Zander Dejah describes one of the Star Wars VR games he worked on as a high-fidelity “walking simulator.” And so, when he started working on prototypes, he aimed for something completely different.
He calls it “LO-KILL-MOTION”.
Vendetta Forever made a splash when the demo was released in August. Developed by Dejah’s Meatspace Interactive, this frantic puzzle shooter lets you move solely by teleporting to enemies you’ve killed, using their weapons. That’s ‘LO-KILL-MOTION’, and it’s a promising setup. In my recent preview, I said it was “a fitting tribute to these classic action films, while doing something unique to VR and delivering stylishly satisfying action.”
Launching next week on Quest and PlayStation VR2, I recently interviewed Dejah over a video call to find out more. As the largely sole developer — two friends helped with environmental art and the soundtrack — Vendetta Forever started as a side project. Dejah initially prototyped individual gameplay mechanics and began exploring ideas for a movement system.
“I thought, ‘How can I move from point to point in VR without using teleportation with laser pointers or analog stick movements?’ Because I’m tired of that, I prototyped the idea of teleporting to where enemies are and switching weapons with them. I built an arena with five guys that you can jump between while you’re at it for half an hour with killing them and stealing weapons, and do it again.”
Dejah liked this and started creating small scenarios that used this mechanic, and started testing ideas for different environments.
“What would be fun to zoom in on, what environments can I go up in? Fire escapes? Can I go over rooftops? Can I go through alleys? The ideas kept pouring in… The first level I ever did was based In my own kitchen I had a loose layout adjustment. I thought it would be cool to jump over the center island, go around this corner, go into this hallway and then turn around because there are two of them. men behind you.”
This culminated in a free demo called Bang Bang Slice, which was positively received and attracted a large audience through SideQuest. Ultimately, Dejah was approached by a number of publishers before agreeing to work with nDreams.
Given the innovative way to move through VR, I asked how Dejah went about designing so many different fast-paced scenes that rarely last longer than a minute.
“If I were to design a level that lasted five minutes, oh my god, I would lose focus way too quickly. That’s why all the scenes are extremely short and concise. I wanted to deliver a consistent level of energy where it’s very intense but few bumps, ups and downs, and hopefully a big finish on some of them.”
This involves distilling the core gameplay down to “its absolute purest” form, and Dejah drew inspiration from his favorite action movie scenes.
“What if I was in Wanted or a Stallone movie? I prototyped different little scenes from those movies, and they grew into kind of completely original levels. I took inspiration from games, movies, music videos, things that were in my house or in my house.” neighbourhood. I was on a plane and I thought, ‘I have to make an airplane level.’ I had to do it.”
Part of that approach involves creating levels that challenge Dejah personally. One Indiana Jones-esque level involved creating a VR whip “that didn’t feel terrible or too difficult,” while Vendetta Forever’s skydiving level uses no geometry at all.
It underlines the minimalist design philosophy underlying Vendetta Forever, which it has followed since the first prototype. Therefore, where possible, the presentation is visually sparse to focus on the essentials, without dialogue or cutscenes, and go straight to the action.
“I don’t want you to look around the environment because that’s not important. You should just see the enemies in front of you, the weapons you can use and the next place you need to go. The levels are a little more “artificial” ” on and I think for the better, but the core is still trying to keep you focused on your goals, not be visually overwhelming. Because mechanically it’s a bit overwhelming and intense.
“It’s a game that I want people to be able to pick up very seamlessly. If they say, ‘Hey, I want to play a 15- to 20-minute game because I’m tired and just got off work,’ I don’t want to start a game with a very long loading screen. I want something where you can jump right in, play as much as you want and get out.”
Dejah mentions how Vendetta Forever is often compared to Superhot and Pistol Whip, stating that the environments in those games are minimal because they aren’t the emphasis.
“Your attention is purely on the one thing that stands out, like the red or orange enemies. That was something I gravitated towards because it’s so pure, so mechanically satisfying, that I don’t really care what the environment looks like. You can stare at it, but it doesn’t offer the rewards of, ‘Oh, look at all these little details’ that a thousand artists have spent millions of hours cultivating so that you can run right past them.”
It’s a response to Dejah’s problem with modern games, and he believes many put significant effort into presentation while gameplay doesn’t get the same level of investment. After working on Vader Immortal and Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge at ILM Immersive, he took lessons from those Star Wars games into his new title.
“It was absolutely reactionary, Vendetta Forever is a reaction to working on it. At ILM and Lucasfilm, there is so much emphasis on impeccable graphical fidelity and compelling, deep narrative storylines. Vader Immortal is an experience with quite a compelling story, but the gameplay was an afterthought. The first episode was mostly a walking simulator with a really cool story, but almost no gameplay was added during the second and third episodes.
“In Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge we got more focus on the gameplay, but first and foremost it has to be like Star Wars. It has to tell a Star Wars story. Whether it is fun to play is almost an afterthought. I’m not. I mentioned that the great people I worked with at Lucasfilm didn’t care about the gameplay, but the focus was definitely on the story and narrative. After doing that for four years, I wanted something without a story that was just pure fun.”
Dejah states that Vader Immortal’s lightsaber dojo was his favorite part of the game, and he aims to create a game that is “infinitely replayable”. Playing through my demo, the intent is clearly presented through gameplay modifiers and online leaderboards.
It’s also funny to hear that Dejah is surprised with some podium scores.
“When my own scores get better, I think, ‘God, who cares?’ I need to get back in there, I’m number 20 at best on most of them. I need to get back to number one, but some of those scores I don’t know how they did that a few people are doing speedruns or things in ways that I can’t imagine. could never have imagined.”
As far as platform differences go, Vendetta Forever is aiming for 90fps on both Quest 2 and Quest 3. You won’t find any explicit changes between either version beyond dynamic resolution, and Dejah has achieved his goal of getting post-processing effects to work on the older versions. headphones.
On PlayStation VR2, that port is being handled by a different team, so Dejah couldn’t confirm performance specs. However, I’m told that PS VR2 players will benefit from graphical improvements, adaptive triggers, haptic feedback from the headset, eye tracking and real-time shadows.
Is there any chance of a Steam release? The answer is not no, but “we’ll see how the launch goes.”
Vendetta Forever hits the Meta Quest platform and PlayStation VR2 on October 24. If you pre-order on Quest you will unlock an exclusive bonus level.
Vendetta Forever pays tribute to classic action films on Quest and PSVR 2
Following last month’s demo launch, Vendetta Forever will bring the fast-paced VR action game to Quest and PlayStation VR2 next month.
