwater setting gives a natural slow inertia to things and NEEDS a slow pacing to feel authentic.

What I needed next is to find a new artstyle and sketch up a model to get into unity and try out with the rift.... I threw together my new vision of the armored Whale:

This is just a quick 3D sketch with vertex colors, the finished version will have actual textures, as well as more details...

More saturated colors, imaginative design and exaggerated proportions. I am still considering a non-violent gameplay, but for now it keeps the guns. (Harpoon guns? self-propelled mini-torpedoes? Water gives me all kinds of headaches...)

The next step is to rig and set up the model and get it into unity, and into the RIFT. Stay tuned for more excitement.