Contact

Role: Designer / Programmer
Duration: 2 weeks
Platform: HTC Vive
Tools: Unity

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Contributions

• Designed game mechanics in a multi-disciplinary team
• Scripted game progression, music system, spawning system
• Conducted playtests

My team conceptualized this world as more of an interactive art and music piece, rather than a game. We wanted this world to be immediately appealing to guests, and thus spent a lot of time making sure we put them in a beautiful and soothing environment.

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Design Challenges

Theming

We originally came up with the idea that the world should look like a secret garden, with the interactive creatures being butterflies, but we pivoted to a more alien-like world and decided to base the creatures on bio-luminescent jellyfish instead. This ended up being a questionable choice, because some playtesters’ immediate reactions to seeing a large, imposing jellyfish was to attempt to bat it away with the wand they were given, rather than allow it to light up (though eventually they would realize it was harmless). To minimize this effect, we used animations, art and music to make it clear that the creatures were non-threatening.

Interactions

Because this world was meant for a naive guest, we made sure to keep the guest’s interactions as simple and intuitive as possible, while still giving them the illusion of freedom. Thus, we mounted a Vive tracker on a prop that was a replica of the 3D model wand in the game, making sure that the guest knew what to do even before they put on the headset. We also made sure that there was ample feedback when the guest had done the right thing with lighting and sound effects, in order for the interaction to be as satisfying as possible.