Who killed Harris Bullard?
A reclusive man with a mysterious past is dead, and it's up to you to crack the case. Investigate the crime scene, uncover secret documents and piece together the puzzle to name the killer. But keep your wits about you: nothing is as it seems and you are not alone. Bullard took his secrets to the grave. Somebody wants them to stay there.
Dead Secret is an original mystery thriller designed exclusively for Gear VR.
What makes my game unique?
Virtual reality gives us an unprecedented ability to transport our audience to an utterly convincing world. However, much of the early work in VR has been so focused on creating these worlds that it has become a sort of virtual tourism: you can visit interesting places but there isn’t much to actually do once you get there. On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve seen a number of traditional games who have simply replaced their in-game camera with a virtual camera rig. These games are a fine novelty but are rarely able to leverage the real power of virtual reality (and some eschew core principles of VR comfort altogether).
With Dead Secret, we tried to create a cohesive experience that provides a powerful sense of “presence” without sacrificing the other elements that go into a good game: narrative, puzzles, challenges, and exploration. Dead Secret is not a small experiment nor a traditional game, it is a native resident of a new (and as-of-yet mostly uncharted) territory of virtual reality game design. Though we put significant effort into making the rural farmhouse where Dead Secret takes place convincing, we also spent a long time ensuring that movement was comfortable, that the game mechanics and puzzles make sense in VR, and that the story was intricate and detailed.
Dead Secret is unique in that it builds upon the presence created by VR to create a complex and compelling narrative-driven game.
Why could my game win an award?
In this early period of VR development, many projects are experiments or sketches designed to explore a particular corner of this new game design territory. Dead Secret is a complete game, of the scope and production quality you would expect on traditional platforms, designed specifically for virtual reality. We’ve worked hard to make Dead Secret the best VR game it can be: it sports high-end art and graphics, realistically spatialized sound, interesting characters, and vexing puzzles. But the real magic happens when all of these pieces come together and you find yourself deep in the middle of a complex murder mystery with a deranged killer hot on your trail.
Our focus on quality has been borne out by feedback from our audience. In addition being one of the best-selling games on Gear VR, Dead Secret has resonated with the press, and fans have gone so far as to create new communities just to discuss the game. Road to VR called Dead Secret "by far one of the longest, and most engaging VR experiences I’ve ever had—mobile or otherwise,” while VRGiant named it a “must play,” and Gamezebo called it an “unforgettable experience.” Time labeled Dead Secret “captivating” and “deeply creepy,” and VRFocus found it to be "one of the best launch titles available for [Gear VR]." We see this stellar response as validation of our efforts to create not just an interesting VR experience, but an engaging video game as well.
