How Game Mechanics Change In Virtual Reality
Here are four key examples:
- movement system limitations
- ways to avoid movement system limitations
- body ergonomics and tracking system
- motion-controller possibilities
There are a number of ways to avoid the motion sickness effect while completing game scenarios and still to move around game actively. A frequent response is movement via teleportation. Some players, however, find teleportation breaks the feeling of immersion.
However, some game developers decide to challenge the motion sickness issue by creating completely new ground for game mechanics. Take the project Budget Cuts for example. The whole game is based on the teleportation feature. It is not perceived as a least-evil solution but rather plays an integral part of the game. Thus, the developers implemented teleportation into game scenarios in a way that fits inside the world.
Isn’t it a cool move: to turn avoiding a limitation into a main feature of the gameplay?
...Players can also be constrained in movement by having a virtual platform to stand on. While the player can’t move beyond the platform, the platforms themselves can move in space. That’s how Hover Junkers does it. These are all different ways to reduce the possibility of motion sickness by making it one of the central features of the game.
Tracking systems introduce sometimes quite interesting game practices, for example, doing actual squats and dodging bullets. When doing physical puzzles a user is expected to place their controllers in different positions. New experiences can be created with fairly basic actions as well. For example, picking apples and “eating” them by bringing your hand to your mouth to regenerate health, or moving an arm to a shoulder to grab a sword.
In the end, locations and environments in VR become more impressive.
See the full story here: https://uploadvr.com/virtual-reality-changes-game-mechanics/