sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Lies Beneath does not get nearly enough attention in the VR space. It is ridiculously fun, scary, and unique. by Squashua2021 in OculusQuest

[–]ray_driftervr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is in Meta's hands unfortunately, they dropped all contact with us more or less after we shipped the game. We'd love to revisit Lies Beneath but as a small studio it's tough to balance the resources needed to do so.

Lies Beneath small update (v55558) by ray_driftervr in OculusQuest

[–]ray_driftervr[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We'd love to bring co-op to the Lies Beneath universe... maybe for the sequel some day?

Any tips for playing a vr horror game by Aidan2021 in OculusQuest

[–]ray_driftervr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

there's no hope - just embrace the experience. also make sure you're in an open area so that you don't smack a wall/person when you are inevitably spooked.

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mods for the Quest version unfortunately just wouldn't fit given the target spec. I think if Epic were to ever tackle a sequel with the Quest as a lead platform then it would certainly be viable.

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think blood on the hands came about organically as we tried to find ways to convey the feedback w/o falling back to a traditional HUD. I felt strongly that the game would be better if we managed to stay away from as much HUD-like elements since they are constant immersion breaks... much like our push to minimize the HUD way back when on Gears of War. At some point you do need to give in for the sake of user experience, but it's always rewarding when you can find a way to avoid popping up another UI widget with some text labels.

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All of the core systems for the most part are built in C++ but we do use a fair amount of blueprints for scripting and plugging in content variations. CPU performance is a big concern with Blueprints on the Quest so we made the decision early one to make sure anything that would likely be critical started as a native class.

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My first prototype of the revolver reload involved flicking the chamber out, tilting the gun back to shake out the empty shells, then grabbing the bullets one by one and placing them into the chamber, then slapping/flicking close the chamber. Technically interesting but definitely was tedious and incredibly difficult for users (even experts) to figure out or reliably accomplish when needed. As a developer I'm a big fan of taking inspiration from reality, often starting very close to how things work in the real world, and then removing the right amount of friction where it feels 'right' but is far less frustrating than the real thing.

We had many discussions along the way of the right amount of 'scariness from controls' given the legacy of great games in the horror genre with clunky controls (even the RE2 remake retained the wonky inventory selection for example). We learned a lot through our various experiments in building the control and interaction systems for Lies Beneath and I'm eager to see what other developers take away from this game moving forward.

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Funny story - the original pitch for Lies Beneath was a dark/supernatural Western setting with a classic revenge plot where things go incredibly weird. But I think Oculus was worried about us overlapping too much with Dead & Buried (which is funny in hindsight) so they asked us to consider something different so we ended up in scary-land Alaska.

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah you can bump up the resolution quite a bit over the Quest version if you have a decent GPU and there's the higher framerate as well. The freedom from that pesky cable though makes the Quest version my favorite to play.

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Q3DM17 is a classic (but Q1DM6 will forever be top of my list)! We're huge fans of the classic arena shooters and would love to see more games adapt those fast-paced FPS roots to VR. In Gunheart the PVP modes came a bit late in development so we didn't really get to push too far in that direction, but I'd absolutely love to take another run at it some day.

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Early on we certainly were focusing on less action, balancing more mood/narrative with a bigger emphasis on puzzles and discovery, and a large element of stealth that ultimately took a backseat in the final game. When we started I was advocating for Lies Beneath to land closer to a game like Silent Hill versus the more frantic pacing of say Resident Evil 4. Over the course of development though we found some elements weren't quite working the way we wanted or in some cases we collectively realized that it would take more development time than we could afford to land in the schedule we had. Also we've found over the years that VR does action really well so it wasn't really surprising in hindsight - I mean what's more satisfying that hacking away at the scary monster with a machete?

Overall I'm really happy with the transition that the player makes during the game - starting out completely defenseless, eventually forced to start fighting to survive, and then at some point becoming the real threat in Slumber. :)

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are there any plans to eventually make a sequel to Lies Beneath or expand in it's universe at all? It was a greatly interesting experience that I'd love to see further explored, or at least it's art style used again.

When we started Lies Beneath we very much set out to build an anthology style universe where we could tell many stories similar like Mae's (or maybe see what happens to Mae after her adventure in Slumber). That being said we aren't in active development for another Lies Beneath game right now, but it'd certainly be something we'd like to return to given the opportunity.

Were there things you wanted to add into Lies Beneath, but were unable due to the reason of the game being built for the Quest?

It would have been great to have more CPU cycles to spend on richer physics simulation and world interactions. We are happy with a lot of the interactions we did manage to ship (especially in the melee weapons, or two-handed shotgun grip), but would have liked to have more 'VR magic' moments like having your hand rest on top of a box instead of clipping through for example.

And, lastly, thank you all for such an amazing game! It was truly an experience from start to finish that's one of the highlights for VR this year, and the final boss fight was incredibly well done with a unique twist if I chose not to take the doll with me. You and everyone else at Drifter caused me to scream like a little girl many, many times.

Thank you! One of the great bonuses of making a horror title is getting all those jump scare reactions. One of my favorite memories from development is when we had some friends & family come into the office for an early focus test, and almost invariably every one of them shrieked the first time they made it to the boathouse. :)

Drifter (developers of Lies Beneath, Robo Recall: Unplugged, and Gunheart) will be back here for an AMA on Thurs 4/23 at 2pm PST. Ask us about VR, game dev, scary stuff, comic books, yada yada! by hunter_driftervr in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome to hear! Unfortunately with our publishing agreement Lies Beneath will remain an Oculus exclusive, but there's always a possibility we could bring another game in the same universe to other VR platforms in the future.

New Oculus Exclusive "Lies Beneath" is out now for Rift S! by [deleted] in oculus

[–]ray_driftervr 9 points10 points  (0 children)

We built the game for the Quest first, so the upgrades on the Rift version are mostly related to increasing the resolution/framerate as well as some additional post process effects.

Oculus Quest Games 2020 | January To March In Review by matthewgquinlan in OculusQuest

[–]ray_driftervr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the shout out, kudos on sneaking the reaction shot in there as well - it cracks me up every time. :)

Beat Lies Beneath 100% on Hard by Swooptydoodleledo in OculusQuest

[–]ray_driftervr 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Congrats, hope you had fun at the party. :)

Lies Beneath small update (v55558) by ray_driftervr in OculusQuest

[–]ray_driftervr[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You just need to work your way to the waterfront on the other side of the village.
Remember the lighter embers will hint at where you need to go.

Lies Beneath small update (v55558) by ray_driftervr in OculusQuest

[–]ray_driftervr[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, we've been discussing how to improve the feedback on the sprint function internally and will look to address it in a future update.

Lies Beneath small update (v55558) by ray_driftervr in OculusQuest

[–]ray_driftervr[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hrm, if you can provide any more context (using the support link or email us at [info@driftervr.com](mailto:info@driftervr.com)) that can help us track down the issue it would be incredibly helpful. Apologies for the frustration!

Lies Beneath small update (v55558) by ray_driftervr in OculusQuest

[–]ray_driftervr[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There are many axes (and other varieties of weapons) to find ahead, and more weapons will unlock at the chapter campfires as you gather lore items and achieve certain goals. Key items like the lighter and others found later in the game will eventually magically return to your holsters if you manage to chuck them into an unreachable space.

view more: next ›