Virtual Reality Locomotion

When designing player interactions within our game, we wanted to create a polished and satisfying feel when it came to navigating our environment: Club Cosmic. We aimed to prioritize player agency while maintaining a catered narrative that felt fitting for the types of interactions that players would be experiencing. Player agency in VR can take several forms: immersive interactions like using physics to throw objects, intuitive movement that supports a given playstyle, and gameplay that takes advantage of VR first person perspective. We designed movement to support fun interactions and exploration while directing the player to follow a story. There were three options that we considered: free movement (analog stick), normal teleporting (unrestricted), and scripted teleporting (set locations). In this post, I explain why we ended up picking the third option.

Boogie Beyond Design Pillars, “Theme,” “Groove,” “VR,” and “Casual”

The first factor considered was player direction and intended audience. With a large part of our audience being at SGX (Stout Games Expo), we were very aware that many players at SGX would be individuals not used to VR, especially the motion sickness that can come along with analog movement. This is also referred to as “having your VR legs.” We also wanted to make sure our audience wouldn’t have trouble navigating comfortably. An example we discovered during playtesting is that people might have trouble getting into a specific position where they are at an appropriate distance to object or area. With specified teleport locations, we can make sure that players go in the right direction, without getting too close to an object in space such as a counter or wall. In addition, this helps improve movement precision without the misinputs of traditional teleporting. With all these factors, we decided to implement teleportation to predetermined locations, like games such as Vacation Simulator or Rick and Morty VR.

We then proceeded to design our environment and narrative interactions around these teleport locations, which can thematically match our characters, objects, and environment. These decisions shaped how we designed our narrative interactions as well as scripted events such as music or “cutscenes." For example we could have a sequence of music changing, characters moving, or objects exploding. We can also be sure that the player is in an appropriate location with their movement locked rather than an undesirable alternative.

Overall, these decisions help reinforce our pillars of Theme, Casual and VR. We are able to maintain a casual experience with simple and intentional navigation, while also keeping the player’s focus on narrative points of interest that immerse them into the depths of Club Cosmic.

Early Map with Teleport Locations