Summary
- The Pirate Queen VR game offers a unique storytelling experience with tactile mechanics, taking players back to the 19th-century pirate era.
- Singer Studios chose VR to tell Cheng Shih's story due to its immersive nature and potential to attract a diverse audience, including women.
- The game features non-violent gameplay, focusing on navigation, puzzles, and exploration, aiming to inspire younger generations and promote gender equality.
The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend is a narrative-adventure VR game where players step in the shoes of 19th-century female pirate Cheng Shih. Releasing during International Women's History Month, The Pirate Queen lets players experience Cheng Shih's night of succession to become the leader of the notorious Flag Fleet, one of the largest and most successful pirate forces in history. It's a tactile-designed VR game that allows players to explore the historical world of a realistically-designed Chinese pirate vessel through mechanics like climbing, rowing, and more.
It's deliberately not a traditional pirate game with swordplay and violence. Instead, The Pirate Queen uses VR to tell its story differently from pirate games and for various reasons. In a recent interview, The Best War Games asked Singer Studios' Creative Director and CEO Eloise Singer why the studio chose VR specifically to tell Cheng Shih's story. Singer also explained more about The Pirate Queen's game mechanics and why it is a non-violent game.
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Why Singer Studios Chose VR To Tell Cheng Shih's Story
When asked why the studio chose to tell Cheng Shih's story through VR, Singer stated the reasons were effectively twofold. Firstly, it is because of the studio's filmmaking background as a creative studio and film production company. Secondly, owing to the tactile nature of VR, the medium transports players back to Cheng Shih's era in a world that prioritizes historical accuracy. As Singer explained,
The reason that I wanted to tell it in VR is because it is so tactile, and we've designed it purposely to be that tactile and to make it work really well in VR. When you put on a headset, you are literally transported to a 19th-century pirate ship, which is something that you can't do in the real world. I think that's really the magic, both of VR, but also games because it's transporting you to another time and place.
Singer also mentioned she'd noticed a significant female demographic in the VR game space, something she added could help gender equality in the video game industry as a whole, and this is something her studio seeks to support. As Singer said,
With VR, we're very much in the stage of new adopters and early adopters, and what I really noticed is that there are so many more women in VR than there are in traditional console games because it's a new space and there are new audiences. The amount of women who are adopting VR is significantly higher, which again, is just really exciting because it means that there is this completely different demographic
The Pirate Queen's Gameplay Mechanics
Although The Pirate Queen includes mechanics somewhat akin to the pirate's life, like climbing ships and rowing, it offers a different type of pirate game experience. When asked whether The Pirate Queen includes any stealth moments to outsmart opponents, Singer explained it's a narrative-adventure experience foremost, where players must navigate their surroundings while remaining unnoticed. There are also puzzles to solve, and players can learn more about Cheng Shih's backstory through cutscenes and discovering different items and collectibles.
Additionally, The Pirate Queen is deliberately non-violent and excludes swordplay. While Singer acknowledged this was a creative risk, it was a decision with accessibility features in mind, as they wanted to create a game that children aged 13 and up could also play, the minimum VR age rating. This feature also links closely with the studio's goals of rewriting narratives and championing gender equality, with Singer explaining how they hope to inspire younger generations through female success stories like The Pirate Queen:
I'm hoping that we're creating a game that's really accessible to allow those age ranges to also engage with it to then fuel the next generation and remind them that there are really incredible women out there, and this is one of them. That's the goal, really.
The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend releases on March 7, 2024, for Steam and Meta Quest.