We’re again! My identify is Blake Stone, Lead Designer at VitruviusVR, the event crew behind Mervils & Shadow Legend VR on the unique PS VR. We’re very excited to launch our latest title Arken Age, a single-player VR journey set in a terraformed sci-fi fantasy world.
Within the sport you interact in full physics-based fight utilizing Arkenite infused swords & weapons; and may freely discover the densely crammed environments below siege by Hyperion’s neural corruption. Arken Age has a full 15-hour story pushed marketing campaign, was constructed from the ground-up for PlayStation VR2, and is launching tomorrow, January 16.
10 years of creating for PlayStation VR
In 2015, we had been demoing an early model of Mervils: A VR Journey, our third-person VR platforming sport on the Immersed Convention in Toronto, Canada once we had been approached by Richard Marks, Head of Sony’s Magic Lab on the time. He couldn’t inform us an excessive amount of, however mentioned that his crew “had one thing actually cool in works for VR” and that Mervils could possibly be an important match for it. He later despatched us a prototype of the Mission Morpheus headset which might later be renamed PlayStation VR, and since then now we have by no means appeared again.
We launched Mervils in 2017 and later launched Shadow Legend VR in 2020, a first-person medieval sword-fighting sport, and we realized a ton from the PlayStation VR group’s suggestions on these video games that now we have immediately utilized to Arken Age.
From Shadow Legend we realized that gamers cherished the Climbing Picks each for his or her fluidity of motion in VR and haptics on impression. For Arken Age we took the Climbing Picks one step additional and bodily built-in them into the gamers forearms and added the power to flick your wrists upwards to deploy them at any time in the course of the sport.
The Climbing Picks is just one instance, however there’s a lot extra included within the sport. We additional refined our customized VR stock system, weapon crafting, character interactions, distinctive fight options, exploration parts, and our design philosophy behind constructing high-fidelity worlds in VR.
Dynamic Foveated Rendering & breath-taking HDR graphics
With a view to take full benefit of the PlayStation VR2 we labored exhausting to make sure Arken Age’s rendering, shaders, particle-effects, and post-effects had been suitable with Dynamic Foveated Rendering (DFR) for the perfect picture decision attainable. Though, picture high quality just isn’t the one good thing about the PS VR2, with the colourful world of the Bio-Chasm in Arken Age, it actually showcases the significance of HDR graphics in VR with the intense blue waters, lush foliage, and emissive power bloom from Arkenite weapons, buildings, & the robotic Hyperion troopers on this planet.
VR weaponry & customized adaptive triggers
When creating Arken Age our largest focus was on real looking physics-based fight and one-of-a-kind VR weaponry; every with their very own distinctive Adaptive Set off haptics. Within the sport you start with 3 absolutely customizable & paintable weapons and may gather over 30 distinctive weapon mods in whole. Every attachment is customized for VR gameplay, starting from the Hyperion God Axe; a throwing axe that makes use of PS VR2’s eye-tracking & might be recalled at your will, the Tempered Cutter; a deployable noticed blade that dismembers enemy limbs, and the Astral Ballista; a high-powered chargeable bow, to call just a few. As well as, eye-tracking is used to allow the sniper scopes within the sport, simply shut one eye when your head is near a scope and watch the magic occur!
Uncover the story of Bio-Chasm & your full VR alien physique
In Arken Age you’re a organic alien creation, constructed with full locomotion and the power to freely bounce, crouch, climb, & swim. You’ll be able to view your full physique in first-person and holster all weapons bodily onto your character.
Your journey begins in Celestial Custodian’s Tower on the shores of the Bio-Chasm, a terraformed realm created to reap Arkenite Power. Its divine founder, the Grand Arborist, has ceased cultivation of your planet and each transmission despatched to him has been met with abject silence. In Arken Age you uncover the reality behind the disappearance of the Grand Arborist, forge alliance with the Nara alien race, take up arms towards Hyperion’s legion of corrupted troopers, and learn the way your character; who is an element Nara and half Hyperion tech, matches into this world.
Arken Age takes the participant via a full 15-hour journey, combines each physics-based sword fight with long-range gun fight, has a wide-range of customized VR interactions, epic VR boss fights, and offers the participant full freedom to discover the dense environments of the Bio-Chasm.
We wish to thank everybody within the PlayStation VR group for his or her help over time and we hope Arken Age will probably be one thing PS VR2 followers can take pleasure in this Jan 16 and for the years to return!
