Gunfire Games have been extremely active on the Oculus Rift, first-person space based co-operative shooter From Other Suns is the fourth title to be released on the Oculus platform. The Beta for From Other Suns ran for a few days between September and October, and upon release the full videogame allowed player to combine elements of crew management with first-person shooting and loot gathering. VRFocus spoke to John Pearl, Design Director at Gunfire Games about From Other Suns at Oculus Connect 4.
When VRFocus spoke to Pearl at Oculus Connect 4, he describes the title as a combination between FTL: Faster Than Light‘s ship management and a Borderlands run-and-gun type of shooter. After creating Chronos and working on Dead & Buried, Gunfire Games wanted to do something bigger that was co-operative focused. Inspired by their favourite science-fiction series from Star Trek, Firefly to Star Wars, the team wanted to re-create that sense of adventure, ‘just one more jump, just a little more money and just one more day’. As long as you have fuel in your ship, you can keep going.
Exclusive to the Oculus Rift, From Other Suns can have up to three players playing in co-op together. However you can play solo, as long as you have organic crew members alive on your ship. The map, missions and universe are randomised, so when you start playing you never know what your missions will be, who you will meet or where you are. You may be asked to fight pirates, stop a pirate ship from getting away, fight enemy robots, roll back firmware or fight merchants and pirates that are travelling between stars. Or skip the mission altogether, as long as you have enough fuel and can afford to.
The weapons are interchangeable and you may need to swap out various guns for a specific mission type. The largest frigate ship can sustain 12 A.I. Crew members which three people can switch in-between and the rest is up to the player. You are your own boss in space, but in order to keep travelling you have to collect resources to upgrade your ship – and with a large ship you’ll need to hire more crew members. Upgrade through salvaging in missions and hire crew at space ports, acquire more during missions, or just get your friends to join in with your adventures.
After running the Beta, Gunfire Games have also added more options for movement modes. From Other Suns integrates Oculus Touch support and four different modes of movement. This will allow players who don’t have their VR feet yet to play with more advanced players. To find out more watch the video below, and stay right here at VRFocus for all the latest from Gunfire Games.