As gaming devices have evolved from analog joysticks to motion controllers, new forms of video game interaction naturally undergo a period of experimentation, and VR is no exception. Many early projects tended to pursue extreme shock effects.
However, Frima Studio saw the potential in VR that goes beyond visual spectacles, dedicating itself to exploring a broader emotional world and establishing deeper and more lasting emotional bonds with players. The result of this exploration is “Fate: Silent Oath”, which is now available on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive platforms and will soon be released on PlayStation VR.
Set against the backdrop of Viking mythology, “Fate: Silent Oath” tells the passionate adventure story of a warrior who, as both a husband and father, undertakes what seems to be an impossible mission: to save his loved ones from the devastation wrought by ancient giants.
We spoke with producer Vincent Martel and programmer Marc-André Girard about the inspiration that motivated them to venture into VR for the first time and the lessons learned during the development process.
What inspired the creation of “Fate: Silent Oath”? Why did you choose to make it a VR game?
Vincent Martel (VM): My first experience with virtual reality was two years ago during a roller coaster demo using an Oculus DK1. I was so scared during the experience that I couldn’t stand up, and a bunch of people laughed at me.
Although this experience had a significant psychological impact on me, I thought VR was just a gimmick that everyone would forget about in a few months. Severe VR motion sickness lasted for several hours after the demo, which only reinforced my belief.
Needless to say, it took me several weeks to be ready to try VR again, but I’m glad I made that decision.
This second experience was also conducted with a DK1, and I was laughed at again, but this time for a completely different reason.
I was in a not particularly scary demo scene when suddenly, I felt genuinely paralyzed with fear. Even though I knew I was in a game, I just couldn’t move and had to take off my headset.
This experience completely changed my perspective on VR. From that moment on, I knew that VR would change the way we tell stories and touch audiences. I knew I had to use virtual reality. I had to create a meaningful experience that places story and emotion at its core.
It is said that the focus of “Fate” is on “emotion over gameplay.” Can you elaborate on what this means?
VM: The gameplay mechanics in “Fate” are minimal, focusing instead on the story and the emotional journey of the player during the experience. We have all seen videos of people being completely terrified while playing VR horror games, so I think it’s safe to say that VR is a very powerful tool for triggering emotional responses. However, scaring people in VR is easy; it can even be overdone. A simple jump scare can do the trick. What we want to explore in “Fate” are different emotions, such as joy, empathy, and sadness, which are more complex. Our early goal was simple: we wanted players to cry while wearing the headset. We even named it the “reverse scuba diving effect” because the water is inside the mask rather than outside.
We quickly realized that while it was easy to say, it was hard to do. If something in VR feels awkward, alien, or unnatural, it undermines the credibility of everything else. This makes it difficult for us to achieve the emotional responses we wanted. We also didn’t want to go overboard in evoking the desired responses. We conducted many playtests and made numerous iterative changes to the script and game, but it wasn’t until we started seeing comments and reviews from “real players” admitting they cried that we could be sure we succeeded.
“Fate” features compelling characters that immediately make you feel you are embarking on an emotional journey. What can you tell us about the story and setting of “Fate”? How does VR as a medium bring them to life?
VM: “Fate: Silent Oath” is a first-person adventure game set in the Viking mythological era. It tells the story of a man and his family during “Ragnarok” (the end of the world). As he travels with his family, he encounters a series of touching and terrifying events, leading him to a deeper understanding of himself and his loved ones. Players will embark on an emotional rollercoaster ride in the game.
Telling a story in VR is not easy, but experiencing a story as if you are there has a great effect. For me, that is the essence of VR as a new and unique medium.
Why did you choose to develop this project using Unreal Engine 4?
VM: We have previously made many games using Unreal Engine, and we have always enjoyed those experiences. We are a fairly large studio with several projects running simultaneously, and we don’t only use Unreal Engine. However, for “Fate”, we felt that Epic was 100% supportive of VR; they invested the necessary resources to support this new technology, and their staff has been working hard in this area. Being able to access the source code while working on a new platform is also a significant advantage.
Were there any features in Unreal Engine 4 that proved particularly useful and/or surprising, and how did they impact development?
Marc-André Girard (MAG): Blueprints truly changed the way “Fate” was made. Initially, we were doing too much work in Blueprints, making them chaotic, but later we gained a better understanding of how and when to use this tool. For us, the best approach was to let Blueprints handle everything related to event and flow management. To maximize its strengths, we created C++ functions for dialogue, voiceovers, facial animations, etc. We exposed these functions in Blueprints and used them extensively throughout the game. With these nodes, it became very easy for us and our designers to use a series of dialogue boxes with custom animations without losing any control we had in C++.
We also extensively used spline components. We built some new functionality on top of existing components, and splines allowed us to easily create great gameplay, such as the chariot racing segment of the game. We also utilized splines for many NPC movements to make them appear more natural.
Swarm was also fantastic. If we had to work with just one computer, we might still be baking lights.
There are many tips and tutorials in the development blog for “Fate”. What advice do you have for first-time users of Unreal Engine 4?
MAG: I think getting on the Unreal bandwagon has never been easier. Just open the Unreal Engine launcher and go to the section labeled “Learn”. From there, you can link to many excellent tutorials on mastering Unreal Engine 4, whether you are a programmer, artist, level designer, or just an enthusiast interested in Unreal Engine. Don’t try to cram all the knowledge about the entire engine into your head right away. Unreal Engine 4 has many fantastic features, but don’t think you have to try them all at once; focus on completing a few small tasks to get yourself accustomed. After finishing a few tutorials, opening a working project (like those provided by Epic) to tinker with is a great starting point. You can try modifying it to make it do something slightly different. Once you are familiar with how to modify it, you can start your own project and embark on your adventure! Oh, and check out our blog! It has many great tips and information about performance, localization, memory management, and more!
“Fate” is Frima’s first VR project. Do you have any lessons learned that might help other studios venturing into VR for the first time?
VM: Some challenges are platform-specific, while others are game-type specific. First, we must understand this new medium, its limitations, and its possibilities. Performance is something we must always keep an eye on throughout the production process. There are far too many projects with excellent content but poor performance. No one wants to cut content at the end of the project to make it run at 90 FPS.
However, most of the challenges we faced arose from the fact that we were trying to tell stories from a 360-degree perspective. The inability to control the camera is a significant challenge; we need to find ways to capture the player’s attention and direct them to see what we want them to see. There are several ways to achieve this, such as triggering events only when the player is looking or using slow motion to give players enough time to look around at what is happening.
We also greatly underestimated the time needed for audio. In VR, everything must be spatialized and placed in the environment. You can’t have a bird chirping in stereo; each sound must be separated, or it will break the immersion.
When developing games for VR, it must be treated as a new medium, not just a new platform. Many textbook techniques don’t apply, and there is a lot of new stuff to learn. It’s challenging, but being part of the birth of virtual reality is incredibly exciting.
Clearly, creating truly immersive game worlds and compelling interactions is particularly important for VR. What techniques helped you achieve these goals in “Fate”?
VM: We explored many art styles during pre-production, but it turned out that a cartoonish art style was suitable for both performance and the ability to establish emotional connections with characters. In virtual reality, hyper-realistic characters can often be frightening, making it much more challenging to establish an emotional connection.
Once we determined the art style, we could create the environment, which was largely inspired by the northern wilderness but also had its unique flavor. The minimalist and vibrant color style we used greatly helped performance, allowing us to add dynamic lighting and more visual effects. We are very satisfied with the results. Screenshots may not accurately reflect the quality of the game, but once players enter VR, they will find it to be fantastic.
The Oculus and Vive versions of “Fate” have been released, and the PlayStation VR version will be out soon. Did you encounter any difficulties developing for these three platforms? If so, how did you overcome them?
VM: Actually, there weren’t any difficulties. From the beginning of the game’s development, we knew we wanted to release it on all three platforms, so we decided to facilitate the process. For example, we decided to use game controllers because we knew they would be universal across all platforms. Using Unreal Engine 4 also greatly helped. Epic has done an excellent job supporting VR development and all major platforms. We are pleased to see that they are genuinely committed to VR and continuously improve the engine to assist VR developers.
The only thing that required us to put in a little extra effort was porting audio from PC to PS4. We used the Two Big Ears plugin on PC and had to switch to the PSVR plugin on PS4, so we had to redo the mixing for PS4. I believe there is currently no good cross-platform audio solution for VR.
You had a particularly memorable demonstration at PAX East, where players truly sat in the driver’s seat of a chariot. Was it difficult to integrate various physical components? Do you think there is potential for further development in this type of live experience?
VM: We at FRIMA have a team working on smart toys, so it’s easier for us to do this kind of work internally. They created custom Arduino boards, added various sensors, and connected everything to a small API that communicates with the game. All we had to do was create various events in the demo to trigger vibrations, wind, or mist.
From the reactions we received at PAX, I believe there is definitely a market for this! You can see our reaction video below.
How has your experience been with the Unreal Engine community?
MAG: To be honest, we haven’t interacted much with the community. When we started making “Fate”, Unreal Engine 4 was still quite new, and so was virtual reality. Resources on forums and AnswerHub were scarce. We asked a lot of questions here and there, and sometimes got answers, but in the end, I feel we answered more of our own questions than we asked.
Now the community has grown significantly (congratulations to Unreal Engine 4 for surpassing 2 million developers!), so there is much more activity on forums and other platforms. I also discovered the Slack channel (Unreal Slackers), which is a great place to quickly ask questions and chat with other Unreal Engine developers.
