Into The Darkness VR News

Hey guys!



As you may have guessed - we are quietly working on Into The Darkness VR. We are developing new levels, preparing collectibles, and analyzing gameplay... Another typical month for us, where we are preparing for you a game that takes full advantage of the power of PCVR.

Usually, we write a lot, but this time we'll simply show you some screenshots of work-in-progress locations that probably wouldn't be available in the game if we hadn't expanded the scale of Into The Darkness VR (more about that, in the previous devlog!).









Like last time, we have a short, raw video from our tests. Below you can see the examination of the new combat model.



Hope you like it!


If you want to be even closer to the development process - you are more than welcome to join our Discord server and ask us any questions!

Gameboom VR & Cosmos Games teams

Hey guys!

A lot of you have arrived here since the Steam VR festival! Thanks for your interest in the game! If you are new here and looking forward to Into The Darkness VR then the following short introduction below is for you!



Into The Darkness VR is a title we first showed in 2021. In the meantime, we released a demo of the game, which was liked by so many players that today it is one of the most anticipated VR game on Steam. Players' expectations for Into The Darkness VR have grown so much that comparisons to top VR games have begun. Our reaction to this?

• We increased the budget
  
• We extended the production time to match the new scale of the game
  
• As Gameboom VR, we took care of the game design (the amazing Cosmos Games are responsible for the rest of the game!)
  

The rest since then has been history, which you can follow in the devlogs.



If you belong to the group of people who remember the Into The Darkness VR demo, you probably know what the game's tutorial looked like. If you haven't seen it - check out the numerous materials on YouTube! Today we'd like to show you how this level has changed and evolved! Here are new screenshots of the game!







We hope that we meet your expectations.



A little surprise! In the previous devlog, you could see one of the features of the glove, which allows you to manipulate objects with great precision. But that's not all your “hands” will be able to do! Below is a short gif showing you our test of the "push" function. Let us know what you think!



If you want to be even closer to the development process - you are more than welcome to join our Discord server and ask us any questions: https://discord.gg/dERxD78

Gameboom VR & Cosmos Games teams

Hey guys!

Today we have a lot to tell you about how we improve the quality of the game. Since the demo version that you could have played last summer, we are improving the game in EVERY aspect. The published demo version met with a lot of interest, outlining the further direction of the game development. In previous devlogs, you could see an improved graphic or an enlarged size of the locations. However, these are not the only changes we are constantly introducing in the game. Here are some more aspects that we are improving:



In the demo version, you didn't have a chance to check how exactly crafting will work. In the full version, there will be an improved version of the crafting system waiting for you, which will also be related to the topic of ecology. See how weapons are being made in Into The Darkness VR now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp0dRoJQJcs

We improved the gloves that you will have in the game! Now you can use them to precisely manipulate objects, which gives us new possibilities for designing levels and puzzles. And that's not all the functions that gloves will have!

https://youtu.be/POe3PLH8erU

Changes are also taking place in the physics of the game. You like to compare Into The Darkness VR to Boneworks and Half-Life Alyx (by the way... you set the bar high for us! ;)). If we were to define game physics today, it is somewhere in between the two games. We don't want ultra-precise physics, but we also want to let you have some fun with the game. Therefore, we constantly improve and optimize this element.

https://youtu.be/fhpykrc_q6E

There are even more new mechanics, but you will have to wait until the next devlogs.



To ensure the high quality of the game, we also invest in new technologies. One of them is motion capture equipment, which allows us to create high-quality animations. We decided to use the Xsens solution, which is different from the traditional solution with white balls on the body. Special trackers attached to the suit are much easier to set up, do not require tracking cameras, and fit perfectly into our workflow. This technology is also used by the devs of Creed: Rise to Glory, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, FIFA 22, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, Infamous: Second Son, and many others…

https://youtu.be/PLLtl0Mg7Kc





Motion capture of the body is one thing, but we also decided to capture our heroes' facial movements! You still have to wait for the effects of our work, but know that Into The Darkness VR characters will not scare you with tired faces.

What there was a lot of criticism for in the Into The Darkness VR demo was, of course, the dialogues and voices you heard. Full agree - this element needed an upgrade, but it was built quickly for this demo. In the full version of the game, voices recorded by voice actors will be waiting for you. All dialogues have also been improved now.

By the way - Into The Darkness VR will have subtitles translated into the following languages: Vietnamese, Polish (our homelands!), English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese.



In the previous devlog we promised to show you the new version of Lucy. The character that you might know from the demo as the blue hologram looks completely different now. Below we present its model, which will receive a few more improvements. Of course, this is not the only person you will meet in the game.





Into The Darkness VR will also receive an original soundtrack. We have established cooperation with several professionals who mix the songs. Here, however, is a little surprise! We are ready to present you with a fragment of one of the songs! Let us know what you think about it!

https://youtu.be/bY1okWiFURU



As you can see - the production takes us more time than we initially assumed, but we do all this to raise the quality of Into The Darkness VR. We have a lot of freedom in what we can achieve and we want to use this time to deliver the best game possible. This brings us to the topic of rescheduling.





We planned playtests for this half of the year. Unfortunately, we will not be able to begin them yet, for which we are very sorry.

We remember that we promised you that you will test the game before the premiere. That plan doesn't change. We still want to share the title with you before release. As soon as we are ready - we will provide you with information on how to test Into The Darkness VR before the premiere.

There is still some work ahead of us, including some topics that we cannot discuss in public yet. However, the work is ongoing and we will show you the individual elements of the game more and more often.



P.S. Some say that on one of the screenshots there is a key for Cooking Simulator VR on Steam…

Hey guys!

We are planning a big devlog, in which we will show you some photos from the offices, present a fragment of the soundtrack and other surprises. But before we are ready to share all of this with you, we will need a little more time. To keep you up to date with the development, today we want to show you some new screenshots and how the character model you may know changed.



Below we present you with new screenshots from Into The Darkness VR. Right-click the photos and open them in a new window to see them in full resolution.











When developing Into The Darkness VR locations, we focus on large spaces that will be filled with content. The player will have an option to focus only on the main quest, but for those who like to explore, there will be a few surprises awaiting. By opting for PCVR, the team does not have to limit themselves with the quality of the graphics or the number of objects on the screen, as if they had to develop a game for a wireless headset.





One more screenshot is available on our social media. Check it out on our Twitter and Facebook.



Remember Lucy from the old Into The Darkness VR demo? The simple blue hologram will be replaced with a much better model.



There are many more changes of this type, since the release of the demo version. We will try to show the 3D model of Lucy in the next devlog. We will also tell you about voice recordings, motion capture, music, and other things…

If you want to be even closer to the development process - join our Discord server and ask us any questions.

Gameboom VR & Cosmos Games teams

Hey guys! Today we'll talk about PCVR!

What can we achieve by focusing mainly on the PCVR version of the game?

In the previous post about Into The Darkness VR, we presented the plans for the development of the game. You already know that Cosmos Games/Gameboom VR production will be a full-fledged PCVR title. But what are the specific advantages of this? Today we will delve into this topic!

The power of PCVR

Of course, the graphics. This is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think about PCVR. The graphics of games that run on PCs are definitely better than what we can see in other solutions. So Into The Darkness VR is better in this regard as well.

But in the case of graphics, it is not only about how textures can be in high resolution. Developing the game on PCVR allows us to prepare much better geometry of objects and more advanced particle effects. Falling snow, fog, or sheets of paper blown by the wind - such effects will appear in Into The Darkness VR, while on other platforms we would have to give up on them. Some of the scenes we are planning assume a strong use of these effects, so without their existence, we would also not be able to tell the story we are going to.



Tessellation-based snow

Another thing that becomes possible thanks to PCVR is the level design, which is not hampered by the limited size of the location. Sure, large locations can be prepared on the other devices. But it always takes a few tricks for this. For example - developers are forced to add a large "fog" that will limit the view. You can also prevent the player from moving around or even load a large area only for a moment to remove it and load the next level.

The level design of Into The Darkness VR does not care so much about the size of the location. When we create a large area, it should be breathtaking. For this, we want to let you move around larger areas!

But in our game, we add something extra to it. Cosmos Games has managed to create a great snow system based on tessellation technology. One of the first locations is a large, mountainous area covered in snow. We didn't want a small layer of snow in a place like this, so we created interactive snow that reacts to our movement through it.

The fantastic-looking solution was achieved thanks to the mentioned tessellation. This solution would not be possible in a non-PCVR game! Moreover, it seems that this will be the first application of this technology in a VR game.



That's not all! Into The Darkness VR is a title that relies on advanced physics. Although our solution, in this case, has already worked well in previous versions of the game, we are still working on it, polishing what we can. You should feel the differences in physics in the new demo version. Be aware, however, that although this aspect is very important, we also do not want to develop a game that will ruthlessly punish the player for not mastering physics. We do not want to overdo it, because in this case, the gameplay becomes too tiring for the player.

Level design

Below we present screenshots that you could see in the previous devlog as a gif. Now you can take a closer look at the changes we're making to the game.



As you can see, a glass roof has appeared. This solution allowed us to make the place more colorful. The addition of this glazed roof, however, could have been fatal to the performance if we had not opted for PCVR. Now we don't have to worry about it.

Into The Darkness VR playtests

We know well that a lot of people are excited to test the changes we make to the game. We promised you the opportunity to test the game again before its release, and our plans have not changed in this regard.

Into The Darkness VR will be available again before the game's launch. At the moment, playtests are planned for Q2 2022.

If you want to be even closer to the development process - join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/dERxD78