{"id":24937,"date":"2026-08-25T18:35:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T16:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/25\/fast-travel-games-erik-odeldahl-on-building-payday-aces-high-for-vr\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T18:35:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T16:35:38","slug":"inside-the-heist-how-fast-travel-games-brought-payday-aces-high-to-vr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/25\/inside-the-heist-how-fast-travel-games-brought-payday-aces-high-to-vr\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Heist: How Fast Travel Games Brought Payday: Aces High to VR"},"content":{"rendered":"

## Inside the Development of Payday: Aces High: A Conversation with Erik Odeldahl<\/p>\n

Shortly after our initial hands-on experience with *Payday: Aces High*, we sat down with Erik Odeldahl, the Chief Creative Officer at Fast Travel Games. Our goal was to peel back the curtain on the design principles driving this highly anticipated cooperative VR heist shooter.<\/p>\n

This deep-dive discussion is featured in the latest episode of the UploadVR Gamescast, hosted by myself and James Tocchio<\/a>. The interview took place on August 12, immediately following our exclusive media preview, and remained under embargo until today.<\/p>\n

Below, we\u2019ve distilled the most critical insights from our extensive forty-minute exchange.<\/p>\n

### Launch Scope and Gameplay Variety<\/p>\n

One of the most common questions surrounding new VR titles is the breadth of content available on day one. Odeldahl provided clarity on what players can expect when they first jump into the action.<\/p>\n

*0:00 \/ 0:26*<\/p>\n

According to Odeldahl, the game is launching with a robust foundation: “You basically start the game with six heists and five difficulty levels. You can play them stealthily or go loud. We will launch another heist very soon after launch.”<\/p>\n

This structure mirrors the successful “replayability loop” seen in modern tactical shooters, where mastering a map on a lower difficulty serves as a training ground for the more punishing, high-stakes tiers. By offering both stealth-focused infiltration and high-octane combat, Fast Travel Games is aiming to cater to both the methodical planner and the player who prefers a “guns-blazing” approach. With the promise of post-launch support, the studio is clearly positioning *Payday: Aces High* as a live-service experience designed to grow alongside its community.<\/p>\n

\u00bb More Info >>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fresh off our first hands-on session with *Payday: Aces High*, we sat down with Fast Travel Games\u2019 CCO, Erik Odeldahl, to peel back the curtain on the design philosophy driving this high-stakes co-op shooter. Catch the full conversation on this week\u2019s UploadVR Gamescast, where James Tocchio and I break down our experience from the August 12 media event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":24938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","wpai_meta_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[339],"tags":[36,383],"class_list":["post-24937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vr","tag-mixtv","tag-vr-gaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}