Off the Rails is an asymmetrical co-op virtual reality game made in my third year of studies for SteamVR with focus on the newly released Valve Index. The game has one player in VR conducting a train as another player acts as a rail traffic controller cooperating with the conductor to get the train to its destination safely.
My role on the project entailed programming core gameplay systems along with VR development and co-op networking features.
Off the Rails production was interrupted by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and development was halted until it could be resumed remotely with the goal of finishing a polished vertical slice of the game.
Key Components
Asymmetrical Development
Making an asymetrical co-op game with one player in virtual reality and the other on a pancake display was a unique challenge that our team had to tackle ourselves. Learning about the relationship between the two players and adjusting accordingly led to key decisions about gameplay balance and player communication.
Virtual Reality
Off the Rails was my first time working in virtual reality and took alot of adaptibility to be succesful. On top of being inexperienced in VR prior to this project we also decided to develop the game to support the newly released Valve Index, taking advantage of the advanced finger tracking built into the controllers.
Quality Assurance
While making a game in virtual reality we realized how important constant user experience testing was to development. Making sure the players understood their goal in a new environment while not disorienting them or giving them motion sickness took repeated testing to generate actionable feedback.
