Crytek, the developers of the upcoming VR title Robinson: The Journey, have released their first developer diary for the game, detailing the emerging art of storytelling through the medium of virtual reality.
Gathering in the Frankfurt Natural History Museum in Germany, the developers started their journey with the initial concept of experiencing a prehistoric world ruled by dinosaurs. After completing the tech demos for Return to Dinosaur Island and its sequel, they realized how immersive a VR story can be.
The diary delivers an immense amount of new information about the story, as the developers have finally disclosed exactly why a small child is stranded on this strange world. Robinson, the story’s protagonist, was part of a space-traveling colony of humans whose sole duty was to locate, study and colonize different worlds across the universe.
When a heavily teased incident happens aboard the spaceship, Robinson survives with the help of his floating robot companion and a convenient escape pod. After surviving the crash landing, Robinson feels that his only mission in life, outside of survival, is the one he was been born to do – colonize the planet. Equipped with a remote manipulation device (the environment scanner that looks like a PlayStation Move controller), he and the player work to build a home base, and learn as much as possible about the local wildlife.
Although the developers have even claimed that the game could technically be played without a VR headset, it would be a disservice to the game if players experienced it any other way. Every aspect of the game has evolved from VR technology. The Robot companion, for instance, began as a tool to help keep the players attention through an expansive open world that they might otherwise get lost in.
In an environment that is becoming oversaturated with small experiences, Robinson: The Journey, looks to be one of the biggest titles releasing for any of the VR headsets.
Robinson: The Journey will launch alongside it’s required PlayStation VR headset this fall on October 16.
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