SWORD REVERIE
DEVELOPER: Isekai Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: January 21st, 2022 (Early Access)
PLATFORMS: Steam VR (META Quest 2 Coming Soon)
Sword Severie is a VR JRPG where you can be the protagonist in your own anime story. When you meet the main character, Stella, you learn that creatures called “Elementals” used to live in harmony with people, but after years of tension, the Elementals attacked. Stella lost her parents in the war and is on a mission to find out what started the conflict. Using four elements (fire, water, earth, and light), the player fights alongside Stella with her bow and arrow on her journey.
In Sword Reverie, the player uses their whole body to engage in combat. This body motion immerses you into the game and makes it feel like you are truly mastering each skill. One technique is to raise your arms and throw them back down to launch an attack. When you do this, the controllers vibrate, giving the sensation that you are really casting the elemental spell.
I got to talk to Frank Zhang, one of the first developers of Sword Reverie. In high school, Frank began his journey as a developer with Flash Games, and since then, he has developed and programmed games for many platforms, including mobile and AAA games. He really likes JRPGs but noticed there was a scarcity of games of that genre in VR. He believed that when you use your whole body to interact with a game, you truly feel like the protagonist of your own story.
Frank started Sword Reverie as a passion project three years ago and later gathered a team of 5 people to help him realize this dream. Along the way, he’s learned that prototyping is very important. Even three years later, his team is still discovering new things by prototyping daily.
I was genuinely drawn by the passion and love Sword Reverie is created with. VR is an incredible gaming platform full of potential in the future of gaming. Thanks to people like Frank, more gamers can live their dream of being completely immersed in a story as more JRPGs and other genres become available in VR.
Jennie: And what was your name?
Frank: My name is Frank.
Jennie: Frank. And are you the developer?
Frank: Yes.
Jennie: Okay, are you a solo developer on this?
Frank: No, I have my team over there. I'm one of the first people who started on this project. So, I started as a solo developer. But I got my friends to join in, and now we have a team of about five people.
Jennie: Wow, that's awesome. That's really great. It must feel good to have something that other people are like, “I want to come help you out.”
Frank: Yes.
Jennie: Yeah, that’s awesome. So, what made you come up with the idea for this game’s story?
Frank: Well, I'm a big fan of JRPG games, especially the cool abilities that are in those types of games, like Final Fantasy or Genshin Impact and when I started developing this game, there weren't really a lot of that type of game in VR in particular. So we experimented with how to make skills feel fun in VR, and we realized, like using a Kinect, like a body motion system, making you feel like you're really launching those skills and not just clicking a button. A lot of the games we play, even in VR, you're just kind of clicking A, clicking B, to launch a skill, and then you're really just controlling with the abilities. But our game is unique in that you can use your body to launch these skills, and that makes it feel like you are really the protagonist of your own anime adventure.
Jennie: Yeah, that's awesome. I remember playing video games growing up, and I was like, “I want to be in it.” And that's what it looks like. This one is definitely that. So, what made you decide that you wanted to create a game?
Frank: I've been creating games for a long time, since high school, from the old Flash games. And then I tried some mobile games, and then I just really fell in love with VR. Especially the ability to, like, actually be a part of the game, the immersion. So, you know, I really wanted to do a VR game after doing some mobile stuff. I worked in gaming a little bit. I've done work [as a] mobile developer and triple-A development.
Jennie: Oh, wow.
Frank: So, I really wanted to do something I'm passionate about for a change.
Jennie: Yeah, yeah. Well, this is great. Is there anything — if you could, like, go back to when you started development of this — is there anything that you would change, or anything you'd tell yourself?
Frank: Oh…I've definitely learned a lot about both development, you know, working on a small indie company that I founded myself is very different than working for like, a big AAA. I definitely feel like moving faster and prototyping more is very important.
Jennie: Okay.
Frank: I think we're — even, you know, three years in — we're still trying to prototype every day and iterate. And I think a lot of the things that we were, at least I was focused on at the very start, maybe didn't matter as much as we prototyped more and play-tested more. So definitely, you know, for all people who are trying to be new indie devs, you know, focus on finding the fun, prototyping, and play-testing and coming to events like PAX to actually see the real users play your game.
Jennie: Yeah, yeah. I bet it is. Have there even been things today that you didn't even realize were, like, a bug or something that people have, like, found?
Frank: Yeah. So even today, you know, we changed the tutorial for PAX, the demo. And just changing that, a lot of people learn certain things faster, but a lot of other parts of the game slower. So you know, even just changing the tutorial, the way people play changed.
Jennie: Yeah, interesting.
Frank: So those very subtle nuances of — even if you're teaching the same thing, but how long you spend teaching a mechanic — can really lead to how people understand it.
Jennie: Yeah, that is an interesting point. I haven't really, like, heard people talk about, like, I guess, the art of tutorials. You kind of realize there is, like… what's the word… There is a best way to do it. And some tutorials are great, and some aren’t. So that's really cool that you're learning about that. How did you like coming up with the story, the RPG story for this game? Was it inspired by anything? Did you just think of it?
Frank: Well, I think the story is kind of just something that we wanted to tell a story about, kind of like fighting, you know, all monsters and you being the hero. We kind of came up with a backstory for Stella, who's our female main character, where she’s, you know, had a tragic past, but she's, like, trying to become her own person. So that's kind of where we started with the story. But to be honest, as we’ve kind of developed, we are thinking of maybe getting, like — a lot of us on the team are programmers, so we feel like the story could use some, you know, more of a professional writer to improve it. Like I said, we're kind of like an early access title, so that's one of the things we want to ramp up, maybe, like redo the story at some point.
Jennie: Yeah, yeah. So I guess if anyone has any ideas, let you know? That's awesome. And is there… is there anything else that you would like to highlight or talk about for the game?
Frank: Yeah, I think the Meta Quest is a great opportunity. Earlier, you talked about things we, you know, would have done differently. I think the market for VR is mostly on standalone [devices], and right now, our title hasn't been released on standalone yet, so that's definitely what we're working on. And it's the biggest VR market, and it's definitely something I think if you're a VR developer today, you probably want to prioritize. But the optimizations are pretty challenging, especially for a game like ours, where we have large maps where it can roam around. It makes the technical part of making sure the game runs smoothly a lot more challenging.
Jennie: Yeah, wow, I bet. Where is this available?
Frank: So right now, it's on Steam VR, but it's coming to the Meta Quest store soon.
Jennie: Okay, perfect. Awesome. And thank you!
Frank: Yeah.
