VR Sea Legs – Update 1

I originally planned to pitch an immersive, story-based RPG. Our team is tremendously excited about it – we’ve prepared pitch documents and financials, have developed the storyline, progressed through our first rounds of design. The game has everything we want to play: puzzles, combat, narrative… so what happened?

The fact is: the Launchpad weekend experience was amazing. I started thinking more about what the VR community needs – not just for the consumers, but for the creators as well. We wanted to find a way to help all of us make our future projects successful. Immersive storytelling is important to us and we will do this project… but what the VR world needs most right now is a solution to VR simulator sickness. We’ve been talking about developing something like this for a while, and the enthusiasm from all of you cemented the deal.

Plus I got my new favorite hoodie.

We plan to create a VR Sea Legs solution for our LaunchPad 2018 submission.

What are some of the factors in VR sickness?

Those new to simulators tend to be more susceptible to VR sickness, as are those of above- or below-average height. Additionally, older consumers – generally 50+ – seem to have more difficulty in overcoming the boundaries between virtual and actual reality. Other factors, like refresh rate, resolution, bad posture, also play a role.

In our research, it appears that one of the most significant factors in simulator sickness is the disconnect between what you think your body is doing and what you’re seeing. Screen shaking, involuntary motion like jumping or falling, and other unintentional camera-snatching staggers the user and shakes their sense of balance. Part of our solution is to require intention for every movement, so that players must choose when and how to move; the other part is developing a low-stakes, low-intensity introduction and gradually ramping up their experience to help develop their comfort in virtual spaces.

Looks like we won’t be needing these anymore.

We’ll have more soon! – the 3lb Games Dev Team