lumos vr: A virtual Reality Experience
Team Members: Seven
My Role: XR Designer and Developer
Duration: One Week
Rescue fireflies from a nearby gas leak threat. Catch as many as you can before the place is fully covered in smog and release them in your safe front yard. The more you save, the happier you'll feel. Experience a beautiful visual reward upon their release.
Brief Overview
The brief was pretty straightforward: create a virtual reality experience for children and adults that would generate some nostalgia among them while experiencing it. The experience needed to be a virtual reality experience and should be immersive and engaging.
Intial Ideation
We tried many ideas that would make sense for children, but most of them ended up being educational, like e.g., teaching about waste disposal (not really fun and nostalgic!). After much back and forth, we came up with catching fireflies at night. It was something we all tried to do at least once. A game is not a game if it is not fun.
Storyboarding
Based on our previous ideation, The storyboarding was done along with necessary scenes needed for our experience.
Key Highlights
Immersive Gameplay -- Environmental Awareness -- Visual Delight -- Hand Gesture -- Realistic Interactions -- Sound Experience
DESIGN PROCESS
We ran a series of design sprints, each focusing on a different aspect of the game. We also used the design sprints to test the game with potential users and gather feedback.
GAME GENRE: Educational, Simulation, Casual, Exploration
AGE RANGE: 13-25
Moodboard
core Loops
There are three predominant scenes. The first scene is a 360-degree video that narrates the whole story. The second scene is the gameplay where the player would do most of the interactions. Finally, the third scene involves the player releasing the fireflies in their safe front yard, providing a sense of accomplishment and visual reward.
game flow
Intro Scene
- Onboarding in Virtual Reality
- Narration
- User Interface (UI)
GAMEPLAY
- Diegetic Timer (smoke)
- Game Points
- Spatial Sound
OUTRO SCENE
- End Animation
- Conclusion
- End Rewards
COMPILATION
- Intro Video and Outro Video compiled in Unity.
USER TESTING AND INSIGHTS
First Prototype Implementation:
- Implement basic gameplay elements:
- Implement grabbing functionality.
- Spawn enemies within the environment.
- Establish kill zones with necessary colliders.
- Integrate scoring system and timer.
- Develop a game controller with three states. (Start, Waiting and Over)
KEY INSIGHTS
- Most of the gameplay was pretty engaging and immersive. 😅
- A few players found the User Interface above the vertical distance from the eye.
- Some found the fog as a timer for the game very interesting.
- The haptic feedback was a little low.
Second Prototype Implementation:
- Improve physics of the firefly for more realistic behavior.
- Implement haptic feedback for enhanced user experience.
- Utilize fog as a diegetic representation for the timer.
- Add post-processing effects to improve visuals and atmosphere.
Iterative Testing and Refinement:
Conducted user testing to gather feedback and improve on the game.Future Enhancements:
- Adding different elements to make the game more challenging for the users and making Level Designs.
- Creating 3D ambient sound for more immersive experience
PROCESS PICTURES
FULL CASE STUDY
For a detailed look at the project, please click below.
VIEW ON BEHANCE