The Story Behind Plush Rush - with Roland Arato, CEO of VRilliant

On February 15th, Plush Rush by VRilliant studio was added to the catalog. On this occasion, Charlotte, communications manager at Octopod, interviewed Roland Arato, co-founder of the development studio, who shared insights into the game's origins and its universal appeal.

Charlotte: I heard that before being a video game development studio, VRilliant used to be a VR center. What was the story behind that? Why did you start to create video games?

Roland: The whole thing actually started off because, with my co-founder Simon, we were building escape rooms originally. […] And as we finished university, we got full-time jobs where we didn't have as much time to kind of maintain and operate the escape room as we would have liked. So we thought to ourselves “how cool it would be if all we need to do is change content on the headsets and that's how we'd able to be able to update the games that we offer”. And that's how the idea for VR arcade came about. And then we launched the VR arcade, but we quickly noticed that the type of content that we were looking for when we started in 2020 (so free-roaming, multiplayer and ideally not buggy and high quality), it didn't hugely exist. […] So we spent the next two years just learning how to develop VR games.”

Charlotte: And so how did Plush Rush came into all that? What was the idea when you started developing the game?

Roland: So with Plush Rush we already knew a bit more about the VR arcade market then we did before. […] We notice that eight player games are really rare in the VR arcade market, and it is something that we need because we have larger team events that people want to come to. And at the same time […] if a company wants to come and play for a corporate event, they're not going to want to play a sort of violent zombie shooter. They're gonna be looking for something more friendly. So that was one part of the idea. Then the other part of the idea was that we got a lot of requests for birthdays, so we did a quick questionnaire, with some of the VR arcades that we work with, asking what's the main type of team event or larger event that they get, and where they need a larger player game. A lot of them answered, and it's actually children's birthdays. So it was making something that's child friendly and non-violent, but also supports eight players and that's how we ended up with Plush Rush as this kind of Tower Defense like game that sets in this sort of Toy Story world where you're a small plush animal defending the sweets.

Charlotte: Could describe me this game as if I was a player? What would you tell me about the game?

Roland: Sure. I'd start off just by painting the players a bit of a picture of what to expect. So you're a small toy in a gigantic bedroom and your goal is to defend the sweets because something has possessed the other toys that makes them want to steal them from you. Together with your friends you are the last guardians that can still protect this child sweets and that's your mission in the game.

Charlotte: And now if I'm a VR center owner, what would you tell me to make me want to download the game and I have it in my center? What are the benefits for me?

Roland: So for VR center owners, the benefit of Plush Rush is that a game like that doesn't really exist. There are maybe some comparable games but specifically for your younger audiences that are looking for something that's very intuitive and very easy to get into, that's where Plush Rush is going to fill your niche. And on top of that, is the season mode. If you have for example a children's birthday at your location , Plush Rush is just the perfect game simply because there's a special birthday mode where you even have ingame congratulating the birthday child, and I think that's what makes it unique to add to the games that you already have and extend the games portfolio with it.

Charlotte : What are the benefits for you to work with Octopod? Why did you want to add this game to our catalog?

Roland: It's clear that octopod works with a lot of arcades where they have the fully integrated system which comes with, on one hand, great support for us in the backend as developers and it was really great working with all of you, and on the other hand for the frontend.[…] We just think that the modular arena that Octopod has is a really cool product for anyone who's looking to open up a VR arcade whether that's as a side to something that they already do or just an individual arcade that they want to do. And that's why we thought it would be a really cool fit. Plus, I mean for us working with the team that built Propagation as well, it was really cool.

Charlotte : This game is for adults and also for children. So how would you sell it for these two audiences? What would make an adult want to play and what will make a children want to play?

Roland: So I think the motivation is going to be different. I could imagine that, especially for younger audiences, saying “if you've seen Toy Story this is entering into the world of Toy Story and being a part of it”, I think that's quite convincing for them. […] On the adult side, it’s a bit different because it always depends. We see this dynamic in our arena as well, which is, for examples a couple comes and the guy goes “I want to play a zombie shooter. Definitely” and then his fiancee would be saying “there is no way I am playing a zombie shooter” and that's where usually Plush Rush comes into the mix. […]

Plush Rush, the new family shooting game, is already available in your catalog! Download it now and find out all the information regarding the game here