User feedback suggest that I take a close look at the OVR Controller for Lunarium and try to develop either a teleportation system or an incremental turn controller, or something like a touch pad controller.
As, over the last few days I have tried to implement additional functionally and geometry I need to take another look at optimising for VR mobile. I think the answer lies in good scene management as I think that loading scenes incrementally will allow me to get more out of the device generally. I will then be able to add more bells and whistles 😀
I thought I’d take week 10 of the second phase of development to step back and review the app so that I can
- Assess the apps current build
- Reflect on the development progress.
- Refresh my memory on the development process and check that i’ve covered everything.
- Take the new ‘Design, Develop and Deploy for VR Unity Training Course’ as this uses the up to date Unity software and latest VR functions.
- Plan for the next stage of development after submission at the end of April.
- Allocate features to the next development phase backlog.
Design, Develop and Deploy for VR Unity Training Course (Rift/Quest) Applied to Lunarium (Go)
The VR Ecosystem
Project : VR Escape Room Verticle slice
PC based Rift HMD with Oculus Controllers
High quality, complexity and scope on Videogames.
Great Art designed for performance.
Solve Frame Rate = End user comfort
Spatialised Audio
Hand Representation
VR UI
High Quality production values (Polish, quality, depth)
Course Overview.
11 Units
Building a VR Escape room
Unit 2: VR Game Development and Prototyping
Intro: Game Development, tools and tips to developer
Unit2:2 Ideation
Preproduction: Research resources, art and narrative.
Mind Mapping: Puzzles – Escape rooms and affordances
Exsquisit corpse Exercise
Randomly pair nouns or adjectives i.e underwater temple
Unit2:3 Audience
Know your audience
Rift customers play interactive games where they can use their controllers
Try to make the most of your touch controllers.
Interactions should be solid and fun.
Players want to feel in control – the control should be intuitive.
Gamer Segments
What games they like to play
why they play
How long they play
Their favourite genres
how much they would spend
overall motivations to play
There are research reports that can be purchased to acquire this information.
Target Audience
What are some comparable escape room games (VR action adventure games)
What are some comparable escape room games (VR action adventure games)
What do they do well?
What do they do poorly?
What are they missing ?
e.g Shadow Point (redefined VR puzzling using the occlusion tool) Magic glass
Play ALOT in VR…
Ideal User Profile
Unit 2:04 : Defining Game Design & Features
VR Game Development and Prototyping
What will the player be doing in the game
How will they do it
How the player progress through the game
How will the UI Look?
How is the narrative Delivered? by Audio Logs, text, speech bubble ? Will players have the option to skip past the narrative? Will there even be one?
What type of transitions are there ?
Eg: Audio log grey box testing.. Ask the players if the game is boring or if the audio is too long?
Eg: If teleporting.. grey box and ask if it works
Best practice Controllers and movement
Show the players how to use the controllers
Can you give left handed players their own mode?
In game options menu – Toggle on/off
Use the oculus hand model
Movement: Locomotion –
Teleportation – which button will use use to activate the teleportation arch?
will you include a fade option?
Add comfort options
Unit 2:05: Building a Game Design Document (GDD)
What the game is about
What it will look and feel like
How the user will interact with the game
Game overview
Unique Selling Points
Gameplay Scope
Map out game loops
target art style details
player profile stories
Milestone schedule – Alpha Beta and Master channels etc
Development Cycle
Team Composition
Development Costs
Development Tracking Tools:
Jira
Confluence
Hansoft
HacknPlan
Trello
Burndown Chart
Marketing Plan:
Will you be using primarily social media?
Which Platforms and how?
Will you be targeting specific interest groups?
Who and How do you plan on reaching them?
Building a user community…. for the launch.
Unit 2:06 Development and Prototyping
Modular Game Development
Unique Selling Points (USP) can come from simple prototypes
EG: This game has a badass flight mechanic. It’s comfortable, immersive and thrilling.
EG: The sense of scale you get from encountering monsters and environmental danger in this game puts you inthe middle of an intense apocalyptic world that feels impossible for you to get out of alive.
Prototype
locomotion
Scale
Hand game mechanics
Art
Sound UI
Test in VR before inclusion in the final game.
What would you look and what actions would you take in the VR World?
Use Three dimensional Objects to act out in.
As well as materials like clay and paper
You can also use
Quill
Medium
Tilt Brush
and More
You use live reenactment – what is the player drawn to.. what affordances does each object have can this be played with?
Unit 2:07 Management Tools
Unity Hub
Package Manager
Version Control – Storing version online Github or Perforce (larger art assets files)
Production
First playable/interim/playable slice
Unit 2:08 First Stages of Production
First Playable is the first limited visual and narrative but had controllers and basic mechanics.
Scaling will come later.
Interim Builds Prove out:
- Locomotion
- Comfort
- Interactions
- Art Style
- Scale
Monthly, bi weekly and interim builds can be passed to the user/publisher.
Vertical Slice
A portion of the game which acts as a proof of concept for stakeholders to experience how the full game will look and feel.
Slice of a cake: Narrative Story/Art/Mechanics
Should be representative of
- Character Art and Environmental Art
- Core gameplay, including player movements and interactions
The master Verticle slice should include
- tutorial to adequately guide the player on how to use the controller.
- can be used to get feedback from industry professionals.
- External testing
- Publishers can help too.
Unit 2:09 Final Stages of Production
Alpha Beta and Master Build
Alpha
Content Complete
Core Mechanics
Core features
QA Testing
Beta
Content Complete
Features Complete
Final Core Art
Final Mechanics
Final Gameplay
Sign up Sheets and test for feedback.
Master Build
Completed version of the game
Unit 2:10 Distribution, Publication and Marketing.
Application Stage
Technical Review Stage
Content Review
Publishing Review Stage
All VRC’s should be covered
Framerate
Controls
Tests okay
There is a test you can conduct yourself.
Press Kit
Art Assets
In-Game Screenshots
Announcements
Game Trailers
One sheets
Price
Gaming Platform
Release Date
Website Links
Game Description
Unique Selling Points
Game and Company Logos
Company Bio
Bitesize Gifs: Video that highlights game mechanics
Social Media
Lunarium handles (urls) and usernames
Use these platforms to get feedback
promote to outlets that have a strong number of your users
send the press kit out
meet and establish face to face in gaming conferences
join an event – social tab > events > set up a developers dashboard
Where do the target demo spend their time ?
Do they listen to podcasts, letsplay, twitch, youtube ?
Dance with Devs live stream ? Discord? share memes, updates, grow networks
Beta channel can help communicate with user testers on Discord.
Unit 3:01 Intro
Instructional Design:
My Name is Sarra Hornby and I am an instructional Designer at Holovis International. I Holovis I design Instruction for companies that want to learn more about immersive training, whether they are just getting started or if they have been working with immersive tools for years.
One of the best things about my job is …
- Enable VR in the Unity Editor
- Obtain the Oculus Integration tools and VRTK
- Tips for developing VR Projects in Unity
Unit 3:04 Creating a Vertical Slice
File Save as Scene :