Game Rant speaks with Incuvo Games CEO Andrzej Wychowaniec about the process of taking an established game and adapting it to VR.
Adaptation is something many are familiar with, in one way or another. Books are often adapted into movies, and at one point in the gaming industry, major movies often had video game adaptations. With the rise of the MCU, comic book movie adaptations are as popular as ever. The gaming industry is no stranger to it, but behind the scenes, how much adaptation goes on may be hard to see.
All gamers are familiar with ports, where one game launches on a system like the Switch much later. Ports are not easy work by no means, but in essence, they may be simpler than an adaptation of one game to another completely different medium. It may be rare, but this happens, with Incuvo Games being a specialist in adapting games to the VR medium, such as Blair Witch, Layers of Fear, and most recently, Green Hell. It is also currently working on adapting one of the IPs from People Can Fly’s portfolio to VR.
Green Hell VR is an adaptation of Creepy Jar’s title of the same name, and recently, Game Rant spoke with Incuvo CEO Andrzej Wychowaniec about Green Hell, about advancements in the VR market, and about the approach and detail required in adapting established games to VR. The biggest difference between porting a game and adapting a game, Wychowaniec said, is how the former is about translating controls, adjusting visuals, different optimizations, and more, but the latter requires making the game from scratch—with just the assets and general gameplay as a base. Wychowaniec described the process of adapting a VR game as…
“Everything else needs to be designed and developed again. It's nearly the same as going back to square one, and it is because VR offers completely new control possibilities on top of what's available. Compare a traditional gamepad vs. Oculus Touch controllers, which track position in space that allows for completely new gameplay mechanics not possible on other platforms. And that's why all the mechanics need to be rebuilt for VR, with immersion and physical interaction in mind. We also have to remember that Meta Quest 2 is a mobile device with a mobile chipset. It's basically a mobile phone in terms of processing power. So, games have to be significantly optimized to work. These present huge challenges, technically and on the design front.”
If something can be reused in gaming, it often is, so having to rework a ton of content is as much work as one can imagine. It makes sense, though, when one considers the vast difference between VR and console/PC games. This is what Incuvo had to do with Blair Witch, with Layers of Fear, and with Green Hell, but adapting an established IP from a different IP owner adds its own twists. “Working on a recognizable IP is a challenge for many reasons. Each game has a specific vibe, it's not only a matter of design, gameplay, graphics, etc., but something that comes from the mix of all of the game's components that may be quite intangible,” Wychowaniec said.
With Blair Witch, for example, Incuvo had to work with Bloober Team, as the developer of the base game, and also Lionsgate Games, the owner of the IP. This requires tons of concentration, communication, and iteration to ensure that the adaptation captures the same feel when playing elsewhere—even if players are immersed differently. Indeed, Incuvo played a bunch of Blair Witch for this very reason, and Wychowaniec discussed how many more layers it adds to development.
“IP owners are very concerned about potential risks to their brand. They like to have full control over the production process including an extensive approval process on all major game assets and parts. This adds another layer of complexity to the already complex production cycle of VR and is quite demanding on the management and communication level…It was tough, but we get it, of course.”
The beauty in these demands is playing these beloved IPs in a brand new way, and perhaps the best part is that just about anything could appear on VR. Wychowaniec said on this that “everything can be adapted to VR, but it doesn't make sense to put everything on VR.” He gives strategy games as an example, which require long sessions that would be uncomfortable for VR users, and immersion is important in VR—not so much strategy games. It could be done, though, which means just about every game has the potential to appear in VR someday.
It’ll be interesting to see, in a few years, how much VR adaptations take off, but if Wychowaniec could have any game in VR, it would be The Witcher. “I believe it would be a game changer.”
Green Hell VR is available now for Meta Quest 2 and release on Steam in May.
When Joshua Duckworth received Pokemon Yellow for Christmas at 5-years-old, his fate as a gamer was set. Since then, he’s been involved with every step of the gaming industries’ growth from the golden PS1 era and the dying days of the arcade to any current gaming trend. When he’s not writing, playing his own games, or thinking about writing or playing his games, he’s probably the second player to his son’s Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! file. Joshua has an MA degree in English from Jacksonville State University, and the best way to contact him is at [email protected].
