Welcome, watch the developers play The House of Da Vinci VR live!

As Leonardo's apprentice, you will solve puzzles, uncover inventions, and search for hidden objects in 16th-century Florence. Use a unique device to glimpse the past and unravel mysteries. Encounter war machines, intricate lockboxes, and immersive room escapes inspired by Da Vinci's genius.

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in the last patch we added smooth rotation in the advanced settings.

Hello everyone!
My name is Jan, and for many years I have been working as a game designer at Blue Brain Games, where my team and I strive to push the boundaries of our players’ gaming experience. I had a long-term desire to create a game in virtual reality, but the real breakthrough came when I got my hands on the original Oculus Quest 1.

This revolutionary piece of technology immediately captivated me with its ability to offer a wireless gaming experience as a truly standalone device. It was the beginning of an adventure that inspired me to delve into the world of VR and start experimenting with what this technology could achieve. For over a year, I spent my free time creating small technical demos, gaining valuable experience in this rapidly evolving field.
When the day finally came and our team decided to create a VR game, it was clear that my previous experience and knowledge would be invaluable. Thanks to this preparation, I became the lead designer for The House of Da Vinci VR.

Steps into the Unknown
But the desire to create something in virtual reality was not the only motivation for us. We initially thought that since there was already a complete version of the game for traditional "flat" devices, the transition to VR would be quick and easy. However, as you might suspect, the reality was entirely different. The VR version ultimately became a full-fledged game that we had to create almost from scratch.
But, let's go back to the beginning. We came up with several requirements based on our own VR gaming experiences. For example, interactive objects shouldn’t be too far apart nor too deep within the scene to allow the game to be played seated. We had to simplify some of the more complex puzzles because if a player couldn't solve the task quickly enough, they could become frustrated, and wearing the headset only magnified this feeling. Another key point was having functional physics for the virtual hands. While in other games, hands often passed through objects, we wanted to address it better. These were, of course, just a few examples.

Then I began designing "on paper." Unlike my previous work on the HDV trilogy, where design was developed alongside prototypes, this project required thorough research. Since this was an adaptation of an existing game, it was necessary to determine what we would use, change, or omit and to what extent.
I proceeded systematically. First, I played a specific chapter of HDV1 on PC and analyzed what could be fun, annoying, or unpleasant in VR. Then I imported all the original models and textures into 3D software and displayed them on the then-new Quest 2. This allowed me to test the distances and accessibility of interactive objects at a given location or puzzle. Based on these experiences, I created documents with screenshots of the original models and described changes. These documents became the foundation for further design and prototype development, not only for me but also for the other designers on the team.

The Birth of a Brand New Game
After this phase, it seemed possible to reuse a large portion of the original game for HDVVR. However, as soon as we started creating the first prototype, it became clear that we needed to look at this as a new stand-alone game. I began working on Leonardo's workshop, specifically the catapult on the table at the beginning. I checked the previously done documentation. At that point, I realized that it was just a basic outline for the changes that needed to be made.

Every tiny adjustment of a lever or a wheel caused a butterfly effect. One change led to another, often requiring the redesign of the whole mechanism. The original object quickly became a completely new object with new interactions. This process repeated itself throughout the entire game. With each new puzzle or mechanism, the brand-new game took shape, and I eagerly anticipated the moment when our programmers would "bring our prototypes to life" so I could finally pull some levers.
We also had to address other issues, such as inventory, special powers, or hints. On that, we usually worked with the whole team, but after several months, the development of individual chapters reached a point where the designers could work independently and apply similar adjustments to their respective chapters. When coders showed us the first playable parts of the game and everything worked, I knew we were on the right track. We could do it!

We've Got It
Although we faced numerous challenges, such as setting the right size and distances of objects, tweaking control speed, and ensuring all interactions were comfortable and understandable, the design and prototype development proceeded with efficiency. While some of these obstacles required significant effort, overcoming them always taught us something new.

As an experienced designer at Blue Brain Games, I can say that working on this project was an enjoyable and refreshing experience, even though it required hard work. Seeing our already legendary The House of Da Vinci not only in a new guise but from an entirely different gaming perspective is immensely satisfying. We firmly believe that this new version of the game will appeal to you as well.

Jan
Lead Designer
Blue Brain Games

Hello, my name is Richard. I am a software architect and technical artist at Blue Brain Games. My role involves extensive research, assessing our technical capacity, and building the foundation of our games. Since I was the initial programmer at Blue Brain Games, this responsibility has always been mine.
Let’s look at the story of our first VR title from my perspective:

A whole decade ago, the startup company Oculus made waves on the internet by promising accessible virtual reality. I quickly became an avid fan, following every update and closely monitoring developments in this space. In 2015, I ordered the Oculus Rift Development Kit (DK2), thinking the future was here. Oh boy, was I wrong. There was no support for game engines, and programming was very low-level. I was way over my head, and during this time, I had just become a new member of Blue Brain Games. Because of this, my only active experience with VR was experimenting with various tech demos I found online.

Years later, while working on The House of Da Vinci 2 during the day, I enjoyed using my first official consumer version of the Oculus Rift headset in my free time. Noticing significant advancements in developer software and game engine integration, I wondered if I could take another shot at VR development. With permission, I brought my headset to the office and created a simple demo. I took the final graphics from a scene, placed the player in the middle, added VR integrations, and voilà - as Peter mentioned in the previous dev log - it was a great success. Everyone in the company was excited to experience the grimy canal beneath the Castello Estense.

We knew we had something special, but the time wasn’t right yet. There were too many unanswered questions, and my responsibility was to find answers.
After finishing House of Da Vinci 2, I was feeling mild symptoms of burnout. Completing a project can sometimes feel like a never-ending story. To rejuvenate, I decided to deepen my knowledge of VR development with a side project in my spare time. This project was a space-themed game involving resource management and epic fleet battles.
Have a look at it:

I worked on this project for a year, but I underestimated its scope and realized I couldn’t complete it alone. So, I shelved it, but the experience I gained was invaluable.
Our next milestone came after completing House of Da Vinci 3 when our company had more resources. The Oculus Quest 2, a standalone wireless device, was emerging as the primary VR direction with a substantial potential customer base. Game engine integrations had also become solid. With my accumulated experience, I was ready to take on the task, and thus, the pre-production phase of House of Da Vinci VR began, focusing on Oculus Quest 2 devices.
Sometimes, even serious research can look quite silly:

The biggest question was how can I squeeze the most performance out of this device. A significant technical milestone for our game was the use of Asynchronous Spacewarp[developer.oculus.com] (ASW). This technique almost halves the CPU/GPU time required to produce nearly the same output. Of course, there are drawbacks to this technique that need to be considered during development.

What was more concerning was that I didn’t know of any games that used it. However, I decided to take the risk, and it paid off. Just look at it; such beautiful visuals on Oculus Quest 2 are very rare.

We are working with real-time lights that produce beautiful specular highlights, but sorry, no real-time shadows yet. Now that we are in the finishing stages of our production, I know of only one major game that uses this technique (If you know what to look for, you can't miss it).
Well, for now, that’s all from me. I look forward to bringing you more interesting technical details from behind the scenes in the future.

Richard
Software Architect, Technical Artist
Blue Brain Games

Dear friends and fans of our games,
My name is Peter, and I work as the Creative Director and the Head of Development for The House of Da Vinci VR at Blue Brain Games. The idea of sharing a few lines of text with our fans came from the interest in devlogs that my colleagues Viktor, Honza, and Sari have been writing for our upcoming game, The House of Tesla. Six entries have been published so far, and if you’ve missed them, I highly recommend reading them. They provide many interesting insights into the development of this anticipated game.
So, welcome to the first devlog dedicated to the development of The House of Da Vinci VR!

How the Idea for VR Actually Came About

To begin, it’s good to look back at how the idea of creating our game for VR devices came about. For that, we need to dive into the past, specifically the year 2018. During that time, following the success of The House of Da Vinci, we were already intensely working on the second installment. One day, Richard, a programmer and our then-biggest VR expert came to me wanting to show me something. He handed me his first-generation Oculus Rift, one of the few VR headsets on the market, and I put it on.

I was immediately drawn into a magical, fantastic, and breathtaking world that I knew well. I found myself right in the middle of a scene we were completing for The House of Da Vinci 2. I was standing in a high vaulted hallway of a canal under the Castello Estense fortress, from which Giacomo was escaping to his freedom. It was absolutely stunning. I felt like I could touch everything; it all looked so real. I was there – in person!

The experience was so intense that I couldn’t get it out of my head. I was determined; we had to develop The House of Da Vinci for VR as soon as possible! I was so enthusiastic about the idea, I almost heard heavenly choirs. However, reality soon brought me back to earth.
At the time, the development of HDV2 was in full swing, but our team was not large. There were only seven of us, and that certainly did not allow for us to consider developing two games simultaneously. The only option would have been to choose between a classic PC game or VR, which was not possible given the advanced stage of HDV2 development. Additionally, we didn’t want to disappoint our fans who were eagerly awaiting the sequel. Another problem was the complexity of developing a VR game. We soon realized that it was a very specific process, and we still didn’t know all that we would have to deal with.
Ultimately, after weighing all the pros and cons, we agreed to temporarily shelve the idea of VR, but we definitely didn’t abandon it. We didn’t know then that it would be six long years before we returned to it.
During this period, we were fully occupied with completing HDV2 for mobiles, PC, and consoles. We also navigated the challenging period of COVID-19, then created HDV3 in all versions, and managed to expand our team to 30 people. With such a number of developers, future planning becomes much easier! Our ambition to work on two games simultaneously thus took on realistic contours. And so, at the Blue Brain Games, two development teams were formed.

The first team eagerly began working on a new game – The House of Tesla. The enthusiasm and passion of my colleagues for this theme brought fresh energy to the game, and it’s already evident that “Tesla” can stand proudly alongside our trilogy about Master Leonardo. Our second team, consisting of experienced developers who went through the development of the entire The House of Da Vinci series, finally began working on an unspecified VR game. And when I say “unspecified,” I really mean that at this point, it wasn’t certain at all that it would be The House of Da Vinci VR. Since our last flirtation with VR, a lot of water has passed under the bridge, and many interesting games have been released. Games that caught our attention inspired us but also became a warning about how not to do things. Equipped with the energy and the desire to create the best VR game we could, we first needed to clarify what we actually wanted to offer our players.

We knew we wanted to deliver a perfect VR experience, fully utilizing the potential of this platform. We aimed for an excellent story, high-resolution graphics, and interesting and well-designed locations. We wanted players to use both hands when interacting with the environment while minimizing glitches when applying physics. But what type of game would meet these criteria? We discussed strategy games, considered sci-fi themes, and pondered many other ideas, but in the end, the idea of bringing the entire The House of Da Vinci trilogy into the VR world appealed to us the most.

Someone might think that we took the easy route of converting the original game. After all, we had the game ready; it just needed a bit of polishing, some improvements here and there, and the VR version would be done. However, we didn’t want to go down this path. We started the conversion from the ground up, - meaning every single puzzle, mini-game, text, as well as all graphics in the whole game, were done from scratch. This concluded into something that we can proudly say will be a completely new and fresh gaming experience even for players who have played the original game multiple times.

And friends, that’s all for the introductory devlog. You can expect more interesting behind-the-scenes information in the upcoming devlogs. For example, our lead designer Honza will guide you through the intricacies of designing a VR game, and our art director Pavel will describe how creating graphics for VR differs from creating graphics for a classic PC game. In the next devlog, you can look forward to insights from our programmer Richard, who, along with his old Oculus Rift, was the original initiator of the VR game idea.

Peter Kubek
Creative Director
Blue Brain Games