‘Papaye Bang Bang VR’ Slingshots Onto the Meta Quest Platform

If a Picasso painting and the Wild West had a neon baby, and that baby were armed with a slingshot, the end result might look something a little like Papaye Bang Bang. The brightly colored mobile game is making the leap to VR today with its launch on the Meta Quest Platform, letting players team up for 2v2 or 3v3 competitive co-op action, go head to head in 1v1 mode, or play solo against the game’s AI. And it can be yours today for $14.99 USD.

We sat down with Game Designer Rodolphe Lang and Yobiké Co-Founder and Creative Director Bruno Kremer to learn more.

Bruno Kremer: I started working as an illustrator and became Creative Director for multimedia agencies specializing in communication and gamification—and I always wanted to create video games. One day, Johan Fablet (CEO of Yobiké) and I decided to create a structure 100% dedicated to video games aside from the agency we were working in, and that was the birth of Yobiké.

Rodolphe Lang: I started my career as a landscape designer. After two years, I realized that I did not like it. So I went back to school to study game design. After five years of studies, I joined Yobiké to help them develop their first game. It’s been two and a half years that I’ve been working there as a game designer, including one year on Papaye.

RL: Easier than I thought at first ^^

When I arrived on the project, the mobile version was already created. The fact that it’s a duel game with slingshots made it easier for me to adapt it because everybody has already seen how a slingshot works. So you already know how to play Paypaye Bang Bang, without even having put the headset on.

The point that was a little more complicated was to create the maps because in VR, you want to and can look everywhere. So we had to make sure that the player can do this without creating any bugs or visual problems for the players.

BK: We were very lucky to have a concept that could be adapted from mobile to VR easily. The slingshot manipulation was perfectly adapted to VR’s controllers, so we didn’t have to reshape all the game and it gave us the time to focus on improving the game instead of starting from scratch. It was also a great experience to work with the team and our partner Virtuallyz Gaming, which specializes in VR development.

BK: It’s a long story, but I wanted something burlesque with a strong identity and a look and feel we could play with in many ways—something funny and radical in terms of design, that could make people smile, totally out of the blue with a little bit of craziness. So I started with very simple shapes, circles, cubes and triangles, letters, etc., keeping in mind pixel art, cartoon and cubism style, and high-relief logic to create a foam/plastic toy atmosphere.

RL: When I arrived on the project, the main music and the dubbing of the characters were already done. Mr. Pierre-Alain de Garrigues (PADG), a very well known actor and voice-over artist in France, did all the voices for Papaye. It was very fun to work on the game in a serious way and to hear the totally crazy voices he did—it allowed me to always keep in mind the crazy and funny side of the game.

BK: The game was supposed to have a really unique identity, and we wanted something “groovy” and fun, so we worked with the beat maker Dusty from the group Jazz Liberatorz to add a hip-hop/sparkling touch to the soundtrack of the game. The help of PADG was great too, and the sound designers were very involved and inventive in the project for the creation of all the sounds of the game. I was amazed at how they would turn random sounds into something totally different in the end.

RL: I remember during Paris Game Week 2022 having a father and his son test the game. They first played against AIs, and then they played against each other. They were really into the game and made incredible moves to beat each other. In the end, the father won, but his son promised that he would get his revenge!

BK: I remember this guy who launched the game expecting to start on the floor and finally ended up in the sky on a hot air balloon. It was so funny to see his reaction. Globally there are a lot of different reactions depending on each personality, but what I prefer is when people try to dodge a kayass they didn’t see coming, or when they’re touched for the first time by the kayass “eye,” which reduces your field of view.

RL: As a member of the team, I would say that hearing Bruno’s nickname said by Pierre-Alain’s voice is the thing that makes me laugh the most.

And as a player, I would say that succeeding in doing the maximum damage with the sniper rock is very pleasant.

BK: I like 3v3, and I’m a “jumper.” I like to teleport a lot and appear face to face with another player with the “pepper Kayass” (shotgun) in my hand.

RL: We’re thinking about a cooperative mode of Papaye Bang Bang, which would be more of a story mode with missions to do in the universe of Papaye. These missions would enrich the universe with rivalries between characters or friendships.

Part of the studio is also working on a Metroidvania set in a pre-Colombian universe, but this project is still in its infancy.

RL: Thanks to all the testers and to our future players. Don’t hesitate to give feedback on the game, to leave comments and a note on the game page so we can continue to improve the game. Thank you!

BK: I hope that people will enjoy the game as much as we enjoyed making it and have fun with Papaye. And thank you to all the people showing interest in the game.