Dreadhalls

[Serk]

Dreadhalls is a horror game inspired by the roguelike and dungeon crawler genres.
You will wake up in a scarcely lit dungeon. Find its exit, and avoid the creatures that dwell in it. Your only weapons will be stealth, your own courage, and a faint light that you’ll have to keep fed with oil, lest you want the darkness to engulf you.

A free demo of the full game will be available at launch for Gear VR.

Website
Press Kit, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter




Dreadhalls was originally developed for the 2013 VR Jam game contest, where it obtained an Honorable Mention. After the great reception it got, I decided to turn the prototype into a full commercial game, coming soon for both the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR platforms.

Porting the game from PC to work on a mobile device was a complex task. If you are interested in learning more about the different challenges and trade-offs it required, please check out this article I posted on Gamasutra detailing the whole porting process.

[kevinrocksman]

For your entertainment (wish i would have kept recording because it got way better lol)

Dreadhalls: http://youtu.be/vFP5ZQAAt0Y

[Jaycee900]

As others have said in our house this is one of the favourite games, and after the intro video is the first thing we let friends play and get their reactions too! Great atmosphere, tension and out of most of the early games this is one that shows what VR was made for!
Now we just need something to help with my motion sickness when you walk around! I just look up a little i find that helps!

[Serk]

"Jaycee900" wrote:
As others have said in our house this is one of the favourite games, and after the intro video is the first thing we let friends play and get their reactions too! Great atmosphere, tension and out of most of the early games this is one that shows what VR was made for!
Now we just need something to help with my motion sickness when you walk around! I just look up a little i find that helps!

Glad you liked it!

Regarding motion sickness, the best solution is to avoid turning with the gamepad. You can play standing up and turn in place, or use a swivel chair.

I'm looking at making the gamepad rotation more comfortable, but I don't think it's possible to completely compensate for the visual-vestibular mismatch, so it's always going to be an inferior solution to just turning in place. However, you can get used to gamepad rotation with practice, at least in my experience, and after some time playing that way, it doesn't feel nearly as bad.

[Jaycee900]

"Serk" wrote:

Glad you liked it!

Regarding motion sickness, the best solution is to avoid turning with the gamepad. You can play standing up and turn in place, or use a swivel chair.

I'm looking at making the gamepad rotation more comfortable, but I don't think it's possible to completely compensate for the visual-vestibular mismatch, so it's always going to be an inferior solution to just turning in place. However, you can get used to gamepad rotation with practice, at least in my experience, and after some time playing that way, it doesn't feel nearly as bad.

Yeah the motion sickness is getting a little better the more you play with it, i mean its nothing like the vomit inducing Temple Run!
I think everyone is different, yes its worse when you turn with the gamepad, but i get it a little when you move in a straight line, obviously its the brain saying hold on, your not moving but you are!
Thanks I'll try the swivel chair tonight! Keep up the excellent work btw!

[Chizuzu]

I just got my Gear VR on Friday the 13th, so I figured it was a good day to scare myself. While I had tried a few Oculus demos at gaming conventions with various revisions of the hardware, it was uncanny how close those walls feel in Dreadhalls on the Gear VR. Also, the monsters that killed me. Those felt really close too.

[pixel67]

"Serk" wrote:


I'm looking at making the gamepad rotation more comfortable, but I don't think it's possible to completely compensate for the visual-vestibular mismatch, so it's always going to be an inferior solution to just turning in place. However, you can get used to gamepad rotation with practice, at least in my experience, and after some time playing that way, it doesn't feel nearly as bad.

Very cool experience! Turning with the gamepad is tough on the stomach though...

[spotzup]

Awesome experience indeed! I also get motion sickness easily, and gamepad turning is super tough indeed (like in any other game). I'd like to see a one button turn back (180 degree instant turn, no animation).

[Azrael30]

Just wanted to say hi, awesome job, and thank you! I've been following the Gear VR since December and I finally got mine almost two weeks ago. Dreadhalls was my most anticipated experience after seeing all the YouTube videos. They couldn't prepare me for actually playing the game. As a huge horror movie fan, I was not disappointed. The sense of presence was truly terrifying beyond playing a console or computer horror game. Bravo! I sincerely hope we see more horror games like this for the Gear VR. Thank you again.