Imagine you were going about on your regular day and all of a sudden you get trust into a wild adventure. Aliens are attacking. Strange planets. Time traveling. But, you have the help of a famous Time Lord to help guide your way.
That's the goal that game developer Maze Theory had in mind when developing the new Doctor Who VR experience. Doctor Who: The Edge of Time is a fully interactive and feature length game throws you (the player) right in the middle of a Doctor Who adventure.
During San Diego Comic-Con 2019, Screen Rant had the chance to speak to Maze Theory CEO, Ian Hambleton, about the development of the game and how the current Doctor herself (Jodie Whitaker) took to recording lines for the game.
Screen Rant: How did you get approached to do a Doctor Who VR game?
Ian Hambleton: They saw one of our other pieces of work called The Vanishing Act, and they were like this will be amazing for Doctor Who. The Time Travel element is sort of a match made in heaven.
Screen Rant: I'm a big Doctor Who fan, and one of the things I love about the show is how a normal person gets involved into the big stories. Is that the approach that you guys try to implement in this game?
Ian Hambleton: Yeah, as a studio everything we do is like narrative, immersive theater based, cinematic, that's our sweet spot. That's the stuff we wanna do. So with Doctor Who, you're in the episode with the Doctor, you're the Doctors friend. She's held at the edge of time and you're basically helping her. And that's really what we're trying to do with all our work. But particularly for this one, it fits beautifully.
Screen Rant: How did Jodie get involved to get her voice in the game?
Ian Hambleton: She's filming the new series at the moment, but we've been lucky enough to get her in the studio a couple of times. She voices the whole thing, and she's even featured as a hologram and be in different places. She takes over loads of different technology to talk to you.
Screen Rant: Did she adjust quickly to what you guys are trying to do?
Ian Hambleton: Oh my god, we had half a day booked in the studio with her. We had a ton of lines for her to get through, and we were thinking that there was no way she was gonna do it. She did it about half the time. She is so in character, all the time, She just nailed it. She was a real pleasure to work with.
Screen Rant: What element of Doctor Who were you most excited to include as a VR element for the game?
Ian Hambleton: Oh! So there's two things in the game that are particularly, I think, are exciting. One is the Weeping Angels game. Which is out there and people do slightly know. But basically, VR is perfect for Weeping Angeles. So, if you look at them, whey won't come at you. If you look away, they get you and they throw you back in time. And there's a gameplay mechanic in there where you have to fix this thing, and I won't explain exactly what, but it's out of view. So you have to decide, basically you have to play chicken, as to whether you look at the Weeping Angel or giant thing you have to fix in time. So, that's great. And there's another one which we haven't quite revealed to the fans concerns the Daleks, which I think the fans are gonna love.
Just before the interview, we had the chance to play a quick demo of the game, and for Doctor Who fans, this will be a treat.
In the demo, you are stuck in a junkyard, and the Doctor is communicating to you via an old radio. You have to follow her instructions and for a mysterious force attacks you. So in a few minutes, you get to help put together a crazy device using the parts in the junkyard, use the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver and even enter the Tardis. Basically, everything a Doctor Who fan ever wanted to do, you get to do in game, with Jodie's Doctor being a very friendly guide and teacher.
And if you ever was curious about what it would be like to fly through the Doctor Who opening credits, you will actually get the chance in this game.
Doctor Who: The Edge of Time will be out in September 2019. The game will be available on PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Vive Cosmos.