By this time next year, the next generation of virtual-reality headsets will be in stores. The hardware hooks will be plentiful, with better graphics, higher-resolution displays, faster frame rates, and tons of new games that make the most of all those things.
But the big immersive leap will be VR systems that employ positional tracking. You won't just be able to pivot your head to explore a virtual environment, you'll also be able to move around within it as you would in real life. The HTC Vive (slated for late 2015), Oculus Rift (early 2016), and Sony Project Morpheus (early 2016) will all bring positional tracking into games. It's only these pricer headsets that offer the advanced positional capabilities, so you won't find these features in Gear VR or any of the 360-degree viewers that use smartphones as screens.
However, even this enhanced gameplay won't ensure virtual-reality gaming cracks the mainstream. What VR really needs is a "Wii Sports" moment: An accessible, family-friendly game that shows what's different about VR and what makes it so much fun. And because positional tracking can actually be dangerous in the real world---you might bang your shin on a real coffee table or run into a real wall while exploring a virtual environment---it needs to be safe.
A game called Headmaster from Frame Interactive for Sony's Project Morpheus ticks all those boxes, and it has a good shot at being VR gaming's first mainstream hit. The gameplay and controls are simple---and thanks to the global popularity of soccer, they're also universally intuitive. You don't have a gun in the game, and you don't need any controls other than just wearing a VR headset. If you know how to head a soccer ball, you already know how to play it. And if you're a fan of Magritte, you'll appreciate the game's cover.
Here's how Headmaster works: A steady stream of soccer balls launch towards your head from locations all around you, and your job is to head them into targets. Most of those targets are tucked inside a goal in front of you. However, in order to keep things weird and interesting, there are also stages where swaying piñatas and bobbing rubber ducks serve as targets. At one point, a roasted turkey falls from the sky for no apparent reason. The balls also switch up from normal soccer balls to beach balls to explosive orbs, and there are interstitial "lightning rounds" where the balls fly at your head at breakneck speed.
"I came up with the idea in June 2014 at a game jam called the Boston VR Bender," says Frame Interactive founder and CEO Ben Throop. "Valve brought its prototype desktop VR hardware to the event, and the jam was all about making positional tracking based experiences. I like to start with game mechanics, and a tracked head is pretty interesting as a control surface. VR is so new that these fundamental ideas haven't been tapped yet. I also play soccer, so really, the concept just came in an instant once I started thinking about the opportunity."
Throop, who has been making games for 15 years and previously worked at Vicarious Visions/Activision before leaving to develop his own games in 2014, was still a bit hesitant to go full speed ahead on the game. He says that even though the initial prototype of the game was fun, he was still wary about the idea's long-term potential. After stopping development on the game for a few months, he was inspired to pick it back up again after the success of other simple-but-addictive games.
"I found myself repeatedly asking, 'Is this a real game,' because there were no prior models for a heading game," Throop says. "The scope of VR games hadn't been defined. I often thought of mobile games though, like Angry Birds, and how the theme and character of the game can make a single mechanic into a full experience. That made me believe that there was enough depth to heading things to warrant wrapping a world and full game around it."
That's where the weird spins such as exploding balls, rapid-fire rounds, and walls of goal-blocking crates came into play. All of that keeps the game fresh, varied, and fun. But the physics are perhaps the most-compelling draw. They're incredibly true-to-life: A slow head-butt motion sends the ball looping skyward like a lazy can of corn, while a quick flick of your head to the side sends a laser shot to the far post. In fact, the physics feel so accurate, it's jarring to not feel the impact of an actual soccer ball on your forehead.
Using a VR headset is a solitary experience, but Headmaster works surprisingly well as a spectator sport. It's almost as fun to watch other people play it as it is to play it yourself. If you think the mouth-agape look of someone wearing a VR headset is entertaining in and of itself, wait till you see them repeatedly bob their head forward like they're listening to the world's slowest heavy metal song.
"My wife and her friends were testing a new build the other night and were just dying laughing and cheering for each other," says Throop. "I asked one of the women, who is a total non-gamer, what it was that she liked about it. She said it was that it didn't use a controller. She said whenever she has to use a controller, she forgets what button does what and has to look down."
While the positional tracking in the game is subtle, it's also essential. There's no moving your feet around to traverse 3D space, but the PS4 camera and the light-up LEDs on the Morpheus headset work in tandem to determine the force and direction of your headers. Throop says the header effects wouldn't have been possible on the Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard "without a lot of fakery."
A five-stage playable demo of the game was unveiled at E3 in Los Angeles last month, and Sony brought it to New York City for an east-coast demo this past week. It will be an exclusive launch title for Sony's Project Morpheus when it becomes available in the first quarter of 2016, and Throop says his team is working on more stages and "more stupid stuff" to add to the game.
"As far as how it fits into VR right now, I do think we need approachable and fun experiences to get people to try the technology," Throop says. "Once people see what it's all about and have a good experience, their minds open up to the possibilities, and the possibilities are freaking endless."
