You’re about to get facehugged in more than one way, as the Alien franchise is debuting a new VR game later this year, “Alien: Rogue Incursion.” We had the opportunity to speak to the team from Survivos at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) about bringing the game to life.
The story is written by Alex White, who is no stranger to writing within the “Alien” universe. This experience was a little different though, “This is very much working to a specification. You know, when I arrived some elements of the story were already set for me. So it was interesting because it’s like “Iron Chef” where you come in and the ingredients are sort of there for you on the table. So it’s like you’re working with (Zula) Hendricks, you’re like, all right, let’s go! You know“
All around folks agreed one of the most important parts was getting the Xenomorph right. Lead Software Engineer Eugene Elkin noted that “Everyone will judge it. That’s what the game is about. On top of the narrative and Zula Hendricks… But if you don’t get it right you don’t have a game. We spent about a year, or more than, a year and a half – just prototyping. What could it do? We knew we wanted to traverse (the) environment, but what does it really mean to traverse all environments? The ceilings, the walls go behind in the vents. It can be in the walls. It can be underneath the floor. You never know what it is we wanted to instill fear and anxiety, and yet it’s something you can kill. So finding that balance. Yeah. And making sure it’s scary and yet fun.”
Studio Art Director Tate Mosesian noted “As an art director and an artist, you know, that’s sort of the first thing you might think of is like, “how can I make it better?” But you can’t really make it. The only way to make it great, and we all agreed on all aspects of the game, was to be authentic. So that’s what we did. So you will see Xenomorphs as you expect to see them, you see environments as you expect to see them. And that was the thing that maybe was the most difficult for the art department was to be able to create environments that could support the level of combat that the design team and the engineering team was able to work into the Xenomorphs behaviors.”
Speaking of the aforementioned Zula Hendricks, we learned she’ll be played by actress Anida Winslow, who was excited to inhabit the role. “Zula is on a hero’s quest, but she’s not a superhero. She’s fallible. She’s a fully formed human being. She’s fighting several fights. She’s fighting in Xenomorphs, right? She’s fighting against corporate greed. She’s fighting personal demons, but she’s also fighting against a battered body. I think invisible disability and invisible pain is something a lot of people face but (many people) don’t know about and talk about it. So she’s fighting all these battles, and yet she still chooses the good fight. You know, she’s a fully formed character. AND she looks like me, that I don’t (get to) see that often.”
The Path to VR
It’s been quite a road for the team, TQ Jefferson, Chief Product Officer of Survivos shared with us that “We went down a path, on PC console. Because we want to put it on as many platforms as we can. So we went down this path, and we got to Vertical Slice, which is where you get a section of the game that’s predictive of where the product is going. We played it and it looked good, but it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel authentic. No one was scared.
So we made the tough choice to go in a different direction. That’s difficult to do after you’ve invested money. But it was more important to us that we did it right. We kept that momentum. When we did that we were like, okay, well why don’t we lean into our strengths, which is VR. And we’ll do that first. Once we did that, everything unlocked. It was great. It was a great choice. It was a hard choice, but it was the right one.”
Adding the extra layer brought additional impact for folks like Composer Sara Barone. “ (Figuring out) How to find a way to pay tribute to those iconic scores while doing something really new and cutting edge. And this new VR immersive environment -I think that’s also been the most exciting part. It’s finding a new sound. but within the universe so that fans will hopefully, get a sense of elements reminding them of the score that they love.
Generally my approach to the score has been very much informed, by the sound design and working with the sound design and creating an experience that feels really visceral. (Making sure) it doesn’t feel like wall to wall music, but that feels like it has a symbiotic relationship with the sounds. It’s so important for the players to really experience (the) environment. You know, here are the broken wires and all of these things. So I’ve tried to sort of play on the sense of uncertainty. not knowing what’s around the corner with the music, you know, creating sounds that may be mistaken for an alien growl.”
More about “Alien: Rogue Incursion”
It’s a brand-new single-player action-horror VR game that immerses players in the world of Alien. The game stars Zula Hendricks, an unbreakable ex-Colonial Marine, on a dangerous mission that brings her to the uncharted planet Purdan, and the secrets hiding beneath its surface. With her sentient AI companion, Davis-01, Zula must fight her way to the heart of the infested Gemini Exoplanet Solutions black-site facility. There she will need to survive deadly attacks from the most cunning Xenomorphs ever encountered and discover new horrors and threats that once unleashed could spell the end for humankind.
