At last year’s SDCC, I spoke with TQ Jefferson, Chief Product Officer and Head of Creative at Servius, and Eugene Elkin, Project Lead and Lead Engineer, about Alien: Rogue Incursion. This year we were all back together again to talk about Alien: Rogue Incursion - Part One: Evolved Edition. What’s the difference between the two games, aside from the longer title? Alien: Rogue Incursion was a VR-only title released last year, and Part One: Evolved Edition is an upcoming non-VR version of that game designed for PC and consoles. At this year’s SDCC press roundtable, we focused on what it took to take a VR game back into a 2D screen space.
We began by discussing what it was like taking a VR movement system back into the traditional gaming space.
“It's the balance of combat. It's the first thing you have to look at. Obviously the first thing is where you've got to create the new movement system because we've been doing VR movement for a very long time so we knew all the nicks and crannies. Now we're finally free to do a lot of things that we couldn't really do in VR such as dashing or running really fast. It's just a limitation in VR. It wasn't necessarily something that was our number one choice of how the speed that you move at. Now those kind of barriers are gone. We're able to dash. We're able to move really fast. We're able to spin really quickly and have a much more precise aiming. Once we build those systems, once again those are brand new for us from growing up, then you go back and you start rebalancing this, you know, but what does it mean? Now it's lethal. We can make it even more lethal and really put a skill check on a player there because the skill check is a lot more normalized. I think it's more closer in range than it is in VR of aiming with a credit service is aiming with a gun. So that's definitely one of the first things we tackled and we've been doing it ever since to make sure it's extremely strong, satisfying, has a skill curve that grows.”
Some of the other changes gamers can expect?
“Well, largely just like Eugene was saying, the biggest changes are what we call the three Cs, Camera, Character, Control. So, for example, in VR, we can't tell a story the way that we would normally want to and like you can't move the camera anywhere, you can't like cut to this or swipe to that because you are the camera. So doing that to someone's head is just nauseating. So, what it did was opened the opportunity to move the camera a bit and show something maybe a little more dramatically than previously we were able to. And then in terms of controls, like Eugene was saying, there is a rebalancing across the board of how the combat works because movement is incredibly, this is also the character of the player, but movement is incredibly deliberate in VR. The pacing is slower and the range of motion is reduced. But once we go into PC console, not only are all those sort of guardrails either pushed out or removed completely, but the skill of the player in this particular genre is peak. Video game players have mastered first-person shooting. So we have to again rebalance for, are the Xeomorphs too easy, too hard, are they grippy too much, how are they attacking you? So all of these things are considerations for when you are re-envisioning a game and bringing it over to make it feel like it was, like we didn't just break the camera and throw it into a box and that was it. So what we wanted to do is take deliberate care to make the gameplay feel as responsive and as fun and entertaining in PC consoles as it was in VR.”
Can gamers expect new content for the non-VR version of the game?
The narrative beats are quite different because we finally do have control of the character and we're able to more effectively tell a story and do things that we couldn't quite do because yeah, you're limited with, you know, player nausea. There are also new behaviors from a xenomorph, the way they stalk their prey is a lot more effective. So it's not, there were a lot of elements already of what they could do and how they're following up to the player and getting to them. We don't just spawn xenomorphs somewhere in the room with a player. They're simulated behind walls even if they're not there yet, they may come in to investigate and hear a noise that might traverse long, long areas, really, you know, far distances just to get to the player. Now they will actually stalk even farther, they will hide, they will wait for their numbers to go up and then they will readjust in different areas that hopefully that maybe you go into this corner and they're going to pounce on you there. So these features and some of this content is brand new for this version.”
Did you have to make changes to the audio since it’s not longer a game made for headsets?
“Oh yeah, yeah, complete remix of the audio for 5.1. Our audio team is amazing and they did such a great job with VR and they got, World of the Slaves got right to work in remixing all the audio and just trying to, and they come from AAA PC console so they understand the exactitudes of audio in that space and they just sort of brought everything that they knew to bear to make the game sound as amazing as it could be and especially for Alien as a franchise, audio is so important. I've often said on record that it is second only to the Xenomorph itself in terms of importance for the storytelling so being able to recreate that sense of steam sounding like a Xenomorph is right behind you and maybe getting you to look twice or maybe fire off a shot out of just sheer tension and nerves, not easy to do but you feel the team just really applied themselves and did something amazing with it. It's really beefy now. It's really cranked that bass out a little.”
What do you think games will feel when playing the new version of the game?
“Well, you know, fear, tension, anxiety, excitement, those were all sort of levers that we were working to incorporate into the game, you know, I think at a high level what we had set out to achieve as a project goal was we want people coming away believing that Servios understands this franchise, that we understand the Xenomorph, how to make a game with Xenomorphs and that we want to see Servios do more. That to me is the highest goal, if we leave people wanting more then I think we've done a pretty good job. Number one, of course, is having fun because everybody does have that different threshold of what is horror and what is action and that balance, but if you have fun that's obviously what every game should be trying to accomplish. And then the story, right, if you're a fan of the franchise, just get to experience it and step into it, that's also, you know, that's I think a big advantage, something to do it in real time, that when you watch a movie you get to really appreciate it, but whether it's VR or flash screen, you know, traditional console games, to step into it and to play it and because it is authentic to the universe, you get an experience that you can't just get from passive media.”
How will the story-telling be different in this version since gamers expect stories to be told differently in VR than in regular games?
“We want it to capture as much immersion as possible because that has been our strong suit as a company for the past decade. The cutscenes have been extended and improved significantly because, like I mentioned a little bit earlier, there's severe restrictions with VR hardware, how you can tell the story and most of the time what you result in doing is it's more passive, there's something that's happening there but it doesn't interact with you. Here we stick to first person because we want it to be immersive, but with a lot more freedom so all that content is brand new in terms of all the cutscenes and how the story is told and with the help of emotion, you know, emotion is much better portrayed when you're actually seeing your character doing something when you're not just uploading it.”
Will the console version of the game provide a longer gameplay experience?
“I think it depends on, largely what we've seen is it depends on the player, I've seen people play through our game in 8 hours, I've seen people play through it in 17 hours. So, we anticipate that because players have mastered shooting in PC and console that that would make it a slightly shorter experience than VR, but that's why we also do all the work of re-envisioning the controls, the character movement, how Xenos behave in the world, the lurking. So, what we're doing is we're not padding the gameplay at all, what we're doing is adjusting it, thinking about that consumer, how they play and trying to make adjustments accordingly so that they have a good time when they're playing it.”
Is there any kind of new content that someone that played through the VR game would want to do, that is, play the console game to get more lore or collectibles or anything along those lines that's been added?
“Well, I think a lot of people that play in VR, they play the PC console version just to see how it controls and what the difference in feel between platforms are. And also to spot the differences along the way that we've made like to the scripted sequences, to how the Xenomorphs behave, to how the weapons work, so there's maybe a dozen small things that we've done all throughout the game to then make it feel deliberate for the PC console experience.”
I'm just curious on the PC version, are you going to have keyboard and mouse support?
“Oh yeah, yeah. Completely worth that. Yeah, 100%.”