“Arg! Hold my grog!”
If you ever felt the need to blow up pirate ships and live an unchained life off the coast of the Bahamas raiding towns and picking up random strangers from the ocean, Heroes of the Seven Seas might cure your scurvy. A new GearVR release brought to you by Mirage Interactive, Heroes of the Seven Seas brings an RPG / FPS experience to VR with full character voice acting, real time pirate ship combat and arcade style gun duels all in one.
Debuting for the first time this week at China Joy in Shanghai, we had a chance to catch up with CEO Ke Wang of Mirage Interactive.
VRScout: How long have you been working on Heroes of the Seven Seas?
Ke Wang: We spent one year on developing the game. In the beginning, we began with a five-person development team and have grown to fifteen.
VRScout: What made you turn to developing VR games?
Wang: Two years ago, I tried the Oculus Rift DK2 for the first time. Immediately, we stopped everything that we were doing and pursued VR. It changed my life.
VRScout: Why did you choose a pirate theme for Heroes of the Seven Seas?
Wang: I’ve always loved the life of a pirate. The cool looking ships, fun adventures, and the strength and courage a pirate’s life requires. Also the art in the game is something we aspired to make special. The characters are hand crafted and have a unique personality.
VRScout: Are there any planned updates with Heroes of the Seven Seas?
Wang: We are planning to release a massive online PVP for ship battles. It will offer 5 vs 5 online matchmaking and will be released sometime near Q4 2016. Also, there are plans for further content to be added.
VRScout: What is it like to develop a VR game?
Wang: Right now, developing VR games are very difficult. No one knows exactly what the standards are for a “good” experience but there are some clues. Many people right now are focusing on art quality and not gameplay mechanics. The limitations with the Gear VR hardware also force us to scale the quality down. This is also why we decided on a very cartoon art aesthetic. But most importantly, we are concentrating on game mechanics and making a fun experience.
VRScout: Do you believe Chinese game companies primarily copy other people’s games? Is there any reasoning behind it?
Wang: Chinese game developers really hate to copy other people’s games. The problem is, it’s not up to them. Usually the investor of the company forces them to copy because it is profitable. In VR, there are not that many games to copy, so developers are free to experiment and make new experiences. Once the trend for game developers show that being innovative will be more profitable than copying, then copying will become poison. Mirage Interactive has never copied any game. Hopefully copying games will be terminated in ten to twenty years.
VRScout: What’s next for Mirage Interactive?
Wang: We plan to continually update Heroes of the Seven Seas and are planning to launch a World War 2 themed game.
Heroes of the Seven Seas is being offered at $4.99 on the Oculus Store. Grab the game here.
