Hey there superheroes, today we wanted to share a little bit of background on the ideas and development of Meteoric VR, to give you an idea of how our game went from idea, to its current Early Access form. Welcome to our first dev log! We hope you enjoy it.
Mechanic
The whole idea behind Meteoric VR’s shooting mechanics came from the hand tracking features on Oculus Quest. The ability to control and play with just your hands was awesome, especially for my friends without VR experience who didn’t have the same familiarity with VR controller layouts.r. They could just use their hands, which was far more intuitive! However, there was the issue of not having a trigger or button to shoot with, and the fact that the ideal hand tracking position is straight out in front of the headset.. Every disadvantage can be transformed to advantage though, and I started experimenting with triggering shots via hand movements with open palms, similar to a superhero such as Iron Man! After several progressively reliable iterations of the shooting mechanics, we eventually found the right balance of shooting which is easy to learn for players, but hard to master. We started with instant laser shots, but found that shooting actual projectiles was even more fun as a default weapon. Shooting mechanics were by far one of the biggest challenges we had to overcome when developing Meteoric VR However, the challenge was well worth overcoming, as it created an extremely satisfying gameplay experience that, as a bonus, works great as an exercise tool. The headset controllers are still supported, but every new feature we add is primarily geared towards hand tracking. Most recently, we enhanced the shooting mechanics with an aim-assist to help new players get to grips with the gameplay.
Environment
After polishing the core mechanic of the game, we needed a location that fit well with shooting lasers from the hand, as well as with the game design challenges of virtual reality. Gameplay had to be static to avoid motion sickness and, because the Quest can be used without a cable, we wanted to create a 180-360 degree gameplay experience. For these reasons, outer space became the obvious choice as it fit with the superhero theme, and fit well with our gameplay design. One thing that we needed to do was to find a way to ground the player so they could orient themselves. For that reason we added a planet under the player which created a centralized point for the action. All enemies are spawned from wormholes which then fly towards the planet which also fit well with the environment we created. The visual style of the game is a low-poly, outline-heavy textured environment that takes heavy inspiration from classic arcade styles . The reason for this decision was not just aesthetic, but also technical. With the hardware limitations of VR, we were concerned about the amount of meteors on screen causing problems, hence the decision to go with a low-poly design.
User Interface
User interface was another challenge, as it can be difficult to keep it consistent for both hand tracking and controllers. The goal was to create a menu that is easy on the eyes, which also meets Oculus’ design guidelines like not having action buttons too high as it is not user friendly for hand tracking. Ultimately, we decided to have the action buttons orbit around the planet, while we placed other UI elements, such as texts and images, in the UI windows which are rounded for readability. Another UI element we added is a floating HUD for gameplay which follows the player’s head. This HUD contains score, health, number of crystals, and remaining enemy count. Because of the 180 degree nature of gameplay, we added radar which indicates to the player if any enemies are coming from the side.
Gestures
The base gesture which comes from Oculus is pressing the UI buttons. We also added additional gestures for gameplay reasons. One of them is charging the laser with a fist gesture which allows you to shoot a powerful blast. Another gesture enables shields to protect you against UFO projectiles. The most powerful gesture is an energy ball which requires two hands to charge an energy ball that you can then shoot as a large energy beam (think Dragonball Z). All these abilities are also available in the game shop for gold crystals, which come from special meteors that the player can catch in game.
Levels
There are several types of levels that players can play in Meteoric VR. Campaign missions are designed levels with waves of enemies with a balanced difficulty. Each level has unique, adaptive music based on where you’re at in the level, how many enemies are left, and what types of enemies are currently on the screen. Each wormhole can spawn 1-4 enemies which spawn on the beat per 1 bar of music.4 full bars give us a complete wave of enemies with its own unique pattern. Currently, there are 8 unique wave patterns, and each pattern is spawned in a specific part of the level, known as sectors. Each mission has different patterns of enemies and sectors based on difficulty.The Score System is pretty simple as it is based on the type of enemy and distance where it is destroyed. This means that players will be rewarded for quick reactions and accurate shooting. We wanted to give players more options for getting a high score, which we accomplished with the addition of bonus targets that appear in the asteroid belt. Be warned, astronauts occasionally wander through there, and shooting them will give you a penalty to your score. Beyond the campaign missions, we also recently added an endless mode that creates randomly generated levels. There will also be additional challenge levels, so stay tuned!
Enemies
The most basic enemy you will encounter is a meteor made of dirt, which can be destroyed with one shot. Meteors are a classic threat from outer space, and made a very natural choice for something the player would need to protect the planet from. Beyond the basic dirt meteors, there are meteors that have special crystals on the surface that spawn catchable crystals when they are destroyed (more on that below!).. Another enemy is the UFO which fires projectiles that force players to dodge or use a shield. Then there is the stone meteor that needs two hits to be destroyed, and a bomb meteor that explodes when hit and can take out nearby meteors in the process. The explosion radius of the bomb meteor makes this a risky tactic, but one that’s well worth it if you can pull it off. We wanted to provide as many unique enemies to encounter as possible. We didn’t want to have simple space rocks be the only thing encountered, and our goal was to design meteors that would be both interesting and challenging. To further this goal, we also added a unique enemy to every level, so keep your eye out for them.
Crystals and Power Ups
As mentioned above,the dirt meteors with crystals on the surface spawn a special crystal that the player can catch when they are destroyed. What do these crystals do though?. When they are caught,they give the player power up weapons, add health, slow down time, or activate a force-field that briefly makes the planet invincible. There are 6 power up crystals, and the gold crystal which can be used to unlock skins and abilities in the shop. Our main goal for these items is to give the player some gameplay variety, as well as giving them options to complete the level in different ways.
Multiplayer
One of our major recent additions is the mobile multiplayer mode.In this mode, the VR player creates a room with code, and mobile players connect to the game using said code. Each mobile player is represented by a wormhole, and they fight against the player by spawning in meteors and UFOs.. These are controlled by the gyro functionality of the phone as well as using swipe gestures. Playing games is always more fun when friends are involved. However, it's often the case that only one person in a group has a headset, limiting the ability to play as a group. Our goal for this mode was to leverage the fact that almost everyone has a smartphone, which means that everyone can join in the fun!
Going Forward
Despite everything that we’ve done, development on Meteoric VR does not end here. We are working on weapon upgrades, challenge levels, more skins, new enemies and planets, and more. Additionally, we want to add new modes to the mobile multiplayer, and eventually test out multi-headset multiplayer modes. Overall, we are so proud of how far we’ve come, and we can’t wait to continue to improve the game and make it the best experience we possibly can. Finally, we want to thank everyone who has supported us so far. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you!
- The Meteoric VR team