The game industry has made futile attempts at virtual reality in the past, but with the upcoming releases of the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR, the public is about to witness the first real chance VR has at succeeding. And with those launches, a previously unexplored frontier opens up to game developers; a frontier that will need to be settled rapidly if we’re to see virtual reality become a regular part of our lives. This will require indie developers, both for their numbers and the experimental freedom afforded by their publisher-free nature.
AAA developers like Capcom, of course, also see the potential in the new hardware. The company has already put money and time into experimenting with VR, going as far as to put the development team normally in charge of Resident Evil behind their new VR initiative . The idea, according to their “Integrated Report 2015” is to stay half a step ahead of consumer demand and expectations. This is precisely the sort of mentality required for VR to work since, realistically, neither developers nor consumers know exactly what they want from the hardware. While Capcom has its head in the right place, they are unable to take the risks needed to make these discoveries on their own. Indie developers, without the stringency that comes from being publicly traded or funded by a big publisher, are going to be the ones throwing things against the wall to see what sticks.
Indie developers are also plentiful, and with more and more people learning game design, we are in a good place for VR to launch. With more people creating and experimenting, more ideas will surface; this is common sense. The now ubiquitous game, Minecraft, was once an unheard-of idea. Nobody knew they wanted Minecraft, but now the game is everywhere within our culture. It’s even spawned an array of imitators and created a market. With only a relatively small number of AAA developers creating games for VR, we’d be unlikely to find success stories like Minecraft at a fast enough rate. With indie developers on the job, our chances for good ideas increases exponentially.
What’s especially exciting is how VR will support a more diverse range of ideas than any platform before it; developers will be able to go further out of the box and think more creatively than they have prior. This is because the ways VR engages players is fundamentally different than a standard console or PC. While we will definitely need more traditional types of gameplay to support part of the market, we will also be hungry for entirely new types of experiences. Virtual Reality that properly tricks the senses creates a feeling that blends reality with fantasy. Gameplay doesn’t need the same amount of action or interaction to be exciting; sometimes exploration and scenery is enough. Ideally, VR will give rise to entirely new genres of video games.
Since freedom to experiment will be so important, the Oculus Rift will be especially crucial hardware going forward. The PC has a huge install base, but the bigger factor here is its distribution options; developers will be able to make their software available to basically anyone who wants it. Sure, there are distribution platforms, like Steam or GoG, and those will certainly be essential, but consumers will also be able to try out early builds of games through forums and catch wind of projects on Twitter, giving constant feedback all the while. It’s hard to imagine PlayStation VR offering quite the same amount of flexibility, since they tend to curate the games that make it to PSN a bit more critically. This isn’t to say that PlayStation VR won’t see a lot of the indie break out hits, it is only to say that the Oculus Rift will likely attract far more developers.
VR is fast approaching, and it possesses an incredible amount of potential. There could be an amazing future here, and the hardware could have applications far outside of gaming. But if that future is to arrive anytime soon, there needs to be consumer demand for it, and odds are, that demand will start in gaming. To secure that demand and see virtual reality thrive, indie games will need to arrive in full force.