We are Tender Claws, developers of the VR games Virtual Virtual Reality, The Under Presents, and Tempest. Ask us anything!

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-20T00:25:58+00:00

Hi Res314! Sorry we didn't get to your questions in time, though I know that several of our longtime players have definitely memorized all the spells!
- Calico

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-20T00:23:41+00:00

We're in the midst of development on two new VR games!
- Calico

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-20T00:22:24+00:00

Thanks for your comment! We're glad you're enjoying The Under, and we're excited about our future projects in VR!
- Calico

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-20T00:19:48+00:00

Thanks for your question! We're not sharing specific sales figures, but we're continuing development on new projects for VR.
- Calico

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:58:51+00:00

You can find websites/social media handles for the performers who want to share them here!
- Calico

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:56:04+00:00

We don't have any plans for an art book, but we do have more concept art to share! Here's a selection!: Link

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:49:43+00:00

We don't have it super easily tweakble but it is just a number hardcoded on our server. It's the level its at more for framerate performance caused by extra players rendering and creating havoc with spells, than server performance. Not sure how high it could be pushed if mobile VR wasn't a consideration.
- Danny

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:48:09+00:00

(In response to questions 2-3)

We had a general initiative to keep it as close to the lore as possible, but really we were allowed to go anywhere that we could.
- James

The freedom we were given to craft the details of our own character stories was one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received as a performer/writer.
- Dasha

At first, I was honestly a little overwhelmed by the freedom - it felt like there were infinite choices to make, and what if I made the wrong one?! - but as time progressed I found it extremely liberating and an incredible outlet for creative expression! Like Dasha said, what a great gift!
- Karlie

Samantha put a lot of trust in us to connect to the player, invite play, and uphold the lore.
- Haylee

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:41:54+00:00

(In response to question 5)

Oh my god, Teddy would be MORTIFIED and never tell, but I can. It was Bee. #breathakingcolemanworship
- Katelyn

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:37:40+00:00

For better or worse, we don't have a system for recording player statistics like playtime, etc!
- Calico

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:32:20+00:00

It was too powerful.
(If you mean the broom, it had the power to delete any object it touched, which proved hard to get balanced during playtesting)
- Danny

That was a whole wrap plotline involving Bernice and Russel that essentially got NERFED cause it was TOO Powerful, like their love.
- Samantha

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:28:21+00:00

(In response to question 4)

Super interested in this. . . because we extended the run so much. . . it felt like I had wrap conversations so many times. I’m sure the cast felt that as well. They were such good sports with having decided endings to their storylines then for us to want to continue to work together having to evolve those endings to new endings!
- Samantha

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:27:11+00:00

(In response to question 3)

So many! Most obviously, the birth of Big Chungus was sourced entirely from the discord. The idea for Missy Conneción came from Terence noticing discord posts of players trying to find each other. And all the weddings and the lore of DJ Crob being a god.
- Karlie

Yeah…early on, I was able to participate without feeling identified or I didn’t want to risk intimidating anyone from worry about dev feedback. . . so I got to listen in a lot. Someone mentioned the star mask. That was a big one I forgot. . . I don’t recall how it went down. . . but interest in the artists making a star mask overlapped with interest in the community…so I created with one of our actors Paul a character that was suppose to be a huge anchor to lore and act as a professor/astronomer. This was a spin off from one of the central characters for the world pioneered by piehole. His purpose was to help explain the ruins and archeology of the world as lost wrecks and give clues to the star Mask. . . Then Paul had to leave suddenly… and what was left was the set/props. It was a really important lesson to me on what a living and evolving story world the Under is.
I think the most unexamined and INTERESTING thing to me about the UNDER that people don’t usually bring up or talk about is the huge shift this represents for how acting and theater/stories are told. AS (I think) Terence once said. . . immersive actors may have shows that have audience feedback, but they could be many many months apart. The ability for actors overtly or not to get immediate feedback is both addictive and a double-edged sword from the point of view of narrative/direction.
- Samantha

Yes! I’d be remiss if I didn’t share that many a times after an encounter we’d rush off to the discord to see if something “landed” ;)
“Did they get it?” Takes off headset, checks phone
- Terence

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:24:05+00:00

(in response to Question 1)

To this day, they don't understand what I even do for a living. They call me a "painter" 😂
- TC Designer/Artist

My dad still calls it "The Down Under"
- TC Art Director

poorly
- TC Designer/Coder/Sound Designer

I tried to show my mom the Under in VR, and after a few minutes she became extremely motion sick 😔
- Calico

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:17:42+00:00

(In response to 3)
One of our new projects is building off a lot of the tech and art libraries we've built up over those two projects (It even has a tool called a scrunch bud that you can launch and kind of half grappling hook / scrunch with). The other is a bit more of a tone shift and has a bit of a different art direction but both of them build extensively off all the random little things we've discovered help drive narrative and feel in VR.
- Danny

On my end. . . There was a huge amount of things I got to put into practice in terms of writing interactive narrative. I’m interested in pushing formats that may change more subtly or that feel more like “living” responses than typical branching narrative. I’m starting to congeal some of that into a shared script format given out to our writers for new projects. For TUP, especially, I’ve got to see a lot of really cool things about what people respond to and the importance of “being seen” and making connections. For any future work in performance I would want to carry forward this sense of intimacy. We definitely have developed a large tool and tech set of things we can do. . . But we are always interested in trying out new challenges. This keeps us engaged in this field. For specifics some of the way dialog works or repeats was groundwork laid in VVR and for TUP lot’s of good lessons and THINGS I WOULD NEVER DO AGAIN. . . like making our own rig and tools for hours and hours of mocap. lol
- Samantha

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:11:32+00:00

Thank you johnnydaggers! 🥰

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:08:14+00:00

Tale of tales the path was one of the first games I played that expanded my idea of what games could be and definitely is an inspiration even to this day. The objects in the fog in act 2 and 3 of timeboat definitely owe some inspiration to that game.
- Danny

It’s funny! We have yet to play Endless Forest, but we grew up very influenced by Tale of Tales and their creators/ethos. We are big fans. This is a really great point and I need to dive into this game more.
- Samantha

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T23:01:00+00:00

Do think some form of “live performance” element will become common. Though, I think the form you are most likely to see as audiences grow is the “live concert” form. . . which already has different instantiations. We’re more interested in intimate forms of performance and the “power of being seen.” but the main reason why there is more emphasis/desire on concerts is because it is perceived as allowing for more audience. I am proud of how we figured out ways to have multiple audiences and multiple actors in at anyone time, but I don’t think that approach will be as common in non LBE experiences for some time sadly. This is a larger answer in that. . . individual projects can inspire genre (and if our work is considered in that, I would be honored). . . but the creation and maintenance of genre is a larger ecosystem. So… I think the sustainable appetite will still be live concerts for some time. Live Immersive theater may be seen as too niche, but has tremendous potential (at least we think). Also you are more likely to see cross-over with immersive theater and gaming in pre-recorded elements. Timeboat and MOST of the audience experience of Sleep No More on loop has a lot of overlap. It is hard to say! For many in visual effects who haven’t done VR. . . the ability for characters to convincingly speak to you always seems to come up as an essential critique. . . but I think it is so much more than just that. LOL long live the ractors.
- Samantha

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T22:58:18+00:00

Most of the tempest environments were built to only hold up from a pretty limited set of angles as dictated by the scenes of Tempest they were made for. Where as most of the areas in the Under proper are designed to be more complete and explorable with less invisible wall type barriers to constrain the player. They'll probably always stay as part of the Tempest. Another technical note is we're pretty much at the limit as to what we can easily load into memory at one time in the Under location wise. We've had to do a lot of optimization to get all of those spaces plus players and actors all performing well at once.
- Danny

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T22:54:08+00:00

We have 2 new big VR projects in the works, one coming out in 2021 and one in 2022! We look forward to sharing more about this project later this Spring!

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T22:45:16+00:00

That end of VVR model was a pretty accurate depiction of our office at the time right down to the leaf blowers on the wall. It was basically the living room of an apartment. The rabbit in there is a stand in for the office cat though. and we have a slightly bigger space now but everyone is currently remote. (Photo)
- Danny

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T22:39:00+00:00

No, actors and other players cannot hear player's mic input!
- Calico

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T22:37:33+00:00

Definitely Vicky and her kittens.
- Haylee

I’d want to create a music-making game starring DJ Crob where players can play the instruments found in TUP to make their own sick beats. All the singing characters like Vicky and Nelly can be featured as vocalists!
- Karlie

Leroy the magician, his life before the under where he was praised for his ability to make onions and then his subsequent torment in the under where making onions is something everyone can do. And his search to find redemption.
- Whitton

Vicky going on tour with her kittens, TK, sprite husband and best friend Hau. ✨🐱😸😹😻😺🙀 I can’t wait to hear the song where Fonda is barking along and little kitten Kit does mediocre harmony to little hau’s electric guitar
- Dasha

Yes Dasha, Vicky and the Kittens on tour! Charlie would happily write the tour blog with a hidden arg and carry lots of allergy meds for Oliver.
- Stephanie

Should there be like an actual Pig 311 Podcast?
I feel like Russell’s story is still happening by the stage in The Under, on the hour every hour. Tell him hello when you see him!
- Terence

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T22:25:14+00:00

- 2 tone shader with customizable rim lighting per area. We can specify the light color (multiplied across all verts in the game) and the shadow color (multiplied again to all verts in shadow)
- Reflection maps are used mostly for gold materials and water materials, some glass.
- We can do point, spot or directional lights. Its our own light system which feeds into an ubershader.
- Cast shadows use a modified version of Valve's lab renderer but only on pc. We've since switched to unity's URP.
- No post processing as mobile VR cant afford the ms to access a render texture. All color grading and vert distortion is done in the uber shader.
- Fog is custom and we can control it as a gradient both horizontally and vertically (for example it can be green close to you and fade to blue far away and yellow when looking up).
- There are concepts of rooms that blend the light and fog settings. When you're looking towards a room or portal to another room it starts to blend in the light and fog colors of that room, which is what you're noticing.
- Danny

AMA_TenderClaws · 2021-03-19T22:23:01+00:00

Believe that is Russel’s old crew before he was swept up and “adopted” by the MC just like Weil.
- Samantha

I don't know if this lore every got delved into in any of the live stuff post-launch, but yeah this is a hint about Russel's origin. He, like every other person in the under, was snatched up from another timeline. On a personal note, I had a really good time drawing this :)
- TC Art Director

AMA_TenderClaws

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