Behind the Scenes of VR Stealth Shooter ‘Phantom: Covert Ops’

During the Facebook: Game Developers Showcase, nDreams announced that Phantom: Covert Ops will launch June 25 on both Oculus Quest and the Rift Platform. A visually stunning title with cross-save support, online leaderboards, and more, Phantom reimagines the stealth genre for the VR generation. We sat down with nDreams Game Director Lewis Brundish to learn more.

Lewis Brundish: It takes a lot of iteration—VR is still a relatively new medium, so I would say the most important thing is to keep an open mind and be willing to experiment with different solutions to problems. Several times throughout the development of Phantom, we were faced with situations that there was no rulebook for, so we would encourage everyone to come up with potential ideas and then try as many as we could. Often the right answer for VR is something that you wouldn’t normally expect from traditional game development, so don’t be afraid to venture into new territory.

LB: One of the core goals of the project (before we even fully knew what the game was going to be) was to find new ways of moving around in VR. We wanted to come up with a way of moving in VR that was totally 1:1 (so no analog sticks or teleporting), that would allow players to explore an environment freely, and that people could play comfortably for long periods of time. There were several suggestions for how we could approach this, one of those being a boat—we went through many iterations of the boat, including ones with motors, ones with steering wheels, ones with two people in them... but we found that the kayak and paddle combination gave the perfect level of immersive 1:1 control combined with comfort for long play sessions.

LB: It was, but possibly not in the ways that you would think. When people first hear the idea of mixing stealth gameplay with kayaking they often aren’t sure how it’s going to work, but when you play the game it’s actually a really good fit. Gliding silently across the water, pushing through reeds, peering up at the guards from underneath jetties, sneaking through drainage channels—it actually all fits really well, and we’ve created a narrative and a location that all focuses very much on water-based threats so that the whole experience feels natural. The most challenging element is that many enemies don’t share the same navigation area as the player; there are several varieties of enemy boats patrolling the water, but most of the enemies you encounter are on land, so you don’t directly cross paths with them. It’s quite rare to have enemies in a stealth game that cannot cross paths directly with the player, so we’ve had to come up with a lot of tricks to keep these guards threatening and interactive. We’ve also been able to use the kayak itself as an interesting tool for stealth gameplay—if you make too much noise while paddling, move too fast, or flail your arms around, you can be spotted. It’s a really cool way of giving the player an immersive stealth experience that wouldn’t be possible outside of VR.

LB: We have quite a few members of our team who have worked on very weapon-focused games in the past, so we had quite a lot of expertise to draw from. VR presents quite a lot of unique challenges with weapons—we wanted to create guns that look and sound the part, but at the same time we needed to make sure that newer players could pick them up and feel comfortable. We didn’t want to go down the full simulation route as we think that would be too alienating for a lot of players, so we’ve put a lot of work into making the weapons look and sound realistic while being quick and intuitive to pick up and use. One weapon that took a lot of work was the sniper rifle—we’ve set up the scope so that you really do have to close one eye to use it, and that gives you the option of switching which eye you’re closing to check out the wider area and then focus in on your target. I’ve also had a few playtesters ask me if there’s a button to hold your breath... there is no button, you just have to actually hold your breath!

LB: A big inspiration for us is the SBS—they’re a British Royal Navy special forces unit that specializes in water-based missions, kayaking, and espionage. We researched a lot into the history of their missions, dating right back to World War II—you can watch a video of our Art Director talking all about them on the nDreams YouTube channel! Another group that served as an inspiration are the US Navy Seals. We actually had a former Navy Seal play our game at E3 last year—he said it was his game of the show and felt true to missions that he had been on. That was my favorite bit of feedback we’ve ever received!

LB: We have brought a kayak into the office before, but we don’t have one in permanent residence. The neat thing about VR is that we don’t really need one—if you sit down (particularly on the floor if you want to get really immersive) and then put the headset on, it feels like you are really in a kayak! We do have a lot of toy guns—when we’re acting out scenarios or recording motion capture, it’s always useful to have a prop to wave around.

LB: Phantom is in many ways a VR love letter to our favorite stealth games—if there’s a stealth action game you enjoy, chances are that Phantom is in some way influenced by it. Tonally, we were trying to capture the “one person trapped in one location across one night” vibe, so games like the original Metal Gear Solid and movies like Die Hard were a big influence. Something else we took inspiration from for the structure of missions and unlocks was GoldenEye 007 on the N64—worth replaying for any occasion really!

LB: Throughout development of Phantom we always kept track of all the additional ideas for content and polish that we ideally wanted to get into the game. When we got nearer to our original release window (end of 2019), the main game was nearly finished, but we could see that we wouldn’t have time for all of the extra love and polish that we wanted to put into it. The game was in a decent place at that point, but we didn’t want to release a decent game—we wanted to release a great game. We drew up a plan of everything that we wanted to add to or improve upon (including new game modes, unlocks, leaderboards, weapons, characters), and it was agreed that we would take the extra time to deliver the game that we really wanted it to be. It wasn’t a decision that we took lightly, but we’re sure that the extra time is going to be worth it and can’t wait for everyone to play it this year.

LB: We recently added difficulty settings to the game, so hopefully it’s as hard or easy as you want it to be! As well as health and damage values, difficulty levels will change how guards perceive you. On easier difficulties you will be able to paddle through reeds without any problems, but on harder settings you have to be very careful about how much noise you’re making and how quickly you’re moving.

LB: There is no multiplayer mode, but we are supporting leaderboards. Every time you complete a mission, your performance is graded and you’re given a score based on a number of factors including stealth, speed, and accuracy. You can filter results globally or via your friends list to see who is the best Phantom—I’m looking forward to seeing what strategies people come up with to generate the highest scores.

LB: It sounds like a cheesy answer, but honestly it’s the kayak. I’m very proud to say that I think the act of just moving around in our game is fun and engaging in and of itself, before you even get to the rest of the gameplay! We’ve worked really hard to make sure that it’s easy for new players to pick up, but it has a lot of depth and nuance for people to figure out and master over time. The kayak started out as just a solution to a problem, but through a lot of hard work and iteration it’s become one of the standout features of the gameplay for me.