How Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom Complete Edition brings an immersive 1920s world to PS VR2

blog.playstation.com:

At Maze Theory, we get excited about storytelling in virtual reality. We think about how VR feels –using your hands to interact with the world, looking characters in the eye, gazing up at vast buildings–and use those feelings to immerse players in a story.

For Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom Complete Edition–a new, standalone story set in the world of the hit tv show–we wanted players to feel like they were stepping into the criminal underworld of Birmingham and London in 1928. We leaned into the tactility of VR to help them build a close relationship with the world, and get into character. As players explore they fix period-specific radios, play darts, pour drinks in the iconic Garrison pub, and use their trusty lighter to illuminate dark spaces… and start fires.

Since Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom is a character-led drama, we wanted players to experience the characters’ presence and performance in an intimate way that’s only possible in VR. One notable example is the player’s first encounter with Tommy Shelby, brilliantly portrayed by Cillian Murphy, which combines a captured performance with dynamic NPC reactions driven by player interactions.

Most importantly, we wanted to let players loose in environments that were dramatic from a distance–those 1920s factories look spot on in VR–but were detailed close-up. We hid narrative details throughout the world, and players are rewarded for exploring with a deeper understanding of the rich, complex world in which the story takes place.

While the game had to be satisfying for those well-versed in the tv show’s sweeping narrative, we wanted to tell a completely standalone story. To that end, we created several entirely new characters, including the protagonist, Sammy