Game DevelopmentPostmortem

The Biumbis: Cartoon-style VR that Won’t Make You Sick

August 19, 2016 — by Industry Contributions

main

Game DevelopmentPostmortem

The Biumbis: Cartoon-style VR that Won’t Make You Sick

August 19, 2016 — by Industry Contributions

We were nominated for “Best Kids and Family Game” so… there is our target audience! - Pablo NavajasClick To Tweet

“We are based in Argentina, the land of “Yerba Mate”, “Dulce de Leche”, “Asado” and the most beautiful women in the world! Our team consists of five crazy yet talented guys, each one with their pros and cons… Mostly cons. :P” - says Pablo Martin Navajas, the co-founder of 3OGS, as he shares the story of their VR creation The Biumbis, that has traded the common realistic VR games look for a cute and cartoonish one. 






The Biumbis: funny and appealing VR

The project started after two VR experiments, one of them becoming a VR advert game for events, and our desire to explore VR technology applied to videogames.

We wanted to develop a funny and appealing game rather than follow the current horror and hyperrealism trend of VR. So we chose the “crazy cartoony path” using vivid colors and “naive” sounds and music.

CharacterSelection
Cartoon vibes instead of horror or realism.
We choose the “crazy cartoony path” using vivid colors and “naive” sounds and music design.

Simple and easy to understand mechanics applied to fantasy-like characters and environments with a simple yet engaging story behind. Most of the inspiration behind this particular universe comes from our cartoon love heritage, bringing back to life our inner children, and the beautiful colors and textures of nature. The original idea mutated from a musical game into a more of a “runner” kind of game. The musical idea came from the ad game but we wanted our creation to be a full videogame experience, not just an “advertising tool”. So we began exploring mechanics that would be fun but not uncomfortable in VR, with motion sickness as a major issue in mind.




Gallery6
Initially planned as a musical game, The Biumbis mutated into a runner.

Casual Connect: contacts and feedback from peers and veterans

When confident enough, we began making trailers and teaser videos for our community. With those videos we applied for the Indie Prize at Casual Connect USA 2016.

IndiePrize
Not winning in Indie Prize USA 2016 didn’t stop the team: the showcase happened to be a source of valuable business contacts.

Getting selected as finalists was a big rush of positive energy for all the team. So we went to San Francisco to attend the event and showcase our “VR kid”. The prize itself was a nice thing (that we didn’t win eventually) but the most productive aspect of this particular event was about major business contacts and the great feedback given by other developers and industry veterans. All that translated to big improvements to the game and a great boost for us.

Being in that particular environment was a significant and productive investment. We had meetings with some big companies and saw real business opportunities. It made us believe more in our project, as well as in ourselves as a team! So we came back to Argentina and began working harder on the game to finish it as soon as possible.

The most productive aspect of this particular event was about major business contacts and the great feedback given by other developers and industry veterans.

It´s very important to participate in these kind of events to receive feedback from professionals and have a blast with your own kind.

KidsPlaying2
Feedback and fun are the main reason to go to events, according to The Biumbis developers.

tough cultural environment

Throughout the development process we have learned a lot of things related not only to VR but also to the development process itself. Being a young studio, we are in our early stages and learning the hard way.

This is because we are in a country where things are a “little bit difficult”. The uncertain economic landscape and lack of technological culture, not only with common people, but also in big groups of investors and government departments, few real schools or places where you can study game development or anything related to entertainment…

Uncertain economic landscape, lack of tech culture, few real schools or places where you can study game development.

All these “bumps on the road” made things more difficult for us… But being optimistic makes us both tough and creative when it comes to using limited resources, and we ended up being a very flexible and agile team.

Attending events like Casual Connect not just gave us amazing feedback to use for improvement of the whole game experience, but also helped us see the target audience for our game more clearly. We were nominated for “Best Kids and Family Game” so… there is our target audience!

KidsPlaying3
“Here’s our target audience!”

Right now we have reserved the next few months for production and givingThe Biumbis a high priority. We are growing our team and putting all our hopes into this project. We are very confident about the game and excited about what can happen in the near future. So we are high on adrenaline right now!

“VR is not just 3D with two cameras”

Our experience, limited as such, gave us some knowledge and made us wiser so we want to share some of that wisdom.

“VR is not just 3D with two cameras”




Having a 3D artist and someone who can code for Unity it’s not enough. First of all, you need to think hard and be very honest with yourself asking this question: Is this game or experience worth being in VR? If the game can be played with a joypad or mouse and keyboard… Why would you put it in VR? You may think “Well it´s not the same…” or “I want to see things closer and be within my fantastic and awesome world…” - not enough… Sorry.

If the game can be played with a joypad or mouse and keyboard… Why would you put it in VR?

Know that a VR headset is not a cheap piece of hardware that people can buy just to try. So why a person spending 700 - 800 u$d on a VR headset would spend a couple of extra bucks buying your game? You need to give a better reason than “a pretty world to be in” to your customers.
Another big issue that it isn´t easy to solve, is “MOTION SICKNESS”. This is a major problem when it comes to game design. Camera placement and movement is crucial. You can easily confuse the players brain and make them sick instantaneously. Our piece of advice here it´s this: Constant low speed + limited use of space tracking.

To avoid giving players motion sickness: Constant low speed + limited use of space tracking.

Think of it this way: “You are sitting on a chair, still, and in the game you control the head of a 1st person shooter. Now try to aim (joypad or mouse and keyboard) while moving laterally and, to make things interesting, try looking somewhere else at the same time… “INSTANT PUKING!!!” - your brain gets so confused trying to make sense of what it sees and what is actually happening to your body (still seated motionless on a chair, or even standing) that you get sick right there… it´s amazingly quick and uncomfortable.

Gallery5
Getting sick in VR? Amazingly quick and uncomfortable.

GUI… or Not To GUI

The first experiment we made was a dungeon arcade-like game were the player was a girl trapped in a corner, getting attacked by monsters. We needed to show the player information regarding ammo and things like that.

Being inexperienced with VR, we designed a GUI with a “screen mindset” using the corners of a rectangle for information placement… we felt really stupid when we put on the headset for the first time and saw pieces of 2D assets floating on space, and really badly placed. That taught us that 3D space in VR is “kind of tricky” so beware when it comes to GUI. Use all the space around the player and think how you can represent information with 3D “physical” objects.

Gallery1
In VR try to place information using the objects, and not “screen approach”.

“Getting emotional. This project means a lot to us. The success of the game would be a huge victory for us and our studio because it would be the first full videogame published… “, the developers say. “Like our little son going to school on his first day. Making us proud! And like proud parents, we believe in our child and we are putting all our hopes on him. Of course he can do drugs and get bad grades in school so… not so proud there, but we still believe in him. “




Comments




Industry Contributions

logo
SUPPORTED BY