Gary Napper - VR Rulebook talk at Yorkshire Games Festival

Gary Napper has become quite an all rounder in the gaming industry. From pitching ideas, to designing level sets, to tweaking actual gameplay. Working at many gaming establishments such as; EA, SONY and now Supermassive Games, he has clocked up loads of experience in the gaming industry, it's no surprise he is gaming director now at Supermassive. Now he focuses in the VR realm, producing games for PSVR such as Until Dawn.

I got the chance to watch a talk by him on VR at Yorkshire Games Festival, which was such a brilliant talk! He was so inspirational and educational, I learnt so many things and he made me think of things that I hadn't even thought of. What was most amazing was the fact of seeing someone as passionate about VR as me.

First Gary Napper detailed the 'industry's rules to VR' which were:

-Camera motion avoidance 

-Accelerate decelerate (this can be broken by intentionally making the user feel a sense of motion sickness, like being on a space ship, replicating real life events that would give you motion sickness)

-the aspect of having a body (the weirdness you get when you look down and see no body there, however this can be broken in flying games.

-Frame of reference (directing the subject is hard in a 360 world, however in games such as Airdrift where the game focusses heavily on the aspect of freedom, no direction is actually needed.)

-Audio from somewhere (binaural)

However these conventional rules Gary Napper highlighted you can break in many ways yet still produce an effective example of VR. These rules can be broken as a matter of stylistic choice and still not make the user specifically Ill.

Suggested book: THE ART OF GAME DESIGN JESSE SCHELL

He highlighted how the rules of conventional games don't apply to VR.

Motion sickness is the sick elephant in the room difference between feeling and motion, the feeling disappears when the motion disappears, like real life being on a ride for example.

He revealed how in fact his team is categorized into sickness levels so they can test the games to their full potential. Getting it right is important because for many peoples first times in VR, if they experience sickness they will not want to go back to it, we need to hook them on that first and maybe only chance.

He also highlighted the importance of the focus on the movement, moreover than aesthetics and assets. Getting that movement right is vital.

Bee yang 'what makes you sick in real life, will make you sick in VR' I like this quote it really establishes how immersive VR is, and that it's not the system itself making you I'll it's just the fact it's putting you in a place that if you were in for real would make you Ill. (Even though eye tracking can sometimes produce this motion sickness)

Because of the motion element, first person shooters aren't available in VR (no 360 noscopes as Gary put it) 

Also with VR there is the element of physical drain, unlike normal console games, VR is very intense and utilises lots of pacing. 

Immersion is aided by the element of virtual fidelity. It can be used to enhance the feeling of a location.

Napper also highlighted how there is no shot composition framing within VR, and how because of this, the attention of the user needs to be diverted so they don't miss any powerful visuals. This can be exploited by use of binaural sound and the darkening of visuals In certain positions.

Key quotes: establish your reality, define the rules best for your game.