Budget Cuts 2 has been in the works for some time, and this game is bringing some new features to the Rift platform. The developing studios, Neat Corporation and Fast Travel Games, have made a game that is going to build off the success of their first game together. Not only is this game bringing the ability to work with a bow and arrow, but the game is bringing a story that is new and original to virtual reality. When we do our in-depth review of this game, we expect to have high scores across the board.
Oculus sat down with Neat Corporation’s CEO, Jenny Nordenborg to speak about this game a little more extensively. This can be found on the Oculus Blog, and for your reading convenience, you can find the full interview below.
Full Oculus Interview
How does Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency build off the success of the original?
Jenny Nordenborg: The game shares a lot of internal tools that have been refined and expanded upon since the development of Budget Cuts. The same really goes for everything from the story to the characters and gameplay as well. Building a community around Budget Cuts and talking to our fans have helped shape our path forward tremendously! So not only is the game building on its preceding game, but also the community of players and developers who have been involved ever since the first game.
What’s your favorite part of the game and why?
JN: My favorite part of the game would be an absolute crushing spoiler, so I’ll give you my second favorite: riding the top of the train and shooting arrows while not getting knocked over in the tunnels. It doesn’t matter how many times I see it coming, my body will only accept ducking fast! I’m also a big fan of fast traveling with translocation through pneumatic tubes. When is this coming to real life?
My favorite moment is seeing people come out of VR with a big grin on their face—that’s when I really know we did something good.
How did you build upon lessons learned from your earlier work in VR?
JN: One is that the experiences that seem to awe players the most are a combination of freedom brought by spatial interaction and moments of personal creativity with what is otherwise a predetermined setup. I mean, it’s obviously a game, but that urge to duck, eat a taco, or throw an enemy off a rooftop—that’s not necessary to play the game, it’s just you, and it feels so real. So we have plenty of those opportunities.
If people take one thing away from the game, what do you hope it would be and why?
JN: Personally, that robots are like humans that take everything literally. Literally everything, literally. They will never be better than the instructions that we give them. “Solve this problem!” “Be like a human!” What is human, anyway? We prefer handling it with humor, but there is obviously a dark side to it as well. I’d love to see the game spark someone’s interest for the deeper implications of letting robots make decisions for us humans.
What does VR add to the game that wouldn’t be possible in traditional flat media?
JN: The way giving the player tools that they handle physically gives a lot more room to play around, rather than being restricted to buttons and one flat representation of the real world. Virtual reality also forces the player to take in scale and spatial sound and motion in a much more reptilian manner—the world is obviously all around you. You can display the tiny to the grandiose by scaling it to fit a flat screen, by moving and adjusting the camera. Here tiny really is tiny (and oh so adorable!) and huge is huge, overwhelming. A ravine can really be terrifyingly deep, and so on.
What’s next for you? Any exciting updates in the works?
JN: We are likely coming out with some fun updates for Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency in 2020, but also moving to our Early Access title Garden of the Sea. This game has been on hold as we finished Budget Cuts 2, but will resume in its normal manner together with our wonderful community, who help us test, tweak, inspire, and fill the game with warmth and fun!
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
JN: Thank you so much for reading! We’d love to hear from you, so if you are inclined to share your thoughts on our games or VR or games at large, join our community on Discord.gg/NeatCorp.
