PlayStation VR (PSVR) launched last month and received a warm welcoming from a hungry market. Whilst VR is still the new kid on the block for many platforms, it has already been making quite an impact with how immersive the experiences are and the potential VR has in revolutionizing the future of gaming and e-sports. One such experience is a game called RIGS: Mechanized Combat League (RIGS).

RIGS is an arena-based team sport/FPS game with two teams of three going head to head. You are the pilot of a ‘Mech’ which is called a ‘Rig’ and compete in five-minute matches in one of three different game modes. Expect to get punished for recklessness if you decide to run off all GI Joe style – play as a team, survive as a team. With various rig choices, unlockables, mode options, and career progress to be made, there is massive replayability value here. The competitive nature of this game is what will drive it into the e-sports arena if there are enough early adopters to help gain momentum behind it.

If you are a fan of games such as Titanfall, Rocket League, or the sports and FPS genres in general, you are going to love RIGS.

E-sports by definition is: a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators, typically by professional gamers. So why do we think that RIGS is such a great fit for e-sports? Simple – it’s competitive, fun to play and watch, fast paced, and VERY addictive.

We wanted to share our opinions on this with the development team at Guerrilla Cambridge and get their thoughts on seeing RIGS take the center stage at e-sports events in the future, so we reached out to the studio. Piers Jackson who is the Game Director and Studio Manager kindly provided us with some further insight into RIGS. Piers has been in the industry for over 20 years and is easily recognized for his work on titles such as: Heavenly Sword (PlayStation 3, 2007), WipEout Pulse (PlayStation Portable, 2008), Killzone 3 (PlayStation 3, 2011), the 2010 BAFTA-award winning LittleBigPlanet PSP (PlayStation Portable, 2009), and Killzone: Mercenary (PlayStation Vita, 2013).

The first thing we were interested in finding out more about was the fact that the core mechanics of RIGS have the makings of an extremely successful addition to the e-sports arena. With that in mind, was this always the hope for RIGS when the concept became a realization?

“The initial concept for RIGS came from our desire to fuse together a first person shooter and a sports game; the RIGS themselves seemed like the perfect vehicle to allow this collision of worlds to occur successfully. Being a sport, we naturally wanted to make competition central to the game loop and to allow player and team skill to be the key factor in success. We also set ourselves a development pillar that would reflect the drama of sport – the moments of glory, last minute defences and the winning goal – and in effect this made RIGS an exciting game to play, and as it turns out, watch. I think when you meld all of these elements together you have the potential for a quality eSports experience. But to answer your question, I think it’s fair to say that as fans of eSports we always had our eye on the idea but we built towards it rather than setting out to actually make an eSport.”

A lot of thought from a strategic view-point has gone into the design of each arena in RIGS, allowing for players to pair up their Rig to match the position on the team they will be playing and the arena they will be battling on. Piers, can you walk us through how extensive that process was to create and how that consequentially encourages team communication?

“Thank you; our Design and Art teams will really appreciate that the effort they have gone to has been noticed. RIGS’ arenas are quite unusual and to be honest we had to work out how to build them as we went along. We have variable character height and speed, don’t really use cover in the same way that many other FPS titles do, we feature a lot of verticality and airborne traversal, and needed the arenas to visually look like they were purpose built stadiums that could support a crowd of spectators. All in all, we knew what our RIGS were going to do some time before we understood the arena construction we needed.

We approached the problem by building a lot of prototypes and when we found constructs that worked, we analysed them and everything else was thrown away. We play the game as a team daily and this meant that during the development process we were providing feedback to ourselves on a very regular basis. Because we always played as a team, elements of the arena that created fun, strategic interactions were easy to spot and again when these happened we utilised them more. Often these would be in relation to line of sight blockers and flanking routes which required team communication to overcome, or the specific positioning of defensive structures – particularly in games like Endzone and PowerSlam. The process of arena creation was lengthy, particularly for our first map Rio, but has become quicker with time as we have become more and more familiar with the sort of layouts that work well.”

RIGS is an absolute blast when you are the pilot however, I can see a lot of potential for spectators to opt to sit in the crowd and watch matches via their VR headset, follow their favorite player around the arena via tracking, rewind critical hits, is that a concept that your team is looking to implement?

“Spectating and broadcasting are both features we’re looking at now. I can’t go into too much detail at this point in time but I can say that RIGS works really well from a 2D broadcasting point of view and we have done some internal tests watching in VR. For me the VR magic comes when you’re strapped into the cockpit of a RIG being piloted by someone else, a bit like being a co-pilot in a rally car!”

It’s difficult to explain to anyone who has not yet had the opportunity to play a game like RIGS on PSVR, just how much the VR element of the game changes the whole dynamics of a first person shooting experience. What do you tell people when they ask you to break it down for them?

“I think a common misconception surrounding VR would be to assume that it will be like playing a game on a 3D TV, however, whilst the game does appear to you stereoscopically, it’s the one-to-one relationship between where you look as a player with your head, and what you see, that creates the sense of immersion that makes you feel like you’re actually present in the game. Most people playing RIGS find it an intense and exhilarating experience and I think this stems from the fact that they feel more directly involved in what’s going on. You actually get the sensation of travelling at speed and of being at great height, and it’s quite something. Beyond the sensory elements of RIGS as a VR title, once you manage to deprogram your FPS brain from wanting to look and aim with the right stick, the wide field of view and ability to look around naturally improves target acquisition significantly.”

Can we look forward to being able to sign up for RIGS tournaments in the near future and start the momentum towards the inevitable inclusion in the e-sports scene?

“We’re very much hoping to make this a reality but can’t reveal too much at this stage. In the meantime, we have weekly ‘Beat the Dev’ battles where the community take us on and the community themselves have started to set-up their own competitions, stream and shoutcast on them which has been super cool to watch.”

As you can see, there is still plenty in the works for RIGS with some interesting hints at the possible direction the studio is headed in to bring more social interaction into the way we not only play RIGS but also how we share those experiences with the public.

I have played a large percentage of the games that have been released for the PSVR device so far and RIGS is most certainly my top pick. If you have not yet had an opportunity to try it out for yourself, I strongly encourage you to do so.

Some games just feel like they were made specifically for us as an individual, a perfect complement to our game play style, the pace we like to play at, and the expected levels of adrenaline they will induce. RIGS is that perfect game for me. Once you try it be sure to come back here and share your thoughts with me and let me know if you instantly fell in love with it like I did.

BEGINNERS TIP: If you start to suffer from nausea please take the games advice to use the comfort options. This will help alleviate the discomfort of nausea until you are used to the pace and mechanics of the game, then you can revert to the intended settings.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Piers Jackson for taking the time to provide the community with some further insight into RIGS as we know you are very busy supporting the game and working on its future direction.