How do you turn a concept for a VR game or experience into a commercially successful product? Whether you’re publishing a passion project or attempting to corner the market, you need a development roadmap. Here are a few key things to know.

Understanding Scope During Concept Creation

The concept creation stage is one of the most exciting development phases because it’s all play and no work. During brainstorming, get experimental — you can fuss over your technical limitations later.

You need to choose a genre. Action accounts for more than 51% of games on Steam VR, closely followed by casual and simulation. The competition may be steep, but that’s what’s popular. Still, if you want to corner the market, consider making a sports, puzzle, horror or racing game.

Once you’ve settled on a genre, consider the scope of your project. Will it take place in one environment? How many levels will it have? Do you want it to be multiplayer? Will there be a storyline? Asking yourself these questions will help you narrow your vision.

Before continuing, think about your goal for this project. You will inevitably invest financially and psychologically into your company, so you should reflect on what you want out of it. Your answer will help guide your future decisions.

Consider the Logistics of Creating Your Concept

Ask yourself how users will move, interact and progress. Then, weigh your strengths as a developer to decide what you can accomplish on a technical level. Your resources, experience and skills will help solidify your concept.

Now comes the technical side of things. Will you release your project on mobile VR, PCVR or stand-alone VR? Your pick affects which development and content platforms you can use, so choose carefully. It also influences what your target demographic looks like.

You’ll need tools to create assets, mechanics and sound effects. You could use Blender, which is an open-source creation suite. Unreal Engine is a game engine. Both software solutions are free, which is great if you’re an independent developer.

Consider which distribution channels you’ll use — it’ll affect your competition and costs. One recent survey found that 34% of developers plan to release a game on the Meta Quest Store. Steam VR, PlayStation VR and Apple visionOS follow closely behind it.

The Importance of Securing Funding Early On

Cost factors include platform selection, labor and game complexity. Each has tradeoffs. For example, releasing on multiple platforms helps reach a broad audience but costs more. Alternatively, getting professional voice acting is expensive but increases your game’s quality.

Development costs for a VR app typically range from $15,000 to $150,000, depending on your game’s scope. Of course, you’ll barely spend anything if you use free assets, work alone and get free tools. Still, you may have to pay fees to release your game or register the copyright.

Either way, securing funding early on is essential. You can take out loans, fundraise, crowdfund or get a side job. You could also find an angel investor or venture capital group if you want significant funding — and are willing to share profits or a stake in the company.

The augmented reality and VR market is booming — experts expect it will reach $294 billion in 2024 — so someone may take a chance on you. That said, you may have to come to terms with putting off development until you secure funding.

What Should a VR Game Prototype Look Like?

A prototype shouldn’t be pretty — you’re meant to focus on the fundamentals, not the graphics. Start with the foreground, middle-ground and background of your environment. Then, lay out basic shapes and test game mechanics, making tweaks as you go.

Is your core gameplay loop fun? Does the story feel compelling? Unless your answer is yes, keep making adjustments. You can add small interactions, easter eggs and noncore mechanics later to reward the player for exploring.

Depending on your project’s focus, you may need sound effects, background music or voice acting. For now, leave yourself notes on where you should incorporate those things. Recording and implementing them will take time, so they don’t need to take priority.

You should also develop a basic user interface to create a framework for the user experience. Menus, accessibility sliders and buttons are necessary for navigation and modification. Again, don’t focus on looks when prototyping — choose typography, colors and shapes later.

Think of Users

Will users intuitively know what to do when they load in? Will the menus confuse them? The only way to answer those questions is to conduct usability testing. Have people test your finished product to see if the game mechanics, accessibility settings and user interface work.

Once you wrap up testing, it’s time for marketing. Start by defining your target audience — who will want to buy your product? Once you’ve narrowed down the demographic you want to market to, you must consider pricing.

What price tag will consumers accept? Incentivize them to buy by undercutting your competition or increasing your product’s perceived value. Differentiating your game from similar alternatives on content platforms can help.

Even if you pick the perfect price and target audience, you still need to grow awareness. You can use social media, forums and blog posts to drive sales, and advertising may be necessary to maximize visibility in competitive markets.

Devin Partida is Editor-in-Chief at ReHack Magazine and editorial contributor at AR Insider. See her work here and follow her @rehackmagazine.

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