The PS VR Sessions: Here They Lie

The PlayStation.Blog team can’t wait for October 13. With the launch of PlayStation VR in North America, we’re entering a new era of gaming — one that places players directly into the worlds that developers so lovingly create. To prepare for this amazing next chapter in PlayStation history, we all donned that PlayStation VR headset and sampled a bevy of upcoming PlayStation VR titles.

Sampling Here They Lie is a tall order — it means embracing the fear and uncertainty of stepping into a strange, terrifying world quite unlike our own. Developed by industry veterans with a wide range of expertise, Here They Lie drops players into a bleak city with the only hope being the soft voice and bright dress of a woman named Dana. What did we think of this visually immense first-person horror? Read on.

As an aficionado of all things that go bump in the night, I can’t help but feel that Tangentlemen crafted Here They Lie specifically for my own macabre enjoyment. It’s unquestionably one of my favorite PS VR launch titles, partly because it combines so many horror elements I cherish: surreal cityscapes, weird internet urban legends, H.P. Lovecraft. From a game perspective, Here They Lie is a riveting tour through a desolate, eerie city populated by mysterious entities. I felt like I was trapped in a strange fever dream or, as the game’s senior art director put it in our interview, a “digital hallucination.” The game’s use of PS VR’s 3D audio capabilities meant that I encountered trails of sonic breadcrumbs, creepy audio cues that lead me, hesitantly, to the next scare. This is one to watch if you’ve got PS VR on day one.
–Sid Shuman

Here They Lie has a brilliant understanding of its own atmosphere. Meticulously decorated and hauntingly dressed, the world of Here They Lie is both terrifying and beautiful. A strange, sick city with a glimmer of hope taking shape in a woman named “Dana.” With PS VR, the dream-like effects — a rush of strange papers, the ghostly tapping of a typewriter — take on a new degree of realism totally unfelt on a traditional display. The developers at Tangentlemen are taking bold steps in this space, and you can feel it in their footprints.
–Ryan Clements

I really don’t like scary things. Movies, games, campfire stories… it’s all a bit much for me. That said, horror VR is an experience quite unlike the ones afforded by more traditional media. Especially with PlayStation VR’s Social Screen feature, I see Here They Lie (and, by extension, VR horror titles in general) as a perfect experience to share with my significant other. I’ll play for 15 minutes or so, probably get freaked out, my girlfriend will laugh at me, then I’ll make her play and see how she fares. I might not be much of a horror connoisseur, but virtual reality and PS VR’s Social Screen could be just what I need to finally delve into a genre I otherwise tend to shy away from.
–Justin Massongill

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Viking Squad Raids PS4 on October 4

Hi, everyone!

We’re proud to announce that Viking Squad arrives on PS4 on October 4!

As a member of Viking Squad, you must put a stop to the wildly mischievous Loki and reopen the gates to Asgard. Work together to take on massive foes and expand your arsenal in this three player co-op brawler.

Choose between four different characters, each specializing in a different weapon and playstyle. Take on enemies from afar as the archer, go on the defensive with the shield, get up in your enemies’ faces as the dual axe berserker, or beat them to a pulp as the hammer maiden. Each weapon gives characters access to special attacks that can be used to mix up their combos and assist allies — experiment with them all to see which suits your tastes.

It wouldn’t be a viking game without some pillaging! Through your adventures, collect treasure to level up, unlock moves, and purchase new equipment to fend off Loki’s corrupt minions. You never know when you’ve found something of value, so get creative and experiment with your haul — it may pay off in the end!

Development on Viking Squad has been a labor of love. The team grew up playing arcade brawlers and wanted to pay homage to one of our favourite genres. Our goal was to make a game that does justice to the beat-em-ups of the 90s while incorporating many of the key pillars that make today’s games so great: tight controls, fast and frenetic gameplay, a difficulty you can test your skills against, and a fun cast of characters drawn by our very own Jesse ‘Jouste’ Turner. We want to meld the difficulty and camaraderie found in those games into something that fits the precision and excitement of modern games.

One of the questions we get most often is “Why the decision for a maximum of three players?” It fit our design so well. First, it cut down on the amount of cheap deaths by streamlining the chaos on screen. With three players, each can focus on a target without having to worry about being sideswiped by incoming attacks from their partners’ foes. It also reduced the amount of network traffic our game requires, allowing for a smoother online experience. Finally, it let us test a lot more thoroughly; since we are a team of three, we could all hop in and test the game throughout its entire development. With that being said, the game can still get pretty hectic at times, especially with three players. You can’t take out all the chaos since that’s half the fun!

We hope you enjoy it! Happy brawling!

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Warhammer: The End of Times – Vermintide Delivers Gothic Combat on 10/4

The End Times are near — the team has been hard at work to deliver our slice of the Warhammer fantasy world to the PS4. I’m Leo, Community Manager at Fatshark, and let me tell you that we’re really excited to finally bring the highly anticipated cooperative first-person melee shooter Warhammer: The End Times – Vermintide to your PS4 on October 4.

Vermintide is known for being particularly challenging, so I’m here to bring you some tips to get you started in your quest to restore order to the gothic streets of Ubersreik and repel the Skaven invasion — or at least try to.

Get to know your tools.

Each of the five unique heroes have various types of weapon, capable of dealing damage to the vile rat-men in their own special ways: from huge cleaving strikes to direct assaults against one foe. Try different combinations of ranged and melee equipment, and be sure to coordinate with your group over which benefits you are bringing to the party to ensure maximum efficiency.

Blocking isn’t for the weak.

It’s for winners! Always be mindful of your surroundings and be sure to never have the block button out of reach. Some of the smaller enemies in Vermintide can be pushed – so if things get too spicy you can get some breathing space by shoving the Skaven away.

Dodge. Dodge. Dodge.

Some of the bigger guys can’t be pushed or blocked entirely, and this is where becoming artful at dodging comes in handy. Dodging heavy attacks or special attacks is a must and is a skill well worth having in your arsenal.

Stay together or die alone.

Don’t get brave — going lone wolf isn’t a good idea! Stick with your group and work as a team. The most common cause of being overrun comes from the group splitting up. It just takes one hero headed in a different direction to bring everything crashing down and ultimately getting the group killed. Don’t be that hero!

Watch that friendly fire!

This shouldn’t be a too big of an issue when you start out as the easier difficulties have friendly fire disabled, but over time you’ll become familiar with this as you ramp up the difficulty. We find it’s best to always expect friendly fire to be on, just in case you join a match with the those difficulty settings. Practice also makes perfect (or so we have heard).

Thanks for checking out our tips for Warhammer Vermintide. Rest assured, the Old World will fall, so why not be there with your friends when it happens?

For more information on Vermintide, follow the game on Twitter.

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25 Adorable Facts About The Playroom VR

Hi everyone! Welcome again for more on The Playroom VR, a totally free pack-in game for all PlayStation VR owners out there.

After dipping into multiplayer, character creation, the fun of performing as a virtual reality player, and a look at our early prototypes, how about we look at some of the secrets and features you might not yet know about The Playroom VR?

1.) The Playroom VR was created in Japan Studio by the same team that brought you The Playroom on PS4. The team is mostly made up of members who worked on games as varied as EyeToy, Ape Escape, EyePet, Gravity Rush, The Last Guardian, and WipEout. But for the remaining team members, The Playroom was their very first title!

2.) The name of the team who developed The Playroom is called Asobi! Team. “Asobi” in Japanese means “play.” The team picked that name so they would always put the fun of “play” at the heart of their games.

3.) The iconic floating robot in The Playroom VR has a printed serial number: A5081, which also could be read as Asobi!

4.) All you need to get going with multiplayer in The Playroom VR are: a single PS VR headset and a single DualShock 4 (and a friend, obviously).

5.) Monster Escape and Cat & Mouse both use the microphone built into the headset to change the voice of the VR player. And in Mini Bots, you can blow into the mic to make the little green helicopter take off. Maybe you’ll get a reward for keeping it airborne?

6.) Most games in The Playroom VR are built for multiplayer but two of them can also be played solo: Robots Rescue and Mini Bots. The latter is more of a chill experience than a game, and the perfect introduction to VR for your friends and family.

7.) One of the Trophies in The Playroom VR requires you to stare at a bird in the sky and get pooped on by it. Life is harsh in VR…

8.) Mini Bots has many references to the PlayStation family. Among others, you’ll find an arcade cabinet called Bot of War!

9.) The Playroom VR was the first game to showcase a PS VR demo running at a targeted 120 frames per second at GDC 2015 in San Francisco. It was quite a surprise back then!

10.) As of today, the team’s best score in the endless mode of Wanted! is 78 kills. Gento (the game designer) and Nicolas (the creative director) had to develop a special communication technique to achieve this score!

11.) Before focusing on the final six games for The Playroom VR, the team developed more than 40 unique prototypes. They say they have enough ideas left to last another 10 years!

12.) Both Ghost House and Wanted feature four stages each to clear, so you and your friends can come back for more.

13.) At the end of every mini-game, you get to take a celebration photo. It will then appear as a slideshow in that mini-game’s title screen. Remember to smile!

14.) Playing mini-games in The Playroom VR allows you to earn coins. These can be used in the Mini Bots grabbing machine to unlock up to 60 new toys.

15.) Though it is a full party game, The Playroom VR is only a little more than 2GB.

16.) While playing The Playroom VR, there are almost no noticeable loading times. This is because the team members themselves are impatient…

17.) Getting a PS VR with a PlayStation Camera also lets you play the entirety of The Playroom (the original PS3 AR version). Give it a try!

18.) The team developed an 8-VS-1 version of Cat & Mouse where each of the four in-game DualShock 4 controllers can be shared by two players. It was a lot of fun but the team ran out of time to put it in the final game.

19.) One of the programmers (Kazu) had a baby during the production. We dedicated the game to him.

20.) The Playroom’s iconic AR Bots were created because the team wanted not one but many little characters scampering on the floor. They chose robots because it was the simplest way to make a character look good (no skin and eyes to animate).

21.) It took 18 people and 18 months in total to create The Playroom VR.

22.) The Playroom VR is an international collaboration, with team members hailing from UK, Germany, France, and — of course — Japan!

23.) The Playroom VR team attends Japan Studio’s happy hour the most frequently. On one occasion, the entire team ended up at the bar at the same time…

24.) Both Nico and Takumi from Asobi! Team had their family members try the game during the Sony family day, more than one year before release. What a privilege!

25.) Asobi! Team is always keen to hear the ideas of the community for their next game. So if you have cool ideas and want to share them, get in touch!

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Paladins: Champions of the Realm is Coming to PS4!

Paladins: Champions of the Realm, the new team-based shooter from SMITE developer Hi-Rez Studios, is coming to PS4 — and you can sign up for the Closed Beta right now!

Never heard of Paladins? It’s the new free-to-play fantasy-themed first-person shooter that’s taken the PC gaming community by storm.

In its first ten days of open beta on PC, more than 1 million people played Paladins. What’s so awesome about Paladins that millions of people are clamoring to play it?

1 — It’s Not Another Sci-Fi Shooter

Paladins is set in a fantasy world of ancient technology. Here, you’ll fight your way through the Realm — a world of enchanted forests, ancient temples, medieval castles, and frozen keeps. It’s just like your favorite fantasy books… with a little twist.

2 — There’s a Champion Perfect for You

Do you see yourself as a bad-ass sniper? Or are you more of a mech-riding goblin? Or perhaps you’d rather be a mystical elf, a jetpack-clad dragon, or a bomb golem?

As of this writing, you can pick from one of 17 Champions in every match you play. And new Champions are added to Paladins regularly, so there are always new Champions to try in the Realm.

3 — You Can Play How You Want to Play

Ever played a game where you kinda liked one of the characters, but he’d be so much cooler if you could tweak his abilities just a tiny bit? Us too.

That’s why we implemented Paladins’ unique collectible card system. You can build your own deck of cards to amplify and augment each Champion’s core set of abilities, so he or she becomes exactly the Champion that you want to play.

Quick example: Androxus is a creepy demon dude with a revolver. He can be a pure gunslinger, dashing into close range and unloading rapid-fire shots. He can be an elusive airborne sniper, hovering above the Realm. He can be a counter-puncher, using an enemy’s own bullets against them. Or he can be something else entirely — whatever you come up with!

4 — It’s Perfect for Console

From day one of development, Paladins was designed with console in mind. We’ve enlisted some big-name console gamers to make sure the control scheme feels just right.

Name any big-time multiplayer shooter that you enjoy most on PS4. Paladins stands right there alongside them, with one major difference…

5 — It’s free!

Here’s the deal: Paladins is free, because it sucks to not be able to play video games with your friends. We know that not everyone can afford a $60 video game, so at Hi-Rez Studios, we make our games free. We just want you and your friends to have fun together.

And don’t worry: Paladins uses a fair free-to-play model, similar to Smite. If you like Paladins, you can unlock every Champion (those released now and any we ever release in the future) for just $20 with the Founder’s Pack. Or you can unlock them for free, just by playing the game and having fun.

So what are you waiting for? Paladins Closed Beta starts soon, and the signups start today! You can sign up for the beta here.

We’ll see you in the Realm soon, Champions.

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Dishonored 2: Hands On With Arkane’s Ambitious Sequel

Arkane Studios’ Dishonored 2 is destined to be one of my favorite games of 2016, and not just because I loved the 2012 original. This stealth-action sequel is upping the ante on its predecessor in seemingly every way, pitting a pair of supernatural assassins against treacherous usurpers in a violent, vivid world.

Based on my hands-on experiences this week, the game is, quite simply, a bigger, better take on the original. Where Dishonored had one playable character, the sequel has two — papa Corvo and daughter Emily — each blessed with unique supernatural abilities thanks to the touch of the mysterious Outsider.

These supernatural abilities can alter the core action and stealth gameplay in some startlingly inventive ways. Sure, Corvo can instantly Blink past threats, even Possess a rat or fish to evade detection. But Emily can use Domino to invisibly bind multiple foes together, then take them all out with one blow, or use Shadow Walk to melt into the darkness.

Overall, the game’s scope feels bigger, more ambitious, and more varied than before. I played through a full mission set in the ominous Clockwork Mansion, an ornate death trap where walls and floors can shift and rotate like blocks in a murderous Rubix Cube. I was sent in to rescue a hostage and terminate (or compromise) mad inventor Kirin Jindosh before he finalizes an army of lethal Clockwork Soldiers.

True to Dishonored 2 form, I instead chose to remove Jindosh as a threat without killing him — I dosed him with a tranquilizer dart, then zapped away his intelligence using an experimental machine located in his laboratory. How merciful!

The choice between using lethal or nonlethal means to deal with your targets is central to the Dishonored experience, and I was pleased to learn that Dishonored 2 offers a larger arsenal of nonlethal takedown options.

As before, Dishonored 2 features a “Chaos” system that introduces consequences if the player racks up the body count, and which can ultimately alter the game’s ending. At the event, Creative Director Harvey Smith indicated that Dishonored 2 would feature a wider array of ending “permutations” as a response to fan feedback from the first game.

What’s more, Smith indicated that the consequences for slaying evil NPCs will be less severe — empowering morality-minded players to police the thoughts of Dunwell natives using the Heart, a mystical artifact that reads minds and reveals secrets.

This revenge tale takes place in the deliciously morose, macabre city of Dunwell, which is as much a character as Corvo or Emily. The levels are positively riddled with fiction — notes, book excerpts, paintings, and audio recordings create a snackable narrative that I found endlessly fascinating. The Arkane team continues to design some of the most detailed, most interactive levels seen in modern game design, and I applaud them for it.

Seemingly no detail has been ignored. New character animations help the combat and traversal feel more grounded, more physical, in a way I’ve not seen outside of games like Mirror’s Edge.

Thus far, Dishonored 2 is shaping up to be one hell of a love letter to fans of this genre — it’s due out this November for PS4. Leave any questions in the comments!

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PlayStation Blogcast 224: Horror, Remastered

Subscribe via iTunes, Google or RSS, or download here

Stuff We Talked About

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
• Here They Lie on PlayStation VR
• Destiny: Rise of Iron
• XCOM 2
• Our favorite PS VR games
• PlayStation Experience 2016
• Mafia III
• Final Fantasy XIV Patch 3.4
• And, of course, next week’s new releases

Recent Episodes

• 223: To Infinity and Beyond
• 222: The Professionals
• 221: Alone With Clements

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The Cast

Sid Shuman – Director of Social Media, SIEA
Justin Massongill – Social Media Manager, SIEA
Ryan Clements – Sr. Social Media Specialist, SIEA

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Send us questions and tips! blogcast@playstation.sony.com
Leave us a voicemail! (650) 288-6706

Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

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Unboxing PlayStation VR

Now that we’re just two weeks away from the nationwide launch of PlayStation VR, I wanted to give you a look at what’s inside the Core package. In the U.S. and Canada, the Core bundle will come with the PS VR headset and processor unit, wired stereo headphones, all required cabling and the PS VR Demo Disc, which contains 18 sweet demos — some of my favorites include Here They Lie and Battlezone, but try ‘em all and let me know your top pick.

If you missed out on pre-orders, the PS VR Core package will be also available at participating retailers nationwide on launch day, October 13.

Until then, you can always try out PS VR for yourself at hundreds of retail stores. Click here for the closest retailer near you. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments!

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PS Vue: HBO, Cinemax, New Ultra Plan Arrive Today

Are you a fan of Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, or Ballers? Starting today, HBO and Cinemax will be available on PlayStation Vue, so you’ll be able to catch up on all the original series and tune in live for the highly anticipated series premiere of Westworld — where western meets science fiction.

Additionally, we’re also excited to share that a new PlayStation Vue plan, Ultra, will be available to users starting today. Ultra includes HBO and Showtime, plus all the 100+ channels from Elite available for $64.99 or $74.99 per month depending on location.

Here are all the plans available on PlayStation Vue starting today. With a compatible TV-connected device and an internet connection, there are no additional fees, such as set-top box fees, or long-term contracts.

Access	Core	Elite	Ultra
55+ channels, including live cable TV, movies and sports channels.	70+ channels, including all the channels from Access with the addition of live national and regional sports networks.	100+ channels, featuring all the channels from Core with the addition of top movie and entertainment channels.	HBO and Showtime, plus all the 100+ channels from Elite.
$29.99 per month, $39.99 in cities with most major live local broadcast stations*	$34.99 per month, $44.99 in cities with most major live local broadcast stations*	$44.99 per month, $54.99 in cities with most major live local broadcast stations*	$64.99 per month, $74.99 in cities with most major live local broadcast stations*

As we previously announced, you’ll also have the option to subscribe to HBO and Cinemax as standalone channels via PlayStation Vue. HBO and Cinemax are available for $15 each per month. We’re pleased to be the first internet-based pay-TV service to offer HBO and Cinemax’s live programming as standalone offerings without a bundle subscription.

If you subscribe to HBO through PlayStation Vue using any of the available options, you’ll get access to the live HBO feed through PlayStation Vue, as well as access to the HBO Now service on all supported devices at no extra charge. The HBO Now app is also launching today on PS4 and PS3.

We wanted to provide flexibility to our users by giving you multiple options to catch your favorite shows, and we hope you enjoy these new additions to PlayStation Vue. For more information, please visit www.psvue.com.

*Cities with most major live local broadcast stations: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, and Miami

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Bound Original Soundtrack Available Today

Dear PlayStation fans,

This is Oleg Shpudeiko. I’m a music composer who works under the Heinali moniker and who recently wrote music for Bound. Today I’m excited to announce the release of the soundtrack. When I was first contacted by Plastic, I knew they were up to something special. After some time, as I got to know the game’s themes, it became very personal for me. After a year and a half of work, I hope I could carry this feeling through the music.

Bound is a rare case when the game writes music itself. You just have to pay attention to what you see and how it makes you feel and then write everything down. It works that way because the game’s world is abstract and minimal, but in a good way — it challenges your imagination. Like a good book, it leaves room for you to construct your own impressions and make your own sense.

The score is a blend between minimalist piano and electronics. Most of the original score was composed of layers, so it could be integrated into the game’s world and respond to event triggers. To make a separate release as the official soundtrack, I had to re-work the layers into traditional compositions. Some of them underwent small changes during the process to bring them all together as an album. As one big adventure.

I started my work on Bound both terrified and excited. Terrified because it was my first ever game score. And the level of responsibility and trust was high. Excited because the gamer in me couldn’t believe his luck. Back in my teens, when I spent most of my time playing games, I couldn’t even dream of composing a score for one. I worked hard, together with Plastic and Sony Santa Monica and I hope you will enjoy this release!

The Bound Original Soundtrack will be available in both digital and vinyl editions (More on that soon!). Today, the digital edition is available and features all the music from the game, plus two bonus tracks — the Bound PlayStation Dynamic Theme music and the first draft track, from which the musical journey began.You can hear a preview of the album and download a free track here.

Michal Staniszewski here — creative director of Bound. The team and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Oleg for the wonderful soundtrack that he has made for our game. We would also like to thank all of our fans who became modern art photographers during their not-so-short trip in Bound. We wanted to showcase the hundreds of fantastic photos that you have shared, and that is why we have created a small soundtrack announcement video that features your work. Thank you again!

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Driveclub VR Out October 13, Upgrade Details for Season Pass Owners

Hi everyone! Following last month’s announcement about the impending arrival of Driveclub VR and seeing the great response from fans who managed to get hands-on at Gamescom, we didn’t want to keep you waiting around much longer for a release date.

We’re proud to announce that Driveclub VR will be available exclusively for PlayStation VR on October 13 this year. The game will be available as both a physical Blu-ray release and a digital download via PlayStation Store. The digital download via PlayStation Store will be priced at $39.99.

Because Driveclub is and always has been about the community that surrounds it, we’ve also included a digital upgrade for existing Season Pass owners as of September 28, 2016, priced at $19.99.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone out there for their continued feedback and support. There has understandably been a lot of questions about how Driveclub VR was developed and there’s clearly a lot of respect for the development team at Evolution, so I’d like to clarify how we made the game.

Recreating Driveclub as a standalone VR title was a huge task. As you know, Driveclub had a vast amount of content, so reengineering the game to render everything in stereoscopic 3D, natively at 60Hz and then adding the head tracking with 120Hz visuals took a long time. In addition, the team added several VR-specific features and made the game look every bit as amazing as you would expect.

The majority of the game was completed by Evolution, with the remainder carried out by a dedicated team comprised of Evolution Studio veterans, several of which now are also members of the WWS Immersive Technology Group — so you can be assured that Driveclub VR is in safe hands.

Once again I’d like to thank everyone for their passion and support and express how humbled and grateful we are for the dedication you’ve all shown to Driveclub.

For more information on Driveclub VR, head over to the official game page.

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Wield a Legendary Blade with New Paragon Hero

Hey, PlayStation Nation. We’d like to introduce you to the latest Hero for our MOBA Paragon. We call this sword-wielding fighter… Kwang. You’ll be able to play Kwang starting Tuesday, October 4. Get your first look at Kwang below.

Kwang is a durable fighter that excels at initiating. A master swordsman, Kwang can utilize his Legendary Blade to change how and where he uses his abilities.

• Light of the Heavens — Beams of light strike Kwang’s sword, dealing AoE damage around it and giving him Physical and Energy Armor.
• Judgement of the Heavens — Kwang throws his sword to the heavens. When it lands, it deals damage and tethers enemies to it. The sword remains planted in the ground forever, until retriggered or the next basic attack.
• Gift of the Heavens — Passive: Kwang’s sword bursts with light, creating an aura around it that grants lifesteal to both Kwang and allies around him.
• Fury of the Heavens — Kwang spins his blade around him in an AoE, damaging and slowing enemies. If his sword has been thrown and is out in the world he will teleport to it before attacking.

As always, all Heroes in Paragon are free, so jump in as Kwang on Tuesday. If you can’t wait to get your Paragon fix, you don’t have to — Paragon is in free open beta, so you can download and play today.

See you on the battlefield!

Good luck, have fun.

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Trying New Ways to Play in The Playroom VR

Hello again. I’m Nicolas Doucet, creative director and producer of The Playroom VR. Today I’d like to talk lightly about how we went about prototyping new ways to play in virtual reality.

We decided early on that our game would be targeted at as wide an audience as possible, meaning that it had to be simple to pick up and play. The richness and fun would come from surprising situations and importantly, a good dose of humor. So we started trying out lots and lots of gameplay mechanics using simple inputs.

At first, we tried head interactions. We found out that looking at things in VR was a solid base for some interaction. For example, to make selections, a normal game would use a combination of left stick and buttons but we found that this could be simplified just by making the player look at the game they wanted to play.

Character interactions could also be made simpler and more reactive. In Mini Bots, the back of the room is packed with VR Bots who react if you look at them.

What’s also critical is for those virtual characters to make eye contact, following you as you move around. This is something unique to VR and extremely powerful to create emotional connections.

We also tried many new interactions using the DualShock 4. Like the headset, the controller can be tracked by the PlayStation Camera thanks to the light bar, and appear in VR, moving exactly like it does in the real world.

A simple test we did was to overlay instructions on the DualShock 4, a sort of VR-based tutorial. This was really useful, especially since the VR players cannot see their hands. And because it’s The Playroom, we also added a pair of eyes on the controller that look at you and giggle if you shake it.

We used the DualShock 4 touchpad a lot, too. One of our popular demos allowed the player to throw ninja stars out of the light bar. Seeing them come out perfectly in sync with a finger flick felt really good. It also created a tangible connection with the real world.

In Robots Rescue, the controller becomes a grappling hook gadget that the player flicks via the touchpad to attach into the environment and cross ravines. And at the end of the game, the touchpad becomes a slingshot you use to hit a target.

Plugging the DualShock 4 into things in-game also proved to be a fun mechanic. For example, in Mini Bots, there is a crane machine that we call The Grabber, which is activated by inserting the controller inside of it.

The motion sensor was also a great starting point as it requires no understanding of buttons. By simply tilting the controller and using one button, we could create all sorts of fun vehicles. We fashioned both a bike demo and a flying demo which both had a lot of appeal but unfortunately proved be a bit too intense as a first introduction to VR. So we’re keeping those for another day.

There were many more prototypes we created to get to the final product (over 40 in total) but that’s all we have time for today. The best way for you to see how we tried to innovate is to play the game. It’s 100% free to all PS VR users worldwide, so give it a try!

And if you have cool ideas for new innovative gameplay mechanics in VR, please drop them in the comments window, we read all of them! Sayonara, friends!

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