In 2008, SubSim user Gotmilk had a dream to bring the Silent Hunter franchise to virtual reality. Posted with the title “Making your own virtual reality submarine station?“, he would describe the mechanics of the game including head tracking and motion controls within a submarine environment.
This was at a time well before the days of Oculus, a time when consumer grade VR was still a pipedream. Consequently, users on the forum shrugged off the post, and many didn’t bother to even read it.
After years of sitting on the idea, Gotmilk was encouraged to make his dream a reality, led by the development of HTC Vive.
This week, he debuted what he’s put together. Shown off on YouTube with the title “coop playtest”, a new video shows a player entering a submarine through a hatch before exploring the artificial but lifelike environment the replicates exactly what he was hoping to make nine years ago. You can see it above.
Gotmilk posted on Reddit sharing that the production is being made by a small team of three people, and will eventually be a commercial product labeled as a multi-crew submarine survival game, a concept not currently explored in the VR space.
The game will support four players. Players will be able to use a periscope, torpedo calculators, and hydrophone as they engage with other sea vessels, tasked with destroying as many as possible while staying alive. The game will employ weather, time of day, and underwater variables to vary the experience in absence of a campaign mode.
It was noted that Silent Hunter was created by a team of more than 40 people, so Gotmilk is hoping to manage expectations for the inevitable release of his product.
