1 DAY TO GO UNTIL GAMAYO!
By now we all know that tomorrow’s GaMaYo is taking place at Tileyard North, Wakefield so we expect a fantastic turnout to try the amazing selection of games we have showcased so far as well as meet the brilliantly talented people behind them!
To cap off our GaMaYo Showcases we have a BIG ONE to announce.
The final game is Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior
This will be the first public showing of the game ahead of its release
We spoke to the team at Just Add Water Development and they filled us in on what to expect:
What would be your description of Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior?
“Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior is the next chapter from the highly successful Sniper Elite VR. This standalone DLC will have players once again take on the role of ‘The Partisan’ an Italian resistance fighter during WW2. Your aim is to find and destroy secret Nazi wonder weapons that they believe will turn the tide of the war.“
How did development start? (Were there any key inspirations or ideas that drove you?)
“Sniper Elite VR has become highly successful and we were approached by our partners at Rebellion & Meta to bring more Sniper Elite VR action to the Meta Quest. The Winter theme was an obvious choice for us continuing on from the story of the original. It follows how the war was progressing at that point, with a bad winter in Italy and the allies trying to break through the gothic line in northern Italy. It was also at this point the Nazis were trying as a last ditch effort to make wonder weapons that they thought could turn the tide of the war, so we really focused in on this point.“
Tell us about the team working on Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior?
“Just Add Water are again working on this Sniper Elite VR title. The team working on this consists of some people who worked on the original Sniper Elite VR and new members, who have joined since our rapid growth recently.“
What kind of experiences do you hope to bring players?
“We hope to make players feel like a covert sniper during WW2. We want people who enjoyed the first game, to come back and see the improvements we’ve made. We also want new players to the series to pick this up and be hooked instantly. With iconic features from the Sniper Elite franchise like the X-Ray kill cam, we feel we’ve nailed bringing the Sniper Elite core elements to VR.“
In 10 words or less, highlight the appeal of Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior?
“Be transported and experience Sniper Elite like never before!“
What’s the main challenge of working in VR?
Design – “Where to begin with this? There are so many challenges when working in VR, mostly due to this area of games design still being relatively new. There are some norms that have been established, but there are some areas / genres that have no been touched, meaning that it really is the wild west when designing for those. There are things you just cannot do in VR like you can in traditional flat screen games, things like taking control away from the player or moving them / head in any way is a massive no go. This then follows on to motion sickness which can be brought on very easily in VR if anything is not done correctly. You need to design a whole suite of comfort options to try mitigate motion sickness as much as possible.“
Art – “The main challenge for artists whilst working in VR is maintaining performance without compromising visual quality, this often means collaborating with other departments very closely to make sure that the desired gameplay mechanics and technical limitations are met so choosing an art style to suit those requirements is important from the start. VR requires a high and consistent frame rate to prevent motion sickness and pass platform requirements. So optimizing assets, textures, and utilizing different rendering techniques and workflows without compromising visual quality is crucial but challenging. In VR we have to consider the player’s perspective in a 3D space so making sure that scale and proportion of assets is even more important in VR, the sense of scale, getting proportions and metrics correct for objects and environments is essential to make the experience feel realistic and believable.“
Code – “The biggest challenge of working in VR is just how different to the whole environment is to traditional console and computer game platforms.“
Having to render a wide FOV stereoscopic image at high framerate can be incredibly demanding on even the most efficiently coded games and engines.
Having to deal with a lot more player inputs than just button presses means you not only need to consider the player position in the world but position, orientation & motion of both head and hands as well as the fact that the player could at any point in time be looking in any direction.
VR comfort also brings some challenges for certain types of games that involve a lot of motion, making sure players with different tolerances have the options to be able to play the game without having a detrimental effect on the over gameplay experience.“
Check out the full features trailer here: Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior Features Trailer