Mai Lootah – Alternate Realities

theWardrobe. Documentation

Project Description:describe the space, the “storyness” it conveys, and the inter-relation between modes of interaction and the logic of the world.

The prompt that I decided to extend on was “close the door”, and the reason for choosing it was the idea of having doors as portals. When creating my projects “storyness”, I always kept the passing through the door as the middle, as a way to go from the beginning to the end.

THE STORY

You wake up in a room with no knowledge of who or what you are.
Clues around the room written on post-its, posters, books assist (or remind) you of what you should do.
Going through the wardrobe using the key, you get teleported to your spaceship, now taking your natural form (an extraterrestrial).
You are presented with a choice of what you should do to the Earth you have left behind, Destroy or Spare.
After choosing, a button appears and you move on to your next mission elsewhere.

Process and Implementation:discuss how you built the space and design choices you or your group made. What did the brainstorming process involve? How did you go about defining the logic of this world? What were the steps to implementing the user’s role? Share images or sketches of visual inspiration or reference, including the storyboard/layout.

I had a hard time choosing where the ending will be, I knew I wanted to start in an ordinary mundane room. And I wanted it to end in a location that would juxtapose that, but at the same time have the player be able to interact there as well. Because when I was play testing in the beginning, when the user would reach the second part their reactions would be “oh thats it?”, as if the clues in the room, the key, the leading up to the hidden door, all that climax was to something that did not satisfy. So deciding to make the location in Outer Space, with a busy, colorful, noisy environment achieved what I hoped to. And including even simple choices made the user feel like they had a mission, they accomplished something.

My projects inspiration mainly came from two ideas;

Doors as portals; Narnia, Monsters Inc., Howls Moving Castle
By this video I saw about how escape rooms are incorporated into a VR environment

Reflection/Evaluation:This should discuss your expectations and goals in the context of the what you felt was achieved with the finished piece.

This project was a great learning experience for me. In my two other projects, I didn’t really expose myself much to scripts and code writing. That made the beginning quite hard for me, but I was determined to use my resources to make what I had in my mind into the project space I have now.

I would often get carried away in the process, wanting to add more and more. Restricting myself from doing too much but at the same time letting myself be able to include what I saw as needed or fitting was important.

I’ve always had a special fondness for games that required the user to pay attention to the details to receive the “full experience”. I wanted to implement that ideology into my game; thus having every item in the room tailored specifically to bring more “story” to the story. I really enjoyed that part, creating details and seeing how different users catch up on different things.

Walkthrough

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ON0vu3VS2NtIqVaRGOR7UMPtmfEMcjNo/view?usp=sharing

The IM Show footage

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vkDYMsGLx4VgVP2DLWwTON-UWsPOWIyH?usp=sharing

I was debating before whether to put the hint on the UI canvas “Use the post its as clues” or not. I figured that since they stand out and are scattered around the room, they would act as the singular item that is constant. But I noticed I tended to tell users that post its are clues to use. Another thing was the issue with door #1, which required the pushing of a button. The issue was that when you’d press the button, the animation and sound would take a second, and that would prompt the user to press the button again. That makes the door open and then close. I noticed other users that would try the key at the first door, ignoring the button. So maybe if I put a label on top of the button to make it more obvious and to have the animation/sound start immediately it would fix that issue.

VR Park Review

Going to the VR Park after our growing knowledge and interactions with Unity VR the past semester made me appreciate and see the games through a different perspective and appreciate and notice the little things I wouldn’t have otherwise.

The way the games (at least most of them) were presented was that the player was strapped to a seat in both real and virtual life which helped in immersing the user in the game without facing the issues of having the player walk out of frame or break through virtual walls

The games that included physical movements that I tried out were the maze game and the multiplayer game fighting zombies. The maze game had physical walls built into the area so even if the player tried to walk through the virtual walls they physically won’t be able to due to the barriers. On the other hand the zombie multiplayer game although the only barrier to limit the player was only located in the virtual world, but due to the scary zombies running and charging towards you, your “fake” barrier would actually prevent the zombies from reaching you, thus making the player realize where they are is actually the safest place to be, and this barrier is protecting them

Development Blog – The Wardrobe

April 15

Thought Process about the idea

Player is located a simple and plain room with a door
- is there anything the player can interact with in the room? A mug on the side table, a pillow?
- Hints in the room to what the closet holds? Poster on the wall about different worlds, closed doors
- what will instigate the user to open the door
Player opens the closet door and finds an ordinary closet
- whats inside the closet? boxes, clothes, a light bulb hanging above?
Player enters the closet and closes the door behind them. Its dark at first but
- how would the player know to close the door while their inside
After a few seconds of darkness, things start to appear, glowing and floating around them. The door is still visible to them, in the same place. Eerie music starts to play in the background
- What interactions are they able to do inside
- how would I limit their movement
- switching scenes and knowing when the door is closed to initiate the other world to begin
if player opens the door again, they are back where they started in the closet, in the room
- how would I switch back to the original environment without it being too abruptly
- maybe if the user is facing the door the effects stop, if they are facing any other side it begins

Actions in VR

interacting with the door;
- how would you grab it
- is there tilt
- how to close
- can you push it
switching scene 1;
- detecting if the door is closed then playing scene
- switching the scene
inside normal wardrobe;
- carrying box
- pushing box
the other world;
- floating objects
- glowing effect
- able to push around those objects/grab/throw
switching scene 2;
- knowing when the player is facing the door or close to it
- calming the effects of this other world, fading to black
- open the door and switching back to the room/closet scene

Inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRyR71oHOb8&t=59s

Instructional Videos

Notes

April 17

Door Struggles

Creating a door that is interactive and immersive is the first thing I looked at, I want to make a door when you can physically turn the knob then push the door. I feel like having such a move will add more onto the users experience.

had to move the location where the door will rotate or it will end up like this

added a circular drive to the knob and a collider to make it interactive and “turnable”

as I followed the instructions of a youtube video on how to make this possible, at the end the door would work but as it opens it would open vertically. messed around with the numbers but each one would give me another way the door can rotate but never the actual right way.

Trying to figure out the rotation on a simple cube instead of the door prefab, but it still was an animation clip..

seeing how much time I have spent invested in making a door work, I figured it would be best to just stick with the animation and focus on the other things in the environment.

April 22

The VR Headset keeps crashing and not connecting, so I decided on beginning to design the room instead. I want to make it modern and simple. Thinking adding a TV as well. Ill see if ill be able to add a video interface for the TV as a newsfeed playing.

I felt like adding a window was a very important part of the room, not only did it give the user perspective of their surroundings but it made the room feel less trapped and gave in natural light in the room as well

still brainstorming of what could be behind the door; the main idea I’ve got so far is having the door act as a secret entryway to a superhero secret hideout/dungeon

I already included some clues alluding to a superhero persona. I feel like having something that ties these two environments together is important for a complete story that is well rounded. By changing certain objects materials I was able to accomplish putting my own touch and messages on items around the room

April 29

Tried adding light probes but it kept glitching the scene and walls &

added an audio file for the ticking of the clock for some audio in the room

added suitcases to the wardrobe and designed some of them as well for more variety

Added a teleportation platform across the room

April 30

Wardrobe Update with a few intractable suitcases

The bedroom so far

What could I have the player do in the second environment/room if I go along with the superhero narrative.

shooting range?
buttons that activate something
boxing bag
a library
futuristic screen, map

Two people play tested my project today, they gave me some feedback about the feel of the room and the sizing. As well as the wardrobe being too stuffy?

Began working on the hidden lair part, I wanted to include stairs that lead down, but

creating stairs with big enough steps for teleportation makes it seem weird and unrealistic
complicating my project too much.

May 7

Switched some things up so now “You’re an alien & you go to an alternate universe” is the direction I will take now

Think about how will the player move from scene 1 to scene 2

you find a wardrobe with a hidden door/hole? do you press something and be transported? is there a portal you walk into? how will it work

the player will look around the room for clues, explore.. does the user need to pick up something with them and place it somewhere

like a ticket to outer space?

New Storyboard

you wake up in a room with amnesia of who (what) you are, and you start to look around the room for clues
you find a ___________ , but you don’t think it has much importance
you head towards the door and find yourself in a closet or storage room that is quite cluttered with suitcases
behind all these items, you notice another door? or a small crawling space? with a hole for ________ to be placed in, and you remember your saw it in the room
if ____________ is placed in the hole, you get transported to outer space. where you belong

Giving the user a choice in the second scene; be good & Save humanity/Earth, be evil & destroy it. Should I label these options or should it just be a surprise, having them choose unknowingly, but they won’t understand if I do that so..

Some notes of more brainstorming, I decided on using a key as the way to transport to the second scene

things to focus on for now;

fix closet area
key to open door
fix outer space environment
add more audio
doors are too small? you are too tall? check that
animate door 1 to open
UI screen
animate drawers to open?

The outer space scene with these particles is quite a scene

May 8

fixing the wallpaper in the wardrobe area, must change the tiling of the material to fit

focus on:

fixing the lighting in both worlds, make the items static and add light maps
fixing the players location and figuring out how to keep the alien hands in scene 2
why does the key fly? .. should I keep it that way?

Lighting much better now

you can see the key is stuck in mid air now

Playtesting:

users with no VR experience find it hard to move around
I noticed most people will explore the room first before heading to the door
even if they don’t they must find the key to reach the other side
player wouldn’t notice a door behind the suitcases. are there too many? should I add a light being the door

May 10

Adding audio clips;

sound coming from behind door #2 to draw the user there?
a radio in the room?
outer space scene, will the robot speak?

May 11

adding an audio for the door when it opens

have an option in scene 2. What could happen in outer space, what could the user do? destroy the earth (the earth that you were on in scene 1, the room)

will a meteor hit it?

May 12

edit UI screen in the beginning
clock movement
fix audio
choose; can they open drawers or not (too many actions in scene 1, not enough in scene 2. focus )
animate robot, him being static looks weird
make the button that opens door 1 move and more obvious to spot
put a hint in the wardrobe on a post it for the user to move the suitcases
add more things in the room about parallel worlds
add a way to restart scene
add labels to the buttons in scene 2
what is the robot doing? whats his purpose if he has any
the rotation of the earth is due to animation, change it to a script to make it smoother

the particles that appear when the earth explodes, using the script GameObject.SetActive() and they have an explosion attached to them making them fly

earth exploding

adding multiple earths bring more to the story, making it a parallel universe/world. and some of the earths have special features, for example rings, or asteroids, a glow. when I chose to put multiple earths, the previous effect of snowflake particles flying was too much and decided against it

the button for destroy leads up to the earth exploding, easy. But sparing the earth.. what would happen? Nothing? what about a user playing the game for the first time, such a button would basically do nothing to them. they wouldn’t understand the context. I need visual/auditory cues that you have in fact Spared the earth.

a glow from behind
angelic “Ahhh” sound

Brainstorming the Final Project

I really wanted to work with the “close the door” idea, and what immediately came to mind was inspired from the movie Howls Moving Castle. Where in the movie there is a ‘moving house’ that is somewhat alive with a special front door with a dial next to it. As you rotate the dial, the castle takes you to a specific place.

But as I kept sketching out the idea, I did not seem to be able to make a story or set pathway to the concept…

Sticking with the closing door idea, I thought of different movies where behind doors held a different or unusual world. I found inspiration from movies like ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ and ‘Monsters Inc.’

And what these both ideas had in common was that the door usually led to a normal closet setting, but at other times a whole different world. Branching from that concept I wanted to recreate that in the VR world.

The player would be placed in the setting of a plain and simple bedroom with one door. Drawn to the door, as they open it they discover it simply to be a normal closet filled with ordinary items. The twist is if the player ‘closes the door’ with them inside, they will be faced with mystical things floating around them and realize they are no longer in their mundane room anymore. The door would still be visible to them in that world though, and if opened again, they would be back where they started; the closet and room.

Representation

Education
Social media
Training professionals
Architecture representation
House retailers
Autism assistance
Overcoming phobias
help with PTSD, anxiety
this list can go on & on..

I feel like although VR in the perfect mindset would be used to achieve great things through education and training as well as advertisement. But what is seen to be the most common thing that ties people to one another is social media. The tool of VR can be applied to so many things but when applied to the way humans communicate, it would provide an new platform which might be dangerous in the way it would immerse individuals into complete different realities thus escaping their own.

There is this show that I watched previously called “Kiss Me First”, where you would follow the rise of technological advances where they managed the sense of touch in VR. The show represents quite a dystopia, but i feel like it’s an interesting way of thinking where VR is heading. It isn’t just a social media platform but a game as well, and that is sort of a new idea to cross these two things.

Documentation – Don’t feed the plants !

Original Idea

Our idea was to create an environment that places the player inside a greenhouse, surrounded by plants and the sound of the rainforest, with a planting station in front of them with several tools to choose from. The main items to interact with were the pot, seed, and watering can. The twist would be what would grow from this seed. And what was awaiting their discovery behind them.

Our “everyday action” that we played around with was the action of gardening, but in this world what was planted was a seed of a carnivorous plant. And if looked behind, the player realizes that this plant is one that must be contained in a cage for the safety of the people in this world.

Storyboard;

The player would find themselves in front of a planting platform with a pot, seed and watering can by their reach. The player would them pick the seed place it in the pot and water it. As they water it, the seed would shrink till it disappears and a carnivorous plant would grow in its place and start trying to attack the player.

When the player starts looking around their environment, they would be able to notice a large butterfly flying outside above them, the shadow of the insect on the ground would indicate the player there is something above them.

Different perspectives

Assets

While creating the environment, we found ourselves at the luxury of having a variety of prefabs to choose from;

The main asset we used was a $1 greenhouse (Green House 3D Model) furnished with a table, several pots, and a hanging lamp. At first the greenhouse was well, green and then we changed the color to have it be white to fit the image we had of it being a victorian inspired greenhouse. We separated the items (pots and table) to make it easier on us to choose from them what we required to have placed inside. And when designing the inside of the greenhouse we placed pots around the player, some were empty and some housed plants taken from the enemy plants package which came with animations.

The other asset we used an abundance of was the asset of UniTrees 3; which included detailed, fantasy trees, plants, and bushes.

What was learned?

When creating the outside environment, we found an easier method to place multiple items that are the same. By adding to the terrain the object of the trees and plants; and having the brush place them randomly and be a part of the terrain. What was also learned was when we came across the resizing of the butterfly prefab; whenever it would play its animation the size of the butterfly would shrink back to the original. When going through the tabs of the prefab, you must not only resize the object but its animation as well.

Interaction

Main interaction

Limitations and Reflection

With the time limitation, we found it difficult to implement several pots and seeds for the user to interact with so we ended up on settling on one pair.

Another difficulty we faced was how when items were grabbed, the mesh becomes nonexistent and items such as the watering can goes through the pot. We tried multiple settings and options, but as we kept trying it would get worse and eventually the hands in the game just deleted completely. Max had to create a new project and re-import steamVR for it to go back to normal.

Reflecting on the final scene, it was quite satisfying to come pretty close to our original idea. And when including the butterfly overhead; it gave the player a sense of miniature size compared to what is outside this greenhouse. And also a sense of the dangerous outdoors.

The final thing we added was the audio, extracting audio files from free sound.org we found several sounds of the forest; that included birds, wildlife, and wind. When including that file to our scene, it immerses the player in the game and gives them feedback another one of their senses. We included three other sound files as well, one for the caged plant located behind the player, and that sounds setting was put at a 3D sound and that means that if the sound is coming from the right, the player would hear it from the right earphone and vice versa. The plant that the player grows also will play an audio file of low growling to add a scary factor to these plants. And the watering can also has a water audio file attached to it.

What we hoped to include

Having such an environment allows us to the freedom of expression, and the freedom to add whatever our mind imagines. We initially hoped we could give the player choices of seeds that they can plant, and each growing a different plant. And the main plants interaction, we could’ve had its animation actually feel more like it attacked the player and thus ending the game. But if the game ended there; the player might not be able to have time to fully enjoy the 360 view of the environment entirely. Allowing the player to fight back against the plant would immerse the individual further into the environment giving them a way to react to what is happening. Although the scene we created is pretty detailed, having animated animals outside and a running river would further give life to the location would be nice but it was quite difficult finding a well suited animated animal to include.

How the project is going

Finalizing the topic of having a greenhouse housing a carnivorous plant

find what assets are available to us to use;

skybox; cloudy sunny day
greenhouse victorian style
strange looking plants and trees
Venus fly trap plant; animated
gardening tools
water particles
some animals
cage
rocks

settled for the Green House 3D model; and it came with pots and a planting station inside!

At first I imagined the greenhouse to be set in someones backyard with maybe a fence enclosing the garden and pots arranged in an organized order.

but having a greenhouse in the middle of a forrest gave more of an adventurous feeling and lively environment by being surrounded by huge trees and a stretch of what feels like an infinite land

Watering Can

how to have the watering can when tilted pours water
playing around with the rain water prefab to have an angle to it and looks less like rain and more like water coming from a watering can
removed the bubbles that come out of the water prefab
removed the puddle it creates at the bottom
found out you can change the image of the rain drops to something more suited
realized we need to place the water particles at the exit point when the can is tilted and not straight
figuring out how the console will recognize the tilt of the controller to specify an angle the player must hold it for the can to activate the water particles

Inside the Greenhouse design

should the plants be placed at random
should the plants be placed at patches of dirt
should they be organized in pots

Final inspiration; Kew Gardens in London

Other animations?

add a Butterly; but make it huge
enemy plants package has several animations to choose from

working with the Butterly and its animations took a while; at first I made it large but when the animation would start playing it would shrink back to its original size

to fix that problem, I had to change the scale factor of the animation to a larger digit to keep the size of the butterfly the same even when it starts animating

if we get the important parts done; what else do we want to include?

alien hands
maybe the sound of running water and animals outside the greenhouse
several seeds to choose from
have a button to reset the items to their original location
when grabbing the watering can it still goes through items such as the table and the pot
sound of the forrest and birds
low sound of growling coming from the caged plant to have the user look back

Interaction Pet

There was this quite popular game that came out in 2009 for the playstation called EyePet that my sisters and I used to play a lot. Its a different game from what we usually play in first shooter games, and there is no specific linear story. You must set up the camera in the beginning, and start the game, then a reflection of where you are sitting gets displayed on the screen.

An egg pops up and where interaction with the virtual pet begins and you are able to caress the egg till it hatches and meet your new pet.

The game has a variety of options and different interactions the player (or players) and the pet can do. I don’t usually like these types of games, but for some reason the make up of the virtual pet was very well done, and it also includes facial expressions and reactions to things add to the realistic feeling it has when playing.

Apocalypse

By creating the environment i have done, i hoped to present and portray a mixture of feelings; from fear, trapped, and a feeling of being lost and alone in a world with monsters.

I decided to place the player in a broken down looking shed facing a dimly lit corner, and at first they would think they are alone, but as they focus on the multiple scary sounds playing in the back and the ability to look around at your surroundings the player realizes he is not alone and there are scary things outside and they have their eyes on him.

At first i created and edited the shack to fit the idea i had in my head with the help of multiple prefabs of lamps and dim light bulbs

Then i decorated my platform with multiple scattered zombies,

I then included a night sky box with a cloudy atmosphere

Here is a video of the game play;

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14oQ1dWQG2NZtOCQy5B4Oez3z8BAtQFRM

Reflection/Evaluation: I really enjoyed playing around with Unity and the freedom you have with creating almost anything. I feel like this project, although very simple is something that I am happy about, although I feel like I have yet so many ideas to add such as weather (rain, blizzard, fog) and maybe a winter themed terrain with a campfire.

Here are the files for Unity;

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MCqwK2y2EwByBLKCeRbreIoLNBGxl2qp

Development Blog

I want to make an environment that portrays fear; i feel like in VR environments fear is one of the strongest feelings that it could show since it shows a reality you are not familiar with and thus with the freedom of the digital world, so many things could be expressed.

Fear;

Something chasing you
Slenderman forest
Abandoned shack
Night time
Monsters
Alone
Scary sounds
Zombies

I want to work further on the zombies idea; inspired from the game Call Of Duty Black Ops Zombies.

I found so many helpful packages on the assist store that can complete the environment i have in my mind,

Packages;

Zombies
Shack
Night sky
Zombie sounds
Terrain
Fire
Rain
Fog
Winter terrain?
Rain sounds?
lamp

Its a bit hard finding the perfect lighting, on the zombies and the shack to make it visible and at the same time have it dark enough to add to the scary theme.

The package of zombies has animation embedded in it and i tweaked the animation of the zombie to what i feel to be most effective and suitable. I also included a zombie in the side mirror of the shack and behind the main zombie as well, this adds to the feeling of being surrounded and trapped

I found zombie sounds and i put it on loop as well

Hesitant with where to have the main camera begin facing, the zombie at the door or anywhere else in the shack and have the player discover the zombie at the door?