It might have slipped from the day one launch line up, but The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is coming to PlayStation VR 2 later this week, a spiritual successor to the original PSVR’s Until Dawn spin-off Rush of Blood that will send you on another action-horror coaster of a rail shooter.
We visited Supermassive and got to play two levels from the game last week – see and read our Switchback VR preview here – before sitting down with Game Director Alejandro Arque Gallardo to chat about the game’s creation.
TSA – Supermassive had its ups and downs with games on the first PSVR, so was there any kind of trepidation about coming back to VR for PSVR 2?
Alejandro Arque Gallardo – To be honest, no. Sony contacted us to say they have this amazing new device, and I was actually brought in [roughly two years ago] precisely for this! I was a big fan of Rush of Blood – it was the first game I played on PSVR – so when Supermassive asked if I wanted to do a spiritual successor, I was like, “Hell yes, I’m in!”
So for us there was no push back or… fear.
TSA – [laughs] Ironically! And what was that starting point for development? I’d assume you went back, looked at what did and didn’t work seven years ago.
Alejandro – Yeah. We started in that place where we knew a lot of people loved [Rush of Blood], and the whole team were big fans as well. We just wanted to do justice to what the original team made and then to build on top of that. As soon as we knew the features of the PSVR 2, it was how can we bring this to a different level?
We did a few brainstorming sessions about how we can make it a gameplay feature with the blinking, how can we integrate it so it’s all just one thing. That’s how we started.
TSA – One of the real strength of VR is how well it suits horror games, to really immerse you in what you’re playing.
Alejandro – Yes! All of the features that PSVR 2 brings – the haptics, the rumble on the head, the eye-tracking, the adaptive triggers – makes you feel like you are in the place more. That’s why it was important for us to have floating hands –  I don’t know everyone likes that, but we thought that this is you, and the more connection to you, the better.
So that’s why when you’re going up on the track, you feel it going up [with the haptics]. You feel the wind, the rain, hear someone screaming at you, someone touching your head…
TSA – Wait, that wasn’t you sneaking around? [laughs]
Alejandro – I was very tempted!
But that’s the thing, it makes you feel like you’re really in it. Horror movies, you can look away or you can pause it, but not here. You can close your eyes and still have the whisper in your ear or the feeling in your hands.
TSA – It must be tricky to still get the horror tones while giving people guns. Then it’s more action horror, it’s not as scary, you don’t get quite the same vibe. Thinking back again when you had Rush of Blood and then the more traditional The Inpatient, why pursue roller coasters again instead of that more naturalistic horror?
Alejandro – It’s a very easy entrance to everyone that wants to play VR. Everyone knows how to use the guns in a game, how to use the hands, so it’s quite an accessible way to get into it. And almost everyone’s been on a roller coaster, so everyone knows how that feels. That accessibility was our main target.
And then there’s the pacing. You’ve seen some sections are very heavily a roller coaster, some sections we take the guns, some of them we make more scary or more action.
As you say, having guns makes you feel powerful, so what we tried to do in a lot of levels is to make you not feel powerful, even when you have guns. So we might remove your sight, use the eye tracking, and keep you on the edge all the time. We have a level where we bring down fog so you can’t see too far in front of you, but you keep hearing things moving around you. It doesn’t matter if you have guns – it’s still scary!
TSA – How important is it for VR to still have these introductory experiences still, when a lot of VR old hats might be looking for or demanding Half-Life Alyx each time?
Alejandro – Same as any console, I think we’ve got to make games for everyone, and I think VR is still very daunting to a lot of people. So we do need those hardcore games like Half-Life Alyx, but we need a range of games to bring more people in that are easy to use, where people can still see that potential and they get more immersed.
We do have a difficulty system in Switchback VR, so if you’re a pro? You just go in with that.
TSA – It feels like the eye-tracking is really one of the key hooks that you have, and it’s not just blinking, but where you’re looking. How did this side of the game grow?
Alejandro – When we started development, we thought about all the ways we could use eye tracking. Blinking was one of them, so we have enemies that move when you blink, but you’ve also been in the mirror room, where if you blinked at the beginning of that section, that gets filled with enemies, or if you blink in a different corridor, there’s pools of blood coming everywhere. We use it not only for enemies, but for situations to scare you.
It’s exactly the same for the eye tracking. We have enemies that are affected by eye-tracking, but there’s also things it can trigger, like you see chairs moving or a silhouette disappear when you look at it… or when you’re not looking and we can put it in the corner of your eyes.
We do a lot of these things through the levels, so every time you play you will see different things because your eyes are doing different things.
TSA – It’s made me think of how video games are scripted – and I don’t really know anything about making video games… who does?
Alejandro – I don’t! [laughs]
TSA – But to make sure people are paying attention is quite difficult, and when you’re in VR, it’s so easy to look off and get distracted, and I think that for VR in general eye tracking could help make sure you’re looking.
Alejandro – Absolutely. As an example, imagine that you’re talking to an NPC and look somewhere else, that NPC could go “Hey, hey! I’m talking to you, look at me!” And that eye tracking means we know what you’re looking at.
Though with PSVR 2, you can disable eye tracking for accessibility, so we need to come up with solutions for that too. There is always a solution, so we found a lot of ways to make sure you will still have a very similar experience.
TSA – Rail shooters are often quite short games, so what can you say about the length and replayability of Switchback VR?
Alejandro – Let’s start with the length – we have 10 levels, which is more levels than in Rush of Blood, and every level is averaged between 15-20 minutes, so it’s quite long. On top of that every level has branches with a different experience – for example you took the one with the mannequins, but the other one has demon dogs.
Not only that, but we have puzzles. Every other level you find you not only need to shoot enemies, you need to think about what you need to shoot. It might be crushers are coming in from the sides, Jigsaw-style, so how are you going to progress and what do you need to shoot to keep moving? Or there is a victim on the train – are you going to help them or leave them? We use guns for that as well, with a UV light to uncover certain things.
Every level has a lot of different things to show you, so you don’t get bored. Not only that, we have different endings as well.
TSA – It’s probably a bit late now, but this could be in an update or something. Could I suggest that maybe, at random, it’s not always demon dogs, but sometimes just nice dogs for a little bit?
Alejandro – That would be quite nice! Hmmm… Chihuahua’s?
The thing with this is that at the end, the demon that keeps chasing you, might put you through everything that you’ve tried to avoid doing. How many people you saved, how you behaved can have an impact on that end boss battle.
And then on top of that, if you want to play for high scores, we obviously have leaderboards. That’s why we made a lot of things destructible, and there’s a lot of strategies to get that multiplier up.
TSA – Finally, once you’re done with Switchback VR, you’re going to do Tumble VR 2, right?
Alejandro – [laughs] Of course, of course…
No, we’ve been so focussed on this, and up until last week pushing. Hopefully we’ll get to do more stuff in future, so… maybe Tumble VR? Tumble VR 2 for PSVR 2?
TSA – Maybe it should be Tumble 2 VR 2…
Thanks to Alejandro for taking the time to talk to us, and if you want to catch some first impressions, catch our Switchback VR preview. We’ll also have our review shortly, with The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR coming out exclusively for PSVR 2 on Thursday 16th March.
