During the consumption of VR content, motion sickness poses a challenge. It’s far from the flashiest aspect of VR and a real problem for some people when they put on an HMD and enter a virtual world. VR motion sickness happens when our eyes inform our brain that we are moving around in a VR environment, but our body feels like it’s sitting on a chair or standing still. Bangalore based indie gaming studio Navin Prithvi Productions in collaboration with Zyka Animation studio has launched the early access pass for their upcoming VR game Knockout Bowling VR.
In conversation with AnimationXpress Navin Prithvi Productions founder and CEO Navin Prithvi shares, “When I was first introduced to the technology I was feeling sick but later when I continued playing I didn’t feel the same. The consumption adaptability is the key to reign over VR motion sickness.”
He further explained that, to be VR ready it is crucial that at the initial stage, one should watch the VR content three to four times with a minimum of 10-15 minutes. Slowly with practice, they will adapt to VR content.
Somehow because of the motion sickness, VR content is unable to achieve the popularity mark and it has become quite a bit of task for the VR content creators to work around the content and spread awareness of the technology with the rush of simple VR content. Throwing light on his idea of creating bowling game for VR. Prithvi says, “I always wanted to try out VR game to understand the possibility in the market with respect to the platforms available as well as audience’s preferences. I wanted to stand out into VR gaming as it looks different and people could play and get a new experience of bowling with this simple bowling game.”
Not only that, having entered the market; Prithvi says that he is planning to work on more VR games which will be bigger in scale and will have complex gameplay.
Games for mobile VR and VR are different; there are various bowling games available for android devices and are popular among the audience owing to their is easy user interface. The main thing that he expresses concern for is the controls for the game since mobile and the VR gaming work differently. Earlier, he had published a bowling game for android devices and therefore, for VR he had to change the control part and make various other changes to make it VR-friendly. Not only that, every controller which is available is different from each other, therefore for the programming they had to consider every platform, from HTC Vive to Steam VR and Oculus Rift.
“From 2018 I have been working on the game and at first I published the game for mobile and now I have coded it for SteamVR. For the mobile launch he did it on his own for VR I have partnered with Bangalore- based studio Zyka Animation Studio who have outsourced their work for Call of duty and others. They did the game art and bit of the development,” he added
The game right now is available for early access and he is planning to add more content with more levels to it before the launch of the game. Right now the game has two levels (on is in the circus and one is in the tunnels). “I want to add three more and by the year-end, I will launch the game,” he added.
With regards to the VR scene in India, Prithvi expressed that the main challenge in the Indian market is to get recognition and get reciprocated with the VR gaming content. He expressed, “Compared to the western countries like US, UK and others, India is lagging behind in the process of adopting it and will require another four years of time for India to become completely VR-ready- where people are purchasing VR headsets and students will shift to VR learning. Similar to PC and mobile, VR will become a crucial part of the lifestyle in India.”
