The Finals Experience

My intention with this project was to create an experience that gave the player an idea of what it is like to go through finals. At first, they go through a series of objects intended to represent studying (books, desks, and tablets). In the background of this section is haunting music. This section of the experience is meant to convey the stress that studying for finals creates. After getting past the tablets, the music stops and the player will see a trophy in the distance that they can get closer to but is unobtainable as it is too far away. As the player gets closer to the trophy they will be able to faintly hear upbeat music. The trophy in this situation is meant to symbolize the student's sense of achievement. Since the player is unable to reach the trophy it is meant to convey that even though the student finished their finals and the stress is over, they do not feel fully satisfied. My personal interpretation of why the student is not satisfied after completing their finals is because they neglected other important aspects of their life such as friends and family in order to fully immerse themselves in preparing for their exams. This is up to interpretation however, and there could be various other interpretations such as it symbolizing that there is always another goal to reach for.

What I think worked with this project was the overall experience. I felt that I was able to both convey the experience of studying for finals while also adding enough elements for there to be a message. In particular, I thought the fact that the desks floated as if in 0 gravity helped add to the nightmarish aesthetic of the scene. What did not work in this project was mainly technical. I was not able to get the project working well from a third person perspective so I ended up switching to a first person perspective. The 3D audio in the scene was also not how I originally intended. At first I wanted to make it so that the music would slowly build up until the player reached the tablets and then it would suddenly stop, but I ended up making it so that the music will peak in volume near the desks and it would fade away as the player approached the end of the tablets. If I could extend this project I would fix both of these issues, as well as revamp the experience to be more focused on movement since right now it is only really intended for the player to move forward during the whole experience.