I had a chance to catch up with E McNeill at Oculus Connect about his design process for the Real-Time Strategy game called Tactera, which he developed for the Oculus Mobile Game Jam. He talks about some of the design constraints that he had by only having a single touch input, but he also wanted to simplify and streamline the gameplay mechanics in order to be better suited for virtual reality.
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One of the strategies that E is taking is to focus on creating a strong AI component so that the game holds up for playing it as single player. He’s also adding in multiplayer capabilities that will add another dimension of strategy, but he wants to be sure that the core game play mechanics can hold up while playing it as a single player.
E talks about some of the differences that he’s found in how he expects the game will be played on the Gear VR vs. the Oculus Rift. The biggest difference is that it’ll be a little bit easier to have more interesting perspectives given the positional tracking. E also says that it’s just really cool to put your head right into the action, and that it’s even cooler when you can her the 3D positional audio effects kick in.
E has also developed the Darknet Game for the Gear VR, and was told by Oculus that it’s one of the highest average play times of any of the other games that have been released so far. He says that it doesn’t feel like it’s fully launched just yet given that there hasn’t been an official Gear VR launch just yet. He says that between launching both Tactera and Darknet on both Gear VR and the Oculus Rift that he’s going to be keeping plenty busy from now until the official launch of them both by this Fall and next Spring.
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Rough Transcript
[00:00:05.452] Kent Bye: The Voices of VR Podcast.
[00:00:12.014] E McNeill: I'm E. McNeil. I'm a game designer from San Diego. I've been doing VR stuff since about the Oculus Kickstarter in 2013. I made DarkNet last year, and that's out on the Gear VR and coming to the Oculus Rift. And I've recently been working on a new game called Tech Terra, which is a tabletop real-time strategy game, and that is also planned for Gear VR and Oculus Rift.
[00:00:31.408] Kent Bye: Great, so tell me a bit about Tac-Terra. What's the idea behind this game?
[00:00:34.829] E McNeill: So the idea is you're in this sort of futuristic command center and it's projecting like a hologram of a battlefield and you're sort of the commander who can, you know, point at these miniaturized tanks and fighter planes and things like that and direct them around the battlefield. So it's sort of like how Darknet was taking the trope of cyberpunk hacking where you're inside the computer network. Taktar is also taking this sort of sci-fi Hollywood trope of, you know, the command center and bringing that to life in VR. And it's using that as a platform for a simplified real-time strategy game, trying to make it tactical, fast-paced at the same time. I've done a little bit of work like that in the past, and I'm happy with how this is going so far. But so far, all that's been released is a demo for the mobile VR jam, which is how this project began.
[00:01:22.248] Kent Bye: So yeah, maybe tell me a bit about what does it mean to have a simplified strategy, especially in the context of VR, where you may have to do it differently in some way from the 2D approach?
[00:01:33.390] E McNeill: Yeah, I grew up on real-time strategy games like Command and Conquer and Red Alert. Those are kind of like some of my first serious video games. And I've followed them, you know, as more have come out. And I played, you know, StarCrafts and, you know, later C&Cs and Supreme Commander and other games like that. And I find that I always love the games in sort of a general sense, but I really dislike the specific control schemes and things like that. So I've never enjoyed micromanaging units. I've never enjoyed caring about actions per minute or, you know, unit selection and things like that. And so Taktara, partially due to my own preference and partially due to the requirements of the platform, simplifies things by automating certain parts of the game. So, for example, you have bases, which are sort of like, you know, the buildings in an RTS, a classic RTS. They're automatically producing units, and that sort of abstracts away the resource collection angle of the game. When they're ready, you choose when they're going to actually deploy those units, and you give them a waypoint, which is where they're going to go to. The units then are out of your control. They follow the path that you've set for them, and then they automatically fight with the enemy and, you know, carry on to the death, essentially. So you have enough control to sort of set up fronts of battle and choose where you're sending your units or you can call in artillery or bomber strikes and things like that. But you don't ever have to worry about picking out an individual unit from a crowd or dealing with control groups or any of these other common elements of control in classic 2D RTSs. It's meant to be a lot more easy to use even if you're doing something like a Gear VR where there's only one button for you to use.
[00:03:13.712] Kent Bye: Yeah, so it seems like as you are, you know, choosing different offensive things to manufacture, it's going to take a certain amount of time to create that, and you're kind of having to, at any given point, know which one to go back to to kind of set it off to its waypoint. So I guess, as a player, you know, maybe describe what type of decisions and trade-offs they would have to actually be making when they're playing this.
[00:03:37.273] E McNeill: So one of them is sort of what you're describing already, which is you can be very aggressive and send out units as soon as they're being built and just sort of have a constant stream of them. But one effect that sort of emerges naturally from the gameplay is when units attack each other, a larger group of units tends to win out. So you concentrate force to have an advantage in these direct conflicts. However, one trade-off of that is if you're concentrating units together, they're vulnerable to direct attacks like artillery and missiles and orbital laser strikes and things like that, which are another type of action that you can take in the game, another type of building that are sort of constantly recharging those attacks. And so you might want to spread out your units instead. I'm playing with a lot of different, first of all, unit types. So you might have sort of the slow and steady mammoth tanks, kind of stolen from Command and Conquer, or sort of lighter and faster units, air units. Some units can't shoot at them, but they can shoot down. Or different types of units, like a mobile artillery that can fire at long range, et cetera. So you're trying to produce the sort of rock, paper, scissors elements, where the particular units you choose to deploy matter a lot. And then finally, I'm working on a couple of new mechanics that were not available in the original demo. One thing that I'm really interested in is adding more complexity to the economic choices in the game. So I'd like to provide some sort of mechanism where you can forego certain offensive capabilities to invest in your bases. So maybe a building stops producing units for a little while, but after it completes this process, it is building faster than ever. And so you can sort of make a trade-off, as is kind of a classic investment decision in these games, of current power for later power.
[00:05:14.543] Kent Bye: And so in a real-time strategy game like this, you're playing presumably against another player or against the AI. And so as you've been developing it, I'm sure that you're probably the world's best Tectera player. But I'm just curious what that process is like as you're trying to develop the game, like how you're actually able to get in there and actually play it to see how effective or fun it is.
[00:05:37.429] E McNeill: I do have an AI, that was one of the first things that was built in the game. Once that was available, then I considered the game to be actually playable. And I think that's given me enough of a feeling of actually fighting against somebody else to allow me to get a sense of the game mechanics and kind of a consistent but changing, a variable enemy to balance everything against. I do think it's important though to be able to fight against another player because in a game like this where it's a lot of tactics and strategy, having an actual other person on the other side really gives you a lot. And so this is the first game that I've ever been trying to do real-time multiplayer. And that's new territory for me. I understand it's very difficult. But I've started on that process and I'm committed to actually having at least some sort of simple head-to-head multiplayer when the game comes out. And so one nice thing about doing that in VR is because both players are going to have head-mounted displays and we can get the data from those, You can create an image of the other player on the other side of the board fighting against you, puppeteered in real time by their real-world actions, which feels very cool. Based on other demos I've tried, it feels like you actually are facing off against another person in that room with you. So I'm excited to see how that feels for Tektera.
[00:06:52.423] Kent Bye: Great. And so have you been able to play this game with other people then to see what type of insights you get that are different from the AI?
[00:07:01.312] E McNeill: I have not yet. Obviously that's going to be a big part of the game. I definitely want to make the single player very strong. So I don't want to focus on multiplayer and build the game around that. I'd rather build a really solid single player since realistically speaking that's how most people are going to play. And I'm looking at building sort of a campaign mode with an overworld map. that has some interesting strategy decisions there as well. And then I'm confident that if I can do that well, then multiplayer is going to be pretty solid. You know, even if it's just sort of a symmetrical player versus player using the same types of units, kind of, you know, a reflection of the single player, I think that's going to work out really well. And, you know, there's obviously going to have to be some changes in balancing and unit tuning and things like that, but I don't think it's going to be too difficult to make that compelling.
[00:07:50.074] Kent Bye: I see, and is this something that's completely controlled by the swipe pad on the side of the Gear VR, or does it require a controller?
[00:07:58.197] E McNeill: Right now, the game is fully playable with just a touchpad and a back button on the Gear VR. The demo just only needs one button, the touchpad. For the full version of the game, I'm planning on having controller support, of course. And maybe, depending on what sort of extra features are added between now and launch, it might be that playing with a controller is preferable. Because if you have four buttons instead of one, then maybe there's one button for attacking, one button for switching production types, one button for investing, things like that. But I do want to make sure that when the game actually comes out, it's possible to play just with the touchpad and back button. I know people have different preferences on that. Personally, I don't like having to get out of controller when I play a Gear VR game. I like the convenience of just having the headset. So it's going to support both, and I don't know to what extent they're going to be different at this point.
[00:08:43.078] Kent Bye: And one of the things that I noticed about your game in particular is that it's got this kind of compelling tabletop feel where you kind of think of the near field VR, things that are kind of within the distance of an arm's length, that you've got a lot of really kind of interesting small miniaturized things happening. And so building something for like the full version on a CV1 with positional tracking, does that give you additional strategic advantages to be able to actually kind of lean around and see this full field?
[00:09:09.022] E McNeill: I don't know about strategic advantages, but it does change the game. I'm targeting gear VR first, but I cannot deny that positional tracking adds a lot. Even at near field, the parallax effects of moving your head around are really powerful and really cool. I love having players stick their head right in the middle of the action and see everything, the bullets whizzing by them, artillery firing next to their head and things like that. And with spatialized audio, that's going to be even cooler. In terms of actual practical changes to the game that come with positional tracking, I don't think it's going to add strategic advantages, but I do think it's possible that just because of more flexibility in the player's viewpoint, it might be possible to create larger maps or things like that, or different changes in the topography of the level. Because if the player's head is always in one spot, you have to be very careful not to occlude key game elements with others. So it kind of, I found so far that it kind of limits what I can do in terms of how much information I can present to the player at once.
[00:10:06.889] Kent Bye: Yeah, and did you have any sort of interesting insights that you discovered by the process of making this? Some things that may have been surprising or things that you learned?
[00:10:15.267] E McNeill: Well, I mean, what I was just talking about, like the difficulties of like finding a comfortable position for the player's head, lacking positional tracking, that was something I struggled with a lot and something that I've talked about a bit. Beyond that, I've just become a big advocate for virtual tabletop games or near field games as you're describing them. I think that, first of all, they offer a solution to a nausea problem, because they don't require any sort of player locomotion or artificial rotation. Secondly, they're really convenient for something, you know, where seated VR or gear VR, where, you know, the action is all taking place in front of you, but it still feels really cool. And then, thirdly, they're really flexible in terms of the different platforms, because, you know, for Gear VR, I can make it work. For an Oculus Rift or, you know, something like that, it feels great where, you know, it's all in front of you, you can lean in, you know, positional tracking feels great. And for something like the Vive, where you have room-scale VR, being able to get up and walk around the table is nice. And you could also imagine expanding the table and turning it into the floor of the room, so you're Stomping around the battlefield like Godzilla.
[00:11:13.199] Kent Bye: It just I feel is a really flexible really comfortable really convenient to develop for format for VR games And in thinking about you know in the future as we move towards having six degree of freedom hand controllers Have you thought about whether or not in this game specifically you were gonna put any sort of like hand controls? Into the game that would allow people to have some sort of an additional like gameplay mechanic
[00:11:37.046] E McNeill: Yeah, definitely. I haven't started implementing those yet, so I don't know exactly what form they're going to take. But one criticism that I've gotten for the Gear VR version, which I want to be sensitive to and I'm working on for all versions. But right now the game is using gaze tracking for selecting bases and places to attack. And if you're trying to send out orders to lots of different units at once, that can create this feeling of constantly looking back and forth and maybe even straining your neck after a while. And so I want to make sure that It's comfortable and I think I can find solutions for that for Gear VR, but one way to totally sidestep that problem is to allow the player to get their hands in the action, use those to control things. So I'm really looking forward to starting to play around with that and figure out different ways of getting that done.
[00:12:22.513] Kent Bye: And since you did launch DarkNet right when the Gear VR came out, I'm just curious, like, how that's been going for you. And, you know, I'm imagining that you're kind of waiting for the consumer launch to see how that's really going to be. But I'm just curious, like, some of the feedback that you have in terms of having a game out in the store and what that's been like so far.
[00:12:39.126] E McNeill: Yeah, I don't know how to characterize the launch state of DarkNet right now, because it is out on the Gear VR, you can buy it, it's finished in that respect, but because the Gear VR Consumer Launch is still ahead of us, it feels like I've only launched for like half a platform so far, and I know the Gear VR Consumer Launch, the Oculus Rift, and other platforms are coming out later. So, I don't feel like the game is truly out yet. That said, I'm pretty happy with how it's been so far. The game released for free originally, and it got a pretty big audience from that. Since it went on sale, it's been doing acceptably well. The total Gear VR audience is pretty small, but I'm happy with how it's been received. And I think best of all, I spoke with Oculus about a month ago, And they told me that in terms of average time spent in each game, Darknet is one of the top. I think maybe tied for number one in terms of amount of playtime actually spent in the game. And so that's kind of what I was really going for with Darknet. I wanted something that you could really sink your teeth into that wasn't just a short demo experience that you'd be done with in five minutes and never return to. I wanted something people would come back to and play for hours. And it seems like there definitely are those players. The game has found an audience that really gets into it. That's really satisfying for me as the guy who designed it, who spent a year trying to make that happen.
[00:13:53.293] Kent Bye: Great. So what's next for you in terms of moving forward with all these consumer launches and what are you going to be focusing on here moving forward?
[00:14:01.378] E McNeill: Well, I feel like I kind of have to have, I need to have blinders on for the upcoming launches. You know, I know there's going to be stuff coming up after that, but there's so much to do right now in terms of getting Tech Terra finished, getting it out on the Gear VR not too long after the consumer launch, handling Darknet and the PC updates for that, which are also going to be coming out. That's going to keep my plate full for a good long while, and I don't even want to think about what comes after that.
[00:14:28.105] Kent Bye: Great. And finally, I know that you are someone who has been focusing a lot on sort of the gameplay mechanics and virtual reality and looking at how to create really engaging experiences. And I'm just curious for you, what do you think is kind of like the ultimate potential of VR when it comes to these types of experiences?
[00:14:44.237] E McNeill: I don't know if I can make that grand a prediction, but I think the answer would have to be something that is truly unique to VR, that you cannot imagine being adapted to other platforms. And in that respect, I feel like that is something that's still in the future. I'm very happy with Darknet and TechTerra. I don't know if those have quite reached that threshold that I'm describing right now. I don't know if they've yet met my own standard for the ultimate potential of VR. So I feel like these are good games. I've seen a lot of promising things for this initial generation of VR, but we've not figured it out yet. There's still a lot of territory to explore.
[00:15:19.830] Kent Bye: OK, great. Well, thank you. Yeah, thanks. And thank you for listening. If you'd like to support the Voices of VR podcast, then please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com slash voicesofvr.
