Thread by @WritNelson

Welcome to the #NelsonVR Steam Summer Sale thread!

I'm going through the entire catalog of discounted VR games to chat about trends, consequences of the Almighty Algorithm, bizdev implications, and games That Look Pretty Cool.

Some disclaimers before we start:

The Summer Sale just gives us an inherent microcosm to discuss stuff within. There are many incredible VR and non-VR titles that don't go on sale for a bunch of reasons, including hit shooter H3VR, and you should look for ways to support those folks too.
store.steampowered.com/app/450540/Hot…

For the purposes of this thread, I'm largely ignoring titles that use gamepads or mouse-keyboard controls. Those inputs are super valid, but I'm personally more interested in the unique experiences VR enables--which usually means motion controls, and in many cases, Room Scale.

You'll see a lot of greyed-out, ignored options in my store results. That's because I've been trolling through the VR section every day for the past couple weeks, trying to clear shovelware and titles that aren't interesting from my version of Steam.

1/2

...That said, I might have marked off something worth looking at, either for the purposes of this thread, or in general. Mistakes happen--feel free to point that out!

2/2

We're moving from the earliest, currently discounted VR games, to the latest. If you want to follow along with your own version of Steam:

1) Go to the Virtual Reality section
2) Click on "All Specials", tucked on the right side
3) Sort by 'Release Date'
4) Start at the back

Lastly, I'm a game developer with bizdev/marketing/production experience, but none of my statements or guesses here are gospel. As with everything that isn't Peter Jackson's King Kong, feel free to take the stuff I say with a grain of salt.

...

I think that covers it all?

Okay, let's jump in with...page 46!

I think Steam sorts items in the VR section by their original release date--not the point where VR was added. I understand why that's the case, but it does muddy the waters of how recent the inclusion of VR actually *is* for a game.

...This is important because it's the difference between a game being developed with VR in mind at the point of release, or potentially bolted on later.

As a result, moving on to Page 45, we continue to see a lot of popular older titles with some amount of VR support.

Intriguingly, page 45 (which shows releases around ~2015) seems to be the start of tiny horror productions with VR support having a big sales and user rating impact.

That's earlier than I expected--even if you include post-launch VR updates.

Page 44 - early 2016 - is where we begin to see the influx of things made for VR, including titles that are best-sellers to this day (Job Simulator, Holopoint, etc.).

That last bit will be important later.

Interesting...

A big talking point for early VR was the 'lack of content'. However, it seems even in this early period really intriguing stuff could get buried.

Look at Bazaar! It's a complete title with a gorgeous art style.
11 user reviews.
Absurd.
store.steampowered.com/app/455230/Baz…

Another interesting case study is Babel: Tower to the Gods. It's a fascinating idea for an action-puzzler--a Jenga-like with sword hands--released into Early Access to crickets.

The last update was that December.
It was the developer's only game.
store.steampowered.com/app/441230/Bab…

Spoilers, but abandoned Early Access titles are a major artifact of VR that just becomes more prominent--as well as titles that stay in Early Access for a LONG TIME, humming along perfectly fine.

Early Access seems strangely accepted in VR, despite the turns against it elsewhere

Oh shoot. Oh CRAP.
I realize now why Bazaar and Babel got buried.

A WHOLE BUNCH OF THESE GAMES RELEASED ON THE SAME DAMN DAY.

JOB SIMULATOR
FANTASTIC CONTRAPTION
AUDIOSHIELD
AN EVE-BRAND GAME
VANISHING REALMS
AT LEAST TWO LIGHT-ROUTING GAMES FOR SOME REASON

IT WAS A BLOODBATH

Oh wow. That Early Access dancing game I thought was abandoned? Launched on the Day of Blood? Holodance?

It's actually nearing the end of development. They've been grinding at this thing for *years*.
store.steampowered.com/app/422860/Hol…

Distractions aside, in the time since The Great Releasening, the pace of VR titles launched increases exponentially.

You get Ice Lakes, Holo Ball, and a secret agent jetpack game called Omega Agent that uses gamepad (but still makes me irrationally excited), all within a month.

On page 42, you start to see the rise of social hubs like Sports Bar VR.
There's a pirate game with a pun in it.
What appears to be an uber successful Early Access boxing game...

Yeah, moving into page 41, we already start to see a codification of design types.

You've got physical games, based around easily understandable interactions like ping pong, boxing, and running, as well as exploring single coherent spaces.

...Then you've got more abstract game types that focus on design, construction, or conducting actions around the actual actors of the space, as in Waddle Home here.

Also there's a moon golfing game.
store.steampowered.com/app/486290/Wad…

Yeah, everything I thought emerged down the line actually started WAY earlier.

One of the first VR card-combat games, if not the first?
August of 2016. Ascension VR.

Games that bring VR and non-VR players together in local situations to cooperate also spring up quick.

By the end of August, you start seeing fairly major VR successes again after The Releasening. Stuff like military shooter Onward, Elven Assassin, and Rocketwerkz' Out of Ammo (which despite the success apparently remained unprofitable).
gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-…

FUN FACT:
Out of Ammo got a postapocalyptic spin-off sequel called Death Drive that no one talks about, and looks utterly bonkers in the best of ways.

MAGICAL HEALING DOG ALBY
store.steampowered.com/app/569630/Out…

Emerging wisdom of pursuing simple, appealing concepts hearkening to real life interactions or fantasies, result in the success of games like Pierhead Arcade.
store.steampowered.com/app/435490/Pie…

You also start to get the thing that initially confused me about VR--there isn't one, absolute best table tennis game, or home-run simulator.

There are many--cause it's a bunch of folks riffing on the same stuff.
They are Legion.

The strong, abstract visuals that can sell games in non-VR contexts doesn't appear to work on a typical VR store page.

In this sampling, Climbey is the one game where you can tell what you're doing and HOW at a glance.
It's also the most successful.
store.steampowered.com/app/520010/Cli…

CW: poop

If you watch the Pipejob trailer, it immediately becomes more compelling--because those vital questions are answered.
VR *needs* GIFs and videos to market the project.

Probably explains why that's the center of the Oculus storefront strategy.
store.steampowered.com/app/543580/Pip…

I wonder how much of a role customer confusion plays in VR game sales?

Like this Escape the Basement game - there are so many titles not just focused on Escape Rooms, but explicitly called "Escape", that I have no idea whether THIS one is a good pick.

That "Ghost Town Mine Ride & Shootin' Gallery" shooting game also has me wondering how much price plays into the typical VR game's player count.

From what I can tell, price doesn't seem to be a large part of the equation unless the game is just...free.
store.steampowered.com/app/459010/Gho…

Speaking of free: the number of high quality free experiences on VR is genuinely worrying as a developer considering going into this space.

Most of the games here don't even *have* an option to support the developer financially.

So, given the choice, would you buy a random Escape Room game, or play the high-rated, seemingly polished free movie tie-in for The Belko Experiment?

It's not a very hard decision.
store.steampowered.com/app/600140/Bel…

The end of 2016 seems to bring a wave of VR ports, updates, and add-ons.

The synchronization is genuinely surprising.

Moving to the mid-30s, I'm starting to run into confusion of another kind--everything VR is shoved into the VR section.

Games are right alongside tools, films, and tech demos--but if you filter one of those content types, you'll miss the games that straddle these lines.

Anyway, here's a tiny game about exploring a pyramid!!

This is one of the first times I'm seeing arm-swing locomotion advertised. Took less than a year for that to start getting iterated on at this level of indie.
Neat stuff.
store.steampowered.com/app/576100/Unk…

Noda is a good example of boundary-straddling. Motion controller-based VR interaction has inherent joy and play associated with it, right?

What happens when that's applied to thought-linking brainstorming software?
Is it entirely out of game territory?
store.steampowered.com/app/578060/Nod…

Okay, this is GREAT--and right within the time period we're looking at.

Folks, send me more stuff like Vertigo.

https://twitter.com/taciturasa/status/1144386951535087617

A couple large titles (Robinson: The Journey, etc.) drop near the beginning of the year, but 2017 seems to start pretty quietly.

After seeing NBA 2KVR, and now John Wick Chronicles, I have the sense that licensed games can't take sales or audience goodwill for granted in VR.

Actually, come to think of it: VR is currently a market composed of enthusiasts and early adopters, first and foremost.

Particularly if they care about the license in question--maybe this audience is *tougher* on a licensed game than a non-VR player would be.

HOLY CRAP THIS LOOKS COOL

Influence a kid's future by influencing brain chemistry, to learn about brain chemistry!
InMind 2 VR isn't the catchiest name ever, but gosh is the concept appealing.
store.steampowered.com/app/522220/InM…

I don't know *why* this is the case for VR, but successful, enduring games seem to come in waves--a few land within days or weeks of each other, claim the majority of attention for a period of time, and then it starts all over again.

I don't know what to make of things like 7VR Wonders. They seem to primarily be assets and landscapes--walking simulators, but with less interaction or attraction.

There's so many though!
I haven't seen a single best-seller, but people keep making them!!
store.steampowered.com/app/539010/7VR…

I'm on page 32--and again:

4 best-sellers
occupying SIMILAR AUDIENCE APPEALS AND INTERACTION TYPES
LAND RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL

In the non-VR market, you usually see someone suffer from the matchup. The Titanfall 2 and Battlefield situation comes to mind.
However in VR, these games just...coexist.

By May of 2017, VR is a big enough space that respectably-selling titles come out every few days.

...Now that I've gone to the next page, I'm starting to think May of 2017 was a bit of a special case as well, especially with the launch of Star Trek: Bridge Crew and SUPERHOT VR.

In June and early July of 2017, licensed games continue to disappoint, Gorn lands on the scene, and party/multiplayer games sell...surprisingly well, all things considered.

I'm not sure how to explain that last trend. It's popped up enough times to be a Thing.

Does the VR audience collectively discover a multiplayer game for a period of time, then drop it?

Whispers of "the online is dead" have basically driven every MP VR game I've seen, Onward and Pavlov aside, to extinction.
There's no margin.
You've got everyone, or nothing.

That's a fantastic observation! I didn't even think to consider how sporadic usage would affect purchasing decisions.

https://twitter.com/merryh/status/1144403767883780097

Leading up to July, a Very Cheap Hand Game sells a *lot* of copies, more golf games do kinda well, and SUPERHOT But You Save People's Lives game, Just In Time Incorporated, releases.
store.steampowered.com/app/592030/Jus…

SPEAKING OF JUST IN TIME INCORPORATED
Tiny Town VR released soon afterwards as a lightweight creation tool--with similar character models.
100s of games in the store share this style.
I think there's a common asset pack that allow folks to do their own things.

Good for them!

Maybe it's just because I'm subjecting myself to this process, but I am starting to get asset fatigue.

Recognizing the same visuals over and over is making me gloss over the individual games themselves - something I'm actively fighting, now.

OKAY GOD I JUST REALIZED WE STILL HAVE OVER 25 PAGES TO GO THROUGH LET'S DO THIS

HEY SO IN EARLY AUGUST THERE WAS "VTOL VR" WHICH DID REALLY WELL AND A LICENSED GAME THAT DID GOOD FOR ONCE AND THE PREVIOUSLY-MENTIONED CULT-FILLED "OUT OF AMMO: DEATH DRIVE" AND A GENRE-BENDING LIGHTHEARTED ACTION SHOOTER CALLED "OPERATION WARCADE"
store.steampowered.com/app/639270/Ope…

I would have expected Prison Boss VR to have more success. People enjoy pure physics/motion/color sandboxes in VR, which is a bit surprising.

Naming your game Hurl VR and putting blurry screenshots on the store page strikes me as a bold choice, to say the least.

Here's another tiny game called Officebots where you go around a cold office with toxic dynamics making other digital beings feel better.
store.steampowered.com/app/649730/Off…

Floor Plan (an adventure set entirely within an elevator), Duck Season, and Serious Sam consumed most of September 2017, with the success of shooter Raw Data in early October giving rise to Survios--now one of the biggest VR developers around.
store.steampowered.com/app/673060/Flo…

My eyes are burning *so much*
dear god

why did i promise to do this

do you know how many VR games are on sale right now?

a lot

there are
a lot of them

I've been doing this for FIVE HOURS?!

Sorry, you've reached the Existential Dread portion of the Big VR Thread.

We'll get through this.

Interesting--I thought Space Pirate Trainer came out earlier in the VR lifecycle.

Anywhoodle, we've got another hit Early Access game on our hands, and the return of The Gallery series! You might have spotted it earlier in this thread.

Two years after the first The Gallery, developers Cloudhead Games launched what looks to be a pretty dang ambitious sequel--one with 257 Steam reviews to date, compared to the original's 893.

Not sure what to make of that number.
store.steampowered.com/app/526140/The…

Big releases slow down DRASTICALLY leading into November--maybe due to the large non-VR titles releasing during the period--and the end of 2017 is around when user review numbers in general seem to start going down.

Let me explain.

From The Exorcist to Unknightly, good-looking games that would have had multiple times their current review numbers in the past just didn't reach the same numbers as early VR.

The market grew--so what's changed?

By late 2017/early 2018, most of the 'must-play' VR games (Gorn, SUPERHOT, Job Simulator, Space Pirate Trainer...) had launched.

Two years after The Releasening, sequels to reasonably popular games, and impressive new horror/adventure games, aren't finding the same sales...

Joe's hit it on the head.

The must-play games--the canon of VR--are established.
If that canon gets reinforced by every list of 'best games for new VR owners', as well as the store algorithm itself--it chokes the life out of new releases.

https://twitter.com/blankslatejoe/status/1144425285829496838

Much like the market indies face today, GOOD games ARE being released at an increasing pace, but the successes of the past subtly suffocate the efforts of the present.

Successes can still occur--but except for outliers, they don't crack the ceiling imposed by their predecessors.

If we continue to see recent, high-quality games not reach the heights previously available, I think it's fair to say this theory holds some weight.

I just had an idea.
You know how we found that VR purchases/usage was sporadic?
And a lot of developers are repeating settings/interactions, like the 7000 ping-pong games?

What if players are partially ignoring new games because of *superficial* similarities to previous titles?

In non-VR games, the one advantage of temporary dominance of a couple reigning titles in a period of time is that those spots can change hands. An open-world game succeeds this week, a new one can succeed next week. No harm done.

VR is different.
It requires novelty.

If you have a bow game, and you enjoy it--you've shot stuff with a bow in VR. The next bow game you has to have yet another novelty for you to play it, as will the next game, and the next game, and so on.

Successful VR games build genre callouses new titles have to overcome.

Combine that with the number of titles (some with quite *variable* quality shall we say) that just do GOLF AGAIN, and you end up with a market that can both ignore original titles, and judge new games more harshly than ever--if they buy them at all.

I'm seeing more impressive, original, and polished games per page in the past few pages than I did in the early days of VR--but less people are playing them.

A utility that shows you HOW MANY FRAMES PER SECOND YOU'RE GETTING IN VR has a higher amount of user reviews than the vast majority of games I've posted in the past few tweets.

Dear Gosh.

The rate of overall VR development and release seems to have peaked in 2017-2018--unless you count the amount of poorly-made VR erotica, which has increased *dramatically*.

I also just passed a game where you chuck a cat like a shot put, so that's a thing.

Listen up - we both deserve to take a second and appreciate Starbear Taxi, a game about a tiny bear in a UFO that avoids raccoons with anti-aircraft guns so he can deliver his lazy neighbors to platforms less than five feet away.
store.steampowered.com/app/702030/Sta…

Just noticed something that perhaps confirms the VR steamrolling effect:
DLC sales.
The Arizona Sunshine DLC seems like it did *well*, even without counting keys redeemed

If people don't want to jump to new VR games, maybe they're more willing to pay to extend their current one?

i'm so close

dear god i'm so close

(also that Dojagi pottery game looks absolutely incredible, actually)
store.steampowered.com/app/715760/DOJ…

We've hit 2019!

Thank God!!

The performance of the new Holopoint is really surprising, considering the continuing success/influence of the original.

Bow to Blood is a sci-fi pirate-themed reality show roguelite where you have to maintain your relationships with AI contestants to win, on top of keeping your ship alive.

It's one of the best pitches I've seen for a VR game--and you don't need VR to play!
store.steampowered.com/app/956500/Bow…

please buy Mr. HackJack, a light in a dark world about investigating gruesome future crimes with adorable robot buddies

you can wear any and every hat

please buy it
store.steampowered.com/app/1019230/Mr…

Spy Who Shrunk Me!
Comedic cold-war stealth action!
Shrink bad guys and throw them in toilets (or shredders) to hide the bodies!

Sure looks good to me!!
store.steampowered.com/app/754850/The…

That's it!
I did it!
I'm done

oh lord i'm done

thank God

Welp, I've certainly learned a lot about the VR market environment and design trends to date. It's screwed--but there are still spots of hope.

Just like anywhere else.

If you enjoyed this thread, feel free to send me a VR game for after my eyes recover.
steamcommunity.com/id/JellyJellyF…

please, let me never write another tweet

~fin~