Locomote

Project description

​Input systems have always been a focus of mine when creating interactive experiences, whether consciously considered or not. Input is a defining difference between interactive and passive experiences and I believe it should have as much consideration and attention put into it as environment design or storytelling.

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I came at this project wanting to return to my traditional game design roots, aiming to create a fun, unique experience above all else. I focused on the way that the user locomotes using the medium of VR. I always found the popular teleportation locomotion system found in most VR games to be boring, uninspiring, and worst of all, immersion-breaking. These games often give the alternative of joystick movement, an input system that dates back to 1977 with the Atari 2600. I believe the interaction possibilities of VR have so much more to offer than this.

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Instead of relying on typical joystick controls, the game is based on moving with interesting physics interactions. I was inspired by the hit VR game Gorilla Tag, a game made by a single developer that broke records with its simplistic yet intrinsically satisfying movement mechanics.​

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This is one of the largest scale solo projects I have worked on and am very proud of the outcome. My development cycle involved plenty of  user testing, which taught me much about the factors that effect the user's enjoyment, as well as the importance of effective onboarding and tutorials in the VR medium. 

However, a significant amount of time was 'wasted' in the beginning stages of development attempting to configure a VR player controller from scratch in Unity. For future Unity VR projects, I will instead find a pre-made VR controller, allowing me to focus on the more fun and impactful parts of development