Local virtual reality game putting New Zealand on the world stage – Stuff.co.nz

Auckland video game studio Method has created a virtual reality game in which players walk on the moon, visit ancient Mayan temples, and fend off crocodiles with a baseball bat.

When the game, called Wanderer is released next Friday on the Sony PlayStation VR, it will be the first virtual reality game made in New Zealand to be released by major console maker.

In the game you play as Asher Newman, an unwitting hero thrust into a time-bending journey to change the course of history and prevent the collapse of civilisation.

Sam Ramlu, co-creator of Wanderer said as well as being a fun romp through alternative histories, the game has the potential change the perception of New Zealand creativity on the world stage.

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A lot of people, rightly or wrongly, will play this and think this doesnt feel like a game from New Zealand.

That is one of the things we want to change. We want people to look at Aotearoa and think that these kinds of high quality productions are what comes out of New Zealand, Ramlu said.

Ramlu said being one of the first local companies to build a VR game from the ground up was an epic achievement, and she was immensely proud of the work her team has put into the game.

RICKY WILSON/Stuff

New VR game developed by Auckland gaming studio could change the perception of New Zealand game development, say co-directors Euge Eastlake, Sam Ramlu, and Ben Markby.

The game has been in the works since early 2014 when Ramlu and her team became excited by the prospect of using virtual reality technology in gaming.

In 2016 they secured $25,000 funding from the NZ Film Commissions interactive fund. Using this and $200,000 of their own money they set to work building a demo of the game.

We created this demo that we were super excited by, it had so many possibilities. We loved the idea of using VR to go back in time, we were imagining what if we could see this historical event, or that one. We knew we had a great concept, Ramlu said.

After the demo was created the next step was to bring investors on board, to fund the completion of the game. But it took years of hard work to find the financial backing to get the game completed.

In 2016, no one in New Zealand was interested. It was such early days for VR that most people didnt have a strong understanding of what a game like this would look like. We knew from the start that we would have to go international if we wanted to get this off the ground, Ramlu said.

But even internationally getting attention for a small New Zealand based game studio was difficult. The directors travelled the world to game events pitching the demo, but it would take until 2019 before Sony partnered with the studio.

RICKY WILSON/Stuff

The game has been in the works since 2016. The studio want to give players an experience of being immersed on other worlds and other timelines.

Once we had confirmation of Sonys backing in September 2019 that is when things really got going for us. We were able to hire more people, at our peak we had 25 people working on this game with contractors around the world. It was a huge project, Ramlu said.

The studio worked on the game for another two and a half years before Wanderer was ready for release.

Ramlu said Wanderer was a game that was different to any other on the market.

For people that are playing VR games there is a lot of arcade type games that focus on action and fighting. While we have combat in our game, the game is very much about exploration and discover and puzzle solving. The fact that this game is story driven is quite unique, there are not a lot of VR games out there like this, Ramlu said.

Ramlu said the experience of working on the game has made her all the more excited for the future of VR.

We are right there at the beginning of a new technology. There are so many opportunities for us to do more in this space and to find new ways to bring the technology forward, she said.

Wanderer is part one of three part series. Ramlu said she hoped to start work on the next instalment of the game this year.

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Local virtual reality game putting New Zealand on the world stage - Stuff.co.nz