What can you tell us about some of the things that really come through in Doom 3: VR Edition that only Virtual Reality can allow? But in VR, things can get really immersive. Once you take that shotgun into your hands (literally, if you have an Aim Controller!) you know it’s time to do some demon-slaying damage.”ĭoom 3 at times can be a little dark and can be scary for some. There’s a lot of tension slowly built up to this point, but once things start popping off, you feel a visceral shift in the game. My favorite part of the game is in the first act: that moment when the big event kicks off, people are getting possessed left and right, and Mars City plunges into chaos. That gave us a great foundation to work from, and allowed us to put energy into building additional VR-only features, such as fully 3D weapons, a totally diegetic user interface, and subtle quality upgrades such as the weapon-mounted flashlight, laser sights, and comfort settings. DOOM 3’s strong FPS mechanics helped in a lot of ways because VR naturally fits that sort of intense, highly focused first-person perspective. Making a game like Doom 3, but for VR, what were some of the challenges and surprises that you came across, and do you have a favorite part of the game in VR that you cannot wait for the players to experience themselves?īringing any game designed for one medium to another medium will have its challenges. We feel it’s a great offering for players who are hungry for deep, high-quality VR content, as well as an extremely exciting step forward for the VR games industry at large.” Not only does it sport some polished new features that tailor the experience especially to VR, it includes all the original DLC, which adds up to over 15 hours of AAA quality gameplay. It’s a joint development project between Archiact and Bethesda/id Software: a true PS VR adaptation that merges the original game’s legendary horror action with the in-your-face intensity of virtual reality. “We’ve been saying this all throughout the project, but now that it’s live and out in the world, DOOM 3: VR Edition truly is one of the major highlights of our VR development career. It’s about building your expertise, but also leaving room for our design and development to grow while the industry is still figuring itself out.” Your newest game is part of a franchise that many know and have a place in their hearts, Doom 3: VR Edition for the PlayStation VR. But with that being said, with each project, we strive to bring our expertise over the years forward, while keeping our design and processes malleable. As of April 28, 2021, we’ve been in the VR/AR industry for exactly 8 years, and it’s still very much in its infancy.

“I would say that formula is still being explored and discovered. What have you found to be the working formula in creating content for Virtual Reality? All the progress it’s made over the years feels like the birth of a new medium, especially as it becomes integrated into everyday lives.” Archiact has been known to develop some pretty good games in VR from Evasion, and Freediver to even publishing some good ones as well such as Darknet, Blasters of the Universe, Smashbox Arena, The Pierhead Arcade, and Waddle Home. It seemed inevitable that virtual reality would become mainstream, so I’ve kept my eye on it ever since. It was a crucial point early in computing where graphics were starting to be rendered in 3D real-time, and the imagination of live, fully simulated worlds that could truly feel like other realities took off. When I first learned about it from a newspaper back in 1991, I had this sudden epiphany of the possibilities to come. “Well, it was actually the moment of being introduced to the concept of VR in general. I oversee the products we develop at Archiact.” Do you have a favorite VR moment that really got you excited and you knew that you had to work with VR in some way? “”Hi! I’m Ken Thain, Executive Producer at Archiact. Would you please introduce yourself and what you do at Archiact?

Interview with Executive Producer, Ken Thain

Doom 3 vr edition