Moving around in VR isn’t a solved problem. In 5 years, the best games and experiences won’t be using point-and-click teleportation. At GDC 2017 last week, I saw two promising new types of experimental locomotion in VR. First was Sprint Vector, which greatly surprised me at its comfort, speed, and fun. And then there was VELOCIBEASTS.

The teleporting movement we see in many of today’s VR games is a crutch. We all know how we want to be able to move in VR: quickly, interactively, intuitively, and comfortably. But how is the question. And until we have an answer, many developers are turning to teleportation. But we need experimentation to continue, and thankfully developers like CHURROBOROS are taking on that mantle.

While it’s technically a type of teleportation—which I have issues with as immersion breaker—the locomotion technique in Velocibeasts is moving away from the worse parts of teleportation by adding increased interactivity, more freedom of movement, and direct integration into gameplay.

The game’s method of locomotion doesn’t just get players through a traditional game world, it’s tied directly into how the game is played. In this case, the player’s weapons can be thrown like discs, and the player can teleport to that disc at any time.

This makes Velocibeasts’ locomotion immediately more immersive because it gets your body into the game in a way that lazily pointing your controller and clicking a button does not. Each movement is a conscious choice because you need to do something beyond just deciding where to go—you need to effectively aim your throw in both direction and distance, something you can actually get better at over time with practice, by honing your physical throwing ability

This method also enhances freedom of player movement in a way that point-and-click locomotion cannot; the ability to freely move along the Z-axis. Point-and-click locomotion requires your cursor to intersect with some part of the game world, which defines the Z height of your teleport. With Velocibeasts’ thrown approach, players can quickly and easily teleport themselves 100 feet forward and 50 feet upward, unrestricted by where the game’s geometry is placed. Importantly, as above, this capability feeds back into the gameplay.

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When talking about VR locomotion, I always feel it’s important to point this out: Churroboros didn’t invent thrown teleportation. As with all VR locomotion, and just like Survios’ Sprint Vector, they’ve borrowed and remixed other methods and experimented to add their own flavor. This experimentation is healthy and should absolutely continue.

The VR games best making use of teleportation locomotion today are doing the same things as Velocibeasts—ensuring that the locomotion is core to the gameplay and is interactive. And if there’s a narrative, it should be part of that too, not just a crutch to get players through an otherwise normal game world.

budget-cutsTake Budget Cuts for instance. The lore of the game revolves around the fictional company ‘Trans Corp’ which “develops and refines space-time technology to perfection,” and is equipping spies with their tech to infiltrate competitors. I previously called Budget Cut’s locomotion a “lesson for VR developers:

Navigation is done with a portalling/blinking system, which essentially means you choose where you want to go and you appear there. We’ve seen systems like this before, and they work quite well to allow players to cross large virtual distances without any motion sickness. But without any context, portaling/blinking navigation can seem out of place. Budget Cuts instead makes sense of the system by making it part of the gameplay and the game lore.

It works like this: the player holds two futuristic-looking multi-tools which can be used to grab objects and store inventory items inside of them. The multi-tools can also turn into a teleportation gun by clicking on the thumb-pad of the Vive Pre controller. From here, the player can shoot the portal gun which lobs a blue ball into the world. This ball will bounce off of surfaces until it hits the ground. Once planted, the multi-tool shows a small circular window of the new location on a floating display which can be articulated using your hands. When you want to teleport to the location, you squeeze the side buttons on the Vive controller and the window into the new location envelops you, suddenly transporting you to the new space.

This system is quick and seamless, and smartly ties into the gameplay, grounding it within the world and making it seem sensible rather than out of place. For instance, at certain points in the game you’ll be blocked by a locked door. If, however, you’re able to find a vent which you can fire your portal ball through, then you’ll be able to teleport to the other side even though you couldn’t fit yourself through the vent.

The portal preview window is also useful; you’ll be trying to avoid patrolling robots, and looking through the window to make sure the coast is clear, before actually teleporting, is a must for remaining undetected. In the game you’ll find yourself lobbing the portal ball around corners and then holding the window up to look in every direction before jumping through.

As for Velocibeasts, it’s still quite early. Developer Churroboros says the title is in development with a planned release date at the end of the year. And while I’ve praised the game’s approach to locomotion, I had a fair deal of feedback which I gave to a member of the development team after playing it.

The novel locomotion method is a good step in the right direction and a great seed of an idea, but the present attempt to turn what still feels like an experiment into a full blown multiplayer game feels like a misstep to me.

Even in a basic mouse + keyboard FPS, where all the control and locomotion issues have been long worked out, creating compelling, balanced gameplay is still challenging. Because the experimental locomotion in Velocibeasts is core to its gameplay, finding multiplayer balance for compelling gameplay is going to be doubly hard while continuing to try to hone the locomotion system. Every time the locomotion is tweaked, the balance could be thrown off, and vice versa.

My feeling is that—like Budget Cuts—Churroboros may be better off fleshing out this experimental locomotion and the gameplay therein in a single player game or demo before committing to the challenges of multiplayer.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Andrew McEvoy

    When is the full Budget Cuts game coming out? Ive not heard anything since the demo :/

    • J.C.

      Yeah, I looked on their steam discussions and they do post in there. They’re pushing for a longer game than the usual two-hours-done that most of the biggest name games currently have, and it’s taking them longer than they thought.

      • Andrew Mcevoy

        Fair enough. Sounds like we’re in for a treat whenever they get it done.

  • Shawn Gatschene

    Trance VR is a free demo that has full locomotion something like Onward and Astral Domine but to the nth degree. You can go 100 mph or more across a vast hilly terrain and catch some serious air time with no VR sickness. Maybe it is the huge thruster in one hand and equally huge gun in the other that gives you a reference point so that you don’t feel any sickness. It’s the first time I’ve had a real sense of total freedom in VR and I can immerse myself in it for hours.I can’t wait for the full game with Multilayer. This locomotion is the first time I’ve had high hope for VR FPS, Onward only gave me a glimmer of hope. Try it at the steam store for both the Vive and the Rift.

  • Sam Illingworth

    Is the full game of Budget Cuts out yet (or still being worked on)?

  • Interesting

  • Brad

    Square should have thought of this for a FFXV VR experience. This is Noctis’ signature move.

  • wowgivemeabreak

    Ugh. I suck at throwing in vr (while I am fine throwing in real life) so I’d have a hell of a time moving around in a game like that.

    As for the game itself, I am sick of these companies focusing so much on making their VR games just or mainly multiplayer. You have an industry that isn’t that popular which limits the longevity of a game like this. You also screw over people who may not have solid internet connections.

    Whenever i see companies make games that are multiplayer only, I figure they are just being lazy by not trying to create a compelling campaign and solid AI.

    • Raphael

      We either get multiplayer or story games with 2 hours or less gameplay.

  • Raphael

    Velocibeasts would bore the crap out of new. Standing in one spot throwing weapons and ugly teleporting to another spot where I stand and throw weapons

  • rabs

    When I see this “teleport to object” system, I always think about Unreal Tournament’s Translocator.

    It was also remarkably used in Smashbox Arena, recently. Doesn’t look like Churroboros gameplay is that well tuned, though. We’ll see.

    On the overall subject of locomotion in VR, I don’t see magical solutions nor huge evolution coming, but maybe I missed some subtleties and comfort features because I’m not sensitive enough. Everybody seems to be fiddling with the same stuff over and over since a while.

  • Joe

    The template in the U4 editor has total 360 freedom, gun is in right hand. This template is really great. It even has head bob or no headbob. I feel like I am playing any doom, quake or unreal game in VR. It is just a template, but so great! You guys should install and try that.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR-lf0cKKkY
    around 6 minutes in shows the old template with walking.

  • Jason Mercieca

    Game “onward” solved the problem already and its the best most natural method, throwing a disc and then teleport no way, any kind of teleport is not good either by pointing or throwing disc no way…

  • ra51

    This reminds me of how those Kingsglaive from the Final Fantasy 15 use their weapons.