Hi my name is Douglas Nabors and I am the head of production at Fun Train. We have produced virtual reality experiences in collaboration with developers worldwide since 2017 and we provide multiple games on a variety of platforms including Steam, Meta, Playstation, Pico, Humble and others. The Twilight Zone by Pocket Money Games releases on July 14th intially for Meta Quest 2. Check it out here.

Here at Fun Train we deeply believe that great games deserve great trailers. We are keenly interested in how we make players “feel” while in-game, whether that feeling be fear, exhilaration, or wonder. With the arrival of mixed reality tools such as LIV and more recently Meta’s Mixed Reality Capture Tool, we are able to fully visualize and convey the way we hope players feel inside our experiences through the use of Mixed Reality trailers. These trailers are quite expensive to produce but in my opinion they are worth every penny. To see how we do it, read on!

In 2018 when we created our marketing campaign for Wolf & Wood’s The Exorcist Legion VR we relied heavily on in-game PC footage that was meticulously choreographed. It was an arduous process but since many of the Fun Train members come from film and television backgrounds it was a method that we easily understood. Using in-engine fly-throughs combined with our handheld point and shoot technique we accomplished some amazing trailers despite the technical limitations.

Then along came mixed reality! Due to innovative demonstrations from teams like LIV we knew that our next title, Tarzan VR, must make use of mixed reality to convey the heart-pounding feeling of swinging through the jungle and hand-to-hand combat. To truly convey the thrill of vine-swinging, we began talking with Jacob and Alisha Stradling of Splitverse Interactive who were already mastering the art of mixed reality production. Even though the technical process was in its adolescence our collaboration with them paid off immensely.

The Tarzan VR production experience was a thrill from casting through post production. We had already collaborated with Melodysheep on a bumping “Lord of theJungle” theme song and we knew this music was the perfect framework from which to build the mixed reality Tarzan trailer.

The shoot for Tarzan was approximately 3 days. After copious planning we knew that we had to show vine swinging in a way that had not been done before in any existing game. Splitverse had the ambitious idea of having the performers swing on wires in front of green screens! While great in theory, we hadn't planned for the fact that both performers had never worn a VR headset. Imagine putting a headset on for the first time and being riggged to a swinging harness while also swinging in VR…. all while trying to make it look realistic. This was a challenge to say the least.

Several times one of our performers became queasy when the real and virtual world movements combined. Despite terrible VR sickness he gave 100%. I was so impressed by his dedication that we brought him back for the Twilight Zone mixed reality trailers. We promised him there would be no more wire and stunt work. You can see the full trailer here.

By the time we were prepping The Twilight Zone trailers we had a much better understanding of the process. We challenged Splitverse to raise the bar even higher with these new spots. Because The Twilight Zone began as a Quest title (as opposed to PC), LIV was not a good option for the mixed reality content. Fortunately, Meta had just released their Mixed Reality Capture Tool. This process is not always great for tracked camera movements but Splitverse is adept at working within the constraints of any system. We told them what we wanted, and they made it happen!

Similar to Tarzan, we knew that we had to show the physical experience of The Twilight Zone because we believe the best VR games are ultimately physical ones- and Twilight Zone can be very physical at times.

The Twilight Zone is the most narrative heavy game we've created to date and we knew that the trailers must also tell their own story in succinct ways. Together with Splitverse and their storyboard artists we created copious amounts of previz art and even animatics to make sure that our story beats were being properly conveyed without giving away The Twilight Zone twists! I even flew to their offices in Missouri to personally carve out the final beats of our “Deadline Earth” trailer which will be premiering in a week or so.

Just prior to the shoot, special green screen treadmills were constructed which would allow the performers to traverse the virtual spaces and make their movement look believable in the environments. Mock-up guns were fabricated. Wardrobe was meticulously selected based on the characters in each story. We are particularly pleased with production quality of the “Terror Firma” wardrobe (concept art below).

During production additional effects such as wind machines and practical lights were used to blend the real and the virtual worlds together in one frame. Again, it’s all about creating a feeling for viewers. For every trailer, we always plan 90, 60, 30 and even 15 second cuts.

That's the bird's-eye view of how our mixed reality trailers are made! We're not giving you all the secret ingredients but there's plenty of opportunity to add your own should you wish to produce trailers for your own projects.

The initial stories for The Twilight Zone VR launch on Meta Quest 2 headsets on July 14th 2022 with PSVR launching next year.

Get the game here! —> https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/3508802139177629/

Blending Realties With VR Game Trailers