Polyarc CEO Tam Armstrong on Oculus Quest and Moss Book Two (Q&A)

Ane of the many ways Oculus is getting people excited about its new Quest headset is demonstrating how a number of high-quality games on Rift will be bachelor as launch titles when Quest is available this Leap. This is an of import bulletin, not just because it helps demonstrate the level of quality Oculus is dedicated to with this new headset, but likewise because it means existing developers are excited about the new platform.

To learn more near the evolution procedure for this headset, I sat down with Tam Armstrong, CEO of Polyarc Games. This team is responsible for Moss, an emotional and heady VR adventure you can play on nearly every VR headset available today and i of the launch titles for Oculus Quest.

Russell Holly, Mobile Nations editor: You were actually part of the narrative and lore blueprint in Moss. Tin you lot start by talking about the overall globe Moss is set in? It's pretty clear something large happened that we don't hear nearly in the core story.

Tam Armstrong: Something did happen! To the inhabitants of the world, their understanding is at that place was a race of giants that used to occupy the land they now occupy. That's what leaves behind the artifacts like the swords in the swamp and the statues on the beach. In fact, if you closely y'all might have noticed the foundation for the castle you're approaching at the end is built on the foundation of much larger stones. One could surmise that it used to be a tower of some kind for the previous individuals that lived at that place.

So those beings are totally gone now?

As far as the inhabitants know, that'southward correct. They are creatures of lore, no one alive today that you interact with has seen them.

Talk to me a petty about building this game. How long did it take for you to get from the initial idea to a shipping?

Nosotros started out by coming up with our pattern constraints. We knew we wanted a game with a reachable infinite and a character that was the advisable size to navigate that space. We started that way and themed it from at that place. Once nosotros had those constraints and that theme it ended up being these minor animals that nosotros built a globe around. At the time, we were open to discussions most these creatures being aliens or robots or toys or annihilation, only the theme we chose actually resonated with the states.

The prototype we built from that starting point took nearly three months, which was a version of Moss that is very like to the one you have played mechanically speaking. At the time, Quill couldn't jump or climb, and at that place was only one enemy. Only at that place were puzzles, there was gainsay, there was exploration, there were storytelling elements. The book was in the original epitome. That was fully playable and barely textured and kind of advertising-hoc sound designed.

We started working on some other things that we haven't announced all the same while working on these parts, just the full production of the game took around 14 months.

Your development process for VR headset support has been in a chain, supporting ane headset and then adding another and another until we get to today. Have you lot institute any i headset has been easier to back up?

Each one has differences, and had its own unique features and advantages nosotros've had to address. I couldn't say any 1 has been distinctly better or worse, just the of import thing for us was non trying to do them all simultaneously. As a small studio with a express engineering and design staff, there'south a cost every time you lot want to motion over to the adjacent headset and exercise it justice. That was very important to u.s., that we treated all of the platforms with equal respect and treated all of the players on those platforms with equal respect. Nosotros didn't desire to slap anything together.

For instance, shipping on PSVR first allowed u.s.a. to focus on thumbstick controls and getting the game really performant so it could run well on the original PlayStation 4 and run fifty-fifty meliorate on the Pro. The 3 months in between that launch and the PC launch we were working on information technology the unabridged time to make sure the touchpad version for the Vive controllers worked really well and everything worked well on Rift. We liked working on them all just were happy to infinite them out because of the work that each required.

And yous're going to be a launch game for Oculus Quest!

Yes! Nosotros're very excited near it considering it has great controllers and a nifty course factor with being untethered. We think that experience where you can actually get into the game and savor it will be dainty and streamlined. Hopefully it will be a nice streamlined experience getting into Moss, and people will enjoy playing information technology.

Up to the official announcement, how much time have you had with the Quest headset?

Nosotros have a few Dev kits in the office already, where there are demos running and test builds. We've made progress on getting Moss prepare for Quest, only don't nonetheless accept a fully playable version. That's in progress nevertheless.

In John Carmack's keynote, he talked a chip about the operation limitations of Quest. Where Oculus as a visitor is promising "Rift quality" experiences, Carmack's thoughts were a lot more subdued. Do you forsee Moss needing to brand whatever significant compromises to run on Quest?

I think nosotros'll brand adjustments, simply Moss was purposefully designed to be highly constrained. The way the camera works, the way the lighting works, we feel similar in that location'south going to exist work to do of course, like there was moving to any of the other platforms, only it'south zippo that we're extremely concerned about. We're much more excited most having that portable six degrees of freedom, which is very motivating.

I have to ask - is in that location more story coming? Can nosotros wait a Book Two?

Oh I sure hope so. We tried difficult when doing the globe building to make sure there was a history with layers, the giants that existed and the characters of Quill's story. There'southward significance to the library and the books within information technology which tell the story of that world. We set up it all upwardly that way because we knew we wanted to have room to breathe and room to tell a bigger story of Quill's larger journey.

Moss Volume One is, in all the proficient ways, just the first. It was just the story of her going from being a kid to realizing that she needed to be a hero. What she does from that point forward is the subject of the entire rest of it, which should dwarf this part. So yes, nosotros have a lot more room and we're excited to tell the rest of this story.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/interview-polyarc-ceo-tam-armstrong-oculus-quest-and-moss-book-two

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