This is what VR Needs

Nov 1, 2017 | CJ Goodwin

Have you ever awoken from a dream to find yourself marveling at the realness of it? That’s what VR does to you every time you put on the HMD. It sweeps the senses into a current of sight and sound, carrying consciousness into another dimension. The foundation of this new reality, however, is under threat of crumbling from a lack of a single critical component. VR needs quality content. Only when quality content has deep roots will the VR ecosystem flourish.

Rival Dust was created because we know that VR is a powerful storytelling tool, and the feeling of being immersed in a VR game or movie is visceral, immediate, and unrivaled by other media. In spite of this groundbreaking technology, user acquisition rates are anemic and far below projected numbers. Telling, though, is that VR has yet to permeate into the mass consciousness. The following Nielsen graph puts the 6 DOF VR at 26% awareness and below, with the Vive at a meager 10%.

Virtual Reality Device Awareness

Which of the following Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality devices, if any, have you ever heard of?

General Population (Aged 13+)
Gamers (Aged 13+)

  • Samsung Gear VR
  • Sony PlayStation VR
  • Oculus Rift
  • Google Cardboard
  • HTC Vive (powered by SteamVR)
  • Microsoft HoloLens
  • Razer OSVR

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
34% 26% 25% 19% 10% 10% 5%

Ostensibly, we have a marketing issue. No one knows about the medium, and if no one knows about the medium then there won’t be any device sales. Granted, the marketing effort put toward VR has been lackluster as HTC and Oculus have not done enough and are partly to blame for the dearth of market saturation. But ultimately the lack of marketing is an indicator of something far more crucial: the lack of quality content.

Adoption of video game hardware has historically been driven by the caliber of content offered on the platform. Take for instance the Turbografx 16. It came out 4 years after the NES, allowing the NES to pave the way for gaming culture. Initially, the TG-16 was extremely well received in Japan, out-selling most other consoles. But when they entered the North American and European market, they found that those developers were locked into exclusivity agreements with Nintendo. As a result, the TG-16 could not gather the quality and exclusive content required for hardware adoption in these markets.

This is evident in the release title available with the TG-16, Keith Courage in Alpha Zone. According to the 1989 October issue of Video Games and Computer Entertainment Magazine, writer Rusel DeMaria concluded that while Keith Courage was graphically superior, it lacked the depth of Super Mario Bros., also stating that Keith Courage’s levels are all roughly the same. So even then, graphical upgrades were lower priority to gamers than quality gameplay.

Ouya had similar problems to the TG-16. Their efforts to attract exclusive high-quality content were fraught with difficulties. They had a fund of 1 Million dollars to give to indie devs in order to retain exclusivity rights. Public backlash due to the fund's name of "free the games" put the Ouya in a difficult position and they reneged on the exclusivity rights (to their detriment). That, and there were claims of people gaming the Kickstarter system in order to get a piece of the fund, so they pulled out some of the funds outright. Many developers excused themselves from Ouya’s table, and as a result, Ouya’s only quality titles were ports. So if people could already get these video games elsewhere, why get an Ouya?

The strongest evidence for quality content, however, comes from the Wii U’s performance. An article appearing in Kotaku shows that in May of 2014, Nintendo posted an operating loss of $456 million. That same month Mario Kart 8 was released. The reviews were highly favorable, with 98% of critics giving a favorable review. Wii U proceeded to triple sales in their 3rd financial quarter with MK 8 having an attach rate of over 60%. Nintendo President and CEO, Satoru Iwata, attributed increased profits to the success of Smash Bros. for 3DS and MK 8. This clearly bestows upon MK 8 the mantle of killer app. Just a little pinch of that magic is exactly what Wii U needed in order for more people to adopt the hardware.

So what is the magic that pushes a video game from middling to killer app? It’s actually really easy: back-breaking work and borderline obsessive dedication. In order to get the public to fully embrace VR, we need to create the absolute best VR games, ones that are worthy of sharing among the video game community at large. The road ahead for VR is long since it is unlike any media that has come before it. And even though VR adds an exponential depth and complexity to our choices in direction and storytelling, we are still treating it with the same shallow approach we have used since its inception.

So what are the right choices for creating in VR? What is the path to creating the killer app that everyone wants so that we reach that peak of 1 billion VR users? We at Rival Dust believe we have part of the answer. We want to share this and future insights with you because a win for anyone in VR is a win for all of us.

These are 8 ways to create quality VR content:

  1. Create within the medium. It’s easier to force the interaction around the medium rather than force the medium into the interaction. An example of medium-forcing would be adding a directional pad to the screen of a mobile app. Find what makes the most sense in VR and stick with those in-game interactions.
  2. Simplify Interaction. If we give our player a base interaction, they have to be able to do that action 99% of the time; otherwise, the interaction should not exist. Admittedly, this is the most difficult thing to craft in a VR game. While the VR medium ostensibly expands the available interactive choices, we still have to take accessibility into account.
  3. Keep it clear. All animations, movements, and interactions should be clear in motive and exaggerated in purpose. The hardware as it stands makes it difficult to perceive writing, objects at a distance, and other fine textures. Exaggerating certain aspects of the digital world helps with clarity.
  4. Be original. Our players expect the unexpected from us; since we are not beholden to corporate overlords, we can and should deliver the experiences they cannot get from AAA studios.
  5. Put in the time. Simply stated, the dedication we have to our games directly correlates to the quality of our work.
  6. Adhere to a standardized vocabulary. Standardization leads to increased efficiency in workflow. We must create, organize, and share, as a community, any sort of interactive taxonomy.
  7. Engage the auditory sense. Digital space requires audio population to effectively immerse the player. We want to ensure that the music and sound not only drives the player through a story that resonates with them but also creates an emotional connection that fuels fun, energy, and style.
  8. Create with honesty. Humans are keenly aware of authenticity. The best indie games are the ones that have an air of vulnerability and feel like a personal statement by the developers that created them.