{"id":751,"date":"2022-12-09T11:10:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T11:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/?p=751"},"modified":"2023-04-13T09:04:17","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T09:04:17","slug":"fruit-ninja-dev-talks-porting-to-vr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/?p=751","title":{"rendered":"Fruit Ninja dev talks porting to VR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obsessed with making games that people will remember for a lifetime, Halfbrick decided to convert their hit title, Fruit Ninja, into a VR game. It was a natural evolution \u2013 people apparently really enjoy slicing fruit and swinging swords. After that success, they created Fruit Ninja VR 2 \u2013 adding more features and exploration to the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking a game for VR is very, very different,\u201d said Liam Potter, one of the lead gameplay programmers on Fruit Ninja VR 2. \u201cThere are a lot of things you need to take into account that you just don\u2019t for console or mobile.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With that in mind, let\u2019s dive into those challenges and see what Liam advises.<\/p>\n

Show players the play space early<\/h2>\n

In a VR experience, it\u2019s incredibly difficult to make sure that players are looking where you want. Gamers notoriously fail to look up in regular games, but in VR, it\u2019s even more of a problem. Players can look anywhere at any time. So getting them to focus on the correct place is tricky.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t direct the player properly, they could look at it from the wrong angle or completely miss something that\u2019s outside their field of view,\u201d Liam said. \u201cSo we needed to let the player see the play space before anything happens. If they know where things will happen, they\u2019re more likely actually to see it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Fruit<\/p>\n

So prepare your players. Show them their local surroundings, before dumping them into the action. Otherwise, they might easily get lost.<\/p>\n

Use audio clues to grab their attention<\/h2>\n

Another method to make sure that players are looking the right way is to remember that VR isn\u2019t just a visual experience. You can use directional sound, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAudio is another major strength of VR,\u201d Liam said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very useful tool for directing the player\u2019s attention. If you hear something outside your field of view, you know where it\u2019s coming from and naturally turn your head. It\u2019s very distinct.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Enemy footsteps, powerups, item drops, or even oncoming danger needs these audio clues \u2013 otherwise, the player is going to miss them. Think about how frustrating it would be if you were playing a shooter game in VR and could never tell where the enemies were. So maybe in that situation, the player hears the sniper\u2019s gun cock, before they fire.<\/p>\n

Strip back your user interface<\/h2>\n

In VR, you can\u2019t really have a heads-up display. It\u2019s strange and disorienting. Instead, you\u2019ll need to come up with other workarounds to show that same key information \u2013 in a much more immersive and natural way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really changes based on what you want people to experience,\u201d said Liam. \u201cBut if you want an immersive experience, you can\u2019t have a HUD. It\u2019d be floating in the corner, and you\u2019d have to only move your eyes if you wanted to look at it. People just don\u2019t like doing that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the first Fruit Ninja VR, this wasn\u2019t too much of an issue \u2013 there wasn\u2019t much need for a HUD anyway. But for the sequel \u2013 where the player can explore \u2013 it presented a key challenge for Halfbrick to overcome.<\/p>\n

\"Fuit<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make it more immersive,\u201d Liam said. \u201cSo we moved all that HUD onto a physical pad \u2013 a ninja scroll. You pull it out, and it\u2019s like a real-life tablet. You press buttons with your other hand and interact with it in a much more natural way.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Liam mentioned, every game is different. And you might need to come up with clever ways to show specific pieces of information. Guns can have their ammo count on the model itself. Health could be written on the back of your hand. Settings and meta-features might be on a watch. The key is making it something that feels natural to the player.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut remember,\u201d Liam added. \u201cThe player can\u2019t see the controller. You can\u2019t rely on them to remember simple button prompts. It needs to be really simple and intuitive.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Play with immersion and interaction<\/h2>\n

One of the core mechanics of a VR game is being able to interact with the world around you. It\u2019s such a fundamental mechanic that it feels strange if your game doesn\u2019t include it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMobile\u2019s strength is being able to pull the game out instantly and start playing,\u201d Liam said. \u201cVR\u2019s strength is immersion. So you should play with that idea. You might as well attempt to incorporate more immersive things into your game if you can. The more you are playing to the strengths of the platform, the better.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And immersion leads to interaction. Being able to reach out and feel like you\u2019re touching a physical object is key to VR experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut don\u2019t mould your interactions around your design. Mould your design around the interactions,\u201d Liam said. \u201cLook at what\u2019s fun \u2013 you can pick things up, throw them, look at them. Those might not change your design, but it\u2019ll improve the immersion.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cater to all audiences<\/h2>\n

VR is a huge expansive arena, and there are plenty of gladiators that want to step in and try their hand at it. But the motivations of those players can vary wildly.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the key motivations is exploration,\u201d Liam said. \u201cSome players want to really explore the map and travel around. But others want to jump right in and explode some fruit for a while.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s important to cater to each of these audiences. Halfbrick navigated this challenge in more ways than one by adding a fast-travel system to their ninja scroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe initially didn\u2019t have a fast travel system,\u201d Liam said. \u201cBut some players don\u2019t want to walk around; they want to get into the action straight away. Why exclude those people? Now, once they\u2019ve found an area, you can get out your scroll and boop \u2013 you\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Make sure they can physically do it<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s really important to make sure that you think about the physicality of the game itself. In VR, people are actually moving around. There are actually three parts to this.<\/p>\n

1. Be wary of making people feel sick<\/h3>\n

\u201cRealistically, VR is a demanding space,\u201d Liam said. \u201cYou can get tired and even sick while playing VR. And people\u2019s comfort levels are very different.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Halfbrick found this was particularly true for movement mechanics, where there are three usual ways to move around:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Blink.<\/strong> The view disappears, and the user teleports to another location.<\/li>\n
  • Dash.<\/strong> The view surges forward and feels like it\u2019s moving, but in a set amount for each button push.<\/li>\n
  • Smooth.<\/strong> The player moves around like a typical first-person game.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \"Fruit<\/p>\n

    \u201cMake sure you give people the option to change how the movement feels,\u201d Liam said. \u201cWe initially didn\u2019t have those movement controls. And we really saw that retention in the onboarding phase wasn\u2019t doing too great. We were using analytics and saw that a decent amount of people were only using dash. But if you can\u2019t use that mode \u2013 and that\u2019s the only mode you think is available \u2013 you\u2019re cutting those people off.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Halfbrick realized that some people were just feeling sick and taking the headset off before they even really started. So they ended up showing people the movement options before the rest of the tutorial.<\/p>\n

    2. Make sure your actions don\u2019t overlap<\/h3>\n

    It\u2019s not just moving around the map that you need to be careful with. It\u2019s how people move their arms, too.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhen you\u2019re in VR, you might want the player to go really crazy,\u201d Liam said. \u201cBut they need to be able to physically do it. We could throw fifty fruits at the player, but can they physically slice those? How do we design the waves to be satisfying?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Halfbrick needed to be constantly aware of where the player\u2019s arm was and in what position it would end up in.<\/p>\n

    \"Fruit<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhere is the player\u2019s arm? If they slide across, you don\u2019t want them to need to make the exact same action again,\u201d Liam said. \u201cGenerally, we design our waves so that it\u2019s fun to do combos. You want to have the player slice like seven fruit in one swing, without getting all tangled up.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    3. Consider the player\u2019s body size<\/h3>\n

    Another aspect is the player\u2019s physical height and the length of their arms. This can affect how you design your levels.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIn normal gameplay, it didn\u2019t really matter how tall or long someone\u2019s arms were,\u201d Liam said. \u201cPeople can just step backwards or forward. But with archery, we had a real problem with people\u2019s heights. If you were too short, you\u2019d have to hold the bow up in the air to hit the angle.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    In the end, Halfbrick had to normalize the height during this section of the game \u2013 to make sure that everyone was on a level playing field.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe also think about how we designed the space,\u201d Liam said. \u201cHow long should the blade be? How long is the general person\u2019s arm? That\u2019s important, because you don\u2019t want to be slicing the fruit at the base or the tip \u2013 and you don\u2019t want it coming too close to your face.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This affected how far away the fruit should be when it was flinging past the player. It had to be at that perfect distance that felt natural.<\/p>\n

    Be aware of what platform you\u2019re using<\/h2>\n

    While VR often feels like its own platform, it actually varies quite significantly between devices.<\/p>\n

    \u201cAre you going to be on PC or console? Or are you using a standalone platform, like the Quest, where it\u2019s not connected to anything?\u201d Liam said. \u201cIf it\u2019s the latter, you have to recognize that it\u2019s essentially a mobile device. Powerful, sure. But it still has limitations.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    And those limitations might seriously affect how people feel while they\u2019re playing your game.<\/p>\n

    \"Fruit<\/p>\n

    \u201cBad performance might not kill a game on PC, but if your game runs poorly in VR, you\u2019ll make people physically ill,\u201d Liam said. \u201cImagine every time you walk through the door, and you have a frame drop. You might not notice that, but your brain will. And you\u2019ll start to feel ill. Even small drops.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    So test thoroughly to make sure that you\u2019re not getting any delays or lag. If there\u2019s just a little bit, your players might stop playing.<\/p>\n

    Track how people interact with objects<\/h2>\n

    \u201cAnalytics are great for every game, but those interaction analytics are super important for VR,\u201d Liam said. \u201cBeing able to track what they\u2019re enaging with and how long they\u2019re interacting with it \u2013 it\u2019s important. Once you have that info, you can ask the questions like: Are they missing anything? Is there anything they\u2019re avoiding? Do they stick to just one interaction?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    So it isn\u2019t just about metrics like retention. There\u2019s far more to look at when it comes to VR.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThere are lots of metrics that can give you important insights. But what people are doing with their hands is a hugely important aspect of VR, \u201cLiam added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Start your own VR journey<\/h2>\n

    Halfbrick uses analytics to track what\u2019s happening in their game. If you want to get set up quickly and start developing VR games yourself, you can use our free analytics platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Obsessed with making games that people will remember for a lifetime, Halfbrick decided to convert their hit title, Fruit Ninja, into a VR game. It was a natural evolution \u2013 people apparently really enjoy slicing fruit and swinging swords. After that success, they created Fruit Ninja VR 2 \u2013 adding more features and exploration to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":970,"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalgoodplay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}