In an industry as young as VR there's scarcely any original IP that's had the time to become truly iconic. But if there's one today that looks well on its way, the world of Moss is a strong contender. With the release of its debut title, Moss (2018), developer Polyarc entrusted big ambitions to a tiny hero, Quill, a character so recognizable it's easy to forget that it's not her name on the cover. Four years after the original, Polyarc doubled down on its diminutive hero with the recent release of Moss: Book II which takes the tale of Quill to new heights, further cementing the studio's IP as a staple of VR gaming. To learn about how the studio has continued to hone its craft of VR game design, we sat down with Polyarc Design Director Josh Stiksma to get a glimpse behind the scenes at the game's development and the art that inspired it. Editor’s Note: The exclusive artwork peppered throughout this article is best viewed on a desktop browser with a large screen or in landscape orientation on your phone. All images courtesy Polyarc. Making a Seamless World [caption id="attachment_108330" align="aligncenter" width="1021"] Image courtesy Chris Alderson, Polyarc[/caption] One of many things that sets Moss: Book II apart from many other VR titles is how seamless the game is—that is to say, everything that happens in Book II, from combat to narrative to environment, feels like it's part of a single cohesive, believable, and beautiful fantasy world. Book II takes players not just on a figurative journey, but a literal one too—you're there alongside Quill's every mouse-sized step; her adventure forms a nearly unbroken path both physically through the game world and temporally through the story. [caption id="attachment_108335" align="aligncenter" width="1021"] Image courtesy Polyarc[/caption] As you can imagine, this didn't happen by accident. But putting it all together would be a bit like trying to build a puzzle before you know what each piece looks like. Polyarc, however, was up to the challenge. Design Director Josh Stiksma told me the studio started by drafting a rough, high-level map outlining some of the narrative and gameplay moments the team had in mind. [caption id="attachment_108325" align="alignright" width="450"] Image courtesy Josh Stiksma, Polyarc[/caption] "With a rough idea of the overworld mapped out visually, we fleshed out ideas for the individual areas and dungeons. With some concepts firmed up, we then went back and forth trying to massage the world pieces together with the narrative and gameplay beats. This took a long time to get all the connections between locations making sense and lined up with our pacing goals," he said. "Admittedly, a lot of this isn’t unique to VR and came from our previous experiences in AAA [game development]—but there are many nuances along the way. One challenge that I’ll share is the amount of time we spent thinking about the complexity of the map and worrying about if the player will get lost. The design and art team worked together closely to ensure the different dioramas felt connected and the player could make sense of where they were in the world by looking around the beautiful environments." Indeed, the environmental art and direction is a highlight of Book II. The studio deftly wove the game's golden path through a world full of iconic sights that are as beautiful as they are memorable, making them perfect landmarks help the player keep track of their place within the broader world. For instance, there's a huge castle that acts as something of a hub for the game. As you explore beyond its walls you can almost always catch a glimpse of it in the distance to remind you just how far you've traveled. [caption id="attachment_107127" align="aligncenter" width="1020"] Image courtesy Polyarc[/caption] And there's something to be said about the dichotomy of the game's two scales: mouse-scale and human scale. The environments in Book II fuse both together in a skillful and meaningful way. As Quill, you walk through individual blades of grass, tip toe across branches, and clamber up small rocks. But as the player (who exists in the world at human scale) you see the entire patch of grass, the whole tree the branch is connected to, and the hill where the rocks fell from in the first place. [caption id="attachment_108331" align="aligncenter" width="1021"] Image courtesy Mike Jensen, Polyarc[/caption] The real magic of this formula comes when the game bridges those two scales. Throughout the game you'll reach out to Quill to heal her, power her up, or help her change weapons. You'll also push, pull, and twist various obstacles within the world that would otherwise be impassable by Quill alone. Book II really hammers this synergy of scales home with what is perhaps its most iconic boss fight. If you haven't played the game yet, the following includes spoilers! Continue on Page 2: Forging a Fight » Forging a Fight [caption id="attachment_108326" align="aligncenter" width="1021"] Image courtesy Chris Alderson, Polyarc[/caption] If you have played the game, then my 'hammer' pun a moment ago will certainly have clued you in to what I'm talking about: the boss fight with The Warden, a mace-wielding blacksmith-sorcerer found in deep in the depths of the world. The Warden is physically the biggest foe Quill fights (about a quarter of the height of a human), and without the player's help, the battle would be insurmountable. Both the player and Quill work together throughout the encounter in a way that impressed me with how well the game guided the player in figuring out what to do without blatantly showing them. The climax of the fight is dodging The Warden's big hammer swings with Quill, and then at the right moment grabbing the hammer as the player to make it vulnerable to Quill's attacks. [caption id="attachment_108328" align="aligncenter" width="1021"] Image courtesy James Yavorsky, Coolie Calihan, Polyarc[/caption] Stiksma explained the layers of design that went into pulling it off. "Approaching the design [of the fight], we had to understand what our tools were to implement the gameplay: what abilities would you and Quill have? This leads to a lot of iteration as you don’t always know what these will be up front (we went through many prototypes to get to one we were happy pushing further)," Stiksma said. "Eventually we settled on the goal for Quill to use her hammer in some way, while also needing the player to reach in and grab the Warden in some capacity. Both required physical VR interaction, so we were happy to iterate in this direction." It wasn't enough just to know how Quill and the player would interact with the boss, the team also had to consider the physical space of the fight in order to ensure the action would happen close enough to the player for them to reach into the fight. "For the play space, we have metrics on comfort from a size perspective. We also know where players are the most comfortable when performing their interactions. For this fight, we leaned 100% on comfort to ensure we had room to flex in other areas. Simple was better here, as it allowed us more time to iterate on the hammer and figure out things like what screen shake means in VR or how to best communicate the damage loop without any UI," explained Stiksma. "Focusing in on the interactions, we tried many options: grabbing his hand, grabbing him, grabbing other things in the environment. These all took time to try and evaluate, and all had some setbacks. I’m really happy with where we settled and am proud of this fight and the work to get it online." And the fight wasn't memorable just for its design... it also featured some of the best character animation I've seen anywhere in VR to date. I recall as I was battling through the fight the first time, half of my attention was on actually staying alive and getting through the challenge, but the other half was busy gawking at the weighty animations of The Warden that were drenched with personality. https://gfycat.com/miniaturelameafricanparadiseflycatcher I shouldn't then be surprised to learn the game's Animation Director, Rick Lico, spent some three years at Monolith Productions and another eight at Bungie in senior and lead animation roles. Even so, Stiksma told me the studio draws inspiration and style less from VR-specific or game-specific works, and more from CG animation studios. "For our gameplay and story animations in Moss, we draw more from traditional animation studios like Pixar or Dreamworks. The massive talent they have for animation is obvious, and we can learn so much by thinking about how their work translates to virtual characters in a virtual world—who know you exist and can look you in the eye." https://gfycat.com/tastywelltodoamericanalligator Character animation tends not to be particularly emphasized in VR game design—perhaps because the character in most first-person VR games is 'animated' entirely by the player! Not to mention that making interactive characters really work in VR is a huge challenge. But Book II's Warden fight really drove home to me how much great character animation can add to the immersion and entertainment of a VR experience—especially when the player gets to interact with the subject of that animation. Continue on Page 3: Cutting Room Floor, Book III? » The Cutting Room Floor [caption id="attachment_108332" align="aligncenter" width="1021"] Image courtesy Chris Alderson, Polyarc[/caption] As with literally any game ever made, there's things that just don't make it into the finished product for one reason or another. Looking back on the game's development, Stiksma says the team worked hard to make sure only the best content made it out the door, even if that meant cutting content that the team had spent considerable time on. "As VR is still a new technology, we have a lot of experiments and ideas that don’t make it all the way. We had entire areas that we were really excited about, but we couldn’t make the scope work. We also had visions for a few more of the characters appearing in the game world rather than being only visible from the book. Being a small team, we couldn’t deliver on everything, so we had to choose where we spent our development time," Stiksma explained. As for some of the things that didn't make it into Book II? "We have some 3D models for characters who we couldn’t rig, some concepts for characters who have yet to exist, cosmetics for Quill, and prototypes for more weapons too. There was a mean prototype for Quill using a bow & arrow and she was kind of unstoppable. [...] many puzzles don’t make it. We create many puzzle rooms to test out concepts and they often stay in our development folder, with only the best being moved into shipped dioramas." As ever, content that didn't make it into a game often finds its way into a sequel... Book III? [caption id="attachment_108337" align="aligncenter" width="1020"] Image courtesy Polyarc[/caption] The end of Book II left us with something of an 'Inception spinning top' tease; I'm sure they knew the question was coming... will we see a Book III? "We’re absolutely excited to continue telling more stories as long as our fans still want to explore our worlds," Stiksma teased. And when I asked if the studio planned to stick with the world of Moss or explore new IP in the future, he told me the studio has a few irons in the fire. "Hah, it’s hard to predict—but we are exploring new projects with another already running right now and some ideas for others on the horizon." - - — - - Moss: Book II launched on PSVR earlier this year and is heading to Quest 2 on July 21st. Read our full review here. More from this series: Stormland – Insomniac Games Asgard’s Wrath – Sanzaru Games Blood & Truth – Sony’s London Studio ASTRO BOT – Sony’s JAPAN Studio Lone Echo – Ready At Dawn ARKTIKA.1 – 4A Games Robo Recall – Epic Games Bonus Art A few more pieces worth seeing that we didn’t have room for: [caption id="attachment_108334" align="aligncenter" width="1020"] Image courtesy Polyarc[/caption] [caption id="attachment_108329" align="aligncenter" width="1022"] Image courtesy Mike Jensen, Polyarc[/caption] [caption id="attachment_108327" align="aligncenter" width="1022"] Image courtesy Tomas Gomez, Polyarc[/caption] [caption id="attachment_108333" align="aligncenter" width="1020"] Image courtesy Polyarc[/caption] [caption id="attachment_108336" align="aligncenter" width="1020"] Image courtesy Polyarc[/caption]