Hey all, Arizona Sunshine’s Dead Man DLC is coming to PlayStation VR on August 14!
I spent a lot of my time designing this prequel mission to our VR zombie shooter over the past half year. I’m really excited about finally welcoming our PS VR player community to the final days before the zombie apocalypse.
Designing this DLC was a unique opportunity and challenge. On the one hand, there was a solid foundation to build on and many lessons learned from developing the base game. On the other hand, I was eager to design something that would feel new and would offer a challenge to the most veteran of our VR zombie apocalypse survivors.
With Dead Man DLC, players get an all-new, military perspective on the zombie apocalypse of Arizona Sunshine. We took the most compelling and challenging parts of Arizona Sunshine to craft a prequel full of suspense and action. Playing solo or with a friend, you find yourself heading a frantic military mission and last-ditch effort to contain the outbreak. As you battle your way through the silo to fire off the missile that is to save mankind, your surroundings will be dark and narrow, your ammo will soon be sparser than ever, and zombies quick and slow will come at you from every shadow. Expanding on the world and lore of Arizona Sunshine, we’ve put an interesting twist on the story — one that we’ll let you discover for yourself!
As this is the largest Arizona Sunshine level to date, the biggest technical challenge was making sure Dead Man DLC runs just as fluidly as the base game in VR. We implemented a new, advanced level-of-detail (LOD) system that manages the level of detail that in-game objects have based on where the player is looking. In other words, a lot of fancy stuff is being done in the background to ensure you have an immersive and smooth VR experience.
Oh, and there are three new weapons including some two-handed weapons for the PS VR aim controller, and new thematic masks too.
Crafting Dead Man DLC was quite the ride and to celebrate the upcoming release, we’re sharing a couple new screenshots today. I can’t wait to see you guys play when it lands on PS VR on August 14, and I hope you’ll enjoy it!
