Can you establish why that location and time period were chosen?īrundish: We wanted the player to use weapons and equipment that were analog and tactile, going too modern seemed out of the question however, we didn’t want to go so far back that some of the stealth gadgets would seem unrealistic. The game takes place in the Black Sea region in 1991. Getting this right was one of the biggest challenges we faced and has taken almost the entire length of the project. For a long time, we thought that we were going to have to offer two separate control schemes, but we eventually found a way to combine the requirements of both groups into a system that we found to be accessible and intuitive for newcomers, but with the depth and nuance of a simulation beneath it. We considered both of these groups to be equally important and went through countless iterations of the controls and balance, trying to get it right for both crowds. We have several team members who have real-life kayaking experience and were very insistent on the gameplay feeling realistic, while others had no frame of reference at all and wanted the game to control in an intuitive and arcade-style way. Those systems took several months to nail down, but this early test convinced us that the combination of stealth and kayaking was going to work.Ĭonsidering militaristic kayaks are real, how did the studio balance making the experience realistic versus fun?īrundish: Something that really helped us with this early on was listening to a diverse range of voices and opinions across the team. Obviously, there was a lot of work ahead of us at this point to flesh out and balance the gameplay loop and combat. Something about this simple setup worked far better than we had anticipated the low angle that the player viewed the world from made them feel naturally sneaky, the fact that the guard and player don’t inhabit the same space made the river feel like an inventive hidden route, the wait directly beneath the guard felt tense and suspenseful …even the movements you make with your arms while paddling describe an exaggerated sneaking gesture. Our earliest test map just had a single guard on a low bridge crossing a river – the player had no weapons at this point, and their only option was to wait below the bridge for the guard to look away before paddling on. One of the early suggestions was putting the player in a boat, and after a few prototypes, we knew that we were onto something.Īt what point during development did nDreams feel like they had a compelling gameplay loop?īrundish: We were convinced by the idea of our kayak-movement system very early on during prototyping, but what we weren’t sure about was how well this would work with the player in the boat. We wanted to find a method of navigation that would be smooth and comfortable, allowing exploration without ever breaking that sense of immersion and tactile control. The main strength of VR is the sense that you are really present in the game world, but this is always slightly compromised whenever you have to teleport to move around. Game Director Lewis Brundish: Our main goal at the start of the project was to come up with a movement system for VR that would be totally immersive and comfortable to play. Can you talk about how the inventive game originated? There's certainly never been a stealth kayak shooter, let alone one in VR. The duo also talk about how they implemented a slick and minimal UI designed for VR and touch upon how they optimized the game to work on Oculus’ standalone Quest VR headset. They elaborate on how they designed gameplay that would be highly tactile and physical and leverage VR’s strengths. The pair reveal the painstaking steps it took to iterate on their kayaking mechanics so that it would feel realistic yet accessible to those who have never kayaked before. To gain insight into how the UK-based studio is designing one of the most anticipated VR titles on the horizon, we reached out to nDreams Game Director Lewis Brundish and Technical Director Grant Bolton. Shacknews awarded Phantom: Covert Ops its best VR game of E3 award, and we liked it so much that we honored it with a most engaging game of E3 nomination. Their experiments paid dividends with numerous publications praising the title. Developer nDreams started prototyping the concept as a way for players to naturally explore in VR while avoiding simulation sickness. Not only is it a VR stealth shooter set during the Cold War, but players are seated inside a virtual kayak the entire time. By Jimmy Thang Phantom: Covert Ops is one of the most interesting games in development.
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