Had the pleasure to talk with the team from MiroWin. Let’s learn more about the studio and their game, Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof VR. You can pick up the game right now for the PlayStation 4 and Steam. You can also add their upcoming game, Boiling Steel to your Steam’s wishlist.
Can you tell us a little bit about the history of MiroWin, how was it formed. What does the name mean?
Our company was founded in early 2017 in Ukraine. Today, 12 people work in Mirowin, including remote specialists. The name Mirowin actually means nothing at all since it is a made-up word. But somewhere deeply you can find the meaning in the form of a word-play, where “miro” is a sacred potion, and win – “victory”, so, “sacred potion of victory”.
Can you explain to our audience what the game Guns’n’Stories : Bulletproof is to those that are not familiar with it?
Since it was the first game of the newly created studio we decided to started small – with a simple fun game with native mechanics for the VR shooter. We wanted our game not to become outdated in a few years, so we decided to use cartoon graphics that will look fresh even after many years.
We also sought to create a game that would be interesting for both children and adults, for play with friends and family, on weekends and after work, with huge number of arcade actions for competitions with friends or in VR-arcades.
We also wanted to make the game high-quality, with interesting narration and fun, comfortable, so that the players would not feel motion sickness during the game.
According to the responses of the gamers shooter-western Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof VR, where the stories of the old cowboy mixed with fierce shooting, we made exactly this way.
Do you believe that Guns’n’Stories : Bulletproof is the spiritual successor to a game like Wild Gunman?
Well, it kind of is. Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof VR is also the successor of the arcade machines where we played with an electronic gun. We tried to give the possibility to the player to “feel” the weapon that he (she) holds, so our guns in the game are made in detail with animation of various details during shooting. As the games moved from the big slot machines to the players’ houses, we were able to tell a full story about love, chasing, bandits of sorts and shootouts.
The presence of the Arcade mode in the game makes it possible to enjoy playing both at home, delving into the plot and wild upheavals and in VR-arcade just having fun from shooting to crowds of gangsters getting a pure fan.
Who came up with the graphic style of Guns’n’Stories : Bulletproof?
We came to this jointly and the final style was the result of many tests and artistic iterations. We provide clean 90fps and did a lot of work with shadows, since VR is much more requirable in resources than regular games. Sometimes you need to use tricks, such as baking of the static shadows and tearing off extra leaves from trees.
How many people were involved in making Guns’n’Stories : Bulletproof? What are their various roles?
We have two founders who gathered all other members, Vladimir Kozinyi and Mikhail Shkaredny.
Vladimir manages promotion, marketing and general workflow. Dmitry Kostyukevich is our main brain, he decides what we need to do in the game and what is not needed, and also he is an excellent programmer and offers very interesting and useful game ideas.
Our team has two game designers – Artem Metelev and Bogdan Bunkov. Bogdan is engaged in level design and narration – his story will bring you emotions as in a decent movie. Artyom is more engaged in game design, combat design, sound design and localization. Anton Lomanov does magical things with code as a programmer, screenwriter and user interface designer.
Ivasenko Vitaly creates great models for games like a 3D designer and texture artist, he created levels for Guns’n’Stories as a level designer.
Maxim Kostyushko as a technical artist UE4 can make even the most grey thing bright and pleasent to the eyes. As an lighting and shader vfs artist he make some cool optimizations for gaming. Anton Paliy creates beautiful art as a 2D artist, concept artist, illustrator.
We cannot forget people who were also engaged in the creation of Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof VR – Ivan Zorin as a 3D fashion designer, 3D animator, texture artist and storytelling; Evgeniy Zinchenko – programming, scripting, AI, VFX; Semyon Rudnik – 2D artist, concept artist, illustrator, 2D animator and Nikolay Chekh – 3D modeling.
Also, let’s not forget about our marketing team – Oleksii Ivaschuk, Diana Tatievskaya, who work with the gaming community, SMM management and marketing.
Are there any major differences between Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof currently on the Steam Store & various other marketplaces and Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof on PSVR? Are there any noticeable changes?
The most noticeable difference between the versions of Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof VR on PC and PS4 is that on the PS4 all weapons are one-handed, even two-handed weapons from PC player divided into two one-handed modules on PS4. This does not affect the gameplay, the guns did not become stronger or weaker, this only affects the onvenience of the game.
It was decided to do this, because the PS4 Moves are monitored only by one PS4 Camera. That’s why when a player puts one move right behind another, the camera can lose sight of the second move for a short time.
We really don’t want gamers to have negative emotions only that they were killed because the handle of the weapon went somewhere at the most inopportune moment, especially in conditions of the mad shooter when every few seconds you can be killed.
Therefore, it was decided to separate two-handed weapon into two one-handed units. If players are satisfied, we are happy too.
Currently you have a game called Boiling Steel in production can you give us more details about it?
Boiling Steel, VR-shooter with elements of survival is a very serious project for us. We are not in a hurry to release it to the market until we’ll be sure that it became really cool game.
According to the story, the main hero is cut off from the world on the space station and is forced to explore a lifeless planet with the help of robotic shells. The player will have to collect resources, improve the base, fight with other robots and survive in a world that follows the laws of an unknown AI. The game will be in early access this summer and its release we plan in the 4th quarter of 2019. The game will be released also on Playstation VR in early 2020.
Were there any lessons learned from Guns’n’Stories : Bulletproof that are being applied to Boiling Steel?
Of course! We learned a lot about working with VR during creating of Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof VR, collected a large number of reviews and wishes of the players for implementation in the new project. Today with each new level we create more interesting locations, more various opponents (not dummies). We want our enemies to create challenge and not just be like a bots with drop-down numbers. We also learned useful lessons in game marketing – with Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof VR we released without experience, support and previous games. We have not had a publisher who could help us with this, so we had to wade through this jungle ourselves.
Now we have a pleasant fan base, a game project behind our backs and invaluable experience in its promotion. Shortly, creation of each game give us the useful knowledge which we use in the next projects.
Are there any challenges or difficulties when making games for the Playstation VR compared to other VR devices?
This is the different approach rather than difficulties. On most platforms on a PC developer is responsible for his product. You’re reaping what you sow. Your game coming to the Steam how it is, how you made that. Only the reviews and rating on the gamepage will tell about problems if something was not tested.
There are also a lot of PC VR devices – we mainly focus on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, but try to provide nice gaming for the players with any other VR device connected to the PC. It’s difficult to keep track of all devices, which sometimes causes problems. But there is a large level of freedom and computing power on the PC.
On the PS4 you need to create support for only one device from Sony – Move, which simplifies the work. Also, Sony is very concerned about its products and it’s not possible for the new game to go to the PS Store before all the bugs and problems will not be solved. I don’t know how many testers Sony has but they do really titanic work. So before its release on PS Store Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof VR was also thoroughly tested until Sony specialists were convinced that every detail worked perfectly and as it should work.
What does the future hold for MiroWin after the Boiling Steel is released?
Perhaps we decided to create the game with gamers one of the first. It’s about Boiling Steel.
Close cooperation give us not only valuable decisions about the game we are developing now, but also ideas and wishes for the future. We study them, know that multiplayer games are in high demand now and with these thoughts we will start planning a new game immediately after Boiling Steel‘s release.
Currently your games are digital only. Any chance that Guns’n’Stories : Bulletproof & Boiling Steel could get a physical compilation release for the Playstation VR maybe with the help of Limited Run Games or Perp Games?
We just entered the PS VR market, so still try to learn it and think about the ways of expanding the audience of our fans. Perhaps we will come to the decision of physical compilation.
Do you have any advice for other VR developers who are also hoping to create a high quality VR game for either the Playstation VR or any of the various other VR devices?
Today it is very difficult to surprise a sophisticated VR gamer from developed countries. Although in some places virtual reality games only gain popularity. This greatly complicates the task of promoting games, of conveying even a high quality product to our target audience.
Therefore, we are absolutely open to our colleagues who, like us, are ready and wish to share and learn promotion experience in order to successfully engage in a common cause – development of VR gaming.
Before we end this interview is there anything else you’d like to share?
We would like to appeal to VR gamers with a wish to respond more actively to the products you buy in game stores. Your feedbacks, your reposts and retweets, your rating in the store, your message about the problems that found in the game or propositions to the developer – all of this is extremely important for us to understand what we need to change and in which direction we must go. Only by working together we can improve the quality of production and enjoy the development of VR industry.
