Prototype
Prototype Process
For our early prototypes, our team focused on creating the dual environment and animal companion in order to user-test our core mechanics right from the beginning. We began by implementing an animal companion with following and fetching functionalities, as well as various animations, that will be used for the final project. These features were tested to work with the First Person Controller at first and then with the SteamVR controller.
Our team started creating the environment by shaping the present view terrains in order to establish our visual aesthetic and virtual world building. We added boundaries using cliffs, as well as other objects like trees, grass, generator, tent, and buckets, which are all relevant to our story world and narrative.
In order for our prototypes to leave a strong visual impression that reflects the intentions of our final project’s core switching mechanic, we prioritized the visual aesthetics of our dual environments. At this stage, the switching transition was still an immediate cut between the two views, but it was enough for our team to begin gathering the first user-testing feedback along with the fox companion.
We then started adding elements of challenge based immersion, such as an interactive bucket that can be used to gather water from nearby rivers for splashing onto an electric generator. These challenge-based interactions such as destroying the generator can lead to subsequent results like disabling the main antagonist robot’s shield. Once the robot is vulnerable the user can take away its battery and fuel to make it stop working.
Development Process
Our initial inception of our project started once we selected our topic of climate action. One of the initial ideas was to be in an underwater setting where the coral reef was destroyed. By shining the divers' flashlight, the immersant could see the lit up area as it was in the past and see the marine life there. Another idea was to be a bee and fly around pollinating flowers. However due to climate change it would become harder and harder to find flowers and plants to pollinate, where eventually the bee would possibly die.
We decided to focus our experience around the mechanics of traveling between the present and future, with our experience wanting to instill into our immersants the importance of making choices to change the future for the better. After brainstorming more narrative settings, we decided on a hiker who is exploring a forest with their dog, when they suddenly receive a vision of the destroyed forest in the future, due to deforestation. After receiving feedback, we decided that we would go forward with a fox companion as they are more connected with the forest and are kind of the “spirit animal” of the forest in our game.
With our main narrative and game mechanics decided, we decided to first start focusing on our games environment by choosing assets and designing the aesthetic of our game to not be too realistic, but more stylized and pleasing. With our assets selected for our environment, we started to create our vibrant forest environment as well as the desolate forest. When the two environments were created, we began to develop our dual view mechanic to switch between the present and future. After the environment and dual view mechanic were created, we decided to next focus on developing the mechanics for our challenge based interactions, as well as developing and implementing the code for the fox companion. We decided to further develop our challenge-based mechanics by including more challenges that the immersant would have to complete, such as destroying a generator by collecting water with a bucket, removing the battery pack from an enemy machine and removing its fuel tanks. Finally, we then searched for audio to support and complete the immersive experience and interactions.
Discord Scrum Board:
What was helpful and not helpful about the scrum board?
We used Discord to create our scrum board as it helped the team track what still needs to be implemented.
How did your team use it?
We set up a channel for a “To-Do” list of features to accomplish and had meetings often to talk about who is doing what and what was accomplished.
Who updated it or did everyone do so?
The scrum board was updated by everyone.
How did the board help you track your team's progress?
It helped us keep a track of features that needed to be completed by writing them down, as well as keeping track of what had previously been done.
When was it most and least clear in terms of the tasks in front of you?
Tasks were pretty clear. We didn’t write down the priority for each feature in the list, but we talked about it and knew which ones were more important.
How did you integrate your stand-up with the scrum board?
We met up on Discord and early before the Wednesday labs started to put things together and talk about what was left still and what needed to be worked on.
(How) did your agile process evolve over time, what worked and what didn't, and how did you adapt/refine it?
We didn’t have the "To-do" list initially so adding it helped keep a track of how much was still left to do and help us estimate which features should be prioritized and what needed to be cut before the final demo.