Last January, Saltwater Games announced the acquisition of Maze Theory Limited (including Nexus Labs and Quantum Interactive), a video game studio well known to the XR community for such titles as PEAKY BLINDERS: THE KING’S RANSOM and DOCTOR WHO: THE EDGE OF TIME. A welcome consolidation in a difficult context for the video game industry, and one that comes at a time when the studio is working on its next game: THE INFINITE INSIDE. With its release scheduled for July 12, we take this opportunity to discuss it with Russ Harding, producer and now Chief Gaming Officer at Saltwater Games.
THE INFINITE INSIDE is available on Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest, PSVR2, SteamVR and PICO.
THE INFINITE INSIDE unveiled an alpha version online back in January, offering a glimpse of a mixed-reality game that made full use of the capabilities of the latest headsets. At once a puzzle game, a vintage adventure story and an escape game between VR and MR, it’s a real success that makes full use of the medium. With its ability to be played in chapters, both in your living room and in a mysterious ancient labyrinth, THE INFINITE INSIDE offers a full understanding of the interactive mechanics associated with XR, without diminishing the interest of a storyline with drawers that will surprise you. And keep you involved at all times.
Discovering interactivity, from video games to robot battles
Russ Harding – I started out in the video game industry in the 90s, working for Lego on programming… for Spybotics robots! We had to create scenarios, often involving espionage, to create challenges between robots. I moved on to games using cameras, where the user became the controller of the cameras. There were game mechanics to be found in these contexts.
R. H. – And then, no doubt, a hint of the immersive with the first intentions of augmented reality with mobile devices. There were very strong UX issues at stake in his first proposals, which had to be integrated through iPad or toy manipulations for young audiences (who adhered more easily to his universes). We had to think about player fatigue, the simplicity and intuitiveness of interactions… I also tried to use connected glasses to continue in this pre-VR movement. I worked on a device when the Oculus first appeared, where we had to develop a marketing experience (an underwater descent) for the Game Developer Conference without even having a headset for our tests!
The Maze Theory adventure (2018 – 2024)
R. H. – I then joined Maze Theory in 2018 to develop VR games. We were a very small team at the time, and within a few years we’d produced DOCTOR WHO: THE EDGE OF TIME and PEAKY BLINDERS: THE KING’S RANSOM. We had a project in development called ENGRAM, which could be the first steps towards THE INFINITE INSIDE. Marcus Moresby, co-founder of Maze Theory, definitely planted a few clues in the game we’re releasing this month. The releases of the two titles from the previous licenses kept us busy, but we returned to our desire to offer our own IP. And the new passthrough possibilities of the latest headsets have encouraged us to work on mixed reality and its possibilities. The quality is much better to play with.
R. H. – Mixed reality through VR headsets offers two advantages today. On the one hand, the possibility of switching from mixed reality to virtual reality offers a particularly interesting play area. With THE INFINITE INSIDE, we’re trying to keep things simple when it comes to changing environments. There are a lot of possibilities here, but we had to understand how it could remain fluid when you’re wearing a helmet – and without controllers. And then, handtracking was attractive on the Quest side, and offers increased accessibility. This set the boundaries for the project, within which we were comfortable creating the game. THE INFINITE INSIDE is essentially based on the spirit of a puzzle game, with actions to be performed in a physical environment, and (virtual) objects to be grasped. There’s a kind of tangible interactivity that was particularly exciting to create. In particular, by working with materials (marble, wood, stone…) to offer a certain kind of concrete, material aspect.
R. H. – On the other hand, mixed reality is a totally new playing field. And it was exciting for the whole team to get to grips with new gameplay modes and, in the case of music composition, sound design in mixed reality (or spatial computing).
Switching from VR to MR: advantages and disadvantages
R. H. – At Maze, we were used to working on big VR projects. But we’ve always been keen to experiment with totally innovative formats – and the opening of the App Lab prompted us to release the alpha version of THE INFINITE INSIDE 6 months ago, to test the mechanics and see how it went with the public. In the end, our brief was very simple: to design a puzzle game with a more advanced atmosphere than usual. The approach had to be as realistic as possible: more elaborate atmospheres, with coherence between them… The exploration we had with mixed reality enabled us to learn a lot. We had to avoid certain pitfalls or reflexes, such as creating virtual portals for travel. We had to avoid copying gimmicks.
R. H. – The arrival of the Quest opened up VR to many people, and made it more accessible. It was a seminal moment, and a challenging one, given the headset’s technical specifications. Still, it was exciting! The arrival of Apple’s Vision Pro is more focused on quality of experience. THE INFINITE INSIDE will be available on Apple’s headset from July 12, its arrival on European and international markets.
R. H. – THE INFINITE INSIDE was designed from the outset as a game with minimalist environments. And fortunately so, for a game with a labyrinth that involves a lot of rooms and movement, and alternating between VR and MR! It’s a deliberate choice on Marcus’ part, and one that characterizes the game well.
R. H. – The biggest challenges in mixed reality are linked to the very nature of the game, anchored in the real world. You give players more freedom… and everyone plays differently! This is an essential criterion, especially on Vision Pro, where the experience is more complex to run. So it’s essential that actions are very natural, intuitive, to guide all players in the same direction. Obviously, each headset has its own specificities (you also need to be able to grasp the Apple environment, for example), you can’t use Unity for Vision Pro, gestures can change… You have to work constantly with your technological and human imperatives in mind.
Sound design for mixed reality
R. H. – Music plays an important part in THE INFINITE INSIDE, as the game is all about atmosphere. Considering sound design for the whole experience is not so different from VR: it’s more complex to set up for the Vision Pro. There’s a lot to be done on these sound issues, as they are an essential lever for immersion. For the Apple version, we had to work in just a few weeks once the headset was available! And feedback from the first users will be essential…
R. H. – For the rest, working with a recognized real-time engine helps enormously to stabilize project production and artistic intentions. We can anticipate the type of interaction desired, the different sequences, work on the rhythm (when we leave the player free, when we have to help him…). And we can control the resources to be allocated to the project, the ambition of the gameplay (the number of levels). But there are still many unexplored possibilities, and the creative innovation linked to XR will continue to grow. I’d like to explore a bit more the VR/MR mix where you can divide the room between the two, do spatial storytelling that could mix the formats. And that could lead to new types of game, for a wider audience.
R. H. – Our ambition, for an original production, is to be able to offer new chapters of THE INFINITE INSIDE after release. There’s definitely a lot of narrative potential, increased accessibility of online blinds, better learning for interested audiences, and that’s exciting!
https://www.infiniteinsidegame.com
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