Designing the 6DOF Controller Gameplay for Final Approach

John Nagle is the CTO at Phaser Lock Interactive, who is developing a Vive game called Final Approach. The gameplay of Final Approach involves selecting miniature planes flying through the air and then drawing landing paths in 3D space with a 6DOF controller. It’s sort of an arcade-style air traffic controller game where you’re an invisible giant helping planes and helicopters land and take off. But then you can shrink down to normal scale and help to put out fires and clear the sea gulls from the runway.

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I had a chance to play Final Approach at PAX Prime, and it was a fun and entertaining experience to draw the flight paths and to switch between miniaturized and more 1:1 scale. I only got to step through the initial demo scenes, but I could imagine how having to juggle between all of the tasks and switching scales could make for longer gaming sessions. They were also really inspired by the painting mechanics of Tilt Brush, and wanted to turn that path-drawing motion into a full game.

John talks about the process of developing for the Vive, how they’ve converted a room-scale experience into also working as a sit-down experience, some of the lessons learned, his first experience within Job Simulator, as well as what some of the reactions to the game have been so far. John says that developing for the Vive has been one of the most rewarding development experiences he’s ever had, and they’re both really excited to be working on a Vive launch title and to be in early in this latest wave of VR development.

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Theme music: “Fatality” by Tigoolio

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