Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Symphony of the Machine’

Review Fix chats with Matthew Dyet, Producer and Vee Pendergrast, Managing Director of “Symphony of the Machine,” who give us an inside look at what makes the game a special one, detailing its origins, development process and goals.

About the Game:

Review Fix: How was this game born?

Matthew Dyet: Symphony of the Machine came out of the 2016 Global Game Jam, where the theme was “Ritual.” The idea behind Symphony grew out of the idea of a ritual to summon weather. But back then, it was much less interactive than it is today!

Vee Pendergrast: The game was given over to our account managers at a major vendor to try out and has since been re-developed into the spatial puzzles that it now is. It is a real joy to see how different players tackle the positioning and puzzles in-game.

Review Fix: What was development like?

Dyet: It was chaotic at times, no doubt about it. For us as a studio, it’s the first time we’ve been working closely with Sony. And creating a game for VR is like entering into an era similar to what 3D platformers were like before Super Mario 64. There are no rules. Nobody knows what works yet. We were flying blind in a lot of ways! We had to do a lot of user testing to seek opinions and development was very much driven by what our testers needed and enjoyed the most.

Pendergrast: We developed the game very rapidly and did our best to incorporate as much player feedback as we could. The team has really stepped up and tackled what has been a startlingly difficult development cycle in as little time as humanly possible, while maintaining a game that is still highly polished and beautiful to play

Review Fix: What makes the story of this game special?

Dyet: One of the major things we wanted to do was to ensure the game didn’t have any written word, outside of game menus. The story gets conveyed through gameplay, interactions with the tower and robot, and cave paintings in the game world. It’s subtle and leaves a lot to player interpretation.

Pendergrast: Because I can play it! I have a lot of problems with motion sickness in VR and it was nice to be involved in the process with a VR game that I can actually enjoy and play. My other favorite part of Symphony of the Machine is the soundtrack. If it is going to be a “Symphony of the Machine”, the soundtrack had better be stunning and I think what our musicians have come back with is luscious, calming and perfectly suited to the meditative-style of the game.

Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Dyet: Very early in development, we had gone to Japan to show the game at BitSummit. At that stage, we had only just implemented our weather system, and it was largely untested. We ended up in a Starbucks working off of a friend’s laptop to create weather effects the day before the expo.

Pendergrast: I think exhibiting a VR game at expos like PAX AUS is a massive challenge. Certainly, tracking issues and a wild setup for PAX AUS 2016 provided some high stress levels ahead of successfully exhibiting.

Review Fix: Who will enjoy this game the most?

Dyet: Hopefully everyone! But the game is definitely tailored towards those people that really like spatial puzzle games in the same vein as the Talos Principle or Portal.

Pendergrast: I think we have tried to make it as appealing as possible to a large base of our players. Symphony of the Machine is a great jumping-on point for VR, but the latter puzzles are very challenging and engaging, so many players will find something in there for themselves.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the game?

Dyet: Every Stirfire game is made to subvert the norms we see in game development at the time. We saw a trend with VR titles towards high intensity experiences, violence, and fun little physics sandboxes. Symphony of the Machine was made in response to that – and hopefully people see the intent. We want people to walk away feeling immersed in VR, like they could get lost and relax in our world. Like it’s a place they’d enjoy visiting.

Pendergrast: So many VR games still feel like tech demos and Symphony of the Machine is just not that thing. It is a deep, rich experience and it feels like a much larger world is going on around it.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Dyet: Work on any game never ends just because you’ve submitted a build to distributors! From here, we’re working on patch content to ensure the game is absolutely stable, and any areas where we can improve the teams vision get into the game.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Dyet: We’re excited about where the VR space is headed as a studio. There’s so much more to be explored and discovered about making truly world class VR titles, and we hope we can justify returning to the VR space again in the future. We have a lot of ideas, so hopefully it just keeps getting better.

Pendergrast: Producing Symphony of the Machine has been a wonderful, challenging experience. We aren’t finished in this world or in VR in general, so it would be great to see how the players like it.