A large part of the "secret" (?) to its fun is that you can pirate all the music you actually want to listen to. If they had tried harder to stop that the game would've been forgotten in weeks.
VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
71–80 of 89 posts
Re: VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
#72So, building on this, we can view Beat Saber not as a music game, but as a *dance* game that figured out a reliable, precise way to track player movements. It's interesting to note that similar movement-quantizing systems are at the core of numerous other hit games, most notably in Dance Dance Revolution but also to some extent Rock Band and Taiko no Tatsujin .
I completely agree that's a dance game. Similar way that Guitar Hero is a music playing game. It's not exactly a dance but delivers something close to dance feeling.
My brain can't dance, can't even perceive dance. When I see dancing champions perform, their movements make no sense to me and seem completely unrelated to the music they are dancing to. However when I played Beat Saber occasionally I feel glimpses of the feeling of dancing. That's pretty much as close to dancing as I can get.
Re: VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
#73The secret to Beat Saber is that the player's physical and virtual world are locked together at all times. You're standing on a small platform and can't go anywhere. Thus, it doesn't cause nausea. Or disorientation. Or falls. Even when the player is in very active motion.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV1sw4lfwFw
That's not sufficient to explain Beat Saber's secert as pretty much every VR rythym game follows the same pattern but was not as successful
Re: VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
#74I just wouldn’t have cared that much about getting a VR headset without beatsaber. And when I got bored of beatsaber, I was bored of VR.
You should try Rez Infinite. Along with Beat Saber I'd say it's a "killer app" for VR gear.
I love Rez and have owned many versions (PS2, PS4, VR) including Rez Infinite. I loved it and the sound track is on my phone. That said, I found the game super easy. I cleared all 5 levels in a few hours. I got Rez Infinite and found it about the same. Cleared it in 1 play though. So while I still love it. It wasn't a game I went back to over and over.
Re: VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
#75Never cared about scoring in Beat Saber. To me the game stood out for two reasons: 1) multisensory experience - when you chop the block it's a music+visual+kinestetic experience (beat/flash/haptic). That alone was wildly satisfying and worth playing game for 2h hours. 2) simplicity of rules The first thing later was replicated in may apps/games (one I enjoyed a lot is FitXR). But Beat Saber nailed it so good and earl…
Those aren't enough to explains Beat Saber's success. 9 of 10 VR rhythm games have the same 2 points.
Re: VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
#76Alternative POV. I never "got" Beat Saber. It didn't "make me dance". I could stand in one spot and twist my wrists, barely moving my arms, at least as far as I played. Since it didn't hook me, I never got that far. Maybe higher levels are better.
My personal favorite VR rythym game is Audica. As for why it did poorly I can only guess that it's not that interesting on easy. On expert mode though, it requires (required) you to move your entire body as things come at you from all sides. It's got 2 basic movies, shoot and smash. When a target appears you shoot it to the beat. When a ball appears you smash it to the beat. It's also got sticky targets (you need to hold the trigger) during which it projects a beam. The beam's sound changes based on how tilt the controller which is nice touch.
When it first came out it required you to hold your hands out at arms length to get a good score. They removed that requirement and I get why but, like Beat Saber, the game is less fun the less required you are to move)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YftH825-SeQ
Another one I liked was SynthRiders but it's far less polished. In particular, Audica, each track has been edited for game play, ending on a cresendo. In SynthWave, the songs are just the songs as released on the artist's CD. Many of them are too long and end really boringly compared to the edits in Audica.
Another issue with SynthRiders is they don't adjust the timing based on where you're standing so that it's pretty obvious the sounds are off the beat. The only way to fix that AFAICT is to walk forward or back and try to find the spot where the timing aligns. That's arguably just lazy design IMO because it ruins the experience when you feel like you're doing the right thing but the game's audio makes it sound like you're way behind/ahead
Still, I had a lot of run with it and it does do a good job of making you movie. Unfortuantely it didn't have many tracks I found appealing but those I did I played too many times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XaUdBgAHbM
I have friends who got into Pistol Whip. Didn't do it for me though.
Oh, and from the article, I agree that Until You Fall is an amazing game.
Re: VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
#77The secret to Beat Saber is that the player's physical and virtual world are locked together at all times. You're standing on a small platform and can't go anywhere. Thus, it doesn't cause nausea. Or disorientation. Or falls. Even when the player is in very active motion.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV1sw4lfwFw
I wonder if a game where you ride inside of a mecha with free roaming capabilities would feel more natural.
No. The visual movement of the mech will not align with the inertia you feel irl and you'll get dizzy.
Re: VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
#78Alternative POV. I never "got" Beat Saber. It didn't "make me dance". I could stand in one spot and twist my wrists, barely moving my arms, at least as far as I played. Since it didn't hook me, I never got that far. Maybe higher levels are better. My personal favorite VR rythym game is Audica. As for why it did poorly I can only guess that it's not that interesting on easy. On expert mode though, it requires (require…
Audica is sick! I definitely enjoyed it a lot more than Beat Saber, for the reasons you give -- it feels way more technical, and (therefore?) much more satisfying to learn.
Re: VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
#79Re: VR Design Unpacked: The secret to Beat Saber's fun
#80> So if Beat Saber scoring isn’t about timing, then how does it work? The scoring system is actually based on motion. In fact, it’s actually designed to make you move in specific ways if you want the highest score. > The key scoring factors are how broad your swing is and how even your cut is through the center of the block. So Beat Saber throws these cubes at you and challenges you to swing broadly and precisely. Oh…
You won't fail out due to not hitting the blocks "right," other than direction. You fail from missing them (or hitting them the wrong way) or being in those box-hurt-zones, hitting the mines...and I think that's about it.
That said I always kind of wished it was based more on the the timing, if only because it feels good to hit the boxes in time with the beat. People tend to move around though and that'd throw that off.