One of the bigger surprise announcements recently was the unveiling of Marvel’s Iron Man VR for the PlayStation VR. Ryan Payton’s studio, Camoflaj, convinced Marvel Games to give them a shoot at the franchise, and the developers hope to capture the feeling of being Iron Man in VR.
Through an interview with GamesBeat, Payton also revealed that the game doesn’t function exactly like you’d expect. It doesn’t use the triggers to shoot, as has become something of a standard for first person titles (or third person, for that matter), but to propel flight, which he says will surprise people in how good it feels.
“From day one, when we first created our prototype of Iron Man VR, we mapped the controls as best we could to the repulsors,” he said. “The most natural thing to us was that the triggers would operate the repulsor jets. Even in the early gray box form, building it in Unity, we were able to fly around just like Iron Man would, and it was super fun. Within the first week we had a prototype that really spoke to the strengths of what Iron Man is.”
Payton also clarified that the game will not be based directly on any of the popular Marvel Cinematic Universe films or any of the comics, and will contain its own original story.
“Iron Man VR is a completely original story, built from the ground up,” he said. “We obviously take some inspiration from the comics of the films, but it’s an original story. That’s one of the things we first started off with, working with Bill Roseman, the creative director of Marvel Games. How can we create an authentic Iron Man story that leverages the strengths of VR? The immersiveness and the first-person nature.”
Iron Man was the first character to launch the current Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has seen massive success, with Robert Downey Jr’s iconic portrayal of Tony Stark being an anchor of the fictional universe. It will be interesting to see if some of that magic can rub off here. Iron Man VR is slated for release in 2019 exclusively for PlayStation VR.
