Since the start of 2017, Emre Deniz, Michael Davies, Stefan Allaki, Jennifer Scheurle, Danielle Hindi and Mitchell Manganaro of Melbourne’s Opaque Space have been hard at work on their incredible narrative-driven VR series Earthlight.
Thanks to an incredible global collaboration and partnership with NASA, Epic, HTC and Nvidia the games and content studio has created an encounter that allows players to experience something that few people will ever realise - that of human space flight.
Earthlight: Arcade will be available to play at PAX Australia in the VR Free-Play area from 27-29 October and released in episodes across Facebook’s Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive on Viveport later this year.
Their latest entry, Earthlight: Lunar Mission was recently demonstrated at Tokyo Game Show by global leader in motion capture technology Noitom. It also marked the debut of Noitom’s Alice Space - the first commercial out-of-home multi-player mixed reality product centered around space exploration and developed specifically to fulfill the demand from the “edutainment” market for a solution in the VR space.
Opaque Space has also announced that they will be complimenting the Australian Space Program by supporting the training of astronauts through the Boeing Australia’s CST100 Starliner VR program.
In this incredible behind the screen video, the team describe the inspiration behind the game, their collaboration with NASA and the factors that contribute to Melbourne’s mighty gaming community.
“NASA found us after we posted screenshots on Reddit”
The team went on a fact finding mission to Johnson’s Space Centre where they toured the facilities and met with some of the key players who would help them in shaping the game. This included astronauts, to an ISS Flight Director.
“Space in itself is a very universal attraction”
For the Opaque team, the process of making Earthlight uncovered an audience who hadn’t realised the potential and scope of games until they interacted with it.
“We walk a fine line between making a game that’s super realistic and a game that’s fun to play”
Opaque needed to strike the right balance between creating a dynamic and engaging experience for players while being faithful to an astronaut experience.
“Even with a small degree of funding something large can be achieved by it.”
Melbourne’s thriving game sector is rapidly evolving as companies continue to explore new areas and tread new paths for projects spanning diverse themes and platforms. It’s no wonder that the Australian interactive games market was estimated to be worth $2.4 billion in 2016.
Check out our funding and skills support for Victorian game developers.