Hey everyone!
So we saw some doubts and questions floating around the interwebs regarding SUPERHOT VR. The discussion got a bit heated pretty quickly, so rather than answering every question in a shouting match with the collective hive mind of the Internet, we thought - why not just dedicate this weeks dev log to VR? We're putting off a piece about updates and DLCs, and we're opening up about where we are, how we got here and where the hell are we going with this whole VR thing.
TL;DR; Nope, nobody suddenly turned evil. :)
Read up on the three years of SUPERHOT VR history here!
http://superhotgame.com/2016/06/15/3-years-of-vr-history-year-2-will-surprise-you/
If you're still up for more details, one of our devs answered a bunch of popular questions on a reddit thread. Jump on in right here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/superhot/comments/4o82a5/dev_log_2_they_taped_a_hydra_to_dk1_you_wont/
Hope it helps clear up some of the confusion and emotions floating around after our VR reveal. Let us know here and on reddit! :)
Cheers and have a SUPERHOT weekend!
Szymon from SUPERHOT Team
EDIT (June 26 - Tom): So our analytics tell us that there are more people leaving comments here and on reddit than ever even clicked on the link with our take on the situation. As much as we'd rather have everyone read up on the entirety of our story, we thought it'd be neat to also just summarize a few key points here. It'll hopefully provide a bite-sized overview of our perspective on that whole ongoing VR-gate debacle.
To SUPERHOT VR facts in bullet point form then!
- SUPERHOT VR will eventually be available for all VR headsets (at least the ones with hand-tracking controllers).
- SUPERHOT VR has little to do with the regular SUPERHOT that's on Steam right now. We were on the forefront of VR for years and one thing we found is that designing good games for VR is pretty damn hard. It's a whole different story than designing games for PC. As such, we made the decision to design SUPERHOT VR entirely from scratch. It'll be a new standalone, high-quality title, not a mode added as an afterthought to the regular game.
- VR's just a small part of what we've got in store for the coming months and we're still hard at work and we're making heaps of content for the regular SUPERHOT (e.g. lookie here: http://steamcommunity.com/games/322500/announcements/detail/951764989029256139)
- We've been working with the guys at Oculus for years already. SUPERHOT's Kickstarter campaign from way back 3 years ago has been supported and boosted through the roof by our involvment Oculus, the poster child of VR revolution back then. We've worked with them, doing R&D in VR and figuring out the best approach to a VR version of SUPERHOT ever since. When we decided we needed to design SUPERHOT VR as a standalone game, we reached out to them and figured out a way to use their resources and knowhow to bring SUPERHOT VR to life, eventually reaching every platform.
- We have a good understanding of the risks associated with exclusives in VR and the arguments people are flinging in our current favorite flamewar of choice. Permantent exclusives would run a risk of fracturing our budding VR market and making it less attractive to mainstream players. Important to note though, SUPERHOT and every single one of the other third-party titles supported by Oculus are timed exclusives. We're looking at a bunch of new, high-budget, well executed titles that will end up enriching all VR platforms across the board, even if some players need to exercise a bit of patience and wait for those games for a wee bit longer. The economies of being an indie studio mean that those titles would never even happen at this level of scale and execution if not for the support provided by Oculus.
- As much as I personally sympathize and apploud all the folks who pressure platform providers, voicing their concern over the risk of fracture in the VR market, our first responsibility as a gamedev studio is to deliver great games. If some of our fans and players need to wait a short while longer for SUPERHOT VR to hit their platform of choice, in my book it still trumps not being able to develop SUPERHOT VR at all. We never compromise on game design quality. We now have the resources that SUPERHOT VR deserves to be the best damn game we can build. It will be available for all of our fans and backers on all platforms eventually. That's a win in my book.
I'm not expecting this short update to stop the ongoing barrage of VR-gate related comments and reviews. We'll keep on trying to at least have our own perspective voiced. Hopefully, everyone will have a chance of building their own unbiased opinion on our decisions without being drowned out. Hope this helps clear things up a bit. :)