Resident Evil 7’s VR Addition Was Like Working On Two Games At Once, Says Dev

When it comes to the VR space for video games, there aren’t a whole lot of games to point to when thinking of ones that are truly great. Probably the best example right now is Resident Evil 7, which is playable through PlayStation VR and is seen by many as the ideal way to experience the game.

While it was obviously extra work on Capcom’s part to be able to have a VR-ready version of the game along with the standard version’s launch, it turns out it caused Capcom to really have to step up their game. The developer recently spoke with Gamasutra about the development of the VR version, where they said the following:

“We ran into a variety of challenges: not being able to use prior development experience as a foundation, not being able to lean on still-camera cut-scenes, not being able to rely on old control scheme conventions. Because of this, ‘it feels like working on two games’ was a pretty common sentiment felt by the development staff.”

As a result of this, it caused a dedicated VR team to have to be created in order to focus on and figure out solutions to the obstacles that developing in VR comes with. “Many of them were R&D members who had tinkered with VR technology in their spare time as well. We had to make a lot of modifications to the system programming and assets to work with both VR and non-VR.”

Of course, despite the development issues and the increased workload, most would agree that Capcom hit it out of the park with Resident Evil 7 in VR or otherwise. The game is the return to form that fans of the series had been waiting years for, bringing it back to its horror roots and shifting to a more intense first-person perspective.

Resident Evil 7 is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.