nDreams released a video earlier this week to do with the design of The Assembly, its latest title which explores medical morality in a mystery setting where there are two narratives running alongside each other, and some of the top players in the team who have designed the videogame feature in it explaining the various challenges and issues they have had to face.
Jackie Tetley, Senior Designer of The Assembly, explains in the video that the team wanted to make the most immersive experience they could, but some mechanics in normal videogames didn’t work as well in VR: “We’ve tried to enable the player to experience the world more naturally. There’s lots of signs that people have left round – notes, emails, physical objects that you can examine and learn about the environment you’re in.
“The game also has a soundscape that leads you through the environment so when you’re walking around you might hear someone talking behind the door or a phone ringing in another room and want to go and find out more.”
Martin Field, Art Manager of The Assembly, explains the complexities that challenged creating a real world that people could truly explore: “Creating worlds in VR has become more like real world environment creation. You have to consider things like real world scale, how your levels unfold in front of the player, you have to consider your set dressing of scenes as well. You tend to find that a player walks into an environment and they find something that feels out of place, it’ll stand out to them right away.”
George Kelion, Communications Manager at nDreams, touches on the topic of controller mechanics and how the team went about allowing the player to move how they wish within the videogame: “When you ask people what they want from virtual reality game they expect to explore an environment as easily and freely as they do in real life. So along with the familiar dual-analogue controls we have also developed a control scheme that makes exploring the virtual environment as accessible for absolutely everyone. “
The video is rounded up by Kelion expressing that The Assembly is an ideal first experience of VR.
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