From 03/25/24 to 04/19/24, we developed a VR game in Unreal, targeting the social self-isolation phenomenon that has unforetunately had a severe impact among the younger generation, especially succeeding the COVID-19 pandemic. The game places the user in various situations - home, with friends, and in the workplace - solving puzzles that require interaction with characters in each scene. After a preliminary playthrough, the game loops back to the first scene, uncovering deeper conclusions about self and social interaction.
[Design around Social Impact]
We decided to target our project on the self-isolation phenomenon. We aim to achieve two aspects of social impact: first, to allow players to empathize with the mental state of individuals experiencing self-isolation, and second, to inform individuals on how to step beyond their comfort zones and begin engaging in conversations.
Informed by our conversation with Dr. Bo Zhang, a psychiatrist at Sichuan University, we have focused our game specifically on social interaction and conversation. The main interaction, apart from the puzzles, are conversations with the non-playable characters which help guide the user through the scene. According to Dr. Zhang, patients report a lack of knowledge related to initiating and responding to unexpected conversations. Further, patients may benefit from having practical breakdowns of common social situations and possibly emotional experiences. This is precisely what our game centers around - scenarios surrounding socialization and emotion. Through storytelling and structured conversations with the narrator and non-playable characters, our game simulates real-life, normal interactions that those struggling with mental illness could model and learn from - without any of the stress or consequences of actual conversation.
[XR Emphasis]
Our game includes a variety of puzzles, several immersive scenes, and a complex method of dialogue interaction with NPCs, all of which depend on VR. All of the puzzles require the user to interact with objects in the scene and the user must converse with the NPCs. Also, the scenes are all carefully created with tonality in mind, we focused on world-building to ensure that each scene was portraying a certain feeling, accurately emulating isolation and, later, freedom. We've added personalized notes and clues across the scenes that the user must interact with to progress. Finally, to converse with NPCs, users must physically pick up spawned blocks of text and hand them over to the character. This is to model the difficulty that comes with these conversations in a physical way. This is only possible in XR.
[Novelty]
VR has gained a popular reputation of supporting social isolation, a shift away from typical socialization, and negative effects on mental health. While there is research supporting how technology and VR can be negative, there is also a growing amount of research that suggests the possible positive effects VR can have on health - if used moderately and in certain contexts. Many VR users online support that VR can be a remedy to loneliness and studies have shown how VR can be used in hospital settings and in retirement homes to combat isolation. Our product takes inspirations from these findings to culminate in a game that specifically addresses social isolation and socialization. It simulates conversation and emotional development, in tandem with critical thinking and solving. Such experiences could be helpful to those who struggle with these interactions, due to a world that can be so isolating to us all at times.
[Financial Sustainability]
The project hopes to leverage grants and funding from organizations focused on mental health, technology innovation, and social impact initiatives. Below are some of our most relevant sources of funding we could use to support our product. We don't believe a subscription model makes sense for our product, at least not on a individual level, because charging a struggling human does not align with our values. We could, instead, look into financial partnerships with mental health centers and hospitals to further support this development.
The Knight Foundation: This foundation awards companies and organizations with variable amounts to develop interventions specifically at the intersection of health and technology. They have recently given $1,250,000 to an organization to “to support the development and expansion of culturally sensitive and accessible mental health innovations, programs and services for young people of color” and a shift to “a digital-first organization supporting… mental health.” Our product sits right at the intersection this foundation often funds so we believe this also could be a good way to gain funding for development.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: This organization provides funds and invests in companies that are often providing some type of social impact. On their website, 100s of companies are featured as grant-receiving organizations in the field of emerging innovations in science, technology, and mental healthcare. As our product also targets these fields, this could be possible source of funding for our team.
The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation: This foundation awards Young Investigator Grants yearly in which young researchers can receive up to $35,000 to begin their research. Just last year they funded the development and research of the utilization of virtual reality to promote emotional regulation. They are exploring the efficacy of EnhanceVR, a virtual reality game that is “designed by neuroscientists to test and train your cognitive skills” (Meta). Since our product also aims to address issues related to mental health and depression, we believe this could be a viable avenue for financial stability. Also, since this foundation is specifically focused on research, it could be a good avenue for us to prove the efficacy of our product which could open up even more opportunities for funding and usage in the future.