We’re back! My name is Blake Stone, Lead Designer at VitruviusVR, the development team behind Mervils & Shadow Legend VR on the original PS VR. We are very excited to launch our newest title Arken Age, a single-player VR adventure set in a terraformed sci-fi fantasy world.
In the game you engage in full physics-based combat using Arkenite infused swords & guns; and can freely explore the densely filled environments under siege by Hyperion’s neural corruption. Arken Age has a full 15-hour story driven campaign, was built from the ground-up for PlayStation VR2, and is launching tomorrow, January 16.
10 years of developing for PlayStation VR
In 2015, we were demoing an early version of Mervils: A VR Adventure, our third-person VR platforming game at the Immersed Conference in Toronto, Canada when we were approached by Richard Marks, Head of Sony’s Magic Lab at the time. He couldn’t tell us too much, but said that his team “had something really cool in works for VR” and that Mervils could be a great fit for it. He later sent us a prototype of the Project Morpheus headset which would later be renamed PlayStation VR, and since then we have never looked back.
We released Mervils in 2017 and later launched Shadow Legend VR in 2020, a first-person medieval sword-fighting game, and we learned a ton from the PlayStation VR community’s feedback on those games that we have directly applied to Arken Age.
From Shadow Legend we learned that players loved the Climbing Picks both for their fluidity of movement in VR and haptics on impact. For Arken Age we took the Climbing Picks one step further and physically integrated them into the players forearms and added the ability to flick your wrists upwards to deploy them at any time during the game.
The Climbing Picks is only one example, but there’s so much more included in the game. We further refined our custom VR inventory system, weapon crafting, character interactions, unique combat features, exploration elements, and our design philosophy behind building high-fidelity worlds in VR.
Dynamic Foveated Rendering & breath-taking HDR graphics
In order to take full advantage of the PlayStation VR2 we worked hard to ensure Arken Age’s rendering, shaders, particle-effects, and post-effects were compatible with Dynamic Foveated Rendering (DFR) for the best image resolution possible. Although, image quality is not the only benefit of the PS VR2, with the vibrant world of the Bio-Chasm in Arken Age, it really showcases the importance of HDR graphics in VR with the bright blue waters, lush foliage, and emissive energy bloom from Arkenite weapons, buildings, & the robotic Hyperion soldiers in the world.
VR weaponry & custom adaptive triggers
When developing Arken Age our biggest focus was on realistic physics-based combat and one-of-a-kind VR weaponry; each with their own unique Adaptive Trigger haptics. In the game you begin with 3 fully customizable & paintable weapons and can collect over 30 unique weapon mods in total. Each attachment is custom designed for VR gameplay, ranging from the Hyperion God Axe; a throwing axe that uses PS VR2’s eye-tracking & can be recalled at your will, the Tempered Cutter; a deployable saw blade that dismembers enemy limbs, and the Astral Ballista; a high-powered chargeable bow, to name a few. In addition, eye-tracking is used to enable the sniper scopes in the game, just close one eye when your head is close to a scope and watch the magic happen!
Uncover the story of Bio-Chasm & your full VR alien body
In Arken Age you are a biological alien creation, built with full locomotion and the ability to freely jump, crouch, climb, & swim. You can view your full body in first-person and holster all weapons physically onto your character.
Your journey begins in Celestial Custodian’s Tower on the shores of the Bio-Chasm, a terraformed realm created to harvest Arkenite Energy. Its divine founder, the Grand Arborist, has ceased cultivation of your planet and every transmission sent to him has been met with abject silence. In Arken Age you uncover the truth behind the disappearance of the Grand Arborist, forge alliance with the Nara alien race, take up arms against Hyperion’s legion of corrupted soldiers, and learn how your character; who is part Nara and part Hyperion tech, fits into this world.
Arken Age takes the player through a full 15-hour adventure, combines both physics-based sword combat with long-range gun combat, has a wide-range of custom VR interactions, epic VR boss fights, and gives the player full freedom to explore the dense environments of the Bio-Chasm.
We want to thank everyone in the PlayStation VR community for their support over the years and we hope Arken Age will be something PS VR2 fans can enjoy this Jan 16 and for the years to come!
