We figured it was about time we had a Dev Talk with Diego Martin, Sumalab co-founder and Crisis VRigade developer!

Without further ado, here we go –

INFLUENCES

6DOF: In our review of Crisis VRigade 2, Pete Austin said the Crisis VRigade series reminded him mostly of Time Crisis, can you tell us what particular games inspired the games?

Diego: We’re a small studio and we’re making games similar to the ones we enjoyed playing. As 90’s arcade players we felt Time Crisis was a perfect title for a VR adaptation.

THE OCULUS STORE

6DOF: Have Oculus ever really explained why they wouldn’t accept CV1 or 2 onto the official store? What, in particular, did they have an issue with?

Diego: No explanation, we just got a generic email with nothing about how we can improve it to get into the store.

6DOF: Did the rejection of CV1 impact the development of CV2? If so, in what ways?

Diego: Our main market is PSVR so there was no real impact, but we tried to apply for the Oculus Start program to see if they can help us figure out the reasons for the rejection.

6DOF: How do you feel about the curation policy of the Official Oculus store?

Diego: We prefer the Sony approach: they have very high technical requirements and high curation standards, but as long as you make the upgrades or fixes required, your game makes it through. They don’t get too involved or reject your game because they don’t like the concept. If a game is well polished it gets published.

6DOF: What’s your impression of App Lab as a storefront, is it a good enough substitute for being on the official store?

Diego: As an indie studio, we don’t have a big budget to spend on advertising or marketing. Since Oculus keeps App Lab in the shadows, we don’t really get the same exposure that we get when releasing a game on other platforms, so that’s a big setback.

QUEST’S IMPACT ON VR

6DOF: What do you feel the impact of the Quest has been on the VR medium as whole?

Diego: Huge, in my opinion, that’s the way VR should advance. A comfortable device that you can have lying around on the couch in the living room and just grab it to play at any time without too much effort – like worrying about cables, or having to connect to a High-End PC or whatever…

6DOF: Any idea how the player base on Quest compares in size to that on PSVR?

Diego: I think players are moving towards Quest, at least until Sony releases the next-gen PSVR that I hope will be the next step forward in VR…though the latest news that I’ve heard doesn’t point in that direction.

6DOF: Some developers reported boosted sales when the Quest 2 was released. How did the release of the Quest 2 impact your downloads or sales?

Diego: We reported a download increase for Crisis VRigade, the sequel hasn’t been out long enough on Quest for us to have data to compare to.

GAME DEVELOPMENT

6DOF: What game engine are you using for the CV games? How big is your team and how long did development take for each?

Diego: We’re using Unity for development, and we’ve been a 5 person team developing both titles. With Crisis VRigade we were pretty new to developing VR titles and it was very much a learning project for us. We had other non-game projects while developing the 2 titles, so the one-year and two-year development cycles for the games weren’t on a full-time basis.

Diego: Now we’re completely focused on game development and hope to speed this up, or spend the time on more complex projects.

6DOF: What was the greatest technical challenge you faced, bringing the games to Quest?

Diego: Performance! We develop for PCVR, try to get the games working on PSVR, then we go down to the abyss of performance hell for Quest 1. We had to do a LOT of performance optimizations to make both Crisis VRigade titles work on the headset.

6DOF: What’s the best tip you could give to new game developers approaching Quest as their platform of choice?

Diego: Although it’s a great piece of hardware, be ready to lower you graphical and design expectations to make titles work.

6DOF: Are you bothered by the inherent limitations of the Quest? What would you hope for in a Quest 3?

Diego: As I mentioned, with the earlier Quest, it’s an “abyss of performance hell“, but as Oculus keeps boosting their hardware with higher specs, devs will be able to make greater experiences.

6DOF: What do you consider unique to your development process?

Diego: We’re a small team and everyone has to be aware of what the rest are doing and contribute their part accordingly. Now we are in a working-from-home situation, but I love the synergy that we have when we’re working together at the office.

COVID-19

6DOF: Did Covid-19 impact the release schedule of Crisis VRigade 2?

Diego: Sure. It’s hard, working from home, especially with kids! Getting anything done is much slower, but we managed pretty well with video calls and daily chats.

PIRACY

6DOF: We noticed people offering others the Crisis VRigade 2 Quest apk on Facebook groups, perhaps they felt justified because the first game was offered as a free download. How do you feel about such activity? How does piracy impact you as a developer?

Diego: Piracy is a part of the game industry. We want people to buy our games, obviously – but we were actually excited to see them on piracy portals! It feels like we make popular titles and that is always a good thing.

FUTURE PLANS

6DOF: When should we expect multiplayer (and new levels//modes) to land? Also, do you see Sumalab developing local co-op games like TritonVR or Space Pirate Arena?

Diego: We’re almost finishing with the co-op multiplayer as well as a new “Time Attack” game mode with 3 new levels. We hope to release it soon but the whole working-from-home situation is really turning our schedules upside down.

6DOF: What are your future plans? Crisis VRigade 3 or something completely different?

Diego: We have some prototypes in the oven. Crisis VRigade 3 will happen, for sure. An online competitive Crisis VRigade is another project and, yes, something completely different, a more “traditional” game (with VR support at least), is not off the menu.

6DOF: Let’s get the simplest question out of the way first! WHY ZOMBIES?

Zombies are great! Relentless, fearless, creatures that just won’t give up. Take one down and there will be another one behind it. The thought of endless waves of zombies is terrifying, and that translates really well to VR.

6DOF: How did you decide what to cut back in order to port Arizona Sunshine to the Quest? Did this involve heated debates? What key elements did you decide could not be sacrificed?

‘Keep it the way it was.’ That was our goal. The main game was well received and we wanted the same experience on the Quest. We knew the Quest is not as powerful as a beefy PC but that did not stop us from trying.

The thing that I fought for the most was to keep the zombie mechanics the same. I wanted to shoot off legs and heads, for me that is the best part of Arizona Sunshine. If that was cut, then why would we even port the game to Quest? In the end, all the gore stayed and I’m proud of that.

6DOF: What was the single biggest compromise that you felt you had to make for the port to work?

I think that has to be the realistic graphics from the original, in exchange for a more stylized version. We had to make big decisions regarding what and where to optimize our game. The large world with lots of interactions was something that made the original game stand out. We made the decision to keep that and that meant reducing the number of complex shaders and big resolution textures, so we could keep so many objects on the screen at the same time.

6DOF: Were any of your decisions influenced by the resulting storage size of the game on Quest? We see that most Quest games are under 2 gigabytes in size, and Arizona Sunshine is around 1.25 gigabytes. Why is this the case? Why aren’t we seeing games that are 5 or even 10 gigabytes in size?

Honestly, we did not consider storage size at all. The size came naturally as we optimized the game. It is a bit of cause and effect: because of the graphics chip and shared memory we had to use less complex models and reduce the size of our textures. This resulted in less data to store and load, and quick loading screens.

6DOF: Do you think the release of Hand Tracking for the Quest is a game-changer? Do you have any plans to incorporate that functionality into any future releases?

The hand tracking is a very well made feature, one of the best I’ve seen so far. I like how robust it already feels and I’m excited to see what we can come up with if we prototype this.

6DOF: Speaking of new functionality, has the release of Oculus Link affected your plans in any way? Some Quest users are concerned that Link might dissuade developers from making Quest-native apps, have you felt this way at all?

Not at all. I think Oculus Link is a great way to enjoy PCVR games without having to buy a PC headset or a powerful PC to play. But the Quest is all about freedom of movement, easily bringing the headset with you to your friends or to a party. Quest native apps will always be necessary for that.

6DOF: How much of your code had to be re-written for the Quest?

Exactly 24.8%. No, in all seriousness, most systems serve the same goal as their original counterparts but we had to rewrite and optimize most. The biggest one was rewriting the systems related to the shooting. The reason we had to rewrite much of this was that all of our content is multiplayer enabled and it caused massive CPU spikes when all players started shooting in a 4 player horde mode for example.

6DOF: How much of the content had to be remodeled for the Quest? Or was it enough to just reduce the polygon count? Did this get done manually or did you have some way to automate it?

 Basically everything has been changed in some form. There wasn’t a single thing we could use straight out of the main game because it was simply too heavy in some way. It was mostly done manually to maintain quality. For example reducing the polycount for models, adjusting texture resolution and repainting textures were done by hand.

Something we could automate was combining geometry together. We created some clever tools that would process entire scenes, sorting objects by type and area, drastically reducing GPU instructions.

6DOF: Any more games coming soon from the Arizona Sunshine team? Can you give us a hint on what we can look forward to?!

We still have a few content drops scheduled for Arizona Sunshine on Oculus Quest, for example, the Old Mine update, adding a new Horde mode map to the game. For a reminder of what else is to come, check out the content roadmap.

That’s it for our DevTalk! Hope you liked it! Are there any other developers you’d like to see us talk to? Give us your ideas and we’ll do our best to follow up on them!

6DOF Reviews: With the dominance of Beat Saber in the VR gaming community, any rhythm games will obviously be compared to it. So, for users familiar with Beat Saber but not with Synth Riders, what are the most significant differences between the two titles? How does Synth Riders distinguish itself?

The thing that almost everyone points out when they start playing is how much fun the long note rails are to pull off. They really connect you to a song’s soaring intersections and make you feel amazing and so connected to the music.

The game is part dance and part action, rewarding users for precision while at the same time encouraging a lot more room for dance which allows a player to introduce their own personal style.

Synth Riders was conceived by our Creative Director, Abraham Aguero [Aguero designed and built Synth Riders, primarily with one other developer, Jhean Ceballos – Ed], who is part designer, part artist. You can see that in the overall energy and creativity of the game. Abraham is always adding new stages (we just released a Halloween stage through our community).

Many people who don’t know Synth Riders assume that we saw the success of Beat Saber and simply tried to copy the game. The reality is that both games were conceived, designed and built around the same time. Beat Saber came out six weeks before Synth Riders. We didn’t even know it existed and we had been working on our game for 18 months. Then, when Beat Saber landed and those Beat Saber videos started to go viral, it just took over the VR market and things haven’t been the same since.

Both Synth Riders and Beat Saber are rhythm games, and the category existed before both games were conceived. But the experiences are different; they both allow you to immerse yourself in music in a different way. We are huge fans of Beat Saber and we enjoy playing it too. We think the overall category is really exciting and we are just scratching the surface of what can be done with VR rhythm games.

6DOF Reviews: What genres of music are featured in the game? A lot of people are put off when rhythm games only cater to one type of music, how have you tackled this concern?

That is a great question. Because music is so central to the game, you are going to want music that you enjoy, especially after you have played it for a while and have begun to get good. Synth Riders has its roots in synth-wave music, but we’ve started to expand it from that core. We are really proud of the full release’s soundtrack, which is made up of three different music packs with tracks from Synthwave to FiXT, and Ninety9lives. Our synth-wave roots connected us to FiXT, which has a great roster of artists from Celldweller to the poppier sounds of PRIZM. With Ninety9lives we added a nice mix of EDM tracks. Currently, we have a total of 31 songs that represents a range of music styles that still feels cohesive and well-curated.

We started with hardcore synth-wave and have expanded to more mainstream tastes. We’ll continue to carefully curate our selection. Our studio started as a music magazine. Music is very central to us and we are very rooted in that world.

At the same time, a modding community has emerged and fans have begun to build their own tracks. So if you like the idea of creating beat-maps from songs that you love and own, then the choices are endless.

6DOF Reviews: Your factsheet mentions that the game comes with 31 songs, but you also provide an official beatmap editor. Can users easily import new songs into the Quest version? How does that work?

We have an official editor that we have built and open-sourced and you can simply drag-and-drop a beatmap and a song you want to play to your Quest! The easiest way to start with custom songs is to look at the guidelines that come with the editor.  You should also join the Synth Riders’ Discord and Synth Riders Mod discord. They are two very supportive and loyal groups of VR and Synth Riders enthusiasts who will provide lots of useful tips and answer any questions you might have.

6DOF Reviews: Can each track be played on various difficulty levels, or are difficulty levels decided by which track you choose to play?

For the most part, each track has the same five levels of difficulty, but there are a few exceptions as there are some songs that are not fast enough for the Master level of difficulty. Because our focus is more on enjoying the music, we don’t want to force every song to have a Master level. In fact, we are currently mapping some slower songs that might not even make it to Expert.

At the same time, some of our faster songs are getting even harder and more challenging. The goal is to maximize the enjoyment of each song and to make sure that the levels of difficulty are true across all of the tracks.

6DOF Reviews: Synth Riders’ graphics look great, what were the main [influences] for Synth Riders’ aesthetic?

It was definitely all about 80s video games and movies like Tron and Blade Runner. Also, games like Thumper were a strong influence. We actually started an Instagram community called RetrowaveVR prior to the game because we are just obsessed with this aesthetic.

Just like with the music, we want to empower our community to build their own stages and create their own worlds beyond the 80s.

6DOF Reviews: You mentioned that the Quest version will have ‘social integration,’ can you explain what you mean by that?

Recently, Oculus introduced new social features that engage friends playing the same games on the Quest. In short, you will get a notification on your phone every time your friend beats your score in Synth Riders. If you are at all competitive, it really brings that side out of you and pushes you to get higher scores.

6DOF Reviews: You’ve promised that multiplayer is coming soon! How soon is soon? And how will the multiplayer work? Will it be co-op or competitive?

We hope to be testing it in the next two months and have it out towards the end of Q1 2020. This is a high priority for us. We hope to launch it as quickly as possible, but you know how these things can go. We want to make sure it’s the best experience possible! So stay tuned for more details.

6DOF Reviews: How did the gaming community impact the game’s development? What were the most surprising ideas proposed?

The community really played a massive role in shaping the game. They provided a lot of early feedback on a wide range of features from custom colors to fixed environment options, to pushing the boundaries of our maps. We’re always learning and listening to ideas they come up with. Many of the mappers in our community came from experimenting on map creation with Beat Saber and other rhythm games. Together it’s been a wonderful exploration as to how to interpret music in a meaningful way. 

Challenging each other competitively is something they are always pushing. What started as a way to experience music in a new way has evolved into a type of e-sport.  We’re excited to see how that direction evolves as we develop multiplayer and continue to listen to their feedback.

6DOF Reviews: Synth Riders is available on Steam, and also as part of the Viveport Infinity roster. Without delving into specifics, how does this work out business-wise for you, and could you envision a similar subscription-based library system working on the Quest?

We see every creative model that helps push VR forward as a positive one. The goal is to get more users to experience the magic of VR. Viveport Infinity is a groundbreaking initiative and we’re are really proud to be a part of it. We keep our fingers crossed for the growing user base for Infinity. This model works for movies and now for video games, with initiatives like PlayStation Now. It can definitely be successful for VR, and I really think it could work for the Quest.

6DOF Reviews: What’s your opinion of the Oculus Link allowing Quest to act as a PCVR headset? Do you think it could lead to developers scaling back the production of Quest-only titles?

The Oculus Link is exciting because it means that Quest users can experience a step up in graphics from the Quest if they also have a powerful gaming PC. I tend to think having more options is always a good thing. For us, we put a massive amount of work, reworking shaders and models so that the game still looks amazing on the Quest. But, at the end of the day, the Quest still has limitations.  

Within the modding community, having no limits on design and the freedom to create crazy, detailed stages with all kinds of advanced lighting is always a nice option. That said, we worked really hard to make the Quest version the “complete experience” of Synth Riders and we really believe the Quest is the device to help take VR to the mainstream. The “no wires” aspect in some ways really makes the Quest version of Synth Riders one of our favorite ways to play the game.

We’ll have our review out as soon as Synth Riders is released!

Yoan Santelli, the senior dev at Ozwe and the lead designer along with Stephane Intissar (the CEO of OZWE Games) was kind enough to give us some answers! Yoan is a game designer and developer living in France. He’s worked in game design and development for the last ten years. He’s also of the developers behind Anshar War 2 and Anshar Online.

6DOF Reviews: Okay, we need to know – who’s voicing Nitro Saint Payne and is he actually a blood-thirsty egomaniac or does he just play one in the game?

Yoan: Haha, I am sure the voice actor is a blood-thirsty egomaniac.

6DOF Reviews: By now we’ve all read your initial announcement, and know that, aside from being killed by your rivals, you can be eaten by a colossal piranha, or get killed by malicious clowns, or giant dice! Are there more environmental dangers? And how are they triggered? We still remember Split/Second on the PS3 and XBOX 360, which allowed users to build up meters that they could then use to trigger those environmental hazards. Do the hazards in Death Lap operate the same way? If not, how? 

Yoan: Yes, there are some more environmental dangers. Giant eyes fire lasers at you, pinball balls that can crush you, pinball flippers, and a massive skull with sharp teeth. Most of them are triggered by the player’s presence, but others are activated by shooting at specific mechanisms like the skull teeth and the flippers. Other hazards like the laser eyes are temporarily disabled when shooting at them.

6DOF Reviews: You’ve announced that Death Lap comes with 5 tracks, and we’re glad to see that they’re pretty diverse! Are there plans to add more tracks in future updates? Also, how much does the environment affect the racing mechanics? For example, in the desert track, does steering in sand feel different? 

Yoan: We really wanted the players to be able to split their focus equally upon driving and fighting, so we keep the driving part consistent across different road materials. The tracks have different widths, elevations, and turns, and that affects the driving. We don’t have any extra content to announce at this time.

6DOF Reviews: How many car types are there? Will more be added in the future?

Yoan: There are five vehicles, each with a very different character, feel, and weapons. Each of them is better suited for some tracks than they are for others. 

Yoan: We don’t have any additional content to announce at this time.

6DOF Reviews: Can you mute VOIP for individual players if they’re offensive?

Yoan: VOIP can be enabled or disabled across the game. Joining the VOIP channel is optional.

6DOF Reviews: We understand that the game will feature global leaderboards, and that should make for some seriously competitive driving! Are there any in-game rewards (cosmetic or otherwise) for the top players? 

Yoan: Every race is unique, each time the players’ performance varies, as well as the use of the power-ups and traps. That’s why the ranking is better than the time when we compare performance between players. The global leaderboard is used to compare time for players who are playing in a single mode.

6DOF Reviews: We’ve all been very impressed with the teaser/trailer footage – which platform was that recorded on? 

Yoan: Rift and Quest share the exact same visuals.

6DOF Reviews: What kind of sacrifices, if any, had to be made to get Death Lap running smoothly on Quest? What are the greatest challenges you met with the Quest version? Did the Quest version allow you to do anything you couldn’t do on the other platforms? 

Yoan: Performance is tight, and every piece of code, all models, and all textures are optimized to run smoothly on the Oculus Quest. 

Yoan: Compared to the Oculus Go or the Samsung Gear VR, Quest has a welcomed increase in performance that allows us to provide a better-looking game. It also allows us to use the Touch controllers and positional tracking to create a more immersive experience.

6DOF Reviews: Just how ‘3D’ are the tracks? Do any include roller-coaster style loop the loops? Do you have different view options to help players who might have trouble with motion sickness?

Yoan: The tracks don’t bring the players on loops or anything that can trigger motion sickness. There are jumps, curves, and tight turns but never upside-down driving that we think can make some players uncomfortable. 

Yoan: We have put the focus on motion sickness control for the players. They can choose in-game between two viewpoints, first-person behind the steering wheel, third-person behind the car. And they can change the comfort mode of the camera in the main menu between three modes which determine the stiffness of the camera rotation, which substantially changes the intensity of VR motion.

6DOF Reviews: Have you considered allowing an option for two players to team up in one vehicle? With one handling the driving and the other controlling the shooting? 

Yoan: We prefer them to fight each other!

6DOF Reviews: Finally, some nitty-gritty details! Is the game cross-buy? Cross-play? How much will it cost on Quest and can you give us a release date?

Yoan: Cross-play, yes. Cross-buy, not decided yet. The price and release date are yet to be announced.

Are you as excited as we are about racing and shooting on the Quest? Did we miss any vital questions? Don’t feed us to a giant piranha, just let us know so we do better next time! Death Lap’s official page can be found here.