Due to the pandemic, our on-site courses have been interrupted and we are taking on the current unit remotely. Not all of us have access to VR headsets, so the requirements have been adjusted accordingly…

Not only is the hand-in not a VR build, but we will be working independently. I have decided to build a puzzle-game that unlocks sections of an AR comic. The experience will have another narrative. Feel free to check it out under the category Romaine and Koi.

Best, N

This week, unfortunately, was rather uneventful for this unit since our deadline for The Love Machine is looming and we have a couple of more months for this one. Nevertheless, we gave a little bit more thought into what the redirection means for our project in terms of technicality and research.

I found out that VRChat users are just as protective of VRChat interactions as its developers, but there is still an overwhelming amount of people who wanted to be able to script their own interactions in their custom worlds. In fact, it’s a feature 400+ users voted for. You can read some of the hesitations there as well. These mostly revolve around controlling abuse.

VRChat responded to this feature request and worked on their own programming language, called Udon, that can be compiled in Unity. They spent two years working on it, and perhaps luckily for us, released it about two months ago. We will be looking into how useful this new release could be for our custom world.

In terms of research, we are embracing this redirection as a way to learn not only about an existing social platform and its ethics, but also about the possibility of future role-playing games being held in virtual platforms. Social virtual platforms have proved to be a host for all sorts of activities (baptisms, yoga, meditation, business meetings, you name it), so it is not such a long-shot to imagine games being designed specifically for these umbrella platforms.

Excited to see what we can achieve within these limits we have set for ourselves.

This week, I sat down with Alejandro from the Creative Tech Lab to discuss the possibility of a multi-player network. Although he is going forward with some Photon plug-in tests, our team decided we will pour all of our energy instead into creating an interesting environment for our game. Because of this, we will use VRChat and take it as an opportunity to research custom world creation, socialization habits, and interaction within the existing platform.

This past week I also wrote a script for the 360 filmmaking part of the experience, which will require a fair amount of compositing. Vier also modeled the forest scene for the game in TiltBrush.

Our next steps include research and design. We want to do a follow-up user test in one or two weeks time maximum.
(1) First, we have to see how to meet the requirements to upload our custom world to VRChat.
(2) Second, we need to research the extent of interactions we can include in our custom world.
(3) Lastly, we need to learn about code compatibility with VRChat.

This week we reviewed our first user-study results and with the help of our tutor, realized a follow-up is in order. This coming week we will contact our users via email in order to schedule a follow-up interview. In addition to this, we will complete some other things we missed:
(a) A consent form
(b) An info sheet
(c) Include and be led by research terms about existing games (e.g. social interaction in platforms like VRChat)

This week, we tackled two big challenges:
(1) Setting up a multi-player network and
(2) Testing whether our version of Werewolf/Mafia actually works.

(1) As for #1, I was able to get a simple 3D game in Unity to work within the same computer. The editor served as the host, and the build file served as the client. Both updated in real time.

It became trickier when I tried to run the game, simple 3D or VR, in another computer. I don’t have a degree in Computer Science, so there is a lot that goes over my head in terms of networks and servers. I have been using the Mirror networking plug-in. It seems, however, that I need to add a matchmaking plug-in, since the error I was getting was that the host computer was actively refusing the client. I don’t know if this has to do with firewalls, since we were using the university’s computers, but I have been told by an associate lecturer that one way she side-stepped this problem in one of her former projects was to source her own router and have that be the server that all players match through.

(2) User test #1: We wanted to test if the game worked at all and how we could make it more enjoyable to the groups.

We found a group of five friends in the school canteen and wanted to proceed as follows:

We would play four versions of the game, seeing which roles we needed and which were ornamental.
a) A game with all roles (trickster, healer, and forest spirit)
b) A game with trickster + healer
c) A game with trickster + forest spirit
d) A game with only trickster.

We used the platform VRChat to find a campfire world and have our players meet there virtually.

The questions we asked them later all related to enjoyability per version and what interactions they would have liked with the environment and with each other.

By far, the most enjoyable version was the version that featured all roles: the ability to shape-shift/silence another, the ability to heal those that have been silenced, and the ability to be immune to being shape-shifted.

In terms of interaction, they would have liked for a custom world that reflected their roles. They would have liked “the role to be in the game,” as one user put it.

Further, two/five wrote they would have have liked to push the avatars of their friends. One wrote they would have liked the ability to throw objects at their friends. Another two/five asked for a chat room with word bubbles, and the ability to secretly speak to others in order to plot together.

Going forward, we need to solve the multi-player network and create our custom space for the game to unfurl and be more enjoyable to players. The more narrative we can insert in the interactions with the environment, it seems, the more enjoyable it will be for the user. Also, friends need to be able to affect the others’ virtual avatars or they experience more dissatisfaction. The same goes for being able to privately message each other during the game.

Two main things we had to do this past week,
(1) Figure out the character backstories for the narrative aspect of the experience.
(2) Delegate tasks for the first user test we will conduct before or on February 10th.

(1) For our character backstories, we settled on a very elemental paradigm. The origin story involves a forest spirit discovering the power of fire. First, he is lost and can’t see, and the fire gives him light. Then, he needs to cook, so he uses the fire to make food. Finally, he wants to tell someone a tale, so he uses the fire to create shape-shifting shadows.

The forest spirit ends up being so grateful, they decide to give the fire spirit three gifts, which will be scattered among all their kin. First, because of the ability to see in the darkness, the fire spirit can see visions. Then, because of the gift of cooking, the fire spirit can now heal others. Finally, because of the shadow stories, the fire spirit can now shapeshift.

Today, one of the fire spirit’s descendants is misusing their power. They are making others shapeshift irresponsibly, so the forest spirit summons a healer, a seer, the shapeshifting trickster, and the fire spirit in order to get to the truth. The users must now figure out who is who in this mysterious campfire in the forest.

(2) For our first user test, which we have about a week for, we need to have three things in place:
(A) A research question that will help us improve our next iteration of the tale
(B) A multi-player network
and (C) customizable avatars.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but the tale is shaping up quite nicely. It will be a light-hearted experience for friends to gather to.

For this unit, our team wants to explore avatar customization and the potential it has for revealing or obscuring identity. We have found inspiration in the game commonly played among friends under different names like “Werewolf” or “Murderer.” The basic structure of the game is as follows: first, each player is assigned a role. A crime has been committed, so one or two people are assigned the roles of criminals. These are the major roles, since the objective of the game is for the other players to find out who the real criminals are. Each round there is a vote and whoever is accused by the most people in the group is “killed” in the night (which means they can no longer speak). If the innocent people kill both criminals, they win. If the criminals remain with the same number of innocent people, they win. 

Different versions of this game have different roles. Some include detectives like in the murderer version, and some include villagers as in the werewolf version. We have decided to make the emotional core of the story one of lightheartednesses for friends to be able to socialize and be jovial. The narrative will be set on an island, and the friends will start out around a campfire. The roles will be as follows: a shaman, a spirit, a healer, and a seer. Each role has its own unique powers. The “crime” in this version will be a shapeshifting. During the night, the shaman in the friend-group has turned one of the other friends into an animal. 

After being assigned their roles, the players will be able to customize their avatars as to divert or attract attention to certain features and hide their identity. The shaman’s unique power is that he can customize the avatar of every player after the first round, but only once. The spirit player is unable to be shapeshifted by the shaman. The healer can speak with the shapeshifted animals, and the seer has clearer visions than the rest. 

Traditionally, after each vote, there is “night,” where every player sleeps and the “murderer” commits another crime, i.e. the person voted to be “killed” is taken care of in the night. For our version, we will be expanding on the avatar theme and include a dream sequence of the shapeshifting episode. This will be shown in 360 video. The avatar of the shaman player will be distorted in each “night” sequence, but will slowly become clearer as the game progresses. This is why the seer has the special gift of being able to see the avatar with more clarity (but the other players don’t know if they can trust them anyway). 

We want to include an MR app that will allow you to potentially place your vote, inviting users to take off their headsets and discuss. Beyond this, and perhaps more importantly, it will allow you to customize the scene. Whatever you place in the MR app will appear in the virtual scene. This can be done to incriminate people or just mess around with your friends. 

This will be a non-linear narrative since the roles will change in each game, but the backdrop for the main “crime” or shapeshifting will be the same, and done in 360 video. In the end, it is revealed who the shaman is and the players can explore the space, since there are a lot of world-building opportunities with this concept.

For this unit, we are teaming up with our class-members to work on a class-platform design concept. I am lucky to be working with the talented 3D artists and animators, Vier and Salma Bouftas.

Very briefly, as is custom on this site, here are the requirements for this unit:
1. A non-linear narrative that can be developed through cross-platform immersive media.
2. A cross-platform XR experience that has any of these combinations:
i. computer-generated VR and experimental cinematic VR
ii. MR and experimental cinematic VR
iii. all three
3. Two user iterations
4. Written critical report
5. Research presentations
6. Blog
(For a full list of requirements for each category of immersive content mentioned above, please see the end of the post)

For my professional development, I am interested in learning how to create a multi-player experience with customizable avatars. I am also already interested in the hot-topic of how our “real” identities inform the virtual identities we may construct in VR. My inkling is that these virtual avatars of ourselves will be just as difficult to deconstruct as our already-existing embodiments. Identity, for me, is an ever-shifting paradigm that is always acting and reacting.

Because of this, I had an initial idea for a story where a virtual crime has been committed, something that is very plausible in the future, and the user has to piece together the identity of the criminal based on someone else’s account of their avatar. The description would be intentionally cryptic, not having access to the same cultural, linguistic, and/or socio-political references that usually shape our imagination. Through this experience I wanted to explore how one might be able to attribute an identity to a virtual person based on their avatar, and just how obscure this same identity may become in growing communities that don’t have access to the same image-construction.

I am not married to this idea. Fortunately, Vier is interested in exploring customizable avatars as a means for non-binary people to assert or reassert their identity. He believes virtual avatars in the future could be a major source of solace for those who suffer from body dysmorphia. He wants to develop this hypothesis in this coming project.

I am excited to see where we end up with these ideas. They are both talented 3D and interaction designers, and I’m sure we will end up with a project of a large scope and with many implications. Once again I will be updating weekly. Safe virtual travels!

Here are the technical specifications for the three categories of immersive content:
1. VR
i. at least two scenes
ii. at least one animated virtual human character
iii. at least one non-human character with animation optional
iv. navigation, interaction, spatial sound
v. interface design
vi. navigation within and between scenes
vii. event triggers

2. MR
i. CG content or live-action content activated with marker
ii. interactive elements
iii. sound
iv. two different locations
v. build for phone, tablet or Hololense

3. Cinematic VR
i. 90-120 seconds
ii. techniques for navigating 360 space
iii. interaction
iv. navigating within the scene and between scenes