Posted in: Games, Interview, Video Games, VR | Tagged: Cream Digital, interview, Survivorman VR, vr

Interview: Chatting With Les Stroud About Survivorman VR

Cream Digital is currently working on releasing Survivorman VR, which is a virtual take on the experience Les Stroud gives from the TV show. Throwing you into the middle of a survival experience in which you only have a few tools of the trade at your disposal as you attempt to make your way out of a dangerous snow-filled environment where people essentially die when they make the smallest mistakes. As part of the build-up fore the game, we got an interview with Stroud talking about the game and the experience you'll have when you dive into it.

BC: How did the idea for the game come to be, and was it originally your idea, or were you approached first? If the latter, what were your initial thoughts?

LS: My old partner in filmmaking crime, Dave Brady, contacted me to tell me about the VR initiatives he and his company were getting involved in and that they felt that Survivorman would be a perfect fit. I've been approached several times up until that point, but this was a chance to work with Dave and his wonderful team he had built up at Cream Productions, including Creative Director Andrew MacDonald. Of course, the idea itself of doing a Survivorman VR experience has been on deck for many years – but partnering up with Cream was the right move.

What does VR offer, especially for SurvivormanVR: The Descent in particular, that other platforms don't?

It's so much more than gaming – it's a simulation, and that is a wide-open field of possibilities. I like to compare it to helicopter simulators which have been in use for years. You get to explore the realities and even the feel of the subject matter without feeling the pain!

Why the choice of a winter mountain-top setting as opposed to something like a desert or jungle scenario?

There are literally a thousand scenarios in which we could set SurvivormanVR, and indeed I truly hope we get to them all. However, for the first one – I didn't want any undue stress at exploring and figuring out how to best make this work so I left it up to Andrew to decide which scenario he felt he could tackle first, and he chose the cold mountain top. Not sure why – you'd have to ask him that. But I was game no matter what it was going to be.

How involved are you with the process?

Technically not at all. Creatively, however, every step. I'm really kind of the overseer. They know VR – I know survival. I keep them honest, hold their feet to the fire, sort of thing and I don't let them slip in anything at all that would just be for the sake of VR. It must fit within the actual world of survival as well. So I had lots to say to keep Andrew and his amazing tech team on track. There were a lot of "No Andrew that would just never happen in survival" moments. And yet he still snuck one in where we had to use our imagination a bit when it comes to slipping down into a glacier :-). There was one element that involved snaring an Arctic hare and well, he had it all wrong, which just shows you that you can't learn survival just by watching a TV show. Survivorman VR is totally next level compared to survival on TV.

Which parts of the development process have you enjoyed the most?

Commenting and sending emails and chatting with Andrew over zoom is all fine, but I'm a guy of action. So shooting down to Toronto and dressing up in a motion capture suit is absolutely the most fun for me.
What do you aim to accomplish with this game, what do you hope players will take from their experience? It seems strange to answer this way but: reality. Survivorman VR is a simulator. So of course players aren't really cold or hungry and they don't really die if they do the wrong thing – but the lessons learned should still be ingrained in their psyche so that if they ever were in a similar situation they can draw from SurvivormanVR and survive

​​What's your draw to wilderness survival? I mean, there's nothing not miserable about survival (your words, not mine). Why get yourself all exhausted, hungry, dirty, and risk your life?

I'm teaching – I'm an outdoor instructor, it's what I do. Along the way of teaching survival for many years, I came up with the idea of actually surviving to teach the lessons with even more reality and impact involved. The filmmaking side of it was simply a facilitator to passing on survival instruction. It is also what sets Survivorman apart from all the copycat shows that followed.

What's the most common survival mistake people make?

They don't take the time to calm down, assess the situation, and make an informed decision. They react only, which is foolhardy at best.

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