Fails Factory first appeared on the Oculus Go and the Gear VR platform. This game was a staple in the standalone VR community before the Quest made its appearance and stole the hearts of millions. From the same developers that brought us Sports Scramble, Fail Factory has finally been optimized and rebuilt for the 6DoF tracking that the Oculus Quest possesses.
Oculus sat down with the Studio Manager over at Armature Studio to see what rebuilding this game was like. You can find the full post on the Oculus Blog website, or you can check it out below. For more VR news and gaming community updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
Full Oculus Interview with Armature Studio
What was the inspiration behind Fail Factory!?
Greg John: We were inspired by the classic comedy episode of I Love Lucy, “Job Switching,” from 1952 where Lucy and her best friend Ethel go work at a candy factory wrapping chocolates that are coming down a conveyor belt. The belt starts off slow and easy but then speeds up to a crazy rate. We built our game around the concept of operating on various assembly lines that all speed up to become a comedy of errors.
At the time (2017), we noticed a lot of VR titles were pushing towards the horror arenas, and we wanted to provide a unique environment and context that would feel fresh to both enthusiasts and players new to VR. By making a physics-based game in a robot factory with a myriad of mini-games, we delivered a brand new experience.
What motivated you to bring Fail Factory! over to Oculus Quest and the Rift Platform?
GJ: We had a wonderful experience developing Sports Scramble for Quest and the Rift Platform, and it was just a natural extension to bring Fail Factory! over to these platforms.
How long was Fail Factory! in development?
GJ: The bulk of the development took about seven months. The biggest lesson learned was that a key to a compelling experience was iteration, iteration, iteration. We spent extensive time after the game was fully functional and the content was complete to focus on polishing the game play.
What’s your favorite part of Fail Factory! and why?
GJ: My favorites are the QAP (Quality Assurance Protocol) mini-games where the player controls the massive robot. It seems to also be a favorite for many of our players, since it’s so gratifying and unique to move the arms, legs, and torso to navigate the 3D space and execute specific actions to fulfill the goals of those mini-games.
What’s next for you? Any exciting updates in the works?
GJ: We’re continuing to bring another fun and engaging game to VR players. The work has been very exciting, and with each successive game, the scope has gotten bigger.
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
GJ: We’d like to thank all the folks who play our games. We hope you enjoy Fail Factory! and Sports Scramble. They were a ton of fun to make.
