I am trying to get a car started. It’s not any car, though. It’s a gorgeous, vintage luxury automobile. It’s also owned by an evil mastermind named Dr. Zor. I am trying to steal it. From a plane. In flight. Because I’m a spy. It’s not every game where you dodge lasers and diffuse a bomb while trying to drive off into the sky. This is I ExpectYou To Die.
IEYTD is a puzzle game for Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR, made by Schell Games. In this interactive spy thriller, you find yourself grabbing and manipulating objects in interesting ways to solve puzzles while you complete a mission.
The company classifies it as an Escape the Room game, which is as good a label as any for the series of puzzle missions you have to do. You simply stand in one location, turn in place, reach or duck, and interact with objects. There isn’t any walking or teleporting. There are just the rooms surrounding you.
So what do you do as a spy solving puzzles? The first mission is Operation: Friendly Skies, the aforementioned car in a plane level. This is the same mission that was in the demo of I ExpectYou To Die that helped introduce Oculus Touch at the Oculus Connect conference in the fall of 2015.
Without spoiling too much, you have to find the keys for the car, dodge security measures after you turn the ignition, use a screwdriver to remove a panel to access more controls, which results in that bomb being deployed. Then you need to disarm it before it blows. No problem, right?
Of course, half the fun of IEYTD is that you aren’t just solving puzzles for puzzles’ sake. You are a super spy! You have a mission for each room, and you are trying to succeed in that mission, and survive any traps you encounter. The early ’60s feel gives it all a great style, with vintage furniture, gadgets, and a tongue in cheek tone to your handler briefing you. There is even a James Bond-style opening sequence with flashy imagery and a catchy song I can’t get out of my head. It all elevates the gameplay to make the game that much more memorable.
When the game starts up on the PC they give you a choice of using the mouse, an Xbox One controller, or Oculus Touch — with a DualShock or PlayStation Move choice coming for the PS VR version. But it is clear that the game was designed primarily with motion controllers. With the Touch controllers, you see a pair of hands in the world. The controls for each hand are identical, so it’s relatively intuitive to learn. The grip or trigger buttons let you grab an item, such as a lever, but then you move your actual arm to pull it down. One face button lets you activate an object, such as shooting a gun or igniting a lighter.
Then comes the Telekinesis, or TK, abilities. In the world of I ExpectYou To Die, you’re not just a regular super spy, as you’re actually a psychic super spy. Using the Touch’s finger sensing, you can actually point with your index finger, causing a reticle to appear. Now you can grab the items from afar. You can pull it toward you by tilting the analog stick down, or move it away from you by tilting it up. You aim the levitating item you are holding via TK left and right by moving your arm.
The second face button for each hand lets you make an item just hover in air, freeing it from your TK control so you can interact with other items. With TK, the reach of your character to engage in puzzles via items and furniture is extended beyond your immediate area, expanding the interactive size of the game’s space. This also helps people who may be using the Oculus Rift or PS VR in tight quarters; if you can’t physically reach out your arm with the motion control to grab things, or take a step forward or to the side, you can just point and grab it psychically.
Personally, though I understand why they included telekinesis for accessibility reasons, in some ways I think it detracts from the immersion of just grabbing items with your actual hands and using them. But that would’ve limited the design of the rooms you play in and change the feel of the game significantly. Similarly, if they added teleport locomotion, which many other VR games use, the game would’ve been very different: too easy to dodge dangers, locations too large to feel quick-paced and exciting, too artificial to put you in the shoes of a super spy.
So how much will you face as such a spy? Besides the intro/tutorial level in your office at headquarters, there are four missions to complete. Despite that making for a seemingly short game, the trial and error nature of the gameplay will make the game longer than youexpect — at least for some people. Still, I was left wanting to go on more missions and face additional puzzles, traps, and even story events. When you do finish the last mission, it unlocks commentary balloons in the levels, to get a behind-the-scenes look at the game. Which is always a welcomed addition.
Beyond that, Schell Games also gave each mission six optional objectives to accomplish, including speed runs, giving I ExpectYou To Die some replay value beyond simply finishing the levels. These objectives also result in you gaining collectibles for the office that serves as the hub between missions. It’s a nice way to feel a sense of achievement for doing the optional objectives and getting the most out of each mission. If I was a super spy, I would want proof of my daring exploits too.
Final Score: 7.5/10 – Good
Between the motion controls and the immersive view of virtual reality, I ExpectYou To Die does a good job of putting you there in complex and sometimes dangerous situations. I am in that car, looking around, fiddling with things, figuring out the flow of the level. As other VR games, such as Tumble VR or The Assemblyhave shown, first-person immersion and motion controls really make interactive puzzles shine. You get to try things and see if it works. And like the name of this game implies, you will die, but you will learn from that death and maybe use an object in the correct way the next go around. VR continues to reinvigorate the puzzle genre and IEYTD is no exception — even if its a bit shorter than we’d have liked.
You can purchase I Expect You To Die on Oculus Home for the Oculus Rift and on the PlayStation Network Store for PS VR for $24.99 starting on December 6th, 2016. Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
With December 6 comes the release of I Expect You To Die by Schell Games, an escape the room-style experience that has players facing puzzles and dangers as a super spy. The game is coming for Oculus Rift, with the new Oculus Touch controllers, and PlayStation VR, and its PlayStation Move controls.
We spoke with SchellGames principals behind IEYTD: Marc Tattersall, the Project Director; John Kolencheryl, the Tech Director, and Shawn Patton, the Design director. Here is what they told us about how motion controls changed the design of the project and the specifics behind their “Brown Box” process.
Upload: SchellGames has a history of doing mostly children’s game. How has making a VR game been different than past titles?
Marc: The hardest part is that when you are working on a game, generally, you have something to point to. ‘I like this aspect of that game‘ or ‘I kind of like how this game does that.’ Because VR is so new, there really is no place to point to. We were inventing rules as we go, as everyone in VR was. Even when we are talking about what games sell well, it’s all so new that we just don’t know. So you are really taking a chance on a lot of what you do. You have to figure out what works. If we were building a first-person shooter, it would be really easy to just analyze existing, successful first-person shooters and make a determination about what we like and what we don’t like. Trying to develop a fun game on a moving technology that is constantly evolving is extremely complicated.
John: And just keeping up with cutting edge technology, from a technical standpoint, means you have to constantly upgrade the engine you are working with and just be in constant communication with the hardware folks, be it Oculus or Sony. Just making sure things work. Does your game work well with the changes they make to their API? From a technical standpoint, that is something we have to keep up with. Previously, on projects, we don’t have to do constant upgrades to the engine. There’s a certain amount a risk that adds. But on a VR project, you just have to let go of that and be ready to make upgrades on a frequent basis. Just so the games can run.
The other big thing is the framerate; just making 90 frames per second is something new. We have to make certain decisions around that. Making people sick in VR is not good. So that is something that we have made a lot of effort to maintain. So figuring out the minimum spec and making sure the game runs at 90 at that min spec, those were the decisions that were made from the get go.
Shawn: From a design standpoint, the newness of VR for the players is the big thing you need to keep in mind. When they are immersed in this new world, they can get overwhelmed very easily. They have some expectations about how some things work because it is very similar to the real world. ‘Of course I can pick this up; of course I can do that.’ Anytime you don’t support one of those actions, it chips away at their immersion. And so from a design standpoint, which things do we need to support, and how can we ease them into this new world, and how can we make sure they are not totally confused and instead have a good time.
Upload: And what about the challenges of making a game with motion controls?
Shawn:IEYTD started as a mouse-controlled game. Adding Oculus Touch was awesome, because it’s way more immersive. You feel yourself there with the hands. But at the same time, it did cause us to have to rethink the design, the tech, and the art decisions we’ve made.
John: Motion controls had a huge impact. Suddenly you had levels where you want players to be able to reach things with their hands and not rely on Telekinesis. That advocated level design quite a bit.
Marc: At the same time, having Telekinesis, allowed us to build levels we not be able to build with just Touch. We want to be in a larger room. We don’t want you always be sitting at a desk, only working with things on the desk. It gives us a huge amount of flexibility in puzzle design and how we build levels.
Upload: Was it difficult developing with prototypes of Touch?
Marc: As Shawn mentioned, we originally built it just for the mouse, but even the headset had gotten higher resolution, which means we want to have art look better. And having Touch controls that changed — there’s a new button on the newer version, where there’s an option button. And being able to react to all those changes is certainly very challenging.
Shawn: We got one pair of Touch controllers very early on. But we never had access to as many pairs as we liked. So most of our team did not have a Touch. And if that one pair breaks, you’re in trouble. So when we finally had two pairs, one of them would have to go to a show for demos. You always had to carry it on the plane with you. You don’t want to risk checking them in the luggage.
Upload: How much iteration and tweaking of the controls did you have to do?
Shawn: So at the start of IEYTD, when you are first training in the office, we actually have many different versions of that. We have a version for the mouse. We have a version of the Xbox controller. We have a version for Touch. There is a version for the Dualshock controller and we have a version for the PlayStation Move. And so, first of all, just making a training sequence that is flexible on the tech side to make the creation of these five different versions possible was key.
John: We had to find the right order to teach people things. When you are using the mouse or the controller, you are always using TK. Where as, when you have the Touch, we didn’t want to overwhelm you. So we teach you to do things in your hands at first, then layer on the TK. So the order you learn things is different.
Marc: Also really important, because we support five different controllers, we need to make sure that in the game that we never ask you to do anything that can’t be do with all the controllers. That gets really tricky with the mouse, because you can’t really flip things over. So there are a lot of creative and technical challenges to make sure that you are playing the same puzzle on a mouse as somebody who is doing it with two hands.
Shawn: It is also important to us because we know that people may be playing this on systems that don’t have motion controllers and we want them to be able to enjoy it just as much. Even the Speedruns, we had testers on our team play it with all the controllers. What are times that would be appropriate with all the controllers.
Marc: We do think that Touch and Move controllers are certainly the strongest. It’s our game at it’s best. But we do want to make sure people do enjoy playing on the other controllers as well. That was definitely one of the hardest challenges on the projects.
Upload: What about tweaking the spaces or layout of objects so they are intuitive for motion controls?
Marc: We had a way to visualize, in our editor, where the average arm-span can reach. So we wanted to make sure that enough interesting items were within that sphere of grab-ability. We would rearrange some items. In the original desk, it didn’t have drawers. We added the drawers and made sure you can get some cool stuff over time.
Shawn: One of the other challenges with touch — not necessarily directly with the act of grabbing — but because we had a very forward-facing experience. And because you’re tracked with two cameras in front of you, it actually dictated entirely how we built levels. Almost all of your actions are in front of you. We don’t try to go more than 90 degrees to the side. And even when it comes to reaching things on the ground, your Touch controller can go behind your leg and lose tracking that way.
Marc: Going back to what makes Telekinesis great for our game, if some reason you are having a hard time grabbing things or if your cameras aren’t set up well, you can always use TK to grab something that you might be having a tracking difficulty with. So it enhances gameplay and also gets us out of sticky situations. You’ve got to be careful leaning. Using Telekinesis to get to the glove box is sometimes safer than trying to reach over with your hand. We’ve seen a few people fall out of their chair trying to grab something far away.
Shawn: You can’t lean on virtual things. You got to remember that.
Upload: Did the choice of making an Escape the Room style game come from the prospect of using Touch?
Marc: We did build the original game with mouse, so at the moment of conception of the game, it wasn’t designed to be a touch controller game. However, after the first car level, every level we built out after that, was specifically designed for Touch controllers and making sure that you have very good, close interactions that are fun, interesting interactions, where you are pulling things in various ways, unscrewing, or turning. So the first level was really the demo level, which we did convert to be more Touch-friendly. But all the subsequent levels were specifically designed for Touch and built that way. One of the processes Shawn used we called “Brown Boxing.” It worked at really great for us.
Shawn: We did some physical prototypes using cardboard boxes. We would arrange them and sit down naive playtesters and have them reach things, see what they noticed. It was very quick to reconfigure because we were using duct tape and cardboard boxes.
John: And if there was an object common enough, we would find it in the office.
Shawn: If we need a fire extinguisher, we put a fire extinguisher. The other benefit to that is that people would do things that we hadn’t thought of. And we would write those down and handle those. That was a really fun and quick, organic way to find those things.
The thing about Escape the Room games is that you are using objects. You know that it’s a puzzle. What we wanted to do in our games is, yes, you are trying to escape or accomplish your goal, but we also wanted things to work the way that you expect them to work. I don’t solve a puzzle cube to get the key. I find the key in the car where I might find the key in a regular car. That was important to us, making it more of a believable situation.
Upload: How long was the brown box iteration process?
Shawn: The one we spent the most time with was the sub level, which you see briefly in the latest trailer, so I feel I’m okay to mention it. We probably had that set up for a week and a-half, maybe two weeks. One of our artists, Tyler, and I did the construction. We ran our immediate team through it first, then branched out to Schell people that weren’t on the team. We had at least two completely naive people try it. At that stage, it’s one half imagination and one half Dungeons and Dragons. ‘You pulled that lever? Then this happens!’ It’s sort of acting it out as they play it. But it was still a great way to get some insight.
The final level ended up being very similar to what the brown box actually was. And the iteration time is so much faster. Just have Shawn or someone move a box two inches to the left. Rather than go, stop the playtest, go back to art, have them change it, make a new build.
Upload: With the 60s James Bond feel and the motion controls, this is not a typical game. What response are you expecting from players?
Marc: I wasn’t around for the very early conception of the project, but it’s my understanding that the reason why it’s an Escape the Room, Bond-type Spy-themed game, is that in the early process of prototyping, there wasn’t touch controls, and we didn’t want to move the character. So they were thinking how can you still feel awesome, but we stuck in a certain spot? And Spies do this all the time.
Our namesake for I Expect You To Die is that scene from Goldfinger, where although James Bond is strapped to a table and about to be cut in half with a laser, by using his wits, he’s able to get out of that situation. So I think that Spy theme fits very well because they are always in these types of situations because they need to figure out an escape or figure out where the bomb is. And by making it an older spy game, it keeps it kind of light and fun. It allows us to have out Jared. It allows us to use all these old tropes from movies, and parodies. It keeps it entertaining.
Shawn: Because VR is so new, because it is exciting, when people are in it, they want to experiment. They want to have fun. They want to try things you couldn’t do in real life. So having this environment where I can knock whole bunch of stuff over, I’m lighting things on fire, I can blow things up, it allows them to have fun, act out these fantasies, but also progress in the goal of getting out of the room. It may not be completely obvious why it fits so well, as soon as you try it, you realize it fits.
John: VR is such a powerful medium. It’s like you are there. And for someone who is terminally ill and can’t go anywhere, this can be a life changing experience.
Marc: Even outside of games. I saw a talk where they were talking about movies and how if a character in a movie looks at you in the eye and breaks that wall, because you understand that you are not there. But when you are in VR you truly feel you’re there. I experienced this myself in IEYTD. I go to hit the gas to get the car out of the plane, I actually put my foot down on the floor. I’ve seen people try to stomp the scorpions. I’ve seen people fall out of there chair. There just is no other medium that immerses you so much that you absolutely forget where you really are.
The quirky sci-fi adventure in which players assume the role of a ship’s captain and guide a crew through multiple types of levels and missions. It’s a comedic take on the genre that enables players to choose their own crew, take on random encounters such as facing the terrible and weird Synapsion Brain Beast, or the pedantic might of Baxxtar the Instructor, all whilst managing resources in order to survive.
The Oculus Rift has 70 encounters unseen in VR as well as new officers like the sturdy Brick Stonewood and everlasting Captain Forever.
Rated as a comfortable VR experience for most, Orion Trail VR can be downloaded through the Oculus Store for £5.99 GBP.
For all the latest content releases for Oculus Rift, keep reading VRFocus.
Previously only shown on Oculus Rift with support for the Oculus Touch motion controllers, Schell Games has today announced that it’s puzzle title I Expect you to Die will also support Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) PlayStation VR.
I Expect you to Die is due to be a day one launch title for Oculus Touch, on 6th December, and its now scheduled for PlayStation VR the same month. The studio hasn’t confirmed if it’ll be the same day though.
A virtual reality (VR) puzzle game in which players are elite secret agents attempting to survive deadly situations. As an elite agent players must race to thwart the evil Dr. Zor without succumbing to the traps and tricks that are there to cause their demise.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Sony to bring the incredibly immersive, secret agent world of I Expect You To Die to PlayStation®VR owners later this year,” said Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games. “The game offers a VR experience unlike any other that’s challenging, fun and full of nail-biting suspense, and we can’t wait to see it in the hands of console players to see how they do.”
I Expect You To Die was previously named Best Overall VR Experience at the Proto Awards 2015, alongside winning Best Gameplay and Best Interactive Design. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Schell Games, reporting back with any further updates.
Schell Games has been one of the most promising developers in the VR space for quite some time. The original concept for I Expect You To Die has been around for what seems like ages and is slated to release for the Oculus Rift with Touch later this year. Today, Schell Games has announced that their spy-themed puzzle game is also coming to the PlayStation VR platform this December as well.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Sony to bring the incredibly immersive, secret agent world of I Expect You To Die to PlayStation VR owners later this year,” said Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games in a press release. “The game offers a VR experience unlike any other that’s challenging, fun and full of nail-biting suspense, and we can’t wait to see it in the hands of console players to see how they do.”
In I Expect You To Die, you’ll take on the role of a secret agent undergoing a series of rooms and puzzles that you must use your wits — and dexterous motion controllers — to overcome. Rather than focus on over-the-top action and gun shooting, you’ll instead be forced to rely on your raw brain power to overcome the deadly trails.
Previously, Schell Games also released Water Bears VR and Orion Trail VR, both of which use the new immersive medium in novel and inventive new ways with striking senses of humor. That sense of humor appears to have carried over into I Expect You To Die.
The game is currently slated to appear as a launch title for the Oculus Touch controllers on December 6th, 2016, and is also scheduled to release for Sony’s PS VR the same month. For more information about the game, you can check out the official I Expect You To Diewebsite.
If you’re wondering whether or not to buy into Google’s Daydream head-mounted display (HMD) – which is only $79 (USD) – then one thing that might budge you into consideration is the sheer amount of partners and content that will be ready for it by the end of the year.
After going through the numerous applications and videogames that Google Daydream will be having in its store, including J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them experience, what the New York Times is bringing with its journalistic VR experiences from Within, CCP Games’ Gunjack, and Netflix, HBO and Hulu joining in, Adrienne McCallister, leader of partnerships for Daydream, said: “Over 50 partners are bringing apps and games to Daydream before the end of the year, and there are hundreds more on the way.”
On Twitter, Schell Games announced that it would be bringing its app FrostBound to Daydream after retweeting the announcement of the 50 partners and counting. As well as this, Star Chart, the educational virtual planetarium, will be coming to the HMD.
McCallister went on to boast about Google’s own contributions, too: “To compliment our partners, we are also bringing the best of Google to Daydream. First, there’s Google Play Movies with a library of shows and films which you can watch on your own big screen. Then, there’s Google Photos where you can relive your own personal memories in a completely immersive way. And then there’s Street View and YouTube.”
When looking at what Street View has to offer for VR, it has a completely different way of letting you interact while walking around using the controller, and there are over 150 tours of the world’s top tourist spots. As well as this, there’s a way to check out hills from the view of a sheep.
The way that McCallister summed up YouTube was quite simple: “YouTube on Daydream is amazing”. You can watch all YouTube videos and watch them on a cinema-sized screen, and of course with 360 and VR videos it is now fully immersive. “We’re working with YouTube’ original content creators to bring even more VR content in months to come.”
For more on the latest in VR, check back with VRFocus.
