Gameplay Journal Entry #2

Blade & Sorcery Game Engine

Blade & Sorcery is a physics-based VR fantasy sword fighting game. Realistic physics, VR, and sword fighting doesn’t get much better than this. The game runs on the Unity game engine. A game engine’s “components typically include program code that defines a game’s essential “core” functions, such as graphics rendering, audio, physics, and artificial intelligence” (Lowood 203). The developer, Warpfrog, has heavily focused on weight and physics and thinks of the game more as a simulation. They created the “box colliders” on all in game objects, weapons, and enemies to extremely detail, allowing you to interact with everything just as naturally as if in the real world. Want to use an axe to slide down a zipline? just hook it over the line and go. Want to pick up a cup with the tip of your sword? just put it through the handle and lift it up. Warpfrog has created a sword fighting game with endless possibilities, giving you, the player, complete combat freedom.

Blade & Sorcery’s game engine is very reusable and highly modifiable. The game has already received numerous mods ranging from simple weapon additions and character skins, to complete game conversions. The most popular game conversion mod is called “The Outer Rim”. It is a Star Wars total conversion that lets you use lightsabers, blasters, or Force powers to fight off waves of Storm Troopers, Jedi, or Sith, in many iconic Star Wars locations. As of right now, it is possibly the closest you are going to get to a true VR “Star Wars” lightsaber combat game. Playing “The Outer Rim” mod really makes you feel like a badass Jedi or Sith.

Here is a video of the unmodified game:

Here is a video of “The Outer Rim” mod for the game:

Sources:

“Chapter 25: Game Engine.” Debugging Game History: a Critical Lexicon, by Henry Lowood and Raiford Guins, The MIT Press, 2016.