Finger Clickin' Good

Screenshots in VR are not an easy thing to take, for a whole host of reasons. It’s meant that up till now we haven’t had the best screenshots. This has both let us down and you. Who wants to wishlist a game that looks like crap, or that doesn’t present a clear idea of what’s happening.

But all that’s changed! We’ve uploaded a slew of new screenshots to Steam, the website and everywhere else we’re sharing details about our game! All it’s taken is some very dedicated development on our camera system, and the team spending a lot of time trying to get that perfect shot.



When you go into indie game development you often don’t think about all the time and energy marketing a game requires. It’s not just the posting a video or livestream. Or writing a blog post. Often times it’s about developing tools that enable you to do just that. And it’s all the more so when it comes to VR game development.

VR poses a number of issues when capturing screenshots. The first of which is the laborious nature of just taking them on a PC. There’s keys to press, screen areas to select, paint programs to open and save in. And if you’re alone you’re having to do all of that either from within a headset or stop and take it all off.

The fact someone is wearing the camera and controllers is another factor that affects screenshots in VR. The field of view is so narrow that to make sure the controllers or hands are visible is difficult, because they’re then having to be held at a height that’s uncomfortable and unsustainable for long periods. There’s also a lot of shaking and quick movements that occur. It makes taking those beautiful action shots a lot harder. And pausing a game doesn’t always result in the best work.

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So our solution has been one that has benefits beyond just enabling us to take screenshots and make our game more enticing on Steam. Our brilliant programmers have created a camera system that makes the game more streamable and watchable. How? - We hear you ask. What magic is this? - We hear you say. Why it’s the beauty of computer programming that’s added in five additional cameras to the game!

Each camera can be controlled independently, and set up to capture what you desire. They all start parented to the player, which has a beautiful head now to really help sell the idea of being a giant. Four of the cameras are third person so you can capture all the action from a far and take in the whole scene. You can become quite the director composing your shots with these cameras. External cameras like these are perfect for anyone with an audience cause they can watch without getting motion sick, and have a better idea of what’s happening.



Sometimes you just want to show all the action you as a player see. That’s why we’ve included a new first person camera. What makes this one different is that it’s not based on what you see within the headset. Rather, it’s its own camera set slightly beneath the player’s head so it that it readily captures the player’s hands. This setup, along with some motion smoothing, gives viewers a much better feel of what it’s like to be in VR when not wearing a headset of their own. It also helps provide context for the player’s actions and prevents motion sickness created by fast movements.

It should be noted that we didn’t originate many of these ideas. We specifically looked at what other developers were doing. The team behind Fantastic Contraption had a great video about their own camera system which was a big help in developing our own.

All this was done so that we could take better screenshots, but what it also means is you’ll be able to do the same! A Giant Problem is going to be more streamable, more shareable because of the time we’ve taken to give you the tools to show off all the goblin smashing you get up to. So if you want to show off to your friends, family and fans then be sure to wishlist A Giant Problem on Steam now!