Drums Rock, the arcade game about playing the drums while crushing demons to the beat of rock, offers its most complete edition yet (and the craziest news) as it arrives with PS VR2 launch! From the team at Garage51 Entertainment, we’re excited to announce what we’ve done with this technology that you can try out at home on February 22nd. Let’s!
We have evolved Rock on drums for a few months when we got the PS VR2 dev kit. At that time we were improving the gameplay and fighting with the record companies to get cool songs for the game. We started testing the functions of the PS VR2 headset and the Sense controller.
We’ve tested countless different VR headsets in the past, but with the PS VR2 headset, we saw that you could do something that no one else had done before. And that’s exactly what we did. We wanted to take risks and succeed. We decided to go overboard rather than be afraid to try all these new features, and now I believe it was the best decision.
In case anyone hasn’t noticed, we’re big fans of the rhythm music genre. Drums Rock is a tribute to everything we loved about the games that defined the genre. Maybe it’s just us, but you didn’t know some of the songs by heart and even played them without looking? I’m sure some madman even played with his mouth on a guitar controller like Jimi Hendrix. And now, in Drums Rock, playing without watching gives double results!
Eye tracking
After we got our hands on the PS VR2 development headset, eye tracking was the feature that surprised us the most as we built gameplay mechanics around it and fine-tuned it to make it really interesting. Let me explain:
Below the lane marker are two switches, one for each eye. These switches are activated when we close our eyes or are not looking at the input bar. They have a small cooldown period to avoid triggering when the player blinks or glances to the side to see the notes. After activating the switches, your account is multiplied by 2 times. They can also be combined with chain modifiers without fail, reaching x8. It’s a risk-reward mechanic that I personally adore!
This all looks good, but I’m sure some of you are asking yourself this question: If I close my eyes or don’t look at the notes, how do I see that I’m double? It’s painful to admit that this was a question that plagued us after the design concepts were finished, but the answer came much faster thanks to the sound of the game. We had to work with our sound design team to create an effect that wouldn’t tarnish the songs we love so much. To our relief, a few reverb effects combined with a volume control were enough to provide clear feedback while still keeping the essence of the music.
Tactile feedback
With all the work we’ve put into eye tracking and a game where you play drums and cymbals with drumsticks, surely you wouldn’t think we’d forgotten about haptic feedback, would you? Obviously not.
Imagine that each drum, cymbal or snare has a different vibration. The tactile feedback of the Sense controller allows you to reproduce these differences in the game. We left it up to players to adjust the strength of the feedback they receive.
Headset vibration
Now you know that the PS VR2 headset also includes a feedback feature. We could not miss the opportunity to use it. Imagine the thrill of being in a concert hall and feeling the subwoofer vibrate through the floor with every beat! Creating that tangible feeling was crucial to this immersive experience.
To implement headset feedback with music, we have prepared a special vibration key for each song. To keep them exciting and not customize that feel, each one is unique.
We’d love to keep revealing more, like how the game runs at true 120fps and 4k resolution, or how we’ve spoiled every mechanic and song, but I think you’d better wait and try it out for yourself. Only a few days left until you can rock and roll at Drums Rock!