Split/Switch

Inspiration

The current state of VR tends to isolate the user from their surroundings – an experience that is wonderful to get away from the world but is far from ideal for hanging out in real life. Most games require either multiple headsets (1 per player) and local multiplayer is still rare. Even innovative local asynchronous multiplayer games like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes require that one player stays in the HMD for the majority of the game.

We are designing a new type of multiplayer which we call Split/Switch gaming, intended to maximize teamwork and engagement between multiple players using limited headset resources. The “split” represents the play style – one player will be in the headset (but without a controller) while the other player will hold the controller (while not wearing the headset). At various times throughout the game, players will be forced to “switch” with the other play - meaning the headset player with the headset will need to switch roles with the controller player.

Inspired by the core gaming concept behind WarioWare, Split/Switch players will have to successfully complete several microgames in a row, punctuated by a transition that will change the way the players are continuing the game (such as the Switch). We innovate on WarioWare’s original concept not only by translating the game into a VR space, but by making teamwork a critical component to player success.

What we learned

So much. Every single person on the team at least coded one of their own games.

How you built

We decided to do a microgame project because it allowed each person to code and develop their own experience, even though our levels vary from complete beginner to actual developer. We spent a very long time getting our idea finetuned and building our architecture so that we had a clear idea of what games would work in the headset and how they would interact with the whole program. After that, we worked independently to create our own games, with a couple of our more experienced developers taking over the general game cycle and related code.

What we would like to change

Originally, we wanted to build for the quest. Some last minute problems prevented it from getting built to the quest correctly, so we'll be using it primarily for the rift for now.

Built With

• c#-unity-quest-oculus-vrtk