How Downward Spiral: Horus Station’s creator perfected zero-G movement in its sci-fi thriller, out today on PS4

All of us at 3rd Eye Studios are very proud to launch Downward Spiral: Horus Station, our mysterious and atmospheric zero gravity thriller set in a lost and forgotten space station. It’s out now on PS4, PS4 Pro and also for PSVR. It’s not to be missed.

Innovative player locomotion for zero-G

As the lead programmer, something I’m incredibly proud to bring to PlayStation 4 is our player locomotion controls for zero-g. We offer various tools to quickly and easily propel you around, but as we set out to create a unique experience, we needed something different for the core movement.

Having the player act like a spaceship or let alone walk around with magnetized boots just doesn’t cut it. Instead, we drew inspiration from how actual zero gravity movement works: you need to grab something solid, plan where you are heading and then push away.

The system I created makes use of the familiar left stick to move, but instead of walking your feet, it controls your hands to immersively grab surfaces.

Originally the player needed to use the triggers to separately control left and right hand grabbing, but that felt a bit too tedious and also made simultaneous usage of items tricky. Instead, a push of the left stick causes the avatar to grab the nearest surface automatically, by whichever hand is more convenient. Releasing the stick then launches the player to the direction of the gaze.

We had a lot of fun iterating the design with the team and while it requires a bit of getting used to, other space games feel very different afterwards.

Enhanced immersion with PlayStation Move controllers

In PS VR, you can play the game with the Dualshock controller 4 similar to the flat version. However, if you have two PlayStation Move controllers, you can unlock your avatar’s VR hands pushing the experience to a whole other level.

Most of the automatic helpers described above are disabled and instead you physically move your hands and use the Move controllers to grab surfaces, aim weapons and hack away in melee. Remember to use the iron sights if aiming feels hard – there is no auto-aim here!

Your friends at 3rd Eye Studios can’t wait for you all to play soon! To stay up to date be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and get ready to Discover Horus Station tomorrow on PS4, PS4 PRO and PS VR. While waiting, you can also take a look at the sound design and music with our previous blog post.

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