Welcome to our weekly feature where we ask some of the industry’s leading developers and personalities 20 questions.

This week we feature Ilja Kivikangas developer of Windlands

State Your Name:

Ilja Kivikangas

What is your current Job / Role ?

Founder of Cyber Fox Games. Programmer, 3D artist and designer… I currently do everything except soundFX or Music.

What are you most famous for ?

Windlands

What is currently on the desk in front of you ?

Two huge screens, DK2, Iphone, Xbox360 controller, Wacom tablet, mouse and keyboard and a silicon hand rest thingie 😀

And a swivel chair under.

What was your first VR experience ?

First would have been Tuscany. First time looking around and seeing the wooden ceiling parts and the hanging candle holder in Glorious Depth was mindblowing 😀

Did you feel any sim sickness or do you ever feel any sim sickness ?

First I couldn’t handle more than 5minutes in DK1. Especially if movement or turning of the view with controller was involved. For a long time I had to close my eyes while turning with controller and for most part I tried to turn with my head as much as I could and just reorient with controller… to unspool the cord 🙂

Had time where after playing for 15 minutes I had to lay on a sofa for 1.5 hours to stop the world from spinning.

So the obvious conclusion for me was to start making a game where you run like the wind and do all kind of crazy jumps 🙂

What’s the longest amount of time you have spent in VR in one play session ?

I have never really tried to time my self. Now after so much time in VR I could spend hours in Windlands without any discomfort. I do still feel a bit bad when moving in the latest Tuscany demo but its just a minor discomfort that doesn’t escalate to full blown world carousel.

What’s the strangest experience you have had with VR ?

While prototyping Windlands mechanics I tried a grappling system that reminded a lot of “Attack on Titan”s manouver gear. There you had a regular rope that didn’t pull and a “jet pack” style pushing force that you controlled with your facing direction. While testing this system I tried a trick like, the game where you hold a stick and try to flick a ball in a rope attached to the stick and and try to hit the top of the stick your holding. So I shot the rope to a floating rock and boosted to a crazy arch. After doing an full loop I landed on the floating piece with huge velocity and then something Weird happened. My leg muscles went out of control. They started spazzing out. Apparently they were trying to stop the speed so I wouldn’t get flung of the small floating piece. But cause I actually wasn’t moving the muscle reaction was extremely weird… after that I changed to another control mechanic 😀

But this did show to me the power of Presence.

What’s the funniest experience you have had with VR ?

The funniest latest experience was with the Crescent Bay’s last demo with flying shrapnel and just walking through all of it and bobbing and weaving throuhg the destruction… once in a while trying to push a piece away with my hand 🙂 ( didn’t work of cource but that didn’t stop me from trying ). For an older experience that would have been the Unreal Roller coaster. That was a lot of fun 😀

What game or hardware device are you currently working on ?

Working on Windlands and its Indiegogo campaign.

Do you have a release date in mind for your project ?

Depending on the funding the schedule fill need to adjust. But for the minimum it would be around half a year to get the Final game out.

What is the biggest surprise you have had since you started to work in VR ?

I keep getting surprised how differing experiences people have with VR. And how varying opinions the have on the best practices.

If you could only choose one game from your childhood to be remade for VR what would it be ?

Final Fantasy 7. That game left a permanent mark on my teenage mind 🙂

Besides games what do you think will be the most useful application for VR ?

Tools for education and applicatons for connected people and places around the world.

What advice would you give to people on how to get into VR development ?

Get your hands on a device and start experimenting. Its the wild west and listen to no law. Find your own way.

What is your favorite VR related movie ?

The Matrix. Didn’t know what the movie was about when walked in to the movie theater. Came out Mind Blown. Still recovering 😀

If you had a crystal ball and could see 10 years into the future what developments in VR do you think will have happened?

Controls have caught up with visuals.

Mass adoption has started years back.

Fingers crossed for breakthroughs in direct neural connection.

Outside of VR what do you do to relax ?

Read some scifi literature like “Rainbows End” or “Accelerando (Singlarity)”

Watch anime and movies. Play some Diablo 3 😀

Have long walks outside on the forest path.

What’s your current favorite VR experience that you have not developed your self ?

I really like how Crashland on DK1 shows the potential of positional hand controllers.

And I am looking forward to testing the STEM and its demos.

Sum up how you feel about Virtual Reality in 6 words or less ?

Endless potential.

Back and Download Windlands here

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