Arriving at the counter, the movement function automatically locked, allowing only looking around. Under the guidance of the steampunk technology service staff at the service counter, I entered the formal registration process.
During this process, I needed to determine my character name, island name, choose the development direction for my island, and could also initially customize my character’s appearance.
Each island was generated according to certain rules, making every player’s initial island completely different.
But since each player’s needs would inevitably differ, players were allowed to select their island’s development direction.
For example, if a player enjoyed fishing, they could transform their island to have more water areas with abundant fish resources; if a player liked hunting, they could reshape the island to have lush forests with more animals; if a player preferred farming, they could modify the island to have more flat land with a greater variety of crops.
Of course, players could also choose a balanced island, with different areas dedicated to fishing, hunting, farming, and so on.
After selecting this preference, the steampunk technology would develop and transform the island accordingly.
However, this transformation wouldn’t be completed all at once. Right after selection, the island wouldn’t show any changes, but would continuously transform over a period of time in the future.
Naturally, if players changed their minds later, they could still come to the service counter to make modifications. But they couldn’t make changes too frequently.
Besides this long-term modification plan, there was also a short-term one: the relocation service provided by the steampunk technology.
Players could move each initial building on the island to their preferred location. This first time was free, but subsequent relocations would incur fees.
As for character appearances, they were all extremely cute and cartoonish animals.
These animals were diverse and varied, including ducks, penguins, dogs, crocodiles, rabbits, rhinoceroses, cats, and more. After selecting an animal, players could also change its fur color, style, and clothing.
The clothes on these little animals could be freely changed later, and other decorative items like bows, quivers, gun holsters, and mechanical watches could be added.
After registration was complete, players could officially begin freely exploring the island.
The first day’s content mainly helped players become familiar with the controls, including basic movement, as well as fundamental gameplay like hunting, farming, and mining.
Later, the game would gradually guide players to engage in more complex activities, such as fishing for high-level fish, hunting to obtain high-level animal materials, farming to crossbreed and produce high-level crops, and so on.
While participating in these activities, guidance was provided by corresponding NPCs.
For instance, a little dog taught hunting, a little cat taught fishing, an old ox taught farming, and that little mole taught mining… Of course, they were all anthropomorphized animal figures.
During the tutorial, these little animals would demonstrate specific operations to players with very slow movements. For example, the little dog would demonstrate the whole process of taking an arrow from the quiver, nocking it, drawing the bow, and shooting, while explaining the game mechanics in detail.
Players would explore these gameplay elements while listening to the explanations, and when successfully shooting an arrow, they would involuntarily exclaim, “Whoa, awesome!”
For Qiao Liang, these operations were already very familiar, and he could even rapid-fire with the bow, causing the little dog teaching him archery and hunting to repeatedly express amazement.
But for the audience, it was truly fascinating.
Through the small screen in the upper left corner, viewers could clearly see Qiao Liang’s movements. Although his actions in reality looked a bit awkward, he was genuinely nocking and shooting arrows.
Combined with the in-game visuals, many people only now deeply realized how vastly different VR games were from ordinary computer games!
In ordinary computer games, “archery” was at most a matter of moving the mouse and clicking a button—making it more complex would be unnecessary.
But in VR games, although the archery steps were more intricate and the operational difficulty higher, the highly realistic nature didn’t make people feel bored or troubled. Instead, they became engrossed and captivated!
Many people previously thought that Doubt VR controllers having so many buttons was simply wasteful.
Because other VR games only needed one or two buttons to play, basically using one button to teleport and another to interact with in-game props.
So, most of Doubt VR’s buttons wouldn’t be used in other games.
But after seeing the specific gameplay of “Animal Island VR,” these people realized that although there were many buttons, not a single one was superfluous—they were all extremely useful!
The fact that other VR games didn’t need so many buttons only showed that those games lacked content richness and engaging gameplay!
The Doubt VR headset’s controller considered the interaction of all five fingers, and it also had buttons such as magazine reload and hammer mechanisms, simulating gun construction and making in-game hunting rifle shooting particularly satisfying.
This feeling was especially evident when holding something in your hand.
Other VR headset controllers only required pressing the trigger to hold objects, but there was a difference between the player’s operation and the in-game character’s movement, which slightly affected immersion.
However, Doubt VR’s controller required gripping with all five fingers, making people feel they were truly and tangibly grasping something, rather than simply “hooking” objects with one index finger, creating stronger immersion.
…
After playing continuously for more than two hours, Qiao Liang reluctantly exited the game when the VR headset indicated low battery.
It must be said that the officially released version of the game had made tremendous progress compared to the version he had previewed earlier.
Mainly, the entire game flow had been smoothed out, with early game guidance and transitions well implemented. There was no longer any obvious disconnect between the various gameplay modules—everything was as smooth as silk.
The reason he stopped was that the headset had run out of battery, and Qiao Liang’s neck was also starting to give out.
To provide a better viewing experience for his livestream audience, he constantly reminded himself not to look around randomly, and even when turning his view, to do so as smoothly as possible.
This way, the audience’s experience was guaranteed, but Qiao Liang’s neck suffered and needed a rest.
Looking at the barrage of comments in the livestream, Qiao Liang couldn’t help but smile.
Clearly, his efforts had paid off!
The audience’s comments about the controller and the game had completely changed.
“I never thought such simple content could be so interesting on a VR platform!”
“This fishing is so much fun, I already want to buy this headset! Even if just as a fishing simulator, it’s worth it!”
“This one game includes hunting, fishing, farming—several games in one, incredible value!”
“I thought this controller was all flash and no substance before, but now I see it’s absolutely unbeatable! Buy Doubt VR, and if nothing else, at least in terms of controller operation, it’ll probably perfectly adapt to new VR games for several years to come—absolutely no need to worry about not having enough buttons!”
“But if you want to fully enjoy ‘Animal Island,’ you can only use Doubt VR; other VR headsets just won’t cut it.”
“Of course I’m buying Doubt VR—are there any other competitive headsets on the market right now?”
Seeing these comments, Qiao Liang felt a surge of pride.
Look at that!
I, Qiao Laoshi, truly deserve the title of Tenda’s number one salesperson!
It’s only because I, Qiao Laoshi, am indifferent to fame and fortune; otherwise, wouldn’t Mr. Pei specially hire me as the head of the sales department?
Actually, even if Qiao Liang hadn’t done this livestream, the excellent content of “Animal Island VR” would eventually have been introduced to players by other streamers or content creators.
The quality of the VR headset and game was so solid that even if there had been some small misunderstandings at the beginning, it didn’t matter at all. As time passed, players would eventually recognize its value.
But Qiao Liang’s presence undoubtedly greatly accelerated this process and expanded its ultimate influence.
“Alright, today’s livestream is almost over. I need to continue editing the footage and work overtime to make the video.”
“If anyone feels like they haven’t had enough, I suggest buying a Doubt VR headset and trying it yourself.”
“After all, VR games need to be experienced firsthand to get the feeling. Watching livestreams or experiencing it vicariously is vastly different from playing it yourself.”
Qiao Liang was about to take off his VR headset to rest.
For a chronically flaky streamer, streaming for more than two hours already counted as working overtime!
However, after exiting to the VR headset’s main page, he suddenly discovered that a promotional page had been added. Clearly, the main page content had silently changed while he was experiencing the game.
This promotional page featured a huge game advertisement poster showing several game characters from “Fitness Battle,” with a massive title: “Fitness Battle VR Version” Now Available for Download!
“Huh?!”
Qiao Liang was instantly shocked.
There was such an unexpected surprise?
The VR version of “Fitness Battle” was developed by Shangyang Games. Since it didn’t involve changes to gameplay or operations, neither Ye Zhizhou nor Wang Xiaobin had mentioned it at Chi Xing Studio, focusing their main energy on the development of “Animal Island” instead.
So, Qiao Liang didn’t know this project existed.
Now seeing this title, he was absolutely elated!
He hurriedly clicked to check.
On the details page of “Fitness Battle VR Version,” there was a simple introduction with several particularly important points: cross-platform data synchronization, compatible with the smart fitness clothing rack, and the VR headset could run calculations without requiring a computer or phone screen casting!
Hearing this, Qiao Liang was instantly energized.
Didn’t this mean he could break through dimensional barriers and closely interact with the ladies from “Fitness Battle”?
Although “Animal Island” was also fun, it was full of cute, anthropomorphized animals, mainly for hunting and farming.
Surely no one would have inappropriate thoughts about the fox girl and bunny sister in “Animal Island”?
But “Fitness Battle” was different—it was full of ready-made, well-dressed young women.
Qiao Liang had previously spent so much time grinding in “Fitness Battle,” getting complete sets of uniforms and dresses for the ladies, and now he could see them all in VR!
This was simply irresistible.
Qiao Liang immediately selected download.
“Fitness Battle VR Version” could be downloaded and run on the VR headset because its configuration requirements and game capacity were lower than “Animal Island,” so it didn’t need a computer for screen casting.
After all, “Fitness Battle” was originally a mobile game.
If players already had a smart fitness clothing rack, they would only need to buy a VR headset to experience “Fitness Battle VR Version,” without needing to configure a computer, which undoubtedly greatly lowered the barrier to entry.