Had the pleasure to talk to Aldric Chang from Mixed Realms. Let’s learn more about the studio and their recent release of Sairento VR on the PlayStation VR. You can pick up the game right now for the PlayStation 4, Oculus, and on Steam.
Thank you Aldric Chang for taking the time to speak with me today. Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves? How was Mixed Realms formed.
Thank you. Mixed Realms is a spinoff company from Swag Soft – a leading mobile app and game development company in Singapore. As Swag Soft has been focused on providing service work and we have garnered a fair bit of experience developing games for 3rd parties, we decided that it was time to develop our own. And so Mixed Realms was born.
Can you tell us a little bit about the history of Sairento VR , When was it decided that you wanted to make this game.
Sairento VR was born of a desire to answer a simple question – what if we could mesh the iconic “bullet-time” scenes from The Matrix, the slow-motion mayhem of the Max Payne game series, all while looking and feeling as badass as the Bride from Kill Bill. Put all those elements together, and you get our vision of it – a cyber-ninja simulator where you can do all of the above, and more. This was the brainchild of our Game Lead Chalit Noonchoo.
Can you explain to our audience what the game Sairento VR is to those that are not familiar with it.
It’s really a cyber ninja simulator with probably one of the richest locomotion system in VR, covering wallruns, somersaults, backflips, high jumps, multiple jumps, power slides and more. It also offers about 20 weapons and a time slowdown mechanism. So essentially you can jump 10 feet into the air, survey your surroundings, slow time down, whip out a gun and pump lead into an enemy, then you land and slice the head off another using your katana.
Do you believe that Sairento VR is the spiritual successor to a game like Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden?
That’s not really up to us but for our fans to say really. But so far what we’ve been hearing is that Sairento is like Warframe in VR or Ghost in the Shell if it was made into a VR game. Would be curious to hear your thoughts. What do you think?
Who came up with the graphic style of Sairento VR .
Our Creative Director Edrienne Torres together with her graphics team.
How many people were involved in making Sairento VR. What are there various roles.
About 14. Game Lead, VR Lead, Creative Director, 3D Artists, Character Designers, Animators, Producer, Executive Producer.
Were there any challenges or difficulties when making this game for the various VR Systems including the Playstation VR? Are there any major differences between making the game for the PlaystationVR, or Steam. Are there any noticeable changes.
I prefer not to discuss this as there may be some sensitivities. Sorry about that.
Do you believe to truly get the best playing experience in Sairento VR that a purchase of the 3dRudder is a necessary?
No I don’t. Sairento currently boasts some of the most innovative locomotion in VR at the moment. By using 3dRudder you will be experiencing another kind of locomotion – not dissimilar to gliding around like a ninja on a hoverboard. So I would say that while 3dRudder offers a novel locomotion alternative, it does not necessarily offer a superior playing experience over the original locomotion options.
What does the future hold after Sairento VR? Will there be a sequel?
I am not sure if you are aware, but we recently launched Sairento Untethered on the Oculus Quest, which was very well received. It’s basically a watered down version of the original Sairento. We are thinking of adding more content and features to it in the near future. As for Sairento VR itself, yes, we are certainly thinking of a sequel but nothing’s concrete yet, so I can’t really share anything.
Do you have any advice for developers who are also hoping to create a high quality game.
Many game developers subconsciously build games for themselves. I think that’s a mistake. I would advocate always building for the gamers, not for yourself. Engage with gamers, ask them what they want and what they think. It can’t get better than having customers tell you directly what they want from your game.
You can do this by launching your game via Steam Early Access instead of releasing it only when it’s fully developed. Ask for feedback, then build your game organically using the best feedback. Gamers would appreciate the interaction and the fact that you are listening to them. I don’t believe there is such a thing as perfection.
But through this manner you can definitely keep improving your game to the state where most fans will give it a stamp of approval. That in my humble opinion constitutes a high quality game.
Before we end this interview is there anything else you’d like to share?
We are working on our next title. It’s a normal PC game (not VR) – a deck building rogue-lite RPG called Gordian Quest. We have released our Alpha build and welcome gamers to join us on building this game together. 🙂
