Today we’re looking at the clever design of
Stormland’s weapons, locomotion, and open-world. Today we’re looking at the clever design of Stormland’s
weapons, locomotion, and open-world.Editor’s Note:
Now that we’ve rebooted our Inside XR Design series, we’re re-publishing them for those that missed our older entries.
You can find the complete video below, or continue reading for an adapted text version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AILowWzXJEEavailable on Oculus PCStormland is an open-world action-adventure game with co-op support from Insomniac Games. The game is Revive, which can be played on SteamVR via check out our full review here.
.By that time the developer had built 3 VR games. That experience shows through clearly in many of Stormland’s
cleverly designed systems and interactions.
In this article we’re going to explore the game’s unique take on weapon reloading and inventory management, its use of multi-modal locomotion, and its novel open-world design. Let’s start with weapons.
WeaponsLike many VR games, one of the primary modes of interaction in Stormland
is between the player and their weapons. This works as you would expect. You pull out your gun from a holster and can either hold it in one or both hands, then pull the trigger. This gun-ripping serves as a way to replenish ammo and collect resources after a battle. In that sense, this gun-ripping pulls double-duty as a way to replenish ammo and collect useful resources after a battle.
Most gun games in VR use magazines to replenish a weapon’s ammo, and while this can certainly work well and feel realistic, it’s also fairly complex and prone to error, especially when the player is under pressure.
Dropping a magazine to the ground in the middle of a firefight and needing to bend over to pick it up might feel reasonable in a slower-paced simulation game, but Stormland aims for a run-and-gun pace, and therefore opted for a reloading interaction that’s visceral, fun, and easy to perform, no matter which weapon the player is using.
This ‘ripping’ interaction, combined with some great visual and sound effects, is honestly fun no matter how many times you do it.
Interestingly, Stormland’s Lead Designer, Mike Daly, told me he wasn’t convinced when one of the game’s designers first pitched the idea for ripping guns apart. This designer, working with a programmer, came up with the concept and convinced Mike Daly and the other members of the Stormland team to implement it. Dropping the weapon itself is more likely to stop the game from moving forward than dropping a magazine. Stormland designers decided not to penalize players who dropped their guns by having them float for a short time. This gives the player the chance to get it back without having to bend down and pick it up. This is a great way to maintain realistic interactivity with the weapons while avoiding the problem of players losing weapons in the heat of combat or by accidentally not holstering them.
Allowing the weapons to float also has the added benefit of making inventory management easier. If your weapon holsters are already full but you need to shuffle your guns, the floating mechanic works almost like a helpful third-hand to hold onto items for you while you make adjustments.
Multi-modal LocomotionLocomotion design in VR is complex because of the need to keep players comfortable while still achieving gameplay goals. Being an open-world game, Stormland
needed an approach to locomotion that would allow players to move large distances, both horizontally and vertically.
Instead of sticking with just one approach, the game mixes distinct modes of locomotion and encourages players to switch between them on the fly.
Stormland
uses thumbstick movement when you’re on firm ground, climbing when you need to scale tall structures, and gliding for large scale movement across the map.Thumbstick movement works pretty much how you’d expect, but climbing and gliding have some smart design details worth talking about.Climbing in Stormland works very similarly to what you may have seen in other VR games, with the exception that your hand doesn’t need to be directly touching a surface in order to climb. The wall can be ‘grabbed’ from a distance of several feet. It is easier to move quickly because it requires less precision in hand placement. It also keeps the player’s face from being right up against the wall, which is more comfortable, and means they don’t need to strain their neck
quite as much when looking up for their next hand-hold.And then there’s
Stormland’s
gliding locomotion which lets players quickly travel from one end of the map to another. This fast movement seems like it would be a recipe for dizziness, but that doesn’t seem to be the case–and I’ll talk more about why in a moment.With these three modes of locomotion–thumbstick movement, climbing, and gliding–Stormland
does an excellent job of making players feel like they’re free to fluidly move wherever they want and whenever they want, especially because of the way they work in tandem.