Go Rapid Studio have grabbed the VR communities attention recently with their debut release: The Burst. It’s ambitious nature as a fully fledged VR experience along with its fantastic post-apocalyptic setting is enough to excite anyone!

BURSTING ONTO VR

The Elite MYT: Before we go into the interview, could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your role at Go Rapid Studio?

Helen: Hello. My name is Helen Megrabyan, I’m a scriptwriter for GoRapid Studio and I’ll be answering questions on our studio’s behalf.

The Elite MYT: How did you get into the gaming industry, and what made you decide to create a VR title?

Helen: We started as a team of 6 enthusiasts, willing to create a game we ourselves would like to play and share with other gamers. Don’t get me wrong though — most members of our team had already had some experience in VR development under their belt even before we began.

The Elite MYT: Tell us a little bit about your game. What is The Burst all about?

Helen: Following up on the previous question — we wanted The Burst to combine all we loved about VR. VR is all about immersion, so The Burst pushes the player to move with their hands, to interact with as many things as possible and to make choices through actions, not words.

We take pride in the fact that the only things that break immersion are the tutorial for different mechanics and pop-ups for unlockable lore elements. Otherwise all interruptions are strictly limited. You won’t encounter dialogue boxes with multiple choices, you won’t see the number of bullets unless you look directly at the magazine. And there is no silly blue arrows showing you where to jump.

The Burst will draw you into its world with simple yet detailed and effective art style, atmospheric music and a full-voiced story.

In short: The Burst is a full-fledged experience just like any other VR game should be.

MAD INFLUENCES

The Elite MYT: It’s apparent that Mad Max is a strong inspiration for the game? What other influences did you have?

Helen: We took inspiration from a lot of titles, to be honest. When it comes to visuals our lead artist was also inspired by Fallout, Borderlands, Dishonored and Atomic Heart. The gameplay mechanics combine those of Half-Life: Alyx, Titanfall, Dying Light and Mirror’s Edge. The Burst’s story and atmosphere show some parallels with titles like Kenshi and Rimworld, but also Riddick and Escape from New York movies.

Needless to say, we pay homage to all these titles and their creators.

The Elite MYT: Could you tell us some more about the scumbags and psychos that inhabit the wasteland, and what other dangers you are likely to face?

Helen: First and foremost — every person you encounter on the penal colony planet Damag is a convict or what remains of them. You will have to cut through two main factions: Shelldogs and Boomboys. Of course there are also campless bandits and another faction that will remain a secret for players to discover.

To keep it short: Shelldogs are a matriarchal gang of religious zealots with a taste for human flesh. They endorse slavery, worship firearms, spacebridges and their matron — the Mega-bitch Utopia. Boomboys are enforcers for the States of Progress, a faction led by a survivor of the Burst. Mostly pyromaniacs, bombers and bombardiers, they accept new members who work their lives away hoping for cryo — the only safe thing that keeps radiation sickness at bay in these wastelands.

To be honest everything on Damag will try to kill you in one way or another. Gangs, local “plants” and “wildlife” alike. It’s up to the players to figure out how to avoid danger.

The Elite MYT: The trailers show off a lot of different gameplay styles, with gunfights, grappling, and even driving sections. Which would you say is the most prominent aspect of the game?

Helen: We would say that the most prominent aspect of The Burst is that our game mechanics are working in unison with one another, adding to each other rather than leaving the player with only one option. For example, the grappling hook can be used both for movement and in combat. You can still shoot while driving, climbing or rail-surfing.

THE ROAD AHEAD

The Elite MYT: The Burst seems like quite an ambitious VR title. What was the biggest challenge you faced during development?

Helen: It wasn’t the biggest challenge per se, but our tech team found it exciting to work on implementing a seamless gaming experience without loading screens. When it comes to the real challenge, it’s safe to say that adapting several mechanics of the Unreal Engine gameplay framework definitely took a lot of time and effort. Things like save system, hands and player pawn simulation.

It’s fair to say that the updated version of the engine provided us with various useful development tools, at the same time bringing in issues that we address by digging deeper in our research of the engine’s code.

The Elite MYT: With players having varying levels of VR tolerance, does the game include accessibility options for those prone to motion sickness?

Helen: It’s important to note that one of our core movement mechanics — arm swinging for running — is itself a subtle tool for motion sickness prevention. We also have movement foveation during running and driving sequences to blur the part of the player’s vision.

All this minimizes the impact on the vestibular system, but as all players are different, some might still experience side effects associated with VR. It worked for our oldies though.

The Elite MYT: How do you plan to support The Burst post-release? Aside from any potential patches, are there any plans to add extra content or will you be moving onto your next title?

Helen: We will support The Burst with new game modes for at least half a year, but at the same time we are already laying the groundwork for our new project.

Needless to say, we will remain in open contact with our players, making sure that our updates and content patches cover any potential issues. We do value feedback.

The Elite MYT: And to cap things off, would you like to tell our readers what to expect from Go Rapid Studio in the future?

Helen: More exciting projects striving to combine everything our players love about VR. New ideas and polished mechanics, new stories and worlds. With our hearts put into them.

GoRapid have only just begun and we are not planning to stop any time soon!

A HUGE thank you to Helen for taking time out of her busy schedule to do the interview for The Elite Institute.

The Burst releases on the 8th August 2024 on Meta Quest 2, 3 and Steam. You can add it to your wishlist over on the Meta Store.