FROM THE VIRTUAL WORLD TO THE ADVENTURE AND BACK
In March 2021, a group of partners and I started developing a gaming product that was to become the basis of the future Virtual World, which I hoped to sell to Zuckerberg someday. I have chosen an action genre with horror elements for the Oculus Quest 2 mobile platform.
At that time, this helmet was breaking all sales records, the audience of VR products consumers, as well as the number of products themselves, began to grow by leaps and bounds with its appearance, Half-Life: Alyx was released, Facebook was tested in closed access Horizon Worlds, not so long ago “The First Player will get ready” was held in cinemas. The analysis of the VR market and related technological industries pointed to the correctness of the decision. The mood was upbeat and joyful.
I decided not to start right away with an open virtual world. Instead, I wrote a story that formed the basis of a short screen series consisting of 12 issues. At the same time, it was a scenario of a game in which the Player learned about the history of an otherworldly city inhabited by zombies, demons, monsters and ... people abducted from the World of the Living are forced to survive in a new, very aggressive environment. The events of 12 episodes or 12 game DLC led to the fact that the mysterious city turned into a multiplayer VR world open to everyone.
If you consider what a sad shit the visual solutions of the current popular VR sites are, such as the same Horizon or AltSpace VR, I did not doubt and do not doubt the success of the project. Especially having such an beautifull example as the environment from Half-Life: Alyx - City 17 Alleyway for SteamVR Home.
By the end of 2021, 8 months after the start, a VR prototype was ready, a bunch of narrative shit and a full-fledged game engine in which most of the information is devoted to describing the problems that had to be faced and ways to further solve them. Nevertheless, the prototype turned out to be visually rich, an original character controller was created, and most importantly, I learned how to make a picture for the mobile version of VR. Although the solution of this non-trivial task took several months, but definitely nothing like this was even announced on the gaming market at that time. I checked this very ambitious statement on my friends related to the gaming industry and in particular VR products, all confirmed that I was right.
It was impossible to consider that prototype as a demo version of the future product, since there were serious problems with NPC animations, sound and game mechanics, which was understandable, since only 2 people worked on the prototype. No one dealt with marketing issues at all, so in fact everything that was done by December 2021... turned out to be just done by the end of 2021, which no more than 10 people knew about and that's it.
Until the beginning of May 2022, I had time to think and make a serious reassessment of plans. As a result, “VR action with horror elements” turned into an adventure game with maximum emphasis on demonstrating events in cinematic mode, but on a game engine (a kind of interactive Machinima), which makes it possible to introduce elements of interactive interaction with the player-viewer even during the demonstration of cut scenes. Not forgotten are the purely interactive segments of the game in which the Player gets full control of the character (sometimes from the first person, sometimes from the third) and these can be both quests or stealth, and action scenes with blood and guts scattered around (by the way, one of the main elements of survival in Morganica).
At the moment, 12 episodes have shrunk to one. The story has undergone very significant changes, has become more integral, thoughtful, more exciting and dynamic. 13 fragments were selected from the game script, which were shortened for implementation in the demo version, which I plan to finish by October 31 this year. I hope that by this time we will have accounts on Steam and/or Itch.io . In the near future we will discuss the possibility of entering Kickstarter. This time I decided to do the marketing of our product myself, and although it's just a living hell, but I think in the next two months our audience will have to expand significantly.
I repeat: working on an adventure game will allow you to tell the story of the future of an open VR City. And no matter how sinister it is, I think there will be a large number of people who want to visit this strange place. Especially if they already know his story.
WHO IS OUR AUDIENCE
I recently wrote in a blog “Why I don't want to play games.” In fact, the gameplay of “Morganica” and the game mechanics used in it take into account all the claims that were expressed by me in this article.
So, taking into account what is noted in this article, our audience is described as follows - adults, lazy, tired people, fed up with modern media products, who have retained a sufficient level of aggression and cynicism inside themselves, deprived of free time and perfectly perceiving black humor.
By the way, a fairly accurate description of me.
PROBLEMS AND TASKS
There are two problems - the quality of the animation and the original mechanic's that allow you to influence the events demonstrated in the “cut scenes”, although it turns out that there are no such, as it were, since the spectator player should be able to influence what he sees during the entire game time.
Animation
When Machinima appeared, angular “game” animation was taken for granted, it fit into the framework of the artistic style. Now, especially after “The last of Us ...”, the requirements for the quality of game animation have greatly increased. Especially if the chosen visual style of the game product claims to have a sufficiently high degree of realism of the environment. This is my biggest headache at the moment. I don't think it will be possible to create something outstanding in the demo version, but compared to the first prototype, thanks to the use of video tracking technology and more serious work on animation rigs and manual animation, the difference must be significant.
Mechanics
Now I'm writing more new ideas in the game dock's. The time and effort allocated to work on the demo version will not allow us to implement all our ideas, but at the moment it is not required. The main thing is to gain experience and a substantial baggage of ideas. Since the main goal of the demo version is the appearance of an interested audience and the involvement of the Publisher, the main emphasis is on entertainment and demonstration of the main gameplay features of the Product. Of course, a separate game designer is needed here. And not even one.
WHAT KIND OF HELP IS NEEDED
Of course, first of all it is an interest in our project. Questions, suggestions, criticism and ideas, all the things without which I consider the birth of an interesting project impossible.
Based on the experience of working on our Project, I assume that the beginning of next year will be marked by the beginning of work on a full-fledged product. This is exactly how it must be happen with a serious approach - with a sufficient team, based on a well-developed game design document, with sufficient funding. Your participation in the fate of the project today may lead to participation in direct work on it in the future.
Considering how seriously my partners and I approach the work on the Project today, everything should work out for us.
CONTACTS
Website - https://www.morganica.world
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6lqmkbBo7B-KspUT-C900w
Development blog - https://morganicaworld.blogspot.com
E-mail: morganicaworld@gmail.com
#gamedev #games #adventure #vrgame #machinima #morganica #mdsw
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