Overview

RIGS was the last game developed by Guerrilla Cambridge, a fast paced action game for PlayStation 4 created to be played with the Morpheus virtual reality headset.

The game mixes family-friendly combat and sports in a great package and the use of the headset (which is also used to control aiming) gives a real feeling of being in the middle of the stadium. The sense of scale is particularly well realised, with the mechs feeling particularly large compared with the player.

Being purpose built for VR, we were able to get both excellent visuals and a rock-solid 60 FPS.

Development

RIGS started as a regular FPS and quickly became a game with support for PS VR and then exclusively targeting the headset. This required large modifications to the gameplay as even with 60fps  reprojected to 120fps, motion-sickness can be a big problem. Speed had to be reduced considerably and lateral movement minimised. Colours had to be muted and textures simplified to reduce sensory overload. Cut-scenes were re-authored to never take control of the player’s head and multiple variants made to test which ones were felt best.

As I’ve found out the hard way, I’m in the <2% that do not acclimatise to VR and therefore was a great test subject for all these changes!!